by Milly Taiden
He took in her profile as she looked out the window. The curve of her face and her soft lips and the way her dark hair fell in silken waves past her shoulder.
There was something about her that pulled him, and it was more than just her amazing scent and her lush, full body.
She sat less than two feet away and his wolf stalked beneath the surface, so much so, he had to tamp down on the urge to spread her wide and take her then and there on the cracked leather seat.
“You okay?” she asked, turning again.
His wolf howled inside and the sound was possessive. The overwhelming feeling to dominate sent shock waves through his mind. With all the women he’d had over the years, no one had stirred his wolf, his cock, and his very mind like this. He pushed the unnerving feeling away, burying it deep, and willing his wolf to recede along with the hard bulge behind his zipper.
The taxi pulled in front of the restaurant and Jaylon paid the driver as Becca got out on the opposite side.
“Beautiful,” she said as the two walked in and were seated on the deck. The sun gleamed on the water and on her dark hair, both awash with bright highlights.
Becca sighed and then took in a breath, wrinkling her nose. “Oh man, I did not expect that in such a still setting.” She raised a knuckle to the end of her nose.
“You might want to watch your scenting. This is Central Park, but you’re still going to get a nose full of city, no matter what. I’m out on the island and we still get city fumes from time to time, even with the ocean breeze as a filter.” Jay nodded.
The waitress walked over with her pen and pad. “What can I get you?”
Becca gave the menu a cursory glance. “I’ll have the Boathouse burger, medium rare, with hand cut potato fries and a Blue Moon beer with an extra slice of orange.”
The server scribbled on her pad and then looked at Jaylon. “I’ll have the same,” he replied.
“What do you mean, out on the island?” Becca asked as the waitress walked away.
“Long Island.” He shrugged. “You know, the Hamptons and the farthest point east in New York State? My pack is out on Montauk Point.”
She pointed to herself. “Pineland Leap. Sentinels of the New Jersey Devil out in the Pine Barrens.”
He snorted. “I thought the New Jersey Devil was a tourist myth.”
Becca laughed. “No, he’s real all right, but he’s actually a pussy cat.”
“Then why all the terrifying accounts?” he asked.
“Well, we have to do something to amuse ourselves out in the sticks,” she answered with a wink.
Jaylon’s eyes went wide with humor. “No! All those sightings and eerie sounds you see on the news. That’s you?”
She shrugged. “Not me, personally, but Leap teenagers like to mess with the humans sometimes.”
He made a face.
“What? Not a fan of made-up mythology?” she questioned with a tilt of her head.
The waitress brought their drinks and set them on the table. “Your food will be out soon. We’re not that busy today.”
Jaylon nodded. “Thanks.”
“So? Why the face?” Becca tried again.
He smirked, toying with his beer. “You’re a persistent one, aren’t you?”
“I can be.” She nodded. “It comes with the territory when you come from a small Leap.”
“My guess is your definition of small is more in line with an M-80. Petite but powerful.”
She pursed her lips. “Define powerful.”
“Touché, again.” He lifted his drink in mock salute.
She squeezed the slice of orange into her citrusy brew, eyeing him over her beer. “You didn’t answer my question, which means you’re evading.”
“No, it’s not that.” He exhaled. “It’s embarrassing to admit to another shifter. The teens in my pack are making my life very difficult.”
She cocked her head. “How so? You a teacher?”
Jaylon chuckled, shaking his head. “I wish it was that simple.” He looked at her. “I’m the Alpha of my pack now.”
He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination or if the hesitation he saw was surprise or disappointment. Usually finding out a guy was the supreme of his particular group was an immediate aphrodisiac for most women. Then again, Becca didn’t seem like most women. Which was probably why his wolf wanted her so much.
“Jaylon, I’m—” Her words cut short in her mouth and she turned, eyeing the window to the inside bar.
“What is it?”
She spared a glance for Jaylon, but shook her head. “Nothing, you were saying?”
