by Moira Rogers
“We’ll find him,” Jay murmured. “And then it’ll be over. I promise.”
The words skated right past Zack. He rolled the first wolf over with his boot and crouched down. “Must’ve missed something,” he muttered, staring at his blood-streaked fingers. “He wasn’t in the pieces. I looked.”
Urgency was understandable, but Zack’s obsessive insistence chilled Jay’s blood. “He may not be here at all. He may be back in Memphis. Hell, Peters might have killed him already for something we don’t even know about.”
A shudder rolled through Zack. “No. No. I have to finish it tonight, or I won’t—” He shot to his feet. “Where the hell is the damn spell?”
“It’s done.” Stella held up the charm Eden had snatched off Christian Peters. “There’s nothing with this signature anywhere around here. There’s just nothing.”
“Fuck.” He kicked the limp wolf aside and lunged to the next one, the one he’d been sniffing when Jay walked outside. Each movement seemed increasingly frantic as Zack ran his hands over reddened fur. “Gotta be here. Gotta be done. Tonight, damn it…”
A pained noise escaped Eden as she tangled her fingers in Jay’s shirt. “Zack, he’s one man. Stella’s wards will warn us if he comes here—”
“No!” Zack stumbled to his feet and whirled. “I can’t wait for him.”
Demanding an explanation felt like intrusion, as if it would only agitate the man further, but Jay knew with sudden certainty that the answer mattered. The answer was everything. “But why?”
“Because he’s here!” Zack raised his voice. “I know you are, motherfucker. Show your cowardly ass so I can tear out your throat. You can die like your brother did.”
Jay kept his tone level, calm. The way he dealt with violent drunks and crazy bastards. “He’s not, Zack. There’s no one else.”
Zack jabbed a finger at him. “I’ll prove you wrong. I’ll fucking find him if I have to turn over every rock and tear up every tree on this property.”
“No.”
Zack jerked to a halt, outrage and disbelief distorting his face into a furious, feral parody of the man he was. “No? No? Who the fuck do you think you are? This is my home, my land.”
The others had begun to gather as Jay and Zack faced off. The confrontation drew them in spite of their better judgment, instinct trumping courtesy, though everyone kept a safe distance.
Everyone but Kaley, who finally broke her stillness as Zack vibrated with barely leashed anger. She reached for him, laid a hand on his arm, and he whipped around with a startled roar, striking out with his balled fist.
The blow caught her with enough force to snap her head hard to the left. Hard enough to kill a human, maybe, because even Kaley reeled and went down on her knees in the grass. Lorelei dove after her with a startled cry, already lifting the girl’s battered face to the moonlight by the time the realization of what he’d done washed over Zack’s features.
Eden shoved past Jay and skidded to the ground next to Kaley. Zack stumbled back, shaking his head faster and faster as one word fell from his lips in a silent chant that grew to a crescendo, a shrieked denial. “No, no, no. No!”
Something close to chaos erupted, with people crowding around Kaley, muttering or even crying. Under the din, another noise drew Jay’s attention, a sound that had him moving before he realized what was happening. The soft scratch of metal against rough fabric, a rustling whisper that equaled death.
He’d barely crossed half the space between them when Zack lifted the pistol he’d drawn to his own temple, his finger tight on the trigger. Jay hit him hard, bearing him to the ground, and the shot went wide as more screams erupted in the night.
The gun skittered across the grass, and Zack writhed under him, clawing after it. “Do it, Ancheta. Fucking do it, or let me.”
“No. I changed my mind.” He pulled Zack’s arm up behind him and pinned it there to still the man’s squirming. “I thought maybe you were too far gone. I even tried to prepare Eden for what we might have to do if you really lost it. But tonight? Fuck that, Zack. You’re still kicking, you still care, and you’re going to fight, damn it.”
Zack shuddered. “Caring isn’t enough. I’m hurting people. My people—your people. Protect them from me.”
