He sighed, a frustrated kind of sound. “You never asked, Jade. You just assumed I was human. I never lied.”
We were only a few feet apart now; just a couple more steps and I’d be able to run my hand over his chest. I shrugged lazily and took another step. “Lying by omission. It’s the same thing, genius.”
He chuckled. The sound was like velvet. Soft and strong and it made my knees go weak. He noticed that, too, and chuckled again. “I can’t omit anything that I wasn’t asked about.”
I was about to tell him that he was being an ass-hat. What a stupid cop-out. And by the look he was giving me, he knew exactly how stupid he sounded, but I didn’t get a chance, because Marcy came barging through the front door.
“Jade, I’m so sorry. Dom made me leave this morning.” She slammed the door behind her, turned around, and ran smack into Aidan’s chest. “Oh,” she squealed, surprised. She took a step back, realized whom it was, and then she gave him the dirtiest look I had ever seen. She put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes further. “What are you doing here?”
Aidan gave her a quick once over and said, not cruelly, but with a definitely uncaring tone, “Trying to decide if I want her in my pack or not.”
Marcy gasped, and hopped another step back. “You can’t ban her.”
He smiled and then laughed uneasily. “Yeah, I can. It’s not an automatic entry. She wasn’t recruited. She picked a fight and got bitten.”
“I didn’t pick a fight,” I said, folding my arms over my chest. My bottom lip jutted out, and I hated myself for it. Really? Was I really going to pout about this? Technically, I had picked a fight. I could have walked away. But still, hearing him say it, seeing that look on his face, it was as if he thought I was nothing more than trouble.
“Aidan, dude, you’re being a douche bag,” Marcy blurted. Aidan’s eyes flared, and her hands flew up in surrender. “Settle down, boy. I’m all about team werewolf, but she hasn’t even shifted yet. Can’t this, you know, wait? Maybe you could come back tomorrow or something?”
Aidan didn’t even think about it before he shook his head and said, “Nope, someone’s got to stay with her.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Marcy said, standing a little straighter, and she fixed her glare back in place. She was aiming for fierce, I was sure of it, but right then she looked more like a little kitten testing out her claws.
“I mean a pack member, Mac,” he said with a groan. “Someone needs to monitor her just in case …”
“You said …” I started, but Aidan promptly cut me off.
“Things can always go wrong, Jade.”
“Trevor,” Marcy blurted. “Can he stay with us?”
Aidan gritted his teeth and it almost looked as if he was trying to find a reason to say no, but after a moment of consideration, he fished his phone out of his pocket. He scrolled through his address book, tapped on the screen, and then brought the phone to his ear. “Trevor, come to Jade’s. I need you to stay here with the girls.” There was a long silence and Aidan stiffened. One by one, deep lines began appearing on his forehead. “When?” he asked. Another pause. “How many?” He must not have liked the answer because a growl slipped out, and he turned his back on us. “Just get here,” he snapped, and then he shoved his phone back into his pocket.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, although even to my own ears my voice didn’t sound like I cared. His back was stiff, the muscles under his skin coiled and bulged, and the urge to touch him again was unbearable. I took a step, moving toward him, and he spun around.
Aidan’s eyes were golden. Not a speck of the delicious brown left. Strands of course hair littered his cheeks, and his skin looked as if it was crawling. Seeing him on the verge of shifting awoke something in me. Something … deliriously physical. My muscles began to ache in an amazing kind of way and prickles ran over my skin. It was as if my body wanted to shift with him. Anything to be closer to him.
“Jade, you will not let anyone other than Trevor and Marcy through those doors. Am I clear?” His voice was a deep growl, and his eyes held me with such intensity that I couldn’t move.
“Crystal,” I whispered.
I couldn’t say how long we stood there watching each other. It could have been seconds or minutes or hours, but it didn’t matter. Right then, I could have stayed there forever, lost in his shimmering eyes.
“Trevor’s here,” he grumbled, shattering the perfect moment into millions of sharp edged shards.
There was a loud bang on the door, and Aidan turned away from me, grabbed the handle, and pulled it open.
