by Alisa Woods
The crowd cheered, and the Senator paused, obviously relishing their adulation. His words made Jared wish he had pulled the trigger. But the look on Grace’s face—a scowl that grew darker with each line of the speech—reminded him why he didn’t. If only he could convince her that she could stop all this. He’d seen enough of her already to know she was strong, and she had a purity of heart about her—her wolf was hard to contain, and that brought out her righteous side. The question was whether she would be strong enough to stand up to the alpha male in her life—her father. Jared could see the dynamic: the Senator dominated everyone around him, including his daughter.
The man was still droning on with his speech. “The time is coming, my friends, very soon. We need to do something about this, take action that will ensure the safety of the good people of Seattle and Washington. Your numbers here today are heartening to me. You’ve taken time from your day, your lives, your work in making this country strong, to show your support for keeping it that way. I want you to know that I am on your side. And in the days to come, I hope you’ll be on mine.”
The Senator was wrapping up—thank God—but the crowd seemed far from ready to be done.
Nolan was clapping along with everyone else. He leaned over to Grace. “Do you see this?”
She nodded. “Do they really believe all this stuff?”
Jared whipped his attention to her.
“Hell yeah, they do,” Nolan said. “I took half this speech straight from the online sites where they rant about this stuff all the time. It’s what the people believe, Grace, and remember… we represent the people.”
“What happened to doing what’s right?” She was scowling at the crowd, not even looking at Nolan.
“What’s right for who?” He pulled back and gave her a frown. “I’m all for protecting the people—if they’re innocent. Shifters aren’t innocent bystanders in this, Grace. They’re involved in the drug trade, weapons dealing, who knows what else. They’re legitimately dangerous. You wouldn’t let convicted criminals run around in the streets, would you?”
“I’m not saying that, and you know it, Nolan.” She turned her scowl on him.
Nolan’s determination faltered. He leaned toward her. “It’s what your father wants, Grace. And I want to keep my job.”
She gave him a pinched look, but Nolan dropped his gaze and moved across the stage toward the Senator. He was already walking down the three steps into the crowd to shake hands.
Grace stayed where she was.
“He’s kind of an asshole,” Jared said.
“He’s not. He’s a good man.”
“Doesn’t look that way from my angle.” Jared studied how Nolan moved through the crowd, following in the wake of the Senator, pressing flesh with people and chatting them up. “He looks pretty comfortable in the hate crowd.”
The sound of a hundred conversations was making it so that he had to speak up, but it also meant his voice wouldn’t carry. A few people trickled in and out of the two sets of doors—one in back and one off to the side—but for the most part, people were grabbing cups of coffee from the refreshment tables and hanging around for more hater chit-chat.
Jared couldn’t wait to leave, but he wasn’t budging from Grace’s side.
She turned to peer up at him with her bright blue eyes. “Nolan’s just doing his job.”
“I’ve used that excuse, too.”
She frowned. “What happened to you? When you were in the military, something happened.”
“This isn’t about me,” he said coolly. He already told her what he was—she didn’t need to know he had one of the highest kill counts in Afghanistan. “This is about you, and whether you’re going to do what’s right, or if you’re just going to do your job, like your ex-boyfriend.”
Grace’s eyes unfocused as she gazed out into the crowd, watching Nolan again.
Jared sensed an opportunity, a moment—she was faltering. He could feel it. “You’re not one of these people, Grace. They would string you up if they could. They’re already doing medical experiments on people like you and me.”
Her pretty face whipped back to his. “What?”
He dropped his voice to just below the murmur of the crowd, so she had to lean in to hear him. “Civilian shifters. Military shifters. There are already people in the government who feel free to kidnap them and perform experiments. They’re already treating us like we’re subhuman—your father is just trying to make it legal.”
Her face twisted up, horrified. “How is that even possible?”
“I saw it with my own eyes. I was one of the ones taken, but I didn’t suffer anywhere near as much as some. There are a few who’ve died; several more on their way. Tortured, kept in cages.”
Her expression just got more and more disbelieving—no, she believed him. That was why she was so horrified. “Why don’t you tell someone? Why not go public with this?”
“We might. Probably will. But there are lots of people in high positions of power protecting this, orchestrating it. We have reason to believe your father is involved.”
“No.” She actually took a step back this time, almost like she was losing her balance.
Jared instinctively reached for her, caught her by the elbow, and kept her upright.
She was shaking her head. “No. Stop it. Stop saying these things.” She jerked her elbow out of his grasp.
“I’m only saying what’s true, Grace.” He hated doing this to her. It was tearing him up inside to see that look on her face. His wolf surged up with the need to protect her, even if it was from the truth about her father. And herself.
She shook her head more violently, then turned away from him. Her heels clacked across the wood floor of the raised stage.
Shit. He was driving her away—too much, too soon. And just like in the meadow, the image of her retreating back—her fleeing away from him—surged up the need to go after her. Knowing he was causing her this pain, while the same time knowing that it had to be done… it was opening the fissures inside him again.
