Almost.
But Connor refused to give up, coming at him over and over, willing to inflict a level of damage that shocked Trevor. But one look at Connor’s face revealed that his pack mate—and still his friend regardless—was so enraged, Trevor doubted he was even aware of what he was doing.
Their fight went back and forth across the entire room, from the seating area in front of the bar filled with tables and chairs, then out onto the main dance floor. Not only were they making a mess of the club, but they were making a mess of each other, too. Trevor had already been slashed half a dozen times, and he suspected Connor likely hadat least that many broken bones. And yet his pack mate seemed nowhere close to stopping. If anything, it seemed like Connor was losing control by the second. Considering how far his jawline and face were starting to jut out, Trevor expected him to shift into a full wolf before long.
If that happened, Trevor would have to do the same simply to protect himself.
That was when the real damage would start.
Out of the corner of his eye, Trevor saw Davina leaning over one of the upper floor railings, gazing down with clear disapproval. Lydia and Kamden were nowhere in sight.
Hale and Mike finally inserted themselves into the fight, trying to drag Trevor and Connor apart. It didn’t go so well as the four of them ended up in a cluster in the center of the dance floor, punching and clawing at each other, with Hale and Mike attempting to limit the damage while trying to keep themselves from getting hit at the same time.
Trevor was kneeling in the middle of the floor, his hands wrapped around each of Connor’s wrists, just trying to keep those claws at bay, when a simple gasp froze everything. A second later, an overwhelmingly familiar scent hit his nose, followed by several others that were not nearly as precious to him but still familiar.
Connor jerked his head up, his glowing eyes locked on something directly over Trevor’s right shoulder.
Trevor turned slowly, already knowing what he’d see.
Jenna was standing on the stairs at the top of the entryway, eyes wide, her mouth hanging open in shock. Behind her, Owen and the rest of the HOPD crew stood staring, varying degrees of disbelief on their faces.
Jenna’s gaze moved back and forth between Trevor and Connor before locking solely on Trevor. He saw a myriad of emotions playing there, changing so quickly it was impossible to read them all. But he definitely recognized confusion, quickly followed by understanding, anger, and then finally something that could only be described as heart-rending pain.
Then Jenna turned and ran back up the steps, and Trevor swore it felt like she was ripping out his heart and carrying it away with her as she went.
He immediately moved to follow, but a firm hand on his shoulder stopped him. He whirled around, assuming it was Connor, ready to keep fighting. But he was surprised when he found Davina gazing up at him with a sad expression in her lavender eyes, like she knew exactly how bad the whole messed-up situation had become.
“I think you should wait and give her some space so she can calm down,” Davina said softly, her hand still resting on Trevor’s shoulder. “She’s confused and hurt right now, and if you chase after her, she’llrun for sure. And something tells me that in her condition, she may never stop.”
Though it was the hardest thing he’d ever done, Trevor knew he needed to follow her advice and let Jenna go for now if he ever hoped to have a chance to get her back at all. That didn’t mean he couldn’t send her a text. But as the club’s heavy door slammed closed and echoed in his ears, something inside him felt like it died, and all he could do was wonder if that was the last time he’d ever see his soul mate.
CHAPTER 15
Jenna’s head was spinning so much that it wasn’t until she was standing at the door of her apartment that she realized she’d gone straight home after leaving the club. She didn’t remember anything beyond starting her car and speeding out of the parking lot. She wasn’t sure if she’d even stopped for any traffic lights between here and there.
Reaching into the front right pocket of her jeans for her keys, Jenna was confused when she didn’t find them. She always put her keys in the front right pocket of her pants. It was kind of her thing. One of the many routines that had developed into an obsessive behavior during her years of therapy.
She checked her other pockets almost frantically, only to discover that she didn’t have her keys anywhere on her. Since her apartment keys were on the same ring as her car keys, she began to question if she’d actually driven herself home at all. Had she taken an Uber and left her keys on the seat of some stranger’s Prius? Or maybe she’d actually walked home and her keys were lying on a sidewalk somewhere? Or maybe her keys were simply still in the ignition of her car, down in the parking lot?
Jenna knew she should probably go back down to the parking lot and check, but suddenly it all just seemed too much to deal with, and she found herself sliding down the door until she was sitting on the floor in front of her apartment. Tears she wasn’t sure how she’d held at bay until now ran down her face.
Images spun through her head as she sat there sniffling softly. Walking into Davina’s club. Hearing the fight long before she saw it. Then the scene of Trevor and Connor throwing each other around the dance floor like some kind of wild animals.
Jenna had felt anxious, remembered looking around the club as she tried to understand what was happening. But then she’d seen her brother’s glowing yellow eyes and fangs so long that his entire jawline reshaped to make room for them. She thought she might have let out a gasp when she saw Connor’s claws.
Claws that were shockingly similar to the ones the ghouls had.
Her anxiety descended into a full-on panic attack at that point. But it wasn’t until Trevor had turned around and she saw the gold eyes and the fangs and the blood that she fell apart. She usually froze in situations like that—the way she had when the ghoul grabbed her sister—but for some reason, this time, she ran.
The details from that point on were kind offuzzy. Maybe because she might have been disassociating a bit from the trauma of what she’d seen. Normally she’d berate herself for being weak, especially since she’d worked so hard to overcome that, but this time, she was in a forgiving mood. After all, she’d just learned that both her brother and the man she’d been falling in love with were monsters.
She was still sitting on the floor of the hallway, crying softly as she pondered that rather mind-numbing fact, when the door directly across from her opened. Then Madeleine was suddenly at her side, gently urging her up to her feet and into her own apartment.
“Jenna, honey. What happened?” Madeleine asked as she parked Jenna in one of the chairs at the kitchen table, hovering frantically. “Are you hurt? Do you need me to call someone—like the police maybe?”
Jenna got herself together enough to shake her head. “No, it’s nothing like that. I just learned something…alarming…and it shook me up a bit. Then I left my keys in my car—I think—and decided to have a moment. On the floor. In the hallway.”
Madeleine regarded her thoughtfully, her eyes filled with concern. “Wait here.”