Trevor looked … rattled, and there was a jagged rip across the front of his blue sweater. There was also a gash along his right cheekbone that looked as if it was starting to heal. It was still a bright pink, and there was dried, crusty blood along the edges.
“What happened?” Marcy shrieked and rushed over to him. She started fussing over his sweater and his cheek, making a bunch of anxious gasping sounds.
Trevor grabbed her hands, holding her still, and exchanged a long look with Aidan that I couldn’t even begin to understand. And then Aidan glanced at me and said, “By the way. You’ll need to learn how to control that.”
“Control what?” I asked and hated the pout I heard in my voice. He stepped out the door, keeping his back to me, and I hated that, too. He was leaving, which was a good thing, maybe, kind of. Well it should have been, but darn it, I didn’t want him to go.
He glanced over his shoulder, and winked. “Your lust. Your scent is screaming sex.” And then he walked out the door, shutting it quickly behind him.
CHAPTER 20
~ AIDAN ~
It was easier leaving than I had thought it would be. My inner-wolf wanted Jade so badly that it took everything in me not to shift. With Jade’s enthralling scent and Trevor’s news, I really hadn’t thought I would have been able to walk out that door and leave her alone, but I did it. As soon as I shut the door behind me, I let out a pent-up breath that I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding, and I dug my phone out of my pocket. I fired off a text to Dominic telling him to meet me at my motel room and to bring Jeff. I had some question for both of them, and it was time that they started talking.
I got into my car, started it up, and pulled out of the driveway before I could change my mind. She was handling it all better than I had expected. She didn’t need me. And knowing that she didn’t need me, made it so much harder to deal with. I wanted her to need me.
But what I really needed was a shower. Preferably a cold one.
Jade’s scent had held a distinctly alpha quality to it, and she was responding to me exactly how I had hoped she would. I was an unclaimed alpha, and her inner-wolf had picked up on it immediately, even if she didn’t know that it had happened. Female wolves’ hormones tended to go a touch haywire when there was an unclaimed alpha nearby, and since she had liked me beforehand, well, it was all a little more … intense.
Thankfully, when I arrived back at the motel, the parking lot was empty. I darted into my room, and knowing I probably only had a few minutes before Dominic would get there, I stripped off my clothes and jumped into the shower, turning the taps as cold as I could stand.
The shower helped … a little. I had just turned off the ice water when I heard a thudding knock at my door. I got dressed in a rush and yanked the door open, and just as I did, Jeff’s fist slammed into my jaw.
I stumbled back a step, and a sharp pain shot through my face. What was it about the Shaws that made them want to hit me? Yesterday, Jade. Today, her father.
Dominic was on him in a flash, grabbing his arms and holding them behind his back. Jeff didn’t struggle. He stood just outside my door glaring at me.
“Okay, yeah, I probably deserved that,” I said, rubbing my aching jaw. The skin was already hot under my hand. “But I warn you, Jeff, don’t do it again. I’m not Ray, and I will not humor you.” I turned from them, padded over to the lone desk chair in my room, and took a seat before I sa
id, “Let him go, Dom.”
“Yeah, you did deserve it,” Jeff said, shaking his hand out. “Don’t you ever try to kick me out of my own house again.”
Dominic slid by Jeff and sat on the desk beside me. He wouldn’t look at me, but I wasn’t really surprised about that. What I was surprised about was that he was taking his place beside me. I really hadn’t expected it. After ripping him away from Jade and threatening to boot him out of the pack, I had figured he would have stayed clear of me, at least for a while.
Jeff looked stunned, too. His jaw dropped slightly and his eyes widened. Clearly, Dominic had said something to him when they had left. Jeff looked as if he was about to say something, but he held it back. After a second, he crossed the room, letting the door slam behind him, and he took a seat on the edge of the bed.
“Where’s Jade?” Dominic asked. He tried to sound casual, but it was a useless effort. His voice was like gravel and his scent was a mix of hot fury and concern, and it held a tangy edge of jealousy.