Kaley started to sob, a sound even more heartbreaking because one glance told Jay she wasn’t crying out of physical pain or even fear. Her gaze was fixed on the gun, terrified and angry, as if it were a living, evil thing instead of a tool.
“I am protecting them,” Jay answered. “From losing you. It’s the only thing they can’t survive right now.”
The fight went out of Zack, from Jay’s words or Kaley’s sobs or simple exhaustion. He rested his forehead on the grass and whispered one final plea. “Keep me away from her.”
“Get off of him.” The words, calm but tremulous, came from Austin, who stood near the corner of the house, a shotgun in his hands. “People in town were talking about some kind of ruckus out here, so I figured I’d come see if there was fighting to be done. Looks like it’s over now.”
“Dad—” Eden’s voice broke. “Dad, it’s complicated.”
“Seems so,” he agreed. “Are you all right, Edie?”
“I’m fine. We’re all going to be okay. Right, Zack?”
A helpless, breathless laugh wheezed out of Zack as he turned his head to glare up at Jay. “You’re not going to let me tell her no, are you?”
As if not letting someone blow their brains out on your watch was tantamount to dictating their every word. Jay snarled as he rose. “Get up, Green.”
Zack made it to his knees before his gaze fell on the knot of people surrounding Kaley. Agony contorted his features, and he closed his eyes. “Is she—”
“Uh-uh.” Jay shook his head. “You want out of here that badly?”
“Not want. Need.”
It took a damn twisted sort of situation for a man to need escape from his friends and loved ones so badly. It took something far worse for a wolf to abandon his pack. “Austin?”
“Yeah?” The man’s eyes were guarded as he faced Jay.
He had to say it, even if it hurt, because Zack was part of his pack, no matter how much he needed time away. “Eden told me everything—about Kathy, about Zack. And about you.” Jay squared his shoulders. “One day, you and I, we’re going to have it out over what you left your boy to deal with. But not tonight.”
Austin swallowed hard, tears welling. “I reckon that’s better than I deserve.” He handed his gun off to Shane, brushed some grass from the front of Zack’s shirt and grasped his shoulders. “Chief Ancheta, it’s about time I took my son home.”
Eden rose with a soft noise and started toward them, trailing to a stop when Zack closed his eyes and shook his head. “You don’t need to do this, Austin,” he whispered. “It’s not—you don’t know that it’s true, that it’s even possible. And I’m a fucking mess.”
“Maybe, but you’re my fucking mess. I love you, and I’ve learned you don’t walk away from that, kid.”
“Go with him.” Eden circled her father to bracket Zack, standing at his left as Jay stood on his right. “If we need another fighter, you can be here plenty fast. And if we don’t, you can rest. Let him help you, Zack. He’s pretty good at the dad thing.”
“I can’t steal your damn dad.”
“It’s not stealing,” she snapped back, the words edged in a steely growl. “I’ve wanted to share him with you pretty much all my life. So wipe off your hands, thank him for the invitation and put your ass in his truck. Now.”
Zack opened his eyes and stared at Austin. “She sounds like her mother.”
“Her mother was a smart lady.”
“All right. I’ll go. But I need to go now. I can’t—I can’t do goodbyes.”
Eden shook her head. “It’s not goodbye. You’ll be a few miles down the road, not across the world. Go home with Dad, get some rest, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”
He
mumbled something bordering on assent and started for the driveway, stopping when he drew even with Kaley. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, soft words that carried through the night silence all too easily. “I’m so, so—”
“Don’t,” she cut in. “You didn’t mean to do that. Don’t leave because of it.”
“That’s exactly why I need to leave, Kaley. I get confused, I get wound up, and I do things I don’t mean to do.” His eyes were bleak. Tired. “You won’t be so quick to forgive next time if Mae’s the one I didn’t mean to hit.”
Her gaze flicked again to the fallen gun nestled in the grass. “You’re not going to end up like Quinn. Remember that you promised.”
“I promise.” He turned his back on her—turned his back on all of them.
