by B M Griffin
CHAPTER FIVE
Jared
Jared knocked on Megan’s door with flowers in hand, and tapped his foot on the step while he waited for her to open the door. Every time they’d had a chance to spend time together for the past couple weeks, he had ruined it by worrying more about keeping his eyes on the world around them. Constantly afraid that someone would go after Megan to hurt him and his pack, when he should have been concentrating on showing Megan how important she was to him.
Several minutes passed with him waiting, but the door never opened. Megan’s car was in the driveway and the lights were on in her living room, so she had to be home. Jared knocked again, a little harder this time hoping she was just at the back of the house, and hadn’t heard him knock the first time. When she still didn’t answer, he tried the handle, but it was locked, so he walked around the house to see if there were any signs of her. The blinds to her bedroom were opened and he could see her sitting on the edge of her bed. She was staring at her wall and rocking back and forth slowly, like she was zoned out. Jared knocked on her window hoping to get her attention, but she just kept slowly rocking on her perch at the end of her bed.
A cold chill ran down Jared’s spine and he dropped the flowers on the ground. Without hesitation, he kicked in the back door and ran to Megan’s bedroom. He dropped to his knees on the floor in front of her and placed his hands over hers on her knees. Her face was tear-stained and her eyes were red and puffy like she’d been crying for hours.
“Megan, baby, what’s wrong?”
Megan shook her head slowly, but she didn’t answer him, so he got up and took a seat beside her, then he lifted her and sat her on his lap. He softly brushed her hair away from her face so he could see her eyes, and bent to kiss her forehead softly.
“I’ve got you, Megs.”
Megan stiffened in his arms, before pushing away from him and standing at the end of her bed. She wiped at her face harshly then pointed at her chest. “I’ve got me taken care of, but you should get home to the pack. They are going to need you.”
Jared stood up and tried to run his hands over her shoulders to help her calm down, but she shrugged away from him and he dropped his hands to his side, not wanting to push her. “What’s going on, Megan? I can tell something’s wrong. I know I upset you before, that’s why I’m here. I was hoping we could spend the day together, just you and me.”
She shook her head. “This isn’t about us, well, I guess it might be, but I’ve already got that under control. I won’t let them use me to get to the pack, but you need to go home, let everyone know what’s going on.”
This time he didn’t let her brush him off. He grabbed her shoulders and waited, until she finally turned her head up to meet his eyes. “Tell me what happened.”
“Kevin Hall is alive.”
Jared released his hold on her afraid he wouldn’t be able to control his anger, and he wasn’t about to hurt her, accident or not. “What happened to make you believe that?” he asked, his words were slow as he ground them out passed his clenched teeth.
“Someone came to visit me at work this morning. Told our secretary he was there on behalf of Hall Global Inc., to talk about the marketing proposal we’d pitched them before we learned who Kevin really was. When we were alone, he said that Mr. Hall was alive and pissed. Demanded that I tell Shayla and Adam to surrender his pack members, so they could make their way back to him. That’s why you need to go home. What if he’s watching, waiting to attack? What if the members of his pack who joined you, are just there to infiltrate your pack? It could have been a set up the whole time.”
Jared clenched his fists. “Who came to see you?”
“He said his name was Demetri Falin.”
The crack of Jared’s fist when it collided with Megan’s bedroom wall was so loud, Megan jumped backward and tripped, falling into her dresser.
“Shit! Megs, I’m sorry.” Jared quickly helped her up from the floor. “Are you hurt?”
Megan rubbed at her elbow and Jared smelled the blood, before he saw the cut running from her elbow halfway up the back of her arm. He yanked his shirt off over his head and quickly wrapped it around her arm to stop the bleeding.
“It’s fine,” Megan said.
“No, it’s not, Megan. I shouldn’t have let my temper get the best of me. I scared you.”
“Hey,” Megan brought her hand up to his face, and softly cupped his cheek. “Look at me, Jared.” She waited, not saying another word until he looked at her. “I am not afraid of you. I know that you would never hurt me. I was just lost in my head, thinking about that Demetri guy, and the cracking of the sheetrock startled me. It had nothing to do with being afraid of you. Okay?”
He tried to look away, but Megan just moved back into his line of sight and waited for him to respond. He nodded lightly and said, “Okay,” but he was still pissed with himself. He never should have let his temper get ahold of him like that around her, it was too dangerous. He’d been a werewolf for a long time and had learned to control his wolf long ago, but that was before he met Megan. The bonded wolf in him was stronger than anything he’d experienced before, and he wasn’t sure that he’d be able to keep control over him when it came to Megan’s safety, especially not when she was being threatened by a snake like Demetri fucking Falin.
After taking a few calming breaths, Jared stepped forward and took Megan’s hand. “Sorry I lost my temper, but Demetri is bad news. We need to get you out of here, now.”
“I can’t leave yet. Shayla and Adam are on their way here.”
“You don’t understand what you’re dealing with here, Megan. I guarantee Demetri had you followed. He wouldn’t just sit back and wait on you to pass his message along. If he spots Shayla and Adam here, then he won’t hesitate to attack. If Kevin is alive, it’s Shayla and Adam he’s after. We need to leave. We can call Shayla and Adam from the car, so they know not to come here.”
