Deadly Mates (Deadly Trilogy) (14 page)

He folded over me in a blink, and his lips came crushing down on mine.  It was a possessive kiss, rough and demanding and oh-so-amazing.  I squealed in shock, my lips parting a little under his.  His tongue was suddenly in my mouth, claiming every deep crevasse and fold, marking my mouth as his.  He dug a hand into my hair, settling it at the nape of my neck, pulling me closer, holding me still, and before I knew it, my body
was liquid against his.

Aidan broke away way too soon, only moving an inch from my swollen, tingly lips.  I was panting, my heart racing.  “Let me make one thing clear,” he growled.  “As of this moment, you’re mine.  I’m not letting you out of my sight again, and I’m not stupid enough to let you go twice.”  I jutted my bottom lip out in a fake pout, and he nipped at it, before he said, “By the way, I was also outside your window last night.  I heard everything.”

My eyes widened, and it was my turn to blush.  I felt the heat blaze up my neck and settle in my cheeks. 
Oh God.
  Last night I’d told Jared that I belonged to Aidan.  Was he really saying he heard that?  “Everything?” I asked.  My voice was choked and he chuckled and nodded.

I squeezed my eyes shut for a quick second, wishing I could ju
st vanish.  I didn’t know if I would regret this, but right now I didn’t care.  The truth?  I’d spent the last few days lying my face off and it felt so amazingly good to have it all out in the open.  And I was kind of regretting never talking to him before now.  So much pain could have been avoided if I had, I was sure of it.

I felt him shift and my eyes popped open.  He lowered his head, coming in for another kiss, but I lifted my hand, placing a finger on his lips.  I took a deep breath and said, “I’m Jade Valerie Shaw.  My favorite color is plum, not purple.  I’m eighteen, and before I joined the pack I used to spend my free time drawing.  I love using charcoal and my favorite time of the year is fall.  There’s just something so perfect about being able to wear jeans and a hoodie.  It’s not too cold, not too hot.”

Aidan’s eyes lit up with amusement and he laughed, a full belly roll of a laugh.  “What are you doing?”

“I think it’s time we got to know each other,” I said, grinning.

He laughed again, giving me a wide smile.  He lifted a brow and asked, “You ever going to stop surprising me?”

“Probably not.”  My smile stretched almost painfully wide, and more warmth pooled in my chest.  Right then I was pretty sure I could love this man, really love him.

“Good,” he said with a bob of his head.  He took my hand, the grip was awkward with my head still in his lap but he made due, shaking it once, before lacing his fingers through mine, and let his arm fall back to my chest.  “Nice to meet you, Jade Valerie Shaw.  I’m Aidan David Collins.”

~ AIDAN ~

The parking lot was already full when we pulled up to the pack headquarters.  Jade was quiet beside me.  She was a bit nervous, but she was still smiling.

It was her smile that made my stomach sink and my nerves light on fire. 
The pack, especially my males, were a little … upset with Jade.  I’d been trying to explain it to her, but I didn’t think she was taking me seriously.  Maybe she was at her maximum stress limit for the day.  Maybe she just didn’t want to believe that they were all that pissed off. I didn’t know for sure, but I was starting to think I should have just left her at home because that smile wasn’t going to help matters.  It was a sweet smile, a happy one.  It reached her eyes and lit up her face and I loved it.  I really did. It was just that I was sure it would give the wrong impression, as if she were trying to lighten the seriousness of what they believed she had done.

The thing was, most of
the males felt as if she had abandoned them while she’d been hiding away with the team for the last few days.  And then there was the issue that she had turned away from me.  That alone had gotten a lot of backs up.  I didn’t really know what the response would be when she walked in.  I hoped that seeing us together would ease some of the tension and if she would just stop grinning it might actually work, but I just didn’t have the heart to tell her to stop.

I pulled into a spot at the back of the lot and turned off my car.  This was the last place I wanted to be. 
I wanted to be alone with Jade, but my phone had been buzzing nonstop against my left hip for the last twenty minutes; Dominic had been trying to let me know everyone was waiting.

