That snared the full force of Zack’s attention. Dark eyebrows pulled together over narrowed eyes, and Zack’s power bubbled up. “Kaley’s young, and still fairly new. She’ll learn, and she’ll move on.”
The words carried a thread of desperation, but Jay only nodded. “Maybe.”
“She will.”
“I heard you.”
“Aren’t exactly acting like you believe me.”
“Because I don’t,” Jay answered. “I’m not real well acquainted with Kaley, not yet, but she doesn’t seem like the type to let stuff go. Not if it’s important to her.”
Zack ground his teeth together audibly. “I’m the only wolf she’s ever known who’s stronger than her. That’d confuse anyone who’s new.”
There was hope for the man yet, if he could come to his alpha with his tail tucked between his legs and still manage to get in a dig about Eden. “I’m not railroading your cousin, Zack.”
“Better not be.” Zack’s smile returned, and this time it held a vicious edge. “Can’t say I wasn’t wondering if that was part of the reason you sent Fletcher after me. Get him out of the way and all.”
“I’m not that manipulative.” Jay sipped his beer. “Or insecure.”
“Good for you.” After a moment, Zack shrugged. “I don’t care if he babysits me. As long as he’ll help with the repairs.”
“Fletch isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.”
“And if I snap? He’ll do the dirty work there too?”
An almost hopeful question—completely out of place, considering what he was asking. “You want to know if Fletcher would kill you?”
Zack finished his beer and reached for a second one. “Someone better be willing to, if the worst happens. You wouldn’t have him watching me if you didn’t know that.”
“Information,” Jay countered. “Got to know if someone’s headed off the rails.”
“And when they’re already there?” Scowling, Zack twisted the cap off his beer and flung it aside. “I don’t need a f**king pep talk. I need to know you’ve got the balls to do what it takes to keep my people safe.”
Eden would hate him, not to mention the rest of Zack’s pack. “I’ll do what I have to do.” It was the closest Jay could come to a promise, and it was true. If there was no other way, no hope left… “But I will do it. I won’t have anyone else handle my shit work. And if you think me saying this is a free pass to give up, think again, pal.”
Zack bared his teeth in a grin that stopped a hairsbreadth short of outright challenge. “Can’t give up, can I? It’s not over yet.”
“Not even close.” Jay snagged another beer. “But it won’t be over when we beat Memphis back, either. That’s just the start.”
“Not really looking that far ahead right now. One foot in front of the other…unless I fall off the path.” Zack stared at Jay. “Don’t let me hurt them. Swear to me.”
“I swear.”
But the whole conversation left him on edge, disquieted. Not because of what Zack was saying, but because of the unspoken implications. The feeling Jay couldn’t shake that, no matter what he said, the other wolf just needed to know he could slip away, guilt-free.
Jay’s couch was starting to feel more like home than any place in her own house ever had.
It was the smell, Eden decided as he settled next to her. His scent had become the one thing she associated with safety. The tense muscles of her neck began to relax as she inhaled deeply and let her wolf rise to the surface. Not enough to spill free, but enough to loosen her limbs as she twisted to rub her cheek against his shoulder. “This is what gets me through the day. This moment right here.”
“Good.” He slipped his arm around her shoulders. “Did you and Fletch buy out the grocery store?”
“Just about. And the fabric store, and the hardware store.” She smiled. “Is he secretly a prince?”
“More like very well-managed, very old money.”
“Well, he was very generous in spending it.” Closing her eyes, Eden traced her fingers over Jay’s chest. “Mae smiled for the first time when she saw the sewing machine we brought home. Did you know she’s an artist? She does a lot of different things, but one of her specialties is textiles. I guess that was part of her and Kaley’s plan. The reason they were coming to the farm to begin with.”
He hummed softly. “I thought it was Zack’s idea to come to the farm.”
“It was Zack’s idea to come to this farm. Kaley told me that she and Mae had been making plans for a while. Mae has a pretty decent business selling soaps and lotions, but she also makes hand-spun, hand-dyed yarn, and they thought they could expand by raising and shearing their own animals.”
Jay sat up a little straighter and squinted down at her. “What, you mean like sheep?”
