She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, trying to cover up the fact that her insides had suddenly gone all mushy like a marshmallow.
“If you’ve known all this time, why didn’t you tell me earlier?” she asked. “There were so many times since you arrived here in LA that you could have told me.”
“I suppose I could try and convince you that I was waiting for the perfect time to tell you, but to be honest, I think I was scared that you wouldn’t be able to see beyond the claws and fangs to even listen to the soul mate part.”
Jenna considered that, remembering how upset she’d been. Not that Trevor was a werewolf but that he hadn’t told her. But there was no way he could have understood the difference.
“Okay, I guess you’re right,” she admitted with a sigh. “I’m not sure how I would have responded if you’d come out with,I’m a werewolf…and oh, by the way…we’re soul mates, too. I probably would have freaked out a little.”
He studied her face. “Now you know that there’s more between us than chemistry and compatibility in bed, are you still going to freak out?”
“No,” she said without hesitation. “Like you, I guess I’ve known for a while that we were meant to be together. Heck, maybe even before you did. I might not have known about the soul mate thing, but I’ve known I love you. And that was enough.”
Jenna didn’t realize she’d said the “L” word until Trevor’s eyes widened, a stunned expression on his face. She started to stammer, wondering how the hell that particular four-letter word had slipped and whether she might be able to take it back. But as she opened her mouth to try, Trevor leaned forward and kissed her.
All the static in Jenna’s head disappeared the moment his lips touched hers, and she stopped worrying about what she should or shouldn’t have said. She simply let everything go, melted into his arms, and kissed him back.
At some point, Jenna found herself straddling Trevor’s thighs, his hands tightening in her hair as they kissed until she was dizzy from lack of air. Only then did Trevor pull back, a warm smile crossing his face.
“I got the feeling you needed a distraction,” he said, his hands sliding out of her hair to cup her butt. “It seemed like you were about to slip up and go for a retraction, and I couldn’t have that. Not until I had a chance to sayI love youback anyway. But now that I’ve had my say and told you I’m completely in love with you and can’t imagine a life without you in it, do you still want to take it back?”
Jenna had no idea how he could have possibly known that she’d been about to say anything like that, but she supposed it didn’t matter. They’d both said it, and for something like that, there were no take-backsies.
She shook her head with a smile and leaned forward to kiss him again. “No, I think I’ll stick by my original statement,” she said softly against his lips. “I love you, and apparently, you love me. I guess that makes it official. We’re soul mates.”
He chuckled. “That we are.”
“So what do we do next?” she asked. “Are you going to move out here to LA? Am I moving to Dallas with you? And what do we do about Hannah? Because there’s no way I’m letting her go again now that I’ve finally gotten her back.”
Trevor kissed her as she began to ramble on about a dozen other major issues they needed to figure out. Once he got her quiet, he gently kissed her nose and smiled.
“I have no idea what we do next,” he said softly. “But we’ll figure it out…together.”
CHAPTER 25
Jenna couldn’t help but laugh at the scene in front of her. The training area behind the SWAT buildings was a complete madhouse filled with kids, pets, and more than a few members of the Pack running around laughing like they’d each recently consumed a five-pound bag of sugar. But it was the sight of Tuffie, the team’s beloved pit-bull mix/mascot, playing with Connor and Kat’s adorable new addition to their family, a little black kitten they adopted—appropriately named Kitty—that she couldn’t get enough of. They were absolutely precious together.
“I think moving here was a really good idea,” Hannah said, coming over to stand beside her, watching the kids and the adults play as Hale worked the grills off to the side of the volleyball court. “Thank you for talking me into coming with you and Trevor.”
“I’m glad you agreed to come with us,” Jenna said, nudging her sister with her shoulder. “So let’s call it even, okay?”
Hannah laughed. “Deal.”
They wandered over to one of the many coolers to grab two bottles of cold water. Even thoughit was mid-October, the day was almost unseasonably warm. Along the way, they stopped to chat with some other members of the Pack, werewolves and mates alike. Jenna was thrilled to see Hannah having such a good time, glad to have one less thing to worry about when it came to her sister. Jenna had worried that since Hannah spent most of her life living underground, she might not be comfortable in social situations, but thankfully, that wasn’t the case.
While Mike and Hale had left Los Angeles the day after rescuing everyone from the ghouls, Trevor and Connor had stayed for much longer, both of them committed to helping Hannah any way she’d needed. In the end, most of that help revolved around getting her established in the modern world, including obtaining a driver’s license, passport, bank account, credit cards, cell phone, email address, and various social media accounts.
The next big milestone on Hannah’s reintroduction to the human world was a visit to see their mom and dad. Truthfully, Hannah had been somewhat ambivalent about the prospect of seeing them again but had agreed to do so, more for closure than anything else.
The visit had gone…okay. Scratch that. Actually, it had been weird as hell. Their parents hadn’t even known Connor was in town, and Jenna hadn’t bothered to mention him or Trevor when she’d called toset up dinner. When all four of them had walked into their mother’s house on their parents in the middle of yet another argument—this one about Jenna asking to see them when she hadn’t spoken to either of them in months—the silence had been awkward. Luckily, Mom and Dad had bought the story they’d all come up with about Hannah being held captive by a cult outside the Mojave Desert. It wasn’t like they could ever tell them about the ghouls, after all. They’d obviously been happy and relieved to see that Hannah was alive and well, but any thought that they could somehow be one big happy family again was simply not meant to be. Too much time had passed and too many bridges had been burnt for that to ever happen.
They’d been there for barely over two hours when Dad had announced he needed to leave to avoid traffic. Mom had suggested Jenna, Connor, and Hannah get together with them again for Christmas…or maybe a Skype call instead. That comment had effectively put a fork in the reunion.
The idea of moving to Dallas had originally been Connor’s. While it had been Trevor’s preference as well, he’d been content to stay with Jenna in LA if that was what she wanted, even though that would mean leaving his pack. She loved him even more for that, which was why she’d never ask him to do something like that. For werewolves, a pack was like a family, only stronger, the bond between itsmembers tighter. Asking him to give that up was something she hadn’t even considered.
As for Hannah, her sister had been directionless for a while, not sure what she wanted to do with her life now that she had it back. Then the director of STAT had shown up at the apartment, saying he thought that Hannah had all the makings of a good field agent and that they could use her help rescuing other people whom ghouls had captured all over the world. But Hannah had only taken the job with the understanding that she’d be spending the majority of her time trying to get these other clans around the world to change their perspective on how they treated humans. It seemed like a hopeless task to Jenna, but her sister seemed really excited at the possibilities.
Connor had absolutely hated the idea of Hannah putting herself in danger again, but joining STAT had given their sister a purpose in life, and that was the most important thing in the end. And in between missions and her efforts to change the ghoul world, Hannah could come back to Dallas to visit them. She’d even helped Jenna and Trevor pick out a new three-bedroom apartment that she’d share with them when she was in town.
