Deadly Mates (Deadly Trilogy) (2 page)

I’d only made it a few steps before Beck’s rumbling warning reached my ears.  “She’s his, Jared.  She has been from the day they met.  You’ve got to back off.  Let all this shit go before you have both of them out for you, man.”

For about half a second I thought about spinning around and telling them that I wasn’t
his
; that I didn’t belong to anyone, but I didn’t.  The truth was I belonged to Aidan just as much as he belonged to me.

Jared and Beck followed me, keeping their distance, but I still caught their murmurs as they discussed what the plan was for tomorrow when Dad got home.  I was dreading it.  Dreading all of it, and I hated how glad I was that Jared would be with me, staying in the house, helping me deal with it all.

When I stepped out of the forest into my backyard, the scent of Belgian waffles and bacon frying drifted around me and my stomach growled.  Mom hadn’t been working since Jared moved in, and to my dismay, I really didn’t think his presence bothered her much.  She doted on him like crazy, always cooking for him and cleaning up after him.  They chilled out, watching movies together, and joked around — a lot.  I knew the mouthwatering scent wasn’t for me.  It was for him.  Not that it really bothered me, it was just something I noticed.  If I knew anything about my mom, it was that she loved to take care of people.

But Jared on the other hand … He’d only been living with me for three days now, but he was already getting on my last nerve.  He was taking our little act way to
o seriously, and he was enjoying it far too much.  Especially when Aidan was watching.  I didn’t know how Aidan could stand to watch Jared and me together.  I was certain that I wouldn’t be able to do it.  And God help the wolf or human that tried to move in on him.  Yes, it had been my idea to make the act look real.  Yes, I knew that in order to actually fool my dad, we needed to successfully fool the pack and the town.  The more people that knew it was an act, the more of a chance my dad would catch wind of it.  It had been Dad’s idea to mate me to an enforcer when he thought I’d lost the games, and if we had any chance of figuring out exactly what he was doing, playing along with his suggestion seemed like the best way to do it.  But honestly, I was beginning to think that Jared believed I was, or soon would be, his mate.

“Mmmm, she made me waffles again,” Jared said, coming up beside me and draping a loose arm over my shoulder.

“And bacon,” Beck added.

“That’s what it smells like,” I said dryly, shrugging off Jared’s arm.  “Way to point out the obvious, guys.”

I rounded the house and I wasn’t surprised to see the driveway full.  The team hadn’t missed a mealtime since Jared had moved in.  I climbed the porch steps and reached for the doorknob, my arm stiff and heavy, my muscles screaming at me to rest.  I clenched my hand around it, and yanked the door open.  And then I heard it, a light, bubbly laugh that really shouldn’t have been coming from within my house.

Marcy was here.

For about half a second I stood in the doorway, frozen, before forcing myself to follow the sound.  I didn’t know whether to be thrilled, because well, I’d been missing my best friend like crazy, or pissed off because she’d actually come by.  She might be like a sister to me, but she had gone too far.  I couldn’t help but wonder if things might have played out differently between Aidan and me if she’d just stayed out of it all.

“Jade, look who finally came home,” Mom said, waving a hand toward Marcy as I padded into the kitchen.  By the look of her, it was a cleaning day.  Her thick, dark hair was tied up in a messy knot at the top of her head and she was wearing faded jeans and a bleach-stained T-shirt.

The team, plus Erika and Marcy, were all gathered around the table.  Landon looked well, hungry, but then he usually did.  His tall and lean frame was hunched over the table, his chin resting in his hands.  His bleach blond hair was gelled and spiked, and his baby blue eyes met mine for a brief second and he winked.  Beside him was Mark, the youngest member of our team, only seventeen.  He was leaning back, slouching in his chair, a thick arm draped over the back.  He had on a light grey hoodie, the hood pulled up, covering his mop of curls.  A few of them were poking out, framing the hard lines of his face.  And then there was Craig with his soft features.  Out of all of them, he looked the most unthreatening, sweet even, but his smaller size and warm smile were deceiving.  When he was on, he was deadly, but right then he was too involved with trying to get Erika’s attention to even notice we had come in.

