He seemed like an okay guy. And I figured he had a right to be a little pissed about his daughter, but the longer he stared at me, the more I felt as if he wasn’t really that angry. It was as if he was sizing me up, taking in every little detail and trying to decide my worth. He reminded me of my first girlfriend’s father, and it made me overly nervous.
Mrs. Shaw had been a lot easier to deal with. I’d met her briefly this morning and it had only taken a few short minutes to convince her that Jade would be fine. She didn’t even bother checking in on her daughter before running out the door to work, entrusting her fully to my care. And she had actually seemed happy about the fact that Jade had been bitten.
We had been sitting in the living room for about an hour waiting for Jade to wake up when he finally cracked an odd kind of smile and said, “So my daughter is part of the competition.”
“Yes, sir,” I said a bit stunned. I looked him over again, and furrowed my brow. The inner workings of a pack’s rank were not something that a human should know. He was staring at me, waiting for more, and he was giving me a no bullshit kind of look, one that had me certain he knew exactly what was going on. Most likely more Ray damage, I figured, and I continued with caution, “She broke Erika last night. And she didn’t back down from me after the challenge.”
That shocked him. I saw a quick flash of it in his eyes, but he covered it up quickly. “I don’t doubt that. Jade has spent a long time hating your pack. She wouldn’t back down.” He stretched his long legs in front of him and crossed them at the ankles. “Has she accepted the rank?”
I held his eyes, unblinking and unflinching. “There are still three other females fighting for it. Nothing to accept yet. And as far as I know, Jade doesn’t have a clue what she’s signed up for. She might step down when she does.”
He laughed, a full-bellied laugh. “Jade doesn’t give up,” he said, and laughed again. He sounded so much like Dominic, it was a bit … weird, and it added a whole shitload of questions to the rising pile in the back of my mind that centered on Jade. Again, I found myself wondering, Who was this girl? And how deep of a connection did she have with my beta?
Mr. Shaw’s laughter died down, and he gave me a somber look. “Be honest with me, kid,” he said, sounding a little deflated, “does she have a chance or should I be packing her up and taking her away?”
It was a fair question, and I had to really think about it before answering. “If she left now, she’d have Erika following her. It was a struggle to get her to leave Jade’s side last night.” I paused, collecting my scattered thoughts, and scrubbed at my face, before looking back at him. “I think she has what it takes, sir.”
Mr. Shaw considered my answer. He folded his arms over his chest and one eyebrow rose. “And how do you feel about my baby girl?” There was no nonsense in his tone as he asked the question, and I got the feeling that there was only one right answer. Too bad I didn’t really know what the right answer was.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said with a shrug. “Alpha pairs are about strength and dominance and leadership. How I feel, or who I want, doesn’t make a difference in who will win.”
“You don’t know who I am, do you, son?” he snapped, and I got the sinking feeling that sticking with the truth of the situation wasn’t the right answer.
I shook my head from side to side. “No, sir. Should I?”
“He works for you, dumbass,” Dominic said, as he padded down the stairs. “Who do you think I called yesterday when you were stupid enough to tell the whole town who you are?”
Every muscle in my body coiled like a spring. “You,” I said, snapping my gaze back to Mr. Shaw. My nostrils flared as I sucked in breath after breath but all I got was wolves and humans. No trace of cougar. Nothing but human was coming from this man. “You can’t be.”
Mr. Shaw chuckled. “Nice little trick, isn’t it?”
CHAPTER 18
~ JADE ~
The doorbell rang again, in three short and shrill bursts. I could hear Dominic laughing and the deep rumbles of Dad’s voice, but yet, the doorbell was still ringing. I secured my towel around me, tucking it tightly, and whipped the bathroom door open. “Answer the door,” I yelled, and with a glance down the hall, just to make sure no one was there, I slipped out of the bathroom and headed for my room.
I didn’t get far.
Someone cleared their throat, and started shuffling up the steps behind me. I spun around, figuring it was just Dominic. I was about to give him an earful about the door, but the words clogged in my throat. “Aidan,” I said, and I hated how my voice squeaked on his name. I sounded like an awkward teenager, and I was sure I looked it, too.
