All of this for a stupid crush, I thought bitterly. I should have listened to Dominic from the start. I should have stayed away. Found someone else. But I walked willingly right into Aidan’s game. I had never felt as utterly stupid as I did right then.
I felt stripped to the core. And vulnerable. And stupid. Really, really stupid. Each step I took, my inner-wolf fought me. It wanted Aidan. It wanted the power. It wanted its mate. Aidan felt like … home. But that home was gone. Ruined with lies and deceit. It just sucked that my inner-wolf didn’t care about that. She wanted out. The bursts of raw adrenaline were only seconds apart now, but I fought against it. I knew with every part of me that if I shifted, I’d end up right back at his feet.
My stomach rolled, and I swallowed the bile. I felt dirty. I shouldn’t have let Jared touch me. I shouldn’t have let him kiss me, but when he had, all I could think about was hurting Aidan as much as he’d hurt me. How could he endorse women fighting over him? It was sick … twisted … What did you expect from an alpha? My heart twisted and split down the center. He was no different from the rest of the pack, using and manipulating people to get what he wanted.
My legs burned and my skin was numb from the beating of the tree branches as I ran. I didn’t want to stop, terrified that if I did, I’d run back to him. What was wrong with me? Even with the cold truth, a part of me still wanted him. He’s your perfect mate, a voice in my head whispered.
Suddenly someone grabbed my arm and yanked me to a stop. I spun and snarled viciously. My skin felt like it was on fire, and my blood was boiling. “Back off, Erika,” I snapped in a voice that did not sound like my own. It was like gravel, rough and jagged and sharp.
She jumped back, dropping her hand from my arm, and averted her eyes from mine. “I tried to see you last night,” she said softly. “The enforcers wouldn’t let me in. I’ve been worried about you.” She looked at me then and smiled a little. “I heard what happened with Aidan.”
“Leave me alone,” I growled, and turned my back on her. I needed to keep moving, keep fighting my inner-wolf from breaking free.
“Tiff’s been searching for you,” she said, as I started walking away. “She wants to end this. You need to get ready.”
Another shudder rushed over my skin, and my ankle buckled and snapped. I sucked in a breath, and waited, willing my body to relax and stay human. “Let her have that lying piece of crap,” I said, gritting my teeth against the rush of power and adrenaline, as my ankle began to piece back together. She grabbed me again, spinning me around to face her. “Erika, back the hell off!”
Her fear was thick in the air, tangy mixed with salty sweat. It was so thick that I could taste it. “She’s made a deal with your dad, Jade. I’m the first female she’s going to send to the cougars.” She was shaking, her hand trembled against my wrist, but she squeezed harder.
I forced myself to relax. She was terrified, and the urge to hug her and tell her everything was going to be fine was overwhelming. My inner-wolf calmed slightly, and I asked, “What cougars? What are you talking about?”
“Jade, please,” she begged. She dropped to her knees before me, grabbing at my jeans. “They’ll kill me. Your dad … he’s …” A gasping sob fell from her, and she jammed her hand into her pocket. “Here, just watch this.” Erika pulled her iPhone out of her pocket and tapped the screen, bringing up a video.
“So we have a deal then?” my dad’s voice crackled through the speaker, and my heart stopped. The image was fuzzy and dark, but even if I couldn’t make out the face, I knew the voice well.
“Yeah, I’ll send you some females, but why wolves?” a female asked, that I assumed was Tiffany. The image zoomed in a little, and her carrot hair came into focus, confirming my assumption. She was the only person I knew with hair like that.
“They’ll heal faster,” Dad said, his voice cold and impossibly cruel. “These humans break too easily and my boys like some fight in their women.”
“And your daughter?”
There was silence for a second and then my dad laughed. “She’s Aidan’s weakness. The boy is lovesick. Give her to one of the enforcers. We’ll use her when we’re ready, but someone might as well have a little fun with her in the meantime.”
The video stopped, and the play icon appeared in the center of the screen. My body temperature dropped to ice cold. I snatched the phone from Erika and played it again. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to understand what was being said. I’d never seen anything like this in my father before. He sounded twisted, cruel, wrong. They heal faster. My boys like some fight. Give her to one of the enforcers.
