“You look like a wet dog. What happened?”
Jace stepped into the kitchen of the condominium he shared with Kipper. His friend’s concerned gaze scanned him. “I had a surveillance and it was…wet.”
“Oh, yeah? How did that go? Wait a minute…”
Jace avoided Kipper’s gaze. The last person he wanted to know about his imprinting was his best friend. Well, maybe not last. His uncle would be the absolute last person on his list. The man would have all the more reason to ask for Jace’s return to the clan.
Jace fished around in the pantry for snacks. The pantry closet was full of them thanks to Kipper’s insatiable appetite for junk food. They weren’t high on Jace’s list of delicacies, but he needed a distraction until Kipper’s curiosity faded.
Kipper rounded the counter from where he was sitting at the island and stood too close for Jace’s comfort. He’s smelling me. He’ll smell her on me. Crap.
“What is that lovely scent? It can’t be the cheating husband, can it?” Kipper chuckled. He inhaled loudly. “Wow. It’s incredible.”
Jace remained mute. Incredible wasn’t exactly the word he’d use to describe what was wholly indescribable. It was a fragrance he couldn’t get out of his nose and now that he had imprinted on her, he would smell her for the rest of his life. He could track her scent easily now. Since imprinting, his sense of smell had evolved and her scent — even her heartbeat — was recognizable from across town. Jace leaned against the counter and covered his eyes with his hands. For the rest of his life…that scenario was daunting. Yet, he wouldn’t want to live in a world where he couldn’t smell Kira.
The images of the three stalking lycans came to mind. His blood began to run hot all over again, this time out of anger. They’d come very close to doing whatever it was they were tasked to do and all before he had imprinted. What if they had succeeded? What if he had lost her tonight and never had the opportunity to stare into her eyes and learn his fate? Jace refused to dwell on the prospect of his failure. He hadn’t failed. He’d saved her. And now she was his.
“There’s something off about you,” Kipper said curiously, a hint of amusement in his voice.
Jace slowly raised his head and their eyes met. The whites of Kipper’s eyes grew large around his ice-blue pupils. Jace knew it was over. Hiding this big of a development from Kipper was a fool’s dream. His friend was ever observant, which made him incredibly good at what he did for a living.
“I don’t believe it. You’ve imprinted!” Kipper cried out in astonishment. He laughed nervously. “Good lord, Jace.” Kipper took a deep breath. “I can still smell her on you.” Kipper’s brown eyes sparkled in amusement. “She smells good. Real good. Like no woman I’ve ever smelled. What does she look like? Is she beautiful? Do you know her?”
“No.” Jace grabbed a box of oatmeal crème pies and took a seat at the island. He tore the plastic wrapper off one of the pies and forced the whole thing into his mouth. They weren’t good for him, but Kipper loved them and Jace needed something to occupy his mouth so he wouldn’t have to talk.
“No?” He followed Jace to the stools. “Then how did it happen?” he asked impatiently. “Tell me everything!”
Kipper took a seat beside him. Jace shot him an annoyed glance. His friend was a bit too excited about his imprinting. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he mumbled around the pie.
“Oh, come on! This is like…hitting puberty for teenagers. You’re a grown man now.” He slapped him on the back and laughed. “Well, a lycan. And that’s ironic considering how much you hate being one.”
“I don’t hate it,” Jace protested. “It’s just…not something I have a fondness for, considering…” He went quiet. Kipper had heard the story of his birth via his mother’s rape by the former leader of the city’s ruling clan of lycans: his father. Her death at his birth was something he had never forgiven his now deceased father for. He wanted to honor his mother’s memory and not become the murdering rapist his father was. That meant not living the life of a lycan.
“Well, it’s done. What are you going to do?”
Jace ran his hands through his wet hair. “I don’t know. I haven’t told you everything.”
Kipper rested an elbow on the counter and put his chin in his hand like an eager child waiting to hear a fascinating story. “Yeah, I’m listening.”
