“I asked you to stay away from her,” he said through clenched teeth.
“And I told you that wasn’t your call to make.” I tried to hide the amusement from my voice, but it leaked out, completely unintentionally. Seriously, for a guy that didn’t even like women, he sure acted like a crazy jealous person.
He stiffened, every muscle in his body tensed, and he glared at me. “She’s not going to join the pack.”
I offered up a smile. “I never said I wanted her to.”
The smile worked … a little. Dominic sat down in the desk chair and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Then what are you doing with her?”
Now that was the question, wasn’t it? What was I doing with her? I didn’t even know. I hadn’t meant to go to her. I hadn’t even realized it was her scent that I was following, but once I was there … I just didn’t want to leave. No, that wasn’t entirely true. I wanted to leave, but my inner-wolf had wanted something different. She was born to be an alpha. She had the strength. She had the compassion. She could make me tremble with a single look. Jade had it all, or she would, if she was one of us. And I’d have her.
The sudden and completely unexpected realization made my stomach squirm in a nervous, happy kind of way. I could almost picture her standing beside me, not a step behind. I knew from the way the other females treated me they would always be hiding in my shadows. But Jade …
I shook off the thought, or rather my inner-wolf’s elated dream, and instead of telling Dominic all of that, I said, “You know, I hate to point it out, because this whole thing is actually quite entertaining to watch, but haven’t you considered what could happen if you keep telling me to stay away from her? It’s like she was just a girl, and now she’s forbidden fruit. You are making her so much more intriguing.” He shot me a foul look and I chuckled. “Oh, and not to state the obvious, but I didn’t even speak to her.”
“We only have one black wolf in the pack,” Dominic snapped, but then he chuckled, and a mischievous grin began to pull at his lips. “You think I’m worried about her safety, but really, I’m not. Jade can take care of herself. It’s you I’m looking out for here. She’d tear you apart if she knew who you were.”
I laughed and rolled my eyes. “A bit dramatic, don’t you think? She’s just a girl,” I said, except I kind of believed that it wasn’t all that dramatic.
Right then, my phone rang, a loud shrill, and the sound felt like doom. Okay, maybe not doom exactly, but definitely one step closer to it. And by the way Dominic was watching it vibrate across the nightstand, I figured he was thinking close to the same thing.
“You going to answer it?” he asked, without lifting his gaze from the phone.
I reached over and snagged it up, tapping the flashing call button, and then held it to my ear. “What’s the verdict?”
“You’ve got to come down here,” Joe said in a rush, panting as if he had been running and was completely out of breath. “Erika’s lost it.”
My jaw clenched, and I gripped the phone a bit tighter. “Against the rules, man. I can’t interfere.” This was the part I hated the most about the games. Alpha males were not allowed to attend the challenges. It was supposed to stop distractions, and provide each female with a fair playing ground.
“Aidan, she’s going to kill Becca,” Joe said. “Get down here.”
My gut twisted. Dammit! I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this. I took a deep breath and said, “I can’t. They knew the risks. If Becca won’t submit …”
“Becca already submitted,” Joe snapped, cutting me off. “She submitted five minutes ago.”
“Where?” I asked, jumping off the bed and snagging my keys. I mouthed, ‘Let’s go,’ to Dominic and threw the door open. According to pack law, fighting to the death was fine if neither of them would give up. But killing after submission was punishable by death.
“The park, and hurry up,” Joe said, clearly flustered. I could hear shouting in the background, tinted with panic. “She’s already bit a few of us that have tried to step in.”
“I’ll be there soon,” I said and hung up.
Dominic was already in the car when I jumped in and started it up. I threw it in reverse, and the tires squealed. My muscles were so tight they burned.
“What going on?” Dominic asked, as I shifted gears and spun onto the road.
“Erika’s trying to kill Becca. Where the hell is the park?”
It was a tense and silent drive to the park. I was actually a bit stunned that Dominic didn’t have anything to say. He always seemed to have something on the tip of his tongue. He listened as I told him the little bits Joe had said, which took less than a minute, and then he sat there staring out the window with a locked jaw.
It took four and a half minutes to drive across town and reach the park. I figured that was one of the pluses to living in a small nowhere town, but it still felt like a long drive. As soon as I parked, Dominic was out of the car and running toward the crowd that was gathered in the center of what looked like a soccer field. The sky was clear and the moon, extra-bright, was casting the ground in a dull silvery light. I took a deep breath and emerged from my car, letting the door slam, and I started over.