Jay slipped his arm around Eden’s shoulders as her father and her brother walked away, out of sight around the front of the house. In the wild, an injured wolf might slink off alone to lick his wounds. Zack could do that, after a fashion, but with the support of his family and friends. Time—and space—to do a little healing. And then…
He could start over.
Chapter Sixteen
Eden spent most of the day unpacking boxes and setting up the master bedroom in the big house, but it didn’t feel like home until Jay walked through the door, dragging a suitcase of his own.
It had been hard, sending him back to work when she had to face the morning after with a wounded, broken-hearted pack. But Lorelei had rallied in the way only she could, and Eden could do no less in the face of such stubborn strength. They’d attacked the problem of moving Eden’s things together, and the onerous task of unpacking and organizing became less tedious as others drifted in to help them.
Pack building a den together. Family building a home together.
Home, but incomplete without her mate. He looked handsome in his uniform, and felt even better when she stepped close enough to wallow in the power he exuded as naturally as breathing. “I missed you.”
“Good, because I missed you too.” He slipped an arm around her waist. “How’d it go today?”
“We got through. Kaley may need a bit of space, but as long as we keep an eye on her…” Eden rested her forehead on Jay’s shoulder and sighed. “Did you stop by the diner on your way home?”
“I did. Your dad says hi, and to tell you that Zack’s going to be okay, so stop worrying.”
She choked on a laugh. “I’m that predictable, huh?”
He smiled against her temple. “Anyone in your position would be right now. That’s your family.”
“Some of my family,” she corrected softly. She eased back and circled around him, sliding the door shut with a soft click and the gentle buzz of wards humming to life. Stella’s clever soundproofing, which would let them steal rare snatches of privacy in the midst of chaos. “Pack’s family too.”
“Yes, it is.” Jay tensed, more a feeling that echoed across their bond than a physical reaction. “I’m sorry, honey. I shouldn’t have hit you with that stuff about Zack last night.”
Eden pressed her forehead to the door, because it was easier to have this discussion with her back to him. “You had to. I think I wouldn’t have gotten so angry if it hadn’t felt…true. If the wolf hadn’t been so loud inside me, telling me you were right. I couldn’t listen.”
“And no wonder. I didn’t have to be wrong to be a jackass.”
“Fine. You were right and a jackass.” Turning, she smiled wanly at him. “I need time, Jay. I’m glad I have this viciousness when bad guys are trying to choke me. But I can’t be glad that some part of me can look at my cousin—my brother—and make a cold assessment that he’s too dangerous. I’m not ready to be that pragmatic.”
He brushed his thumb over the corner of her mouth. “You don’t have to be. He was there, Eden, at the edge, and his mind is still his own. He’ll make it.”
“You made him fight. Thank you.” She turned her face into his hand, pressed a kiss to his palm and savored the spark that zipped through her. They’d had a lifetime worth of courtship and responsibility shoehorned into so few days, it was hard to remember that touching him was so new.
“You’re welcome.”
Smiling, she nuzzled his wrist. “Do you hear that?”
He grinned. “Hear what?”
“Exactly. Everyone’s already relaxing in their soundproofed rooms. Nothing’s on fire. No one’s attacking. No panic, no emergencies…just you and me and a few minutes to breathe.”
Jay laughed. “Says you. Work was a madhouse today.”
“That’s what happens when the chief takes a week off.” She traced her fingers along his belt before tugging his polo shirt free of his pants. “Anything you couldn’t handle?”
“Just catch-up crap.” He caught one of the belt loops on her jeans and pulled her closer. “What about you? Thinking about talking to the committee about your job?”
“Not even a little. I’m going to try being a stay-at-home alpha for a little while.” The skin of his back heated under her touch, as if the sparks stirring desire to life burned in him, too. She smoothed her hands around his waist and up his chest, then pushed him back with a teasing smile.
Making him fight for her wasn’t getting old, it turned out. Not that he couldn’t tease back. He tilted his head and casually pulled his shirt over his head.