“I wasn’t saying, you were.” He watched her. “What happened? You looked as though you saw someone you know.”
She shook her head again. “For a second I thought I saw the acquaintance I was supposed to meet, but that’s not possible.”
“I thought you texted her.”
“I did, I mean I will. It’s—well, it’s awkward, that’s all.” Becca exhaled.
“What’s awkward about postponing a meeting? I had one scheduled for this afternoon as well, but I’m hoping this lunch turns into a dinner and if so, I have every intention of rescheduling mine as well.”
She waved a hand in front of her. “It’s nothing. Forget it.”
Their food came and he studied her as they ate in initial silence, hesitating before picking up the conversation again.
She was hiding something.
“So, tell me more about your pack,” he asked, chewing a mouthful. “I’m always curious to see how other shifters work.”
“There’s not much to tell. We’re a small Leap that holds a lot of territory in the Pine Barrens. The preserve is over a million acres of unspoiled wilderness. It’s amazing, really. Unfortunately, though, being small means we have a hard time keeping what’s ours, and our numbers have suffered.” She looked at him. “What about you?”
“Unlike yours, my pack is pretty mainstreamed. Deep Water is spread across the entire Island and even into Manhattan. We have a main council in Montauk, but they’re more figurehead than anything. Sad, really.”
“Why sad?” she asked.
“Our assimilation into the human world is seamless, so much so, it’s become a bit of a problem.”
“Problem?” Confused, she questioned him.
He nodded. “Many of our youth are half-bloods, and lately they seem more interested in their human side. They’ve lost touch with their inner animals, and what’s worse, they don’t seem to care.”
“Shifters can’t stop being shifters, Jaylon. I think you might be worrying over nothing.”
His eyes found hers and his lips parted, stunned she voiced the exact sentiment he said to his father only the day before. He didn’t hear it then, but the inherent brashness was clear now and he bristled.
“I don’t think I’m worrying over nothing. Being out in the sticks as you call it, how would you know what it’s like to weigh the stresses and influences of the outside on a shifter clan?” His tone tightened.
“A strong Alpha does what needs to be done for his kind. Really, Jaylon, for an Alpha you sound new to the game.”
The muscle in his jaw clenched. “Maybe we should change the subject.”
She looked at him. “I shouldn’t judge you by my standards and I’m sorry. Every grouping is different and every Alpha has different ways of handling their own.”
He put down his fork with a low clatter. “What would you know about handling anything, let alone the responsibilities of an Alpha? You’re a female. Your domain is pups or kittens or whatever leopard litters are called.”
7
Becca froze with her beer halfway to her lips. She put the glass down and the wiped her mouth on a napkin. “Cubs, you misogynistic mutt! Leopards have cubs.” Her gaze flicked to her watch. “Only two hours in and you show your true colors. Wow. I should be grateful you got to it so quickly. At least now, I’ve only wasted part of my afternoon instead of the whole day.”
> She pushed her chair back, the shudder spilling her beer across the wrought iron table, splashing his feet and legs.
“Jesus! Becca!”
“Thank you for lunch and the illuminating conversation, Jaylon. Looks like you won’t need to reschedule your meeting after all.”
She unhooked her purse from the side of her seat and stormed out.
“Becca! Wait!” Jaylon’s chair fell backwards as he rushed after her, grabbing her by the arm as she rounded the path toward the exit.
A low growl left her throat as she tried to jerk her arm free. “I’ll probably end up in jail, but you’ll crawl back to your pack with your tail between your legs and my claw marks across your face if you don’t let go of me, right now!”
“Becca, please. This whole Alpha thing is a sore subject. Your instincts were right. I am new to the game. The transfer of power just happened and it’s the reason I’m in the city today. I’m not a misogynist. I love women. All kinds of women.”
She raised an eyebrow. “A prolific hound dog and modest, too. You are so not helping yourself, mutt.”
