Deadly Crush (Deadly Trilogy, Book 1) (21 page)

~ AIDAN ~

Damn, but that girl
could really push my buttons.
 
I
seriously wasn’t looking forward to going back and seeing her.
 
She was weak to me for a moment.
 
I hadn’t held back this time, letting every
ounce of my scent wrap around her and merge with her.
 
It was the most incredible thing I had ever
felt.
 
For a split second we had been
one, her scent mingled with mine, teasing me in a way that made me want to
forget the rules and claim her.
 
And I
was pretty sure that if she actually knew that there were rules, she would have
felt the same.
 
I had never thought I’d
find a mate that would fill me the way she did.
 
Not in this town.

But without my scent taming her, I was sure
that when I went back, there would be hell to pay.
 
She’d shake it off, and when she realized I
had the house surrounded, keeping her locked up tight … I shuddered at the
thought.
 
My only saving grace so far had
been the fact that she was new … unstable.
 
She didn’t know how to manipulate her scent yet.
 
Every time she let it out, it was random, not
really directed at anything or anyone in particular.
 
But when she figured it out, and when she
claimed her imprint, I knew I’d be just as lost to her as she was to me.
 
But then again, I was pretty sure I was
already lost.
 
Jade was the only thing I
was sure of — my clarity — when everything else around me was a jumbled mess.

There had already been moments where she
had made me want to submit to her.
 
She
was the strongest female I had ever met.
 
She would be mine.
 
Maybe,
possibly, that is if she didn’t kill me first.
 
And after the crap I just pulled, I thought she just might try when she
figured it all out.

I was so close to telling her about the
games.
 
So close to ruining my chance at
having her.
 
She lusted for me now, but
lust was far from love, and the hatred that burned behind it was just as
fierce.
 
She wouldn’t fight if she knew
it was for me.
 
I was sure of it.
 
And I needed her to fight.
 
She was my perfect match in every way.
 
She was my home.

When
did I start thinking that I could have love?
 
The thought shook me.
 
Love didn’t, and shouldn’t, matter to
me.
 
Not as an alpha.
 
But the idea of being with Jade had my heart
pounding.
 
I could … no, I did love
her.
 
I loved her fire and her lippy
responses.
 
The way she challenged me and
kept me on my toes.
 
I loved everything
about her.

I sat in my new living room not really
listening to Dominic and Trevor as they went over the plan to deal with the
werecougars.
 
The house had been vacant
for a while now.
 
It had belonged to the
alpha before Ray, and as pack property, it was now mine.
 
It wasn’t much.
 
Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a tiny kitchen
and living room, but it was better than the motel.
 
The paint was peeling on the walls, and the
carpet needed to be ripped out.
 
But the
furniture was still good, a black leather sectional couch, and a matching
armchair pretty much filled the room.

Dominic had gathered my few things earlier
while I was with Jade, and he had been here when the bed was finally
delivered.
 
And right then, I would have
killed to be able to go lay down on it.
 
Marcy had even picked up and washed a new set of sheets for me, and she
had also cleaned and stocked the fridge.
 
Trevor had been right when he said Marcy didn’t know how to stay
mad.
 
I didn’t think she’d ever forgive
me after her little flip-out this morning, but as Trevor promised, it was as if
it never happened.

Their kindness was … weird.
 
I got the feeling that they hadn’t done all
this because I was the alpha, but because they actually wanted to.
 
I hadn’t expected it, not after the way I had
been treating them since Jade had been bitten, but I figured it was Marcy’s
doing.
 
After watching her for the last
few weeks with Trevor, I knew she thrived on making the people around her
happy.
 
And for a human, it was pretty
impressive that she had Dominic and Trevor wrapped around her finger.

After Jeff had woken up from the Dominic
induced nap, he had divulged Bruce’s sick obsession with recruiting
females.
 
The women were never
changed.
 
Just as Jeff had said, they were
a community property, used only to breed males to be changed.
 
When a female was born, they raised her until
she was old enough to be used.
 
Ray had
had an agreement with Bruce.
 
He’d ignore
the twisted use of the women as long as the werecougars stayed away from his
town.
 
