“My parents …” I licked my dry lips. “You know where my parents are?”

“Yep, your dad went out of town for a few days and your mom’s at work. Get dressed.” He dropped my wrist then and his scent all but vanished into a thin and ultra light film in the air.

I sucked in a deep, fresh breath and my insides shuddered with a deep-seated longing. I glanced up at him, meeting his golden eyes and asked, “You going to let me change?”

He chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest, making his broad shoulders look even bigger. “I’m not stopping you. Go ahead.”

I blushed from head to toe. He couldn’t actually think that I was going to give him a strip show, could he? He leaned back on the door causally as if that was exactly what he intended. “God, Aidan, get out.”

He smirked. “How cute. A modest werewolf. You worried I won’t like what I see, sweetheart?”

“I couldn’t give two shits what you like,” I lied, spun on my heels, and stalked toward my closet.

He chuckled, and it was positively infuriating.

CHAPTER 24

~ JADE ~

Aidan really made me go to school.

After a few minutes of shuffling through my clothes, stalling, I heard the soft click of the door as he left. I let out a pent-up breath, thankful he wasn’t actually going to make me change in front of him. He hadn’t gone far. He was standing right outside my bedroom door when I emerged, after tugging on blue jeans and my favorite plum hoodie.

When we got into his black Mustang, I tried to ask him about the mark on his chest, but all he’d say was that it was none of my business. He pulled up to the coffee shop and left me in the car, with a firm warning not to move an inch, while he bought coffee and donuts. He shoved them at me without a word.

Aidan escorted me to my locker, and he hovered over me in my classes, making people move so we could sit beside each other. Things had … changed. Something had shifted in him. For the past few weeks, he had been approachable. Now, not so much. He was testy. His eyes flashed a lot. And he was seriously turning into a jackass. He was snapping at everyone, including the pack.

He wouldn’t let me sit with Ben and Ann at lunch, and he wouldn’t let Marcy sit with the pack or Trevor. He dragged me — literally dragged me — around, his hand always gripping on my wrist, or his arm looped around my waist, everywhere he went.

I had never been so happy to hear the bell ring at the end of the day. News had already travelled about my new status, and between the cautious looks from the student body, and Aidan’s retardedly possessive behavior, I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I left the computer lab, very aware that Aidan was right behind me, and I turned left, heading for my locker.

“Jade, come,” Aidan snapped. I stiffened and spun around. I didn’t want to, but that tone … I just couldn’t ignore it. I whimpered and my inner-wolf stirred in my stomach. He gave me a stern glare and pointed to the floor in front of him.

My jaw dropped, and I put my hands on my hips, attempting to glare, and fighting the urge to run at his command, although I was sure I failed miserably because he didn’t even flinch. Thankfully, though, my feet stayed firmly in place. “Did you just beckon me like a dog?”

His eyes flared and he pointed again to the floor in front of him. “Jade,” he growled.

At the sound of his growl, all of the end of the day chatter died, and tension rose all around us. Students rushed by so quickly it was as if they were running for cover from a bomb that was about to explode.

We stared off for a few long minutes. He’s serious, my inner-wolf reminded me over and over, and it was a struggle not to run to him. But dammit, I’d had enough. Since I had been bitten, he had been acting like a complete jackass. But the worst part about it was that this new attitude was making my body sing. The way he looked at me with those wide eyes, the tone of authority in his voice … it spoke to me in a whole new way.

I wanted to walk away, and turn my back on him but I couldn’t. His glare pinned me to the floor. My knees were shaking, my hands started to tremble, and damn him, but he grinned as if he had just won a battle. He paced toward me, never once looking away from my eyes, and he leaned in so close that I felt his warm breath push against my lips as he whispered, “Do you know what the penalty is for defying your alpha?” I shook my head, just a small side-to-side bob. My mouth and throat were too dry to answer. He chuckled softly. “Death, Jade.”

He locked his hand around my wrist. The touch of his hand on my skin sent a rush of sparks and chills through me, and he pulled me to his car. And I hated myself for following along like an obedient little dog.

~ AIDAN ~

Jade locked me out of the house.

She didn’t say a word to me as I drove her home, and she even smiled that sweet smile she used to give me before she knew who I was, when we got out of the car. I figured she was coming around. I thought that my little threat had done the trick. For half a second, I was sure she was going to fall in line and accept me as her alpha. But clearly, I was wrong.

