by Wood, Vivian
It was a rare night when Jace got more than three or four hours in a row before waking covered in sweat. In his dozing state, fear and panic slipped their cold hands around his neck and squeezed until Jace was up out of his bed, racing west toward his sister’s house. Once he’d checked on Maddie, he did a few laps around the Den to release the choke hold of his anxiety. Jace knew the lay of the land surrounding the Den better than anyone else, but there was a price to be paid. On bad nights, the mindless panic pushed him for hours.
On any other day he would rise just after dawn; at night, he stayed out until he was too exhausted to do anything but sleep. This late-to-bed-early-to-rise combination often left him a distempered cur for at least the first half of each day, if not the entirety. Cera, his second in command, refused to work with him until he’d at least had a cup of coffee first.
Today Jace felt well-rested, but just as sour as any other day. From the moment he opened his eyes he had a raging case of blue balls that just wouldn’t go away. He supposed he could take care of it by himself, but he felt that having Tessa just in the next room would make the experience somehow unsatisfying.
He could also seek out one of the females at the Den, but he’d have to leave the human here alone for a long stretch. Plus he was pretty sure he’d offended or otherwise disenfranchised almost all of the Den’s females at some point. Just as well.
The only other option was seducing Tessa. He figured he could have her once or twice without getting entangled. If he bedded the Ascendant girl more than that, though, he’d have a hard time not bonding with her. Plus the other males in the pack might not approve of her bed hopping, although it wasn’t insurmountable in the race to find a mate. In any event, it didn’t all add up. The idea was too risky.
Not a lot of good options.
His smart phone beeped, telling him he had a new voice mail. Picking up the phone, he saw that it was from Cera. She probably had the results of Tessa’s background check, then. He dialed the voice mail, waiting to hear Cera’s message.
“Hey boss, it’s Cera. I ran your preliminary background check on one Tessa Anderson. If she is who she says she is, you’re in the company of a multi-millionaire heiress. Let’s see… rich family, tragic car crash killed the parents, she and her younger sister lived with a guardian until they were of age… no criminal history, no employment records, no parking tickets. She’s completely clean, except an APB in her file. Looks like the girl and the sister have both been missing for over a month. There’s a huge reward for them, posted by a Byron Lancaster. He claims to be a jilted groom. That’s all I got. Let me know if you need a deeper check, boss.”
Jace rolled out of bed with a grumble, heading for the kitchen. If anything, Cera’s message had given rise to more questions, which was not what Jace needed right now. He put on coffee as he listened to Tessa moving around the bathroom and then dressing in the bedroom. After a while, she came out into the kitchen and sat down on one of the stools surrounding the kitchen island.
“You look like hell,” Jace commented.
“Yeah, well. You snore. I got a really lousy night of sleep.”
Jace suppressed a knowing smirk, pouring two mugs of coffee.
“What?” Tessa asked.
“What, what?” he mimicked.
“What’s that look for?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.
Jace shook his head. He got out sugar and cream. Putting them on the marble table in front of Tessa, he sat a mug of coffee in front of her.
“I don’t snore, human. You were the one keeping me up last night. Rolling around, making noises.”
Tessa frowned, her forehead wrinkling. She poured tons of cream and sugar into her coffee, which amused Jace. Tessa was a definite girly-girl.
“I don’t remember anything. My whole body is stiff and achy. I thought it was just from your spongy mattress.”
Jace pointed his coffee mug at her.
“Don’t talk about my mattress. That mattress and I have a special relationship. It meets my needs just fine.”
Tessa cocked her head, propping her chin in her hand.
“Your needs? I figured you had your orgies in that giant shower,” she said, deadpan.
Jace choked on his coffee, his brows shooting up in question.
“Orgies?” he spluttered.
“Well, yeah. Why else would you need such a big shower?”
“Maybe because I’m six foot four? Now that you suggested it, though, I could arrange something. Lots of females in the pack. I’d even let you pick,” he said, only halfway joking.
“Don’t bother on my account,” Tessa said, looking sour.
Jace shrugged and went to the refrigerator. He pulled out eggs, cheese, sausage, and other breakfast items. If he had to walk around all day with a hard-on, he could at least satisfy other appetites.
“You cook?” asked Tessa.
“When you eat 3000 calories a day, you learn. There’s a mess hall back at the Den, but I prefer my solitude. Sausage omelets okay with you?”
“That sounds amazing. I’m starving. I feel like I haven’t eaten in a decade.”
“That would be the Ascendant hormones,” he said.
“Come again?”
“Your Ascendant hormones are increasing. Getting you ready for the change. Making you want what’s best for you. Like extra calories, and cute male Shifters,” he said. He might not be able to have her like he wanted, but he could tease her all day long.
Tessa rolled her eyes, sighing.
“I’m not so sure about this whole Ascendant thing.”
Jace began cracking and whisking eggs as they talked.
“I am. I can smell you a mile away. That’s how I knew to follow you in the first place,” he said.
“Whoa whoa whoa. Slow down. We’ll come back to this part about you following me around. I smell like one of your kind?”
Tessa looked confused.
