Deadly Crush (Deadly Trilogy, Book 1) (2 page)

“I’m going to be late,” Dominic barked into
the speaker before I even had a chance to say hello.

“Anything wrong?”
I asked, keeping my voice low, and peeking at him again.
 
He had folded one arm across his chest, and
his body tensed, as he leaned against the car.

He looked like he was considering what to
tell me and then, after a moment, he said, “No.
 
I just need to deal with something.”
 
He relaxed slightly, and sighed into the speaker, or at least I thought
it was a sigh; it sounded like a crackly burst in my ear.

“With what?”
I pressed, wishing I could get closer.
 
From this far away, I could barely pick up
his scent, and I wasn’t entirely sure if he was lusting after someone or
completely frustrated.
 
The scent was so diluted;
mixing with the grass and leaves, and most of it was taken away on the breeze
before it reached my senses.

“It’s personal,” he snapped with a rumbling
growl.

I was about to tell him that nothing —
absolutely nothing — was personal when his alpha was asking, but right then,
the double doors banged open and a girl stormed out of the school.
 
She was average height, maybe five-foot-six,
slim with curvy hips, and long brown hair that curled softly at the edges and
around her shoulders.
 
She was cute and
she looked furious, which in my opinion, made her look even cuter.
 
She had a fiery spirit; anyone could have
seen it just by looking at her.
 
Her
hands were clenched at her sides and her cheeks were bright red.
 
She squinted against the glare from the sun
and then her eyes landed on Dominic.
 
If
she had been furious before, she was murderous now.

For a second, she looked as if she was
about to dart back into the school, but then Dominic turned to her and she
froze.

“I’ve got to go,” Dominic growled into my
ear, and the phone went dead.

~ JADE ~

As soon as I walked
out of the school, I spotted his silver VW.
 
And then I saw him.
 
Dominic was
waiting for me.
 
He was leaning against
the driver’s side door with one arm folded across his chest and his cell phone
glued to his ear with the other.
 
His
short blond hair was sticking up as if he had been running his hands through it
over and over.
 
His jaw was set in a
rigid line, and he really didn’t look happy.

I probably should have guessed he’d be
waiting for me, but in my defense, I was a tiny bit flustered.
 
I figured I had an excuse, though, seeing as
my clothes had been stolen, and my head was pounding as if it had its own
heartbeat.
 
I was about to turn around
and run back into the school to find another exit, when his hazel eyes met
mine.
 
He snapped his phone shut before I
could make a move and strutted up to me.
 
Yes, strutted.
 
It wasn’t a walk
or a stroll; it was full of coolness and confidence, and more than a little
conceit.

Dominic closed the distance between us
faster than I would have liked, and when he was only inches away, he asked,
“You okay?” although the tone of his voice insinuated that he really didn’t care
if I was or not, and he scanned me over, from head to toe — twice.

I wanted to yell at him, because really, I
wasn’t fine.
 
Far from
fine.
 
And it was his fault that
Erika was picking on me.
 
He could stop
it.
 
He could make them leave me
alone.
 
He was the beta for Pete’s
sake.
 
They had to listen to him.
 
But he hadn’t done anything about them, and
clearly, he knew what they had been up to.
 
He had just brought my clothes back.

I looked up at him with narrowed eyes and I
straightened my shoulders, masking myself with an air of confidence that I
really didn’t feel.
 
“I’m fine,” I said
through clenched teeth, and with my chin held high, because I seriously didn’t
want him to know how much the
she wolves
had upset me this time, I walked past him and into the parking lot.
 
And the whole time my werewolf survival
mantra echoed through my brain,
Don’t
show fear.
 
Stay strong.
 
Be the dominant one.

“Jade, just get in the car,” he called
after me.

I huffed, and kept walking.
 
“Leave me alone, Dominic.”

“I don’t think you should walk home
alone.”
 
His footfalls echoed around me
and I almost started running — almost.
 
It took a heck of a lot of restraint not to.
 
Dealing with werewolves was kind of like
being trapped in a horror movie; no matter how fast you ran
,
the evil villain would still catch you at a walk.

Suddenly, Dominic was in front of me,
blocking my path.
 