I didn’t have time for this crap. Not with the werecougars and the constant issues with the pack. Not to mention the fact that if she didn’t submit soon, I was sure we’d have more than one pack running around town. Jade was putting out more signals of her dominance than I was able to mask, and I was pretty sure that she didn’t even know she was doing it.

All through our classes, I had rolled Dominic’s words around in my mind, but the problem with his solution was that I just couldn’t submit to her until she was officially my mate. She needed to claim her place in the alpha pair first and be recognized as my equal. I might not have been able to submit to her, like he had suggested, but I had figured out a loophole. A small gap in the laws that allowed me to take her under my guidance even as a challenging female, and what did she do? She locked me out of the damn house!

“Open the door, Jade,” I growled for what had to be the twentieth time. I was starting to think I’d have to break a window. The top of her head was just visible through the small window in the door as she leaned against it.

“Looks like I’m smarter than you,” she said through hysterical giggles. She must have rolled up on tiptoes then. Instead of seeing just the top of her forehead, her big brown eyes and wide grin peeked through the window.

“Jade, open the damn door!” I shouted again, and banged my fist against the wood.

She jumped back quickly and called, “Don’t think so,” still giggling like a crazy person.

I had always liked to think of myself as a calm man. Patient, caring, rational, but in that moment, all I saw was red. Her scent was stirring something in me that I had never felt before, and her screw you attitude was driving me mad. My inner-wolf clawed in my chest. That part of me, my animal side, had already accepted her. It didn’t care about the rules or the laws or the challenges. It saw her as my equal — my mate.

The image of her wrapped in the thin towel the other day, and the one from this morning in those skimpy little shorts and tank top flooded my mind. My skin heated, burning hot. I wanted her more than I wanted to breathe.

“Jade, you are going to be mine,” I growled without thought. I slammed my palm against the door so hard it shook. “Fighting me will only delay it, but it won’t stop the inevitable. I know you feel it.”

That stopped her laughter abruptly, and I chuckled under my breath. “I’m not a piece of property, you jackass,” she retorted.

“Yeah, you are,” I said, and sighed loudly. You are as much my property as I am yours.

I felt as if I was standing in quicksand, sinking deeper and deeper. What the hell was wrong with me? I hated this feeling of helplessness. I’d been a werewolf all my life. I knew how to control my inner cravings, and the erratic behavior. But Jade … her inner-wolf … the wanting ... I shook my head, pushing the thoughts away.

She let out a strangled laugh. “Yeah, and that’s the way to get me to open the door. Have a good night under the stars or go home.”

I listened to the soft pat of her footsteps as she made her way through the house, and then I heard the whoosh of air as she sat, most likely on the couch.

I had to stop going easy on her. I’d been trying to tame my scent for her. The last thing I wanted was to cripple her under the full force of the alpha power. I wanted her to want me willingly. I wanted to see that lust in her eyes again without forcing it out of her. But I was running out of time. I could see it, her, slipping away. She wasn’t mine yet, I didn’t have to hold back, and maybe I shouldn’t be, at least until she won.

I don’t know how long I stood there staring at the door before I took a seat on the porch steps. I was starting to wonder if alphas were banned from the games not because of the interference issue, but for their own sanity. I felt as if mine was teetering on a cliff, ready to tumble and shatter in the rocky cove below. Watching Jade beat the last two challengers had been amazing. She was amazing. And each time she pinned someone in place, a challenger or not, by just her glare … it sent my inner-wolf crazy with want.

I scrubbed at my face roughly and then raked my hand through my hair. I didn’t need this kind of distraction. Not now. Jeff claimed that he could distract the cougars and give me more time, but I wasn’t so sure. Even now, I could smell them. The cougars were coming closer and closer to town, marking my woods as their own.

And there was just something about Jeff that wasn’t sitting well with me. It turned out that the incident Dominic had been referring to when he had punched him was the moment he had caught Jeff cheating on his wife. That kind of thing happened, I knew that, but after finding out what the women were used for in his pack, and with the way he could hide his scent …

“You’re breaking the laws,” a voice said, yanking me from my tortured thoughts. “You cannot hide her.”

“I’m not breaking any laws, Trisha,” I said, not bothering to look up. I scrubbed at my face. “She’s a new wolf, and with that status, I’m allowed to train her.” Couldn’t I just get five minutes alone? Five minutes with my thoughts. I really didn’t think that was too much to ask for, but it was as if my pack could sense when I wasn’t doing anything.