Page 58

I ask Jaxon to mindlink Skyler and Ezra so I can say goodbye before we leave, but he just clears his throat and says they’re busy. I’m going to act like they’re busy with pack business…
We listen to music on the way home in the car. One of my favorite Billie Eilish songs starts playing when we get to my neighborhood. My smile is so big that I look like a creepy clown ready to kill some kids. I start to move my shoulders to the music. Jaxon showed that he was boyfriend material when he took a wrong turn in my neighborhood so I could finish listening to the song. He pulls into the driveway three minutes later.
The lights inside the car start to fade when the sun goes down and it gets dark. When the music stops, the only sound is our breathing. The quiet doesn’t bother me. I don’t want to get out of the car because that means I have to leave Jaxon. He leans over the center console of the car and looks at my face, which makes me think he’s thinking the same thing.
He probably has a better view of me in the dark than I do of him, which is unfair. He can use his wolf senses, but I can only use my human eyesight, which isn’t always very good. The other day I had to squint to see how much Froot Loops I was supposed to eat.
Jaxon breaks the silence by saying, “I don’t want to let you out of this car.” He starts to touch my cheek with his fingers, and I shiver at the light touch.
“I don’t want to get out of the car either,” I say with a pout.
He pulls down on my bottom lip with his thumb. He lets go of it just to kiss me while sucking on my bottom lip hard. The kiss was so strong that my stomach tingles, and when our lips part, I let out a loud sigh.
I lick my lips and ask, “What was that for?” I liked it a lot better when he was the one who licked them.
“Don’t tease me with your pretty pout and then not expect me to kiss you.”
Oh. Oh. If he reacts like this, I’ll pout more often. I hope he can’t see the pinkish tint on my cheeks, but I know him well enough to know he can. I don’t want to, but I turn and reach for the door handle. I open the door a little bit, but then it closes again. I think it’s clear who did it.
“Jaxon,” I laugh. I turn back around to see him leaning over me in the passenger seat.  The streetlight shines on his face just enough for me to see the glimmer of his blue-Jaxon eyes. His face is only a few inches from mine. “Baby, I have to go inside now.”
When I call him by that name, his eyes light up. I don’t think I’ve ever called him anything other than his full name and Jaxon, but he seems to like it.
Forget that. He must like it because I’m now sitting on top of him in the driver’s seat. I don’t know how this happened, but I’m not complaining.
“Now you’re definitely not going inside.” His lips attack mine, and this time it’s hard for me to keep up. He takes control of the kiss, and I let him. His hands move up and down my thighs and then up to my b**t, where he grinds our bodies together. I can’t stop my muffled moans.
I pull away to catch my breath, but Jaxon keeps kissing down my jaw and right over my mark, so he must need me more than air. When he bites it and a hickey starts to form, I pull away from him.
“Stop bothering me! I love you, but I have to go home. My mom wants to spend time with me tonight.” When he pouts, I kiss it away right away. He looks at me for a long time. I try to get inside our bond to feel his feelings so I can understand what he’s thinking, but all I feel is love.
“Why are you staring at me?” I ask, but he doesn’t answer. Instead, he keeps looking at me, his eyes moving over every part of my face. I get really self-conscious after ten seconds of silence.
“Jaxon? Why are you staring at me? Is something-
“Come live with me.”
As soon as he said those words, everything I was going to say died on my lips. Live with him? Were we prepared for that? Do I even want to? That’s a dumb question. Of course I want to. What about Mom? What about Maisie? And doesn’t moving in mean I have to start acting like the Luna? Oh no, what if I have to drop out of school to become the Luna? I don’t want to give up my dream of being a social worker who helps kids from families who are having a hard time so I can be the head of a werewolf pack. Could I do both? Damn it, I don’t know anything about werewolf culture, and I’m married to one!
“Come back to me, love. I can feel your panic. Just tell me what you’re thinking.” He looks worried, and his eyebrows are furrowed. His strong and capable hands run up and down my arms in a calming way, but I’m still freaking out inside.
“I… I can’t move in with you,” I say quietly, not looking him in the eye. I know that if I look at his perfect face, eyes, or anything else, he’ll say something to make me think it’s a good idea. And I really want to live with him. Living full-time at the pack house and waking up next to him every day is too good to be true. I have things to do here. I can’t just go live with him…
“Why not?” He says this in an angry voice that catches me off guard, and I get lost in his blue-black eyes. He grinds his teeth together like he does when he’s trying to keep his cool, and I hate that I’m the reason he’s losing it.
