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Chapter Six

Sutton

I gave him a shove. “My hair’s dry enough.”

A growl rattled through his chest. “No, it’s not. You’ll catch a cold.”

“Well, then it will be my own fault,” I said and pushed his hand away when he brought the towel toward me again.

He dropped his hand, studying me like I was some impossible puzzle to solve.

“I think you should go.”

He frowned. “You’re concussed and no one else is here. I’m not leaving.” He relaxed against my headboard like a stubborn jerk. “How about you tell me why you were at Dogwood? Why did you break into that building?”

His square jaw was like granite, his green eyes piercing through me.

If I didn’t give him some kind of answer, I knew I’d never get him to leave.

“Fine. A member of our coven is missing. I saw him at the fights the other night when I was working. I don’t know what I was thinking, that I’d find some kind of clue, I guess. It was a stupid idea.”

“Yeah, it was,” Jagger said. “Why’d you think you’d find something there? That makes no sense.”

“Jeez, thanks, Charming. Now that we’ve covered what a moron I am, you can get your pants on and leave.” Then I remembered I had found something, so not so stupid after all.

“Give me this missing male’s details and I’ll ask around.”

“No, thanks.”

His brow lowered. “No?”

“I don’t want your help.”

He actually looked confused. “I can do this for you.”

“I said, no.”

“Why are you being unreasonable? You can’t do this on your own. It’s too dangerous.”

“First, who said I’d do it on my own? There are other people I can ask…

other hounds I could ask if I wanted to.

” He growled. I ignored him and carried on.

“I can do a lot of things on my own. I’ve been on my own most of my life, as a matter of fact.

You certainly weren’t there to protect me when I was living on the streets and forced to run from breeder scouts, or when I was attacked while sleeping rough in a park and had to stab some rabid demon in the eye to get away, or when someone beat the shit out of me and stole all my things…

or when I found them, hexed them, then stole my things back.

No, I got through all of that on my own.

I survived. I even survived the monster who broke into this house”— I survived you leaving me and rejecting me— “and I plan on continuing to do so. I don’t need your protection?—”

“Stop talking.” His eyes flashed hellhound red as his canines extended and his face contorted with rage. “If you keep telling me the shit that’s happened to you, I’m not sure I can hold back the beast.”

I held that red gaze. “Why?” I pushed.

“Because I don’t like it when females get hurt.”

“So, you’d react this way with any female? It has nothing to do with me?”

The muscle in his jaw jumped. “Yeah, I would, but you’re?—”

“You’re full of shit.” There was no holding those words in, they just slipped out. “We kissed, and I know you felt it. You felt what was between us.”

“Tell me you won’t put yourself in danger again. Promise me,” he rumbled, ignoring what I said.

I straightened my spine and hoped I hid my wince. “I don’t have to promise you anything.”

“Yes, you do,” he said, his voice now blended with his hound.

“Why do you care?” Confrontation usually made me want to puke, or brought on a panic attack, but not with Jagger, apparently there was no holding back. I couldn’t.

He snarled, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

“Or are you too much of a damned coward to admit the truth, even to me, where no one else will hear?”

His nostrils flared, and he literally ground his teeth.

I smiled wide and nodded. “Like I said.”

“I…care about you, about what happens to you, that’s why,” he said, the words sounding as if they were being squeezed out of him.

His skin was visibly rolling along his tattooed shoulders as he attempted to hold back his desire to shift.

Maybe the part of him that was all hound didn’t care about the way I looked or what I was.

Maybe the hound was just as confused and angry as I was that Jagger was rejecting his mate.

“Why? Say it,” I rasped.

More teeth grinding. “I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do, but you won’t say it because you don’t want me. Because you would rather fuck some random wolf shifter. Because you would rather be with any other female than me.”

“That’s not fucking true and you know it.”

“I don’t know anything when it comes to you.

You run hot and cold. You stand outside my bedroom window for weeks after I’m hurt, then you vanish for three months.

You start messaging me while you’re away, then you humiliate me in front of your whole pack.

” I shook my head. “No, Jagger, I don’t know. ”

“I just…I need to know that you’re safe. For some reason, I need that. Will you at least give that to me?” he said.

I flinched. Was he really going to pretend he didn’t know what we were to each other?

That he didn’t feel it? This was probably my last chance to get it all out there on the table, so, and unlike him, I refused to hold back.

“I don’t know if you know this about me, but when you earn my trust, when I love, I do it big.

I give everything. I would have given you everything, Jagger, if you’d wanted it.

But you don’t want that from me, and you won’t even tell me why. ”

He released a ragged breath. “You’re wrong. We’re not mates, it’s impossible. What you feel for me, it’s something else.”

Impossible ? He’d said that at the clubhouse as well.

Was the idea of us being mates that awful or unthinkable to him that he refused to even contemplate it?

“Impossible? Then why are you here? You won’t leave me alone.

You’re the king of mixed freaking messages.

You make me think you want me, so I open myself up to you, then you throw it back in my face.

I try to forget you, but somehow, you’ve strong-armed your way back into my life, for how long, Jagger?

Just long enough for me to have hope, before you leave again? ”

He shook his head. “That’s not what I’m doing.”