He wasn’t smirking. His jaw was locked tight, but he didn’t look unhappy; annoyed, maybe. He reached the top of the stairs and just stood there, staring down at me. And right then, I didn’t find him intriguing. It was a weird feeling, as if something that should be there was just … gone. I figured that it was because I knew who he was now. The mystery was gone, and in that moment, all I saw was barely concealed power and authority, and it made me shiver. My stomach constricted, twisting tight as a corkscrew, and I chewed on my bottom lip nervously.
Aidan took a step forward, and I almost did the same. Almost. His fitted gray T-shirt hugged his muscled chest and sculpted arms, and as I looked at him, I suddenly felt alive, as if someone had flicked my power switch to on. All I could think about was touching him. An urging need ran through me. It was primal, deep-seated and more than a little bestial. It was nothing like the butterflies or even the birds that I usually felt when he was near. This was so much more that it consumed me like fire consuming a fluttering piece of paper. My skin burned, and my heart pounded. I wanted to know what that power felt like under my fingertips. His eyes raked over me, and he licked his lips, and Jesus, but my knees started to tremble. He had that look in his eyes, the one he had had when we first met, as if he saw nothing but me. It was so intense, as if I was the only thing in the world that was worth looking at.
And that’s when my senses came back to me. I flushed. It burned over my skin like a fever, and I reached up, pulling my towel around me tighter. I blinked and I took a step back. He took another step toward me. Everything about his tense posture urged me to move away, but I couldn’t. Dominic slid his hand to the small of my back, pressed his lips to my ear, and whispered, “He’s testing you, Jade. Don’t back down.”
I jumped then. I hadn’t even seen him approach us. I had heard him downstairs, and I knew he must have walked right by both Aidan and me. “You didn’t tell me he was here,” I hissed back. My heart was racing, and my knees, still shaking.
“Well, I am,” Aidan said, “and we need to have a chat.” He shifted his hard gaze to Dominic and said, “You’ve got to stop helping her. She needs to win this one on her own.”
“I don’t think I want her to win,” Dominic said, his voice full of defiance. His hand pressed a bit harder on the small of my back, and I slapped it away before he forced me to move closer to Aidan.
Aidan laughed, a shocked and strangled kind of sound. “Not your call, Dominic.”
“What the hell are you two talking about?” I snapped, but they ignored me. I looked between the two of them. Aidan stood a bit straighter, and so did Dominic, rolling his shoulders back and puffing out his chest. Aidan’s chocolaty eyes brightened, and a golden ring shimmered around the edges. He growled. Yes, growled. It was deep and low and rumbling, and it made me shiver again. The power behind that sound was intoxicating. Alluring. And something deep within me responded to it. I wanted it. I wanted that power more than I wanted to breathe.
The face-off didn’t last long. Dominic slunk back a step and dropped his gaze, but the tension lingered. Silence fell over us, thick and awkward, and with every passing second, I became hotly aware that I was standing in the hallway wearing only a towel, and Aidan was staring at me as if I was some hot fudge sundae that he really wanted to lick.
“Aidan, le
t my daughter get dressed,” Dad hollered up the stairs, breaking the seriously uncomfortable tension.
Aidan smirked then, and winked at me. “Sure thing, Jeff,” he yelled back in a way that was far too friendly. He turned from me then and started down the stairs. Dominic followed him, his eyes on the ground and shoulders still hunched.
“Stop right there,” I said. Aidan glanced over his shoulder and smirked. “How do you know my dad?”
He chuckled. “Again, I ask you, can I not know people just because I’m new?”
~ AIDAN ~
I think walking away from Jade was the single hardest thing I had ever done. I had expected her to be dressed, not almost naked. That little white towel had left little to the imagination, hanging just below her bottom, and cinched tightly over her chest. Each silky curve of her body begged me to get closer, and see if her skin was as soft as it looked. All I could think about was seeing what was underneath that thin cloth. I had never wanted something so badly. Never.
