Jenna stared at him. She couldn’t imagine experiencing that kind of horror. She was still envisioning the terrifying realization of waking up surrounded by dead bodies when Trevor continued.
“I don’t blame the doctors,” he added as an aside, almost as if it wasn’t even important. “I have no doubt that at some point during the night, I probably died. But what the doctors didn’t know—what they couldn’t possibly have known—is that my injuries tripped that little segment of genetic material and that I had changed and become a werewolf.”
“Being a werewolf helps you heal from injuries?” she whispered, remembering the smooth scarsshe’d seen on his shoulder and the faint lines on his forearms.
Trevor didn’t answer. Instead, he simply unwrapped the bandage around his left arm, the one that had been bleeding so badly only a few hours ago. After the gauze was off, he held it up, letting her see the scars across his skin. She leaned forward, her clay-covered fingers coming up of their own accord, tracing the lines. She could make out two sets of cuts, one more healed than the other. But even the fresh ones from that morning looked days old.
“I’m guessing that my brother is a werewolf like you,” she said.
“Yeah, he’s a werewolf like me.”
“What happened to turn him?”
Trevor hesitated. “Something just as traumatic as what happened to me, but I think he should be the one to tell you details.”
“Okay.” She nodded, not wanting to speculate what had happened to him, much less think about it. Connor might be a stubborn, irritating, pain in the ass lately, but he was also her brother and she loved him. The idea of him being in that kind of pain was difficult to bear. “But why did he do this to you?”
Trevor let out a sigh. “Let’s just say that your brother realized we slept together, and he wasn’t very happy about that.”
Jenna wanted to ask how her brother could possibly have known about them sleeping together, but right now, there was something else she needed to know.
“This is what you were hiding from me all along, isn’t it?” she asked, shaking the other thoughts out of her head and refocusing on the issues that had brought them to this point. “That you’re a werewolf.”
“Hiding?” Trevor asked, confusion clear on his face. “What do you mean?”
“I can’t explain it really,” she said with a shrug. “But I’ve felt for a while that you were keeping something from me. I had no idea what it was, but I knew it was something important. I guess being a werewolf counts as important.”
Trevor didn’t say anything for a moment. “You understand why I couldn’t come out and tell you, right? It’s not the kind of secret I could tell and hope you’d handle it well. I had to worry about the repercussions not only for me but for the other members of my pack, too.”
“Pack?” she whispered, knowing she’d heard him use that word before but not sure exactly where or when. “Like a wolf pack?”
“Yeah,” he murmured hesitantly, like he’d just realized what he’d said. “It’s how my SWAT teammates and I refer to our team.”
Jenna thought for a minute, connections forming quickly in her mind.
“The wolf tattoo on your chest,” she murmured, more to herself than him as the significance of the exquisite ink work became clear. “The whole SWAT team…Mike and Hale…they’re all…?”
Trevor didn’t answer, but given the look on his face, he didn’t need to say anything. It made complete sense now. The entire SWAT team was a pack of werewolves. It seemed impossible but obvious at the same time. She had even more questions now. How had they found each other? How had they kept their secret hidden? Were there people outside the pack who knew about them like Jenna now did? But before any of those questions could slip out, something else popped into her head. Something much more important.
“So where do we go from here?” Jenna asked slowly, picking up her work towel and cleaning off her fingers as she slowly took a step closer to him, looking up into his eyes and preparing herself for the worst. “With us, I mean.”
“I suppose that depends on you,” he said softly, dark eyes curious. “I know we haven’t had a chance to talk about this, but where would you have wanted things to go between us if you’d never found out I was a werewolf? And could you see yourself still wanting that now that you do know?”
Jenna forced herself to take a breath. What did she want her future with Trevor to look like? Sure, she’d told Madeleine that he was perfect for her.That he was the man she was meant to be with. But what the heck did that truly mean?
“I don’t know where I would have wanted things to go between us.” she finally said. “But that’s because I’ve been so focused on enjoying what we have right now that I haven’t let myself think about the future too much. I mean, you’ve only been out here for a few days, and we’ve slept together a grand total of once. And while that one time was absolutely amazing, I haven’t even let myself worry aboutdefining the relationshipat this point. I didn’t want to mess up what we have overthinking what might happen.”
He nodded. “Okay, that’s completely fair.”
Trevor moved a little bit closer until she could feel the heat coming off his muscular body in waves. Were all those perfect muscles—all that heat—because he was a werewolf?
“But if youweregoing todefine the relationshipwithout fear getting in the way,” he added, tilting his head slightly to the side as he smiled down at her. “What would it look like?”
Jenna took a deep breath and said the words out loud before she had a chance to sensor herself. “I would say that I don’t really care what it looks like, as long as we’re together. I know this is going to sound wild, but there’s something in me that wants to stay with you forever, no matter what. But that’s bizarre. Right?”
He grinned a little wider and shook his head. “Probably not. But I don’t think it matters what I think. What does matter is if you could still feel that way—could still want that with me—knowing what I am.”
She gazed up at him for a moment before answering. “Yes. I’m not scared of you. I mean, when I first saw you and Connor fighting at the club, I’ll admit I was caught off guard. And confused and also hurt that there was something this big that you were keeping from me. But I was never scared of you. Never.”