She pounded down the stairs. He grimaced, hesitated, then went after her, cursing himself for handling the whole thing so badly.
She pushed her way through the crowd. The haters made space for the pretty Senator’s daughter, and she left mystified looks in her wake. Jared trudged after her, calculating where he could corner her and explain. Or maybe backpedal. Soften it somehow. This had to be hard for her, and he had to find a way to make it work. To bring her over to his side. Because the alternative was worse than anything she was feeling right now.
When she reached the side door, a man in a hoodie who was lounging against the wall suddenly grabbed her and wrapped his arm around her neck to hold her firm against his chest.
Shock rippled through Jared, and he nearly shifted… but he managed to keep it under control and sprinted toward the man instead. A scream went up near the main door, and movement burst through the hall—a whole group of these hooded men sprung to life and fanned out into the crowd. They were large and hulking—too oversized to be casual hatemongers. Were these shifters? What the hell were they doing? Jared growled, cursing whatever was about to go down, but his focus stayed on Grace and the man holding her. She was terrified, clawing her hands at the man’s arm around her throat. Jared had to push his way through the now-panicked crowd.
The hooded man wasn’t choking her, just holding her and forcing her to watch whatever was going down, but it made Jared want to rip off his face. He finally pushed past the last of the attendees and lunged up to them, plowing his fist to the guy’s nose. The shock of it, and the crunch of the man’s nose breaking under his knuckles, made Grace scream and the man’s grip on her slacken. He slumped to the ground. Jared gathered Grace into his arms, protectively, and her small body melted against his chest. He turned her away from the crowd and trapped her body against the wall, covering her with his bulk before finally twisting around to see what else was happening.
His heart thudd
ed, as he quickly took in the scene—the hooded men were shouting, intimidating the crowd, and shoving people to the floor, but the only blood he saw was on the man’s face at his feet. The mayhem was distracting everyone from the one guy who was moving toward the front. He had something in his hands, and for a moment Jared thought it was a bomb—but then the man shook it and started spraying the wall behind the podium. It was a gang symbol—a shifter gang Jared recognized—and the words, we’re watching you.
What the hell?
The man let out a whistle, and the rest scattered, making for the exits. One stopped to hoist up the bloodied man at Jared’s feet—he was dazed but not completely knocked out. Jared stared long and hard at their faces as they hurried out the doors and into the Seattle afternoon sun.
He had no idea who they were, but he was damn sure they weren’t shifters. And he wasn’t at all surprised when the Senator took the podium again.
“Everyone please remain calm and see if anyone around you is hurt. The shifter gang appears to have left, although their message is clear. But we will not be intimidated by lawlessness and violence! I promise you, we will find who is responsible for this.”
Jared snarled. This was an obvious setup to anyone with eyes to see, but there was no one in the room who would dispute it. The gang whose symbol was dripping paint would be blamed—even though that made no sense at all for a gang to come here and tag up the place. But the Senator would use it as leverage to whip his troops into a frenzy. And get voters to the polls.
Grace was shaking in his arms. He instinctively pulled her closer and pressed her head against his chest. Her gulping breaths slowly calmed.
“You’re okay, Grace. I’ve got you.” She nodded against his chest. That feeling of her moving against him, of her accepting his desire to protect her, surged his wolf twice as strong as before. He wanted nothing more than to haul her away from this place and never return. She needed to be gone from all of this, and he needed to have her, like this, in his arms.
And more.
That urge—that need for her—stunned him so badly, he actually loosened his grip and took a step back.
She looked at him with wide eyes.
He still held her shoulders. “Are you all right?” he asked, wanting to draw her back, but not daring to do it. He would end up kissing her. And then everything would come apart inside him.
She nodded quickly, and the color seemed to be returning to her face. She smoothed out her blouse and tucked it back into her skirt. She gave him a nod, then turned toward the podium where her father was still reassuring the crowd.
Jared needed to get her alone. Soon. He told himself it was just to talk, to convince her to leave. With him. But he knew it was more than that.
This desire for her felt dangerous, like he was on the edge of a precipice about to fall.
And he wanted to fall… all the way down.
Which surprised him most of all.
Grace’s hands had stopped their shaking, but she was still quivering inside.
Jared drove her father’s black sedan through the winding mountain roads toward her father’s estate. He sat in front, eyes on the road, as she rode in back, watching the beloved forest of her youth slip by—a steady, vision-blurring stream of green pine needles, woody trunks, and leafy undergrowth. Her body buzzed along with the whizzing scenery, numbed by the events at the rally.
So much had gone down in such a short period of time, it was like her body was in shock. Her mind, on the other hand, was going a million miles an hour. Her father’s legislation—the one she had been fighting for months—was tapping into the fears of a rabid set of people. Their hate-filled faces; their palpable anger; these were her father’s foot soldiers. His voters. These were the people who would cheer on his attempt to criminalize a whole swath of people.
People like her.
