by Wood, Vivian
Confused, she looked down. Sleek tawny fur was the first thing she saw. She was looking at Confused, she looked down. Sleek tawny fur was the first thing she saw. She was looking at
her wolf, somehow. No. She was the wolf. Tessa stood up, watching her own hands… paws, whatever, to test her theory. Surely enough, she was inside the wolf and the wolf was in there, too. The wolf was telling her to get a move on. She just had to figure out how to walk with four feet instead of two.
After a few attempts, Tessa was up and moving with ease. She took off at an easy lope, moving at incredible speed with no real effort.
Concentrating, she honed in on the growing beacon of Jace’s wolf. She slowed, the sheer sensation of running with her wolf almost intoxicating. She couldn’t believe she’d ever thought that this was unnatural; it was the opposite. Looking around, she spotted nice bit of brush to hide in.
Tessa dropped to her belly and crawled into the concealment, laying her head on her paws to wait for Jace.
THIRTEEN
“Your mate seems to have left you,” Maddie said, her disapproval evident. She went in through Jace’s front doorway to do a visual check even though she didn’t sense Tessa’s presence. She looked over at her brother, who was frowning.
“She never seems to stay where I tell her to stay,” he grumbled, checking the bedroom and bathroom.
“Funny thing, apparently women don’t like to be ordered around. Have you truly learned nothing from having a sister?” Maddie sassed back.
“It’s just… I need to know that she’s safe,” Jace replied, subconsciously rubbing a hand over his heart.
“And for that she needs to stay locked up in your house every minute of the day. Makes perfect sense,” Maddie said mockingly. Jace sighed, trying to explain.
“It’s like… when she’s standing next to me, I feel fine. Great, even. But if she’s out of my line of sight, I can’t think about anything else. How am I supposed to do my job and live my life if she won’t stay where I tell her to stay?”
“Jesus, you are such a dude. Your personal anxieties aren’t her problem, Jay. You’re just going to have to learn to work around it.”
“I’d rather just skip the whole-“
Jace trailed off, his brow creasing as he ran a hand over his face. He felt wrong, almost ill. His wolf had been making all kinds of racket for the last few minutes, but Jace was fastidiously blocking out his other half. The wolf was probably just going nuts over Tessa’s scent, which seemed to have soaked into every inch of Jace’s house.
“What’s wrong with you?” Maddie asked, crossing her arms as she eyed her brother skeptically. “You look like you’re about to puke.”
Jace thought he actually might if his wolf didn’t tone it down. With a sigh, Jace let down his barriers so that the wolf could have its’ say. The instant he did, every hair on his body raised to stand on end, and his heart started pumping like crazy.
Suddenly Jace was sensing Tessa, but not exactly Tessa. Tessa’s wolf was sending out a distress call, flooded with panic and fear. Jace took a deep breath, willing Tessa to show him what was wrong. He got a flash of Tessa’s scared face, then one of Jasper leaning close. He got a flash of a place he’d spent years trying to forget, and then Tessa was gone.
A rush of adrenaline surged through his veins. Tessa was in danger, and that was unacceptable.
Before Jace even realized it he was running, and Maddie had to sprint just to keep him in sight. As they made it into the forest Maddie was harried by the dense brush and trees, whereas Jace just went through everything like a steamroller.
Minutes or hours or years streamed by as Jace full-out toward the cabin Tessa had shown him. He wasn’t conscious of anything but the slam of his heart in his chest, the harsh rasp of his breathing as he barreled toward his destination.
When they reached a clearing surrounding the cabin, Jace skidded to a halt. Lifting his face, he scanned the area cautiously. Of course Jasper would lure him here.
“Come out, Jasper,” Jace’s voice rang out commandingly.
A rustle, and then a huge blonde man dropped from a tree on the opposite side of the A rustle, and then a huge blonde man dropped from a tree on the opposite side of the
clearing.
