The fall was beautiful. Heat cascading through her and she cried out, past dignity or reason as she rode her orgasm and he rode her.
Moments later, his pace sped. He rasped her name again and punctuated the whisper with one final, hard thrust. They fell through the bottom together, tumbling end over end in one another’s release and crashing back to earth as one.
Eden didn’t speak at first. She panted against the quilt as Jay eased her onto the bed and curled up behind her, his chest heaving as well.
As her heart rate slowed, a smile curved her lips. “You kinky bastard. You get off on that so hard.”
He growled through a laugh and propped his head on her shoulder. “On what? On you?”
“On being the big bad alpha wolf.” Feeling just as smug as he was, Eden caught his hand and twined their fingers together. “It’s hot, how crazy it makes you.”
“It wouldn’t make me crazy if you didn’t love it too. See the connection?”
“Works out pretty well, I suppose.” She traced her fingertip over his hand in a loopy, mindless pattern. “We’re a matched pair. A mated pair.”
“An alpha pair.” His fingers tightened around hers. “I don’t think they can be honest with me about how they’re doing yet, any of them.”
“It’ll take time, but they’ll come around. And…” She smiled a little. “Lorelei. She doesn’t trust me completely yet, but I like her, and she likes me. She’ll help me take care of them, and Colin will help you protect them. We have backup.”
“Betas,” he murmured.
“Betas.” She had to get at Shane’s computer full of lore sooner rather than later. There was so much to learn about werewolves and pack, about the sanctuary they were going to build and the history of what she had become.
Tomorrow would be soon enough. Tonight she wanted to cuddle with her mate and enjoy the moment’s peace. “Would it be rude or complimentary if I took a nap?”
Jay’s laugh shook through her. “Passing out would be a compliment. A nap just sounds like a damn good idea.”
“Next time,” she mumbled, but it might have been a lie. Drained by the excitement of the past week and wrapped in the strength of his love and the warmth of his body, she tumbled toward oblivion.
Passing out was going to make Jay impossibly smug, but she didn’t really care. He deserved it.
A three-hour nap through the evening was almost unforgivable, but Jay decided to let it slide—just this once. He emerged from the bedroom, bent on raiding the fridge for leftovers, but Mae and Stella were sitting at the kitchen table, talking quietly over mugs of hot cocoa.
Jay hastily finished buttoning his shirt. “Ladies.”
Mae took in his disheveled appearance in her usual silence, but a small smile tugged at her lips as she rose to her feet. “I saved dinner for you and Eden.”
He waved her back to her seat. “I don’t think she’ll be up before morning. She’s exhausted.”
“Bet she is, tiger.” Stella raised an eyebrow at him over her mug.
“Not like that,” he grumbled, pouring himself some cocoa from the pan on the stove. “What’re you two up to?”
“Nothing.” Stella flashed a look at Mae. “Talking about the farm, that’s all.”
“What about it?”
Mae wet her lips nervously. “The magic. We were talking about Stella’s spells. She’s cast a lot of them, along with some pretty impressive wards, but she’s not tired like she should be.”
Then she was the only one. He turned his attention to Stella. “How odd is that?”
“Mmm, hard to say.” She shrugged. “Some places have power. It’s in the earth, the air. The ether, I guess. Maybe this farm is one of them.”
It explained plenty, from Eden’s transformation before the pull of the full moon straight on back to the mysterious circumstances of Zack’s conception. “Find out what it means, okay? For sure.”
She inclined her head. “You got it.”
Mae fiddled with her mug of cocoa, twisting it back and forth before giving Stella a significant look.
The witch responded instantly. “Yeah, well. I’m beat in a completely mundane, non-magical way, so I’m going to pack it in. Good night.”
Jay watched as she set her mug in the sink and hurried out the door. Then he pulled out the chair opposite Mae’s and sat. “What is it?”
Mae’s gaze locked somewhere around his chin. “It’s kind of silly.”
He had to smile. “No, Mae. Whatever it is, it’s not silly if it’s important to you.”
