by Kate Wendley
After Tina talked her up for a while, Suzanne turned her attention to Jade again.
“So Jade, are you and Sebastian are still an item?”
She uncomfortably said, “Yes.”
Suzanne gave her a friendly smile. “Little piece of advice? If you want to keep him, you better claim him. Now that he and Torin are finally on speaking terms again, girls are starting to talk. Sebastian doesn’t seem as off limits as he did before. They’re getting interested.”
Jade’s temper rose, but all she wanted to do was cry. “Sebastian’s not like that. Just because we haven’t claimed each other yet doesn’t mean he’s going to claim someone else.”
Suzanne raised an eyebrow. “He wants to wait? For what? Marriage? Been there, done that, been cheated on and have the divorce papers to prove it. Trust me, we all have needs, if you know what I mean, and so does your gorgeous, ripped, rich, alpha honey. And he doesn’t seem like the cheating type, once he’s picked his girl.”
Through gritted teeth she said, “It’s none of your business.”
Suzanne put her hands up. “Ok, ok. I’m not trying to pick a fight. Just telling you what I heard. He’s a fine looking man, though. Very fine, and if he’s treating you right, it’d be a shame to lose him.”
Her face felt hot as Suzanne casually picked up her drink and left. Tina tried to apologize for her, but Jade waved it off. It was all true and she knew it. She had a really good guy in her life and she was too scared of what that meant for her own life to commit to him. Damn her for being such a scaredy cat.
**
She spilled her guts to Tina for a while, but she didn’t have any real advice besides that Jade needed to figure out what she really wanted. Oh, and it was unfair to string Sebastian along if she wasn’t ever going to get serious with him.
Jade glanced over at the restaurant from time to time, sometimes seeing Sebastian, sometimes not, and she hated the fact that she was so scared of the unknown.
She whined to Tina, “It’s unfair that all these heavy decisions are on my shoulders. I mean, why can’t our relationship be simple? You know, like you and Robbie?”
Tina cocked an eyebrow and said with a little smile, “Me and Robbie barely just started dating. I have no idea what could come up between us. Anyway, if relationships were simple, you and I would both have found our guys and settled down by now.”
She sighed. “Yeah, but still.”
Tina cocked her head. “All right, tell me then. Was your relationship with Darin simple?”
Jade frowned. “No.” Darin ended up having a huge chip on his shoulder about some past girlfriends and constantly talked about how he hoped Jade never did the kinds of things those other girls did to him. It got really exhausting to deal with his issues.
“And what about Lance?”
She narrowed her eyes as she fought not to curl her lip. She sarcastically drawled out, “No.”
Lance wanted her to meet all his ex-girlfriends, whom he was still friends with. That felt weird enough, and then she found out he was still friends with benefits with some of them.
“And Mario?”
She reluctantly chuckled. “All right all right. Stop.”
They shared a good hearted laugh, and she knew Tina was right. Nothing was simple, but it still felt like the decisions she was being asked to make with Sebastian were monumental. With other guys she dated, their issues weren’t about Jade needing to do something as scary as drink the blood of a person that had a supernatural power that he’d even needed years to learn how to control. And that was only one thing she needed to make a decision about.
Relationships weren’t simple, though, and especially not with Sebastian. She knew she needed to figure this out on her own, so she told Tina goodbye and turned to grab her purse off the arm of her chair… and gawked at Sebastian with a woman at the bar.
He sat backwards on his barstool, facing the restaurant, and a pretty woman stood in front of him. She cocked her hip and smiled coyly, looking for all the world like if he wanted to, she’d let him take her to a room and have sex with her right here and now.
Whatever the woman was saying to him as she slowly ran her hand over his shoulder and gave him a playful little squeeze, Sebastian didn’t respond. He just flatly watched her. He didn’t smile and definitely didn’t touch the woman back, but he also didn’t push her away.
