“Because the alpha is trying to show me how smart he is,” I said with more than a little bite to my tone. I was on edge, fighting with everything I had not to shift. My skin was crawling and quick bursts of adrenaline shot through me every few minutes.

Mom laughed and sniffled, as she wiped at her misty eyes. “You should be happy that the alpha is showing interest in you.” She looked me over from head to toe, taking her time as she searched my body, as if she needed to see every part of me to make sure that I really was okay.

“The alpha is being a jackass, and those wolves outside are the enforcers,” I said. I grabbed my steaming mug off the counter, took a seat at the table, and drank a deep gulp of my coffee.

A spike of tangy fear flitted through the air, reaching my nostrils, and Mom lost a little color to her cheeks. “Let me guess, you haven’t submitted to him and recognized him as your alpha yet.” She made her way through the kitchen and sat down at the table, giving me a stern look. “You really should do it before he loses patience with you. The pack has always been about the rules.”

She was serious. I could see it on her face. But there was something else there. A small knowing smile. A slight twinkle in her eyes. Pride that her only daughter had joined the pack and caught the alpha’s attention. And right then, I was sure she knew exactly what Aidan was hiding from me.

“Don’t you have an issue with the fact that your daughter is a werewolf?” I snapped. This was the first time I had seen her since I was bitten, and she looked … happy about it. Freakin’ happy! I started to shake with hot anger, and I glared at her. “You want me to give myself to some guy to use me as he chooses? Seriously, Mom, I think you and Dad need therapy or parenting classes or something. This is not something to be happy about.”

I might as well have slapped her across the face. She certainly looked like my words had hurt her just as much, and a rush of guilt washed over me. Her eyes misted up, and she took a few breaths before she was able to look at me again.

“Jade, Aidan is not Ray,” she said in a shaky voice. “I won’t have you speaking about him that way in my house. Use you as he chooses.” She shook her head and made a tsk sound, clearly disappointed. “He’s not a monster. It’s just the way of the pack. He’s the leader. You need to show your respect. And besides, once the games …”

The front door opened and slammed shut. Mom looked up and I watched as the blood drained from her face and her complexion turned to a sickly gray. I didn’t need to look to see who it was; his scent hit me hard and fast.

“What games?” I asked, fighting to ignore his presence. “What were you going to say?” I may have been too freaked out to ask Jared, but Mom was a totally different story.

“Nothing, honey,” she said in a rush, still looking over me at Aidan. “Better hurry, you’ll be late for school.”

I jumped up and my chair rocked back, crashing to the floor. “School! Really? I’m not going. It’s not like I need an education now. I’m never getting out of this stupid hick town.”

“Jade!” Aidan barked from the doorway. I spun around; anger sparked over my skin, and I met him straight on. There goes playing nice, I thought. What was it about him that made my blood boil and my heart melt at the same time?

His eyes flared with that dangerous warning that shook me to my core. The sweet Aidan was gone, replaced by the alpha that scared me to death. I tried to hold his stare. I fought for the control and the authority I had had only days before. The command that had made this man trembled under my stare.

His scent hit me again, strong and sweet and powerful. It pulled at me, making my body convulse with the effort to stay standing. His gaze hardened and he nodded in my mother’s direction. “Apologize.”

It wasn’t a request. There was no mistaking the tone. I wanted to tell him off and kick him out of the house just as much as I wanted to tell him that I was his if he still wanted me. But I couldn’t do either. The words lodged in my throat. “Now, Jade,” he said tightly, and he closed the distance between us. He took my chin in his hand with surprising gentleness, and forced me to meet his eyes.

“Aidan, please ...” My bottom lip trembled as I spoke. His eyes were wide, glowing yellow, and his scent thickened in the air until I could hardly catch my breath.

“You need to learn,” he said, and I was sure I heard a hint of regret in his voice.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. I didn’t want to whisper, but my voice just wouldn’t work. I was lost in his eyes, in his scent, and my world was crashing down around me.

Aidan held me in place for another long moment before he dropped his hand from my face. I sagged against him almost instantly. Without his hand supporting me, my knees began to shake and they refused to hold me upright. His arm snaked around my waist, holding me close, and my heart hammered in my chest, thrilled and terrified of the man that I was falling for. He spoke to my mom, but with his scent so strong, I felt as if I was drunk. His voice was garbled and slurred in my ears.