He was sweating, shaking, his eyes were still scarlet and the veins under every part of exposed skin bulged. The towel around his hips hid nothing, and he was hard, tenting the fabric around his waist.

“You want me. You want to be with me. I know you do,” I said, and there was no missing the desperation in my voice.

His nostrils flared. “Yeah, I won’t deny I want to fuck you, but that doesn’t mean we’re?—”

“Mates? Fated?”

“Sutton,” he growled. “Stop. Stop this before…”

“Before what.”

“Don’t—”

“Before you lose control? I can see how hard you’re fighting it.”

He shook his head, hissing through his teeth.

“Why are you here?” I fired at him again.

“Stop,” he growled.

I shoved his chest. “Or what?”

With a snarl, he jerked forward, looming over me, panting, vibrating. His fingers curled around the covers, and he snapped them back, so they were no longer covering me, then he slid his hand up my bare thigh.

I froze. “What are you doing?”

“What you want,” he said, lips peeled back.

“You’re going to mate with me?” I asked breathlessly.

He paused and snarled again, shaking his head like he was trying to clear it. “No, not that.”

I wanted to throw up. “You won’t make me your mate, but you’ll give me a pity fuck to shut me up?” Heat flushed through me, and my face burned with humiliation that quickly grew into anger. Slamming my hands against his chest I tried to shove him off.

He stayed where he was. “Just let me touch you, that’s all I was going to do. I’ll make you feel good.”

I blinked up at him. He was clueless. No, he was cruel. Twisted. “Feel good?” I choked out. “You make me feel utterly worthless.”

The look he gave me was one of utter confusion. “No, this is what you want. I know this is what you want.”

“You’ve lost your damn mind. What the hell is wrong with you?”

His hound shone from his red eyes, and his hand actually trembled as he reached for me again. “I’m just… I’m gonna make you feel good.”

I shoved at his chest. “I said, no.” Boo burst from his spot above us, chirping and swooping.

Jagger gave him no notice and shook his head, his chest heaving as his hands curled around my shoulders, holding me tightly. He was completely lost to animal instinct. “You need this.”

No, he was the one that needed this, and he was too deep in denial to see why.

He leaned in, a repetitive rumbling sound vibrating from him as he ran his nose along the side of my throat, causing goose bumps to lift all over my skin. “Fuck,” he groaned. “Submit to me.”

Pain filled my chest. I couldn’t take another moment of this, not one more second. “Jagger, I rescind all access to house Ashborne,” I choked out.

His head jerked back. “Don’t you fucking dare?—”

“Get the hell out of my house,” I said as magic wrapped around him. The combined power of the wards created by the witches who lived in this house, banded around him and forcibly dragged him off my bed, out the door, and down the stairs. Boo flew after him, diving at his head.

I climbed off the bed, grabbed his leather vest, and followed, making my way down to where he stood clinging to the doorframe, snarling and roaring my name. Rushing through the kitchen and into the laundry, I grabbed his jeans from the dryer, then strode back to the door.

“Don’t do this,” he bit out.

“You’ve given me no choice.” Lifting my hand, I used my power to give him one final shove, forcing him through the open door behind him. He ran back at the doorway, hitting the ward with force. I felt the magic shudder through me.

“Let me back in, Sutton.”

“You need to leave, and never come back. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t reject me as your mate and still demand access to my body.” Boo swooped down, landing on my shoulder.

“That’s not…that’s not what I’m doing.” He shook his head violently, like something was buzzing around in it. “That’s not, no… I would never…”

Holding his green gaze, I tossed his jeans at him.

“If you batter the ward long enough with your strength and powers, you will weaken it, and you will eventually force your way inside. But if you do that, I will never forgive you. If you force your way back into this house and you try to touch me again, you need to get it through your head that it will be against my will . I don’t want your hands on me, Jagger.

I don’t want you anywhere near me. As far as I’m concerned, the fates can go to hell right along with you, because this is done. This is over.”

Every muscle in his body heaved with his panted breaths. “Sutton, fuck…don’t—” He snarled, his upper lip peeling back, his canines flashing.

Jagger was always in control, contained. Right now, his long, dark hair was loose, hanging around his shoulders in a wild mess. Goddess, he looked as feral as I’d ever seen him. All animal. How could he deny what we were to each other after this?

Still panting, he lowered his head, looking at the ground.

I stood frozen, not sure what he was going to do. Would he leave? Or was he about to charge and try to force his way back into my house?

Finally, he lifted his head, and all that I saw in his eyes now was horror.

“Sutton…I…” He shook his head again, as if he were trying to regain control over whatever was going on in his mind.

“Fuck, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what just happened.

I would never…” He cursed again, viciously. “I never meant to scare you.”

Something blazed in his eyes, something I refused to name. He didn’t move, and I knew I had to be the one to finish this, whatever this was now.

I shook my head. “It’s better this way. At least now I know who you are. You’re not the male I thought you were,” I choked out. “Goodbye, Jagger.”

Then I shut the door, locked it, and even though I knew he could break through it if he really wanted to, that he could use his powers and his strength and eventually bust through the wards—because he and his brothers had done it before—he wouldn’t.

I headed back upstairs and climbed into bed.

This time he wouldn’t.