Page 61

I stop pushing him when he laughs loudly. I look at him with a glare. As I wait for him to leave, I cross my arms in front of me.
“I came here as a wolf, love.”
He seems to think I should get what he’s trying to say. I just look at him.
“And? Bye, wolfie!” I wave my hand at him in a sarcastic way. He shrugs and grabs the bottom of his shirt.
“Okay, you asked for it.”
Jaxon quickly takes off his shirt and throws it on the floor. I’m in a daze as I look at his chest and muscles—so many muscles. I can count the eight-pack on his abs because they are so well-defined. When his very capable hands drop down to the waistband of his joggers, I run forward and grab his wrists right away so he doesn’t decide to run through my neighborhood naked.
I basically yell at him, “What the heck are you doing?!” while giving him a wide-eyed look. He gives me that famous Jaxon smirk that I love and hate at the same time, and I don’t know how I feel about it right now.
“I can’t move around in my clothes, Calla. They’ll rip, and then I won’t have anything to wear when I get back. I have to carry them in my mouth when I’m a wolf.”
He knows why I’m having trouble putting together a sentence right now, and he seems to be having a great time with it. He looks like a Greek god carved out of stone, with his shiny white teeth on full display as he stands in my driveway.
I mumble, “That makes sense,” as I turn around and walk right behind my house. I know he’s following me, so I try to stay ahead of him so my red face can cool down. I feel safe by the time I get to the little patch of grass that I call my backyard.
He suddenly turns me around, and before I can get my bearings, he’s kissing me. I sigh into him and pull him closer by wrapping my arms around his neck. I take the lead and touch my tongue to his, which is different from how we usually kiss. This makes Jaxon growl and pull my body even closer to his. He seems to like it when I take charge, but he likes it even more when he does. Soon, I’m trying to catch up as he bites my bottom lip and dives back into the kiss.
I feel every inch of skin I can, and I’m glad his shirt is on the ground. I’m the worst Luna ever because I should be telling Jaxon to leave, but instead I’m making him wait even longer.
 
It takes a lot of work for the sense of duty to win over the desire, but I slowly pull away from him and take a step back.
“You should probably go back now.”
When he nods his head, his eyes are still wide open. I turn around to give him some space, even though he doesn’t want it. He reaches for the waistband of his pants, but I don’t hear any fabric moving, so I know he’s not taking them off. He’s not sure what to do.
I turn around and am about to tell him to move when I see that his fists are clenched and his eyes are downcast.
“Everything okay? You’re still a werewolf, right?” I joke to break the tension, but his gaze is heavy on me.
“I don’t want to scare you,” he says in a voice so soft that I can barely hear it. Right now, with his hair covering one of his eyes and his shoulders hunched over, he looks very weak.
I feel guilty right away. I wish I hadn’t reacted the way I did when I saw his wolf. I just got attacked by a vampire, and I found out that I have a werewolf soul mate. It’s my fault that he doesn’t feel accepted.
“Baby,” I say as I walk over to him. I hold his face in my hands and look into his eyes, which are bluer than Jaxon’s right now. “I love you. That means I love all of you, even the wolf part. I was scared when I first saw it because I didn’t know the supernatural existed. I thought you were going to eat me or something.” I laugh when I think about it.
He smiles slyly. “I did want to eat you.” He holds my hips and pulls me in so I can feel his hardness against my stomach. He leans in close so that his mouth is right next to my ear.
“And you taste great.”
His bold words make me shiver, and I can easily foresee a repeat of yesterday. But now is not the right time. I push him away gently and try to hide the pink color of my cheeks with my hair. It doesn’t work.
“Seriously! At this rate, you’ll never leave! I want to see you as a wolf.”
He pouts a little but does what he’s told. I turn around when he reaches for his pants. He chuckles. I know I’ve seen, um… I’ve seen it before, but it feels different this time. I hear a snapping sound coming from Jaxon’s direction, but I don’t turn around until I feel a wet snout push against my arm.