Aidan took my hand in his and led me out of the house. I vaguely registered the smirk on Jared’s face, and his team of enforcers standing behind him, watching me as I got into the car. A moment later, Aidan jumped in and backed out of the driveway. He didn’t say anything to me, and his brain numbing scent was hardly noticeable now. His jaw was tight, twitching as he clenched and unclenched it.

“I don’t mean to be so, um, difficult …” I started. He snorted, and gave me a quick sideways look that made me want to giggle. “Okay, maybe I do mean to be. But really, you’ve been a bit of a jerk.”

His hand clenched the steering wheel, and his knuckles turned white. “Jade, when you walked out that door and shifted with us, you chose the pack. With that choice, comes rules. You may not care about the rules, but I don’t have that luxury.”

I was certain I heard the regret return to his voice. Silence stretched awkwardly between us. This was a side of Aidan that I had never imagined. He’d always seemed so carefree. So confident. I had never pegged him for a rules kind of guy.

“I need a freakin’ handbook,” I muttered under my breath, breaking the silence.

He chuckled softly, and the velvety sound made my heart flutter. “Did you have a nice time sneaking out last night?”

“I … I … needed to shift,” I said softly. “You were right.”

He grinned. “I told you I was smarter, Jade,” he said with a confident sounding chuckle. “I told you not to leave the house without asking me. Did you really think the enforcers weren’t going to tell me?”

CHAPTER 28

~ JADE ~

Aidan didn’t take me to school.

He left me sitting in the sterile looking, white waiting room of the pack’s headquarters. The smell of bleach and various lemon scented cleaners were overwhelming, and they were seriously making my head hurt. I would have preferred school.

I’d never been inside their headquarters before. But then, I hadn’t even known they had one until today. Really, what could a bunch of werewolves need with a headquarters? It seemed … stupid and it also reminded me again that I had so much to learn about the pack. Number one on my list was to figure out what the rules were that Aidan had been talking about. Again, I found myself seriously wishing for a handbook.

For the last three and a half hours, I’d been sitting there watching the door to Aidan’s office. After he had deposited me in an uncomfortable, bright orange plastic chair, he gave me a stern warning not to move, and then he went into his office and closed the door. About ten minutes after that, Beck, one of the enforcers, escorted a sobbing Marcy and a furious Dominic into the room.

They didn’t even look at me as they went by, and I wasn’t sure if it was because they didn’t notice me, or because they didn’t want to see me. I wouldn’t have blamed them if that were the case. It was my fault that they were in this mess, but the idea of them hating me burned anyway. I had started to get up to talk to them when Beck focused his golden gaze on me, and mouthed, ‘Not a word,’ and I froze.

Beck was about Aidan’s height with the same kind of thick and muscular build, but unlike Aidan, he was kind of scary. He was a lot like Jared in the no patience department, and since I had pissed him off more than a few times before, I didn’t want to risk pushing it. Not with the vicious warning that burned in his eyes. Damn, I hated the enforcers.

About thirty minutes after the three of them went in, and Beck never came out, I thought I was going to lose my mind from nerves. If Aidan was keeping one of the enforcers with him, it probably wasn’t a good thing. I snuck over to the door and I pressed my ear against it, trying to hear the conversation. The door must have been reinforced with something, because even with my enhanced hearing, I couldn’t make out anything. Not even a second later, the door flew open, and I tumbled into the room.

I didn’t even get a peek at Marcy or Dominic before Beck scooped me up. He carried me back over to the waiting room and set me down. “If I catch you moving again, I won’t be this gentle,” he growled, and then he vanished back into Aidan’s office, slamming the door behind him.

I hadn’t moved an inch since. My butt was tingly, my feet were pins and needles, and my back was throbbing, but I refused to move. I could deal with Aidan — kind of. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t actually follow through on his threats, but Beck … there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Beck would.

The sound of shoe-clad feet slapping against the white ceramic tiles down the hall drew my attention. As soon as my eyes found the source, I shuddered. Jared was coming toward me.

Jared was shirtless, and his gray track pants hung low on his hips. He had a small white towel wrapped around his neck, and his sculpted abs and chest glistened with sweat. Even though they were resting at his sides, the roped muscles in his forearms and thick biceps seemed as if they were flexed. His short black hair was messy and damp, and when his eyes, which were such a dark brown that they looked black, met mine, a one sided grin twitched at his lips.