“Were you planning on telling me?” I growled, settling my glare back on the enforcer.
He raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “Just did.”
“How many?” I demanded. My imprint started to heat up, and my scent rolled off me like a tidal wave. I gripped the armrests of the chair, feeling the plastic snap within my hands. If Beck wanted to push me, I’d push back.
He winced, and he let out a mix between a growl and whimper, before he said with a slight tremble in his voice, “Two. Jeff is trying to stall things so you can claim your mate. He says that’s why he took the mission to bring in the women they want. With them dead, we’ve got time.”
“Beck, you’re a heartless bastard,” Marcy shrieked. Her face was tearstained and her shoulders were shaking. She pushed out of Dominic’s arms and stomped over to him, balled her tiny fist, and swung at him.
Beck caught her fist easily, closing his hand around it, and his eyes flared. “Maybe, but it is my job to kill people.” He squeezed her hand, and Marcy yelped, and tried to tug out of his grip. “You’ve been claimed,” he said to Marcy, letting his voice drop to a growl. “You’re part of this pack now. Learn the rules. I’m not going to warn you again.”
“Let her go, Beck,” I said, and scrubbed at my face, in an attempt to cover up my simmering rage. Things just weren’t adding up. No one seemed to know why Ray would have made a deal with the cougars. There was something missing; I was sure of it. I just couldn’t figure out what it was. What could Bruce offer that Ray wanted?
Beck cut me a look and let Marcy go. She jumped back from him a few steps as he dropped his feet from the table. A yellow ring glowed around his blue eyes, and his jaw twitched with tension. He growled, letting his inner-wolf come out in his voice. He flexed his hands, balling and un-balling them, as he glared at me with a silent challenge. “Tone the scent down, alpha,” he said. “The enforcers are behind you now, but that can change.”
I laughed, a cruel kind of laugh, that didn’t sound right coming from me. I pushed my chair back and as I did, Dominic skirted around my desk, and leaned on it, blocking my view of Beck. “Has your team picked up anything?” he asked with an edge. He shot me a quick pleading look, and I reluctantly pulled the scent back … a little.
“Not yet but we will,” Beck said tightly, and I smiled, more than a little glad that I was affecting him so much. “And now that we don’t have to worry about the humans, we can clean them out when we find them.”
A sick feeling rushed over me as I listened to the enforcer. I didn’t want to admit it, but he had a point, and I actually agreed with him. Without any humans left to worry about, we had time to track them down. We could watch them. Figure out their weaknesses. It would give us more of an edge against them. And with Jeff stalling and feeding us information, we could hit them and clear them out in one shot. I hated to admit it, but overall, the deaths would make everything … easier.
The tension slowly started to break, and fizzled away as I pulled back the last of my scent. Dominic’s rigid shoulders sagged, and he let out a loud puff of a breath. “I think we’ve freaked her out enough,” he said, turning back to me.
“Yeah, probably,” I agreed. “You sure you guys want to do this?”
Marcy was all splotchy, but her tears had dried up, and she gave me what I thought was supposed to be a reassuring smile. “Jade will forgive us later. She always does. Besides, Jade is an act first ask second kind of person. If she thinks she’s losing you, she’ll finish this off.”
“You’re really going to tell her you’re taking Tiff as your mate?” Beck asked, leaning back in his chair, the smug and cocky smile back on his face.
“Yep, that’s the plan,” I said, pulling myself up to my feet. My legs felt like they were tied down as I made my way over to the door. I still wasn’t sure that Dominic and Marcy were right about this little idea, but everything I tried had failed epically, and I was out of options. I just hoped Jade didn’t try to kill me after I told her.
“You’ve got guts,” Beck said and chuckled. “That girl has bite to her.”
I glared at Beck hard. His commentary was not helping, and he damn well knew it. He grinned and got up, joining me at the door. I took a deep steadying breath and then stoned my expression, forging cold remoteness into my body, and I pulled the door open.
As soon as I opened it, I froze. Jared had Jade on his lap, his face buried in her neck. And Jade … Jade was giggling. Her hands were on his bare chest, and her head was tilting to the side, as if she was trying to give him better access.
My inner-wolf went wild, clawing at my stomach, and tearing at my heart. Raw heat pulsed through me, and my chest started to hurt. A cold sweat broke out on my back, and the plan to tell her that I was picking someone else vanished from my mind. “Jared,” I growled. “She’s off limits. This is one rule you can’t break.”
