Deadly Mates (Deadly Trilogy) (12 page)

The glad feeling didn’t last nearly long enough.  There was so much tension, I could barely breathe.  Aidan was behind me.  I could feel the heat of his glare hitting my back in waves.  I could only imagine the furious, determined glint that had to be in his eyes because honestly, I was a bit too freaked out to turn around and actually see it. 
You can do this
, I coached myself.  Too bad my little pep talk wasn’t working for me.

As we approached, heads bowed
and shoulders drooped. I gritted my teeth.  Again, I felt like something big had changed.  And I really didn’t know if I liked it.  Since when did my team show any kind of respect to the alpha?  They hadn’t with Ray and they had challenged Aidan’s every move since he took over.  I knew the show of respect wasn’t for me.  For me, they would have grinned and said something ridiculously annoying.  Whether they meant to or not, their silent show of reverence only managed to make my nerves waver.

I stopped beside the couch, wishing I could squeeze in with the guys and hide.
I was about to try it, too; I even took a step closer.

Aidan must have figured out what I wanted to do.  His hand clamped down on my shoulder, stopping me.  The profound silence that followed the gesture and the dark look from Jared twisted my stomach into pinching knots.

It was my dad who spoke up first and I couldn’t stop myself from cringing at his question.  “Is what Dominic told me true, Jade?  Did you turn your back on your mate?”  The disappointment I heard in his tone pulled the knots in my belly tighter and made me want to throw-up.  My cheeks cramped, and my mouth flooded with water.  I didn’t know how he could sit there looking all heartbroken, like he actually cared.  Not with everything he’d done, was doing, and was going to do again and again until we stopped him.  I swallowed a few times, trying to bury the sick feeling.

At least his question explained Dominic’s grin and I cut my former best friend a dirty look.  He winked, clearly enjoying my discomfort.

“I did,” I whispered, dropping my head.  Aidan squeezed my shoulder, probably trying to reassure me, but it didn’t help.  I pulled in a breath.  “I was scared.  I’m still scared.”

“Do you understand that he could have you
killed for this?”  Again, the disappointment.  Again, the heartbreak.  Bile rose in my throat again and I swallowed it down.

“At the time, no, I didn’t,” I said, shaking my head from side to side.  “I thought I actually had to go through the mating process to break that law.”

Dad sighed and said, “As soon as you won the games, your mate was chosen, pumpkin.  The alpha male and female always mate.  It’s what makes the alpha pair such a strong force.  The combination of your scents mixed with your imprints, it would give you both complete authority over your wolves, being able to draw on each other’s scents or use them both together ...”  He sighed again, long and loud.  “A mated alpha pair is the strength behind any pack.”

I blinked.  I hadn’t really thought much about the whole
scent merging thing.  Really, I had kind of figured that the purpose was solely to ward off other wolves, like a
mate nearby
warning function.  But hearing it all put so bluntly, well, it made me feel a little sick.  I knew love wasn’t supposed to have anything to do with it.  Erika had told me as much when I’d stepped down from the games.  The alpha pair was never supposed to be about love.  Call me crazy, but I still thought love should be a factor.  It was the reason why I won in the end.  I figured there was something to be said for that.  Love had given me strength when I needed it.  I had killed for Aidan, and I would do it again.  But in the pack’s eyes, it was about strength and dominance and leadership.  And with our scents merged, working together …
Oh God, I think I really am in love with Aidan.

I blinked again,
and shook myself a little.  I sucked in a breath, and another.  I needed to stay focused.  I quickly shrugged off Aidan’s hand from my shoulder, stepping over to my dad.  I crumbled to my knees in front of him.

“I’m scared, Daddy.  I’m not ready for this.  Any of it.  I’m only eighteen.”  My voice held a high squeal of terror and I held onto that feeling as I launched into the story.  I told him how I
had stepped down, walked away before the games even ended.  I explained that when Tiffany had won by default, she’d told Erika that she’d made a deal with Bruce, and that Tiffany had promised Erika would be the first to go to the cougars, all the while dodging around the video that condemned him.  It was Aidan’s idea.  He had wanted to see Dad’s reaction, see if we would get anything out of him, but to my dad’s credit, he looked shocked, disgusted even, and I went with it.  I cried about killing someone, and he tried to soothe me, telling me that as a wolf and as an alpha it was expected and probably wouldn’t be the last time I would have to kill to defend my pack.

