Deadly Mates (Deadly Trilogy) (21 page)

“You let her go see him.”  It wasn’t a question.  I didn’t miss the blunt accusation in his voice.  Beck had taken on a
big brother
kind role with Jade, the whole team had actually.  She had them wrapped around her finger, and they loved it, loved her, and right now, Jared wasn’t in their good graces.

“She told me she was going to study and then meet you guys,” I growled.  The rotten, rusty taste filled my mouth again and I tried to swallow it down.

“Shit,” he said, summing the whole situation up perfectly. He growled out a few more obscenities before he said, “Let me go for her.”

I clenched the phone tighter, feeling every muscle in my body flex right along with my fingers.  His reaction wasn’t helping my mood
, even if it was exactly what I had expected.  “I don’t care who goes for her.  Just send the guys to me and have someone bring her back to the headquarters.  Jeff is giving us one of the cougars.”  I didn’t wait for his response before ending the call.  I shoved my phone back into my pocket, and focused every bit of energy I had on reining in my emotions.

~ JADE ~

Jared’s arms felt solid wrapped tightly around me.  He was taller than me, not a lot, but enough that he had to bend a little to whisper in my ear.  “You sure about this?”

I nodded.  “Yes.  I wouldn’t be here if I
weren’t.  Aidan’s never going to get over it if you keep running and like I said, he needs you now more than ever.”

He moved back slightly to meet my eyes, and brushed a strand of hair from my cheek with a big warm hand.  “He might not agree,” he pointed out.

I shuddered.  No, Aidan probably wouldn’t agree.  I had no doubt that he would want to throttle me when I brought Jared back, but it was a risk I had to take.  The longer he stayed away, the guiltier we looked.  The pack needed to see the three of us working together.  They needed to see my reaction.  They needed to see that I wouldn’t turn back to Jared when things got tough, that I was with them, and most of all that I was with Aidan.

And I knew Jared wanted to be different.  I saw that.  Over the last few days he’d worked so hard to show me that he did care about the pack.  He may be a cocky pain in my ass, he may push all of my buttons, but he was loyal.  He was pack.  He was family.

I grinned.  “You leave Aidan to me.  He’ll come around.”  Okay, I wasn’t entirely sure that he would come around, but I was hoping he would.

Jared chuckled and shook his head, clearly thinking I was mental.  Right then, I wasn’t sure that I disagreed.

“You have a death wish, don’t you?” Beck, his voice rough, pierced through me like a row of sharpened teeth.

“It was just a hug,” I squeaked, jumping out of Jared’s arms.  “What are you doing here?”

Beck was tense, but trying not to show it.  I could see it in his set face and the way his shoulders bunched, emphasizing the muscles under his jacket.  “Aidan sent me to find you.”  He didn’t crack his usual
you’re a pain in the ass
smile, but then, neither did I.  “Haven’t you put him through enough of this bullshit?”

Nice.  It was going to be one of
those
days.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said in a stronger voice, although there was a bit of a whine to it.  I couldn’t help the small smirk, and Beck rolled his eyes.  “I’m not doing anything wrong here.  It’s just a hug.”

“Just a hug,” he repeated, as if I’d said the words in some foreign language and he couldn’t quite grasp the meaning.  There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he was disappointed with me and, man, did it make me feel like an ass.  I probably should have stopped at,
“I’m not doing anything wrong here,”
because the look he shot me made me want to find a rock to crawl under, full of animosity and frustration.  He paced toward me.  He looked as if he wanted to grab and shake some sense into me.  “If you really believed that, you would have told Aidan where you were going.  You were warned to stay away from him.”

I opened my mouth and then closed it when nothing came out.  He stopped only inches from me, folding his arms over his chest, still giving me a god-awful expectant kind of look, as if he
were waiting for a detailed explanation.  It was the kind of look Dominic or Marcy would give me, but really, I had nothing that would make this look better so I kept my mouth clamped shut.

“Beck, lay off,” Jared said, pressing in closer to me again.  “She was trying to convince me to come back.  That’s all.  Give her a break.”

