But maybe, just maybe I’ve found a way to get close to them and steal their secrets after all.
3
JASON
Kissing her was so fucking good. My dick aches, it’s so hard. I’m dazed from all the blood rushing south. What wouldn’t I give to lie with her, sink into her…
But it was more than that. Kissing her was like drinking in the sunlight. I lost myself for a moment there, left all the shit behind, and just…waswith her. The ache in my wounded shoulder vanished, the various aches of old bone fractures and from the deepest scars on my back faded away. Touching her skin, feeling her pressed to me, it felt so damn good. As if a piece of me had been missing and then I was complete.
Which makes no fucking sense. If Ashton hadn’t butted in, would I have figured it out? Would I have stopped?
“Get out,” she says. “I’m tired.”
Still buzzing from the kiss, I shut everything out, everything but her… and she’s not happy. Is it the kiss? Is it something I did? The way she asked me why we went to the secretary, about the favor she owed me… I’m too drunk on her to think straight but I know something’s wrong. Somethingfeelswrong.
Telling me to get out of her room is proof.
“Mia,” I start, getting to my feet, reaching for her. “I—”
“The both of you,” she says, not looking at me. “Please. I need some space.”
“Dammit.” My hand drops to my side. “Mia—”
“You heard her, wolf,” Ashton says. “Come on. Let’s leave her to rest and make sure nobody disturbs her.”
“So you’ll be my bodyguards now?” Her voice is clipped. She’s toying with the cuff of her sleeve.
She still sounds… off. Upset. Angry. Sad. Not sure which it is. I’m bad at this, at reading other people. A feeling of panic is rising inside me, like a cold wind. It flips my switches, the bad ones, and I kick at the foot of the bed, then her desk.
She flinches.
“Jax—” Ashton starts.
“You lied to us about who you are,” I say, finally trusting myself to turn back toward her. “Aboutwhatyou are. But now you feel hurt?”
“Screw you,” she whispers, eyes wide, her face pale. “What I am is none of your business.”
“Is that so?” I lean closer to see the fear in her gaze.
She flinches again.
I know what she sees. When I lose control, I wolf out. My canines press on my lower lip, my vision changes, my hearing becomes sharper, my nails begin to turn into claws. Wolfing out is a defense mechanism, born from and honed in my dark past.
That’s what the school counselor told me, at least. Apparently, other werewolves have more control over their elemental side.
I’m panting, the change taking over me, turning me into a beast when what I want is to be with her, not scare her but hold her, like before, like—
“Jax! Goddammit.” Ashton grabs my arm and yanks me around, to the door and out of the room. “Control yourself. Call back the change,now.”
“Easy to say,” I growl. Blood is running down my chin. My canines have nicked my lower lip. His voice is too loud, grating on my senses, bouncing inside my head. The lights are too bright.
And I’m too angry at the world—vamps especially.
Yanking my arm free, I shove him back, slamming him into the wall outside Mia’s room and getting in his face. “Don’t touch me!”
“Calm down, man,” he says, “everything’s okay, she’s—”
“Son of a bitch.” I slam him back again and he hisses. The scent of fresh blood tugs on my senses. There’s blood on his leg, he was wounded there, I should stop—