“I saw her during my investigation.”
Kipper’s dark brows bunched. “The investigation? You mean the cheating husband? You caught him in the act, right?”
Jace nodded. “I did. Then I saw her.”
Kipper’s eyes grew wide. “You’ve got to be kidding me. How? No, no…” He shook outstretched hands. “Don’t tell me. Is she the other woman? The one he’s cheating on his wife with?”
Jace growled. “No!”
“Well?”
“She had nothing to do with the case.” Jace wet his lips and sighed. His mind filled with the memory of the exact moment he’d known his devotion was claimed. The terror from what had almost happened in the alley still lingered in her eyes, mixed with hope when she stared up at him. “We were in the elevator and she looked into my eyes and I was…”
“A goner,” Kipper finished softly.
“Yeah. Done. That was all it took. And that’s not the best part.”
Kipper snorted. “Oh, I don’t think it can get any better than that. Jace Bana — the lycan who wasn’t — finally forced to face what he is with one glance from a woman.” Kipper grinned wickedly. “Isn’t that the way it happens? We lose ourselves over a woman. I’ve come to believe,” he started, putting a hand to his chin as if in deep thought, “that imprinting is our lower brain’s way of staying in command. ’Cause now what are you going to do?”
Jace’s breath came in short, quick bursts. His friend didn’t have to spell it out for him. He wasn’t going to do much of anything from now on that didn’t include thinking about Kira. His mind was wholly engrossed in the thought of her.
“Just some random girl… Who would have thought? Man.” Kipper took a swig of his beer. “Guess that means I’ll be next. Ha! I’ll be on the lookout for every girl after this.”
Jace put his head in his hands while Kipper laughed. He didn’t even want to think about the conversation he was going to have with his client. Whenever it would be, he would definitely leave out the part about the imprinting.
“Well, that’s good news.” Kipper chuckled. “I can’t believe this is happening to you. I mean, I’ve prayed that it would.”
“What?” Jace’s head snapped up. He narrowed his eyes on his best friend. “Why?”
Kipper shrugged. “’Cause what’s happening right now is hilarious, and you know I love to laugh. Besides”—Kipper slapped him hard on the back—“I’m tired of you denying who you are.”
Well, he couldn’t now, and Kipper could choke on it. His friend knew the story about his mother and how much Jace hated the animal who had forced himself on her and caused him to be born with a condition that was irreversible.
“So, why are you still here? Shouldn’t you be seducing your way into her bed?” Kipper’s lips widened in an amused smile.
Jace gave him a dirty look. “Really?”
Kipper shrugged. “You know what imprinting does. You’re not going to be able to stand being away from her — at least not for long. Then you’ll want to mate with her…eventually. If you don’t act now, she might get a boyfriend — if she doesn’t already have one — or get married. Do you honestly think you’ll just sit idly by while she’s in another man’s bed?”
Jace balled his hands into tight fists. The thought of Kira squirming and moaning beneath another man spiked his heart rate. His breathing became heavy and his muscles expanded.
“Whoa…whoa. Take it easy, Jace.” Kipper stood from his stool and placed his hands on Jace’s shoulders.
Jace shook them off and launched from his own stool. “Don’t touch me.”
Kipper put up two hands. “Calm down. Where i
s she now?”
Jace forced his mind to think through the fury, to subdue the beast in him. “At her place. Alone,” he gritted.
Kipper nodded. “Good. Good. You can worry about everything else later. She’s alone and she’s safe.”
The image of three unknown lycans chilled the intensity of his changing body. His muscles contracted and his heart rate slowed. Fear replaced jealousy. “No. No, she’s not safe. What you said earlier… She’s not some random girl.”
“What do you mean?”
“She was being followed tonight by three lycans.”
“What are you saying?” Kipper said slowly, as if he had trouble comprehending Jace’s statement.
