Guards? Calm them down? Rubbing my clammy palms against my thighs doesn’t help to keep my head from spinning. I feel like I’m going to snap. I’ve lost all sense of sanity.
“Let me help you with your seatbelt.” Lev tries to push me back against the seat, but I’m still worried about Lizzie and I don’t want to just blindly do what they say. Anxiousness wreaks havoc in my mind and I’m getting increasingly upset with how secretive they’re being. I push back against Lev’s muscular arms, although I may as well be pushing on a brick wall.
“I don’t want to wear it.” I’m aware I sound like a petulant child but I’m losing it, quickly spiraling downward. I need something to grip onto. I need Lizzie. He looks like he wants to say something, but he clamps his mouth shut. “How exactly did he ‘calm her down?’” I stare into Lev’s eyes, urging him to answer me.
Finally, he says, “He really wants you to wear your seatbelt.”
Motherfucker!
Staring down the beast of a man who, I do acknowledge is being kind at the very least, I bite back, “Well, Devin’s not here, is he? So he can shove what he wants up his ass.” Jude’s loud laugh startles me and Lev covers his mouth with the back of his hand as he fakes a cough in an effort to hide his growing smile.
“Let me tell you a secret about werewolves, Grace.” Jude pipes up from the front seat sounding very happy with himself. “As long as we’re within a few miles of each other and concentrate, we can hear what the others are thinking and saying.” I suck in a sharp breath and scrunch my nose. That’s not something I’ve ever heard or read before, but I guess he did say it was a secret.
The car slows down, and the brakes slightly screech as the blur of trees lessens. Goosebumps spread across my skin and prick their way up the back of my neck.
Jude pulls over to the side of the dirt road and stops. Thump, thump. The beating quickens in my chest. I look over my shoulder through the back window to see the car that’s been following ours pull up behind us. Fuck.
I bite the inside of my cheek and ask, “Does that mean he can hear me too?” This is good, I try to convince myself, giving myself a pep talk although my body is on fire with fear.
“Well no, he can’t hear you,” Jude starts as he puts the car in park and twists his body so he can look back at me. “But he can tell what we’re thinking about what you’re saying.” I start to panic at the realization that the Alpha knows I disrespected him. That’s probably like telling a mob don to fuck off.
Fuck. Fuckity fuck. My lungs still and I look everywhere around us to find no one moving yet. Maybe I should have just shut the hell up. My temper shouldn’t be getting the best of me. My head spins with fear and desperation, my gaze shooting to the handle on the car door.
“Why …” I want to ask why we pulled over since we seem to be in the middle of nowhere, but the words are stuck in my throat. Lev opens his door and gets out first, allowing a gust of cool air to filter into the car. My body starts to shake. Bracing his hands on the roof, he leans his head into the car and smiles at me.
“Relax, Grace, we’re just switching people around. We’re only a few minutes away, but Devin thinks it’s best that you see him now.”
I don’t move. I don’t say anything as the heavy footsteps come quicker than I’m prepared for.
Devin’s faster than I can imagine. There wasn’t a moment for me to will my body to move or to run. The car tilts slightly as he climbs into the seat next to me. His masculine, woodsy scent drifts into my lungs and suffocates every thought. He’s tall, his jaw sharp and every inch of his corded muscles are showing with his sleeves rolled up. My chest rises and falls chaotically.
“You’ll be quiet until we get home.”
It’s all he says, the words spoken in a deep low tone and anger pulses inside of me, but something else takes over with a force I can’t describe.
“I’m scared,” I say, whispering the truth although it’s not for the same reasons I’ve been terrified throughout the day … this is something completely different. As if my body, even my soul, knows my life has been irrevocably changed simply because this man looked my way.
“Don’t be,” he responds and that’s when his gaze meets mine for the first time. It’s sharp and silver and all-consuming.
Devin
Shove what I want up my ass? I kept my face emotionless in front of my pack, but I couldn’t help smiling on my way over to her car. I’m glad she’s feisty. My mate, my Grace. I love the way her name sounds on my tongue.
I stare at my mate from the corner of my eye. My mate is Alpha as fuck; the powerful force is rolling off of her gorgeous body in waves. If I was a lesser wolf, I’d feel the need to bow to her. It’s unbelievably sexy and entirely unexpected from a human. She’s subdued, though. At the realization, my grin vanishes and the impassive mask returns. Something’s beaten down her Alpha, and I’m going to find out exactly what happened.
At least she’s better off than her friend. Calmer, more in control. Something’s very wrong with Elizabeth. I was two seconds away from putting her friend in the trunk. It really would’ve been for the best. She won’t stop calling out for my mate and fighting, which is only causing her to hurt herself. But Dom wouldn’t have enjoyed that. Caleb wouldn’t have liked it either. I feel so fucking sorry for my betas. Having to share your mate … that’s a problem I’m not sure how to solve. Dom’s already fighting an uphill battle. Liz denied him. Screamed at him, pushed him away and beat him repeatedly. It’s unheard of for a mate to react that way. She didn’t gentle in his arms like my mate did for me. Grace only pushed away from me to get to her friend, her pack. That’s what an Alpha does. A chill runs down my spine; that better have been the only reason she pushed away.
Dom shouldn’t worry, though. Liz’s heat will come soon enough and she’ll be begging for him … or Caleb. It’s a damn mess. I’m going to have to figure something out before they kill each other.
The headaches don’t stop there. Vince felt his mate in the stadium, just like I felt Grace last year. It’s going to be hell keeping him off human territory. I should know.
In the meantime, I can’t even tell Grace she’s my mate. If I did, then Dom and Caleb would have to come up with a way to tell Elizabeth, or Lizzie rather, that she belongs to both of them. And that can’t happen until they figure out their shit.
With the strongest members of my pack distracted over their mates, I should be concerned about us being prepared for the inevitable fallout from my old pack, but all I can think about is Grace. She’ll be going into heat soon; I can smell it coming on and I can see it in the flush of her skin. All I need to do is get her alone.
Part II
The Alpha
Grace
“What do you know about werewolves?” Devin, the Alpha, looks at me expectantly, his sharp silver eyes penetrating mine. His intense stare makes my heart beat chaotically. There’s an overwhelming feeling of power radiating off of him. His elbow is planted on his large maple desk with his chin resting on his fist. Devin’s dark brunette hair has a messy look to it that’s sexy as fuck and his five o’clock shadow is begging me to rub against it. I imagine how his stubble would feel against my inner thighs while he laps at my clit, sucking it into his mouth and letting it go with a pop. I clench my thighs and swallow thickly in an attempt to suppress these sudden urges. What the fuck is going on with me? Devin’s gaze heats as a knowing grin pulls at the corners of his mouth. I purse my lips in response to his arrogance.