I couldn’t ignore it, though.
 
Dominic swore he hadn’t known, so did the
pack enforcers, and each one of them was behind me, eager to put an end to the
sick use of the women.

Right now, we were waiting for a full count
from Jeff.
 
We had sent him back to his
pack, to investigate how much Bruce knew about me and to report back with
exactly what we were up against.
 
At the
last check in, he had reported that Bruce had him tied up, and he would let us
know once he had something we could use.

Dominic’s phone buzzed on the coffee table,
and the voice caller display chirped,
Jade
Shaw,
in a mechanical female tone.

“Don’t answer that,” I said, and grabbed
his reaching hand before he could get the phone.
 
“She kind of thinks I locked you up.”

“What?” Dominic asked, and he gave me a
look that clearly said he thought I’d lost it.
 
He glanced at the phone again, and then leaned back, settling into the
couch, with a raised eyebrow, waiting for me to explain.

The oven door slammed, and the scent of hot
pizza filled the room.
 
“Jesus, Aidan,
what the hell did you do this time?” Marcy yelled from the kitchen.
 
She clattered around, slamming cupboards and
banging plates against the counter.

I groaned, and watched the phone until it
stopped skittering across the table.
 
“She wouldn’t submit.
 
She also
thinks I have you locked up, Mac.
 
Oh,
and I kind of left the enforcers with her to make sure she doesn’t leave the
house.”
 
Saying it out loud made it
worse, and dread pooled in my stomach.
 
Yep, she’s going to kill me.
 
And I knew I’d let her if she really wanted
to.
 
I’d welcome it.
 
I deserved it.
 
I
really am a jackass.

“Really, Aidan?
 
Really?” Marcy said aghast.
 
She came through the small doorway juggling
two pizzas and a stack of plates, and stomped over to us.

“I want her to win,” I said lamely.
 
Trevor and Dominic were both chuckling, and
Marcy rolled her eyes.

“Dumbass,” Dominic said and shook his
head.
 
“I didn’t think you were this
stupid.”

Marcy giggled.
 
“She’s going to kill you when she finds out
you’ve lied to her again.”
 
She placed
the pizzas on the coffee table and started filling the plates, handing them
out, before taking a seat next to Trevor.

I gave them all a dirty look, biting back
the urge to tell them off.
 
The only
thing that stopped me was the fact that they were right.
 
I certainly felt like a dumbass.
 
So I leaned back on the couch, propping my
feet up on the edge of the coffee table, and let them laugh.

“Aidan, do you really want her to submit?”
Trevor asked curiously.
 
“I thought alpha
pairs aren’t supposed to submit to each other.
 
You know, to keep them both in control.”

I hadn’t expected the question, and I took
a large bite of pizza as I thought it over.
 
The spicy sausage and pepperoni made my stomach growl with hunger, and I
devoured the slice before I finally said, “She’s being impossible.
 
She needs to learn some respect.”
 
And she
is not an alpha … yet,
I said silently.
 
There was no point in reminding them.
 
The two werewolves in the room had made it clear on more than one
occasion that they already considered her their alpha female.
 
I just wished that I could ignore the rules,
too.

Marcy shot me a stern glare.
 
“Lying to her and manipulating her isn’t
going to get her to respect you.”

I scrubbed at my face roughly, attempting
to rub away all the confusion that that girl had brought into my life.
 
“I thought she wanted me.
 
I thought … I thought … dammit.
 
After she beat Trisha today …” I let my words
fall short, and I glanced at Dominic waiting for the lecture that I knew was on
the tip of his tongue.
 
I almost wanted
to hear it.
 
Dominic watched me, chewing
on his pizza.
 
I’d never seen him so
quiet.
 
He was pissed off, that much I
could tell, but the rest was hidden under his carefully placed mask.
 
“Look, I didn’t have much of a choice,” I
said to Dominic.
 
“Her scent was
overpowering me.
 
My inner-wolf has
already accepted her as my mate.
 
Every
time I get near her, all I can think about is claiming her.
 
I had to let my alpha out.”

“You haven’t been using it with her?” Trevor
asked and laughed again.

