Page 5

FUCK IF JAX knew what the hell was happening. One second he was bitching out the ranch manager for mucking up the animals’ feed schedules again, and in the next, an unfamiliar shifter energy slid against his cougar’s, making his inner cat hiss in alert.

Stepping out of his office to find a spritely teenaged shifter prepped to blow—and Harry seconds away from becoming the first casualty—definitely hadn’t been on his day’s bingo card.

“Step back, Harry.” Jax remained fixed in one spot, commandeering the teen shifter’s attention with a swell of his cougar’s power. It wasn’t something he liked to do often, but desperate measures…

Grace’s gold eyes swung his way, and a low, animalistic growl slipped from her lips. “No. I won’t let you talk to her like that either.”

Jax kicked up a single eyebrow. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been challenged by another shifter, and there wasn’t a doubt that was what this little spritely thing of a teen was primed to do.

“I have it under control, Jax,” Harry interjected, her tone stiff. “We’ve been handling things just fine for a while now.”

He let out a humorless laugh. “Yeah? And is that why you’re here? Because you’re doing just fine handling things on your own?”

“Look, we—”

“What do you need, kid?” Jax swung his focus back to the girl, slowly closing the distance until he stood between Grace and Harry, a protective wall for them both. “Do you need to breathe? Or do you need to let something out?”

“I don’t know.” The girl whimpered, but her fists tightened as little embers sparked around her hands. “I don’t know what I need.”

He directed her with a firm but soft “With me,” and led the way outside.

Harry protested to Maddox the entire way as they all followed, but the teen remained hot on Jax’s heels until he guided her to a gentle stop and pointed to an abandoned wheelbarrow six feet away.

“Whatever you feel itching below the surface? Let it out and light it up. Direct it toward the hay in that wheelbarrow.” He stood calmly at her side.

Eyes wide and panicked, she shook her head so hard she made him dizzy. “I’ll lose control like I did at school. I could hurt someone.”

“Does it look like anyone is around right now?” He glanced around the open space, glad to see most of the workers keeping their distance. “The closest thing to you right now is that wheelbarrow.”

“And you . How do you like having eyebrows? My chem teacher claims she was rather fond of hers until I accidentally melted them away,” she quipped dryly.

“A human?”

She nodded.

“I’m a shifter. Anything that’s melted off, stabbed through, or broken, will mend itself before I even finish reciting the alphabet.” He nudged his chin to the waiting wheelbarrow. “No more excuses. Light. It. Up.”

She threw a confused look to Harry, as if asking for permission.

“If you think it’ll help, do what he says, Gracie.” She gave an encouraging nod. “It’s okay, sweetheart.”

Her narrow shoulders tensing, the teen glared at the hay as if it insulted her favorite music group. Two seconds into the stare fest, her heated sparks transformed into small flames, and soon enough, her arms were completely engulfed from the elbows to her fingertips like a human torch.

“Holy fuck, Harry,” Maddox whispered behind them. “I get why you’re here now.”

“We don’t know what to do,” Harry admitted softly. “I’m hoping Patty can steer us in the right direction.”

Maddox flashed Jax a concerned look, but a massive blast of heat yanked their attention to Grace, who flung her hands out in front of her. With a heart-wrenching scream, she hurled thick, twin beams of flames at the hay. The wheelbarrow’s entire contents went up in a flash, leaving nothing behind but smoke, ash, and a pile of melted, gnarly steel.

Next to Jax, Grace panted heavily, her knees knocking together. But she no longer sparked and her eyes were back to a warm, rich brown.

He studied her carefully, looking for any sign he’d pushed her too hard. “How do you feel now?”

“How did you know that would work?”

“I didn’t.”

“You didn’t?!” Harry stepped forward, her eyes glittering with that temper he’d once found sexy as hell. Still did, if he was honest with himself. “You treated her like a fucking guinea pig? Do you have any idea how badly that could’ve turned out?”

