He didn’t wait to see if Bryce obeyed him. Instead, he turned away inside, walked past Jason without a word, and headed to the den. Tension thrummed through every nerve ending. He needed a drink. He needed a plan. And he needed Jesse to tell him the goddamn truth.
Chapter Twenty-five
JESSE
Jesse reached the den just in time to see Matt slam back a glass of bourbon. When Matt swung around and looked at him, his face was tight, his eyes calculating. There was no trace of the warmth and softness with which he’d looked at Jesse that morning.
Jesse didn’t know what he’d done wrong, but he knew it was something really bad. For the first time in days, he started looking for escape routes.
“When were you going to tell me, Jesse?” Matt’s voice was bizarrely conversational. Somehow, that was more terrifying than if he’d shouted.
The door was close, but so was Matt. Jesse had to try and talk his way out of this. “Tell you what?”
“That you’re a goddamn Argent.” The conversational tone had gone. Fury now cracked through Matt’s voice, and Jesse locked his knees against the urge to bolt.
A second later, it sank in. An Argent?Weren’t they those ridiculous glowy silver wolves from legend?
He laughed at the very thought. As soon as he’d done it, he realized what a goddamn awful move that was, but comeon.“Have you been drinking?” he demanded.
Something in Matt’s face changed, his jaw unclenching slightly. Enough for Jesse to try to defuse whatever this was. “S’pose you think any second now, I’ll start shooting moonbeams out my ass.”
Matt sank down in the closest chair and rubbed his hands over his face. Slowly. Apparently, he was in no hurry to emerge again.
Jesse eyed the other armchair, but he didn’t feel safe enough to sit. He waited to find out what was coming next.
“I saw you. I know what you are,” Matt said. His accusation felt like a knife, slicing through everything that had been growing between them, all the connections they’d made—or Jessethoughtthey’d made.
It hurt. And none of this was making any sense at all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, desperate for Matt to believe him. Desperate for this conversation to stop because his wolf was twisting around inside him like something had grabbed it by the tail, hadseenit and left it with nowhere to hide.
Jesse’s breathing was ratcheting up, and he was getting damn close to running no matterhowclose Matt was to him.
“Okay, Jesse,” Matt said. “Let’s say for a moment I believe you—”
“What thefuck?You think I’m a liar?” Goddamn, he shouldn’t have said it. Should have kept his mouth shut and played along till he could get out, but ithurtto hear those words from Matt.
Matt was rubbing his hands over his face again. At this rate, he’d have no skin left. But when he looked up at Jesse, his eyes had changed. Like he was seeingJesseagain, not some problem to be solved orthreat to be managed.
“You must know what color you are when you shift,” Matt said at last. “Didn’t you put two and two together when I told you about the Argents?”
“I mean, I know I’m light. Kinda like your hair looks in the sunshine, I guess. It’s a crap color for hunting—means I have to roll around in the dirt first, otherwise everything out there would see me coming.”
He wasn’t entirely sure whether Matt had sobbed or laughed as he stared at Jesse. “Fuckinghell,Jesse. You’re a fucking Argent and you roll in the dirt because it’sinconvenient?”
Jesse still thought Matt had hit his head or something, because none of this made any sense. But Matt was back, Urban the Alpha less obvious, so he curled up in the other chair. “I can’t be. You said they’d died out.”
Matt ran a hand through his hair, holding onto it briefly, like he could hold onto reality. “Fucking hell.” It was barely a whisper. He let out a slow breath, then shook his head. “That’s what everyone thought. No one’s seen one for centuries. But it looks like we were all wrong.”
“It don’t make no sense, Matt.”
Matt huffed a laugh, not a bit of humor in it. “You’re not wrong,” he said. “So the question—thefirstquestion—is where do you come from, Jesse?”
Jesse’s breath caught as he stared at Matt, feeling suddenly trapped by that acute green gaze. He’d never—his history was no one else’s damnbusiness.
But this was Matt. Hismate,his wolf reminded him, pushing as if he wanted to touch Matt. Jesse shoved his hands under his thighs to avoid that happening. He stared at Matt. Somehow this felt like the biggest decision of his entire life. Could hereallylet Matt in that far? What was the point if he wasn’t staying? Would only make it worse when he left.
He licked his lips and tried to calm his breathing.
“I don’t mean to pry into your past, Jesse, but my pack’s in danger.”