“Not fully, well, at least not until
today,” I admitted, guiltily.
 
I knew I
should have been.
 
Dominic had even
advised me to do it.
 
We had all hoped
that it would encourage the alpha in her out, but every time I thought about
doing it before today, I felt like an ass.
 
“Call me crazy, but I was kind of hoping she’d feel the same thing for
me as I do for her.
 
I didn’t want to
force her inner-wolf to realize she’s meant to be my mate.
 
And I didn’t really lie to her completely.
 
You both have violated laws.”

“Dude, not part of the pack,” Marcy said
around a mouthful of pizza.

“Dude,” I said, mimicking her snark.
 
“Trevor claimed you.
 
He did two nights ago.
 
Even if you haven’t been changed, a mate is
considered part of the pack.
 
You’re
bound by my laws.”

I instantly knew I’d said something
stupid.
 
Marcy turned ten different
shades of red before she shrieked at Trevor, “You told him!”

I held back a laugh, but Dominic
didn’t.
 
He let out a deep belting roar,
and he started to cough, choking on his pizza.
 
Trevor turned white as a sheet, and his eyes widened.
 
It was more than a little obvious he didn’t
tell Marcy what would happen after they hooked up.

“It’s a scent thing, Mac,” Trevor said in a
rush.
 
“I can’t hide it.
 
Our scents have synced together since we …”

“Don’t you dare say it!” she said, jumping
up from the couch.
 
“God, isn’t anything
private with you guys?”
 
She spun on me
then and snapped, “Jade does want you, but she’ll never bow down to you.
 
She’s not going to fight for someone who is
trying to force her either.”

“Okay, I get it,” I said, throwing my hands
up in the air, and all my pent-up laughter fizzled away.
 
“I’m a moron.
 
How the hell do I fix it?”

“You let the people that know her best out
of jail,” Dominic said with a chuckle.
 
“She’ll win the games tomorrow.”
 
He laughed again and focused on Marcy, “Mac, you up for it?”

Marcy considered it for a second before a
grin inched its way on her lips.
 
“She’s
going to kill us.
 
But I’m in.”

~ JADE ~

My heart dropped
when I heard the engine of a car pull into my driveway.
 
It was a rumbling, clunking sound, instead of
the purr of Aidan’s Mustang.

I stood at the fridge, cell phone in hand,
staring at the sharp scrawl of his handwritten number.
 
Last night after he left me, I had realized
four things.
 
One: He might have been
smarter than me.
 
Two: He was hiding
something from me.
 
Three: I needed to
play nice and get Dominic and Marcy out of jail.
 
Four: I was falling for him — hard.

His alpha wolf spoke to my inner-wolf in a
personal way.
 
It took the control that
my inner-wolf craved.
 
But it wasn’t just
his alpha that spoke to me.
 
It was
him.
 
This jackass thing was an act.
 
I knew it without a doubt, and I was
determined to break through it.

As soon as Aidan left, I had snuck out the
back door.
 
He had been right; I needed
to shift.
 
I had too much energy coursing
through me, burning me up from the inside out.
 
I hadn’t noticed the wolves until I walked out the door and they
surrounded me.
 
But Aidan hadn’t just
left some wolves at my house.
 
No.
 
He had stationed the pack enforcers to make
sure I didn’t leave.
 
The enforcers were
a team of five.
 
And they were
ruthless.
 
Their sole purpose was to
enforce the alpha’s commands.
 
I had seen
them in action before, and when Jared shifted and stood nose to nose with me,
stark naked, demanding to know where I thought I was going, I almost threw-up
from the sudden fear of facing them.

The enforcers were the only wolves that I
had never, and would never, pick a fight with.
 
No one walked out of that alive.
 
They had no compassion.
 
They
didn’t ask questions.
 
They didn’t have
to follow the normal rules of the pack.
 
In a sense, when they were called upon, they held just as much power
over the pack as the alpha did, except they always executed that power with
death and violence.

But Jared had given me a choice, which had
shocked the hell out of me.
 
Jared wasn’t
known for his patience, or for giving options.
 
Kill first, ask questions later.
 
That was pretty much his motto.
 