“Jaxon, I’m only eighteen. I’m in my first year of college, and we just met a few months ago. For werewolves, it may be different, but in a human relationship, it would be highly unusual. Not to mention I have school and my job. And I have Maisie to babysit when my mom’s working. She needs me around.” The whole time I’m talking, my nails are running over his head.
“Oh,” he says, and then he hugs me. He breathes in my scent as he puts his face in the crook of my neck. “I thought you were freaking out because you didn’t want to, or maybe the idea sounded terrible to you or something.”
I shout, “What?” and glare at him. I pull away from him and smack the side of his head. He backs away and looks at me like he can’t believe I would even think about “hurting” an Alpha. I can’t help but be mad.
“Why would you think that? Jaxon, you know how much I love you! Why would you think that? Do you really think I don’t want to spend every moment I have with you? I mean…” I’m at a loss for words. Isn’t this boy aware that I’m crazy about him? I sometimes feel like he’s more insecure than I am.
“Sorry,” he mumbles, then smiles at me in an apologetic way. “I sometimes wonder why the Moon Goddess would pair someone as perfect as you with someone as flawed as me. I’m too rough and crass for someone as delicate, beautiful, and sweet as you.” When he becomes confident Alpha, he grips my hips tightly. My Jaxon is back.
“I don’t care how it happened, but I’m thankful. I’m going to be the best friend you could ask for. We’ll travel the world together—pick a place on the map and we’ll go there. As soon as this coven stuff is over, I’ll fly us wherever you want to go. We’ll ride gondolas in Paris, go scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, see the ancient ruins at Machu Picchu, stay in a bungalow in Bora Bora, or go to any castle or cathedral in the world. We’ll get a snow globe from every place we visit so you’ll never forget the memories we made there. You can have anything you want.”
I’m already crying at this point. It’s hard to believe that I could see the world with him. It’s also too sweet that he remembered that I like to collect snow globes. He wipes the happy tears from my eyes and kisses me with so much passion that I feel like I’m going to explode with love. I never knew that being in love could feel so all-consuming and strong.
He goes on, “As for moving in with me,” “Age doesn’t matter. Lots of people in the human world move in with their boyfriends or girlfriends in college. Even if it seems early for a human relationship, we are soul mates. Werewolves move in with their mates as soon as they meet them. There are a few exceptions, but that’s our culture. I’ve been going at your pace, and we can keep doing that, but I can barely sleep when I’m not with you. I want to wake up to your bedhead every morning.”
I push his shoulders back, but he just smiles at me. “I want to wake up to your beautiful hazel eyes. I want to kiss you whenever I want. I want to share a closet with you, have food fights, and cuddle with you. I want to f**k you all day long.”
That went from zero to one hundred really quickly.
“Don’t worry about your mom and Maisie. I can help pick Maisie up from daycare some days. She can stay at the pack house. Your mom can come over whenever she wants, and you can still visit her all the time. You should know by now that I’d do anything for you.”
He must have read a book called “The Sweetest Things to Tell Your Girlfriend So She Falls Even More in Love with You.”
I nervously bite my lip and ask, “What about werewolf stuff?” That was another big reason why I didn’t want to move in with him. I don’t know what people will want from me.
“You mean Luna’s duties?”
I slowly nod my head.
“Let’s go one step at a time. Trust me, things will be a lot easier once this threat is gone. The pack is on edge because you’re in danger, so everything seems very scary and strict. It’s not usually like that. Everyone knows you’re human, and they’re all very understanding. You’ll start to take on more responsibilities when you’re ready.”
I took some time to think about the news. It’s true that I don’t usually know how the Blackthorn Pack acts when they’re not on high alert. I am used to pack guards following me, warlocks and witches teleporting, and vampire attacks. I might be able to handle it better when no one is trying to kill me all the time.
It would be nice to live with Jaxon in the pack house. I need to talk to my mom about the details, but I might be able to move in with him.
“Maybe,” I say, and then I smile nervously.
“Maybe… What?”
“I might move in with you,” I say with more confidence.
“Okay, I’ll take maybe, baby.”
“Oh, what a poet!” I laugh, and then I have a hard time getting out of the car. It was hard for me to crawl out of the car because I was sitting on his lap. With Jaxon’s help, I can safely land on my feet. He gets out of the car next to me and walks me to the door.