Luken threw up his hands and backed up a step. “I didn’t mean any offence. It’s just her scent,” he said. “It’s uncertain. Uneasy.”
I chuckled, my anger dissolving. “It’s because we’re naked,” I said, and smirked back at Jade. “You really have to get over that, sweetheart.”
Jade gave me an adorable dirty look, before forcing a smile on Luken. “Sorry, still not used to all of this.” She sighed and hugged her arms around her waist, shifting her weight to her right foot. “Bring the dead back to the headquarters.” She moved her gaze to my face, and blushed a little more. “I want to give them back to my dad, but I don’t want my mom there when we do it.”
I gave her a little smile. “Sounds like a plan, sweetheart.”
CHAPTER 8
~ JADE ~
“This is a waste of time, Aidan,” I said, and swallowed down the rusty taste of guilt that gathered in my mouth. I pulled in a deep breath and shut my eyes for a second. That shivery, breakable feeling filled my chest again. I wasn’t one-hundred percent sure exactly where the horrid feeling was stemming from, because, well, Aidan wasn’t entirely wrong, but I felt it nonetheless.
The feeling first crept in last night, or I guess technically it was this morning, right after we’d left the pack to deal with the dead cougars. While I’d cleaned out the deep gouges that the cougar had left in his shoulder and watched as it healed, Aidan explained why he didn’t want me to call Beck, which was basically that they should have been there to start with. He then told me he was exhausted, walked me to bed, pulled me into his arms, and promptly went back to sleep. Surprisingly enough, I fell asleep with him. I didn’t know what to make of that, but I thought that it probably had something to do with the fact that I was emotionally tapped out and couldn’t bring myself to feel anything about the attack one way or another.
When he woke me up for the second time this morning, he’d been all business, laying out exactly how he felt about the team. He’d explained again why we hadn’t called them about the little cougar hiccup that had happened on our front deck last night. I tried to reason with him, telling him that the guys were probably sleeping when Luken had tried them the first time, but Aidan had managed to poke holes in that logic. They were werewolves. They had awesome hearing. The phone ringing would have woken them up. When I tried to say that maybe they’d turned off their phones or at least turned off the ringers, I only managed to make matters worse for the guys. The enforcers always needed to be reachable, so turning off their phones was just as bad as not answering the call.
And not answering the call last night had made Aidan’s doubt grow. He needed to be sure about them. Sure that they were loyal. So I’d listened to him, and argued my points, but in the end, he stood firm and I’d relented, agreeing that the meeting was probably a good idea.
Aidan took my hand in his and threaded our fingers together. “We’ve been over this, Jade,” he said, sounding more than a little exasperated. “We’re just going to talk to them.” He tugged on my hand, pulling me with him as he started across the parking lot.
Dragging my heels, I followed, dreading every single step we took closer to the doors. Talk to them was code for deciding whether or not the team still had a future within the pack. Okay, maybe that wasn’t entirely right. They would always have a place here in Dog Mountain with the pack, just maybe not as enforcers.
I hadn’t told Aidan outright, but there was a chance (a teeny, tiny chance) that his concerns were valid. Even though, in the end, the guys had stepped up and done the right thing, they’d also played us. They’d helped Jared. They’d wanted revenge. And if it weren’t for the fact that they’d found out that Jared had known where the cougars were, I was pretty sure they would have helped him further, or at least continued to turn a blind eye to what he’d been doing. And yeah, it really didn’t look good that they’d been called last night and had been unreachable. So I completely got where Aidan was coming from on this issue.
But still, they’d turned over their brother. Their own flesh and blood. Even though they knew that he would die for his crimes against the pack.
The sun was bright this morning, almost too bright, after the dreary day yesterday. The parking lot shimmered, still wet from the storm. In some places the rain had frozen, leaving a slippery ultra-thin layer of ice on the concrete.
I glanced up at him, squinting against the glare. “Aidan,” I said, and paused, waiting a beat, before asking, “Why are you pushing this? They’ve proven their loyalty to you — to us. What’s talking to them going to change?”
