Jade mentally shook her head. There was no point in dwelling on the past. She had stopped before she killed the man. A part of her had responded to Jason's voice, and that's all that mattered.
You keep telling yourself that, a voice said in her mind.
"You seemed a little aggressive back there." Jason walked up to Jade as she pulled her jeans over her hips. His big brown eyes were laced with worry, and Jade found herself rolling her eyes. Why did everyone have to show particular concern for her, this week of all weeks?
"He was the aggressive one. He kicked me." Jade raised her shirt and showed Jason the bruises on her stomach. They would fade within a couple of days, but they still hurt like hell. She wasn't from a pure bloodline like Rowan was, and it showed in her limited ability to heal herself.
Jason's brows furrowed. "Oh. I just thought you might have been feeling like you did the day we dealt with the Bloodvale."
Jade drew a sharp breath. She'd done her best to forget about that day and honestly had. And here, Jason was reminding her of the most recent time she’d lost control. Jade was lucky Rowan had been busy planning an anniversary for her mate. Had she been present for the incident in question, Jade would never hear the end of it.
"It wasn't like that. Besides, I told you I felt off that day and that it wouldn't happen again. I meant it."
Jason nodded, then patted Jade's shoulder. "Thanks for coming quick. I was afraid I'd have to shoot him."
"It's not a problem."
"Give Rowan my best, will you. I've got to rush to the station. My boss is starting to get over my lame excuses for popping out all the time."
Jade grinned. "Just tell him that as the only shifter in the Falhurst police, you have other pertinent business."
Jason snorted. "I'd love to see his pudgy face react to that, but I've got a mate and kids. I need the job."
"I get it. Rowan and I will do our best to handle things."
"And I appreciate that. With you ladies on the job, I have to make fewer and fewer visits to humans trying to explain that sometimes the mountain wolves and bears of Falhurst's mountains wander into their territory and do crazy things that drunk humans would."
Jade shook her head and smiled. "You're a great guy for doing all that for years. Falhurst owes you."
"Yeah, yeah. I've gotta go."
Jade stepped aside and watched Jason hop into his police vehicle. He executed a three-point turn, then waved before driving off. Jade didn't understand where he found such a selfless passion for helping his community, but she was glad that people like him existed.
She walked down the driveway and back to Rowan's truck, her footsteps slow. As much as she wanted to be there for Emma and make sure the blonde-haired woman was okay, a part of her was dreading Emma's reaction.
What if Emma was scared, or disgusted by what Jade was?
"I guess we'll just have to see."
When Jade got into the car, she looked in the back seat to see a shaken up Emma. The younger woman had wrapped her arms around herself, and her face looked deathly pale. When she locked eyes with Jade, there was a fear in the blue pools, but it didn't seem to be directed at Jade.
Satisfied that Emma would make it, Jade turned to Rowan. To her surprise, Rowan looked just as shaken up as Emma.
"What happened? Why do you look scared?"
Rowan looked down and twisted the ring that Eva had bought her around her finger. It was a nervous tic, but Jade didn't understand its purpose. The wolf had been dealt with, and Jason had locked him up in a room. He would return to have a chat with the man later. There was no reason for Rowan to look worried.
"Rowan." Jade tilted her head. "What is it?"
Rowan folded her arm and took a deep breath. "Emma and I had a little chat."
"What about?"
Rowan scooted to face Jade fully. "You won't believe this, but the reason she was on the run is that she was a witness to a murder. One where a man turned into a panther. Not only did she see the whole thing, but he turned around and saw her. His goons chased after her, but she managed to lose them."
Jade snapped her head around to look at Emma, and her lips parted in wonder. No wonder Emma had been reluctant to share. As a human, she had probably been scared shitless by the sight of a man shifting. Add the fact that he had then proceeded to murder someone, and Jade could see why Emma had taken off as she did.
"I'm so sorry you had to see that," Jade said, her voice soft.