Jared chuckled, and looked up. His golden eyes met mine, burning with a silent challenge. “I think she’s ready to give up, alpha,” he said. He took his time untangling himself from Jade, stood up slowly, and pulled her to him. “She’s free game.”
Jade looked at me a little desperately, as she tried to wiggle out of Jared’s arms. Jared leaned into her, whispering something so softly in her ear, that I couldn’t make it out, and she stopped moving. She held my eyes and as Jared spoke, something passed across her face. It was cold and hateful and vile, and her scent pulsed into the air. Jared smirked and let his arms drop from her waist, but Jade didn’t move. She kept her back pressed firmly against his chest, and his smirk turned into a wide grin.
I started toward her, slowly, carefully, wishing I knew what was going through her mind. She’d looked at me with hatred before, but it was nothing like this. I was half way across the waiting room, only about fifteen steps from her, when she snarled, “You had me competing for you. When did you plan on telling me?”
“Jade …” I said, and dammit, but my voice cracked on her name. The hatred in her eyes … it was just too much. My heart crumbled like a piece of dried bread.
“Did you think I wouldn’t find out? That I’d just … just … become an alpha, be your mate …” She was visibly shaking, and her skin flushed cherry red. Her scent burst from her wildly, hitting me with a deadly force, and I stopped instantly, unable to move. My throat closed up, as if someone cinched a rope around it, and started to choke me.
“Jade,” Marcy snapped, stepping toward her.
Jade’s eyes flared, and a shudder rushed over her skin. “Shut up, Mac,” she growled, and her canines sharpened. “Let me guess. You weren’t really in jail with Dom. You two have known all along.”
“Jade,” Dominic said, with the stern tone he always used with her, and he groaned long and loud. “You’re overreacting.”
“I think I hate you guys,” she said. There was so much heartbreak in her voice. Her invasive scent receded, and I sucked in a breath. She looked at me then; her golden eyes shimmered with what I was sure were tears. “How many more things are there, Aidan? What else have you lied to me about?”
I took a step toward her. I wanted to pull her into my arms and comfort her as she cried. She was breaking; I could see it in her shivers as her inner-wolf tried to take over, and in the small tears that slid down her cheeks. I wanted to tell her it was all going to be okay. I wanted to hold her and tell her how sorry I was, but as I moved toward her, she put her hands up, and leaned further into Jared.
He grinned over her head and snaked an arm around her waist possessively, and she let him. She didn’t wiggle or try to move out of his arm. She sagged against him a little, as if she was taking comfort in his presence. My inner-wolf stirred restlessly, and my scent ramped up.
Now was my chance to tell her everything. I knew that. I could tell her about her father. About the cougars. About the humans that died. But the only thing that came out of my mouth was, “I graduated high school last year.”
Jade stiffened and another shudder rushed over her skin. She clenched her fists and sucked in a few noisy breaths. She met me straight on, her expression an emotionless mask, and said, “I won’t fight for you, alpha.” She grabbed Jared’s wrist, pulling his arm from her waist, and she started for the door.
Jared chuckled and went after her, slinging an arm over her shoulder. She shrugged it off and turned into him, “Jared, I need space,” she said, putting a hand on his chest.
“Sure thing, little girl,” he said, and leaned into her, brushing a light kiss on her lips, and dammit, but she let him. She even smiled at him a little, before she dropped her hand and walked out the door.
I lost her. I really lost her. I deserved it. I knew that, but it didn’t make it hurt any less.
“Looks like the games are over,” Jared said, snapping me back to the room, as the door slammed behind Jade. He folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. I crossed the room, feeling oddly calm, and when I was directly in front of him, I pulled my arm back and punched him. His nose crunched and snapped under my fist. Too bad it didn’t make my shredded heart feel any less broken.
CHAPTER 30
~ JADE ~
I ran through the woods. I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to stop. My heart was pounding in my ears, and my breath was coming fast and ragged. Branches whipped at my face, and the underbrush ripped at my ankles, but I didn’t care.
The trees around me were covered in fall. Oranges and reds, deep and rich. Leaves scattered the ground, and crunched under my feet. The fall leaves used to be soothing, but right then the fiery colors only added to my rage. Betrayal hurt more than I had thought it would. It was like an icy pick jabbing and twisting into my heart. I’d watched Dominic turn his back on me before, and Marcy, well, Marcy pulled crap like this all the time, but this … this was too much. They were playing with my life. I could have been killed. Erika could have …