Deadly Crush (Deadly Trilogy, Book 1) (22 page)

I was certain I heard the regret return to
his voice.
 
Silence stretched awkwardly
between us.
 
This was a side of Aidan
that I had never imagined.
 
He’d always
seemed so carefree.
 
So confident.
 
I had never pegged him for a
rules
kind of guy.

“I need a freakin’ handbook,” I muttered
under my breath, breaking the silence.

He chuckled softly, and the velvety sound
made my heart flutter.
 
“Did you have a
nice time sneaking out last night?”

“I … I … needed to shift,” I said
softly.
 
“You were right.”

He grinned.
 
“I told you I was smarter, Jade,” he said with a confident sounding
chuckle.
 
“I told you not to leave the
house without asking me.
 
Did you really
think the enforcers weren’t going to tell me?”

~ JADE ~

Aidan didn’t take
me to school.

He left me sitting in the sterile looking,
white waiting room of the pack’s headquarters.
 
The smell of bleach and various lemon scented cleaners were
overwhelming, and they were seriously making my head hurt.
 
I would have preferred school.

I’d never been inside their headquarters
before.
 
But then, I hadn’t even known
they had one until today.
 
Really, what
could a bunch of werewolves need with a headquarters?
 
It seemed … stupid and it also reminded me
again that I had so much to learn about the pack.
 
Number one on my list was to figure out what
the rules were that Aidan had been talking about.
 
Again, I found myself seriously wishing for a
handbook.

For the last three and a half hours, I’d
been sitting there watching the door to Aidan’s office.
 
After he had deposited me in an
uncomfortable, bright orange plastic chair, he gave me a stern warning not to
move, and then he went into his office and closed the door.
 
About ten minutes after that, Beck, one of
the enforcers, escorted a sobbing Marcy and a furious Dominic into the room.

They didn’t even look at me as they went
by, and I wasn’t sure if it was because they didn’t notice me, or because they
didn’t want to see me.
 
I wouldn’t have
blamed them if that were the case.
 
It
was my fault that they were in this mess, but the idea of them hating me burned
anyway.
 
I had started to get up to talk
to them when Beck focused his golden gaze on me, and mouthed,
‘Not a word,’
and I froze.
 

Beck was about Aidan’s height with the same
kind of thick and muscular build, but unlike Aidan, he was kind of scary.
 
He was a lot like Jared in the no patience
department, and since I had pissed him off more than a few times before, I
didn’t want to risk pushing it.
 
Not with
the vicious warning that burned in his eyes.
 
Damn, I hated the enforcers.

About thirty minutes after the three of
them went in, and Beck never came out, I thought I was going to lose my mind
from nerves.
 
If Aidan was keeping one of
the enforcers with him, it probably wasn’t a good thing.
 
I snuck over to the door and I pressed my ear
against it, trying to hear the conversation.
 
The door must have been reinforced with something, because even with my
enhanced hearing, I couldn’t make out anything.
 
Not even a second later, the door flew open, and I tumbled into the
room.

I didn’t even get a peek at Marcy or
Dominic before Beck scooped me up.
 
He
carried me back over to the waiting room and set me down.
 
“If I catch you moving again, I won’t be this
gentle,” he growled, and then he vanished back into Aidan’s office, slamming
the door behind him.

I hadn’t moved an inch since.
 
My butt was tingly, my feet were pins and
needles, and my back was throbbing, but I refused to move.
 
I could deal with Aidan — kind of.
 
I was pretty sure he wouldn’t actually follow
through on his threats, but Beck … there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Beck
would.

The sound of shoe-clad feet slapping
against the white ceramic tiles down the hall drew my attention.
 
As soon as my eyes found the source, I
shuddered.
 
Jared was coming toward me.

Jared was shirtless, and his gray track
pants hung low on his hips.
 
He had a
small white towel wrapped around his neck, and his sculpted abs and chest
glistened with sweat.
 
Even though they
were resting at his sides, the roped muscles in his forearms and thick biceps
seemed as if they were flexed.
 
His short
black hair was messy and damp, and when his eyes, which were such a dark brown that
they looked black, met mine, a one sided grin twitched at his lips.

“Hey, little girl,” Jared said, closing the
distance between us and taking a seat beside me.
 
“You in shit again?”

I shrugged my shoulders because I really
didn’t know if I was or not.
 
“How many
times do I have to ask you to stop calling me
little girl
,” I said, and rolled my eyes, in an attempt to make him
think that his closeness wasn’t at all nerve-racking.
 
He had started calling me
little girl
back when I was in seventh
grade.
 
He had been in grade nine then,
and I had a horribly stupid crush on him.
 
Right then, I wished I was back in seventh grade when he didn’t scare
the crap out of me.

He chuckled.
 
“Will you relax,” he said.
 
“I’m not here for you.
 
I was at the gym.”
 
He nudged me in the ribs playfully and
winked.

I tried to relax, but with him beside me,
it wasn’t an easy task.
 
I hadn’t really
spoken to him since seventh grade, and I had avoided him at all costs when he
became the head of the enforcers.
 
Just
like when Dominic had joined the pack, Jared had turned cold.
 
Heartless.
 
Ruthless.
 
But then, Jared had
always been a little cold.

“Who’s he with?” Jared asked, nodding
toward the closed door.
 
He stretched his
long legs out in front of him and draped an arm around the back of my chair.

“Dom and Mac,” I said, leaning forward a
little so it didn’t feel like his arm was actually around me.
 
After last night, I didn’t want to give him a
single reason to think I was interested.
 
