Deadly Crush (Deadly Trilogy, Book 1) (24 page)

“Jade,” Dominic said, with the stern tone
he always used with her, and he groaned long and loud.
 
“You’re overreacting.”

“I think I hate you guys,” she said.
 
There was so much heartbreak in her
voice.
 
Her invasive scent receded, and I
sucked in a breath.
 
She looked at me
then; her golden eyes shimmered with what I was sure were tears.
 
“How many more things are there, Aidan?
 
What else have you lied to me about?”

I took a step toward her.
 
I wanted to pull her into my arms and comfort
her as she cried.
 
She was breaking; I
could see it in her shivers as her inner-wolf tried to take over, and in the
small tears that slid down her cheeks.
 
I
wanted to tell her it was all going to be okay.
 
I wanted to hold her and tell her how sorry I was, but as I moved toward
her, she put her hands up, and leaned further into Jared.

He grinned over her head and snaked an arm
around her waist possessively, and she let him.
 
She didn’t wiggle or try to move out of his arm.
 
She sagged against him a little, as if she
was taking comfort in his presence.
 
My
inner-wolf stirred restlessly, and my scent ramped up.

Now was my chance to tell her
everything.
 
I knew that.
 
I could tell her about her father.
 
About the cougars.
 
About the humans that died.
 
But the only thing that came out of my mouth
was, “I graduated high school last year.”

Jade stiffened and another shudder rushed
over her skin.
 
She clenched her fists
and sucked in a few noisy breaths.
 
She
met me straight on, her expression an emotionless mask, and said, “I won’t
fight for you, alpha.”
 
She grabbed
Jared’s wrist, pulling his arm from her waist, and she started for the door.

Jared chuckled and went after her, slinging
an arm over her shoulder.
 
She shrugged
it off and turned into him, “Jared, I need space,” she said, putting a hand on
his chest.

“Sure thing, little girl,” he said, and
leaned into her, brushing a light kiss on her lips, and dammit, but she let
him.
 
She even smiled at him a little,
before she dropped her hand and walked out the door.

I
lost her.
 
I really lost her.
 
I deserved
it.
 
I knew that, but it didn’t make it
hurt any less.

“Looks like the games are over,” Jared
said, snapping me back to the room, as the door slammed behind Jade.
 
He folded his arms over his chest and leaned
against the wall.
 
I crossed the room,
feeling oddly calm, and when I was directly in front of him, I pulled my arm
back and punched him.
 
His nose crunched
and snapped under my fist.
 
Too bad it
didn’t make my shredded heart feel any less broken.

~ JADE ~

I ran through the
woods.
 
I couldn’t stop.
 
I didn’t want to stop.
 
My heart was pounding in my ears, and my
breath was coming fast and ragged.
 
Branches whipped at my face, and the underbrush ripped at my ankles, but
I didn’t care.

The trees around me were covered in
fall.
 
Oranges and reds, deep and
rich.
 
Leaves scattered the ground, and
crunched under my feet.
 
The fall leaves
used to be soothing, but right then the fiery colors only added to my
rage.
 
Betrayal hurt more than I had
thought it would.
 
It was like an icy
pick jabbing and twisting into my heart.
 
I’d watched Dominic turn his back on me before, and Marcy, well, Marcy
pulled crap like this all the time, but this … this was too much.
 
They were playing with my life.
 
I could have been killed.
 
Erika could have …

All
of this for a stupid crush,
I thought
bitterly.
 
I should have listened to
Dominic from the start.
 
I should have
stayed away.
 
Found someone else.
 
But I walked willingly right into Aidan’s
game.
 
I had never felt as utterly stupid
as I did right then.

I felt stripped to the core.
 
And vulnerable.
 
And stupid.
 
Really, really stupid.
 
Each step
I took, my inner-wolf fought me.
 
It
wanted Aidan.
 
It wanted the power.
 
It wanted its mate.
 
Aidan felt like … home.
 
But that home was gone.
 
Ruined with lies and deceit.
 
It just sucked that my inner-wolf didn’t care
about that.
 
She wanted out.
 
The bursts of raw adrenaline were only
seconds apart now, but I fought against it.
 
I knew with every part of me that if I shifted, I’d end up right back at
his feet.

My stomach rolled, and I swallowed the
bile.
 
I felt dirty.
 
I shouldn’t have let Jared touch me.
 
I shouldn’t have let him kiss me, but when he
had, all I could think about was hurting Aidan as much as he’d hurt me.
 
How could he endorse women fighting over
him?
 
It was sick … twisted …
What did you expect from an alpha?
 
My heart twisted and split down the
center.
 
He was no different from the
rest of the pack, using and manipulating people to get what he wanted.

My legs burned and my skin was numb from
the beating of the tree branches as I ran.
 
I didn’t want to stop, terrified that if I did, I’d run back to
him.
 
What was wrong with me?
 
Even with the cold truth, a part of me still
wanted him.
 
He’s your perfect mate,
a voice in my head whispered.

Suddenly someone grabbed my arm and yanked
me to a stop.
 
I spun and snarled
viciously.
 
My skin felt like it was on
fire, and my blood was boiling.
 
“Back
off, Erika,” I snapped in a voice that did not sound like my own.
 
It was like gravel, rough and jagged and
sharp.

She jumped back, dropping her hand from my
arm, and averted her eyes from mine.
 
“I
tried to see you last night,” she said softly.
 
“The enforcers wouldn’t let me in.
 
I’ve been worried about you.”
 
