They’d both made their decisions to not touch, and they’d have to live with those decisions for the rest of their lives. It was obvious she wasn’t ever going to be a Guardian, and she would have to accept she wouldn’t be fighting for a spot with any pride on the solstice.
Her beast took over and rested on the bank of the lake, watching as the small waves from a fishing boat lapped at the shoreline. The sound was welcoming after the run for her life and fight with the male. She’d killed a Guardian, and she was sure the Winestone pride was going to punish her for her crime. Shifter law stated anyone who harmed an alpha or Guardian was to be put to death. Jade wasn’t going to be an exception.
She pushed her panther back and shifted to her human form, touching the spot on her shoulder. The wound was closed, still a little sore, but nothing she couldn’t handle for the next few hours while Booth tried to locate her.
Would he return her to Mack Winestone? Shifter law was pretty cut and dry. It had to be followed, and she wondered if Talon would order her to face her fate.
To be honest, at that point, Jade was tired of it all. She was tired of running from her home, tired of arguing and trying to prove her worth as a Guardian, and tired of fighting an attraction to a male.
“Jade!” Booth’s voice bounced off the trees.
“Booth!” she called out, never moving from her spot on the ground. Exhaustion kept her from running toward him.
His knees hit the ground, his eyes throwing amber sparks. His hands hovered over her body, but he didn’t touch her. “Where are you hurt, baby girl?”
The endearment and the fear in his eyes was her undoing. Tears built and spilled over, sobs wracking her body. “I’m fine. I shifted.”
“Did they touch you?”
“The Guardians manhandled me,” she admitted, wiping feverishly at her eyes. “The alpha kicked me in the face when I arrived, but before that, I fought them.”
“Good girl,” he praised, but Booth’s face bubbled with his overwhelming rage.
“Booth,” she sighed, looking toward the panther’s body. “Get me out of here.”
A pair of shorts and a tank top was given to Booth by the blond Guardian, Storm. The other males waited patiently while she dressed. Booth hovered closely, but he didn’t make any move to touch her.
She wanted him to touch her. It was time she finally realized she needed to plan her future accordingly. In her captivity, she tried to focus on surviving, but the image of the male stayed in the back of her mind, giving her strength to get out of there alive.
“First, I have an alpha to kill,” he snarled as she followed them out of the forest.
Chapter Eighteen
Booth put his shoulder into the wooden door of the alpha’s home, splintering it at the frame. The sounds of Guardians rushing toward him was music to his ears. He was ready for a fight, and he’d fight to the death to avenge the female he knew was to be his true mate.
Fuck the fact they hadn’t touched. That would be happening as soon as they returned to the Shaw pride. He’d lost his chance at a forever by being stubborn, refusing to mate Jade.
“Winestone pride, you have harmed my female, and you will die,” he announced as he launched himself at the nearest Guardian, snapping his neck with his human hands.
There was no waiting for answers. There was no trial for these panthers. No, shifter law was to be served, and he was the one doling out the punishments. His beast roared inside his mind at the scent of Jade’s blood where it lingered inside the home.
“Alpha Winestone!” Booth’s voice echoed off the wood paneled walls as he searched for any remaining males in the home. There were no scents of females or cubs, and that gave his beast the opportunity to lick his lips with the need for blood.
Axel dispatched another male as they entered. Storm and Diesel took down a third, and as soon as his body hit the ground, the house silenced. There were no sounds, and that sent Booth’s focus on high alert.
“It’s too quiet,” Axel whispered low enough only the four of them could hear it.
“There’s more,” Jade whispered from behind him. He spun on her, shocked she’d not stayed away. “This is my fight, too.”
He didn’t have time to scold her before a male came rushing at them from a hallway to the right of where they were standing. Jade slid across the floor, between him and Axel, coming up to catch the male around the neck, taking him to the floor. Her head raised and her face shifted before striking the male, ripping out his throat with her human mouth.
Three more males arrived, coming for her, but she quickly righted herself and side stepped when Axel and Diesel attacked them. Axel started to shift, but not before the male grabbed him by the hair, pushing a knife into his throat, “Shift and you die.”
“Fuck you,” Axel snarled, but froze when the male made a move to slice his throat. Booth positioned himself to the male’s left, looking for a chance to attack the male.
“Don’t you fucking move!” A voice from behind them had everyone freezing in place. Jade was the only one to turn around, her eyes narrowing on the older male. “This bitch is mine.”
“I don’t think so, you creep,” Jade spat and launched herself at him. The male holding Axel never budged when Booth took off across the room. His heart dropped low in his stomach as she took the male, who he assumed was the alpha, to the ground.
“Jade!” he yelled when the male’s fist caught her jaw. The demonic laugh that came from her lips stopped him.
“That didn’t hurt, you pussy,” she taunted as she wrapped her arms around the male’s neck as if she were cradling him. Booth and the other males were unable to save her. They wouldn’t touch her, because everyone knew at this point that Jade was Booth’s mate. Booth wouldn’t touch her because if he did, the mating would happen at the moment they were in a battle to save her life.