Emma sighed and looked out the window. "That's not the worst part. Rowan tells me that he's a very bad shifter, and that he won't stop searching for me."
Jade squinted at Rowan. "Do you know the guy?"
"No, but he's a panther. Emma told me she's originally from Conventon, Kentucky. What panther clan makes their home there?"
Jade felt every muscle in her body freeze. All of a sudden, the truck seemed too small. She opened the window and gulped a greedy breath before locking gazes with Rowan.
"The Eboncloaks. You think she saw an Eboncloak murder a man?"
Rowan nodded. "I'm pretty sure."
"Aren't they top-notch assassins?"
Emma gasped, and Rowan winced. "I hadn't told her that part."
"Why the fuck not? It's the kind of thing I need to know." Emma shuffled in her seat, seemingly unable to get comfortable. She brought her fingers to her mouth and bit a nail, before shoving her hand away in disgust and placing it under her thighs. "What's going to happen to me? To my mother?"
Jade got out of the car without a second thought, before joining Emma in the backseat. "Hey," she said placing an arm around Emma's shoulders. "You're going to be just fine. We're going to take care of you, and your mother."
Emma ran frustrated hands through her hair, and her voice cracked as she asked, "How? You guys told me you do security. How are you going to take down a group of assassins?"
Jade wiped away an errant tear and cupped Emma's face. "Breathe." She took a deep breath, and soon, Emma imitated her. After a few breaths, Emma seemed to calm down.
"I'm sorry," she said, wrapping an arm around her middle. "I'm not usually the type to freak out."
"It's okay." Jade smiled. "This is a lot to deal with, and it all came out of left field. Heck, you just saw a hot girl turn into a bear a few minutes ago. Bet you enjoyed the view of my ass. I'm told it's a sight to behold."
Emma snorted, then laughed, shoving Jade away. "Do you think I'm still stuck on how hot you are? After everything that just happened?"
"So, you admit it? You were stuck on how hot I am?"
Emma rolled her eyes. "You're so full of yourself."
"I'm just trying to lighten the mood a bit." Jade shrugged when she saw Rowan mouth the words "what the hell" to her while giving her an amused smile.
"Thanks. I needed that, but there's something I didn't tell Rowan." Emma dropped her arms, and her shoulders sagged. "I didn't happen to bump into a murder scene. I followed the shifter."
Jade cocked her head. "Why would you do that?"
"I ran into him at my mom's house yesterday afternoon. He's her new boyfriend. Something about him seemed off, so I decided to follow him. Before you judge me, I have good reason to. My mom has dated her fair share of sleazeballs, and the last one was a drug dealer.
"She only got rid of him when I hit her with solid proof in the form of photos. I thought Derek might be into something similar but maybe on a higher playing field. So, I followed him and saw everything that happened. Now that you told me he's an assassin, I'm scared he's going to hurt my mom to get to me."
Rowan exhaled loudly. "Well, that complicates things."
Jade glared at her. "I think what Rowan wanted to say is that it's not a problem. We're part of the Whiteheart clan. And we've dealt with powerful evil clans before."
"You have?" Eva's voice was hopeful as her blue eyes widened. Jade opened her mouth to give an encouraging response when Rowan cut in.
"Whoa, there. Let's not make any promises we can't keep."
Jade saw Emma's shoulder's sag, but she didn't press on. Rowan was right. While they had fought powerful clans, they had only done so with groups they were familiar with, right in Falhurst.
The Eboncloak were in a completely different city, and they, as panthers and assassins, had a unique way of attacking and hunting. The Whiteheart knew how to take down a bear, wolf, dragon or even a freaking moose. But a panther was a whole other ballgame.
"Rowan's right. We can't make promises. But we have fought powerful clans and come out on top. Stay with us, until we come up with a plan. You don't know this but what makes our clan unique is that we're made up of different shifters. We've got bears, dragons, a wolf, and even a pack of lion shifters to help when we need it. And the best part is that we all have different skills. Our friend Brooke is pretty smart when it comes to coming up with plans of attack."