“Are you ready to accept my challenge?” the other man asked, his tone surly. “I will fight you, Jasper, but not until I’ve seen to Tessa,” Jace responded threateningly. “She’s run off into the woods, if you can imagine. I figure we fight and the winner gets to
chase her down and talk her into the bite,” Jasper said, seeming almost amused. “That sounds great. Unfortunately, I’ve already claimed her. She’s made her decision,” Jace
said, trying for smug but failing.
“I don’t believe you, Copeland. If you’d bit her you’d be doing a victory dance right now,
crowing about it. You always were proud of yourself,” Jasper retorted.
“Jesus, Jasper. It’s been nearly fifteen years since we’ve laid eyes on one another. You don’t
know me from Adam,” Jace growled back.
“That doesn’t make me wrong about you,” Jasper said with a sneer. Both men looked up as
Maddie crashed awkwardly into the circle in her human form.
“Maddie, go find Tessa,” Jace snapped.
Jasper had gone still, staring at Maddie. She stared right back, challenging him. They both
bristled, tensing to attack.
“Leave my sister out of this, Jasper. She’s got nothing to do with this,” Jace growled, his
voice dropping so deep it grated.
Maddie’s eyes widened just a fraction.
“You?” she said to Jasper, “You are here for her too?”
Jasper stayed silent, not daring to drop his gaze.
“Tessa. It’s all about Tessa. Well I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the golden girl
already belongs to my brother,” Maddie hissed.
Jasper laughed coldly.
“My father was right. I should have taken you before you grew such a strong will. Too bad
he’ll never know he was right. He would have loved to lord that over me.”
“Was?” Jace asked, looking up at the other man.
“I put him down two years ago,” Jasper said, making no effort to hide the pain in his voice. “Why didn’t you come to me? I would have helped,” Jace said, the anger bleeding away
from his voice.
“It doesn’t matter. I have to find Tessa,” Jasper responded, his voice thickened with old
emotions.
Suddenly they both turned to look at a spot on the edge of the clearing, and the soft rustle of
leaves announced that they were not alone. A gorgeous white wolf ducked into view, trotting a
few feet into the circle before stopping to take in the scene. She was breathtaking, marked on her
forepaws and behind her ears with a luscious chocolate brown.
Jace’s heart stopped, then began pounding out of control. The second he saw Tessa, a dual
waves of relief and possessiveness swept through him. She wasn’t just some random Ascendant
anymore, Jace realized. Somewhere along the way he’d stopped hating her smart mouth and
stormy eyes; now he couldn’t even imagine her with anyone else. She was Jace’s female and
he’d die before he saw her with anyone else. He couldn’t live with that.
Swallowing, Jace pushed back the tide of emotion that threatened to overtake him. He didn’t
have time to examine the exact nature of his feelings, but they felt frighteningly like love. He started to take a step toward her, only to be stopped by the click of a gun being cocked.
Jace glanced up to find Jasper aiming a gun at Tessa, looking apologetic.
“I’m sorry, Jace. I can’t let her go until I’ve got what I came for. I won’t leave here without a
mate,” he said miserably.
“
You can’t have her, she’s already mine,” Jace said, tensing for a fight. If Jasper shot at
Tessa, Jace wouldn’t pull any punches. He’d kill his childhood friend on the spot without a
second thought.
“Just let them go, Jasper,” Maddie demanded furiously.
“And what good will that do me?” Jasper rasped, his eyes glued to Maddie’s face as if
soaking in every detail.
“Let them go, and I give you my word that we will exchange bites,” Maddie said. The gorgeous white wolf let out a snarl, voicing her disapproval at the same time that Jace
did. Jasper was quiet for a long moment, studying Maddie’s face as if to discover her intentions.
He lowered the gun slightly, not looking away from Maddie.
“Not good enough. If I let them go, we exchange bites now and figure the rest out later,”
Jasper demanded.
“No!” Jace shouted.
“Fine,” Maddie agreed, licking her lips nervously as she eyed Jasper.