“It’s just…” She swallowed hard, and her hand inched across the table, stopping just shy of his. “You’re my alpha, and I’ve never really talked to you. But it matters to me, maybe more than it does to the rest of them. I need pack. My wolf’s…weak.”
Not weak, though how could she know that if she could barely touch the beast inside? “Are you having any control problems?”
She shook her head, sending pink hair flying. “She really only comes out at the full moon, or if another wolf…” Her jaw clenched, and fear and shame soured the space between them. “But that’s not the same as control. I never really learned because I had a Guide, but she was one of the first wolves Christian killed.”
Damn it. Jay covered her hand with his, moving slowly. “Then we’ll need to find you another one.”
“I know.” Her voice faded to a small, scared whisper, but she clung to his hand as if it were the only solid thing in the world. “That’s why I didn’t tell you before… I don’t know if I’m ready.”
“You have time. If you were starting to shift without trying, anything dangerous like that, it’d have to be now. But you have time, Mae. Time to choose.”
Her fingers clenched tight. “Thank you.”
Don’t. His first instinct, to deny her thanks. Deflect the gratitude that wafted around every single member of the pack like a tangible wave of sadness mixed with relief. “You’re welcome.”
He knew he’d made the right choice when her tension eased. She slipped her hand free of his and rose, only to circle the table and wrap one arm around his shoulders in a shy, tentative hug. “If Eden does wake up, her food’s on the second shelf in the fridge. Yours is too.”
“Thanks. I think I’m just going to lock up and head back to bed.”
Mae smiled—a real smile—and swept up her cocoa. “Good night, Jay. Sleep well.”
When the house was quiet, a stillness fell. More than the quiet, it seemed to seep from every wall, heavy somehow with echoes. Shadows you could just barely catch out of the corner of your eye, the kind that vanished when you turned to look.
Ghosts. That’s what Eden had called them. Memories, Jay had said, and he still believed that. What had the old walls seen? What secrets did they carry?
He checked the front door before returning to the kitchen to flip the deadbolt on the back door. Before he could, a glimmer out by the barn caught his eye. White or beige, certainly not the shadows he was used to seeing in the darkness.
Jay pushed through the door. A breeze stirred his hair as well as a set of wind chimes on the back porch—Mae’s doing, perhaps, or Lorelei’s. They tinkled, underscored by a soft murmur.
The wind through the trees. Except the longer he listened, the more it sounded like a voice, words too low to make out.
He strode out toward the barn, the grass cool under his bare feet. His glimpse of the figure under the moonlight had been brief, but his mind already supplied details—human, feminine, dark hair.
The whispering stopped.
“Kaley, is that you?” He rounded the back of the barn, but nothing greeted him except trees and that damnable breeze.
Alpha.
The word crawled up his spine, sick and terrifying. It came from nowhere, and it came from right beside him. He whirled, his gaze snagging on a soft glow through the trees.
A woman stared at him, familiar somehow. Unsmiling. He watched, dumbstruck, as she shook her head, mouthed words and vanished.
Alpha. The word echoed again, sending another shiver up Jay’s back, especially when the whisper continued. Help him.
No throb of magic, not a single sense on alert. Jay stood behind the barn, his heart pounding, and fought the urge to run like a damn boy. When he did move, he kept his pace measured, even, and walked back to the house.
The lock clicked behind him, and absent steps carried him into the den, where he’d stowed Eden’s box of pictures, the ones she’d brought home the night before. His hands trembled as he pawed through them, and a stray shard of glass sliced his thumb.
“Fuck.” He sucked away the blood and lifted the photo he’d been looking for, a sad shot on the front porch of the farmhouse. Zack’s parents sat in rocking chairs, while he stood between them. His hands clenched so tightly around the straight chair backs that his knuckles stood out, stark and white, but that wasn’t what held Jay’s attention riveted.
Kathy Green, beautiful but melancholy. The woman in the photo.
The woman he’d seen outside.
Help him. Help them all.