“Not like a Shifter, not exactly. Ascendants are meant to be brought into our world and mate with our kind. We can identify them by their scent. It’s a magnet for us. Irresistible.”
Jace poured the eggs in the pan, and started adding the omelet ingredients. He wasn’t sure how much to tell Tessa about the change. He didn’t want to scare her.
“Explain the mating thing. Not my source’s version, the real thing.”
“Basically, bond and reproduce. Like marriage and kids, but waaay longer. And wolfier,” he said with a leer.
“How do you mate? Do I have to mate?” Tessa asked, her face heating. Her discomfort was pretty cute, Jace had to admit.
“I doubt you’ll be able to resist the urge. It’s a strong pull for most adult shifters. When your wolf self meets another wolf who is compatible, you feel it. The stronger the match, the stronger the urge to mate.”
Tessa was quiet for a long moment, thinking.
“Is it— is it like a pulling sensation in your chest?” she asked, indicating a spot at the center of her chest.
Jace stilled, surprised. It seemed he wasn’t the only one feeling the magnetic pull between them, then.
“Yes. The more willing and compatible the couple, the stronger the pull will be. It helps us pick good candidates for our mates.”
“And that means getting married?”
Jace flipped the omelet out of the pan and onto a plate, and then turned to face Tessa.
“There is a ceremony, but it’s secondary. Mating is pretty much exactly what it sounds like.”
Tessa blushed even harder, and looked down at her hands. Jace put the omelet in front of her with a fork, and she looked relieved.
“Thanks. This whole mating thing— it isn’t very romantic, is it?” she asked.
Jace shrugged, making his own breakfast as he spoke.
“I think that’s up to the couple. The whole lavish celebration and chapel thing, that’s definitely a human thing. But courting can be any way you like, I guess.”
Tessa wrinkled her nose and took a
nother bite of the omelet.
“Are you making a face at my cooking or at mating?” he asked, amused.
“The omelet’s perfect. The mating thing… I guess every little girl imagines her white wedding, you know?”
Jace made a noncommittal noise and turned back to his omelet making. Silence reigned for another minute or so before Tessa spoke up again.
“So did you mean it when you said that you’re not going to take a mate? I mean, is it that horrible?”
Jace sighed, and then shook his head.
“It’s not that. Several of the females in the Den would be a good match. I’m just not interested in taking a mate. It seems like a lot of hassle just to have sex. I can get that other places.”
Tessa gave him another look that said he’d over-spoken, but it wasn’t Jace’s fault that she was a bit of a prude.
“Ugh. I don’t want to know about it. And I don’t want a mate, either. I have my own life.”
“You’ll change your mind.”
“I won’t. You’ve held out.”
“You’re not me,” he said, sliding onto the stool next to her with his omelet.
Tessa rolled her eyes, and they ate in silence. Jace finished his huge omelet before she was even halfway through her smaller one. When he stopped eating, so did she.
She’s going to need to learn to eat more than that if she’s staying with this pack, Jace thought.
“What if that guy Jasper is my most compatible mate?” Tessa asked, out of nowhere.
Jace stopped looking Tessa up and down, trying to find the right words to comfort her.
“You’re going to stay right here. If you socialize with wolves from this pack, you’ll find your mate here. I could make a couple of guesses as to who it’ll be.”
“Are you seriously matchmaking for me right now?”
Jace shook his head, taken back by the idea.
“Not exactly. I can just guess who you’ll like. Declan or Rhett, maybe. Hopefully not Cord or Jesse.”
“Uh huh. This is sounding less and less appealing.”
“They’re good guys, possibly excepting Jesse. I’ll take you around to the Den soon, and you’ll get along with everyone. Shifters males are tall and good looking, pretty much without exception. Plus, most of us make pretty decent money from our jobs within the pack. You’ll be happy enough here, and you’ll find a good mate.”
“Sounds like you’ve got everything figured out, then,” she said, sipping her coffee with a demure smile.
What the hell did that mean? Gods, Jace never had understood women. Taking a long pull of his coffee, he reclined as he watched her, speculating. Tessa turned on her stool to face the living room, soaking in all the details of the house.
“Did you build this house?” she asked.
Jace shook his head, setting down his coffee cup.
“It doesn’t work like that here. Remember, I told you before that the Den is sentient. It creates what we need to live in comfort.”
Tessa’s eyebrows raised as she looked around again.
“It’s just… this place is very you. All the details are just right, down to the books,” she said, waving a hand at the crowded bookshelves in the living room area.
“What does that mean?” Jace asked.
“I just mean, of course your shelves are full of Dumas and Moore and Emerson and Hemingway. ‘Every man is an island’, indeed. I can’t believe the Den could understand you so well,” she said, a soft smile touching her lips.
“I brought the books in myself. The Den can’t create anything so personal. It can do beds and clothes and light fixtures and food, but that’s all powered by your own mind,” he explained, for some reason feeling a bit embarrassed that she’d pegged him so well.
Tessa frowned but nodded.
“How did Shifters come to live here? It seems like an incredible stroke of luck,” she said.