“Yeah, but it worked.” He remained in position, arms crossed over his chest, as she got the closest she’d been to him in thirteen years.

She drilled a finger into his chest, sending a little magical zing down his spine. “You pompous, reckless jackass ! Who the hell do you think you are to risk something like that?”

“I’m not so sure why’re you’re huffing when everyone is standing perfectly healthy and in one piece… except for my wheelbarrow.”

“That stunt could’ve backfired in ten different ways, but you didn’t give a damn, did you? We came here hoping the Alpha could help Grace. We didn’t come so her son could put her in even more danger.”

Jax pushed through his amused annoyance and registered her words. “You’re here to see the Alpha.”

Maddox cleared his throat. “Harry and Grace are your one thirty.”

Well, fuck…

Harry looked from Maddox to Jax and back. “No, we had an appointment with Alpha Atwood. With Patricia .”

Jax slowly twisted his lips into a sardonic grin. “Thirteen years is a lot of time for things to change, sweet pea. Except that temper of yours, apparently.”

He hadn’t meant for the old nickname to slip out; but her eyes narrowed as if prepping to hurl daggers, obviously seeing it as a dig. He went with it. “Mom stepped down from her post about a year ago and is currently living the retired life and traveling all over the globe.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

Her anger-pinked cheeks visibly paled. “You mean that you’re…”

“The new Alpha Atwood… and we should chat about why you’re bringing an unidentified, uncontrolled shifter onto my pack lands without proper authorization.”

A low, now familiar growl came from the teenager’s direction. He returned it with a warning growl of his own when an errant thought had it coming out more like a squeak.

Dark hair. Dark eyes. A certifiable overflow of shifter stubbornness.

Grace was definitely in her teens, but how far in her teens? Seventeen? Fifteen?

Or… fuck . She was pretty damn petite. Could she be a bit younger?

The girl’s lips twitched into a small smirk as if she dared him to vocalize his thoughts. Finally, she chuckled, her laughs ending in faint snorts. “Don’t give yourself a heart attack, Alpha Jax. I am so not your daughter.”

“Gracie!” Harry exclaimed at the same time Jax questioned with “How did you know what was going through my head?”

“Please. It was written all over your panicked face as you started doing mental math. I’m sixteen, and Harry isn’t my mom. She’s my guardian while my actual mom is off playing hide-and-seek with a shifter that has no intention of ever being found.”

Jax couldn’t articulate words or fully form major thoughts as a million of them whipped through his head, each more confusing than the next. “Mads, why don’t you give Grace a tour of the ranch while Harry and I head to my office and… catch up?”

“I think I’d rather stick around for the conversation about me, thank you very much,” Grace smarted back, her glare almost matching Harry’s.

Jax transferred his attention to her and let his cougar inch slowly to the surface, close enough for the young shifter to sense the power rippling in the air. “Not all our conversation will be about you, Sparks. Take a tour with Maddox and we’ll find you when we’re done.”

The teenager’s gaze bounced back from him to Harry a few times before she reluctantly followed Maddox to the barn. Maddox sent Jax a silently mouthed behave directive he had no intention of following.

He headed back to the Alpha House and sensed Harry’s glare on the back of his neck the entire way. Good thing she didn’t have the fire gift like the kid or else she’d have burned a hole straight through his spinal column.

In the small foyer outside his office, Jax excused Sunny for the day, and as expected, she put up a fuss while she gathered her things. But he didn’t want more ears around for this “talk” than there needed to be.

Once it was him and Harry in the suddenly small confines of his office, the tension in the room could’ve been cut by a putty knife.

Harry broke the looming silence with a heavy sigh. “A shift in power or not, unless Patty retired to Fiji or somewhere equally remote, maybe this conversation should wait until she’s available.”

“She’s not in Fiji.”

“Good. Then—”

“But she also no longer handles Rocky Mountain Pack issues… and it appears as though you brought a doozy of one to my doorstep.”