When I finally finished, tears were streaking down my cheeks.  Dad brushed them away with his thumb before his gaze shifted to Aidan.  He was in full dipl
omat mode now.  A side of him I’d seen from time to time when Ray had come pounding on our door, usually in the middle of the night, waking the entire house.  “Are you going to officially bring her in front of the enforcers for this?”

Aidan didn’t answer for a long moment.  He took his time, looking the team over.  To my surprise, Beck actually looked a bit misty.  His eyes were fixed on me
, and Tommy and Chris had their hands planted on his shoulders as if they were holding him in place.  When Aidan finally looked back at my father, his expression was like stone.  “There won’t be any need.  My mate will be coming home with me today.”  A crooked smirk curved his lips and he looked over his shoulder at Jared.  “She’ll also be stepping down from her role as an enforcer.”

What?
  Okay, I hadn’t agreed to that.  There was no way I would step down, abandon my team.  I jumped up from the floor, and closed the space between us.  My emotions were running wild, and a new wave of tears brimmed in my eyes.  I grabbed Aidan’s bloodstained shirt, bunching it in my hands, and cried, “Aidan, stop this.  Please.  I’m not ready for this.  I don’t want this.  Please.”

“That’s enough, Jade.”  He took my hand, prying my fingers off his shirt.  “I’ve let you have your fun for the last few days.  It’s ending now.  Your Dad’s right, you know.  If you fight me on this, you’ll force my hand.  I’ll put you on trial if I have to and the enforcer you’ve been screwing around with will stand right there beside you.”

“I think I hate you,” I whispered.  I pulled my hands from his, letting them drop to my sides.  He held my stare for a long moment and I knew exactly what he was waiting for, what he’d told me I had to do.  And darn it, but I did it.  I bowed my head, showing my submission to the only person I was actually allowed to submit to — my mate.

I heard a few quick intakes of breath from behind me.  The significance of that bow spoke volumes to the team.  And when I shifted, presenting my vulnerable neck to Aidan, the intakes turned into loud gasps that resonated around me.

Aidan took a moment to press his nose against my throat, taking in a deep breath, showing everyone that he was accepting my submission.  As he did, his lips fluttered little kisses, sending hot shivers cascading down my back.  I figured he was trying to reassure me; with the angle we were standing at, no one would notice the kisses, but when he pulled back, his eyes still held that hard glint.  “I’m fine with the hatred,” he said coolly.  “Alpha pairs aren’t about love, sweetheart.  They never have been.”

I straightened, looking up at him.  I knew he didn’t mean it, but it hurt.  Bad.  Really, really, bad.  A hissed cry slipped out of my lips.

Suddenly Dominic was in between us.  “Dammit, Aidan,” he growled.  “You have no right to speak to her like this!”  His fists were balled, knuckles turning bluish-white.

I placed a hand on his bunched forearm.  “Dom, don’t do something you’ll regret,” I whispered.  I met his eyes for a brief moment, pleading with him to shut up.  He cocked his head to the side, understanding burned in his eyes.  His jaw clenched, his eyes blazed brighter, but he stepped back, clamping his lips shut.

I turned to my father, pulled in a deep breath, and held my head high.  “I want to stay here.  I’ve showed the alpha the respect he wanted, now please, talk some sense into him.”

But Dad only shook his head and a disgusted sneer spread across his lip
s.  His gaze morphed into an ice cold glare.  “You don’t want to go, then step down and let the games start again.  It’s the only way out of this, Jade.  Step down.  Let someone else run the pack with him and leave town.  Either way, you won’t be staying here.”