I gritted my teeth and
glared at him.
 
“I don’t care what you
think,” I said, sidestepping him.

“Come on, Jade.”
 
He groaned and darted back in front of
me.
 
“Just get in the car.
 
I said I was sorry.
 
What more do you want?”

He towered a good six inches over my
five-foot-six frame.
 
I glared up at him;
his broad shoulders blocked out the glare from the sun that was starting to
make its slow descent, and he smiled sheepishly down at me, as if his perfectly
white smile could wipe out what had just happened.
 
And dammit, but I missed that smile so much
that I almost caved right there and then.

But I didn’t.
 
I rubbed my temples in small circles, wishing
the headache away.
 
I needed a clear head
to deal with this.
 
It helped a
little.
 
I forced my lips into a smile
and said as sweetly as I could, “What I want is for you and your stupid pack to
disappear.”
 
I batted my eyes at him, in
a way that I hoped was a tiny bit mocking, and then I stepped around him and
started for the trail at the back of the parking lot.

I hadn’t made it two steps when he grabbed
my arm, not unkindly, but still with a firm grip, and started pulling me over
to the car.
 
“Just get in the car.
 
The pack is stressed, and you’re the last
person that should be walking around alone right now.”

“Let go of me, Dominic!” I squealed.
 
My heart jumped into my throat, and my
stomach twisted into a painful knot.
 
I
pulled back, trying to rip out of his vice-grip hold.
 
I was pretty sure he was just trying to look
out for me, but the thing was, he was
creeping
me out
— just a little.
 
I didn’t like
this
Dominic.
 
He was cold and intense, and he made my skin
crawl.

Dominic stopped pulling me.
 
He grabbed my other arm, spinning me in front
of him and holding me tightly.
 
He looked
down at me and rolled his eyes.
 
“I know
you think I’m an ass, but I’m really just trying to help you here.”

I laughed, but there was no humor in the
sound.
 
“It’s your
so called
help that got me into this mess.”
 
I yanked again, and he clamped his grip a bit
tighter, pinching my skin.
 
I could feel
the bruises starting to form under his grip, but he seemed oblivious to
it.
 
He looked … distant … hurt, gazing
down at me, but not seeing me.
 
I almost
felt bad for saying it.
 
Almost.

After a long moment, Dominic blinked.
 
“Jade …” he growled.
 
His eyes started to shimmer, golden yellow,
around the edges, and I shuddered, completely involuntarily.
 
Deep down I knew he wouldn’t hurt me.
 
Out of all of them, Dominic was one of the
best.
 
Most of the time he tried to keep
the others under control, well, he did when Ray wasn’t watching.
 
I knew it was Ray’s fault that the pack was
the way they were.
 
They were being run
by a drunken jerk that didn’t care about anyone but himself.

Dominic opened his mouth, but he didn’t get
a chance to spit out whatever he was about to say.
 
“The girl said, ‘Let go.’”

Dominic didn’t move, and he didn’t let
go.
 
He glared down at me, still holding
me tightly in front of him, as he growled, “Stay out of this, Aidan,” sounding
more animal than human.

Aidan?
 
Who was Aidan?
 
I looked over
my shoulder, spotting the owner of the voice.
 
He smiled and winked at me.
 
“I
don’t think I will,” the new guy — Aidan — said, folding his arms over his
chest, making his broad shoulders look even larger.
 
“Let her go.”

I stared at him and my jaw dropped.
 
He was definitely new.
 
He had to be, because I knew I would have
recognized that face if I had seen it before.
 
He was smiling or smirking.
 
It
was hard to tell.
 
It was one sided, and
his jaw twitched a little with tension.
 
He was trying to look gentle, but there was a rough side to him that he
couldn’t quite mask.
 
It shone through
his chocolaty eyes, deadly and sweet all in one.

Dominic’s grip tightened again and a low
growl rumbled from his chest.
 
I winced,
pulling my eyes away from Aidan’s brown ones.
 
“Dominic, you’re hurting me,” I said, just barely audible.

Dominic flinched, as if my words were a
physical slap, and the shimmer of golden yellow in his eyes vanished.
 