“They’re in shit for helping me.”

My palms were starting to sweat, and I
wiped them on my jeans roughly.
 
A pulse
of sugary sweet power hit me; not like Aidan’s scent which made me think of
nothing else but ripping off his clothes, but it was strong enough to make my
heart hammer against my ribs.
 
My breath
caught.
 
I heard it, and so did he.
 
His chuckle gave it away.
 
The pulse turned into a trickle and then to a
stream.
 
“He’s not the only one who can
speak to your inner-wolf, little girl,” Jared said.
 
“You’re strong.
 
What you crave is the power, not him.
 
I can give you what you need.”

I sucked in breath after sweet, sweet
breath.
 
My inner-wolf clawed at my
stomach like a crazed lunatic.
 
It was a
weird feeling, nothing like the passion that Aidan brought out in me.
 
This was vicious.
 
It filled me with something that resembled
anger and made me feel like a savage beast.
 
I fought against it.
 
Hated
it.
 
Needed it.
 
Wanted it.
 
And really, really feared it.

My own scent changed, ramping up, and
swirled around us.
 
The stronger it got,
the more stable I felt, and after a moment, my inner-beast settled — a
little.
 
“Jared, can I ask you
something?”
 
My voice was a throaty
whisper.
 
I looked over at him, meeting
his glowing yellow eyes.

He arched an eyebrow, looking at me as if
he was waiting for me to do something.
 
When I didn’t do whatever he had expected, his scent slowly dissipated
and his expression turned stony.
 
“Shoot,” he said, coating the word with a growl.

I shivered.
 
I didn’t know if it was his growl, or the lack of the mouthwatering
smell, that made my insides freeze, but whichever it was, I didn’t like
it.
 
I opened my mouth, then closed it,
and cleared the prickly lump in my throat before I asked, “Why did you give me
a choice last night?
 
I didn’t think you
guys did that.
 
Like ever.”

His hand clasped my arm, and he pulled me
back into the chair, draping his arm securely and a little possessively around
my shoulder.
 
I fought the urge to jump
away from him, terrified of what he might do if I did.
 
“You’ll be more fun to me alive,” he said,
his voice husky.
 
“You ready to give up
yet?”

“Give up what?” I asked, and a chill ran up
my back, forcing my spine to jolt and straighten.
 
He
knows,
a voice in my head hissed.
 
He
knew what Aidan was hiding.
 
Everyone
knew.
 
My mom, Jared … Right then I bet
the whole freakin’ pack knew.
 
I didn’t
know whether to freak out or feel hurt.
 
Both seemed like a viable option right then.

He chuckled, and pulled me closer.
 
“Step down from the games, little girl.
 
I’ll be more entertaining than the
alpha.
 
Promise.”

“What games?”
 
I asked.
 
He ignored my question, leaned into me, and nuzzled at my neck.
 
“Keep your hands off me,” I snarled.
 
It burst out of my mouth before I could stop
it.
 
His touch felt wrong and cold and
forceful.
 
It made my skin crawl and heat
up at the same time.
 
My inner-wolf
stirred again, and a low growl rumbled from my throat and I tried to wiggle
free of his arms.

He didn’t let go.
 
His arm wrapped tighter around me, pulling me
closer.
 
“Mmmm, love that fire, but I’ll
have you purring like a kitten in no time,” he whispered in my ear, and his hot
breath played with the fine hairs on my neck.
 
“Give up.
 
Let Tiff be his mate.”

All the hints and warnings that I had
received over the last few days played through my mind in a blast, fighting
over each other to be heard.
 
Stay away from him.
 
She’s treating you like an alpha.
 
Don’t back down from him.
 
I can’t live with my alpha hating me.
 
Packs have alpha pairs.
 
Two
alphas.
 
One male and one female.
 
He’ll
be mine.
 
When you lose the alpha games …

“Tiff’s the last one fighting for him?” I
asked.
 
The frost I heard in my voice was
bittersweet.
 
He really is a jackass,
I thought, as all the pieces slid
together.
 
My body began to shake, and I
hardly felt Jared’s arm around me anymore.
 
Red-hot fury blazed through me.
 
The bastard had me fighting for him!
 
He’d been playing me all along.
 
Was I a werewolf because of him?
 
Was it his idea to ruin my life and then sic his wolves on me?
 
Would he have even cared if they killed
me?
 
I’d seen the murder in that
dirty-gray wolf’s eyes.
 
And because of a
stupid crush, I had walked right into his games.
 
At that moment, I thought I hated myself even
more than I did him for letting myself care about a stupid dog.

Jared’s arm slipped to my waist, and he
yanked, pulling me onto his lap.
 
I
gasped, and my hands flew to his chest, pushing him away.
 
“Hands off, Jared,” I snapped, but he didn’t
let go.
 
He pulled me against his chest,
placing a trail of hot kisses down my neck.

“Mmmhmm, it’s just you and Tiff,” he said
against my neck.
 
“You don’t want to be
an alpha.
 
With your fire, you’d make a
great enforcer.
 
We don’t have to play by
the rules.”
 
I pushed at him harder, and
he pulled me closer, pinning my arms between our chests.
 
“Jade,” he murmured into my ear, “I know you
want me.
 
I can smell it.”
 
He flicked his tongue against my earlobe.

I gasped and every muscle in my body went
rigid.
 
Tight knots twisted in my stomach
and a nervous laugh slipped out.
 
I
tilted my head back, trying to move away from his kisses.
 
“This is not happening,” I snarled, pushing
away as hard as I could.