“If you speak again, I’m going to punch you,” Beck said softly, but it was clear that he meant it.  He glared at Jared.  There was a warning in his eyes that I couldn’t even begin to understand, but I figured Jared did.  He moved in a blink, propping himself against a tree about ten feet away.

Beck’s nostrils flared as he fixed his eyes back on me.  “His scent is on you,” he said, gritting his teeth and digging out his phone.  He tapped on the screen, brought it to his ear, and after a second
, he said, “I’ve got her.”  He paused, scanned me over, and moved a little closer.  He grabbed my shoulder, spinning me around, and then he lifted my hair, inspecting my neck and shoulders.  “I’m checking, Aidan, just hold on,” he barked.  He did a thorough once over of my clothes and then said, “There’s not even a hair out of place on your mate.”  He paused, cut a furious look at Jared, and said, “Yeah, I’ll bring them both in.”

I could hear the heated tone of Aidan’s voice as he gave his orders, but couldn’t quite make out the words. 
Oh, God.
  Nausea rolled in my belly.  I held out my hand, and said, “Give me the phone.  I want to talk to him.”  Beck started to pass the phone, but hesitated, listening for a moment to whatever Aidan was saying.  He scowled at me, shaking his head, and then thumbed the screen and jammed the phone into his pocket.  “Beck, what the hell?”

“He heard you and said ‘no.’”
There was a dry, cutting edge to his tone that I really didn’t like.

“Is he mad?” I whispered, my throat closing up.  My chin started to dip on its own, and my shoulders sagged.  It wasn’t that I hadn’t secretly seen this coming, well, okay, not exactly this, but I’d had a hunch that Aidan wouldn’t be all that pleased with me dragging Jared back into the mix.  But I knew that what I was doing was right.  If anything, we needed to keep the pack together — keep them safe — and even if Aidan didn’t like Jared, as the head of our team of enforcers he was a big part of the pac
k.

Beck frowned.  “Disappointed, definitely hurt.  You’ve got to stop this shit, Jade.  You threw the guy away because he lied to you.  Do you really think this is any different?”

“Jared and I are just friends,” I said.  “It was never anything else.  You know that.”

Jared’s temper flared, the heat in his scent pulled my eyes to him.  His face shifted slightly, his eyes flashing gold, and then it faded, but the heat in the air lingered.  Beck flashed him another cold glare, just as Jared opened his mouth, and he closed it, biting back whatever he was about to say.

“It doesn’t matter what I know,” Beck said, softening a little.  “Finding you in the bush alone with him doesn’t look good.  What if it had been someone else?  What if he’d called Craig or Landon instead of me?  You need to start thinking, Jade.  You can’t just run off like this.  You wouldn’t do it with the team and you can’t do it with him.  He’s your partner; you need to treat him like one.”  He huffed and then a wicked smirk curved his lips and he chuckled.  “You are going to be in so much shit when he smells Jared on you.”

“Not funny, Beck,” I said with a sigh, and then ran my fingers throu
gh my tangled, windblown hair.

“Yeah, it kind of is.”  His gaze was still dark with disappointment, but at least he was smiling now.  “I love seeing that look on your face when he growls at you.  It’s priceless.”

I smirked and stretched out my arms.  “Want a hug?”

He shook his head and took a large step back.  “Oh, hell no, you screwed up, you pay the price.  I’m not getting in the middle of this shit.”

~ JADE ~

Aidan didn’t look happy.  He was leaning against the concrete side of the building.  His arms folded over his chest, glowering, when Jared, Beck, and I emerged from the woods.

My heart did a little flip-flop against my ribs and I stopped abruptly.  Even glowering, he was a sight; tall and broad, with so much muscle.  He was in jeans and a long sleeved white T-shirt.  His shaggy, light brown hair was flipping at the sides and disheveled on top, and all I could think about was running my hands through it.  His intense brown eyes met mine and I watched, frozen in place, as they flashed gold.  He pointed at me, wagging a finger, beckoning me.  My inner-wolf perked up, pushing at my skin, desperate to break free and run to her mate.

