NEW CHAPTER! I'LL TRY AND HAVE ANOTHER UP BEFORE CHRISTMAS !
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A smirk toying at my lips, I sauntered back to the bedroom. All the while I could feel Cade’s eyes on my hips and butt, making me feel sexy. Actually any time he looked at me, I felt beautiful. Even when he was raging with anger and damning me, I could see the flames of his appreciation and lust burning in his smoky gray eyes. It made me feel mushy and gooey on the inside.
Is this love? I asked myself the question as I rummaged through the bedroom closet, not really taking in the clothes. I’d never asked myself that question. What made Cade so different? I mean, the man made my blood boil; he was so arrogant and blunt. But at the same time I couldn’t help but remember our sizzling chemistry and his tenderness and concern back at the shaman’s cabin.
Could I live with Cade forever? Werewolves mate for life and even if they didn’t, I doubt Cade would let me leave if we were mated. I pictured waking up to every morning. I’d certainly enjoyed the events of this morning. I imagined watching the drowsy way he lifted his lids and the quirked half smile he’d given me. I envisioned feeling gorgeous in his eyes every day for the rest of my life.
But with good came bad. Cade was not a man with a soft core. He didn’t take crap from anyone. I could imagine how protective he would be. Would it drive me crazy? Cade also liked to have things done his way, but so did I. I had no doubt there would be a few power struggles in our future, if we even had one together.
I turned my thoughts to Reese. He was a gorgeous guy and incredibly nice. But that’s the thing - he’s nice. Rarely ever sarcastic or pessimistic. I needed a little spice in my guys. And to be honest, he didn’t hold the same sex appeal that Cade did. We were good together, but I needed more than just good. I needed mindblowingly amazing.
Maybe I was thinking too inside the box. There had to be more single men on the reserve. I probably just hadn’t met them. There was probably a man more sexy than Cade and little less commanding. Someone who would fit me better. Right?
Wrong, my inner voice whispered tauntingly. You know Cade is the only who can get you that hot.
Shut up! I snarled to myself. I sighed and shook my head. Had I lost it? I was talking to myself now! In my head!
“Ainsley, you ready yet?” Cade’s question interrupted my thoughts as he entered the room.
I realized I’d been just standing outside the closet for several minutes. “Um, just a few more minutes.” I answered. Get dressed, I instructed myself, you can think about this later.
I focused my attention on the multitude of clothes hanging in the huge walk-in closet. What to wear? I walked to the window and pushed it open.There was a cool breeze and the air was just the slightest bit chilly, thank God. Maybe this heatwave was starting to break.
I walked back to the closet. Cade had already chosen a dark pair of straight jeans and was holding a black and a navy blue shirt. I scanned the contents of the closet before I chose a pair of highwaisted navy blue slouch shorts and a light, gray sweater that showed small flashes of my midriff. I belted the shorts with a slim black belt. I slipped on the same coal gray moccasins from the previous day.
“Wear the black one,” I told Cade as I made my way to the washroom.
“Yeah? Why?” he asked, sounding slightly amused.
“I’m already wearing navy blue,” was my answer.
“And?” he asked, fingering the black one.
“And I don’t want us to match.” I grabbed my new toothbrush and squirted a squiggle of toothpaste onto it. I wet the brush and began to brush my teeth.
“No? I think it would be cute.”
I snorted and spat out the foamy paste. “Somehow I don’t think you’re the kind of guy who goes for the ‘cute’ look.” I put more paste onto my brush, wet it again and resumed my brushing.
“Hey, I can be a flexible guy.” My only response was to snort again. “Hurtful,” he said, laughter reflected in his voice.
I finished up my brushing two minutes later. I heard Cade move into the living room as I grabbed a bottle of facewash from a drawer. I lathered up and washed my face, hoping it would refresh me some. I washed twice before rinsing off and toweling my face. I could smell the scent of coffee coming from the kitchen. I wrinkled my nose as I spread lotion then sunscreen over my pale white skin. If I didn’t apply generous amounts of sunscreen to my face periodically, I burnt worse than a piece of bacon in a volcano.