I let out a high-pitched scream that I didn’t mean to. I turn around and see a wolf right in front of me. I knew he turned into one, of course. I’ve seen it happen, but it’s still not something I’m used to. I’m not scared, but I’m still not sure if I want to touch him.
As a light breeze blows in, his dark fur looks soft as it moves. The same pair of blue eyes meet mine, and I can tell that Jaxon is nervous about being this way around me.
I slowly reach out my hand, and I’m surprised when he lowers his head even more so that I can reach it more easily. He starts purring right away when I pet the top of his head. It sounds a lot like a sound he makes when he’s human, but I know it might sound scary to other people. I kiss his furry forehead and smile at him.
“You’re so cute, Jaxon,” I say, and he growls at me.
“Fine!” I throw my hands up in fake fear. “You’re terrifying. You’re the scariest thing on Earth! Please, let me go!”
He makes a huffing sound by blowing air out of his nose. He doesn’t think it’s funny. He might be upset that I think he’s cute and not scary, but he purrs when I touch him! I never had a pet like him. When he gets Broody again, I might make him change into this form so he can’t talk back to me.
I wave goodbye to him and watch as he runs away from my backyard as fast as the vampire that first attacked me. I had no idea he could go that fast! He looked like a black blur until he went behind the trees.
I’m sad that he’s gone, but I go back inside my house and get ready for the rest of the day.
~
I end up going to town a little earlier than I need to. One of the pack guards walks with me as soon as I leave. I’d seen him in the pack house before, but I didn’t know what his name was. We started talking on my way to the cafe because I needed more coffee.
After a few hours of sitting with the guard, whose name I learned is Jones, I go to the Psychology building for my class with Skyler. I pull out one of my twenty pens and write down what I need to learn today. I can’t bring myself to throw away any of the pens, so they just make noise in my backpack.
Skyler pulls me out of class and walks me to a nearby bench when class is over.
“Spill,” he says.
I say, “What?” because I’m not sure what he’s talking about. Is there something important I’m forgetting?
“You were playing with your fingers all class and bouncing your knee up and down like you were waiting for James Charles to post his new video.”
“Who is James?”
“Okay, that’s a problem for later,” Skyler says dramatically, putting a hand over his heart. “Now tell me! What are you so worried about?”
I guess I’m a little worried about the attack that’s supposed to happen tomorrow and the dinner tonight. I tell Skyler about the dinner and the talk I had with Jaxon. Skyler pulls out a store’s Poptart and starts eating it in the middle of my story. He nods his head up and down when I talk about the conversation I had with my mom.
“Don’t worry, Calla,” Skyler says. He doesn’t swallow before he speaks, and I really want to teach him some manners, but I also want to hear what he has to say. He keeps chewing loudly. “Trust us wolves, okay? Do you really think Jaxon doesn’t have a plan B? And a plan C? He’s crazy about you, so you’ll be fine. And this dinner? Jaxon should be worried, not you.”
I guess it was dumb of me to think that Jaxon was totally dependent on Felix and Elise’s plan. It makes sense because he’s never trusted them. I hope it doesn’t come to another plan. I have a feeling that his plan will lead to more deaths, which I want to avoid.
I ask, “What are the other plans?” hoping that Skyler will forget who he’s talking to and tell me. He just laughs at me, though.
“Sorry, Jaxon would kill me if I told you. Ezra wouldn’t like that very much, so I think I’ll keep my mouth shut. But since we have some free time, let’s go shopping for an outfit that isn’t as ugly as the rest of your clothes.”
I’m pulled to my feet and put in a car. I complained the whole time about how I just went to the mall with him. He sure acts like he can’t hear me at all, even though he has super hearing. There are times when I hate him.
We go to the mall in the afternoon. We go shopping, eat lunch, and then shop some more. Skyler let me go to the bookstore as a “reward” for spending so much time at the mall, so I bought four books. I’ll gladly do what you say if this happens every time we go shopping.