But I didn’t move.  It was as if my feet were pinned in place, no longer connected to my body.  A rush of wind kissed my cheeks, bringing with it an assault of scents: leafy greens, hot power, the tang of anger and anxiety, and mixed with it all was a coating of spice.  It was the spice that freaked me out the most.  I knew exactly what it meant.  He was jealous, which was, well, annoying, but it was also a little hot and I shuddered hard.

Aidan’s lips parted and he growled.  His eyes flared brighter.  He beckoned me again, his finger stiff as he flicked it.  I took a shaky, unsure step.  The emotions in his scent were seriously nerve-racking, and they were also overly exciting my inner-wolf, sending hot chills over my skin and warmth pooling in my belly.  It wouldn’t take much for his inner-wolf to push to the forefront, for him to go all
alpha
on me, and I fought back the feeling that maybe, just maybe, I had made a mistake.  I shuddered again and his nostrils flared.

I took another step and Beck snagged my wrist, pulling me to a quick stop.  “Jade, play nice,” he warned.

I shook off his hand.  Now was so not the time to touch me, like at all.  Not when my inner-wolf was all squirmy, wanting her mate.  I put my feet in motion, and picked up my pace to a jog.  “Hey,” I said, meekly, as I approached.  “How did your meeting go?”

Aidan didn’t answer.  His jaw was tense, the muscles along his neck, roped and straining.  I picked up my pace further, closing the distance between us as quickly as I could, and as soon as I was close enough, I threw my arms around his neck, pressing myself flush against him.  He shifted his gaze, glancing down at me, and I rolled onto tip-toes.  I meant to kiss him, ease some of the jealous rage I saw flaring in his eyes, but he wasn’t having it.  Before I knew it, his nose was pressed to my neck, dipping to my chest, and then back up to my hair, pulling in long, deep hauls.

I felt the growl bouncing around in his chest just before I heard it.  His hands wrapped around my wrists, pulling them from his neck, and he glared down at me.  His jaw worked as he clenched his teeth and he growled, “Gym shower.  Now.”

“Wow, really?” I asked, leaning back.  I smiled the sweetest smile I could, hoping it would soften him.  It didn’t.  He let go of my wrist, folding his arms back over his chest.  I huffed and glanced over my shoulder, watching Jared and Beck make their way to us.  Beck was already chuckling, a deep rumbling from his chest.  “Two guys telling me I smell in the last
few days.  You know, if you all keep it up, I’m going to develop a serious complex.”

“Jade,” Aidan said in warning, clearly not seeing the humor in my statement.

“It was just a hug, Aidan,” I muttered, feeling about fifty different kinds of guilty.  My inner-wolf squirmed and sunk in my stomach as if she were feeling just as bad.

He studied me with a strange intensity, almost as if he were seeing something new in me, and if I had to guess, whatever he was seeing wasn’t something that he liked much.  “Go wash that smell off of you,” he said roughly, as if his throat had been shredded and was raw.

I laughed nervously, placing a hand on the swell of his rounded pec.  “There’s no way I’m leaving you with him, not with you all growly.”  I poked him in the chest.  “And don’t look at me like I’ve done something wrong, because I haven’t and you know it.  You need him.”

If Aidan heard me, he clearly wasn’t processing my words.  “Jade, please go shower,” he said, and nudged me toward the door.

I took his hand.  It felt warm and it felt good, solid and strong and perfect.  “Come with me?”

I figured it was the right question to ask because his sudden grin was one hundred percent male.  He bent, scooping me up in his arms in a motion so quick that I squealed.  My arms flew around his neck,
holding on, as he yanked open the door and stepped inside.

~ AIDAN ~

“How many times do I have to tell you that I’m yours before you’ll believe me?” Jade asked.  Her head was cradled in the hollow space between my neck and shoulder, as I carried her through the network of hallways to the gym.

Jared’s bitter scent clung to her, but it was the underline sharpness of his arousal that stirred the beast within me into a wild, rage-induced frenzy.  Another male had been turned on while touching
my
mate.  Another male touched
my
mate.  Another male … A growl ripped from my throat.