For about half a second, he looked like he
was actually sorry.

It didn’t last.

“Whatever,” Dominic snapped, as he dropped
his hands from my arms.
 
He shot me an
ice-cold look.
 
“You want to walk home
with Erika lurking about, then fine.
 
Don’t blame me when she finds you.”

Dominic stepped around me then, glaring
daggers at the new guy, as he went to his car.
 
The new guy didn’t flinch.
 
He
stared back with the same intensity, as if he was daring Dominic to come
back.
 
When Dominic opened the driver’s
side door, he growled something unintelligible, and then jumped in, slamming
the door shut, and his car rumbled to life.

What
just happened?
a
voice in
my head asked, as I watched Dominic peel out of the parking lot.
 
In all the years I’d known him, I’d never
seen Dominic back away from anyone, even before he became a werewolf.

“You okay?” the new guy asked, pulling me
back to the parking lot.

I glanced at him and offered what I was
sure was a scary looking smile.
 
It felt
forced and strained.
 
“Um, yeah, thank
you, um, Aidan, was it?” I asked.
 
Confused didn’t even begin to explain the turmoil that was swarming my
brain.

“No problem,” he said with a wink.
 
His voice was deep, but warm, and held a bit
of laughter in it, and I had to admit, the sound of his voice made tiny little
butterflies flap in my belly.
 
Or were
the butterflies from relief?
 
I wasn’t
entirely sure.

“You know Dominic?”
 
I asked, squinting up at him, and raising my
hand to shield the glare from the sun.
 
He was cute, in a rugged sort of way.
 
His hair was shaggy, light brown, and uneven, and his strong jaw line
was rough looking with stubble.
 
He
looked to be about six-foot, and he was built, but not in a muscle builder kind
of way — it was softer — but still showed his undeniable strength.

Aidan chuckled.
 
It was deep and soft and the best sound
ever,
and he gave me a knowing kind of smile as he watched
me take him in.
 
I blushed.
 
“Doesn’t everyone in this town know him?” he
asked.

“Yeah, they do, but you’re clearly
new.”
 
Because if you weren’t new, you would have
pretended not to see Dominic dragging me to his car.
 
Aidan may have looked strong, but human
muscles were more of a decoration than anything else against the werewolves.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he
asked.
 
A wide grin curled his lips.
 
“I can’t know people because I’m new?”
 
Aidan chuckled again, and I couldn’t help but
smile at him.
 
I just loved that
sound.
 
It vibrated through me and made
my skin tingle.

“Okay, so that probably came out
wrong.”
 
I dropped my gaze to the ground,
trying to hide the burning blush that was rushing up my neck.

A thought dawned on me then; maybe he
didn’t know what Dominic was.
 
Maybe the
new guy wasn’t stupid, just ignorant.
 
And maybe that was why Dominic walked away.
 
Dominic was giving him a chance to learn the
pecking order, giving him a free pass this time.
 
I looked up at him and blurted, “You should
be careful.
 
You don’t know what you’re
getting into talking to Dominic like that.”

He cocked his head to the side, searching
my face.
 
He frowned and sighed softly,
and right then I wished I could read his mind.
 
The look he was giving me was so complex; full of sympathy and anger and
something else that I couldn’t place, except it did vaguely resemble
guilt.
 
He stared at me for a long time,
long enough that I started to feel awkward, and it took everything I had not to
start fidgeting.
 
After what seemed like
hours, he cracked a small smile.
 
“Let’s
start again,” he said, and he stuck his hand out to me.
 
“I’m Aidan Collins.”

“Jade Shaw,” I said, accepting his hand and
pumping it twice, and effectively lifting the tension that had been brewing
between us.
 
“What are you doing here
anyway?”

Aidan smirked.
 
“Just finished registering for classes,” he
said in a way that made me feel like it should have been obvious.

“On a Friday when the
school is closed.”
 
It was supposed to be a question, but it came
out as a challenge.
 
Maybe it was because
new people never moved to Dog Mountain.
 
It was a pack thing.
 
There were
never houses available for new residents unless they had the pack’s
endorsement, and with the way Dominic had acted, Aidan clearly didn’t have it.