Jade stared in horror as the reality of it all hit her like a brick. Tina and Suzanne were both right. Stupid Torin and fixing things with Sebastian was going to force Jade to have to do something or else lose him for good. After all, why would he wait around to be strung along by scaredy cat Jade when there were other much more confident women who would gladly snap him up?
She froze when Sebastian looked her way and caught her eye. He sat there with his arms crossed, unmoving, while the woman kept flirting with him, and for a moment his gaze on Jade felt like he was challenging her. Did she want him or not? Make up her mind because he wasn’t going to wait forever…
Jade’s face got hot and she looked away as tears stung her eyes. She took some time to collect herself so she wouldn’t be bawling on her way out of here, then gathered her things to leave. She took a deep breath before turning back around to see what was happening between her boyfriend and that woman. Relief washed through her to see Sebastian walking into the kitchen, leaving the floozy looking upset that he’d left her.
Jade’s head spun on her way back home. Other women might be starting to look differently at Sebastian, but did they know what all went along with his affection? That a scary and possibly uncontrollable touching power was part of the package?
That felt mean to think about it that way, but it panicked her every time she thought about tasting Sebastian’s blood. Zach could talk around it all he wanted, but she wasn’t stupid. He’d never outright guaranteed she wouldn’t gain his power, all he would say was that as far as he knew, abilities had never been transferred that way.
That meant it could happen, and she wasn’t sure she was strong enough to deal with it. It took Sebastian years to learn control, and the community ostracized him over it. What would they do to her? What would Sebastian do? Would he stand by her side, or would he eventually be disappointed that she was now a lot of work to deal with while she figured out her newly screwed up life?
Maybe it was a good thing that other women wanted Sebastian now. Maybe Jade could give him up to someone else and just go back to her calm, predictable, boring life. She could just fantasize about him again, pretending she’d never gotten to know the real him…
She fought back tears because she didn’t want that at all. She was alive in his arms. She was happy and the most free she’d ever felt. And he was sexy and sweet and never played games with her feelings.
And he didn’t judge her for anything. But she judged him. All… the… time.
**
She got ready for bed, then noticed a few texts from Sebastian.
‘Where did you go? I wanted to tell you goodnight before you left.’
‘I left the bar because I was being hassled by that drunk woman. I hope you and Tina had a good night.’
She smiled and cried big, fat, soggy tears before texting him back. ‘I want to talk. I want to answer your questions.’
She almost immediately got a text back. ‘When?’
She sent, ‘It’s late. How about after full moon.’
‘I don’t care how late it is. I can come up if you want me to.’
She stared at her phone as her heart raced. Feeling like the coward she was, she finally texted back, ‘Let’s wait because I need to get some sleep for work tomorrow. I promise we’ll talk after full moon. Ok?’
‘Ok.’ He sent a smiley face and ‘XOXO’ and she sobbed. She cried out all her nervousness, her worries, her fears… her old life. She wanted him and she wanted to give herself to him completely, but not until after full moon. She wanted one more day as her old self before letting go and seeing where his blood
took her.
She texted him back the same smiley face and ‘XOXO’, then set her alarm and got ready for bed.
Chapter 31
Jade couldn’t concentrate at work today. She couldn’t stop thinking about Sebastian and all his questions… and what a wimp she was. She should’ve talked to him last night. It was cruel to both of them to be dragging this out, and it made her feel like even more of a jerk.
It was full moon tonight and she imagined her and Sebastian running as their animals together. They’d never done that before and she wondered if tonight would be awkward between them. He said he liked to go to the ranch sometimes and just run, but he’d never asked her to go with him, probably because she told him she hated her animal and because it was painful for her to shift. Would it be painful tonight, though?
When she was younger, she used to fear that once she shifted she’d somehow get trapped in her animal form, never getting to be human again. She’d never actually heard of that happening to anyone, though.
