Jay drew me to him. “I still need to tell the pack, baby.”
“Tell them what?” I asked. “Why do they need to be told anything about me?”
Romeo touched my shoulder. “You’re his plus one, Gina. He needs to make that clear to the pack. He can’t risk one of them hurting you, thinking they’re protecting their alpha. Jay would lose his shit—and trust me when I say that is not something anyone wants to have happen.”
I pressed myself to Jay’s side. “You’re going to sleep tonight if I have to club you over the head, knock you out, and force it to happen. If you think I won’t, you don’t know me very well.”
Romeo beamed. “She’s perfect for you, Jay.”
“I know. Now we just have to convince her of that,” said Jay with a nod.
Romeo wore a smug expression as he followed close behind us when Jay opened the side door. We entered the home, and my jaw dropped. I was only six feet in and already I knew the place should have been showcased on the front of a magazine. “Jayson!”
He offered a sheepish smile. “Yes?”
“You are never, ever allowed to come over to my apartment if this is what you like.” I wasn’t joking. I lived in a small one-bedroom apartment painted institution white on every wall. I had one loveseat that had never actually been sat on, a barstool that sat under the two-foot ledge in the cutout between the galley kitchen and living room, and a bed. That was it. I was a no-frills kind of girl when it came to my place.
Jay would never make it at my place.
And I didn’t make a habit of inviting anyone over.
He walked me into the biggest kitchen I’d ever seen.
Two men entered, all smiles until they saw me with him. The men all stared at each other, and I stiffened, realizing the men were shifters and they were all communicating mentally.
One’s eyes widened as he stared at me and then Jay.
My guess was, Jay just let them know I was a slayer. That or they smelled it on me.
Romeo rubbed my shoulders. “Relax. It’s fine.”
Easy for him to say. He was one of them. I was something that killed their kind when it was called for. Somehow, I didn’t think a welcome mat would be rolled out anytime soon.
Jay eased me closer to him. “We’ll hunker down here. It’s safer than being out there right now. Once we get a better handle on what’s happening, we’ll make our next move.”
I glanced at the shifter males just as four more entered the kitchen. “Is it really safer here for me?”
Jay turned and dipped his head, his lips close to mine. “It is.”
Believing him was difficult, especially with the way the newcomers narrowed their gazes on me.
Romeo only drove my point home when he eased himself out from behind us and planted his body between the men who had just entered the kitchen and me. Yeah. Sure felt nice and safe— compared to the vampire club, it probably was.
Not really an upsell.
Jay growled lightly and shot a look at the men, as if warning them, before he continued to lead me through the home.
We were almost to the grand staircase when a man I knew well walked out from a long hallway. I’d spent three years of my life with him, and then everything had ended in an instant. I’d not seen him since the day we’d parted ways.
16
My mind raced, sure I’d gone mad. Samuel couldn’t be standing in Jay’s home. What business would he have with the pack and how the hell did he even know Jay? None of it made any sense, yet there he was, plain as day—the man I’d spent three years of my life with. And the man who’d broken my heart.
His black hair was shorter than I remembered but still to his chin. He had a cell phone in his hand and he held it low, reading the screen. He stood as tall as Jay and actually looked a great deal like him, now that I saw them in the same room.
I couldn’t move or breathe. I let go of Jay’s hand.
Jay tried to get me to walk, but my feet remained in place as my heart pounded in my chest madly. Part of me wanted to cry. Another part wanted to shout at Samuel for what he’d put me through. I did neither. I just stared at him. “Gina?”
Samuel stiffened and looked up slowly, his dark brown eyes widening as he spotted me. Confusion flashed through his eyes. “Regina?”
I bit my lower lip, my body frozen in place, my mind still racing.
He dropped the phone and rushed me, lifting me in his arms. No words were spoken as his lips found mine. I didn’t return the kiss. I pretty much just stared wide-eyed, trying to wrap my head around why Samuel was at Jay’s house. And I was still torn between crying and yelling.