“It’s a deal,” Jasper said, his eyes trained on Maddie.
“Fine.”
Jasper lowered his weapon and beckoned Maddie over. She walked purposefully over to
Jasper and turned around, baring her neck.
Jasper ran two fingers along the curve where her neck and shoulder met, eliciting a shiver
from Maddie. The next second he struck, sinking his teeth deep until she cried out. Jace and Tessa both released guttural snarls, both moving in as if to attack. Maddie simply
held up a hand, gesturing for them to stay back. Jasper released her and pulled back, examining
his work.
“I’m fine,” she croaked, wincing. “It’s done.”
She turned to Jasper, who threw the gun to the ground. He had eyes for no one but Maddie,
and when she stepped close to him his whole body shuddered with anticipation. Maddie didn’t flinch from slipping her arms around his neck and pulling him close. Her bite
was incredibly fast, almost over before it began. She pulled back from Jasper a little bit, looking
up into his face.
The air was saturated with things unsaid, and Jace swallowed bile as he watched his beloved
Maddie in the arms of a man he’d come to loathe. True, she certainly seemed fine with the
whole thing, but he’d had much higher hopes for his sister. A red mist began to haze his vision as
he realized the whole problem could be solved if Jace just killed Jasper.
Jace moved again to strike, but Maddie turned to him and let out a deep growl. Just like that,
she took Jasper’s hand and they were pushing out of the clearing. Jace stood openmouthed,
watching the last fifteen years of his life go up in flames, a complete waste.
FOURTEEN
Jace couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything but listen to the blood rushing in his ears as Maddie left hand in hand with none other than Jasper McDonough. He honestly couldn’t decide if he was going to be sick or not; even worse, some part of his mind seemed to be shredding into tiny shards.
At last fur brushed his leg, and then his hand. He looked down to find Tessa’s glorious wolf leaning against him, calming him. Even in this form he could read the sympathy and caring in her expression. He knelt to run his hands over her coat, awed by her fierce beauty.
Her coat was thick and soft to the touch, and he loved the feel of it. Her breathing was ragged, reminding Jace how difficult the first change could be. Tessa was overdoing it, and she could hurt herself if she stayed in her wolf form too long this time.
Jace took one last look toward the spot where Maddie had disappeared, and then concentrated on Tessa. Jace pulled the snowy wolf into his arms and awkwardly carried her into the cabin. Laying her down on the bed, Jace knelt to put his face at her level.
“Tessa. I need you to change back. Just remember what it’s like to feel your human self. Remember the feel of your arms and legs, your neck, your hands. Remember it and just let go of your wolf, my love,” he said, his tone a bit desperate.
Her form wavered and shimmered for several long beats before flashing to reveal her human form. Jace climbed up onto the bed and shook her gently, trying not to stare at her naked body.
He pulled her close as he waited for her to awaken. His heart swelled painfully at her proximity, which caught him off guard. Jace had fastidiously maintained physical and emotional distance from everyone except his sister, and yet here he was pulling Tessa close, waiting anxiously for her every breath. The worst part that while the anxiety was painful, a deeper part of him was thrilled to have a woman in his arms. Not just any female, either. His female, he thought with an unwelcome surge of pride.
Jace had never had such a pure moment of wanting. It was physical, yes. But there was more, a deeper and more satisfying level of being with his female that pulled at him relentlessly. He wanted her for more than the sum of her parts, and it was slowly driving him crazy.
Tessa’s eyelids fluttered, slowly revealing her intense gray gaze. A smile creased the corner of her mouth as she looked at Jace sleepily.
“You came. I wasn’t sure you would come,” she said sleepily, rubbing her face against his knee like a cat.
“Of course I came,” Jace said, trying not to sound offended. Jesus, if she thought that… he really had been nothing but a bastard to the only woman… he pushed the thought away.
“Well, it’s just…,” Tessa said with a yawn, pulling one of the blankets over her body and sitting up.