Now, she was actually starting to like her heightened senses, especially since having Liam’s blood. Maybe that was the problem between her and Sebastian. He was alive… she wasn’t.
Or at least she hadn’t been. She’d never truly accepted the animal side of her nature, but he accepted his wholeheartedly. She realized it must frustrate him to always hold back from her, but he did it willingly. He did everything he could to make her happy.
But he wanted to know where this was going…
He wanted more. He was too nice to outright say she wasn’t enough for him, but he obviously felt it. It didn’t feel fair that the only problem between them was their animals. Biting and marking each other and tasting each other’s blood… that was an animal desire, not something humans craved.
But there was also the fact that he didn’t share all of himself with her. He did stuff for Anthony and the family that he never opened up to her about. Did he want to?
She felt like crap as she got up to get some more blank loan forms and refill her coffee. Of course he wanted to share himself with her. That’s what he’d been trying to tell her. Except he couldn’t. He couldn’t ask her for what he wanted, he could only ask what she wanted. She went stock still and wanted to bawl her eyes out again as she remembered him telling her how hard it was to ask people for things because he couldn’t take any more rejection. He’d barely even been able to tell her that she was the woman he wanted in his life.
She dabbed at her teary eyes. He was trying his hardest in this relationship. Was she? He might not have said it out loud, but if she was going to accept him wholeheartedly, part of that meant she’d need to drink his blood and become stronger. She’d have to give up this job, too, so that her focus would be on the family, just like his was. She’d worked hard to get where she was, though, and all her successes in her career gave her a sense of fulfillment and empowerment.
He was asking her to change some big things for him. Did he realize that? He wouldn’t be changing, she would. Accept he was changing. With Torin being nice to him for once, and Sebastian dating her now, he was starting to ask for things. He was opening up… slowly. And others were opening up to him. They were accepting him back into his own pack.
That woman coming onto him last night flashed through her mind. The girls saw him as an acceptable mate again. More than just acceptable, he was the alpha, and a darn sexy, sweet, dependable man, too.
She frowned. Whether or not he realized what he was asking of her, she wanted him and knew what she needed to do.
Chapter 32
The club was blessedly quiet tonight with the young, healthy shifters all out running around as their animals, most of them at the ranch and spilling into the national forests that surrounded it. Any older shifters who hadn’t the strength to shift anymore were next door on an upper floor watching over the young shifters who hadn’t matured into their animals yet.
A rotation of vampires kept their eye on the shifters at the ranch, though watching over were-animals at full moon was like herding cats. Still, this family was set up the way it was to help each other during their vulnerable times, and Anthony expected everyone to always do what they could.
It was a peaceful night in the club and he had his arm around Kaia while they watched a show, though he wasn’t actually paying attention to it. He was relaxing to the feeling of having her in his arms. A good handful of vampires were also here, some with their human lovers. He wasn’t actually opposed to vampires mixing with humans, as lovers or otherwise, so long as they were extremely selective with who they revealed themselves to, and so long as they weren’t using humans as food.
He liked the feeling of having mostly vampires here on full moon nights. Their cool, calm energy felt natural to him. It made him feel at home. He looked around, full of a sense of peace and tranquility. Two of the pool tables were in use, someone was playing with the sound system, picking music and having an animated conversation with a couple other music enthusiasts, and a couple more small groups occupied other areas of the club. Some were Anthony’s vampires, some were loners, and one was one of Ethan’s.
Kaia started telling him about her coworker getting her lunch stolen out of the break room refrigerator today, and he contentedly listened. He liked her telling him about her days. About anything, really. He’d never had a serious relationship with a woman before and the whole experience was still quite novel to him.
His ringing phone irritated him, but his job was what it was, and luckily Kaia always understood. He looked quizzically at the unknown number flashing on the screen and briefly wondered if one of his contacts changed their information again. Vampires did that a lot as they tried to lose old identities with the humans and create new ones.
“This is Anthony.”