Pack members milled about outside the glass double doors, the team of enforcers among them.  I watched their cagey pacing
for a moment, the way their muscles shuddered as they moved along the concrete exterior of the building, as if they were wired, ready to shift without a second’s notice.  They were alert, working as a team to scan the tree line for any sign of a threat.  Even from this distance their tension was evident.  Tommy and Chris were with them, but Jared wasn’t.  I didn’t know whether to be happy he wasn’t among them or pissed off that he hadn’t bothered to show up.

I puffed out a breath and pulled the keys from the ignition.  “Erika’s going to be in there,” I said.

Jade stiffened in her seat, but her smile didn’t fade, not even a little.  “I know.  I’ll be discreet, Aidan.  I don’t want your night broadcasted any more than you do.”

“Okay, good.”  I nodded a few times quickly, more to reassure myself that this was actually good, but really, who was I trying to kid?  Her calmness about the whole thing was kind of eating at me.  I understood her theory, that she couldn’t blame me for doing things that I had believed she was doing, but still, it was just … odd and not what I had expected from her.  And it made me uneasy.  I wanted to kill Jared for even looking at her, let alone touching her.  My inner-wolf wanted blood, but Jade, Jade was the picture of calmness.

I puffed out another breath.  “You ready for this?” I asked, as I popped my door open.

Jade nodded, a stiff bob of her head, as she got out.  She met me in front of the car, holding her hand out to me and I took it.  Her smile widened further as she weaved her fingers through mine.  Damn, I loved that smile and the content glint in her eyes.  I really didn’t know how I had gotten so lucky or why she had decided to forgive me, but I wasn’t about to question it.  I didn’t want to give her a reason to rethink her decision to start over.  I was pretty sure if she thought about it she would realize that I had done so much more wrong than she had, even if she claimed we were even, and then she would walk away again.  There was no way I was going to let that happen, so, yeah, I wasn’t going to ask.  I was going to just suck it up and not worry that she didn’t seem to be all that bothered about the whole Erika thing.  I didn’t need to know the full why of her decision.  All that mattered was that she was with me.  Yes, that was all that matter
ed, definitely, maybe. I breathed in a deep, calming breath of the crisp air and together, we started for the doors.

As we crossed the parking lot, our pack began filing inside.  I tugged on Jade’s hand, slowing our pace.  I wanted everyone inside before we walked in.  I wanted them to see our clasped hands, our nearness, but most of all
, I wanted them to see that I’d accepted her submission and that I wasn’t going to hold her actions over the last few days against her.

When we reached the door she squeezed my hand.  “Will you relax,” she whispered.  “It’s going to be fine.  I can handle this.”

I looked down at her and forced a smile.  “I know you can,” I said.  Jade didn’t buy it, not for a second.  She rolled her eyes, reached for the door, yanked it open, and pulled me inside.

“Look at this.  The alpha female is finally deciding to grace us with her presence,” Phil, one of the older pack members, spat, as the doors shut behind us.  His eyes sparked with
speckles of gold.  He wasn’t a big man, slim and lanky, but the hatred that burned in his eyes as he scanned Jade over made him look threatening and my inner-wolf stirred restlessly.  I tugged on Jade’s hand, pulling her behind me, and a growl built within my chest.

The silence that followed was deafening.  I could barely hear the whispered breaths of all the people around me as the buzz of anger built in my ears.  The pack, minus Jared, were all gathered in the sterile waiting room.  The stark white floors and walls, and the scent of bleach and various cleaners assaulted my senses as I made my way into the center of the room tugging Jade along with me.  Some sat on the hard orange plastic chairs, some paced, and others just stood there, glaring at Jade.  Whispered criticisms invaded my ears, too many for me to even try to comprehend.  The stress that was coming from my pack was palpable, rippling through the air like an electric current.