He walked while holding me before pressing me against the wall, still pressing his lips to mine. Within seconds, his hands were high on my thighs, his fingertips just under my cutoff jean shorts. I pushed at his hands to get him to stop.
It took me a second to realize someone was growling loudly while others were shouting.
“Samuel! Knock it off! We can’t hold him much longer!”
“Put her down, Samuel! Jay is losing his shit,” said another.
Pushing his hands away and moving my face to break the kiss, I locked gazes with him. “Sam?”
He tried to kiss me again, apparently unconcerned with the fact the other guys were still shouting at him. I dodged the kiss, tearing up.
Guess crying was going to win out.
He stared at me, wide-eyed. “Regina, hon, I couldn’t find you. I looked everywhere. I hired someone to try to find you, even. I realized about five minutes after we said good-bye that it was the wrong move. I came back looking for you, trying to make it right, but you’d vanished,” he said, touching my lips. “Wait. Why are you here?”
The pain he’d put me through back then filled my chest and I couldn’t help but shed a tear. I didn’t like showing weaknesses or feeing vulnerable. He made me feel both. I wiggled to get down, but he didn’t let me. “Put me down.”
“Tell me why you’re here,” he said, keeping me where I was.
“Jay brought me,” I said.
Samuel stiffened and set me down slowly, keeping himself in front of me as he turned to look at the sizable crowd we’d gathered.
As I peeked around him, I spotted at least a dozen men there, a chunk of them pinning Jay to the expensive marble floor, the others ready to grab Samuel if the need arose.
Jay snarled, his eyes amber, his teeth that of the wolf. He strained against the men pinning him down. “Get off me!”
A guy in a red shirt locked gazes with Samuel. “Are you fucking nuts? You do not make out with Jay’s woman!”
Samuel spun to look at me. “You’re with Jay?”
“As his friend, mostly. Okay, maybe more than a friend. I’m still unsure.”
“Hear the noise he’s making? It’s one a shifter male makes when he wants to protect his woman. It’s instinctual, Gina. So, I’ll ask again. Are you with Jay?” questioned Samuel snidely.
I felt like I was being asked to pick between the two. As if my answer was vitally important. “He’s very important to me. His wires are a little crossed. He thinks I’m his plus one. I’ve tried explaining I’m more than likely not. I mean maybe I am, but I don’t know. I do know he’s stubborn.”
Romeo was suddenly there, moving closer to me, as if to protect me. “She’s Jay’s mate. She just doesn’t quite believe us on that fact yet. And correction—they’re both stubborn.”
Samuel backed up, wiping his hands over his face. “Fuck.”
I tried to go to him, to calm him down, but Romeo held me back.
Samuel spun and punched the wall, not that far from where I was standing.
I actually jolted as he did, surprised to see a side to him that involved violence. He’d been nothing but sweet and tender when I was with him.
Romeo growled, throwing himself against me, pushing me back from Samuel and the others. He then turned, keeping me behind him. While I knew he was trying to protect me, I couldn’t help b
ut feel it was yet another example of a man thinking I couldn’t handle myself.
Jay roared, and the men on him were bucked off like they were barely there. The next thing I knew, Jay was charging Samuel.
Samuel growled, and I knew a fight was about to happen. They collided and began going at one another. The other men tried to tear them apart, but nothing they did worked. The pair fell over a table that had what looked to be an expensive vase on it. Another of the men caught the vase before it would have hit the floor, but the table was a lost cause.
Jay and Samuel kept going and the other men stepped back, as if they’d realized there was no breaking the two apart.
The idea of Jay and Samuel hurting one another made me sick to my stomach. Without thinking, I darted around Romeo and ran into the fray, pushing in between Jay and Sam. I shoved each of them hard as I drew on my slayer skills. I thrust them apart.
Sam tried to make a move at Jay again, and I shoved Sam hard enough to send him falling backwards.
