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CHAPTER NINE

ELENA

The other side of the bed is empty when I awake the next morning, but the T-shirt I’m wearing smells like him.

Bringing the neck of the shirt up to my nose, I inhale Jake’s clean spicy scent and groan. Why does he have to smell so good ?

I’m so content lying there in the comfy hotel bed that it takes me a minute to remember why I went to sleep in such a bad mood.

Then the memory of the confrontation between Derek and Jake comes flooding back, and I smash my face into the pillow. Every member of the wedding party was at the club last night, which means they must have all witnessed the brawl.

I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. I’m still Carmen’s maid of honor. I need to focus on her.

Rolling over, I pick up my phone to check my messages and see a flood of notifications crowding the screen. I must have had my phone on silent, because I have no fewer than six missed phone calls from Carmen and a slew of drunken texts.

10:21: You’re leaving?????? But the party’s just getting started!

10:38: Whoa. Derek is pissed! What happened with you guys?

11:14: Are you and Jake shacking up?

11:17: Guuurl, you better answer me!

1:01: How big is Jack’s penis?

*Jake’s

1:45: Elena!!!!

1:52: Ur my best friend, and I love u, but Drek is gross.

*Derek

Snorting, I set my phone down and stare at the ceiling. I know I need to say something to Carmen since I bailed on her bachelorette party. But my feelings are so tangled and confused that I honestly don’t know if I should be defending Jake or complaining about what an overbearing ass he is.

Breathing in his yummy scent, it’s hard to be too angry with him.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve fantasized about sleeping with Jake, and last night he and I literally slept together. I don’t know why, but last night felt more intimate than if we’d made out in the back of the Uber or had filthy, passionate sex in the nightclub bathroom.

We slept in the same bed, and his oversized T-shirt is chafing my nipples.

I realize with a flush of heat that if Derek hadn’t shown up when he did, I would have let Jake do a whole lot more than get a little handsy on the dance floor. The thought makes me squirm, and I feel pathetic .

While Jake may not have returned my feelings, he was my first love. And I’m still not over him.

By the time I drag myself out of bed, Carmen is grumpily sipping mimosas in the hotel restaurant and poring over a seating chart.

She’s a little green and looks as though she’d rather be spending the morning with her head in the toilet, but a few of her family members are fighting again, which means she needs to redo the seating chart.

Unfortunately, her head is fuzzy from the hangover, and she keeps forgetting which of her aunts are on speaking terms and which are still cat-fighting. Carmen’s family also has two Josés and three Marcos, which makes rearranging the tables even more confusing.

After breakfast, we shut ourselves in Carmen’s room to assemble the wedding centerpieces. It takes longer than expected, and by the time I get back to the room to change for the rehearsal dinner, I’m running a little late.

I’m also beginning to worry.

I haven’t seen Jake all day long, and I’m starting to wonder if he murdered Derek and skipped town or if he’s just avoiding me.

I’m still fretting over Jake by the time I slip into my dress, which I blew half of my entire paycheck on. It’s a gauzy periwinkle number with several layers — the longest of which hits just above my calf.

I let my hair dry curly and leave it down, which makes it easier to hide the thick rough scar over my right ear.

I’m about to leave to go downstairs when I hear a soft knock at the door. Thinking it must be Carmen letting me know about some last-minute change to the ceremony, I throw open the door without looking through the peep hole and stagger back on my heels.

Jake is standing outside the door, looking more handsome than I’ve ever seen him. He’s wearing a charcoal suit with a crisp white shirt underneath, left unbuttoned at the top for a slightly less-formal look. He smells amazing, as always — clean and spicy and masculine.

“Hey,” I manage, still shocked to see him standing there.

The corner of his mouth lifts in a grin. “Hey.”

“I thought . . .” I swallow and tug nervously at the gauzy layer at my chest, which swoops across my left breast and makes the super-low cut passably modest. “I haven’t seen you all day.”

Something dark flickers in Jake’s expression, but it’s gone so quickly I’m not sure I didn’t imagine it. “Figured you’d be busy with the bride,” he says, his eyes smoldering as he takes me in. “You look beautiful , Lena.”

My heart flutters uncontrollably — both at the compliment and the nickname. His face is so serious as he says it that I know it’s not a throwaway line. I blink a few times and clear my throat. “Thanks.”