My inner-wolf stirred again, restlessly. My chest felt tight, and the adrenaline rush hit me again. “Did you show this to Aidan?” I asked harshly, trying to hide how much I was hurting. My father, Aidan, Marcy, Dominic … I couldn’t handle much more. How many more people were going to betray me? “Shouldn’t you bring this up to the enforcers or to him?” I glared down at her, trying to stay strong. I never thought for a second Erika, of all people, would come to me before her pack. Only days ago she hated me, attacked me, and changed me into a monster. She’d done everything she could since she had become a werewolf to make my life hell. She’s treating you like an alpha, Dominic’s voice clouded my brain.
“Challenging females don’t have to follow pack rules,” Erika said. “As long as they don’t kill an opponent after they’ve submitted …” she let her voice trail off for a second, and a flash of guilt passed across her face, but she shook it off fast. “Once the alpha female steps up, Aidan has no control of what happens to the rest of us. Alpha female rules the females, alpha male handles the males. The enforcers could do something, but they scare the hell out of me. I tried to show Jared, but he was all ‘get out of my face’ and he wouldn’t listen. And Aidan hates me because I’m following you.” Her voice was getting higher and higher as she spoke. She was desperate. I could see it in her eyes, and it scared me to death. “Jade, you can’t let her win. This pack is screwed up enough. I need you. We all need you. We need a strong alpha pair. You’ll stand up to him. I know you can stop this.”
My brain was spinning and my stomach rolled. I paced a few steps away from Erika. What the hell was I supposed to do? Mate with Aidan and try to fix this screwed up pack? Walk away and keep the little bit of self-decency I had left? I didn’t want to do either. I should have just stayed away from the pack! Did I want the responsibility of the females? Could I handle it? Could I actually walk away knowing what would happen to them, and leave them in the clutches of Tiffany? If I walked away now, I could leave town and never see that lying jackass again and that idea wreaked havoc on me. I couldn’t imagine not having Aidan around, even if I did want to kill him at that very moment. But if I took alpha female it’s as if I’ve condoned what he’s done.
An idea began to form, slow and a little sketchy, but it was something. Something that I thought I could live with … maybe. I turned back to Erika. “I’ve got an idea. Do you have Jared’s number?”
CHAPTER 31
~ AIDAN ~
My office felt empty. It wasn’t, but it felt it. The average sized, beige room felt huge and dull and vacant. Jared sat on the edge of my oak desk with a smug grin, and Beck stood nearby fighting back a laugh. They were playing with her, I was sure of it, just as they were toying with me, and they were enjoying every second of it. What I didn’t get was why? Why did the enforcers give a shit about Jade? And what were they getting out of ripping us apart? I couldn’t bring myself to believe that Jared actually wanted her, or that she was attracted to him. I knew it was possible; I’d seen them all over each other, but the thought of her with him, or anyone else, made me feel sick.
Jade had been gone for twenty-eight minutes and forty-two seconds. Each minute that passed by and she didn’t walk back through the door, my heart died a little more. I thought about all the lies, about the way I manipulated her, and used her, and I figured I deserved the gut wrenching pain that spread through me with every beat of my heart.
“Aidan, it’s going to be okay,” Marcy said. Except she didn’t sound too sure about it. “She’ll be back once she calms down.” She offered up a shaky looking smile, as she pulled her knees to her chest, and rocked slowly, back and forth, on the couch.
“Mac’s right. Jade always comes back,” Dominic said. It sounded like he was trying to convince himself just as much as he was trying to convince me. He paced the room restlessly, glancing at the door every few seconds. I didn’t need to ask what he was thinking; I was sure it was the same thoughts that were going through my head. There was no way to cover up that she stepped down. Too many people had heard her say it. The games were … over.
“I can track her if you want,” Beck offered. I glared at him, and gritted my teeth. He was enjoying this. Enjoying every second of watching me crumble as I lost the only thing that mattered, the only person that brought an ounce of good into this screwed up pack.
“No,” Dominic and Marcy shouted in unison, before I answered, which was probably a good thing, because I wanted to say yes.
“Dude, don’t drag her back before she’s ready,” Marcy said frantically. “If you force her to fight now, she’ll never forgive you.” She flushed and cut Jared a dirty look. “Dammit, Jared! What were you thinking?”
Jared shrugged his shoulders, in a bad attempt to look innocent. “Figured she knew what was going on. She did take down three of them.”
“You damn well know she didn’t,” Marcy snapped.
“Enough!” I yelled, glaring at Marcy. I knew she was only trying to help, but I couldn’t take the constant bickering anymore. She started to cry and hugged her legs tighter to her chest. “Mac, you should go,” I said, and scrubbed at my face roughly. “Trevor’s probably waiting for you, and Jade already stepped down. Doesn’t matter anymore. Tiffany won.”