Harry’s lavender eyes darkened, signaling he’d stoked that temper. Again. “Grace is not an issue. She’s a child.”

“A shifter child. And one you’re finding difficulty controlling… unless I’m reading the reason for your ‘appointment’ wrong and it really was just to reminisce on the good ole days.”

“This was a bad idea. I don’t know what Nora was thinking even suggesting this.” She stood to leave, her hand on the doorknob.

Jax sighed. “Harlow, wait.”

She spun around, her dark hair rippling over her shoulders. “For what? To sit here while you continue to call my ward an issue and berate me for trying to find someone who can help her? You obviously know why we’re here, Jax, and you’re playing fucking games.”

“The woman I remember didn’t used to be such a quitter.”

Anger sparked and so did her magic—literally. Its slow rise thickened the air and lifted the hair on his arms. A few loose pieces of paper fluttered on his desk before settling down.

She took a daring step closer to him. “A quitter? You have no idea what the two of us have been through over the last few years, so you can take your smug attitude and tuck it in your overfilled litter box.”

“So why don’t you tell me.”

She still looked prepped to run; and even though it would probably be for the best, he forced himself to chill and gestured to the vacant chair. “I can’t help either of you if I don’t know what I’m working with. It’s obviously challenging enough that it brought you back to Fates Haven after thirteen years of self-imposed exile.”

So he couldn’t chill completely.

Point for Harry that she didn’t rise to the bait. Clenching her jaw, she refused to sit and leaned back against the wall by the door. “Grace is obviously a shifter, but my friend Cassie, Grace’s mom, doesn’t know anything about her father other than his name. Luke.”

“Luke. And… that’s all?”

She glared at him. “Stow your judgment, Mr. Judgy McJudgerson. They met. They felt a connection. They had an eight-hour romance. All she knew about him was his first name and that he was just ‘passing through’ town.”

“So I take this to mean that Grace has never shifted?”

Harry took a slow, deep breath. “No. When she showed no signs of shifting around her twelfth birthday, her pediatrician said her shifter side was most likely too dormant to ever make a transition. They said her father probably wasn’t a full shifter either. Muted shifter genetics, they said.”

He snorted. “That girl that just lit a wheelbarrow on fire does not have muted genetics.”

“Tell me about it. Two years ago, she started having problems with some kids at school and then, bam. Switch flipped.”

Jax added knowingly, “Her shifter decided it didn’t want to remain dormant anymore.”

“You can say that again. Quick temper. Up and down mood. All the attitude. At first, we mostly blamed it on teenage hormones—and a large part may have been just that—but then the sparks happened. They don’t harm her, but the rest of her surroundings aren’t immune. I’m pretty sure we’re on our seventy-fifth Target comforter by now.”

Jax slowly digested all the info. “Can she control it any better than when it first started?”

“About ten times better, which should tell you how out of control it was in the beginning. Cassie’s been trying to track down her mystery shifter all of the past year to get answers, but every time she gets close, there’s a roadblock. While she’s doing that, I’ve taken Gracie to every shifter pack along the Eastern Seaboard and worked with nearly every coven, but no one can get a handle on Grace’s shifter lineage. And other than the breathing, which only works about fifty percent of the time, absolutely nothing has worked to rein in her abilities.”

For the first time, Jax truly let himself see how tired she appeared. Yeah, she possessed the same fight and temper of the girl he remembered, but she also had a lot of something else.

Resignation.

The Harlow Pierce he’d once fallen in love with didn’t resign herself to anything. If she didn’t like something, she changed it. The fact this was out of her power was most likely eating her alive.

He cocked an eyebrow and leaned his ass against his desk. “So you thought I could do something that dozens of others couldn’t?”

Her gaze snapped to his. “Actually, I’d hoped your mother could.”

“She’s not here, so you’re stuck with me.”

“Obviously,” she retorted dryly.

