Dirt and grass burned against my side as we slid and rolled over each other. I bit out blindly, desperately, and I instantly tasted the salty sweat in her fur and the iron taste of her blood. The blood seeped into my mouth and I latched on tighter. I growled and yanked and flung her onto her back.
She made a whimpering sound, and I sprung up, and towered over her. Rage and fear and something that I really didn’t want to understand fed through my veins. I felt my lips curl, the cool air brushed against my gums, and the world seemed to stand still, vanishing away and leaving only the gray wolf cowering at my feet.
It scared the hell out of me, but at that moment, I wanted to kill her. I wanted to rip her apart and roll in her blood. It was as if the animal that I had turned into was taking over, and all I could think about was the taste of her blood. I felt a growl rumble around me. Her shoulder was gushing blood, a large chunk of skin was gone from where I had bitten her, and her meaty muscles were exposed. It would have been so easy to kill her. I could see it all. My teeth in her neck, tearing out her throat. The taste of her blood. The rush of victory.
The growl came again, followed by a soft whimper, and then a cold nose pressed against me. I swiveled, baring my teeth and snapping out. A rusty brown wolf dropped to its belly and then rolled onto its back and licked my chin. Standing right behind that wolf was the midnight black alpha.
I snarled at him furiously, and he snarled back. For half a second I thought about lunging at him. I was so mad, so hurt … but instead, I shook off the thought, turned, and limped away from him and the pack.
CHAPTER 23
~ AIDAN ~
“What the hell did you do to her?” Marcy screamed. She ran at me, her fist balled, and she punched me over and over in the chest. And I let her. She was crying. Her shoulders convulsed as gasping sobs fell from her, and she continued to punch me.
Trevor rushed over, ready to pull her off, but I shook my head. I hardly felt her weak hits, and I figured she probably had a right to be mad. So I just stood there until she was done. Playing the tough alpha seriously wasn’t easy. It’s not as if Marcy knew I had no choice but to let Jade fight it out. I hadn’t expected the attack to happen, not on her first shift, but the females had a right to fight her, and I couldn’t do much to stop it.
It took a full sixty-four seconds for her tears to win out, and Marcy crumpled against my chest crying uncontrollably. “Mac, I didn’t do anything to her,” I said softly.
“You should have stopped the wolf!” she shrieked, and pulled away, glaring up at me. “I told Jade you were cold. I told her to stay away from you. I was right. You’re just like all the alphas before you.” She pulled her arm back and swung at me, open handed. I caught her wrist tightly in my grip.
“Marcy,” I snapped, my patience wearing thin. “Don’t think you can talk to me like this just because you are dating a member of my pack.” She struggled, trying to jerk her hand away, but I held onto her wrist firmly and looked at Trevor. “Take her. I don’t want to see her again.”
“Aidan, Jade wants her here,” Trevor said, refusing to look at me. He stepped up to us and wrapped his arm around Marcy’s stomach, pulling her away.
Fury spiked through me and I hated it. I hated giving orders and using my alpha status to get what I wanted. I loathed demanding things from the pack and forcing them to submit. I hated my father for doing it, and I hated myself just as much. But this pack was just too screwed up. They didn’t listen when I asked nicely. And now Jade, the wolf I intended to make sure won the challenges and become my mate, was aiding to their disobedience. That damn girl is going to be the death of me.
“I don’t really care what Jade wants,” I said, seething. I let my scent roll off me, and Trevor started to tremble under the weight of it.
“I’ll take her to her room,” he said with a desperate note in his voice. “You won’t even know she’s here.” He still wouldn’t look at me as he started to drag Marcy away and up the stairs. She shouted at me through a garbled mess of tears that I couldn’t even begin to decipher.
When he reached the top, he looked back in my direction, his eyes fixed on the floor at my feet. “Aidan, please stop.” His voice was like gravel grating under tires. “She’s just as much my alpha as you are. Don’t make me pick one of you.” He turned on shaky legs, with Marcy still crying in his arms, and disappeared down the hallway.
