Deadly Mates (Deadly Trilogy) (30 page)

“But I am.”  He paused for another long breath and then said, “Ten minutes.”

With a curse
, I hung up the phone and walked over to the bed.  I leaned over Jade, gave her a long and more than a little possessive kiss, and then as much as I hated to do it, I pulled away from her and said, “Time to get dressed, sweetheart.  The guys will be here in ten.”

Her reply was a purr that came close to undoing me.  “We still have ten minutes.”

~ JADE ~

Aidan laughed.  I d
idn’t think I had ever heard him laugh like that before.  It was real and full of cheery energy.  He was happy and I loved it.  He caressed my cheek and kissed my forehead, and then he pulled away again.  “Ten minutes isn’t long enough,” he said, his voice low and husky.  He backed up a step and smirked.  “I’m going to jump in the shower and you better have your cute butt dressed when I’m done.”  Aidan didn’t wait for my protests before he turned around and headed out of the room.  A second later I heard the rush of the shower as he turned it on.

With a long sigh, I pulled myself out of bed grudgingly.  I went to the dresser, tugging open a drawer, and began to riffle through the minimal clothing I had here at the house.

I had only just gotten out of the shower when Aidan’s phone had gone off.  I knew it was freakin’ horrible to be annoyed at the interruption, but I couldn’t help it.  Really, was it too much to ask for just a few more uninterrupted hours with my new mate?

Then again, it wasn’t as if they knew we had taken that step yet, so I figured I really couldn’t blame them.

Letting my towel drop to the floor, I pulled on a pair of panties and then fastened my bra.  Even annoyed, I was still grinning.  Last night had been more than I had expected.  So much more.  It had been a slow, blissful hour, full of sensual exploration, discovering each other in an entirely different way.  I had expected to be nervous, but after the first few minutes my nerves had vanished.  Being with Aidan was comfortable and exciting and breathtaking.  I had let myself go, and so had he.

I pulled in an idyllic breath, catching the change in my scent.  I pressed my palm to my nose, grinning.  I could actually smell the difference on my skin; a layer of leafy greens coating my natural
aroma.

I’m really his,
I thought, as I stepped into a pair of jeans. 
And oh, God, he’s actually officially mine.
  My grin widened into a painfully big smile.  My chest felt so full; I felt so complete.  It was utterly amazing.

Banging, like someone was hitting the front door with a baseball bat, wiped the grin from my face.  With a quick glance at the clock, I snagged a T-shirt and tugged it on, thinking ten minutes couldn’t have possibly passed yet, but yep, it had.

I rushed out of the bedroom and as I passed the bathroom, I heard the shower still going. “Hurry up, they’re here,” I called out and then I hit the stairs at a jog.

The thudding at the door didn’t stop until I yanked it open.  I blinked against the bright sun, once, twice, and then my eyes went wide and my lips parted with horror.

Craig stood in front of me, his left eye black and swollen shut.  There was a blood-crusted gash running down his right cheek, stopping at the base of his chin.  His neck was covered in bruises, and Jesus, I could actually see individual fingermarks there.  Beck and Landon were behind him.  They didn’t look as bad, but each of them was sporting a nice shiner, and Mark, who stood off to the side, had a purplish bruise on his cheek.

“Where’s Aidan?” Tommy asked, his voice all rough edges.  He didn’t wait for me to move out of the way before he started to shove the guys into the house, not too gently.

I blinked and cleared my throat.  “He’s upstairs,” I said, backing up as everyone crowded into the living room.  “In the shower.”  I chewed on my bottom lip, scanning the guys over.  “I don’t think I want to know what happened.”  I swallowed down the dread that was climbing up my throat.  “Do you want some ice?  Or something for the pain?  Or ... Or ...  What the hell did Jared do this time?”  God, it had to have been Jared.  I just knew it.  He’d been so pissed yesterday.  He’d been …

“They’re fine,” Chris said in a lazy drawl, closing the front door.  He flexed his arms, his biceps curling up thick, as he fixed a steady glare on the team.  He was giving off a clear
-cut vibe of a guy who didn’t tolerate any crap.  With the way he carried his tall, bulky frame, I didn’t doubt for a second he wasn’t opposed to using his fists to make sure everyone understood it.  “Start talking, boys.  You’ve got a better chance of making it out of this alive if you talk to her before Aidan.”  He smiled at me then, or at least I thought the rough curve of his lips was supposed to be a smile, and said, “She seems to have a soft spot for you boys.”