Jace leaned forward and brushed a kiss against her lips. Tessa gave one of those breathy little sighs that he just couldn’t resist, and then he couldn’t resist kissing her more deeply.
“We should go. I’m sure you hate the sight of this place by now,” Jace said gently.
“I can think of places I’d want to be less right now,” Tessa said with a smile.
“Like Bourbon Street?” Jace joked.
“I was thinking of Brookline, but Bourbon Street is definitely on my list too.”
“Where is Brookline?”
“It’s the part of Boston where I grew up. It’s very private.”
“I’ll take that to mean very rich,” Jace said tartly.
“Pretty much. The joke goes, ‘Why choose between a pool and a tennis court when you can have both? Because in Brookline even God can’t afford that much land.’”
Tessa tensed and waited for the inevitable questions: what’s your family like? Do you have any siblings? Pets? It was one of the first conversations she’d had with James. That’s how he’d known to kidnap the one person Tessa would die to protect.
As usual, Jace surprised her.
“Yeesh. This must all seem pretty broke down to you,” Jace said as he waved a hand to indicate their surroundings.
“I didn’t mean it that way. I left because I didn’t want to live there,” was her snippy reply.
“I can see how you would find that lifestyle tiresome.”
Tessa turned and looked at Jace, scanning for signs of sarcasm. She found none. His face was unshuttered, as if his statement was simply an appraisal of Tessa’s character. A positive appraisal, at that.
“What?” he asked, “I’m just saying you seem more of a Prius girl than a Mercedes C Class kind of girl.”
“How do you know I drive a Prius?!” Tessa demanded, shocked.
Jace rocked back in the chair with a chuckle, the movement rippling down his long frame. Damn if he wasn’t just hot as hell. That laugh sent a little shiver up the back of Tessa’s neck, and she had to work to pull her gaze away from his mouth.
“It was just a guess,” he said with another casual shrug.
Tessa flopped down on the bed, rolling her eyes. Jace pulled up a chair, seeming to take up the entire room. He somehow folded his limbs comfortably to fit in the oversized chair, and watched Tessa thoughtfully.
“I found a sore spot, apparently,” Jace comme
nted.
“Know it alls run in my family. I can’t even say who was the worst, my mother or my sister.”
“And here I thought all women were supposed to have daddy issues.”
Tessa snorted.
“Not the ones who were daddy’s little girl. My dad worshipped my mom.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s how most families are run. My mother may have been smaller than my father, but she had the final say. Her veto power was unassailable.”
“Was… like past tense?” Tessa asked, recalling the lone family photo she’d seen at his house.
“Our parents died when I was fifteen and Maddie was eight. We were fostered into this pack back then. We were some of the lucky ones,” Jace said, unconsciously tensing as he talked about the past. Tessa should let it go, but she couldn’t.
“You didn’t have any aunts or uncles to take you in? No one in the pack?” Tessa pressed, unable to believe that anyone would turn away two orphans.
“My entire family was killed. The Den was firebombed during the night, and most of those who made it past the bombs were gunned down. Only a few survived out of the whole pack, and they were all cubs. The adults died protecting us,” Jace said, his eyes going dark as they drifted upward, remembering.
Tessa cursed inwardly, wanting to kick herself for having asked such a painful question.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t- I shouldn’t have asked,” she said.
“It’s in the past. But you can imagine that Maddie and I are very close. She’s a brat, but she’s my best friend, you know?” he said, a sad smile flickering across his face.
“I do know. My sister Camilla is also a brat, but I love her to pieces. She can give really great advice if you can get her to listen.”
Tessa flushed as Jace’s gaze swept over her, studying her pensively. He was quiet for several long beats before he spoke.
“Just ask. I don’t mind.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You want to know who killed my pack. Am I wrong?”
“No. I just don’t want to dredge up things better left in the past,” Tessa said, biting her lip.
“I think I need to tell you. It explains a lot about why I prefer to avoid humans,” Jace said softly.