I grabbed my brush, teasing comb and can of hairspray from the drawer of the counter. Then I set to work doing my hair. Does Cade like my hair better up or down? Does he like my bangs or my hair pulled off my face? The thoughts floated through my mind automatically. Stop it! I told myself. Wear your hair like you like it! I shook my head to clear those niggling thoughts. I ended up wearing my hair out and teasing it a little. But the thoughts kept on coming as I pulled out my makeup bag. Does Cade like makeup on me? Maybe a more natural look, or does he like the mascara and eyeliner?
“Argh!” This man was consuming my thoughts.
“Everything good in there?” He called from the kitchen.
“Great.” I gritted out.
“Well hurry up, we have to meet Damon in fifteen minutes.”
With a sigh, I applied my makeup as usual. Lip gloss, a touch of mascara and eyeliner. Cade would have to like it or deal with it. I grabbed a small cross body bag and put in my makeup and a pen and paper. It was all I really had.
As I walked into the kitchen, I asked Cade a question that had been in the back of my mind for a while now. “When am I going to be able to go back to my apartment? Or at least be able to get my stuff?”
Cade sighed and took another sip from his coffee mug. “I don’t know, Ainsley. I doubt you’ll be going back to your apartment to live there. It’s just not safe anymore. Every pack knows that’s your apartment now and if you went back there you’d be in serious danger.”
“So every pack doesn’t know I’m here?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. I sank into a chair across the table from Cade and waited for his answer.
“Well they do-”
“So how am I any safer here?” I blurted out.
“We can provide much more protection here than we could at your apartment. We have a lot of weapons and technology here to help keep our packmates safe that we couldn’t possibly bring to your apartment. Plus we wouldn’t be able to bring as many security detail to your apartment – there’d be no space. But here, almost every young adult and every adult knows how to fight, knows how to protect our pack. You’re a lot safer here, Ainsley. You can understand that right?”
I sighed. This logical Cade was right and he knew it, the smug bastard. I gave up on that argument. “Well what about my stuff? I mean, I don’t have any of my clothes here, I don’t have my cell phone and my wallet is back home. Reese and Ashton didn’t exactly let me pack before hauling me out of there.”
“We’ll see what we can do,” was his answer. He dumped the rest of his coffee down the drain and headed for the door. I followed him.
“‘We’ll see what we can do,’ what does that mean?” I asked him.
Cade started pulling on his boots. They were heavy duty ones and they looked like they could kick the crap out of you. “It means,” he said, “that they may have already taken most of your clothes so that their pack could recognize your scent. It means that you wouldn’t be able to use your cell phone anyways, because they’ve probably put a tracker on it. We can see about your wallet, but I’m pretty sure they would have taken whatever was in it just for kicks.”
“You werewolves sure don’t make a good first impression,” I grumbled.
Cade, of course, caught my words. “Hey,” He straightened from putting on his shoes and grasped my chin, pulling my eyes towards his. I tried not to look at his lips as he spoke. It mostly ended up with me looking at his lips and flicking my eyes towards his every four seconds. “Not all of us are bastards,” his lips smoothly said. I sighed internally. The man had gorgeous lips. They seduced you without even trying. Even now I didn’t want his lips moving against the bare air. I wanted them moving against my bare neck, breasts and lower. I wanted to feel them as they moved against my heated flesh, forming wicked promises of pleasure.
My eyes fluttered closed as, with a soft groan, Cade gently brushed his lips against mine, rubbing his mouth erotically against my begging lips. “I wish I could do more, gorgeous but we’ve gotta run.” His hand dropped from my chin and he slowly took a step back. I took a deep breath. That one, delicate kiss had stoked the fires inside my womb even higher. I felt uncomfortably needy and on edge. If Cade so much as brushed one of my breaths, I would climax.
Cade grabbed a bottle of water and we left the cabin, heading towards the headquarters. My sex quivered every time I took a step and my panties brushed my clit, but I tried not to let it show. I don’t think it worked all that well since Cade looked like he has struggling to restrain his laughter. I caught him looking at me with suppressed amusement and stuck out my tongue. This of course, only made him laugh out loud.
“Very mature, Cade.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” He said unconvincingly.