I looked up at Jay, and while I wanted to be angry about his temper, I knew deep down that it hurt him to see Samuel kiss me, despite me not returning the kiss. Still, it didn’t make it okay for Jay to attack a human. He could kill Samuel with ease. “Jay, enough!”
The amber faded from his eyes and his mouth returned to normal. “You’re telling me enough, Gina? He fucking kisses you in my home, in front of me, but you’re yelling at me? Really?”
“You can’t attack Sam. He’s human and you could kill him without—” I thought about it harder. My gaze whipped to Samuel. “You’re a shifter?”
He flinched and averted his gaze, calming instantly. “Yes.”
“Not once in three years did you think to bring that up to me?” I asked, wanting to punch him myself and save Jay the time. “I told you the truth about me, and you let me sit there and spill my guts, but you never once said, ‘hey, I’m a wolf shifter’?”
Jay growled. “He’s your Sam? The guy you were with for three years?”
His men grabbed him again, pushing him back from me.
I lowered my gaze, hating that this was hurting him. “Yes. Sorry.”
Jay snarled. “You screwed my cousin! For three years!”
Putting a hand on my hip, I rounded on him, my finger going to his chest as I jabbed him. “And how many other women have you been with?” I asked, in a voice that said I wasn’t playing around. It wasn’t as if he didn’t have things in his past that he wished he could change. “And correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t you also sticking it to my best friend, Jayson?”
“He’s blood, Gina!” he shouted, as if that made all the difference in the world. As much as I knew this caused him pain, it didn’t give him the right to yell at me. He wasn’t a saint by any means.
“So?” I shot back.
He blinked. “So?”
I nodded. “Yeah. So what? Lindsay is like a sister to me. Didn’t stop you, did it? So, yes, so the fuck what? Sam and I were a couple. It’s history now. Just like you and Lindsay. So get it over it, dickhead.”
He blinked.
I didn’t stop. “Want to keep going on this or are you ready to dump the macho, alpha-man bullshit? Stop trying to piss on my leg and stop growling all the time, it’s annoying.”
Jay looked like he was going to say something but was at a loss for words.
My focus went to Sam. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth? It wouldn’t have changed how I felt about you.”
“Because my alpha had forbidden any of us from revealing what we are,” he said, his gaze flickering to Jay. “I thought you’d sense it on me, but you never did. I don’t know why. I was just happy you let me be part of your life.”
I glanced at Jay. “Jayson is big on keeping things from people he cares about. Like the fact he’s the pack’s head alpha and he’s apparently Richie Fucking Rich, so I shouldn’t be too surprised he ordered you to keep a secret from someone you cared about too.”
Again, Jay said nothing, looking thunderstruck.
My attention returned to Sam. “When you walked out the door, I left too. It hurt, a lot, for a long time…but I got over it. I’m not that person anymore, Samuel. In all honesty, you’re part of the reason why I stopped letting men into my heart. Why I’m afraid to trust Jay fully.”
There, I’d said it. It didn’t taste great going down, but it at least went.
Samuel closed his eyes a moment. “Regina, I’m serious. I came back five minutes later, wanting us to be together. I knew I’d made a mistake.”
That night was still fresh in my mind. The emotions were still raw, and I couldn’t go down that road again. “The fact you left at all is the problem, Sam. I would have never done that to you. You had the power to hurt me, and you did. A lot.”
Jay grumbled.
I ignored him, focusing on Samuel instead. “That being said, I want to know how you’ve been. What you’ve been doing. Did you ever find that perfect person you were searching for, the one who was ready to settle down, and try to have a family?”
“No,” he said, his voice low. “I’d had plans for that with you, but I knew you weren’t my mate, and I wasn’t sure how the pack would handle me being with you—a slayer.”
Romeo groaned. “And this just managed to get worse. Really, Samuel, you didn’t need to bring up wanting to marry her in front of Jay.”
I pointed at Romeo. “Why not? You’d just tell Jay about it later. Look, time saved.”