The field was set back in an alcove. On three sides, tall pines hid most of the view from the rest of the park. If the parking lot hadn’t been directly in front of it, I wouldn’t have even noticed it. Raised bleachers outlined the playing area, and a walkway skirted the open end.
Dominic was already pushing everyone back as I approached, opening up the circle of onlookers. With a quick scan, I was relieved to see that they were all part of the pack, and for half a second, my focus settled on the head of the enforcers. Jared stood just outside the crowd, watching. He smirked at me, and my blood boiled. “You couldn’t have dealt with this?” I snarled.
“Not my job to keep the peace, alpha,” he said with laughter in his voice. “I only deal with those who have broken pack law, and that hasn’t happened here, yet.”
I gritted my teeth, focusing back on the crowd. I had never liked the enforcers in my father’s pack, and the ones here were no different. Always waiting on the sidelines to deliver punishment, but never stepping in.
And then my eyes landed on Erika.
She was in wolf form, her white coat speckled with blood. She was snarling, circling around a gray wolf that lay motionless on the ground. The wolf was still breathing; I could just see the slight rise and fall of its stomach. Erika stalked toward her, growling, low and menacing.
“Enough!” I shouted, closing the last few steps to tower over her.
Erika swung her head, fixing her eyes on me. She let out another growl, baring her teeth. A rush of raw adrenaline coursed through my veins and my skin prickled. I pulled off my shirt and pants and tossed them aside as my bones started to break, reshaping, and changing. It was a rush, hot and cold. Spine-tingling and thrilling. A hot chill slithered over me and my body shifted, forming into a black wolf.
I growled, and snapped out at her. My fur bristled along my spine, and I curled my lips, exposing the full length of my canines. Erika backed up a step, her eyes darting between Becca and me. Blood dripped from her muzzle and she snarled again, savagely.
I held her eyes and stalked toward her, a low growl rumbling from my throat. I gathered my scent, letting it trickle through my imprint, and into the air. It was as if she just realized who I was because a flash of panic suddenly flitted across her eyes. For a second, she looked as if she was going to bolt, but then she dropped to her stomach, shimmied across the ground until she was at my feet, and began to lick my chin.
I snapped at her to stop, and she whimpered, rolling onto her back, exposing her vulnerable neck and belly to me. I looked down at her for a moment, disgusted, and then I turned from her, and let my body reform to human.
As soon as I stood up, Dominic handed me my jeans, and I tugged them on. The crowd was silent, still as marble, watching to see what I would do. I dug my keys out of my pocket and tossed them to Dominic. He snatched them out of the air. “Get Becca out of here.”
“What about her?” he asked, nodding toward Erika who was still on her back, whimpering softly.
I looked back at Erika and gritted my teeth. I could have her locked up, but it wouldn’t hold. Technically, she hadn’t done anything wrong, yet. Becca was hurt, but she was breathing. The enforcers would let her walk no matter what I said. If I hadn’t stepped in … I gave my head a shake, banishing the thought. If I hadn’t stepped in, I would have lost both of them.
“Let her go,” I said, more than a little reluctantly. I heard Jared chuckle, and I didn’t doubt for a second that he’d been hoping I’d slip up and make a stupid call. The enforcers were the only ones who had the authority to deal with reckless or unfair alphas, and they were the only ones who wouldn’t be punished for standing up to me. “She hasn’t broken any laws.”
I glared at Jared for a moment, and his dark, laughing eyes held mine. He smirked at me, and then gave me a nod that looked something like approval. I knew what he was doing. Testing me. He was trying to decide if I would abuse my rank, and whether I needed to be under constant watch. I figured I passed the test, though, because he turned his back on me and walked away.
I scooped up my shirt, and as I tugged it over my head, I heard someone say, “Shit, Jade. We need to go.”
CHAPTER 13
~ JADE ~
Marcy was worked up. So worked up, that as she spoke, I had absolutely no clue what she was saying. She was speaking in half sentences, starting the thought in her head and only giving me bits and pieces, and then jumping from one topic to the next so quickly that I was completely lost. The gist was that I had pissed off the pack … again, which really wasn’t a new thing. I tended to piss them off a lot. Not that I meant to, it just kind of happened. I’ve always liked to believe that it was because Erika couldn’t deal with the fact that Dominic and I had a past, although I couldn’t swear on that, because really, it wasn’t just Erika that I seemed to piss off.