But instead of attacking me, he let me decide: call Aidan or go back
inside.
 
In the end, my stupid pride had
won … again.
 
Jared made it clear that I
wasn’t allowed out unless I spoke to the alpha, and since I refused to call
him, I was escorted back into the house.
 
But before Jared closed the door on me, he had looked me up and down and
said,
‘We’re going to have a lot of fun
once you lose the alpha games, little girl.’
 
There had been no mistaking his meaning.
 
The gleam in his eyes when they settled on my
breasts told me everything I needed to know.
 
He planned to take me as his mate.
 
I wanted to ask Jared what he was talking about.
 
What were the alpha games?
 
But instead, I slammed the door and locked
it.

That was when I decided that Aidan just
might have been smarter than me, and when I realized that he was hiding
something from me.
 
It was also that
moment that I knew I was falling for him.
 
The idea of anyone else touching me other than him was something I
didn’t want to think about, and it made me feel a little queasy for more than
one reason.
 
I was supposed to hate
him.
 
I was supposed to hate the pack.

I’d been trying to call him for the last
hour, but my inner-wolf had been fighting me.
 
For reasons that I couldn’t begin to understand, it didn’t want me to
submit.
 
 
Not yet,
a voice chanted
over and over in the back of my mind.
 
You need to win him first.
 
It just sucked that I really didn’t
understand what that meant.

“Jade?”
 
Mom called from the hallway.
 
“Honey, are you home?”

“In here, Mom,” I said, bracing myself for
what I was sure was going to be a lot of tears.
 
I hadn’t seen her since I was bitten, and knowing my mom, I knew that
that wasn’t by her choice.

“Oh, honey,” she said, as she came into the
kitchen.
 
She looked exhausted, but she
tried to hide it with an overly bright smile.
 
Her pink scrubs were all wrinkly, and her hair was a mess, falling out
of her ponytail.
 
She set her bag on the
counter and rushed over to me, wrapping me in a hug.
 
“I’ve been so worried about you.
 
How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine, Mom,” I said, squeezing her
back.
 
She sniffled in my ear, and
swallowed loudly, as if she was trying to choke down her tears.
 
“I’m good, really,” I said softly, trying to
sound reassuring.
 
“I shifted.
 
Everything’s fine.”

“If everything’s fine, then why are there
wolves surrounding our house, Jade?” she asked, as she released me and folded
her arms over her chest, waiting for my response.

“Because the alpha is trying to show me how
smart he is,” I said with more than a little bite to my tone.
 
I was on edge, fighting with everything I had
not to shift.
 
My skin was crawling and
quick bursts of adrenaline shot through me every few minutes.

Mom laughed and sniffled, as she wiped at
her misty eyes.
 
“You should be happy
that the alpha is showing interest in you.”
 
She looked me over from head to toe, taking her time as she searched my
body, as if she needed to see every part of me to make sure that I really was
okay.

“The alpha is being a jackass, and those
wolves outside are the enforcers,” I said.
 
I grabbed my steaming mug off the counter, took a seat at the table, and
drank a deep gulp of my coffee.

A spike of tangy fear flitted through the
air, reaching my nostrils, and Mom lost a little color to her cheeks.
 
“Let me guess, you haven’t submitted to him
and recognized him as your alpha yet.”
 
She made her way through the kitchen and sat down at the table, giving
me a stern look.
 
“You really should do
it before he loses patience with you.
 
The pack has always been about the rules.”

She was serious.
 
I could see it on her face.
 
But there was something else there.
 
A small knowing smile.
 
A slight twinkle in her eyes.
 
Pride that her only daughter had joined the
pack and caught the alpha’s attention.
 
And right then, I was sure she knew exactly what Aidan was hiding from
me.

“Don’t you have an issue with the fact that
your daughter is a werewolf?” I snapped.
 
This was the first time I had seen her since I was bitten, and she
looked … happy about it.
 
Freakin’ happy!
 
I started to shake with hot anger, and I
glared at her.
 
“You want me to give
myself to some guy to use me as he chooses?
 
Seriously, Mom, I think you and Dad need therapy or parenting classes or
something.
 
This is not something to be
happy about.”