“Three lycans. I’ve never seen them before, but they could be part of the clan. They were following her.” Jace returned to his stool. “They caught up with her in an alley not far from her apartment building and attacked her.”
“That doesn’t make sense. None of the clan would openly assault a woman in public.”
“No? They would in private,” Jace said sharply, his mother’s ordeal once again fueling his dislike for his own kind.
“Regardless, Roman has a firm grip on the members of the clan. They wouldn’t dare challenge his leadership and live. Well, except you.” Kipper frowned lopsidedly.
The only reason Jace was alive today was because he was family. The rightful heir to his father’s position, Jace couldn’t stomach leading a pack of ravenous dogs that had allowed his mother — or any woman — to be raped. When his father had passed, Jace had walked out of the clan’s compound a free man. If he had left when Byron was still alive, he’d have been hunted down and executed for treason. Jace’s uncle Roman had offered Jace his life, so he’d left the reins of authority to his uncle.
“I need you to find out who they are. Another clan could be moving in on our territory.”
Kipper sat down beside him. “They’d be foolish to do so. Your uncle would eliminate them. And you said ‘our.’ Are you having second thoughts about returning?”
Jace shook his head. “No, but I won’t have a rival clan hunt Kira down. For three of them to attack her…something didn’t seem right about the whole thing. They were nearly on top of her the whole time. It was strange.”
“You think they know her?”
“I don’t know. Find out who they are and I’ll figure it out.” Jace suddenly remembered Kira’s words in the elevator. If the goons didn’t know who she was, she certainly wasn’t clueless about their existence. “She knows,” he whispered.
Kipper waved a hand in front of Jace’s face, breaking his communion with space. “She knows what?”
Jace met his friend’s gaze. “She knows I’m a lycan. She knew immediately when I imprinted.”
Kipper’s brows rose. “Whoa. You’re right. The story did get better. Not every human knows about us. If she does”—Kipper smiled—“then she’s special. And not just because you imprinted on her. So tell me…” His slick grin returned. “Did she like it? Was she receptive to, ah, what you had to offer?”
Jace popped another pie into his mouth. He hadn’t offered her anything except his protection. And now that the suggestive thought had been so kindly planted in his head by his soon-to-be ex-best friend, he would be forced to think of ways to get her into bed — thanks in no small part to the imprinting. I hate this. “I need a shower and I’m going to bed.” He slid off the stool and marched toward his bedroom.
“Cold shower?”
“Shut up!”
“You don’t want a pizza or anything? I’m going to order one.”
“No. I fought off three lycans tonight. I’m tired,” he said over his shoulder.
“In human form?” Kipper knew Jace avoided the change. “Impressive.”
Jace smirked at the compliment. There wasn’t a moment he hadn’t thought he could take on all three of them and win — at least as a lycan, but he’d sworn off allowing the beast to take over. He might not shift, but he’d been raised under the domineering hand of his father, who’d stressed combat. Fighting, in any form, was his strength.
“Try not to dream about Kira. I don’t want to hear you howling at the moon because you’re lonely.”
Jace heard his friend’s laughter all the way in the bedroom. He slammed the door shut and leaned heavily against it, rubbing his face in his hands. There was no way he wouldn’t dream about her tonight. All the way home he couldn’t get her out of his mind and he’d nearly run himself off the road in delirium. She consumed his thoughts…his longings. And he knew absolutely nothing about her other than the color of her skin, the speckles of gold in her dark brown eyes, and of course: her scent.
He had to see her again. He would see her again. There was no fighting it. Even if she didn’t want to see him, he wouldn’t give her the option to refuse.
Because Kipper was right. The thought of her beneath any other man would drive Jace to transform and rip the guy’s heart from his chest. Jace forced his heavy breathing to steady and his body to submit to his will. In the dark, his eyes found the large bed against a nearby wall.
He’d give her two choices: she would sleep alone, or in his bed.