Phil sneered at Jade and I let out a low warning growl.  “That’s enough,” I said.  The words were snarled and by the way his eyes dropped to the floor and he slid back a step, I figured he knew I wasn’t asking.

“Aidan, I don’t need you to defend me,” Jade said calmly.  She pushed out from behind me, tugged her hand free of mine, and moved to stand a few paces away from me.  She took her time to look at everyone.  The urge to grab her and pull her closer, to keep her safe, was unbearable, but as she moved, the division within the pack had never been clearer and that was what held me still.  She needed to see it.  She needed to understand what had happened within th
e pack over the last few days.

Our werewolves began shifting to positions that clearly reflected who they considered their alpha to be.  The females crowded in behind Jade, the males moving in closer to me.  She didn’t need me to keep her safe; she had her pack at her back.

“You’ve been alpha female for three days and you’re already destroying this pack,” one of the men said under his breath.  It came from behind me, a mumbled whisper, so low that I really wasn’t sure who had said it.

I let out another growl, pivoting in place to glare at my wolves.  “She’s one of your alphas and you’d better start addressing her as you would me.”

“No, she’s not,” Phil countered.  He waved a hand toward the females.  “She’s the females’ alpha.  She’s nothing to me.  Not without you as her mate.”

I blinked, stunned at the defiance I saw stoning his face.  Yes, he was right.  Without us mated, without our scents combined, the pack was divided, but damn, she still deserved their respect.  I opened my mouth, ready to tell them all exactly what I thought, but Dominic jumped in before I could.

“We called you all here to tell you that our alpha female made a public display of her submission to Aidan this morning.”  He stepped up, standing in between Jade and me.  “I was there, so was the team, and Aidan accepted it.”  He paused, letting everyone process the information for a moment before he continued, “The alpha pair will now be living under the same roof, and are to be considered mated from this moment on.”

Jade made a strangled sound from somewhere at the back of her throat.  I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see the vibrant red flush rushing to her cheeks.  “Dom!” she called, her voice strangled.  “We are so not discussing that.”

For a split second everyone was silent, but it didn’t last.  It started with a chuckle, and then a giggle, and in no time the entire pack was roaring with laughter.  I met Jade’s eyes, smirking, and she blushed brighter.

~ JADE ~

My face was on fire, and darn it, Aidan was smirking.  The tension that had filled the room moments ago was almost completely gone, although the visible split between the pack was still very evident.  The laughter continued, I even heard a few snorts, and my face burned hotter.  I planted my hands on my hips, scowling.

Aidan closed the space between us.  He was chuckling, too, and his eyes danced with amusement.  I figured the laughing was better than the tension, but this was just not funny, well, at least not to me.  He leaned into me and planted a sloppy kiss on my cheek.  “Have I ever told you how cute you look when you’re all embarrassed?” he asked.

I shoved at his chest, rolled my eyes, and pursed my lips.  I was about to tell him that I didn’t find any of this funny.  Really, how many more times would my sex life (or lack thereof) be brought up and discussed today?  I guessed it shouldn’t bother me.  Mating was a huge part of pack life.  I thought it had something to do with a werewolf’s protective and oh-so-possessive nature.  Claiming and possessing that one person you couldn’t live without.  At least that’s how I felt when I thought about mating with Aidan.  The idea of possessing him in a way that no one else ever could sent hot chills careening through my body.

My embarrassment clearly dissolved a lot of tension, so I figured that was a good thing — kind of.  But really, there were so many more important things to talk about.  Like my dad being home or how the search was going for the cougars’ location.  We needed to find them before they moved again, but no, discussing the status of my mating was so much more important. 
Ugh!

And then I spotted Erika.  She was in red leather pants and jacket with a black tank underneath that was cut so low, the black lace of her bra was showing.  Her midnight-black hair hung straight over her shoulders, and her lips, coated in a devil red, were parted.  Her lust-filled eyes were fixed on Aidan.  Any embarrassment I had felt vanished, replaced by an ugly surge of jealousy.