“That was graceful,” he said, his voice oozing with sarcasm, and he helped me regain my balance. His lips twitched, and a cocky grin spread across his face.
“Wow, thanks,” I said, snatching my arm from his hand. He chuckled, and his smile grew wider. I gave him my best shut up look, and said, “And you wonder why I don’t like you. You do something slightly nice, and then you always ruin it by speaking.”
Dominic crossed his arms over his chest; they bounced softly with his shoulders, as he tried to hold in a laugh. His eyes shimmered with humor. “A simple thank you would have worked, too,” he said. “You know, you’re still so adorable when you’re all mad, scrunchy-nosed, and flushed cheeked.”
“Whatever,” I snapped, putting every bit of snark I had into my tone. “Where’s Mac?”
“She went home,” he said, and then he gave me a serious look. “Jade, I want you to stay away from Aidan.”
I laughed dryly and rolled my eyes before making my way into the kitchen. So that was what this little visit was about. The new guy. And by the look I was getting from Dominic, I’d guess it was also about a bruised ego. “And I care what you want because?”
Dominic followed me, stopping at the fridge to grab milk before moving on to the cupboard and snagging two mugs. He scooped three heaping spoonfuls of sugar in one, and added only milk to the other and then filled them both with steaming coffee. I watched him, stunned. The way he moved around the kitchen was as if he was supposed to be there, as if he had never left. Once he had finished stirring in the sugar, he slid the mug over to me, and grinned. “You still like it that way, right?”
I took the mug and drank a long, deep mouthful before looking back up at him. “What are you really doing here, Dominic?”
He stepped over to me, and tucked a few strands of loose hair behind my ear, a gesture that used to be common, but now, it just felt wrong. “I saw the way you were looking at him. He’s no good for you.” There was more emotion in his voice than I was used to. It was gentle and pleading, strong and caring. It was as if we had stepped back two years and he was still my Dom. My rock. My stabling force. My best friend. And I don’t know why, but it pissed me off.
I almost pointed out that I didn’t know anything about Aidan. I came close to telling Dominic that there was nothing to worry about, because honestly, since finding out about Ray, I hadn’t even given Aidan another thought, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. As far as I was concerned, it was none of his business who I looked at. “You don’t have the right to play the concerned best friend card. Not anymore.”
Hot guilt pulsed over me and I almost took the words back. I felt like an insensitive jerk. Again, I wondered if he was trying to reach out because he needed someone to talk to about Ray’s death. I almost asked him if he was okay, but just before I opened my mouth, Marcy’s pointed look from yesterday flashed through my head and I bit my tongue. There was a reason Ray’s death was a secret. I didn’t understand why, and I really wasn’t sure if I should let on that I knew about it — yet.
He narrowed his eyes, not harshly, but as if he was trying to get a better look at me, and see something that may have been hidden under my words. “You’re not being fair,” he said after a long moment.
I glared at him. There really was nothing to say. He had abandoned me when I had needed him. Blew me off to climb the pack ranks. He had no right to try and tell me what was and wasn’t good for me. Not anymore. If he wanted to talk about Ray, then fine, I’d be there for him, but I wasn’t about to stand there and listen to him tell me what I could and couldn’t do.
He must have seen what I was thinking, or maybe he still just knew me that well, because he groaned. Dominic had a variety of groans. There was the long and drawn out, annoyed groan. The short but loud you’ve got to be kidding me groan. But this one was one that I knew well. It was the you are being so stubborn groan. “Jade, you’ve got to forgive me already. It’s been two years.”
I clenched my teeth, trying to keep my jaw from dropping. If it wasn’t for the look he was giving me, I probably would have laughed, but I could see that he was dead serious, and that made my head spin. “Exactly, it’s been two years since the last time you made an effort. Two years since the first time you pretended not to know me, and two years since you left me to find my own way home because the pack was more important. You’ve never even pretended to be sorry.”
