I held my hands up in a defensive move. “All yours. Like I said, we’re not really…” Another shrug.
“You’re almost through with school, right?” she said, and I nodded. “And it’s not like you’re getting any younger. You may have to go through five or six pregnancies before you get a girl, and I hear childbirth is really hard for older—”
“Okay, I really just came down for coffee, but thanks for the chat!” I stood so quickly that my barstool tipped over and slammed into the floor. Melody rolled her eyes and made no attempt to help me right it, so I picked up the barstool, then hurried out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
I’d been standing outside Jace’s door for nearly a minute, trying to work up the nerve to knock, when he opened the door on his own. “How’d you know?” I asked, as he stepped back to let me in.
“I could see your shadow under the door. And hear your heartbeat.” He pulled me into a hug as he kicked the door shut, and he smelledsogood. “What’s wrong?”
“Other than the fact that my brother knocked up your sister?” I laid my head against his chest, trying to come to grips with how much had happened in the past twenty-four hours.
New job. Psycho stalker. Overdue breakup. Sex. Melody’s pregnancy. And now hunting the hunters—the only thing I’d truly hoped to accomplish during my winter break.
“You sounded fine with the whole thing earlier.” Jace seemed to be inhaling the scent of my shampoo with every breath.
“Well, I don’t think a baby’s everbadnews, but it’s certainly something we’ll have to get used to. Quickly.” I let him go and sank onto the edge of the bed, briefly wondering how many women had been there before me. But then the answer came unbidden.None. He’d only brought a few of his women home, and they’d never spent the night, because our lifestyle would be incredibly difficult to explain to anyone who couldn’t know about shifters or the werecat social structure. Which was the vast majority of humans.
“Abby?”
“Your sister just asked me to be her maid of honor. Then she offered to return the favor. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that technically, she’d be a matron of honor.”
Jace snorted. Then he sat next to me and took my hands. “Hey, I need you to understand something.”
I nodded, unexpectedly nervous.
“What happened between us last night—what I’d like tocontinueto happen between us—has nothing to do with your father, or your birth Pride, or me losing my position here. This is about nothing and no one but the two of us.” He slid one hand into my hair, cradling the back of my jaw in a gesture that made me want to crawl all over him. “I want you to know, especially after what happened with Brian, that I’m not using you. I’m not going to pressure you into any kind of commitment, and I have no intention of taking over your father’s territory.”
“You don’t?” My chest ached, and I wasn’t sure why. He was trying to reassure me, yet for some reason, I felt almost rejected. “Do you notwantthe East Coast Pride?”
He shook his head, but not in answer to my question. “That’s not what I’m saying—I’ve never even really thought about it. What I’m saying is that I’ve known all along that I’d be losing my position here, and I’m not counting on you or your father to give me somewhere to go. I’ve worked very hard to make sure I’m not dependent uponanyonefor that.”
“You have?” I felt like I was missing something. “What’s your plan, Jace?”
Instead of answering, he held my gaze for a moment, waiting for me to puzzle it out on my own.
“Oh, shit…” I covered my mouth with both hands, then spoke through them. “You’re going to the Lion’s Den!”
And just like that, I understood his involvement in the wildcat resolution. Jace wasn’t just backing the motion in the Council; he and Faythe were the ones who’dproposedit, and the idea had probably been his originally. His intent hadn’t just been to establish a good relationship between Pride cats and strays—he’d actually been creating a future home for himself.
As an Alpha who’d already been leading a Pride for years, Jace couldn’tpossiblyserve beneath another tom in another territory. Even if one of the other Alphas wanted him—and none would; they would all subconsciously recognize him as a threat—his own instincts would keep him from peacefully submitting to another tom’s will.
Faythe and Marc’s connection to the project was obvious. Genetically, Marc was a stray. What I hadn’t realized was that Jace thought of himself as a stray too, because that’s practically what he would become when Melody claimed her territory. With Isaac.
But Jace knew that if strays were allowed to form their own officially recognized Prides, he would still have a legitimate role to play when he had to leave the Appalachian Territory. His plan was altruistic, and radical, andbrilliant.
His plan was breaking my heart.
“You’re going to leave.” We’djustconnected. Hecouldn’tleave.
He exhaled deeply. “I don’t really have a choice.”
“You could—” I said, but Jace cut me off with a gentle squeeze of my hand.
“Abby, your dad’s not ready to retire. He was expecting you to wind up with an inexperiencedpotentialAlpha. Someone he could spend the next few years training to take over. That’s not me. I can’t serve under him, and he’s not ready to step down.”
“You don’t know that.”
He took my hand. “I do. Think about the big picture. If your father steps down, the council will have to elect a new chair. Your dad wouldn’t just be prematurely losing control of his own Pride; he’d be handing leadership of the council over to someone else, and that could very well put the—”