Romeo’s lips twitched before he laughed. “You do realize you’re perfect for our alpha, right? And somehow, you’re scarier than him, and you’re only like this high.” He put his hand up to his chin.
“Tall enough to kick you in the nads,” I said, eyeing his family jewels before I grinned and wiped my cheeks.
He cupped himself. “Samuel, you are on your own here.”
Samuel watched me. “Jay’s going to fucking kill me already, and I can’t get any more dead. So, I’m going to tell you that I’ve missed you so much.”
“I miss our friendship,” I said, my stomach tight. “You were my everything back then, and it all ended in the blink of an eye.”
“Samuel,” Jay ground out.
Samuel glanced downwards. “I’m sorry. I was close to turning my back on the pack to be with you, Regina, and I knew you weren’t ready for marriage yet. Our age difference left us at different places in our lives. I walked out, intending to return to the pack, but then I realized you were worth going rogue. But you were gone and, Regina, you really know how to stay off the grid. I’ve missed you, and I want to spend time with you too. But Jay won’t let that happen.”
“Sam, I would love to have coffee with you and catch up. To be clear, I don’t want to go down relationship memory road or re-kindle what was there, but I do want to know how you’re doing. Plus, the more Jay acts like an ass, the more I want to give you a hand job.” I winked.
Samuel coughed, his eyes wide.
“Gina!” shouted Jay.
“Oh, look, now I feel like blowing you, Sam. Think dumbass is going to keep going until you get anal?” I asked with a grin that said I was joking.
Sam’s lips twitched, because he knew my warped sense of humor well. “Knowing Jay? Yes. Hell, I’ll get twenty-four-hour access to you with as bad as his temper is.”
Grunting, Jay shook the men off him and came toward me. “I’m sorry. Please don’t blow my cousin.”
It was nearly impossible to avoid laughing.
Most of the men around us failed.
Romeo made no move to hide his laughter. He put a hand on the wall to support himself as he shook.
Jay dragged me into his arms and hugged me to him.
Putting my head to his chest, I returned his embrace. “You better?”
“I am.” He pushed my hair over my shoulders. “Gina, what if I have some food and drinks sent upstairs? We can get cleaned up and maybe watch a movie or something until we’re ready to get some sleep?”
I
lifted a brow. “This is a ploy to keep me away from Sam, isn’t it?”
“Partly,” he admitted. “The other part is, we need time together. Just us.”
“Okay, but we should bring your walking mood ring,” I pointed at Romeo, “because you have two outward settings. Funny and dickhead. He can decode your alpha-ness for me.”
The men laughed softly.
Jay winked. “I think we can manage without Romeo in the room with us.”
I glanced at Romeo. “I need you on speed dial.”
Romeo snorted. “He’ll behave.”
“He better.”
Jay touched my chin again. “That plan work for you? I particularly like it because it doesn’t involve you giving my cousin a hand job.”
I pressed my lips together. “I don’t know. It’s hard to beat that.”
Laughing, Jay bent and lifted me, putting me over his right shoulder. “Let’s go, Fiery One, before you unman me any more in front of the guys.”
I lifted my head and moved the veil of red hair hanging in my face. “Nice to meet you all. Sam, we’ll talk soon! Romeo, I’ll see you in about five minutes.”
Samuel watched Jay carrying me away and I couldn’t help but feel bad when I noticed the sad look in his eyes.
17
Jay hurried up the stairs and down a long hallway to the room at the end. He opened the door, carried me in, and then turned, shutting and locking the door behind him. He took me to the bed and plopped me down on it.
I looked around the room. It was massive. More than any one person needed. The bed was larger than a king-size. I wasn’t even sure how it could be that big, but it was. A set of French doors was directly across from the bedroom entrance. Moonlight spilled in through them, making a multitude of squares appear on the hardwood floor.
Bad Moon Rising: A Loup Garou World Novel (Tempting Fate Book 2) Page 12