I’m not one of those girls who’s oblivious to her looks. I’m used to guys gawking at me. What I’m not used to is getting this attention from Jake — or getting a compliment that’s so sweet and sincere.

“Shall we?” he asks, holding out his arm.

I swallow and then nod, baffled at seeing Jake all cleaned up and acting like a gentleman. Where is my rugged fighter who was brawling in the club less than twenty-four hours ago ?

But I take Jake’s proffered arm and shiver when he lays his other hand over my wrist. He smells even more delicious up close, and my head spins from the physical contact.

Calm down , I tell myself. He’s just escorting you to the rehearsal dinner because Raf asked him to keep an eye on you.

And yet I can’t shake the feeling that Jake and I are here together — as in, together -together. It’s making my poor heart go nuts.

The rest of the wedding party is already gathered in the ballroom when we arrive, along with the bride and groom’s immediate family. Since Jake is neither family nor a member of the wedding party, he wouldn’t normally be invited to this, but he is technically my date.

He brings me up to the front of the room to join the bride and groom, but just as he turns to leave, Derek walks through the door. I turn toward Carmen to avoid his gaze, my anxiety ratcheting up.

If things had gone differently, we might have come here together. Instead, he humiliated me at Carmen’s bachelorette party.

I don’t see the look Jake gives him as their paths cross, but the air crackles with tension. Derek quickly lowers his eyes, and my jaw hits the floor.

As a human, I’ve never been able to pick up on the subtle hierarchy among shifters the way my brother can, but it was always my understanding that Derek was a highly dominant wolf. For him to submit to Jake, he must have been utterly cowed.

I try not to smirk as he comes to stand beside Carmen’s fiancé, but my smugness is quickly extinguished at the look on Derek’s face. He’s staring at me as though I’m some disgusting thing he scraped off the bottom of his shoe. I’m sure I’m not the only one who notices, either.

My cheeks burn, and I look away, shrinking under his gaze.

I don’t know what it is about Derek that always made me feel less than. My brother is an alpha , for crying out loud — not to mention the billionaire CEO of the fastest-growing company in Denver.

But maybe that’s it. No matter how well I do in life, I’ll never be one of them .

Derek never invited me to any pack events when we were dating, nor did he introduce me to any of his friends.

It was as though he wanted me to understand that I would never measure up.

I would always be the human girl who wasn’t good enough.

I feel Derek’s chilly gray eyes boring into me for the entire rehearsal, and I’m so flustered that I forget what I’m supposed to be doing when Carmen hands me her bouquet. She gives me a funny look but doesn’t miss a beat. Everything goes off without a hitch.

I’m relieved when the run-through is over and I’m able to join Jake at the long table. He must realize how hard it was for me to stand up there next to Derek, because he shoots to his feet and pulls out my chair like a perfect gentleman.

I flash him a grateful smile, and I feel the heat of his body on my cheek as Jake leans in. I expect him to whisper something sweet, but his voice is low and rough. “Do not ever let me see you shrink like that because of someone like him .”

His voice is so quiet I doubt if even the shifters right next to us heard, but it steals my breath away. I shiver as Jake pushes my chair in and takes his seat beside me.

JAKE

The other guests fill in the seats around us, and my skin prickles from the proximity of so many wolves. The chatter dies down as the groom’s father gets to his feet to toast the happy couple.

Elena raises the glass in front of her and brings it to her lips, but she doesn’t take a drink.

After that, servers appear with huge platters of food — much more food than would be required for a human wedding party. Everybody digs in, except for Elena, who just stares at her slice of prime rib as though it’s the most fascinating thing in the world.

I lean in slightly to catch her scent, and the bitter tang of panic coats my tongue. I turn to ask if she wants to get some air, but then the groomsman sitting across from Elena opens his mouth.

“Not very nice of Carmen, throwing you to the wolves,” he says to her. His tone is lighthearted and conversational, but the chatter at the table dies down.

It’s then that I realize Elena’s the only human here.

The other groomsmen chuckle, and my mate pulls a smile that doesn’t quite meet her eyes.

“Elena is used to being surrounded by animals,” says Carmen loudly, shooting the groomsman a warning look. “She did grow up with Raf and Jake. ”

More knowing chuckles.

There’s not a shifter here who doesn’t know Rafael Cabrera Garcia. I try to fly under the radar when I’m in another pack’s territory, but a lot of wolves know me from the shifter fight league.