She pulled her navy-blue cardigan duster more tightly around her, folding her arms. “That doesn’t answer my question. You can’t honestly expect me to believe you were running around with fangs and glowing eyes in elementary school. I think the world would have noticed that.”
Jake was silent for so long she thought he wouldn’t answer, but then he let out a tired sigh, like he’d come to the conclusion he wasn’t getting past her until he did.
“People like me are born with a gene that turns us into werewolves.”
She frowned. “That’s it? You have a chunk of mutated DNA and poof you’re a werewolf?”
That earned her a derisive snort. “Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. It only turns us into werewolves when something…bad…happens to us.”
“Something bad?” she echoed, though for some reason she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know. The sudden knot in her stomach said she didn’t.
He stared at something over her shoulder, his gaze far away, like he was remembering. Then again, maybe he simply couldn’t stand to look at her anymore. Or maybe he couldn’t stand her eyes on him.
“Something traumatic and usually painful,” he said softly. “In my case, it was when the helicopter my SEAL team and I were on got shot down and we crashed in the mountains of northern Afghanistan. Seven of us flew into those mountains. Four of us crawled out of the wreckage. I broke both legs, my hips, back, and most of my ribs.” He shook his head. “I don’t even remember dragging myself away from the flames engulfing the chopper.”
She shuddered despite herself as she visualized the scene he’d described. She’d always been empathic to the plight of others, but thinking about Jake lying on the side of a mountain in enemy territory that…shattered…made it hard to get a breath for some reason. “Is that when you turned?”
Jake nodded, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. “Taliban fighters found the crash site, so my teammates and I were forced to hide for three days until an Air Force Pararescue Team could get there. Lying there in the darkness, wondering if the shot I just heard was some asshole killing one of my best friends, is something I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.”
She knew the feeling. “Did anyone else make it?”
He shook his head, swallowing hard. “They all died. After that helicopter crash, all those broken bones and four gunshot wounds…I should have been dead, too. There’s no reason for me to have lived when they didn’t, but I did because I have a chunk of mutated DNA, as you call it.”
Jake met her gaze, his deep brown eyes flaring gold. This time, Jes was the one who looked away. She hadn’t said or done anything wrong, but it sure felt like she had. She opened her mouth to apologize, wanting to tell him she had her own reasons for being wary of anything—anyone—like him, but he cut her off.
“The things that killed Jaime and Neal were monsters,” he said, his voice flat. “Not because they had claws and fangs, but because of how they chose to use them. We’re not all like that. Most of us are simply people trying to deal with stuff the best they can. Like Caleb, Harley, and me.”
Jake didn’t wait for a reply but instead stepped around her and strode down the hall and up the steps, his feet silent on the hardwood floor.
Jes stood there long after she heard him close his bedroom door. Finally, she walked slowly into the kitchen and poured what was left of the coffee into her mug, added cream and sugar, then she sat there, her head spinning. Jake had given her a lot to think about and something told her it would be a long time before she fell asleep that night.
Chapter 3
Jake heard noise coming from downstairs before he even stepped out of his bedroom the next morning. Curious, he jogged down the steps, following the sound through the hallway and into the living room. Forrest and Misty were over by the coffee table, pulling electronic gear out of big black heavy-duty plastic cases.
“What’s all this?” he asked.
Forrest glanced up as he unraveled a cable. “Video equipment for the Skype call we’ve got with McKay this morning.”
That was when Jake noticed the large computer monitor set up in front of the intricately carved sideboard on the far wall. Forrest and Misty had already unpacked the keyboard, speakers, microphones, and camera. Jake had been in enough classified briefings when he was a SEAL to recognize an encrypted videoconference rig. And just like the gear in the Navy, this stuff was top-of-the-line. Maybe even a little better.
“You have time to grab some coffee if you want.” Misty grinned. “Unless you want to stand there and watch Forrest and me plug in cable connectors.”
Jake chuckled. “No. I’ll leave you guys to your toys. Coffee’s a lot more my style in the morning.”
Especially since someone had been nice enough to make a fresh pot. Then again, he was so exhausted, he would have settled for whatever was leftover from last night. Sniffing the air appreciatively, he headed into the kitchen. As he grabbed a mug from the rack on the counter, Jake tried to tell himself the reason he was so tired was due to the five-hour time difference between DC and London, but he knew that was BS.
Not wanting to think about the real reason behind his insomnia last night, Jake poured coffee into the mug, then snooped through the cabinets for some cookies. He’d hoped for more of those shortbreads but couldn’t find any, so he went for the chocolate chip ones instead. He’d have breakfast after the videoconference with McKay.
Coffee and pack of cookies in hand, he went back into the living room and flopped down in a wingback chair, watching Forrest and Misty work. From the way they handed cables and connectors back and forth, he got the feeling the two of them had done this a lot.
As he wolfed down one cookie and took another out of the package, Jake caught the covert looks and secretive smiles Forrest and Misty gave each other. When Forrest moved closer to where Jake was sitting to reposition a camera tripod, he picked up Misty’s scent on the man.
I’ll be damned. They’re sleeping together.
For a moment, he wondered how that might affect team chemistry but then quickly dismissed the concern. Based on the conversation with Jes last night—not to mention the bad attitude his fellow werewolves seemed to have—they were already the most dysfunctional team in existence. What could a relationship between Forrest and Misty hurt? At least they liked each other.
Thinking about last night made Jake’s inner wolf suddenly restless. Jestina was the real reason he hadn’t slept. Besides being uncomfortable around him and the other werewolves, she’d as much as said she considered them no different than whatever had killed her previous teammates. She thought they were monsters.