She
looked at me then and smiled a little.
 
“I heard what happened with Aidan.”

“Leave me alone,” I growled, and turned my
back on her.
 
I needed to keep moving,
keep fighting my inner-wolf from breaking free.

“Tiff’s been searching for you,” she said,
as I started walking away.
 
“She wants to
end this.
 
You need to get ready.”

Another shudder rushed over my skin, and my
ankle buckled and snapped.
 
I sucked in a
breath, and waited, willing my body to relax and stay human.
 
“Let her have that lying piece of crap,” I
said, gritting my teeth against the rush of power and adrenaline, as my ankle
began to piece back together.
 
She
grabbed me again, spinning me around to face her.
 
“Erika, back the hell off!”

Her fear was thick in the air, tangy mixed
with salty sweat.
 
It was so thick that I
could taste it.
 
“She’s made a deal with
your dad, Jade.
 
I’m the first female
she’s going to send to the cougars.”
 
She
was shaking, her hand trembled against my wrist, but she squeezed harder.

I forced myself to relax.
 
She was terrified, and the urge to hug her
and tell her everything was going to be fine was overwhelming.
 
My inner-wolf calmed slightly, and I asked,
“What cougars?
 
What are you talking
about?”

“Jade, please,” she begged.
 
She dropped to her knees before me, grabbing
at my jeans.
 
“They’ll kill me.
 
Your dad … he’s …” A gasping sob fell from
her, and she jammed her hand into her pocket.
 
“Here, just watch this.”
 
Erika
pulled her iPhone out of her pocket and tapped the screen, bringing up a video.

“So we have a deal then?” my dad’s voice
crackled through the speaker, and my heart stopped.
 
The image was fuzzy and dark, but even if I
couldn’t make out the face, I knew the voice well.

“Yeah, I’ll send you some females, but why
wolves?” a female asked, that I assumed was Tiffany.
 
The image zoomed in a little, and her carrot
hair came into focus, confirming my assumption.
 
She was the only person I knew with hair like that.

“They’ll heal faster,” Dad said, his voice
cold and impossibly cruel.
 
“These humans
break too easily and my boys like some fight in their women.”

“And your daughter?”

There was silence for a second and then my
dad laughed.
 
“She’s Aidan’s
weakness.
 
The boy is lovesick.
 
Give her to one of the enforcers.
 
We’ll use her when we’re ready, but someone
might as well have a little fun with her in the meantime.”

The video stopped, and the play icon
appeared in the center of the screen.
 
My
body temperature dropped to ice cold.
 
I
snatched the phone from Erika and played it again.
 
I couldn’t believe it.
 
I didn’t want to understand what was being
said.
 
I’d never seen anything like this
in my father before.
 
He sounded twisted,
cruel, wrong.
 
They heal faster.
 
My boys like
some fight.
 
Give her to one of the enforcers.

My inner-wolf stirred again,
restlessly.
 
My chest felt tight, and the
adrenaline rush hit me again.
 
“Did you
show this to Aidan?” I asked harshly, trying to hide how much I was
hurting.
 
My father, Aidan, Marcy,
Dominic … I couldn’t handle much more.
 
How many more people were going to betray me?
 
“Shouldn’t you bring this up to the enforcers
or to him?”
 
I glared down at her, trying
to stay strong.
 
I never thought for a
second Erika, of all people, would come to me before her pack.
 
Only days ago she hated me, attacked me, and
changed me into a monster.
 
She’d done
everything she could since she had become a werewolf to make my life hell.
 
She’s treating you like an alpha,
Dominic’s voice clouded my brain.

“Challenging females don’t have to follow
pack rules,” Erika said.
 
“As long as
they don’t kill an opponent after they’ve submitted …” she let her voice trail
off for a second, and a flash of guilt passed across her face, but she shook it
off fast.
 
“Once the alpha female steps
up, Aidan has no control of what happens to the rest of us.
 
Alpha female rules the females, alpha male
handles the males.
 
The enforcers could
do something, but they scare the hell out of me.
 
I tried to show Jared, but he was all ‘get
out of my face’ and he wouldn’t listen.
 
And Aidan hates me because I’m following you.”
 
Her voice was getting higher and higher as
she spoke.
 
She was desperate.
 
I could see it in her eyes, and it scared me
to death.
 
“Jade, you can’t let her
win.
 
This pack is screwed up
enough.
 
I need you.
 
We all need you.
 
We need a strong alpha pair.
 
You’ll stand up to him.
 
I know you can stop this.”

My brain was spinning and my stomach
rolled.
 
I paced a few steps away from
Erika.
 
What the hell was I supposed to
do?
 
Mate with Aidan and try to fix this
screwed up pack?
 
Walk away and keep the
little bit of self-decency I had left?
 
I
didn’t want to do either.
 
I should have just stayed away from the
pack!
 
Did I want the responsibility
of the females?
 
Could I handle it?
 
Could I actually walk away knowing what would
happen to them, and leave them in the clutches of Tiffany?
 
If I walked away now, I could leave town and
never see that lying jackass again and that idea wreaked havoc on me.
 
I couldn’t imagine not having Aidan around,
even if I did want to kill him at that very moment.
 
But if I took alpha female it’s as if I’ve
condoned what he’s done.

An idea began to form, slow and a little
sketchy, but it was something.
 
Something
that I thought I could live with … maybe.
 
I turned back to Erika.
 
“I’ve got
an idea.
 
Do you have Jared’s number?”