Selena didn’t know how she could be excited and bummed at the same time, but she was. It was cool that her eyes turned blue. In fact, it sounded kind of sexy. But finding out it only happened when she was on the verge of going psychotic kind of ruined the moment.
“Is the blue unique to me?” she asked. “Or is it the in color with all the crazy werewolves this season?”
“Stop that.” He scowled at her. “You’re not crazy. You’re a brand-new omega who’s just learning how to control her abilities. Cut yourself some slack, okay?”
Face coloring, she nodded. “Okay. Sorry to wallow like that. So, only omegas have blue eyes?”
“According to Carter, yeah. I’ve only seen it one other time in my life, so it’s got to be rare. Which is a good thing. If other omegas out there are controlling themselves, you can, too.”
She supposed she could see his point. “But if I stay in control, you’ll never get to see my eyes glow when we make love. That kind of sucks.”
He shrugged. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that it might be okay to let your control slip a little, as long as we’re in a carefully controlled environment, so you don’t go too far.”
“Carefully controlled environment?” she repeated, confusion making her scrunch up her brow. “Like where?”
Grinning, Jayden leaned forward to kiss her again. “Like here in my place for example. When it’s just the two of us moving slowly like this and being careful.”
A rush of heat spun through her as she suddenly realized what he was talking about. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Isn’t that what made me freak out before?”
“No. You freaked when you thought you’d hurt me. If we take precautions and keep your claws and fangs away from any place they shouldn’t be, I think we’ll be okay.”
She kissed him again, liking the sound of that plan—a lot. But then she remembered something he’d said earlier, and she pulled back to look at him. “You said you’ve only seen a werewolf with blue eyes one other time in your life. When was that?”
The cringing face he made right then spoke volumes, and she suddenly decided maybe she didn’t want to know about this other omega. “Hey, if this isn’t something you’re comfortable talking about, that’s okay. I didn’t mean to pry.”
“You’re not prying,” he said. “But the story doesn’t exactly paint a very flattering picture of omegas. I’m not sure it’s something you need to hear right now.”
She smiled. “Jayden, I’m an omega. The word doesn’t define me, but I can’t hide from it either. It’s a big part of who I am now. And if I’m ever going to learn how to control it, I’m going to have to own it. That means learning everything I can about being an omega—the good and the bad. If this is a story that involves you and an omega, I want to hear it.”
He gazed at her with what could only be called wonder on his face. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
She grinned. “Yeah, I know. Now, stop stalling and tell the story.”
Jayden was silent for a long time, as if collecting his thoughts. “It was right before I left Gulfport,” he finally said, his voice soft, his eyes taking on a distant look. “I was on patrol that night when I got a call on the radio about a suspicious person at one of the local high schools. Volleyball practice was just finishing up, so there were still kids hanging around. I was on the scene less than a minute after the call, but a big guy with a knife had already sliced up a couple of the students and a teacher by then. One of the students thought she could lure him away from her classmates because she was a fast runner, but the guy caught her. By the time I got to her, she was bleeding really badly. I didn’t see the psycho with the knife, so I picked her up and ran like hell.”
He swallowed hard, like he was reliving the memory. “The guy came out of the darkness growling and swinging a machete. I couldn’t protect the girl and myself at the same time, so I protected her. The guy cut me.”
“The scar from the machete on your side?” Selena murmured, even though she knew that had to be it. “The one that wraps all the way around your back?”
“Yeah. I was sure I was done for. I had to keep fighting so he wouldn’t hurt the girl. That’s when I saw the fangs and glowing blue eyes. I had no idea what the hell it meant at the time. I just thought I was hallucinating from blood loss. I definitely didn’t think I was fighting a werewolf.”
The wolf inside Selena stirred restlessly, wanting to kill the omega who had hurt her mate.Her mate. The words made her feel warm all over. “What happened?”
“I killed the guy, then lay there on the ground and watched his fangs retract while the paramedics did everything they could to keep me from joining him. I would have died if I hadn’t turned into a werewolf.” Jayden shrugged. “A few weeks later, Gage showed up and recruited me for his SWAT team.”
“How did he know you were a werewolf?” she asked.
Jayden’s mouth edged up. “He’s good at reading news stories and finding people who just went through their change.”
Selena wanted to ask for more details, but that could wait until later. Right now, she was more interested in the werewolf who’d tried to kill Jayden.
“So, getting attacked by the omega was what turned you, the same way Pablo’s attack changed me?”
Jayden nodded. “Yeah. I didn’t find out the guy had been a werewolf until Gage told me. I never made the connection between the blue eyes and the fact that he was an omega until your eyes turned blue, and Carter told me what it all meant. I guess Gage didn’t think it was something I needed to know.”