The sight of him wasn’t getting old either. Eden leaned back against the door and took her time admiring him. For the first time, it felt like…every other encounter had been shrouded in anxiety or fear or the pulsing adrenaline of the full moon.
Tonight he was a man. Her man. And she could trace the way his muscles moved gracefully under his skin all night, if she wanted. “I love you.”
She hadn’t meant to say the words. For a moment she froze, petrified that it was too much, too fast, but he braced his hands on the door and leaned over her, his forehead to hers.
For a long moment, he simply stood there. Then, “I love you too, honey. I have…for a while.”
Eden closed her eyes and floated on relief. “So I wasn’t the only one with a secret crush?”
“Not even close.” He leaned in farther and kissed her lightly, but light wasn’t enough. Eden tilted her head and licked his lips with a hungry growl before burying her hands in his hair. Nothing could ever be enough. Not kissing him forever, not holding him forever, not loving him forever.
Wouldn’t stop her from trying. She dug her teeth into his lower lip. “Can we ravish each other now?”
He swallowed a groan. “Do we have enough time for a proper ravishing?”
“This may be our only chance, Chief Ancheta. You going to waste it?”
“Nope.” Hunger echoed through the bond between them as he locked an arm around her waist, lifted her and dropped her on top of the blessedly bare dresser. “I know better.”
“Good.” She sank her fingers into his hair again and dragged her nails across his scalp teasingly. “What’s involved in a proper ravishing? It can’t be handcuffs, since I see you’ve forgotten them again.”
“Time,” he declared, the words muffled as his lips met her throat. “And effort. Mostly the effort. With a dash of creativity.”
She’d never been this impatient with any other man. Or maybe she’d simply never been this impatient as a woman. She was more now, a woman and a wolf, an alpha burning for her mate, and Jay’s soft, slow touches stoked arousal and frustration in equal measure.
Foreplay took too long, the wolf decided, and Eden had torn open her shirt before the thought finished. She grabbed at Jay’s belt with a growl. “Less time, more effort.”
He caught her hands and twisted them behind her back. “You can’t choose one over the other, or it isn’t a proper ravishing.”
“Oh.” Jerking at his grip did nothing. He had all the leverage and she didn’t really want to escape, but trying still got her hot and bothered. “So educate me,” she whispered. Challenged. “Show me how you ravish your mate.”
His laugh blew hot on her mouth, but instead of becoming more insistent, his caresses gentled. Slowed.
It only stoked her hunger. Her pulse throbbed throughout her entire body, pooling need between her thighs and setting her nipples to aching. She arched her back, struggling to reach him, to rub against him. Jay relaxed his hold enough to let her, and growled when she pressed her breasts to his chest.
“Too much clothing,” she whispered, coaxing. He still had her hands trapped, and his fingers tightened when she tried to move. “Bra’s in the way. I want your skin against mine.”
He released her, ran his fingers up under her shirt to unhook her bra. “Take it all off, then put your hands back where they were.”
She slid her half-ruined shirt down to pool on the dresser and took her time with the bra, wallowing in his hungry expression as she peeled the fabric from her skin. “You want my hands somewhere, you better put them there. Because I’m going for your belt again if you don’t stop me.”
“Impatient,” he rumbled, pushing her wrists back to pin them at the small of her back. “Leave them there.”
Eden laughed and bit his chin. “And you thought I was joking about the handcuffs. Better invest in a spare pair, because I think I like misbehaving.”
“You could misbehave,” he agreed. “Go for my belt. Go wild, Eden. But then you’ll never know what I plan to do next.”
Oh yeah, he knew how to tame her. Not brute strength, but clever words. Whispers that stirred curiosity to life, and even the wolf could be patient for a little while. Her next nip was playful, teeth scraping along his jaw before she licked him, nuzzled into his chin in a brief moment of quiet submission.
“That’s right.” He combed his fingers through her hair, tugging just enough to tingle anticipation up her spine. “Remember…” He opened her pants and pushed them down, easing them under and off her body. “Hands behind your back.”