Aidan gave me a long, serious look. “I need to be sure. There’s too much at stake here. We can’t move on your dad without knowing if they’ll turn on us again.” He paused and let out a slow breath. “I can’t trust your judgment when it comes to them, Jade. You care about them too much and you’ve been wrong about them before.”
His comment stung for a moment. Neither of us would say it out loud, but the whole trust thing was still a raw issue between us. He must have noticed my small wince because right then I caught a sliver of regret that seeped into his expression. The sliver grew, quickly turning into deep, pained lines that spread like vines from the corners of his eyes, and I knew, just knew that he wasn’t trying to hurt me with his words.
Those lines were getting deeper each time they appeared and seeing them hurt my heart. I knew he was blaming himself for not noticing what Jared had been up to, for not stopping it before it ended in death. He hated himself for taking someone else from the guys, and he figured that if he hated himself, then they must hate him, too. He told me as much in the shower this morning, just before shutting the topic down and refusing to talk about it.
“They don’t blame you,” I murmured, and pulled him to a stop just outside the door of the diner. I stepped in front of him, searching his eyes, but they gave nothing away other than the regret.
Aidan watched me with an intense focus. He’d opted for jeans and a blue and gray striped button-down shirt that he’d left un-tucked. His hair was in its usually carefree mess, and he’d left a day’s growth of stubble shadowing his jawline.
“Maybe not,” he said with a calm remoteness. “But they hid their blame once and I’m not going to risk it again.”
I nodded, a few fast bobs of my head, not trusting my voice. His detachment, the way he closed me off, hiding everything behind that calm mask felt like a physical slap, and the intensity of his stare made me wonder if it wasn’t just the guys he was worrying about. “I don’t …” I started and then stopped, clearing the prickly lump from my throat. “I don’t blame you either.” It came out hoarse and whisper-quiet. God, my emotions were going haywire. They had been all over the place since I woke up, and it was driving me batty. His coolness wasn’t a personal attack. Logically, I knew that. He was dealing with his own demons, but no matter how much my head knew that, my heart didn’t want to believe it.
A sad smile played at the corners of his mouth. There was something else in his gaze that I couldn’t even begin to understand as he tugged on my hand, pulling me against him. He coiled his arms around me and I tucked my head in the crook of his neck, breathing in the clean scent of soap and his crisp, sweet aroma of greens, as he pressed a kiss on the top of my head. “I love you, Jade.”
“I love you, too,” I said. I lifted my head and placed a light kiss on his neck, swallowing down the breakable feeling that was gathering again. His skin felt like velvet against my lips, and although I wanted to stay put, I forced myself out of his arms. If he needed to be sure that the guys were behind him, then I’d give him that. I had to give him that even if it was tearing me up to do it. I leaned in and pecked him lightly on the cheek, avoiding his arms as he tried to capture me again, and pushed the door open with a confidence that I really didn’t feel.
Inside, the diner was busy, just as I’d hoped. I’d figured the public place would help keep everyone’s tempers in check. The place looked warm and inviting with large leather
covered booths and bright lights. The waitress hustled about, and the room was alive with the early breakfast rush chatter.
The waitress greeted us with a bright smile as she rushed forward. She ushered us to a secluded booth in the back corner, chattering away about the day’s specials. She was a couple years older than me, and for the life of me, I couldn’t remember her name. Connie … Corinne … something like that. She blushed a lot as she spoke, and brushed up against Aidan even more as we made our way through the restaurant.
When we reached our table, the team was already there, looking deadly and gorgeous. But in spite of them looking amazing, there was something dark and lethal in their eyes. I saw it the moment Aidan sat down and it made my stomach sink a little.
As soon as we were seated, the waitress filled up our water glasses and took our drink orders, oblivious to the silent tension shifting around our table. She smiled, a cheery and more than a little excited smile, and then she rushed off to fill our orders.
“Where’s Tommy and Chris?” Aidan asked. His tone was cool, so was his body language, and I nudged him in the ribs, hoping he’d chill out.