I gritted my teeth for a long moment. I’d never seen anything like this. Never. How in the hell was Jade able to dig into Trevor so quickly? She wasn’t branded. She didn’t have the extra power that came with the alpha’s imprint. Her scent was strong, but without accepting the position, it was still bearable. I cursed myself for letting Trevor stay with her, waiting for her to shift. His loyalty was shifting, just as Erika’s had, and I didn’t have a clue what to do about it.
I stood at the bottom of the stairs, counting them, up and down, attempting to relax my nerves. It wasn’t working. My fists clenched and unclenched, seemingly on their own, and each second that passed, my skin grew hotter and my blood boiled further. “Dominic!” I shouted.
Dominic was out of Jade’s bedroom and standing in front of me in a flash. Surprising relief washed over me at his quick response; at least it did until he said, “Just go, Aidan.”
I laughed. It sounded cruel even to my own ears. “I’m going to see her, Dom.” I took the first step, and he grabbed my bicep, yanking me back from the stairs and pulling me into the kitchen. He stopped in front of the stove and turned on the fan, before glancing at me. When he did, I figured I looked just as pissed off as I felt, because he skittered back a few steps.
“She doesn’t understand what’s happening,” he whispered. “She thinks we allowed the attack.”
I shot him a cold glare and through gritted teeth said, “You should have told her to submit once she walked out of the house. You were supposed to guide her. You’re the one who asked to help her.” I was already regretting letting him. I thought he got it. I thought he’d tell her what to do; clearly, I was wrong.
“I did tell her. Dammit, Aidan! You’re such a jackass! You can smell it. She’s an alpha. It’s in her scent. Her inner-wolf will only submit to you if yours submits to her.” Dominic’s voice rose with each word until he was flat out yelling in my face.
I wanted to punch him. Just haul off and punch him. Somehow, and I really don’t know how, I held the urge back. “She has to prove herself for that, and so far, she hasn’t.”
“She took down another challenger,” Dominic said, as if that was proof enough.
I shrugged. “There’s still two more.”
He looked at me then, as if I was an idiot, and an even bigger fool, and said a little helplessly, “She just wanted to play.”
~ JADE ~
I could hear him. Aidan was whispering. I couldn’t make out the conversation, but the sound of his deep voice made me shiver. I shouldn’t have been able to hear the notes of his voice. He was downstairs, and my bedroom door was sealed tightly. But his voice wasn’t the only thing that found me. His scent, musky and powerful, wrapped around me.
I sat on my bed, watching the last of the scars on my hip fade away to nothing. By the time I finished showering and scrubbing my body clean of blood, my wounds had closed. It had only been thirty minutes. Thirty freakin’ minutes since that wolf attacked me, and the marks were already gone. I didn’t know whether I wanted to pass out, hyperventilate, or jump around. My senses were hyperaware of everything around me, and it was terrifying and exciting and a little sickening. I had never had so much energy before, and I didn’t know what to do with it all.
Aidan’s voice rose and fell as he argued with Dominic. He was beyond mad. I could hear it in his growled murmurs and smell its heat in the air. It was almost like the scent of hot pavement as the first drops of rain fell, except stronger. Each time it got louder, my body shuddered with a mix of pleasure and spine-tingling fear. My inner-wolf was doing back flips in my stomach. One second
my skin was burning with desire for him and the next, my inner-wolf was cringing and begging me to lie down at his feet.
I wanted my dad. I wanted to talk to him. I needed to hear the reassurance in his voice. He always knew the right thing to say, and since Dominic wasn’t explaining anything that made sense, I thought maybe, just maybe, Dad would know what was happening to me. He’d been involved with the pack for as long as I could remember, and knew a lot about how they worked. I had been dialing his number for the last five minutes, and each time I called, it went straight to voicemail.
The front door slammed, and footsteps pounded up the stairs. I pulled my blankets up around me, listening to the scuffling as Aidan, and his amazing scent, made his way down the hallway. It was weird knowing instinctively who was walking on the other side of the walls, but I did. I could feel his presence in my bones. With each step closer to my room, my heartbeat quickened. My bedroom door squeaked open, and he stepped into my room, closing it behind him.