Dominic crumbled at my words as if I had hauled off and punched him, and I almost felt bad — almost. He jammed his thumbs into the front pockets of his jeans and leaned against the counter, his shoulders hunched, and his gaze dropped to my stomach, as if he couldn’t look me in the face any longer. “I had to prove myself. They would have eaten me alive if I showed weakness, and you know it.”
“Don’t give me that crap,” I snapped, and banged my mug down on the counter. “Being a friend isn’t being weak. You’re just like the rest of them. You don’t give a crap who you stomp on.”
He groaned. It was the annoyed groan this time. “I’m trying to fix things. Stop being so stubborn.”
“It’s my natural defense, Dom,” I said, giving him a dirty look, “the one I use against idiots, bullshit, and stupidity, and since you’re here …” I waved my arm around, in an exaggerated gesture in his direction.
He smiled a sad sort of smile, and it caught me off guard. My stomach dropped, and my eyes prickled. I quickly blinked the tears away. There was no way he was going to see me hurting. Mad was one thing, but seeing me in pain … it wasn’t happening.
“You haven’t called me Dom in years.” His voice was soft, just barely a whisper, and I may have been mistaken, but I was pretty sure his eyes looked a bit misty.
I couldn’t even begin to count how many times I had wanted to have this conversation. How many times I had sat up all night waiting for him to call and want to fix things, but now that it was actually happening, it was the last thing I wanted to hear. “It’s too late to fix things.” I sighed, frustrated and angry and hurt, and I turned my back on him. “Just get out.”
I didn’t hear him move, and when the front door slammed, I jumped. Seconds later, his engine rumbled, and then his tires squealed as he peeled out of the driveway. My body shook, my fingers trembled, and with him gone, it was even harder not to cry.
CHAPTER 8
~ AIDAN ~
I was a wolf and she pretended not to see me.
Jade sat on the covered porch of a large log house, rocking back and forth on one of those dainty-looking, wire porch swings. She stared at what appeared to be a sketchbook in her lap. From where I sat, just past the tree line, in clear view of anyone who may have passed by, I watched as her blackened hand made sure and gentle strokes across the page. Every few seconds her hand would pause, and her head would tilt in my direction as she stole a glance, but she never once made eye contact.
That was a mistake.
If I had been any other wolf, she would have looked submissive. And submission would not get her to where I was starting to think she should be. It would only put her at risk. But as I watched, it was clear that this was not actually submission. It was power. A cool and calm remoteness. She did not look as if she was giving in. Rather, it was as if she was too important, too high in the ranks, to pay me any attention. She was above me. And my inner-wolf craved her attention and acceptance.
It was an odd feeling; one that I was not used to. She should have been the one feeling this way, not me. It was maddening, and confusing. She wasn’t even one of us. And in all honesty, part of me didn’t want her to be. The strength she emanated was intimidating. Crippling. What would it be like if she was part of the pack?
That morning, I had woken up determined to avoid her. There was no point in knowing her. Not now. The games had started. The challenging females had made themselves known. Getting to know her now would only put her in danger. I had sparked her interest, when we first met. Her scent had given her away and she wouldn’t give in easily; I was certa
in of it. And letting her know she had caught my attention would only make it harder. Jade didn’t strike me as the backing down type, and that would be deadly, definitely, maybe. This was my life now, and for the most part, it was a life that I wanted. And she was just a girl.
But Jade … she seemed to weasel her way back into my thoughts at the least expected moments. I wouldn’t say that I liked her, but she was undeniably intriguing. But then, that could have had something to do with Dominic hounding me last night to stay away from her, or maybe it was the way she had fought back yesterday. Whatever it was, she had caught my attention and refused to let go. And no matter how hard I tried to pretend that I had never met her, my brain wouldn’t let me forget.
For a few minutes, I had successfully pushed her out of the forefront of my mind, or I had until Dominic had shown up late for our meeting this morning. Not just a little late, but thirty minutes late. At first, I had thought that his hard eyes and pasty looking skin was directed at me, but then he had placed a hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Sorry I’m late.’ Except, it hadn’t been his words that had given him away, it had been the scent on his hand.