“Jade! Release him,” he ordered, but she ignored him, twisting her body when the alpha tried to throw her off.
“Fuck off, Booth,” she snarled, releasing the male for half a second so he could climb to his feet.
Behind him, Axel cursed as a high-pitched scream filled the air. Booth didn’t want to take his eyes off of his mate, but he had to check on his fellow Guardian. With a quick glance, he saw the male on floor and Axel over him with the bloody knife in his hands. The Guardian was bleeding from a wound on his neck, but it wasn’t life threatening.
As he turned around, Jade had backed the alpha of the pride into a corner. Diesel and Storm were at her back. The male rushed her, but she caught him by the throat again, swinging her legs around his back like a monkey looking for a ride. To his utter shock and disbelief, she used the momentum to break the alpha’s neck, dropping with him to the floor as he took his last breath.
Jade hurried up the stairwell of the hotel to avoid being seen with blood on her skin from her takedown of the first male she had encountered. Thankfully, Diesel and Storm had been relatively blood free and able to get them checked into a hotel room for the night without being questioned.
They’d fled before they had time to shift, and Axel was going to have to do so in his hotel room after having his throat cut into by the male before he turned the tables and killed him. As for Jade, she could handle the cuts and bruises in her human form. They’d be gone by morning without shifting.
If the males didn’t think she could handle herself before, the scene at the pride should’ve been proof enough she was more than capable of fighting as a Guardian. Her hopes sank, knowing the solstice was only three days away.
Talon wouldn’t allow her to fight this year, but maybe with time and more training, she could have a chance next year. Evie and Hope would fight. Jade wasn’t so sure about Calla yet, but there was still time.
“Inside,” Booth barked as he slid the card into the reader and pushed open the door when the light turned green. “Shower.”
“Yes, boss,” she snarked, slamming the bathroom door in his face.
He’d
acted relieved when she’d been found, but by the time she’d rushed through the door of the Winestone’s home to take matters into her own hands, Booth had become angry. There was no mistaking the glowing amber eyes and thick canines biting into his bottom lip. In all of her years, she’d never seen a male that angry before.
Being close to him again sent her beast into a pacing frenzy to touch him. Even with the bathroom door closed, the mating scent he carried around whenever they were together was thick in her nose. Trying to keep herself from touching him wasn’t working, and neither was running away.
Jade was certain there were no shifters who’d ever met their possible mate and let them leave without touching them. Usually, anytime a pair would meet, they’d complete the mating immediately.
Jade and Booth were different. Obviously, she hadn’t found her mate before showing up at the Shaw pride. After meeting Booth, she felt the pull, but her need to become a Guardian overshadowed the possible happily ever after. All of the females from her old pride boasted about the day when they had found the males who completed them.
Booth didn’t want a mate either, and she was fine with that when she had arrived, but now that she had seen him again, she was unsure of what he wanted. The endearment and fear in his eyes when he had showed up in the forest by that lake made her believe they could actually care for each other as a mated couple.
She couldn’t think of matings right now. The shower was hot enough to wash away all of the confusion, but it did nothing to stop the need she had for him. When she finally turned off the water, exhaustion set in and she towel dried her hair before stepping out to find her bag, and Booth was sitting on the second bed across the room.
“Get dressed and climb in the bed,” he ordered, his face looking older. “You’ve had one hell of a day.”
“I have had one a hell of a last few days,” she corrected, and dug out a tank top and shorts. Booth lowered his eyes to the floor as she dressed. “I killed several males, and I’m certain I will have to pay the consequences.”
“Consequences?” Booth asked as his eyes lifted from the floor to her face.
“I killed Guardians and an alpha, Booth,” she reminded him, sitting heavily on the bed. “That won’t go over well in the shifter community. Talon will have to put me down.”
“The fuck he will!” Booth exploded. “You did it to save yourself, Jade.”
“Booth, I really just want to get some rest,” she sighed. Concern bled through his actions when he began to pace across the blue carpet, but no matter how upset he was, she knew it would do no good to talk it out. “I don’t have the energy to argue with you.”
“I will let you sleep, but rest assured, you will not be punished by the Shaw pride for what happened here,” he promised. She didn’t give any weight to his statement. Talon Shaw made the final decisions on punishments, and she was certain her days were numbered.
As she climbed in the bed, Booth took the other one. She pulled the covers over her shoulders and closed her eyes, letting sleep take her away, if only for a few hours.
A hand rubbing on the top of her thigh roused her from a deep slumber. When she opened her eyes, Booth was sitting at the edge of the bed, his large hand resting over her blanket covered flesh.
“You’re touching me,” she observed aloud.
“I can if it’s through the blanket,” he said softly. His icy blue eyes were less hard than usual, but his scent remained. She wanted to squeeze her legs together to ward off the ache of him being so close, but she didn’t.
“Your scent is driving me mad, Booth,” she admitted. “Touching me is making it worse.”
“If we were not in this human hotel, I would be touching your skin, Jade,” he declared. “I’ve fought this attraction to you for far too long.”