“Don’t know,” Craig said. He smiled, a forced smile. He was breathing hard, his nostrils flaring. I thought he was probably trying to pick up the scent of our emotions, and when his eyes fell on me, they frosted over, and his jaw clenched tight.
And it hurt. The team, not a single one of them, looked at me like that. It was as if Craig knew I was about to betray them. I was pretty sure that they all knew. I snagged up a menu, seriously not liking his scrutiny.
Aidan didn’t comment on the don’t know answer, but I felt him stiffen beside me. He dug out his phone and fired off a quick text, before placing it on the table.
I kept quiet for a moment, waiting for someone to speak up, but no one did. The tension at our table was building so high that I could barely concentrate on the menu in front of me.
“I’m starving.” My voice was overly bright and cheery, and I cringed on the inside hearing it. If my cluttered scent hadn’t given away my guilt, I was certain that my voice had. “I think I’m going to get …”
Landon reached across the table, pushing the menu I was hiding behind, down. “You talk to your dad yet?” he asked, eyeing me curiously. His lips curved in a weary smile as he glanced at Aidan and took in my mate’s stressed-out vibes.
I shook my head, trying to bring his attention back to me. “No, not yet. We thought …”
“Jade,” Aidan said in warning, stopping me short. His hand went to my thigh, squeezing a little, and I bit my tongue.
The guys sat up a bit straighter, watching us. There was a bit of confusion in their gazes, as if they weren’t entirely sure why Aidan was cutting me off, but I could also see that they weren’t entirely surprised by it either.
“We’re not here to discuss how to get those kids out, are we?” Beck asked through his teeth. “What’s this about?” His blue eyes clouded with a layer of palpable pain and his lips were tight as he spoke.
Aidan leaned back in the booth and stretched his arm behind me along the top, letting his hand hang down to graze against my shoulder. His fingertips traced lazy lines, back and forth along the side of my neck as he said, “Nope. I’m giving you a chance to convince me that she’s right about you guys.”
“Aidan,” I hissed, elbowing him again. That was definitely harsher than necessary. That shivery guilt made another appearance and I pulled in a deep breath, trying to tamp it down.
“Jade, don’t,” Aidan said softly, before I could say anything else. “It’s better this way. Blunt and open. We all need to be on the same page here if this is going to work.”
There was a breath of silence and I found myself under the scrutiny of four sets of eyes, and then, after a crazy long minute, Landon finally chuckled. “Haven’t you learned anything in the last few days?” he asked with a wide, carefree kind of grin aimed at Aidan. “Jade’s always right, even when she’s wrong.”
I rolled my eyes at him, and snorted out a strained laugh. “I’m never wrong.”
That earned me a round of chuckles and I pursed my lips, waiting for their laughter to stop. When it did, I opened my mouth and closed it without saying anything, because the waitress scurried over with a tray full of orange juice and coffee. She took her sweet time placing the drinks on the table, casting flirty, mega-watt smiles as she did it. She took our food orders just as slowly, and then, with another round of bright smiles, she finally left.
I poured three big spoons full of sugar into my coffee and stirred, letting my spoon clink against the mug. “Guys, what Aidan was trying to say is that we were thinking maybe we should disband the team and build a new one. One that doesn’t have blood ties to each other or the last alpha.”
“Some of us might have wanted to see you crash and burn,” Beck said to Aidan, as if he were the one who had spoken. He reached for a creamer, opened it, and dumped it into his coffee. “But we’re loyal to the pack. You know that. We’ve proven that to you.”
Aidan nodded. “Yeah, you have. But you’ve also proven that you can be swayed, and I can’t risk that happening again.”
Landon lifted his shoulders in a lazy shrug. “Do what you need to do, man,” he said. “We won’t fight it.”
“That’s it?” Aidan asked. He sounded surprised, and honestly I didn’t know why. They weren’t the talk about your feelings type. Honestly, I was just happy it was going better than I thought it would. No one was yelling or growling. Eyes weren’t flaring and I didn’t see any skin shudders. They might have looked pissed off, but at least they were keeping their inner-wolves in check.