Over the last few days, mealtimes had become a bit of a circus with them all here.  Our house wasn’t really small, but it also wasn’t big enough for this many people.  We
bought another table, a bigger one that barely fit within the kitchen, but at least it was big enough for us all to sit down at.

I finally let my gaze drift to Marcy.  “Hey,” I said, giving her a little nod.
She looked awkward sitting with the team.  Her cheeks were flushed, and deep crevasses marred her forehead.

“What are you doing here?” Jared questioned, stepping past me.  He hadn’t bothered putting on his shirt, instead draping it over his shoulders.  He gave Marcy a bored once over before sliding into his chair.

“Jared!  Marcy lives here, too.” Mom scolded, cutting him a disappointed look.  It didn’t even faze him.

“I thought maybe we could walk to school together,” Marcy said, or I guess croaked would be more like it.  “Aidan said you were going back today.”  She made sure to keep her eyes on me, as if she were trying to imagine that it was only us and that she wasn’t really sitting at a table with the pack enforcers.

I didn’t get a chance to answer before Jared said
No
as if he actually had the right to answer for me.

I pursed my lips and rolled my eyes at him.  “Oh, shut up, Jared.”  I didn’t care what
game
we were playing, I was still one of his alphas, even if he didn’t want to acknowledge it.

“Now, kitten.”  Jared’s voice was a low growl.  He didn’t bother looking at me, but his shoulders tensed and I was sure his eyes were a nice shade of gold right then.  “Is that any way to talk to your mate?”

“Will you shut up, please?” I said through gritted teeth, biting back the reminder that I wanted to spit out.  I wasn’t his mate — never would be — no matter how much my inner-wolf craved him.  This was an act.  Something to fool my dad.  Nothing more.

My response earned me a few chuckles from around the table, a long, drawn out groan from Erika, and an annoyed huff from Mom.  She pursed her lips and cut me a dirty look.

I rolled my eyes.  Mom had always wanted me to hook up with one of the pack members, and to say she disapproved of the way I spoke to Jared was definitely an understatement.

Jared looked up, meeting my eyes.
His flared brighter, and he said, “No, I don’t think I will.  You’re not walking to school.”  And then as if it were settled, he grinned at my mom and said, “Breakfast smells delicious, Pam.”

I watched him in stunned silence for a moment, my jaw dropping a little.  My blood was boiling.  It was a serious effort to calm down and not blurt out all the nasty things I wanted to say, but after a few deep breaths, I managed to shimmer down.

I glanced at the table; Jared and the team were already digging in and although my stomach was rumbling, I turned, heading out of the room.  Right then the last thing I wanted to do was sit down with my
so called
mate and play the sweet girlfriend part.  “Come on, Mac,” I said, waving a hand.

I hadn’t even made it to the doorway when Jared’s growled command reached my ears.  “Jade, sit down and eat.”

“I want to talk to her,” I said, turning toward him like an obedient mate would do, loathing myself for doing it, and if Mom hadn’t been there watching us, I wouldn’t have, or at least that’s what I tried to tell myself.

Jared dropped his fork, letting it clatter to his plate, and pushed his chair back.  His expression was lethal.  “I don’t like the idea of you walking alone.”  There was an underlying threat to his tone.

“I won’t be alone,” I said.  “And besides, we’re just going up to my room for now.”

He opened his mouth to say something else, but I didn’t want to hear it.  I channeled my scent, feeling the burn of my imprint as it heated beneath my top, sending out a clear warning for him to back the hell off.  He stiffened, and his jaw started to tick.  He tried to hold my glare, but he couldn’t, and I watched as his eyes started to drop.

Marcy didn’t miss what was happening.  She scrambled from her chair and darted over to me.  “Come on, Jade,” she said, nudging me with her elbow, “let’s go.”

