Page 10

Chapter

Ten

Brick couldn’t get over how good Jade smelled when she was turned on. Like melted sugar and sweet feminine heat. He wanted to pull over to the side of the road and kiss her and touch her and make her feel as amazing as he felt just being in her presence.

But he didn’t because he was a gentleman, damn it, and he was going to give his skittish sweetheart time to come to terms with her new life. He wanted to keep her safe, and he wasn’t going to be a caveman about anything. She could come to him when she was ready, and he’d be waiting.

When they got to Alli’s apartment, he and the fallen angel talked while Jade got ready for their date. Brick had dressed in slacks and a dress shirt, casual but a little upscale.

Alli was a protective and strong female who looked out for her friends.

“Do you think you’ll bring her back here tonight?” Alli asked. “I want to give her a key to my place since I was going to head to Lykos.”

“I’ll hold onto it,” he said.

Alli handed the key to him, and he hooked the carabiner on his own keys.

“Thanks, Brick. Hey, take good care of my new friend. She’s nervous about putting her trust in anyone because she just found out a few days ago that her alpha was going to force her to mate with some dangerous asshole.”

“I promise to be careful with her,” he said.

“I hear your sweetie, lemme leave you two to things. Have fun!”

As Alli disappeared down the hall, Jade walked into the kitchen wearing a short black skirt and a white gauzy tank top with soft gray florals. Her hair was long and loose around her shoulders and her eyes were bright with excitement.

“You look amazing,” he said. He captured her hand and kissed the top of it.

“Thank you,” she said. “Alli took me shopping when I got here since I only had one change of clothes with me.”

“You look like a dream,” he said. My dream come true.

He offered her his arm as she blushed sweetly and smiled at him, and escorted her to his truck.

In no time they were at the little restaurant having the best lasagna he’d ever had in his life.

Conversation flowed easily between them as they ate.

By the time they shared a white chocolate crème br?lée with fresh berries, he was half in love with her.

He hoped she felt the same.

They stepped out of the restaurant into the humid night.

The whole evening he’d felt like things were moving forward between them, and she was starting to genuinely feel safe.

She stared up at him, and the air became charged.

It was as if he could see the electricity flowing between them, the early bloom of their relationship as mates starting to form.

He wanted to tell her how beautiful she was and how much he liked her already, but when he opened his mouth to say something, she went onto her toes and kissed him.

He was so surprised that he didn’t move for a heartbeat, and then his instincts kicked in and he pulled her close and let himself go into the kiss. She was soft against him, her curves fitting against the hard planes of his body perfectly.

As the kiss deepened, he was aware that they were in public and he should be paying attention to their surroundings. But he couldn’t stop kissing her.

Just a second longer.

Or a few minutes perhaps.

But then something prickled in awareness for him and he broke from the drugging kiss.

He looked around the small parking lot and the few vehicles there, including the one Solan was driving.

He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but the strange feeling that they were being watched lingered so he took Jade’s hand and led her to his truck.

As they approached, he caught sight of a dark sedan parked a few spaces away.

The engine was idling nearly silent, and the windows were tinted too dark to see inside.

Something about the way the vehicle was sitting there, idling, made his wolf stir with unease.

He guided Jade to the passenger side and opened the door. When she was seated, he shut the door and stared at the sedan.

His instincts were screaming at him that something about the sedan wasn’t right.

Climbing behind the wheel, he texted Solan to keep an eye out for the sedan and see if it followed them. He hoped he was just seeing things because he was on alert with his mate, but he wasn’t so sure.

As he headed to Alli’s apartment, the unease stayed with him. Jade was talking animatedly about the lasagna and how she’d like to learn how to make it like that, but his attention was divided.

A text alert from Solan showed up on the GPS screen.

Sedan just passed us. We can’t see inside with the window tint. Suspicious.

“What’s suspicious?” Jade asked. “What sedan?”

He quickly told her about what he’d seen and the strange feeling he had while they were kissing.

“Oh gosh,” she said. She turned in her seat and looked behind them. “What are you going to do?”

“Change of plans,” he said.

“To what?”

“I’m going to take you to the pack. You can stay in the alphas’ house with me in one of the spare rooms on the second floor where my room is. It’s the very safest place for you.”

He glanced at her, and she met his gaze.

“Okay. I trust your judgment.”

That meant the world to him. He used the voice control to send a message to Solan, then slid across two lanes to take the next exit, leaving the sedan on the highway. He and Solan wove their way to Thorn Hollow, never seeing the sedan again.

But if someone was watching them at the restaurant, they most likely knew they were wolves and had come from the pack. He suspected it would just be a matter of time before they saw it again.

Adam and Cinder were waiting when they reached the alphas’ house. Brick walked Jade inside.

Cinder said, “You can stay in the spare room right next to Brick’s. I’ve got jammies you can borrow too.”

“Thanks.” Jade grabbed his hand and pulled him aside. She gave him a hug and said, “Thank you for looking out for me. For tonight. It was amazing.”

“I’m sorry it got ruined.”

“It wasn’t ruined. I mean, it sucked at the end there, but we made it back here unharmed. And you showed me that you can keep me safe. Honestly, I’ve never felt so comfortable with someone before.” She stared up at him, her eyes glittering with emotion.

He cupped her face and kissed her, and she melted against him with a soft sigh.

She was his to protect, and he’d be damned if he let anyone hurt her.

As the kiss ended, he whispered, “I meant it when I said you’re safe with me, Jade. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to keep you safe and with me.”

“I believe you.”

He brushed his lips over hers and said, “Sleep well, sweetheart. I’ll see you in the morning.”

She pursed her lips for a moment, then said, “Good night, Brick.”

She left his arms and met up with Cinder, and he and his mate shared a lingering look before she took to the stairs to go to the second floor.

He walked to Adam, who spoke to Solan and Carl about the sedan. “First things first, let’s check the vehicles for trackers, but I believe you’re right, Brick. They were clearly watching our town for people leaving,” Adam said.

“They didn’t try to get to us though,” Brick said. “They just followed us.”

“Maybe there was an ambush closer to town and we avoided it because we came in a different way with the detour,” Solan suggested. “Maybe they were trailing us and planning to run us into danger.”

“I think it’s pretty clear that Foley is up to his tricks again,” Adam said with a growl. “Send a pack-wide alert to reiterate that no one goes anywhere without an official security escort, including walking through the territory.”

Carl clapped him on the back. “Sorry your date got ruined, Brick. Looks like you two had a good time though.”

“Up until the end there,” Brick said ruefully.

“There will be other dates,” Carl said. “The important thing is you got her and yourself to safety.”

Brick nodded. He desperately wanted to spend more time with Jade, but this was definitely important.

If Brent Foley and his anti-shifter people had turned their focus on the wolf pack, then trouble was brewing for sure, and Jade’s safety, along with the safety of the pack, were of the utmost importance to him.

“Let’s go for a run in our shifts and check if we can scent anything out of the ordinary,” Brick said.

“Sounds good to me,” Solan said.

“I’ll go too,” Adam said.

“I’ll hang ‘round the house here until you return,” Carl said.

“Let’s do it,” Brick said.

They headed outside and stripped on the porch, shifting and flying into the woods with warning howls. The pack would not allow anyone to harm their people, and Brick was going to do everything in his power to ensure that his sweetheart was safe, and the pack too.