“At home,” I said with a chuckle, as the dirty look she gave me flashed across my mind. “She kind of kicked me out. But I have some good news. She doesn’t entirely hate me, although I think she wishes she did.”
“I never thought she did,” Dominic said through clenched teeth. “You sparked her interest the first second she laid eyes on you.”
“How could you leave her alone?” Jeff asked. His complexion paled quickly and it looked as if it was a struggle for him not to jump up and run out the door. “What if one of them attacks before she’s ready? What if …”
I raised my hand and he sucked in a breath, holding in whatever he was about to say. “She’s not alone. Mac and Trevor are there. And she did beat Erika as a human. I’m sure the other three won’t be a problem for her.”
Dominic shifted on the desk and finally looked at me. “What if she rejects the change?” He held my eyes, and I saw his fear. It was shining through his mask, although by his tense posture, I was pretty sure he was trying to hide it.
“She won’t,” I said, keeping my tone light. “Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if she has her first shift today. She smells more wolf than human.”
“Aidan, please let me go stay with her,” Dominic said. He reached out, placing a hand on my shoulder. “She hates Trevor, and she needs someone to help her through this.”
I shrugged his hand off, and stretched my legs out in front of me, crossing them at the ankles. “Bad news, too, though,” I said, ignoring his plea. “It’s time for you to come clean. Because honestly, if I catch another whiff of jealousy on you, I’ll rip you apart.” I said it all with a smile, but there was no mistaking how serious I was.
Jeff sat still. So still in fact, that I was pretty sure he was even holding his breath. His hands were clasped in his lap, and his graying hair looked like it could use a good brushing. When I had first seen him, he was kind of intimidating, big and burly. The father of the girl I liked. Right now, he looked small and scared. It was … weird and a little perfect. All I had needed was to show my authority and I could make this man tremble before me.
Dominic sighed, and hopped off the desk. He padded over to the big window and pulled open the curtain, letting the sunshine glitter through the glass. He was nervous. I could smell it, and his heartbeat picked up, thrumming a little quicker against his ribs.
“There’s nothing to come clean about,” he said and glanced around the room. He snagged the garbage can, and made his way back over to the desk, picking up the scattered protein bar wrappers and empty coffee cups.
I watched him pick up all the garbage and then begin to straighten the textbooks on the coffee table. The tension was growing; his nerves were making his hands tremble slightly. “I know something’s up with you two, Dom, and I want to know what it is.”
He turned to me and gave me a blank look. “Shouldn’t we be dealing with your exposure? The pack needs to prepare. If we aren’t ready, she’s the easiest target.”
“She’s not an easy target,” I said, not backing down. “She doesn’t even need to move to pin someone in place. I know you felt it. You jumped pretty quickly when she said she was hungry.”
I let my scent roll off of me, filling the room, and folded my arms over my chest. He was giving me an insolent look, one that clearly told me that he did not, and would not, agree with me, and I was done putting up with it. I hadn’t wanted to use my alpha scent like this. I hadn’t wanted to turn into my father, but I couldn’t fight him and deal with everything else.
Dominic held my stare for a moment before his body visibly started to shake. He laughed, a strangled sound, and put his hands up, backing up a step. “I swear there’s nothing going on between us,” he said with a desperate note in his voice. “We grew up together. We were best friends. She kissed me once. I told her I was gay. Without the whole sex issue between us, we got closer. I got bit. I ditched her. She hated the pack and me for it. That’s it.”
I felt the change in my eyes, the soft sting as they began to glow, and he shuddered back another step. “If that were all true, you wouldn’t be so jealous,” I said, watching him drop to his knees before me.
Guilt washed over me hard and fast. Dominic’s face twisted with agony and a quick flash of how this felt slammed into me. I remembered the pain burning over my skin when my father had let his alpha wolf out. I remembered the scent clawing through my body, making my inner-wolf convulse. I remembered the power behind it, and that memory was what made me pull it back.