~ AIDAN ~

It took five minutes for my head to clear enough to realize that the insistent knocking sound was actually someone at the door, and by that time the knocking had turned into a head-splitting thud, thud, thud. And even then, I stayed in bed, staring up at the ceiling.

Slivers of light streamed through the cracks along the
edges of my blackout blinds as the sun began to rise. I shifted my pounding head; the glowing red numbers on my alarm clock read 6:05.  I knew I should probably get up, see who the hell thought banging on my door at sunrise was a good idea, but honestly, right then I didn’t really care.

I fe
lt like hell.  My head was throbbing as if it had its own pulse, and my eyelids were sore, heavy. I’d only been asleep for about fifteen minutes and that fifteen minutes had been the longest I’d managed to sleep at once in the last three days.  Between the pack, the threat of the werecougars, and the constant, relentless urge to run out, find Jade, and drag her — kicking and screaming, if needed — away from that damn enforcer, sleep had become a luxury; a luxury that I was seriously craving.

I groaned and snagged a pillow, putting it over my head, hoping to drown out the banging.  Maybe if I ignored it, whoe
ver it was would just go away.

It didn’t work.

The thudding came again, loud enough that it felt as if it were shaking the entire house.  Where the hell was Dominic? He was supposed to be dealing with the pack and their petty issues. He was supposed to be giving me time to sleep.

I heaved myself out of bed, stumbl
ed over a pile of clothes, and banged into my dresser.  “Dammit!” I growled, kicking the pile of laundry out of my way.  The room I now called my bedroom was small, cluttered, with a king size bed and a worn mahogany dresser taking up most of the space.

I sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm my sour mood.  It helped
— a little.  Gritting my teeth, I headed downstairs, not bothering to get dressed.  Whoever it was wasn’t staying.

The banging came again, hard enou
gh to make the windows rattle.  I took the last few steps two at a time and crossed to the door in a few long strides, throwing it open. “What the hell do you want?” I growled, before it was even fully opened.

“Missed you, too, pup.” 
The deep, grumbling voice made my entire body stiffen and the temperature around me rocketed up at least twenty degrees. My inner-wolf woke up, clawing at my chest, itching to break free, and I swallowed hard, fighting him back.

I looked up, slowly.  I didn’t want to.
I wanted to slam the door shut, but I couldn’t make myself do it.  The two men standing on the deck were people I had wished to never have to see again.  Chris and Tommy, my dad’s most trusted enforcers, the ones that had helped Dad teach — torture — me as a kid, looked almost bored standing in front of me. My eyes swept over them.  They looked the same as I remembered: Chris, tall and thick, with a chiseled face and goatee, and Tommy, short, stocky, and bald. They were twice my age and had been with my dad since I was born.

“Get the hell off my deck.”
My tone was calm and controlled, masking the blazing anger that filled my core.  I moved forward, filling the doorframe, rolling my shoulders back and lifting my head, keeping my hard glare fixed on them.  My nerves were already fried, my patience at a breaking point, and this unwelcome visit only managed to send my stress level sky-rocketing.

Tommy smirked. 
“Your parents sent us.” He held out a hand, a folded piece of paper clasped between his fingers.

I narrowed
my eyes, glancing down at the paper, and my skin shuddered as my inner-wolf tried to push free.  It took a moment for my groggy, pounding head to catch up, but when it did, I groaned. 
Mom.
  I knew I shouldn’t have called her yesterday.  And I sure as hell shouldn’t have told her where I was or about the pack I had taken over, but after seeing Jade, the way Jared touched her, the way she smiled, that damn kiss … I’d caved.  I needed advice.  I needed …

Tomm
y waved the paper in front of me, waiting for me to take it.  “You going to just stand there, or let us in, kid?”

“Haven’t decided yet,” I said
, snagging the paper and unfolding it. I scanned the simple note, my jaw tightening with each word I read. 
Your mother filled me in. Use Tommy and Chris however you see fit. They are there to help and they will stay as long as you need them. I know I haven’t said this enough, but I’m proud of you, son.