The four of them exchanged tight-lipped looks.  Landon started to shake — literally — and when he tried to smile at me it was all wrong.  My inner-wolf shifted and stirred, and I growled.  It came out before I could swallow it, fierce and all animal.  “What have you done?” I demanded.  My imprint heated, my scent flared, and all four of them dipped their chins, casting their eyes to the ground.

Tommy’s shiny head took on a pinkish-red hue.  “Please,” he started and then cleared his throat.  “Jade, control yourself, please.  You’re mated now, Aidan’s scent mixed with yours is …” He cleared his throat again and rubbed at it hard, as if he were trying to massage away a lump that was blocking his voice.

I pulled in a deep breath, forcing my inner-wolf to stand down, which was, as it turned out, a crazy amount of work.  Sweat beaded along my spine and my hands trembled.  But I managed to rein it in, if only a little.

Tommy sucked in a noisy breath and he shoved at Craig, growling, “Tell her.”

Craig stumbled, and fell to his knees.  He wouldn’t look at me, and I didn’t know if it was because he physically couldn’t look up or if it was that he didn’t want to.  “Jared,” he croaked, and winced.
His voice sounded raw, as if he’d swallowed a handful of broken glass.  “He knew where the bastards were, Jade.  He’s known for a week.”

Heavy footsteps coming down the staircase and a deadly growl told me that Aidan had heard what had just been said.  I wanted to turn away.  I wanted to g
o to him, but I couldn’t move.

Craig might as well have punched me.  It probably would have felt better.  His accusations gutted me and left me raw and exposed and empty.  “No.”  I shook my head.  “No, he would have told me.  You’re lying.  Jared’s a dick, but he loves this pack.  He wouldn’t hide something like that.  He wouldn’t.”

“You would scent that, Jade,” Beck said, giving me one of those crappy reasoning looks.  “You know he’s telling you the truth.”

Oh, God
, I thought. Was this really how the rest of my life was going to be? Lies and betrayal?  Aidan was behind me, close enough that I could feel his breath teasing the hair on the top of my head.  I could hear his steady breathing and the rhythmic thumping of his heart.  His scent was calm and he was deathly quiet.  It scared me a bit.  As dread choked me, the only thing I could get out was, “Why?”

“Aidan took our father from us,” Mark said.  His eyes were dull when he looked up, as if he had check
ed out and his mind was somewhere else entirely.  “We wanted him to feel the same pain we felt when he died.  Jared thought if he spent enough time with you, you’d mate with him.  Aidan took something from us, he was going to take something back.  He stalled on the hunt.  We all did.  We knew if you found them, you’d walk away from Jared.  He just wanted more time to win you over.”

Craig cleared his throat.  “We didn’t know he’d found them until this morning,” he said.  The smell of his desperation left a bitter taste in the air.  “I swear it.  We didn’t know.  He went ape-shit crazy when we told him we were done.”

“You helped him.”  I was shaking all over.  “You all stood by and helped him try to ruin my mate.  You … you …” I growled.  They all plotted against my mate.  My mate.  The people I trusted, my friends, my team.  “How didn’t I smell the lies?”

“You never asked,” Beck said, again with that reasoning tone.  “We never had to lie to you.”

Landon lifted his chin a little, and looked over my head.  “Aidan, I thought she wanted him,” he said, and damn him, he actually looked ashamed.  “All of us did.  Her inner-wolf reacted like Jared was to be her mate.  She was throwing off her scent for him.  If we’d known she wasn’t into him, that it was just her wolf sensing his dominance, we wouldn’t have helped stall things.  We wouldn’t have helped keep you from her.”  He swallowed a few hard swallows and his face drained of color.  “We stopped helping him when she submitted to you, when you took her from Jeff’s.”