He was wearing black jeans that sat low on his hips, and a snug black T-shirt that showed off the ripples of his abs. He had toned up since I first met him; all of his muscles were more defined, not as soft looking. He leaned against the bedroom door and folded his arms over his chest, flexing his biceps as he did. His eyes were yellow as they looked me over and my breath caught in my throat. The man was perfect and completely flawed, and I loved it all. I wasn’t sure if that made me stupid or crazy, but either way, right then, I knew I needed serious help. Was this how all werewolves felt when they were in the presence of an alpha? I wondered, as my eyes drifted over him. I tried reminding myself that he let this happen to me, but it was useless. Each time the thought passed through my mind, my inner-wolf growled as if it was trying to banish it.
“Jade, let’s go.” His voice was sharp and I jumped to my feet without an ounce of hesitation, my tangled mess of blankets falling to the floor.
I couldn’t pull my eyes away from him, and right then, I was glad for it. I watched as he took a step toward me. His eyes travelled down my neck, along the strap of my tank top, and then they paused on my cleavage for far too long, before he glanced down at my skimpy pajama bottoms, and took in my bare legs. If I hadn’t been watching him so closely, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed it. His nearness, his scent, it all screamed power and authority and it was fogging my brain.
I snapped out of it in a rush, grabbed a pillow, and whipped it at him. “Get out!” I shouted, as he batted the pillow away and it dropped to the floor.
He frowned. “I’m not asking, Jade.”
“I don’t give a shit,” I snapped. I grabbed the pile of blankets and dropped back into bed, pulling them around me.
Aidan took up his post again, leaning against the door. “It’s Tuesday. You have school.”
His scent thickened, and a soft glow, an outline of what looked to be the letter ‘A,’ lit up on his chest, shining white through his shirt. My skin buzzed, my inner-wolf pressed against my chest, and my throat tightened.
I got up. I couldn’t stop myself. I needed to get closer to him. That power. It was unbelievable. It rolled off of him in waves of delirious heat. It was as if I floated across my room. I barely felt my feet touch the floor. I stood in front of him for a second before I couldn’t hold back any longer. I lifted my hand and traced the glowing ‘A’ on his chest.
The sensation was like nothing I had ever felt before. My finger lit up as soon as it connected with what felt like a raised scar beneath his shirt, glowing with the same white light. It sparked and heated my entire body. I shuddered with pleasure. The unbelievable power … authority … command … I wanted it. It called to me. It was like a little whisper in my ear telling me to take it. Claim it — him — as my own.
Aidan’s hand snaked around my wrist and pulled my hand away from his chest. “Jade, focus. You need to get dressed. We’re going to be late.”
“Seriously?” I asked a little breathlessly, still staring at his chest. I lifted my other hand, wanting to touch it again, and he quickly snagged it. “You’re worried about my education, but you’ll let one of your wolves attack me. What’s wrong with you?”
“You missed yesterday,” he said dryly, pushing me back a step and holding me at arm’s length. “I promised your parents you wouldn’t miss any more. Get dressed. You’re going.”
“My parents …” I licked my dry lips. “You know where my parents are?”
“Yep, your dad went out of town for a few days and your mom’s at work. Get dressed.” He dropped my wrist then and his scent all but vanished into a thin and ultra light film in the air.
I sucked in a deep, fresh breath and my insides shuddered with a deep-seated longing. I glanced up at him, meeting his golden eyes and asked, “You going to let me change?”
He chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest, making his broad shoulders look even bigger. “I’m not stopping you. Go ahead.”
I blushed from head to toe. He couldn’t actually think that I was going to give him a strip show, could he? He leaned back on the door causally as if that was exactly what he intended. “God, Aidan, get out.”
He smirked. “How cute. A modest werewolf. You worried I won’t like what I see, sweetheart?”
“I couldn’t give two shits what you like,” I lied, spun on my heels, and stalked toward my closet.
He chuckled, and it was positively infuriating.
CHAPTER 24
~ JADE ~
Aidan really made me go to school.