She bit back a grin. “Alpacas, actually. Apparently there can be good money there, if you know how to raise animals and how to sell the fiber.”
“Who knows how to raise them?”
“Kaley. She’s familiar with the requirements.” Jay had a furrow between his eyebrows, and she couldn’t resist the urge to smooth it away, stroking her finger down the bridge of his nose with a smile. “I know it sounds pretty out there, but they’ve given it a lot of thought. They have money set aside, and supplies squirreled away in a storage unit outside of Memphis. That’s one of the things they wanted me to ask—if you and the men could clear it out and bring everything back. They didn’t have time after Zack escaped.”
Jay nodded his agreement. “If we can, we’ll get it.”
“I understand.” A shiver of foreboding swept over her, and she pressed her forehead to his cheek and tried to banish the sudden chill with the warmth of his body. “I hate that you have to go at all.”
He held her closer and spoke low against her ear. “The only other option is to let them come here.”
Yes, the wolf whispered deep inside her. Let the enemies come to them. Let her fight as an alpha should. Let her defend her pack.
Only her pack had enough scars already, and she had no experience with fighting. She swallowed the urge and nodded. “I know. I still hate it, but I understand.”
He stroked her hair. “I asked Shane about your early change. He said he’s never heard of anything like that happening without magical interference, but he’s going to do some research.”
Shane’s computer had proven to be a treasure trove of supernatural lore and ancient texts, each book lovingly scanned and catalogued with a thoroughness that had piqued her curiosity and earned her professional respect. If an explanation for her current situation couldn’t be found in the endless pages of information he’d amassed…
Unease crawled over her skin. She focused on Jay’s fingers in her hair and on taking slow, steady breaths. “My vacation and personal days will take me through the full moon, but after that I have to go back to work or lose my job. Do you think I’ll be steady enough by then?”
“It’s a very good possibility, though there is another one.”
Judging by the tightness in her chest, she’d need it. “What is it?”
“It’s old magic, something the witch Shane contacted will be able to do.” He stroked her hair again, the touch followed this time by a wave of soothing power. “A Guide bond, a connection between a new wolf and a mentor, of sorts. It can help balance you until you get back on your feet.”
A bond. She already felt like she had one with him, a connection that made every touch sizzle or soothe far more than it should. How much more intense would such a thing be with magic? Or maybe helping her process the overwhelming sensory input was the point. “How does it work?”
“It links us together so that I absorb all the excess power that causes you problems. I can do it already, but the bond makes it effortless.”
She heard the words, and heard the meaning under them. Us. I. “You want to be my Guide?”
He blinked, as if the question startled him. “Yeah, I do. I mean, your choices are limited anyway because of your strength. But…yes.”
Eden smoothed her thumb over his lower lip with a self-conscious smile. “And it won’t be complicated by how much time I spend wanting to kiss you?”
He cleared his throat and adopted a serious expression, though the way his lips kept curving up at the corners ruined it. “Actually, it’s not uncommon for the relationship to include a sexual component.”
“Really now?” It wasn’t the wolf who prodded her to slide into his lap. She straddled his thighs and rested her hands on his shoulders, fighting to keep her own expression deadly serious. “Jay Ancheta, are you trying to lure me into some kinky sex magic?”
He held up both hands. “Hey, I said you had limited choices, not none. There’s Fletcher, Colin, even Shane.” The words were easy, but a thread of tension ran through them.
Her wolf surged to the surface, demanding to exploit his unexpected weakness. Make him jealous, make him fight for the right to possess. Eden slapped her down hard enough to make them both reel from the internal battle before framing Jay’s face with her hands.
“You’re already my guide to werewolf things in all the ways that matter,” she whispered. “If it’ll make it easier, I want to be bound to you. Kinky sex magic would be a bonus, as long as you want to go there with me. Because I’m mostly trying to keep from ripping your clothes off right now.”
He rasped her name and wrapped his hands around her waist. “Sex is too dangerous right now. You don’t have the control for it, not yet. You haven’t even faced your first full moon.”
“No sex?” His hands were strong. Even his innocent grip felt dirty, felt more like challenge and invitation than caution. “That’s not fair.”