“Argh! I didn’t mean that the way it sounded either!” His eyes sought hers.
“You’ve got two seconds to let go of my arm or I claw the smug right off your muzzle.”
He let go. “I am not smug.”
Becca stared him down but didn’t turn on her heel like he thought.
“You play the suave, silver-tongued devil when it suits you, but the moment the conversation turns remotely substantive you clam up and then suddenly can’t express yourself?” She turned it back on him. “Sorry, not buying it.”
“I can express myself. Come back to the table and I’ll tell you whatever it is you want to know.” He gestured toward the patio.
“I can’t.” She glanced at her watch. “It’s late and I still have to meet my friend and then head back to Penn Station. There’s no commuter rail with multiple time tables home. It’s Amtrak, so if I miss my train, I’m stuck.”
“Give me a chance to make this up to you. I’m really not a shallow Neanderthal. I’ll even get you a hotel room for the night. Only spend the rest of the evening with me.” He moved to tug her back toward the table.
“People are watching, Jaylon.”
“As well they should. You have no idea how sexy you look all angry and fierce.”
She followed him back to the table. The wait staff had cleaned up her spilled beer and replaced it with a fresh one. Becca pulled out her chair and sat, but kept her purse on her shoulder.
“I’ve had women pissed at me before, but I’ve never had one threaten to disfigure me. It’s scary and intoxicating, as I’m guessing you are by nature.” He exhaled with a tentative chuckle.
“You’ve never met a leopard before,” she shot back.
“True. I’m glad you’re my first.”
“Try again, lover boy. I want talk, not flirting.”
“So, if I told you how your scent is driving me crazy, you’d claw me with one hand instead of two, right?” He tried humor again, and this time she smirked. “Well, not quite a smile, but it’ll do.”
“Talk, Jaylon.”
He explained what happened as best he could, giving her the Reader’s Digest version, but he purposely left out his upcoming meeting with the matchmaker.
“They want to make you a role model for your pack? Why are you having a hard time with that? Most Alphas are the ultimate mentors for their kin.”
He grinned. “Did you actually use the word kin?”
Annoyed heat tickled her cheeks. “So? It fits.”
He shrugged, chuckling. “Yeah, but it’s so—”
“Mountain man?” she cut in.
Jaylon’s grin went ear-to-ear. “I was thinking hillbilly, but that works, too.”
“Leopards aren’t just lowland forest animals. My Leap was originally from the mountains, but had to migrate because feuds were killing too many of our males.”
He burst out laughing. “You make it sound like the shifter version of the Hatfields and the McCoys.”
Frowning, she took a deep drink from her beer. “Yuck it up, puppy. Keep poking fun and you’ll be paying for a night at the Plaza before the night is out.”
Jaylon reached across the small round table and lifted her free hand to his lips. “Worth every cent. And I wasn’t lying earlier. Your scent is branded on me now. I can’t get enough of it or you, Becca. I don’t know what happened when you crashed into me, but life as I know it is over.”
Becca slipped her hand from his and pulled it back across the table. “I don’t know, Jaylon. Too much, too soon. I have obligations as well. Obligations I can’t really get into.”
In that moment, she was unreadable and Jaylon’s wolf howled. He needed more time.
“I need to make a quick phone call.” Jaylon got up from his chair. “I’ll be right back.”
He walked toward the restaurant’s interior, his hand already reaching for his phone.
“C’mon, c’mon. Pick up,” he mumbled as the line rang.
“Jaylon Ross. I hope you have a good reason for keeping an old lady waiting in a coffee shop for an hour.”
“I apologize, Mrs. Wilder. It couldn’t be helped.”
“Is that so?”
“Look, I know I reached out for help with my situation, but I managed to work things out on my own.”
“I see.”
His eyes narrowed at her quiet reply. “Do you?”
The older woman chuckled on the other end of the phone. “More than you know. When something good happens to stumble into your arms, you have to go with your gut.”