I might as well have slapped her across the
face.
 
She certainly looked like my words
had hurt her just as much, and a rush of guilt washed over me.
 
Her eyes misted up, and she took a few
breaths before she was able to look at me again.

“Jade, Aidan is not Ray,” she said in a
shaky voice.
 
“I won’t have you speaking
about him that way in my house.
 
Use you
as he chooses.”
 
She shook her head and
made a
tsk
sound, clearly
disappointed.
 
“He’s not a monster.
 
It’s just the way of the pack.
 
He’s the leader.
 
You need to show your respect.
 
And besides, once the games …”

The front door opened and slammed
shut.
 
Mom looked up and I watched as the
blood drained from her face and her complexion turned to a sickly gray.
 
I didn’t need to look to see who it was; his
scent hit me hard and fast.

“What games?” I asked, fighting to ignore
his presence.
 
“What were you going to
say?”
 
I may have been too freaked out to
ask Jared, but Mom was a totally different story.

“Nothing, honey,” she said in a rush, still
looking over me at Aidan.
 
“Better hurry,
you’ll be late for school.”

I jumped up and my chair rocked back,
crashing to the floor.
 
“School!
 
Really?
 
I’m not going.
 
It’s not like I
need an education now.
 
I’m never getting
out of this stupid hick town.”

“Jade!” Aidan barked from the doorway.
 
I spun around; anger sparked over my skin,
and I met him straight on.
 
There goes playing nice,
I thought.
 
What was it about him that made my blood boil
and my heart melt at the same time?
 

His eyes flared with that dangerous warning
that shook me to my core.
 
The sweet
Aidan was gone, replaced by the alpha that scared me to death.
 
I tried to hold his stare.
 
I fought for the control and the authority I
had had only days before.
 
The command
that had made this man trembled under my stare.

His scent hit me again, strong and sweet
and powerful.
 
It pulled at me, making my
body convulse with the effort to stay standing.
 
His gaze hardened and he nodded in my mother’s direction.
 
“Apologize.”

It wasn’t a request.
 
There was no mistaking the tone.
 
I wanted to tell him off and kick him out of
the house just as much as I wanted to tell him that I was his if he still
wanted me.
 
But I couldn’t do either.
 
The words lodged in my throat.
 
“Now, Jade,” he said tightly, and he closed
the distance between us.
 
He took my chin
in his hand with surprising gentleness, and forced me to meet his eyes.

“Aidan, please ...” My bottom lip trembled
as I spoke.
 
His eyes were wide, glowing
yellow, and his scent thickened in the air until I could hardly catch my
breath.

“You need to learn,” he said, and I was
sure I heard a hint of regret in his voice.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
 
I didn’t want to whisper, but my voice just
wouldn’t work.
 
I was lost in his eyes,
in his scent, and my world was crashing down around me.

Aidan held me in place for another long
moment before he dropped his hand from my face.
 
I sagged against him almost instantly.
 
Without his hand supporting me, my knees began to shake and they refused
to hold me upright.
 
His arm snaked around
my waist, holding me close, and my heart hammered in my chest, thrilled and
terrified of the man that I was falling for.
 
He spoke to my mom, but with his scent so strong, I felt as if I was
drunk.
 
His voice was garbled and slurred
in my ears.

Aidan took my hand in his and led me out of
the house.
 
I vaguely registered the
smirk on Jared’s face, and his team of enforcers standing behind him, watching
me as I got into the car.
 
A moment
later, Aidan jumped in and backed out of the driveway.
 
He didn’t say anything to me, and his brain
numbing scent was hardly noticeable now.
 
His jaw was tight, twitching as he clenched and unclenched it.

“I don’t mean to be so, um, difficult …” I
started.
 
He snorted, and gave me a quick
sideways look that made me want to giggle.
 
“Okay, maybe I do mean to be.
 
But
really, you’ve been a bit of a jerk.”

His hand clenched the steering wheel, and
his knuckles turned white.
 
“Jade, when
you walked out that door and shifted with us, you chose the pack.
 
With that choice, comes rules.
 
You may not care about the rules, but I don’t
have that luxury.”