****
Megan called Shayla while Jared took the long route home, so that nobody would be able to follow him back to the pack. When she hung up the phone, he glanced in her direction a few times, hoping she would open up to him. Clearly, something else was going on with her that she wasn’t telling him.
“Why were Shayla and Adam going to your house?” he asked.
Megan looked away from him, her eyes trained on the road outside of the passenger window. “They’re my friends. It’s not strange for them to visit me.”
“When they are supposed to be on their honeymoon for another week it is,” he countered.
Abruptly, Megan turned her whole body in her seat so that she was facing him. “You know what, I don’t know why I thought I should hide this from you. It’s my life and my decision.”
Jared looked at her in shock, his eyebrows drawn together, and he took in her angry glare and defensive position, while she stared him down with her arms crossed over her chest. A bad feeling washed over him, and he knew that whatever Megan was planning with Shayla and Adam was not good. “What’s going on, Megan?”
Megan didn’t flinch a muscle or look away from him when she said, “Shayla is going to change me.”
Jared swerved onto the shoulder of the road and slammed on the breaks. “What the hell do you mean, she’s going to change you?” He was gripping the steering wheel so hard, his knuckles turned completely white and he feel his pulse thumping in his palms.
“I told you, I won’t be the helpless human who everyone thinks they have to protect all the time. Demetri or Kevin, or whoever else it might be, won’t use me as leverage against the people I care about.”
“I won’t allow it.”
“Like I said, this is my decision. I don’t need your permission. I need to be able to protect myself, and I need to help protect the people I love.”
“You might not need my permission, but I won’t let Shayla go through with this.”
“You can’t stop her.”
Jared got right in her face. “I’m her Alpha
and I will stop her. You won’t become what we are.”
He quickly turned his attention back to the road and slammed his foot on the gas, spinning wheels in the dirt when the car peeled back out onto the road. Megan turned and slammed her back into the seat facing forward again, and he could hear her grumbling under her breath. It was going to be a long night, because he had no intention of allowing Shayla to change Megan into a werewolf, and that was going to be difficult, because if any wolf in his pack could overpower his Alpha command, Shayla was the one.
CHAPTER SIX
Megan
Megan slammed the car door as soon as he pulled to a stop in front of his house. He called her name when he got out of the car, but she ignored him and quickly let herself into the house. She ran upstairs and into the first bedroom with its door open, then she shut and locked the door.
“Oh, hey Megan, hun, you startled me,” Joanna said from across the room. “Why the locked door?”
Before Megan could respond, the door rattled with the sounds of a fist pounding against it from the other side. “Megan, open the door!” Jared yelled through the door. “We aren’t done talking about this.”
A big smile spread across Joanna’s face. “So, that’s why you locked the door. This is goin’ to be good.”
Megan rolled her eyes and pressed her back up against the door, as if she had any hope of keeping Jared out if he really wanted to break his way into the room. “I told you this is my decision,” Megan called out, so he could hear her through the door.
Another bang and Megan was pushed forward a couple of inches, but she quickly braced her back to the door again. “You don’t understand the consequences,” Jared yelled back through the door.
Joanna walked over to Megan and motioned for her to move out of the way. When she braced herself against the door just as another round of fist-meets-door began, it was immediately clear she was far stronger than Megan. The door, which had been buckling under the force behind Jared’s knocking while Megan tried to hold it shut, was suddenly looking much sturdier with Joanna holding it shut.
“Alright, darlin’,” Joanna said, her eyes trained on Megan, “I’m all for us girls stickin’ together, but you’re gonna have to fill me in on what’s got my Alpha so ramped up, so I know what we’re fightin’ for.”
Megan liked Joanna, but she wasn’t sure that they were close enough for this. Joanna crossed her arms and stared Megan down with a raised eyebrow. She wasn’t going to back down, and Megan really had no reason to hide what she wanted from Joanna, after all, if everything went as planned, they’d both be members of the same pack very soon.
“Shayla and Adam are on their way here. Shayla is going to help me.”
Megan paused, but Joanna wasn’t about to let her off that easy. “What’s she helping you with, Megan?”
“She’s going to make me a real member of the pack.”
Joanna’s eyes shot up. “You mean …”
“She’s going to change me into a werewolf.”
Joanna beamed, her smile growing wider than before, and she brought her hands together clapping them like a hummingbird’s wings. She moved away from the door and was standing right in front of Megan in a blink. “Oh hun, if that’s what you want, you don’t have to wait on Shayla. I’d be happy to help a sister out, and honestly, you’re already practically a member of our pack. We might as well make it official.”
Megan threw her arms around Joanna and hugged her tightly. Knowing that she had the support of at least one member of the pack, Shayla excluded, meant more to her than she’d realized. This pack was really a family and Joanna had just accepted Megan with open arms.
“That means more to me than you know, Joanna,” Megan said, with her arms still around the other woman’s shoulders, “but Shayla would kill me if she wasn’t here for my transformation.”