“It’s funny you should use that expression.”
“Which expression?” she questioned.
He chuckled. “Stumble into your arms.”
“Hmmm, yes,” Gerri replied. “Escalators, like one’s love life, can be tricky to navigate.”
Slack-jawed, Jaylon blinked, not knowing how to respond, but the line went dead before he got the chance and he stood beside the interior bar, stunned.
Was the old woman psychic or was she spying on him? Or was Becca the one he was supposed to meet all along? Jaylon wished he’d paid more attention to what his father told him.
Composing himself, he watched Becca through the dining room windows. She picked up a steak fry and licked the salt from its crispy underside. The innocent gesture was so unconsciously erotic, his cock jerked in response.
The sight of her pink tongue and how it curled around the golden french fry left him groaning at the thought of that same full mouth on his hard length.
His inner wolf growled, pacing in its inner cage, fighting with him to drag her beneath the nearest tree and take her.
A wash of predatory images took him again and he had to suck in a slow, steadying breath, the word MINE bouncing off his brain. Nothing and nobody had ever made him feel like this before, and if fate played the way he wanted, no one else ever would.
Becca would be his.
8
Becca finished the last of her burger, chewing slowly as her mind raced. Shifter Neanderthals need not apply. Those were her words to Lyssa just hours earlier. Ironic how Jaylon swore he was none of the above using the same word. Neanderthal.
Shifter males were rock-hard by nature and not just when it came to their man parts. She shook her head. Single-minded. Pigheaded, even. Especially when it came to females. Her lips pursed, wondering what Jaylon would say when he found she was Prowl Leader of her Leap.
If it was anyone else she’d expect the fur to fly, but despite Jaylon’s chauvinistic moment, her gut told her he wasn’t a typical shifter male. Not in that way and not that she would tell him. Nor would she admit her inner cat was the only reason he got a chance at redemption.
Feline purr power or not, the jury was still out on the Alpha male wolf. Especially since it was hard keeping her focus with him close enough to kiss. She didn’t need the odds stacked any more in his favor by him playing the phero
mone game with her inner pussy.
Becca grinned at the deliberate pun and plopped half a fry in her mouth, running her tongue along the salty bottom seam of her lip.
“That has got to be the sexiest way I’ve ever seen someone eat a french fry,” Jay commented as he stepped behind his chair.
She coughed, embarrassed at being caught unawares. “That’s quite a stealthy approach you’ve got, wolf boy,” she answered, wiping her mouth on her napkin.
“I could say the same about your sex appeal, Miss Kitty. Quiet, but deadly.”
She wrinkled her nose, grimacing. “Point taken. No silly names.”
Jaylon winked, pulling his chair out to sit down. “Glad you agree.”
Becca glanced toward the restaurant, her curiosity getting the best of her. Who did he call and why so abruptly? “Is everything okay?”
He reached for the check the waitress left at the table. “With what? The check?”
She shook her head. “No, with your call.” Becca gave a chin pop toward the glass windows.
“That? Yeah, why?”
She shrugged. “No reason.”
Dismissing the query, Jaylon reached for his wallet to slip his credit card into the black leather folio. His distracted manner left her studying his face. He didn’t owe her an explanation, but she wondered nonetheless. How often do gorgeous guys buy ordinary women lunch and then offer to pay for a night on the town? Who did he call? She said she had obligations. She told him this was too much, too soon. Damn. Even though it was one hundred percent true, did she have to open her fat mouth about it?
“Did I say something I shouldn’t have?” she asked.
He looked up again, confused. “Why would you think that?”
“I don’t know. You seem preoccupied all of a sudden.”
“Trust me, I’m not. Double checking the bill is a habit of mine. I can get a little OCD when it comes to numbers.” Lifting a hand, he gestured for the server to take the check.
Becca wiped her mouth again and then glanced at her watch. “Maybe I should meet you later. Perhaps at the hotel, whichever one that will be.”