“Right. Anyways, I have a question for you.” I said.
“Go ahead,” the laughter in his voice was fading somewhat. He took a swig of water.
“What would happen if I climaxed?” I asked turning towards him. This gave me the perfect view of Cade sputtering, his mouth full of water and partially choking. I waited patiently until he finished.
“Gee, thanks for the help there.” He remarked sarcastically.
“Stop, please, I’m blushing.” I countered.
“Why don’t you ask the shaman questions like these?”
“Well, from our last encounter, I don’t like him much. I wonder why.”
“Then you should ask Damon. Alpha’s are also here to provide information.” Said Cade.
“Why don’t you want to answer me? Will I not like the answer?”
“I don’t care if you like the answer or not-” I frowned here “You should still ask Damon. It will show him that you are recognizing his position as Alpha.”
“Nice excuse.”
“I’m known for thinking on my feet.”
Ten minutes later, we were seated with Damon in his office.
“Good morning, Ainsley,” he said, as he sat down in his plush chair, a huge mug of coffee in hand. Did everyone here drink coffee in the morning. “Coffee?”
“No thanks,” I said.
“Yes. Black, one sugar.” Cade said. Figures he’d take his black as his heart.
“So what exactly are we doing here, Damon?” I asked. I figured I would skip the beating around the bush part. I wasn’t much into violence.
“Well, two reasons, Ainsley. First is to check up on your mating heat. The second is to discuss what happened with Ashton last night.”
“Where is he?” I asked. “Is he okay?”
“He’s being held in our underground prison cells right now, and physically, yes he is okay.”
“Physically, you say,” interjected Cade.
“Yes. We don’t know what’s gotten into him. Our packmates say he was fine while he was helping set up for the bonfire, so we don’t know what could have happened between then and the time you came in contact with him,” said Damon frowning. He took a sip of his coffee. “What happened when you saw him?”
“I was walking back to my cabin from Reese’s when I saw him. I’d just learned some… news , and I wasn’t in the mood to talk to him just then.”
“What kind of news?” Damon asked. There was a very pregnant pause. “Ainsley?” he prodded.
“I’d heard some…speculations that his father was responsible for the deaths of my parents.” I said hesitantly. Even before I finished my sentence, I saw knowledge light his eyes.
“Ahh, I see. So what happened after?” He inquired.
“Well, he wanted to walk me to my cabin, but I refused. Then when he asked me what was wrong I told him that I knew about his father. And then he started saying that we needed to talk. That’s when he kind of started to change.”
“Change?” murmured Damon. He leaned in closer over his desk.
“Yes, change. His whole demeanour became sort of predatory. I told him we could talk tomorrow, but he wasn’t having any of that. Then he grabbed me and started pulling me off into the woods. We struggled for a little. He threw me over his shoulder and that’s when Reese and Cade came.”
Damon rubbed his hands over his face and then through his hair before sighing wearily. “Okay.”
“Okay? That’s it?” Cade demanded.
“What else do you want me to say?” Damon asked.
“How about you apologize for your damn brother’s actions? How about you give her some reassurances?”
I tried to interrupt. “Cade, look-”
“No, you look. That bastard would have killed you or worse last night. There’s no way the idiot is getting away with that.” The last sentence was directed to Damon.
“Nobody said he was going to get away with it, Cade,” Damon said gently. “We will be dealing with him.”
“How?” He asked fiercely.
“That’s really none of your concern,” answered Damon cooly.
“It is my damn concern when my woman-” insert said woman’s sigh here “is almost carted off by a lunatic.”
“I think it would be best for you to leave. Now.” The tone of Damon’s voice implied that it was an order, not an opinion.
Cade stared him down a good minute before storming out of the room.
I sighed. “Look, Damon, I’m really sorry about him. For some reason he’s a bit overprotective.”
“You don’t need to apologize for him, Ainsley. I understand how he’s feeling.” I nodded. “Now about your mating heat-” Damon was cut off when the door slammed open.
I rolled my eyes, thinking it was Cade. But when I looked out, my heart stopped.
Because it wasn’t Cade in the doorway, it was Ashton.
And he was holding a revolver pointed at my chest.