At the beginning of the rally, as the hall had filled to capacity, a sickening dread had trickled through her like ice water in her veins—it was a raw fear that somehow she would be discovered. That this horde of angry people would realize what she was. It was a personal fear, one for her own safety, even her life. One she hadn’t felt before… ever. She watched Jared’s stone-cold face turn into something even more hard and bitter—he wasn’t afraid, but she could see the flickers of anger below that inscrutable, chiseled expression. He’d known exactly who these people were and what they were capable of… and yet he stood by her side, unafraid to face them, so he could appeal to her and try to convince her that she should fight them.
Her fear had made her ashamed. Eventually, the disgust rose up to push the fear and shame aside, especially with Nolan’s obvious pandering. He would use these people and their anger just like her father would—to keep his job and increase his power. All along, Grace thought they were all driven by the same thing—a sense of justice. A desire to make the world a better place for the people living in it. That kind of power was invigorating, to be sure, but only because it was the power to do good in the world. But what seethed in that hall was the opposite—that hatred was the raw fuel for political power, and it would drive her father’s ascendancy in the world, along with all his minions, including Nolan.
Grace wanted to believe she would have still seen the wrongness of it, even if she wasn’t a shifter herself… but she wasn’t entirely sure. Nolan seemed to know it was wrong, but that didn’t stop him from following her father, wading into the crowd to glad-hand and win more votes. It was Nolan’s easy acceptance of all of it that had shocked her the most. Then Jared’s blazing words about some kind of government experiments on shifters, then the attack… and suddenly her shock had gone into overdrive, leaving her in this buzzed state as Jared whisked her from the rally, stuffing her in the sedan and hurrying them away. She hadn’t even asked where they were going, but she quickly realized he was taking her home… only it didn’t feel like home any longer.
It felt like a place she no longer fit.
Jared pulled the car up to the front door of the estate. She fumbled with the car door handle, but she couldn’t seem to get it to work. Her hands were still shaking after all. Jared hurried around to open her door. His hand clasped hers, enveloping it in his hot-skinned touch… even the look in his eyes had warmed from before, at the rally. He grasped hold of her arm to keep her steady, and she almost protested, but his calm command, guiding her toward the house and making sure she was steady on her feet, was settling the shaking in her hands, so she didn’t. Jared exchanged a rapid-yet-silent communication with Richard, the guard on duty—he took the car while Jared escorted her inside.
It made her feel cared for in a way that cleared her mind.
She and Jared needed to talk.
His large form hovered, strong but gentle, next to hers as he ushered her through the house.
“Do you need something to drink or eat?” he asked quietly as they passed the kitchen.
“No.” Her voice still had a tremble in it. She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. They kept going past the kitchen, and it was clear he was steering her toward her bedroom—which flushed her face with heat as she thought of the things she’d fantasized about doing there with him. None of which was appropriate at the moment.
Jared closed the bedroom door behind him, then without a word, he shucked off his jacket and drew her into his arms. He held her tightly—so tight that all the tension stringing her body released at once, and she just sagged into him.
“It’s okay,” he said softly, his hands in her hair, gently stroking the back of her head and holding her in the secure cage of his arms. “It’s over. You’re all right now.”
“Jared.” She buried her face in his chest and bunched up his neatly-pressed dress shirt in her fist.
His hand on her stilled, and she could feel the muscles in his arms flex around her, tensing up.
She lifted her head to peer up at him. “What am I going to do?”
He was speechless, looking down at her with dark eyes that
were no longer hard. His lips parted, but no words came out. For a moment, she thought he might kiss her, but then he loosened his hold and stepped back.
He still kept his hands on her shoulders. “Those men in hoods weren’t shifters, Grace.”
“I know.” She let out a breath, glad he was still holding onto her. Somehow it felt like he was the only thing keeping her up. “It was obvious my father hired them. To shift blame. To stir up the crowd. Probably to make the news as well.” Her shoulders sagged with the weight of that truth—that was what had knocked the final, buzzing shock into her. She hadn’t been afraid of the attackers. She’d been afraid to look the truth in the face—the whole thing had been an obvious manipulation for her father’s political gain. It was a stinging indictment, more than almost anything else she’d seen or heard so far.
Jared squeezed her shoulders. He didn’t say anything, but there was relief on his face.
“What am I going to do?” she repeated. “It’s like there’s suddenly a war, and I’m not sure what side I should be on.” She pleaded him with her eyes—she needed him to tell her, again, why it was necessary for her to come out. Why she had to abandon everything in her life—everything her life was supposed to be—and fight this thing her father was doing.
“You know what side you belong on, Grace.” But his voice was gentle, kind.
She shook her head, needing more. “How do I know you’re telling the truth about those experiments? About my father being involved? For all I know, you’re just… just making things up! Trying to convince me to betray the Senator—to ruin him by coming out as a shifter.” Because that’s what it would be—a PR disaster, only this time, it would be an intentional one. A self-inflicted wound that would take down her father and his plans as well.