Right then, the door to the room let out one last, loud creak, and it jerked open. Megan jumped back and away from Joanna, and they both gawked at the open doorway where Shayla stood. “You’re damn right I’d kill you, woman,” Shayla scowled. “Flew all the way home and skipped out on my honeymoon for this. You better believe I’m not gonna just let anyone make you one of us. No offense, Joanna, but she’s my best friend and I want to be the one to do this for her.”
Joanna held up her hands, but she was still smiling. “None taken, hun. I know how close the two of you are. I just wasn’t so sure you’d be here before Jared came through that door and hid her away under lock and key.”
In that moment, Megan realized that Jared was nowhere to be seen. Which was odd, considering he’d just been on the other side of the very door Shayla walked through trying to get to her. “Where’s Jared?” Megan asked, her eyes trained on the empty hallway behind Shayla.
Shayla pointed behind herself with her thumb. “Adam convinced him to give us some space.”
Megan arched an eyebrow at her friend. “And how did he do that, exactly?”
Shayla looked past Megan; her eyes trained on something over Megan’s shoulder, like it was the most interesting thing. “He convinced him they were wasting precious time and the pack needed to be told about your unexpected visitor.”
“Really? You and Adam show up and suddenly and he’s okay letting me out of his sight for a while, despite knowing what the two of us have planned?” Megan closed the space between her and Shayla, making it impossible for Shayla to look anywhere but at her. “What else happened for him to leave the two of us alone so easily?”
“Well I’m still here, ya know,” Joanna piped in from behind Megan, but she ignored the woman while she waited for Shayla to respond.
Shayla took a big breath before she looked Megan in the eyes and said, “I promised him I wouldn’t change you, not until we’ve all had a chance to sit down and talk.”
Megan clenched her fists at her side. Over the years, she and Shayla had their fair share of differences. That was just something that came along with the territory when you’d been friends for as many years as they had and worked together daily. This, however, this was much bigger than a difference of opinion. Megan felt betrayed.
She ground her teeth together to try to keep from shouting. “What in the hell possessed you to promise him that? This is my life, Shayla! I’m the only one who should be making this decision.”
“Megan,” Shayla reached for her, but Megan took a step backward. She was too angry to be comforted in that moment, not even by Shayla. “I never said I wasn’t going to change you, just that we could all talk before I did so. He deserves a chance to be heard, to share with you why he doesn’t want this for you. He’s our pack Alpha, and he … “
Shayla trailed off, not finishing her sentence, but it didn’t matter. Megan had her reasons and they wouldn’t change. No matter what happened between Jared and her, there were some very bad werewolves out there who knew who she was and that she was human. She was the weak link and she would not be, not anymore.
Megan turned on her heel until she was facing Joanna again. “Let’s do this, Joanna.”
Joanna’s smile was gone and her eyes flicked between Megan’s and Shayla’s. “I’m not so sure now’s the right time, dear. Like Shayla said, Jared is our Alpha. If she made a promise to him, then it’s best we all honor that.”
“He’s just going to try to change your mind, Shayla, and to change mine. It’s not going to happen.”
Shayla placed a gentle hand on Megan’s shoulder, and Megan jerked her head around, ready to defend her choice some more, but the look on her friend’s face made her pause. “Megan, you know I’ve got your back, no matter what, but will it really hurt to hear Jared out? I promised you I will make you one of us, but the man is in love with you and he’s just afraid of what it will mean for you if you become a wolf. There are good parts, but there are really bad parts too. He just wants to know you are safe and happy, and he doesn’t want to live the rest of his life thinking you’re unhappy because you got trapped in our world, when you coul
d have walked away and lived a safe, normal life as a human.”
Megan froze. Everything Shayla said, every argument she’d been building upon the tip of her tongue ready to strike back and win the argument, all of it went out the window. The only thing left in her mind in that moment, was one small part of what Shayla had been saying, small but enormous all at the same time.
The man is in love with you.
“Why’d you say that?” Megan’s voice was so low, she wasn’t even sure if Shayla heard her until Shayla took her hand.
“We all want you to be happy, Megan, even if it means we lose you because you decide to get away from all the danger that comes along with being near us.”
Megan shook her head. “No, not that part.” Shayla’s eyebrows drew together while she looked back at Megan. “How can he be in love with me? We’ve only known each other just over a month, and we’ve barely had a chance to spend any time alone, just the two of us.”
Shayla smiled. “Falling in love is different for werewolves, or at least that’s what Adam tells me. I was still human when I fell for him. For us, we know it the moment we meet our mate. At the risk of sounding cheesy, it’s like our wolf can sense our soul mate or something like that. It was different for me, because I was in love with Adam before I changed, but I can tell you that since my transition, my feelings are more intense than I ever imagined possible. It’s what drove me to go with Kevin when his pack attacked us. I’d die before I watched someone hurt Adam, and he’d do the same for me. It’s instinctive.”
Megan didn’t know what to say, but there was one thing she knew she had to do. She grabbed Shayla’s hand and walked out of Joanna’s room. They headed downstairs to find Jared and finally hear him out. His reaction earlier had been over the top, but if she’d learned anything watching Shayla and Adam interact, that was just part of the territory when you were in love with a werewolf.