“I won’t let you touch me now,” she replied, then pulled her leg away as she sat up in the bed. Booth moved to the bed he had used to sleep in the night before out of respect. “If I am put down for killing Mack Winestone, I don’t want you to go feral.”
“Talon is not going to punish you.” He repeated his statement from the night before. She threw back the covers, planting her feet on the floor.
“We’ll see.” She shrugged and left him there to use the restroom. When she returned, he was holding her bag in his hands.
“We need to go.”
The other Guardians met them at the door, and the ride to the pride was quiet. She slept more than she was awake, and by the time they reached Olive Branch, Jade was ready to hear what the alpha had to say.
Chapter Nineteen
Noah didn’t even bother shifting for his walk in the woods. As much as he needed to let his panther’s mind take over for a while, he couldn’t get out of his own human head. The old, dry leaves from the winter before still peppered the forest floor as he disappeared down the trail closest to the alpha’s home. Birds chirped overhead, a squirrel skittered up a tall pine tree, and the warm summer wind ruffled the tops of the trees.
It was peaceful there, and he would never want to be anywhere else. This was his home; the only place he’d ever known in his short, twenty-six years. His father had run with him when he was just a cub, teaching him the ways of his heritage. It was days like these when he missed his parents more than ever.
Things were easier than before. After his mother had passed, Noah tried to drown his sorrows in the bottom of a whiskey bottle, but with his advanced healing, being drunk took twice the amount as if he were human. With Talon’s order to straighten his ass up, he put on a brave face and dealt with life. He still wanted to drink away his sorrow, and he still did when he was alone at his home.
Jerking his head to the left, a faint crunch of leaves reached his ears. His keen eyesight focused through the green landscape. A flash of light purple clothing stopped him in his tracks.
“Landon?” he called out. He knew it was the male the moment he froze. “It’s me, Noah.”
Noah waited, not wanting to scare Landon. He yearned to give the male a chance to reach out to him. It took no more than a few heartbeats for Landon to raise his hand in the form of a greeting.
“Why are you out here alone?” Noah asked.
“I needed to walk,” Landon offered as he approached.
“Where’s Olivia?” Noah asked.
“At work,” he replied, but frowned. “Why? Am I not allowed to be out here alone?”
“No.” Noah shook his head. “I mean, yes. Yes, you are allowed to do whatever you want on our land. I just wondered, you know, why you weren’t with the female.”
“Oh,” Landon blushed. “I’ve been going for walks on Sundays, because I like being out here. It’s peaceful.”
“It is,” Noah agreed, glancing up the path Landon had been traveling. “Would you care if I walked with you?”
“I would like that,” Landon replied, smoothing back his dark hair. Noah watched the action with fascination. “Are you not working today?”
“I’m off duty tonight,” he announced, holding out his hand for the male to continue on his trek. “I thought about shifting with the others after Sunday supper, but I don’t think I will.”
Noah didn’t want to tell him about his desire to escape his thoughts or his need to get away from everyone else. As they walked, he forgot about all of his worries and focused on the well-being of the human male at his side.
“How’s the clinic doing?” Noah asked, hoping Landon would open up a little more with him.
“It’s great.” Landon smiled, his jawline sharpening with the action. Noah looked away, but his gaze came back immediately to glance into Landon’s eyes. They froze for a moment as his beast pushed against his skin. “It’s everything I hoped it would be.”
Noah stumbled over a small branch as he saw a look on the male’s face he’d never seen before. It was happiness, and he vowed right then and there to learn more about what the male did for the humans’ animals. It obviously made him happy, and that was something they both ne
eded to focus on.
Booth knew Jade was uneasy. He could feel it in the air. Her mating scent had been non-existent since they’d left the hotel in Dallas.
Jade was worried for her life, and as much as he’d promised her things would be okay, she didn’t believe him. There was no way Talon would end her life for taking the life of a pride who was trying to kill her. It was obvious she came from an old school pride who still lived by the rules of the old world.
The Shaw pride wasn’t like that. They’d progressed so much in the last five years. With allowing the females to fight in the Guardians’ training center, the pride had shattered the centuries of rules in a short amount of time since being outed by the humans.
“We’re here,” he announced as Savage waved him through the gate.
Jade blinked a few times before the words registered. With a jerk, she sat up straight in her seat. He didn’t say anything when she tightened her fists where they rested in her lap.
“I guess Talon is waiting on me,” she whispered.
“You are not in trouble,” he reiterated. “I promise. He just wants a debriefing on what happened.”
“Let me just talk to him,” she replied, guilt thick in her tone.
The sun was still high in the sky when he followed her into the house. The pride was off doing other things, leaving only June with the cubs in the playroom off the kitchen and Liberty was set up in the sunken living room, playing with Ember and Declan. She smiled warmly at him as he entered, but frowned when she noticed his somber expression. When the alpha’s mate began to rise, he shook his head and turned when Jade entered.
Liberty jumped up from her seat and ran over to the female, taking her into a strong hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“Thank you,” Jade replied, stepping away from Liberty before turning around to address him. “Thank you for coming to get me, Booth, but it might be best if you leave now.”
Booth (Rise of the Pride, Book 9) Page 14