It was a scent that I knew, or that I thought I knew. Almonds with a splash of fruit punch. It tickled at my memory, like a niggling reminder of something that stayed just out of reach.
And it was because of that scent that I had found myself as a wolf, sitting under an oak tree, outside Jade’s house.
I hadn’t known where I was going until I had arrived here. The rain had temporarily stopped, but by the look of the blackened sky, it was bound to start again. My fur was drenched from running through the sodden woods, and I was starting to get cold, but I couldn’t make myself leave.
What was it about her that made Dominic so uptight? I had to know. Each time her name had been mentioned last night, whether it was by me or one of the girls bragging about their little stunt, he had stiffened, each muscle visibly coiling beneath his skin.
I stalked closer, inch by inch. I didn’t want to scare her away, but I had to get closer. Every animal instinct I had was insistently urging me to get her attention.
“Dominic, if that’s you, you can screw off.” She didn’t look up as she spoke, and her hand continued to move deftly across the page, stroke by sure stroke.
Her commanding tone stopped me, pinning me in place. Who was this girl? I felt myself shrink, crouching lower and bowing my head. My brain was screaming at me to show my dominance, but my inner-wolf shrank anyway.
I whimpered. I tried to swallow it, choke it down, but I couldn’t, and Jade’s head snapped up. Her stare was piercing, penetrating, and I bowed my head further. Who was this girl?
I didn’t move. I couldn’t move. When she finally dropped her eyes back to the page, my legs were trembling beneath me. I needed her approval. I didn’t think as I bounded up the porch steps. I whimpered again, and sat beside her, pressing my soaking wet body against her leg.
Jade stiffened, and a gasping sound hissed from her lips. I nosed her notebook, pushing it until it slid onto the swing beside her, and put my head on her lap. As I looked up into her big brown eyes, for a moment I thought she was going to push me away. She certainly looked as if she was considering it. But then, she smiled, a thin, tight-lipped smile, and placed a soft hand on my head. “I know, buddy,” she said, stroking my fur. “I miss you, too.”
~ JADE ~
It felt weird speaking to a wolf. I didn’t know if he understood me, but with the way he watched me, I thought he probably did. I buried my hand in his coarse fur, scratching his back, and he pressed into me further. He was soaking wet, and as he leaned against me, my jean-clad leg absorbed the moisture and the fabric clung to my calf and knee.
I wanted to say more. I wanted to yell at him, and laugh with him, and hug him. I wanted my Dominic back with every fiber in my body. This was the most attention he had given me in two years. I had tried so many times to talk to him, and he always pushed me away. This was my chance to get it all out, but instead of talking, I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him, as he littered my face with sloppy kisses.
It seemed like only yesterday that he was bitten. The memory was still clear in my mind, cemented there, unwavering and unyielding. We were walking through the park, after watching a stupid horror movie. Dominic was a Freddy Kruger fanatic, me, not so much. There was just something about dying in a dream that made my skin crawl.
Late night walks after scary movies were kind of a ritual of ours. It gave me time to unwind and reassure myself that it was only a movie. We were walking, arms linked, looking up at the star-speckled sky, when Dominic had stopped short and said, “You hear that?”
I smacked him playfully with my free hand and said dryly, “Not funny, Dom.” He gave me an odd look, one that I really didn’t understand, and then started walking again.
One of the things I had always loved about our friendship was that we had never needed to fill the silence with pointless conversation. We could spend hours just being together, doing our own thing without talking. And that night had been one of those nights. It was peaceful and perfect.
“Jade, there’s something I need to tell you,” Dominic said, after we had walked for at least twenty minutes. That was when I had noticed how stiff his arm was in mine, as if I was holding onto a steel pipe.
“Mmmhmm,” I mumbled, hugging myself closer to his side, trying to keep myself out of the chilly fall wind. But instead of holding me closer, he only stiffened further.