Dominic gasped in a breath. “I love her like a sister,” he said panting and crumbling to the floor, as I pulled back the last of the invasive scent. He took a few breaths and pulled himself up, propping his back against the wall. “I don’t want her hurt. She hates hard, she loves even harder, and if she doesn’t win, she’ll be crushed when she realizes that means she won’t get you.” He laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. He gave me a look, and if I didn’t know better, I would have thought he actually cared about me. “And you’ll have to walk away from her. How many times do I have to tell you, I’m looking out for you! Not her. If she lost right now, could you walk away? I’m not blind, Aidan. You’re attracted to her and that’s dangerous. If you help her, give her any kind of advantage, she’ll be killed, and you won’t be able to stop it. The pack won’t stand for it, the enforcers will step in, and I don’t trust you enough not to help her. You’ve already interfered with her once.”
The cocky strength was back in his voice, and the color was quickly returning to his cheeks. As I listened to him, I felt as if he had swung a baseball bat into my gut. “That’s different,” I scoffed, but I knew it wasn’t. “You were dragging her to a car.”
Dominic got to his feet, still a little shaky, and paced toward me. “Yeah, I was. But if she had have been my mate, she’d have been put on trial for crossing me. And you would have had to hand down the sentence.”
I scrubbed at my face. “You’re going to tell her, aren’t you?”
“Nope. You were right. She won’t fight for you. Not because she doesn’t want you but because she’s stubborn. She’s pissed at you and with Jade that can last a while.” He sighed long and loud and ran his hands roughly through his hair. “She’ll lose everything while she chews on her hatred.”
I didn’t say anything because I was pretty sure he was right. Sooner or later Jade would gain control of her inner-wolf and when she did, I was pretty sure she’d turn her back on me. Dominic let out a gusty huff and took up his place beside me, sitting on the desk.
“I want to be free to help her with the change,” he said with determination. “I want to be able to help her win, and I can’t do that without your consent. Before you shoot me down, just think for a second about how close you are to having two packs in this town. Erika will follow her anywhere and I’m sure others will, too.”
“Dominic, she needs to know what’s happening,” Jeff pleaded. It was the first time he’d spoken in awhile, and honestly, I ha
d kind of forgotten he was even there.
“Shut up, Jeff,” Dominic snapped. “This has nothing to do with you. She’s our problem now, and if you still want us to protect your wife, you’ll stay the hell out of our way.”
Where the hell did that come from? Dominic could be cold. I knew that. I’d seen it, but this … this was more than a little cold. Jeff inched back a little before he could catch himself. Just hours ago I would have sworn they were close. Really close. They were so much alike, the way they spoke, the way they held themselves. It was as if they were related. But just like everything else that confused the hell out of me, it pointed back to Jade. Jade. That girl was going to be the death of me. I was sure of it.
I glanced over to Dominic and said, “I’ll think about it. That’s all I can give you right now. But I promise I’ll consider your request.” He offered a small smile and then I shifted my gaze to Jeff. “You know, I’ve been thinking,” I said. “You’re the only person in this town that would have the ability to leak the information of a new alpha. Even with my slip up yesterday. You’re the only one that could have gotten it to them.”
Jeff sat up a bit taller and glared fiercely at me. “My alliance has always been with this pack.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Three of the cougars attacked one of my wolves on the outside of town today.”
“Shit. Who?” Dominic asked.
“Trevor. He’s fine. The cougars aren’t, though.” I hunched over in my chair, leaning my elbows on my knees and leveling my glare on Jeff. “There’s something that just doesn’t add up here. Why didn’t you change your daughter and why are you so intent on her being part of my pack?”
For a moment, I didn’t think Jeff was going to answer me, and white-hot rage simmered in my veins. He must have noticed the change in me because in one breath he blurted, “Our pack would have used her. She’s young. They don’t take mates the way you guys do. Women are a community possession. I couldn’t let that happen to my baby. As far as they know, Jade and my wife died three years ago when their bodies rejected the change. Dominic, please talk some sense into him. Jade needs to know what she’s gotten herself into.” A small tear snaked down his cheek, and dripped off his chin, soaking into his sweater.
Deadly Crush (Deadly Trilogy, Book 1) Page 12