Rowan nodded, her eyes alight with fire. "Jade's right. While we can't promise to make this all go away by tomorrow, we definitely can keep you safe, while we figure out a way to keep your mother safe. After that, we can find a way to deal with the Eboncloaks."
"What do you say, Emma?" Jade asked. "Stay with us until we figure this all out. You probably haven't slept or eaten in hours, and I'm sure you don't want to be alone. We've got plenty of space at our place. It's actually on a big piece of land we bought just outside of town, so you'll be safe."
Emma inhaled and nodded her head. "Okay. I'll come with you guys." Her face crumpled. "I don't have a lot of money to contribute to groceries or anything like that, but I can pay for the gas you bought."
"Don't worry about money," Rowan said. "This is what the Whiteheart clan does. I'd started to forget about that these past few months, but Jade just reminded me of that. We'd love to help you out."
Jade nodded and squeezed Emma's hand in hers. When she did, Emma looked down at her, with such trust and warmth in her eyes, that Jade's breath caught and her belly clenched.
God, Emma, she thought. You make me want to break all the promises I made to myself, and become the woman I once thought I might be able to.
"Thank you," Emma said.
Jade wanted to say, "I won't let anything happen to you," but then the memory of her promising the same to her teenage best friend Danny almost a decade ago rushed to the front of her mind. Jade bit her lip and lowered her head, before getting out of the car.
Emma had almost made her forget that the anniversary of her friend's death was coming up in a few days. But now that her mind was back on straight, she remembered why she built the walls she did.
Jade silently vowed to do everything to help secure Emma and her mother's security, but after that, she would leave the younger woman alone.
The last thing Emma needed was a girlfriend with a dark side.
5
The next day, Emma woke up to bright sunlight streaming into her room. Well, the guest room. When she first arrived at the Whiteheart home the day before, she'd been shocked by the size of their house. Emma didn't yet know what it was that each of the women did, but they sure did make a good living combined.
As soon as she stepped into their home, she'd felt like a part of the family. Brooke and Giselle had bathed her in attention that reminded Emma of what a life full of friends could be like.
Before her sister left home, Emma had had a few friends. The ease of conversation and sense of camaraderie had allowed Emma to forget about her troubled home life. But after Amy left, all that got stripped away.
Now Emma was entirely responsible for her mother. She wasn't as deeply entrenched in her mother's daily life as she had once been, but she was still the person that kept her mother out of trouble.
Emma rolled onto her back, sinking into the plush mattress. After about an hour of conversation with Brooke and Giselle, who'd assured her that dragons were real, Emma had crawled into bed and slept most of the day away.
When she woke up later that night, the quiet of the house and the darkness of her room had left her alone with her thoughts. The more she broke things down, the more worried she got about her situation, and more importantly, her mother's role in it.
The girls promised to help, a voice said in her mind.
Emma squeezed her eyes shut and inhaled. She was sure the women meant well. Even Rowan, who she'd misjudged for a moment, had shown that she was committed to helping her. But no one seemed to know exactly how to go about it.
Rowan, who she learned was the clan leader, had suggested they wait and see to hear if the murder Emma witnessed got reported. She said that if it wasn't, then the Eboncloak would have less incentive to come after Emma.
The blonde woman had accepted their strategy and gone along with everything. She was too tired to give too much thought to things. But in the dead of night, left to face her reality, she'd come to a different conclusion:
Waiting things out was not the way to go. Even though the cops had decided to let the murder slide, Derek wouldn't just allow a witness that could report him at any time go free.
Emma needed to get her mother away from Derek as soon as possible. Perhaps the Whitehearts would take them both in. There was plenty of space in their home.
Now I've got to convince them, she thought. Emma quickly decided against that. These women were so much like a family. While she hadn't met Mara and Rowan's mate Eva, she had a distinct feeling they were the kind of clan that liked to talk things out and agree.