I gasped.  I didn’t mean to, but really, that wasn’t the reaction either Aidan or I had expected.  His words were like a physical punch in the gut, knocking the wind out of me, crippling me.  Where was the man I
had called Daddy, the big teddy bear that was always there for me?  Where was the man that, a few moments ago, while locked in Aidan’s arms, I had wanted to protect?  Tears streaked down my cheeks in earnest now as I searched his face for any resemblance to the man I had loved all my life, but all I saw was the monster I didn’t want to believe he was.  I backed up a step.  Something dawned on me then, my last thread holding me here, to this house, to this man.  “Where’s Mom?” I asked, looking around.  I knew there was no way she would have been able to sleep through all the commotion.  “I want to talk to Mom.”

My dad frowned and looked at me as if I were crazy.  “She’s at work, Jade, but even if she
were here you wouldn’t get a different answer.  Your mother knows pack law.  She knows how this works.”

But she hasn’t worked in days.  Why would she go back the morning her husband came home?

I glanced over my shoulder, looking at Jared.  I must have looked pretty freaked out because he offered up a smile and said, “She left around 5:30 this morning.”

A hand slipped into mine, and then another, squeezing a silent support.  I glanced from one side to the other, not missing the grim expressions marring my best friends’ faces.  “Come on, honey,” Dominic said.  “We’ll help you pack.”

~ AIDAN ~

Jade’s tears had looked real.

I dismissed the team, Tommy and Chris included, as Jade disappeared upstairs with Dominic and Marcy.  Trevor followed them.  I was sure he didn’t want to leave Marcy alone, not with the enemy so close.  Jeff rambled on, trying to make sure I wasn’t going to hurt his
baby girl
, and I tried not to think about how real her tears had felt.

A strong swell of sensations stirred within me.  It started with fury and ended somewhere near disgust.  This man, the one that claimed to love his daughter, was using her as a puppet in his sick, little game; I was sure of it.

At first, I had expected him to fight, beg for her to stay under his roof.  I had never expected him to kick her out, basically disown her, and then in his next breath, beg for her life.  None of it really made sense.  He would have more control over her if she stayed, but as he spoke, I started to understand.  He had known Jade would follow me.  He could see that we were
attached,
hell, I was sure everyone could see that, and he was simply playing into our weaknesses.  And that was when I learned something very valuable about this man.  He didn’t care who got hurt, but instead, he took pleasure in watching the pain.  He was certain that he would win the end game, and he planned on enjoying every second of the battle in between.

By the time Jade finally came downstairs with her bags, I was sure of two things.  One: I needed to know what the hell the end game was.  Two: his certainty that he would be victorious was by far his greatest weakness.

Jade didn’t say goodbye to her dad, didn’t even look at him.  She took her bags out to my car, piling them in the trunk, and then climbed in the front seat, waiting.

Jeff made me promise to take care of his baby girl.  He even went as far as to tell me not to wait any longer to make our mate status official.  It was one hell of a struggle to accept the hug he offered, and really, all I could do was nod my agreement on the not waiting thing, because I knew if I opened my mouth I would regret whatever came out.

Outside, Trevor asked me to make a call to Marcy’s school and to her father, pulling her out for the day on pack business.  He made it clear that he didn’t want her out of his sight, and honestly, I couldn’t blame him, so I did it.  Marcy’s dad hadn’t been happy about it, but in the end he hadn’t argued, which was probably a good thing because I wasn’t in the mood to deal with it.

Once that was settled, I sent them back to the pack headquarters with Dominic, asking them to call all available pack members together.  I figured it was probably better to let them see Jade and I together before the word spread about her show of submission.  Dominic hadn’t said much, only that he hoped to hell I knew what I was doing, but the truth was so did I.

Jade didn’t look at me when I finally got in the car.  Her gaze was fixed on the forest, but her eyes looked blank, as if she wasn’t really seeing anything.  I started the car.  I didn’t know what to say.  I’d never seen so much turmoil in one person before.  As I sat beside her, I didn’t know whether to pull her into my arms and let her cry or leave her alone and let her pretend that she was okay.  She needed time to process, that was for sure, but I could see that she was holding this all on her shoulders, even if it was my fault everything had gone to shit in the first place.  She was struggling to keep her tear-filled eyes dry, and not let her shoulders sink in defeat.