A familiar voice said, “Sir, it’s Alistair. I’m at the ranch and I just heard a gunshot.” Anthony bolted upright, his heart beating loudly in his ears. There were sounds of leaves rustling and growls and yips in the background before Alistair hurriedly spat out, “Damnation! A wolf’s been shot!”
Anthony quickly barked out orders. “Get the wounded wolf off the ground, away from the other shifters. The blood will drive them crazy. We’re coming to help. Is Horacio there tonight?”
Anthony heard the wolves loudly now. They sounded like they were in a frenzy. As he waited for Alistair to answer him, he rushed over to the sound system the vampires were playing with. They’d already stopped talking and were staring at him. He turned the music off and put a finger up to tell them to wait. In the meantime he heard Alistair directing the vamps in the background, though there was a lot of yelling. The blood drained from Anthony’s face when he heard what sounded like another gunshot.
“Alistair! What’s going on?”
“There are more hunters! They’re camouflaged better than I’ve ever seen. I don’t know how many there are.” There were growls and the sound of a man screaming before Alistair came back on the line. “One of the humans is hurt. Bad.”
“Is Horacio out there?”
“I haven’t seen him.”
“We’re coming. Find the humans and keep everyone alive. We’ll be there soon.”
Alistair shouted orders in the background as he hung up and Anthony pointed to the vampire by the sound system. “Go up to the roof. Tell any vampires up there to get to the ranch. Now. And ask everyone if they know where Horacio is. We need a doctor out there. Go!”
Anthony looked around, all eyes on him. “We’ve got hunters at the ranch and at least one wolf has been shot. If anyone knows where Horacio is, or has his number, call him. Everyone get to the ranch and help. Now!”
He dialed the guards upstairs as everyone left. “We’ve got a situation at the ranch. I want all vampires to get out there except for you two. Stay here and let me know if anything happens. You’re holding down the fort tonight.”
“Yes sir!”
Anthony raced to Kaia, concern and worry on her face. The vampires were already gone
, even the loners and Ethan’s vampire. “I’m so sorry my sweet, but I need to leave and you’d be safer if you went home. Where’s your purse? Downstairs?” She nodded, so he took off to get it as fast as he could. She let out a startled squeak when he brought it back to her seconds later. Normally he tried to act human around her, but tonight there was no time.
“I’m so sorry for this, my sweet.”
Kaia took her purse. “Don’t worry, baby. You need to go.”
She let out another squeal when he gripped her tightly against himself. He spoke into her hair. “I’m going to carry you. Please forgive me. I need to leave quickly.” He gripped her behind and lifted her up. “Put your legs around me.” As soon as she did, he raced out the door with her and deposited her beside her car. He felt bad to see her so disoriented after he put her down. He steadied her and stammered, “Forgive me.”
“Go. They need you. I’ll be fine.”
Grimacing, he said, “Please go straight home, and don’t linger outside.” He reached for her purse and found her keys in the blink of an eye. Startled, she backed up and let him open her door before taking the offered keys back from him.
“Go. I’ll be fine. I’ll go straight home. Just please be careful.”
He nodded and evaporated into mist, but lingered for a moment to make sure she was leaving. He watched her pull out of the garage before he left for the ranch. He could fly much faster than he could safely drive, especially with as worried as he was.
Once he started through the night air, he materialized just enough so he could call Ethan. He hadn’t talked to the infuriating man since their brief fight at the ranch about a month ago. God that felt good to finally punch the bastard.
Ethan answered on the first ring, completely irritated, of course. “What can I do for you Anthony?”
He didn’t bother with pleasantries, especially since nothing he did or didn’t do seemed to change Ethan’s attitude towards him, though why Ethan hated him so badly was still anyone’s guess. “There are hunters at the ranch. At least one wolf’s been shot, not sure who or how bad, and a hunter’s been hurt, too, and it sounds bad. I’m on my way as well as more of my vampires.”