After a few minutes of shuffling through my clothes, stalling, I heard the soft click of the door as he left. I let out a pent-up breath, thankful he wasn’t actually going to make me change in front of him. He hadn’t gone far. He was standing right outside my bedroom door when I emerged, after tugging on blue jeans and my favorite plum hoodie.
When we got into his black Mustang, I tried to ask him about the mark on his chest, but all he’d say was that it was none of my business. He pulled up to the coffee shop and left me in the car, with a firm warning not to move an inch, while he bought coffee and donuts. He shoved them at me without a word.
Aidan escorted me to my locker, and he hovered over me in my classes, making people move so we could sit beside each other. Things had … changed. Something had shifted in him. For the past few weeks, he had been approachable. Now, not so much. He was testy. His eyes flashed a lot. And he was seriously turning into a jackass. He was snapping at everyone, including the pack.
He wouldn’t let me sit with Ben and Ann at lunch, and he wouldn’t let Marcy sit with the pack or Trevor. He dragged me — literally dragged me — around, his hand always gripping on my wrist, or his arm looped around my waist, everywhere he went.
I had never been so happy to hear the bell ring at the end of the day. News had already travelled about my new status, and between the cautious looks from the student body, and Aidan’s retardedly possessive behavior, I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I left the computer lab, very aware that Aidan was right behind me, and I turned left, heading for my locker.
“Jade, come,” Aidan snapped. I stiffened and spun around. I didn’t want to, but that tone … I just couldn’t ignore it. I whimpered and my inner-wolf stirred in my stomach. He gave me a stern glare and pointed to the floor in front of him.
My jaw dropped, and I put my hands on my hips, attempting to glare, and fighting the urge to run at his command, although I was sure I failed miserably because he didn’t even flinch. Thankfully, though, my feet stayed firmly in place. “Did you just beckon me like a dog?”
His eyes flared and he pointed again to the floor in front of him. “Jade,” he growled.
At the sound of his growl, all of the end of the day chatter died, and tension rose all around us. Students rushed by so quickly it was as if they were running for cover from a bomb that was about to explode.
We stared off for a few long minutes. He’s serious, my inner-wolf reminded me over and over, and it was a struggle not to
run to him. But dammit, I’d had enough. Since I had been bitten, he had been acting like a complete jackass. But the worst part about it was that this new attitude was making my body sing. The way he looked at me with those wide eyes, the tone of authority in his voice … it spoke to me in a whole new way.
I wanted to walk away, and turn my back on him but I couldn’t. His glare pinned me to the floor. My knees were shaking, my hands started to tremble, and damn him, but he grinned as if he had just won a battle. He paced toward me, never once looking away from my eyes, and he leaned in so close that I felt his warm breath push against my lips as he whispered, “Do you know what the penalty is for defying your alpha?” I shook my head, just a small side-to-side bob. My mouth and throat were too dry to answer. He chuckled softly. “Death, Jade.”
He locked his hand around my wrist. The touch of his hand on my skin sent a rush of sparks and chills through me, and he pulled me to his car. And I hated myself for following along like an obedient little dog.
~ AIDAN ~
Jade locked me out of the house.
She didn’t say a word to me as I drove her home, and she even smiled that sweet smile she used to give me before she knew who I was, when we got out of the car. I figured she was coming around. I thought that my little threat had done the trick. For half a second, I was sure she was going to fall in line and accept me as her alpha. But clearly, I was wrong.
I didn’t have time for this crap. Not with the werecougars and the constant issues with the pack. Not to mention the fact that if she didn’t submit soon, I was sure we’d have more than one pack running around town. Jade was putting out more signals of her dominance than I was able to mask, and I was pretty sure that she didn’t even know she was doing it.
All through our classes, I had rolled Dominic’s words around in my mind, but the problem with his solution was that I just couldn’t submit to her until she was officially my mate. She needed to claim her place in the alpha pair first and be recognized as my equal. I might not have been able to submit to her, like he had suggested, but I had figured out a loophole. A small gap in the laws that allowed me to take her under my guidance even as a challenging female, and what did she do? She locked me out of the damn house!