There was dead silence for a long breath.  It was violent and cold and when Aidan finally spoke
, I found it hard to breathe.  “You know I’m going to hunt him down, right?” Aidan’s voice was a lethal toned whisper behind me. I turned to him and looked up.  His expression was both striking and brutal.  He looked me in the eyes and said, “And when I find him, I’m going to kill him.  You are not saving his ass this time.”

I knew I was probably supposed to reason with him, do the devil’s
advocate thing, but I couldn’t. I wanted blood, too, so bad that my body lurched as my inner-wolf tried to break free.  I’d always known Jared was loyal to a fault, I just never thought that loyalty could have been for Ray.

~ AIDAN ~

It would have been better if Jade had defended him.

Jade didn’t say a word.  Instead, she gave me a terrible blank look and stood perfectly still.  Her heart was slamming fast against her ribs.  I could hear it so clearly.  I could smell her bloodlust, too, a thick bitter-sweet aroma that had my inner-wolf pressing against my skin.

It struck me then, I was finally going to get my chance to kill Jared, and she was going to let me.  Damn, by the look of her, she wasn’t just going to let me.  She wanted to do it herself.  I really didn’t know how I felt about that.

“You won’t need to hunt him, kid,” Tommy said.  “He’s challenging you for alpha.  The pack has already gathered to witness.”

The laugh that came out of my mouth was cold.  “He thinks he can challenge me,” I said, and shook my head.  “He lost his right to do that when he put his needs before the pack.”  I looked at the team.  Their desperation, their fear, it all hung in the air like a pungent cloud of smoke.  “But what should I do with you four,” I said, stepping around Jade.  “I find myself stuck here.  I get revenge and I can smell that you didn’t know what Jared was hiding, but you helped him.  You knew the cougars wanted our females and you helped delay the hunt.”

Across the room, Beck shuffled his feet.  “We meant what we said to you yesterday.  You saved us from our father; I’m just sorry we didn’t see that sooner.”  He raised his chin and stoned his face as he looked at me.  “We will stand behind you if you’ll allow it and if you
won’t, we will accept your punishment without a fight.”

“You knew she didn’t want him, didn’t you?”  I laughed coolly.  “Yeah, you did.  You were always with them training, weren’t you?  You stuck close.”

Beck nodded.  “Because Jared wanted to force her, and I wasn’t going to let him do that.  No matter what, it was always her choice.”

I rocked back on my heels a little bit as a punch of adrenaline shot through me. 
Force her. 
Another blast of steamy adrenaline rushed to my head.

“Easy,” Chris said in a calm, low voice.  “Easy there, kid, you need to think this one out.  They came forward.  They’re giving up their own flesh and blood for you, for your mate.”

I didn’t want to hear that.  I didn’t care who they were giving up. 
Force her.
  He’d known.  Beck had known that Jared was willing to force her.  And he’d let the bastard sleep in her house, in her room.  My inner-wolf’s savage nature took over.  There was no logic to it.  I was taken over by a possessive instinct.

At the sound of the first pop of bone, I heard a soft rasp and I glanced over my shoulder.  “Aidan, stop,” Jade said.  She reached out a hand to me and I ignored it.

A series of pops and snaps broke out.  My clothes tore and fell, my body remolded.  And then I was a wolf.  My lips peeled back and I growled as I pivoted and stalked toward Beck.

Jade cut in front of me, and said, “Aidan, remember what I told you last night.  Sometimes the best move a leader can make is to step back from a battle when the potential loss is too high.”

I heard a rustling, and then a series of soft thumps.  I glanced away from Jade, curled my lips further, and growled at the team.  All four of them were on their knees, their necks craned out, their eyes closed.  The silent offer reaffirming what Beck had said.  They would not fight me no matter what action I took.

“You are not this person,” Jade said softly.  “Your fight isn’t with them.”

~ JADE ~

Jared had called me soft once, and yeah, maybe I was soft.  By pack law, I shouldn’t have stopped Aidan, shouldn’t have stopped his inner-wolf from killing the guys.  By pack law, death was what they deserved.  But I just couldn’t let him do it.  Not when they had willingly come forward.  It may have been delayed, but in the end, they had done the right thing.  And I knew he
would regret it afterwards.  I knew he was already bleeding inside from taking their father from them even if he refused to show it.