And that scared the hell out of me.
Wanting wasn’t in the cards for me. Not until she won. Not until she was mine. And my gut was telling me that once she knew the score, she’d happily step down. I had seen it in her eyes. The loathing. The hatred. I was certain that’s what the look had been. The girl who had been haunting my every move had been unattainable before and she had just moved even further out of my reach.
Dominic followed me down the stairs, not saying a word, and her father stood at the bottom eyeing me suspiciously. I waited for the soft click of her door and looked the man straight in the eyes, and said, “We’re not going to tell her. She won’t stand a chance if she knows.” And then I spun on Dominic. “If you go against me again, I will strip you of your title and kick you out of this pack. I’m not playing your games anymore.”
Anger flared in his eyes for about half a second, but it quickly vanished when he noticed I was serious. Clearly playing nice hadn’t worked yet, and I was done. Done with all of it. If this pack was going to continue to push me, I was going to push back. Especially now. With Jade’s transformation, I couldn’t risk her inner-wolf losing respect for me. I wouldn’t risk it. If that happened, if I couldn’t maintain a position as her equal, even as a hated equal, I’d risk losing the entire pack. And I wasn’t ready to lose yet. Not when it meant another male would take her.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, dropping his eyes to the ground.
Jeff turned gray, all the blood rushing from his face, and he sucked in a loud gasping breath. “You can’t keep this from her.”
“She won’t fight for me,” I said calmly, even though saying it out loud sent rage coursing through me. “I’m pretty sure your daughter hates me, Jeff, and you know what will happen if she doesn’t fight. It’s not just my pack I’m worried about. Now that the news of a new alpha is out, your pack will be hovering, and she needs to be focused.”
“Are you kidding me?” Erika’s voice screeched through me, like rusty brakes on a car. “She’ll fight for you. She wants you.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked, well okay, I demanded, and Erika flinched.
“Jade didn’t show up at school,” she said. Her voice was whiny and she sounded as if she was going to cry. She lifted a stack of books and stepped closer to me as if she thought I hadn’t noticed them. “I brought her homework.”
I just stared at her and gritted my teeth. My own scent wafted around me — pungent and commanding. I pulled on my alpha wolf, pushing it forward, channeling it into my human form. The vibe was unmistakable. I might as well have ripped off my shirt, beat my chest and yelled, ‘I am alpha.’
“Aidan, we get it,” Dominic said with a slight tremor to his voice. “You’re the alpha. Could you tone it down a little?”
I didn’t have a chance to respond. “Erika?” Jade snapped. I swiveled and looked up the stairs, and for a second, I started to smile, but it died fast. Her scent was just as strong as mine was, and it came close to overpowering me. “Seriously, you have a lot of nerve,” she spat. “Get the hell out of my house!”
“Um … I’m just … homework,” she said, jutting a stack of books out. Her arms were shaking, the books sliding around in her hands. “Please don’t hate me,” she whispered. “I won’t be a problem. I promise. Just … I can’t live with my alpha hating me. Don’t make me go.” She started inching toward the stairs, keeping her eyes averted from Jade, and it made my blood boil.
“Erika, she is not an alpha,” I said more harshly than I had intended, but with Jade so close … projecting so much authority, I just couldn’t pull it back. “She’s not even part of my pack.”
Erika stopped at the base of the stairs, but didn’t turn back to me. She curled her shoulders over, and dropped her head, as if she hoped that I wouldn’t notice her. “Jade and I have some business to deal with. She’ll see you tomorrow,” I said as gently as I could, which still turned out to be sharper than I wanted, and Erika shuddered, but she still didn’t move. I turned to Dominic. “Take her home. Don’t come back here tonight.”
“No,” Jade growled from deep within her belly. She fixed an icy stare on me and held it for a long minute. When I didn’t flinch, she said, “We have no business. Erika, come up here. You can help me with my homework.”