I stopped short, looking up at him. A muscle in his neck twitched under his skin, throbbing like a heartbeat. His face was lined with crevasses, branching out from the corners of his eyes and lips like wild vines. “Ray wants me to join the pack,” he blurted, all the words running together.
It took me a long minute to understand what he was saying, but when I did, sweat began to trickle down my back. My stomach sank, and a chill rushed over my skin. For a moment, I thought I was going to be sick. I could taste the sour bile rising, burning up my esophagus. “You can’t. They’re a bunch of jerks, Dom. You can’t.” My voice screeched on the last word, loud and piercing.
“I know,” he said. He hadn’t needed to say more; I understood everything he wanted to convey in those two words. They would eat him alive. They were hard on him now, and we both knew they would be even worse if he was one of them. The pack had changed drastically since Ray became the alpha. They were vicious, even toward their own, and Dom … well, Dom had a soft heart.
But Dominic never had a choice, not really.
The chilly night turned bitter. I remembered thinking that Erika must have been following us the whole time, waiting for the perfect moment to step out from the trees. I heard the crunch of gravel before I saw her. She stood in the center of the winding path with a purely evil smirk. The moonlight casted an unnerving silvery glow around her, making her black jeans shimmer in the light.
“Dominic, you have been summoned,” Erika said. Her voice rang out, splitting through the silent night.
I moved in front of him without thinking, trying to block him from her sight. Thinking about it now, I realized that it would have never worked; he was half a foot taller than I was, but at the time, all I wanted to do was to hide my Dom. “No, you can’t have him.” My voice was strong, giving no indication of the twisted knots in my stomach.
Erika threw her head back and laughed. She locked her eyes with mine, and her skin rippled. Snaps and pops echoed through the cool night, and hair sprouted along her exposed flesh. Her face hazed over, distorting and shifting. Her legs snapped back, her arms extended and thinned. My stomach rolled as another deafeningly loud snap reverberated around me, and she dropped to all fours.
“Dom, run!” I yelled, glancing behind me, but he didn’t move. I shoved him, trying to push him into action. It was as if he didn’t even notice me; all he did was stare blankly at Erika.
A snarl ripped through the air, and I snapped my gaze back to where Erika had stood, just
as a white wolf lunged at us.
Dominic hadn’t screamed. He hadn’t made a sound. It had been as if he had known all along what was about to happen. As if he had already given up. Before I could move, her teeth were imbedded in his thigh.
That had been the night that I had lost one of my best friends. The night he had left me stranded. Erika held onto him until her muzzle was stained with red. She let go, and chomped down three more times, before sitting down on her haunches, and staring up at him, his blood dripping from her muzzle. After an agonizingly long moment, she barked once, and swung her head toward the trees.
Dominic hadn’t looked at me. And he didn’t look back while he trailed after Erika, head held high, and shoulders stiff and straight. He left me there, tears streaming down my face, in the dark, alone.
I looked down at the big black wolf, his head still in my lap, and ran my hand along his fur, scratching lightly behind his ears. He huffed, a content kind of sound, and his sad looking, golden eyes met mine. I smiled a little and muttered, “I’m sorry I kicked you out earlier.”
CHAPTER 9
~ JADE ~
Monday came too soon. I wasn’t ready to face Dominic. Not after confessing that I missed him, even if it was true. He always had a way of making me forget my anger, and as it turned out, even after two years, he could still worm his way into my heart. When he had whimpered, looking up at me with those sad dog eyes, I don’t know, I had just … caved. Part of me wanted to run to him and catch up on everything we had missed, but a bigger part of me wanted nothing to do with him. The pack had ruined him, and if I let him in, I was sure they would ruin me, too.
Dominic had followed me around as a wolf for the rest of the weekend. He had kept his distance, but I could feel him watching my every move. He had sat at the edge of the woods while Mac and I had lunch at Lucy’s Diner on Sunday, and he was there, waiting, when we had left the boutique. His presence had been comforting and nerve-racking and annoying all rolled into one. Why he felt the need to stalk me as a wolf, I had no clue, but that was exactly what he had done.