“Shifters are originally from Europe, and when the Inquisition washed through Greece in the late seventeen hundreds, our secret was discovered by a group of humans. It didn’t take long for our accusers to out many other supernatural species, especially the Fae and the vampires; we all lived much more openly before modern communications existed.” Jace took a breath, then forged on. “We joined forces with the vampires to protect the weaker Fae species as much as possible, but it was a terrible loss. There was a wholesale slaughter of paranormals, and those who survived scattered across the globe.”
“That’s terrible!” Tessa said, her upset genuine. Jace shrugged, at a loss. Tessa’s compassion put him off balance.
“It’s ancient history. When the war ended, the Fae thanked the vampires and Shifters by giving us the ability to create a between-place, in the event that we ever needed to hide again. Thus, the Den was born.”
“You really are a great storyteller,” Tessa said, some secret amusement lighting her eyes.
“I have to admit, it’s because I spend a lot of my free time playing RPG video games. I think they’ve rubbed off on me,” he said. He ran his hand through his hair. He wasn’t very comfortable revealing so much of himself to a female, especially an Ascendant. Tessa managed to make him feel… shy.
“So you’re a nerd at heart? I guess you did tell me that you’re the pack’s computer guru,” Tessa said with a grin.
“I understand machines a lot better than people. You can learn dozens of languages to speak to a computer, but when it comes to people… you either know how to relate, or you don’t. I’ll bet you can guess which category I fall into,” he said, wincing at the bitterness in his tone.
“You’re doing a fine job relating right now,” Tessa pointed out with a shrug.
“Most people don’t feel that way,” Jace said, amused. Tessa narrowed her eyes, but changed the subject.
“What about now? I know the Inquisition is long gone, but are the Shifters safe?” she asked, seeming concerned.
A little warm spot sparked in his chest at her question. He was glad that she cared about his people, even if it was only motivated by self-preservation. Shifters were her people now, too.
“We still have our enemies, but it’s been years since the last open attack. To be on the safe side, Shaw and I have agreed that you will stay here in the Den until we’ve sorted things out with Jasper.”
“And how long will that be, exactly?” Tessa asked, sounding more than a little skeptical. Jace didn’t like the insinuation that his skills as a protector might be imperfect, and he scowled at her.
“No idea. Are you in a hurry to go somewhere?” he asked.
“No. Well, sort of, yes. I have some things to settle, and I can’t do them from here,” she said, twisting her hands in her lap and glancing away. Here was Jace’s chance to find out what was really going on with Tessa.
“Such as getting back to… what was it, Byron?” Jace asked, baring his teeth on the man’s name.
Tessa’s gaze snapped up to his, startled.
“Where did you hear that name?” she asked, her face going pale. The reaction only served to spur Jace on.
“He’s posted a sizable reward in return for information about your current location, Tessa. My guess is he’s probably panicked that he’s misplaced a couple of heiresses. Am I right?” Jace asked.
Tessa’s jaw dropped, but she snapped it back up and scowled at him, face flushing.
“It’s none of your business, now is it?” she spat.
“It could be. How do I know that you didn’t do something horrible to him? Maybe you stole all his money and left him at the altar or something,” Jace said, raising a critical brow.
“That is not… I would never… ugh! That isn’t what happened at all!” she said, her voice rising with pique. Just as he had at the safe house, Jace found her anger quite arousing.
“So what did happen? He’s not a relative, so that leaves very few options.”
“If you must know, he’s… he was my legal guardian. He was a friend of my parents’, and after they di
ed he took over managing their estate, checking in on Camilla and myself,” she said. Her whole body went tense as she spoke, and Jace knew he should let up, but he couldn’t. He needed to know every detail, for reasons that were less than clear to him just now.
“Why run from him, then?” Jace asked, his question half accusation.
“He’s a bad man. He pretends to be a kindly uncle, but really he’s awful. He must have had my parents completely snowed, because he was only ever interested in our money. And he’d do pretty much anything to get it,” Tessa ground out.
“Such as?”
“Such as try to seduce both me and Camilla before we’d even turned eighteen. He was looking for a quick marriage with whichever one of us was stupid enough to give him access to our money.”
“And he wasn’t handsome enough or charming enough for either of you?” Jace asked.
Tessa’s face went red as a beet, and she looked mad enough to spit. Jace worried that she might have some kind of apoplexy if he didn’t stop prodding her.
“He was over fifty, and we were just girls! It was disgusting! He cornered me once, at a party. I was drunk, and it took him all of five minutes to get me alone and get his hands up my skirt. I pushed him off, and he came back a day later with a proposal of marriage! He knows that I loathe him, but rather than give up, he’s just continued to push at it for most of a decade. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d rather not relive the past,” she hissed.
Damn, Jace had gone too far. If her story was true, the bastard deserved a lot worse than a vanishing act. Jace raised his hands as a white flag, giving Tessa a casual shrug.
“My fault, I shouldn’t have assumed. He’s running all over the place telling anyone that will listen that your sister tried to seduce him, and then you left him standing at the altar,” Jace said, keeping his tone even.
“He has some kind of nerve. I agreed to let him tell people what he wanted about me if he’d leave Camilla out of it,” Tessa said, heaving a frustrated sigh.