“Very bad.” Jesse ran his fingers up and down her spine. “I think people thought that she’d miraculously get better after you left.” He snorted. “If she wasn’t high, she was shit-faced. Sometimes she’d disappear for weeks. When that first started, everyone would panic and the pack would send out a search party. By the end, they didn’t bat an eyelid about it. That was why no one was alarmed when she went missing the last time. I probably wouldn’t have been either except so many other shifters were disappearing.”
“You tried to help her,” she reminded him. “We both did. She didn’t want that help.”
“I should have been grieving at the memorial. I just kept thinking of how selfish she’d been for dedicating years to killing herself. That’s what it was, Harley. A slow, drawn-out, drama-filled suicide. It didn’t even work. She died at the hands of extremists.” He sighed. “I tried to tell her so many fucking times that I didn’t blame her for . . .”
“For Torrie’s death,” she finished.
“But Mia wouldn’t hear it.”
“Because she blamed herself.”
“Losing her best friend should have made her appreciate life.”
Not if they were so close that Torrie had been her rock. Mia hadn’t been strong. “How long had she and Torrie known each other?”
He was quiet for a long moment. “I told you our pack has tangled with the extremists before, right?”
Harley blinked. Apparently he didn’t want to talk about Torrie. She might have pushed him for a little info if he weren’t already feeling so down. “Yes.”
“It was because of the hunting preserve where Mia was taken. We helped shut it down. The extremists behind its creation followed us to Phoenix Pack territory. Then both packs destroyed them. There were two leaders—one was actually a shifter. Zander, Bracken, and me . . . we killed him. It wasn’t a quick or easy death. It was long and painful. You should know that. You should know that I’m capable of that.”
“You think you’re scaring me?”
“You haven’t been in the shifter world for a long time. There’s a lot of violence in it.”
“There’s a lot of violence in the human world too.” A saddening amount. “You’re staring again.”
His hand clenched in her hair. “I won’t let them have you.”
She knew he meant the extremists. “Neither will I.”
Using his grip on her hair, he tugged her close and kissed her. “You wear my scent now.” He didn’t bother keeping his satisfaction out of his voice.
It was about damn time he addressed that, she thought. “Yes. And you wear mine. Why didn’t you mention it earlier?”
“I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about imprinting starting without your claim. You didn’t think it would, did you?”
“No,” she admitted.
He grinned. “I did.”
“Smug bastard.”
“Sore loser.” He rolled her onto her back. “I need to be in you again.” Needing to be buried deep in his favorite place where there was only her, where nothing and no one else mattered. So when she wrapped her legs around him, he thrust hard.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The next day, as they drove through a set of high security gates toward a huge three-story mansion, Jesse whistled. Having kept tabs on Harley, he’d already known she’d lived here for many years with her aunt. But it was one thing to know intellectually that she lived in comfort and a whole other thing to see it for himself. It brought home what standard of living she was accustomed to, and it made Nat’s comments seem not so petty.
“Tess lived here with her ex-husband until they were divorced, right?”
Harley smiled. “Your level of ‘well informed’ continues to astonish me. Yes, they were divorced about a year before Tess brought me here.”
“Big place for one person.”
“Yep, but she loves it. That was why her ex didn’t fight her on keeping it. It was a fairly amicable split. As Tess says, they just drifted apart until they were more like friends who slept together. There was no bitterness on either side, and they’ve even remained friends.” As they parked the rental car next to her aunt’s Porsche, Harley turned to him. “Now, listen. Tess is kooky and full of what some people find an annoying amount of energy, but she’s also the sweetest person ever with a huge heart, so be nice to her.”
“I’m always nice.”
Harley snorted and hopped out of the car. The front door opened as they neared, and there was an immaculately groomed Tess—her blonde hair curled perfectly, her designer clothes tailor-made to fit, and her makeup completely flawless.
“Harley, I’ve missed you!” She wrapped her arms around Harley, rocking her gently from side to side. “You look so well.” Pulling back, she turned to Jesse with her smile still in place. Her aunt was nothing if not gracious. “You must be Jesse.”
He gave her a respectful nod. “And you must be Tess.” He wasn’t really very sociable with outsiders, but he’d make an effort with this female because she was important to his mate.
She gently elbowed Harley. “His eyes are a little vacant, but I like his voice. And he’s very cute. No, not cute. That’s not a manly enough word. But I wouldn’t kick him out of bed, that’s for sure.”