Talking things out was the last thing Emma wanted. She needed to move fast. Preferably straight back to Convention. She'd get her mother, and they'd take off somewhere safe. What she needed was to get one person alone and convince them to help her.
Emma swung her feet out of bed and reached for the towel and clothes that had been left for her. While she and Rowan were the same height, Brooke's curvier build better matched Emma's, and so it was Brooke's clothes that she carried with her to the shared bathroom.
After a quick shower and change, Emma made her way down the stairs into the kitchen, where she was promptly greeted by Rowan's mate Eva.
"Emma, it's so good to meet you finally." The shorter woman pulled her down for a hug. "I'm Eva, Rowan's mate."
The way Eva's hazel eyes twinkled as she spoke Rowan's name made Emma's gut twist. She'd never known love like that, and she wondered if she ever would.
"It's nice to meet you too."
"Hi," a beautiful, curvy woman greeted from the kitchen sink. "I'm Mara."
"Hello, Mara."
Emma mentally shook her head. What was it with all the women she'd meant being so ridiculously good-looking? Perhaps it was a shifter thing. She made a mental note to ask Jade, but that note quickly disintegrated.
Jade walked into the kitchen behind Emma, waving as she passed. The action wasn't necessarily cold, but gone was the warmth and affection Emma had gotten from the green-eyed woman the day before.
In fact, now that she looked at Jade, she could see that a sense of sadness had crept over the older woman's features. The same thing had happened the day before. When they were alone, Jade seemed warmer and more open, but when she was around her friends, all of that disappeared.
Don't they all get along? Emma asked herself, taking a seat at the kitchen table. She spooned a serving of scrambled eggs onto her plate, before reaching for a slice of toast. Jade sat at the corner seat chomping away quietly.
Emma wanted to reach out to her and figure out what was going on. None of the other women at the table seemed to notice that Jade was off. More importantly, she wanted to know what was making this beautiful woman so sad.
Enough with the fixing, Emma chided herself. You won't be here long enough to see it through. Besides, you've got enough on your plate with your mother.
Emma shoved away her concern and focused on getting to know the women at the table better. After a good half hour of constant conversation and laughter, both Mara and Eva excused themselves from the table.
Watching Eva and Rowan's goodbye sent Emma's heart stirr
ing again. She wanted a partner, and someone to help her, but that had been hard to find. Her life was set up in a way that was unappealing to most female suitors, and at the heart of it was her continued support of her mother.
Emma wasn't foolish. She understood that if she washed her hands of her mother financially and in many ways emotionally, then she would be free to pursue the life she wanted. But what kind of person would that make her?
Emma had seen the effect that Amy's leaving had on their mother. It was almost like a second loss. Amy hardly called or visited, and Emma feared that a taste of good life would make her forget her mother, too. Hell, she'd just forgotten her primary goal of the day in the midst of all the fun she was having.
"Jason's calling," Rowan said, getting up from the table. "When I'm done, we can leave."
Jade nodded, then started clearing the table. Brooke got up to help her, leaving Emma alone with Giselle.
"And then they were two," Giselle said, turning on her charming smile. Emma didn't know if she had been reading into things the day before, but now it was clear as day; Giselle was quite the flirt.
"Enough with the flirting. You're going to make me blush, and I turn too red for that to be cute."
Giselle leaned forward in her seat opposite Emma's and winked. "I think you'd look beautiful no matter what."
"Oh, my god," Brooke said, returning for the final serving plate. "Stop flirting with every new woman we meet."
"How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not flirting. I'm—"
"Not, not flirting," Brooke finished rolling her eyes. "Whatever. I'm going to the office. Try not to make too much noise. Some of us have serious work to do. You know, the kind that requires silence."
Giselle stuck her tongue out before Brooke sauntered away. "Bartending is a serious job. Especially when there are all kind of pretty ladies around in need of attention."
Emma giggled. "You really can't stop, can you."
Wounded Bear (Whiteheart Clan Book 2) Page 4