Erika started up the steps and Jade smiled at her encouragingly before she glanced at her father. “Dad, if Mac comes home send her up, okay?” And then she shifted her gaze to Dominic, and said, “Oh and Dom, I’m starving.” Her tone was sharp, commanding, and impossible. I loved it and loathed it. She smirked at me, clearly pleased with herself, and started to turn her back on me. She hadn’t even made her first shift and she was already falling into the ranks with ease, as if she had been there all along.
Dominic’s laugh pulled me out of my stupor. “Sure thing, boss,” he said. “One Lucy’s Griller coming up.”
Everyone was moving, jumping at her orders. My whole body went rigid. “Stop!” I shouted. I couldn’t make my muscles relax. My jaw flexed, and it took everything in me to just stand still. Dominic froze, and Erika blanched. “Get out.”
“Aidan,” Jeff said. His voice was calm, but I heard the warning in it, and he squeezed my shoulder with a firm, pinching grip.
I didn’t let him finish. I didn’t want to hear it. This wasn’t going to help, I knew that, but I couldn’t stop it. She was being impossible, even if she didn’t know it. I turned to Jeff and looked him straight on. “I said get out.”
CHAPTER 19
~ JADE ~
Okay, maybe I took it a bit too far. But in all fairness, Aidan was pissing me off. Who the hell did he think he was coming into my house and commanding my guests as if they were nothing more than slaves? It was wrong on so many levels. But what was worse was that something inside me growled when I caught his scent. It was intoxicating, and in seconds, my own scent ramped up and matched his. I didn’t know what was happening to me, but I loved it almost as much as I loved the idea of being alone with him. It was all completely animal, and it excited and scared me all at once.
My dad gave him a crazy disappointed look but didn’t argue. But then, of course, he wouldn’t. He was the pack’s number one fan. “Mom and I will be at Joe’s tonight if you need us, pumpkin,” he called, and then to my horror (and absolute pleasure) he left, pushing Erika and Dominic out the door.
“You need to leave,” I said, but my voice betrayed me. It shook and all of the command I had had just moments ago was gone.
“Has Dominic told you what to expect?” Aidan asked, completely ignoring me. His tone was as sharp as his body language. Commanding and demanding answers. Every part of me screamed to give him anything and everything he wanted. I wished he hadn’t ignored me. Really, I wished he would just go, because all I could think about was jumping down the stairs and ripping off that shirt of his. I wanted to kiss every inch of his body, taste it, lick it, and oddly, I really wanted to rub against it. It was driving me crazy. He was driving me craz
y. I had never wanted something so much before. It hurt in a wonderful kind of way.
“I already know,” I said, and let my eyes trail down his lean body again. “Grew up here, remember? I’ll shift in three days unless my blood rejects it, and in that case, I’ll die.” His muscles looked deliciously strong, and as I descended the stairs, moving closer to him, I could feel the heat radiating from his sun-kissed skin.
“You won’t die,” he said. He started to smile. I saw a hint of it touching his full lips, but it vanished quickly. “I can already smell the wolf coming from your skin. You’ll shift.”
“Huh,” I said. He was watching me closely as my foot fell on the last step. I wanted to run at him, but I fought against it. What had Dominic said? Don’t back down? I tried to imitate Dominic, keeping my head high, and my shoulders back. I pictured his strut and his confidence, and I channeled it. Honed it in and projected it.
Aidan noticed. His face lost a little color, and he sucked in a loud breath. “I’m not going to tolerate you stepping over me. If you want to be part of my pack, you better learn your place.”
“Who says I want to be part of your pack?” I purred. Purred! I almost laughed at myself. I really wasn’t the purring type. Blunt and direct was more my style. But this guy … I licked my lips. Completely involuntary, I swear, and my eyes raked over him again.
He arched a brow and smirked … a little. “Your hatred towards me is a bit much, don’t you think?”
Hatred? Clearly, he was misreading me. He squirmed a little and his face went a bit whiter. And I grinned. I couldn’t help it. I had never had a guy squirm from my stare before and I had to admit, it was a bit exhilarating. “Actually, no, I don’t,” I said, playing along. “You lied to me.”
He sighed, a frustrated kind of sound. “You never asked, Jade. You just assumed I was human. I never lied.”