Craig slammed his coffee cup down, the contents sloshing up over the side. “Did you expect us to beg?”
There goes staying calm, I thought more than a little bitterly. I glanced around quickly, hoping no one noticed the rise in Craig’s voice, and was glad to find no eyes staring in our direction.
Mark swore softly and cut his brother a look that clearly said, shut up. Craig saw it. He merely lifted his shoulders in a shrug and took a gulp of water.
“No, I didn’t.” Aidan sighed. “She sees something good in you guys. I’m just trying to see it, too.”
“Aidan,” I snapped, and I cut him a dirty look. “You’re not making this easy.”
“Don’t think there’s a way to make this easy,” said Mark. He reached across the table, taking my hand, and gave it a little squeeze. He held his gaze steady on mine. “What do you think about all this?”
That was a good question, and I didn’t answer right away, taking a minute to gather my own thoughts. When I spoke, I kept my voice at a whisper, making sure no one would overhear. “I think that we’re having a service for your brother tonight and that your head might not be in the right place.”
Mark held my gaze for a moment before nodding and letting go of my hand. “Fair enough.”
“Fair enough?” Craig snarled. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” He turned his glare onto Aidan, tiny flares of gold spread through his eyes. “Haven’t you taken enough from us? My dad, my brother, my girl. Now you want to take away the team, too.”
“Craig, no one is taking anything away,” I murmured. “We just …”
“Save it, Jade,” he growled. “Save your damn sympathy for someone who actually wants it.”
Aidan’s scent suddenly flared and his fingers stopped their lazy trail on my neck. His body stiffened. I glanced up at him and opened my mouth, ready to tell him to chill out, but the words died on my tongue.
His eyes were starting to change. Little speckles of gold dotted the soft brown. But he wasn’t looking at Craig. He was staring at the entrance of the diner. His face was rock hard, his jaw clenching and unclenching. He moved in his seat slightly, his chest pressing against my shoulder, and I felt the vibration of his soft growl before I heard it.
He nudged me and jerked his chin, signaling me to let him out of the booth. The guys were already standing, the
ir focus fixed on the doors as they swung open.
CHAPTER 9
~ AIDAN ~
“What’s wrong with you guys?” Jade asked. She was looking at me and the team as if we’d all lost our minds. “Sit down. You’re going to make a …” Her voice trailed off as she sucked in a long, slow breath. Her upper lip started to curl up into a snarl, and her gaze snapped to the door as it banged shut.
“Let me out, sweetheart,” I said roughly. I didn’t want to push her out of the way, but damn, I would if I had to. I wasn’t going to let them anywhere near her. My inner-wolf clawed at my chest, anxious and unnerved. Low growls erupted from the guys as they started to move from our table toward the door.
“You’re not going anywhere,” she hissed, pushing against my chest. “Sit down, guys.” She didn’t take the chance that they wouldn’t listen to her and used the full force of her new scent to bring their focus back to her. When she had their full attention, she placed her hands on the table, fingers splayed wide, and said, “Sit.” Her tone was all command.
The guys didn’t waste a second in obeying her. They slid back into the booth quickly, taking their seats, but their gazes never left the doorway.
No one in the restaurant seemed to notice the soft growls that rumbled around our table. Utensils continued to clank against plates. Mugs slapped against tables. People chatted. Just like any other morning at the diner. They didn’t have a clue about the threat.
I glanced back at the entrance. The two men had stopped just inside the doorway. Both of them were in their late thirties, clean shaven, and dressed in jeans and bright orange hunting jackets. One was tall, gangly looking and the other, shorter and stubby. Their gazes drifted over the busy restaurant before coming to a rest at our table.
The tall one pulled out a cell phone, thumbed the screen, and brought it to his ear. He kept his eyes on us the entire time. His lips moved, but I couldn’t make out anything other than the vague tone of his voice over the clatter from the other patrons.