He debated on how to play this. Not helping the young shifter wasn’t an option, but everything else that came along with it he could do without.

“I’ll help Grace, but there will be ground rules,” he heard himself say.

“She’ll do whatever you ask her.”

“The rules aren’t for her. They’re for you.”

“Me? Like what?” Harry’s expression went from hopeful to wary.

“Keep your distance. Support Grace and cheer her on however you like, but if you don’t agree with one of my methods, you either suck it up and soldier onward, or you pull me aside and express it in private. Never in front of Grace.”

She shifted uncomfortably on her feet, looking as though she wanted to argue. “I guess I can do that… as long as you promise to listen to my concerns.”

“I’ll listen, but just to prepare you, your concerns won’t change my tactics. You came here looking for help from a shifter, and I won’t reach that by catering to the whims of a witch. And so you’re aware, my tactics sure as hell don’t involve meditation and breathing exercises.”

Actually, neither was a completely horrific idea, but he wasn’t about to admit it.

Her eyes narrowed on him as he purposefully pushed each and every one of her buttons. “Fine. I’ll trust you until you give me a reason not to, but I won’t hand her welfare over to you with no questions asked. So that distance you want will only reach so far.”

“Do you want Grace back to being a regular, mouthy teenager?”

“I’ll probably regret it later, but, yes. I do.”

“Then those are the rules. Take them or leave them and try your luck somewhere else.”

But he sure as hell hoped she didn’t.

He wasn’t so arrogant to think he could help the girl after so many failed, but he also knew quitting wasn’t in his DNA. Despite his earlier button pushing, it wasn’t in Harry’s either. It was one of the things he’d admired most about her.

She nibbled the left corner of her bottom lip. “I’ll take them. But you best be prepared for me taking you to the side a lot.”

Jax grinned. “You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.”

While Harry’s previous tension had somewhat melted away, his had ratcheted up another million degrees. He didn’t doubt his ability to help Grace, or to find someone who could… but he was less certain about his ability to maintain his distance from her guardian.

“I’ll be down at the stables at seven tomorrow. Have her here and ready to work.”

She cocked a gorgeous eyebrow. “You’re training tactic is manual labor?”

“I’m nothing if not a multitasker.”

With a snort, she nodded and turned to leave, stopping as she gazed around the room. “I know I don’t really have a right to ask, but she’s okay? Elodie is doing well?”

It took him a second to read into her hesitantly asked question.

She thought they’d Mated.

His immediate, bursting desire to clear up her assumption startled him into silence. He’d never once considered El an option, and vice versa. But telling Harry that the only woman he’d ever pictured himself with in a happily-forever-after way left him thirteen years ago would only set him up for another epic disappointment.

Harlow Pierce already proved once she didn’t believe in what they had. No way would he give her a clear path back into his life and into his heart for her to shatter it a second time.

He purposefully avoided her unspoken question. “She’s doing well. With this being Fates and all, I’m sure you’ll be running into her sooner or later.”

With a nervous smile, she nodded and left his office.

Feeling as though he’d gone eight rounds with a heavyweight boxing champion instead of one petite Pierce witch, he fell into his seat with a heavy groan. “Fuck me.”

Maddox chose that moment to appear, a knowing grin on his face as he plopped into the chair across from Jax and kicked his boots onto the desk. “And to think I nearly turned down Sunny’s offer for a backroom hookup today.”

Jax growled at his friend and pushed his feet off his desk, the move making the human laugh harder. “This isn’t a game, Mads.”

“I know. It’s a fucking Broadway show… and I personally cannot wait to get to the final act.”

Jax wasn’t so sure he’d survive until intermission, much less curtain call. Harlow Pierce possessed the ability to knock his feet out from under him without even trying, and it was clear that in her time away from Fates Haven—and him—that skill had grown more potent.

If he didn’t play this carefully, he’d be sprawled flat on his ass and he wasn’t so sure he’d have the fortitude to climb back to his feet.