JAKE
It was not fine.
I’d taken so many showers between Thursday and today, we’d run out of clean towels. Max said he couldn’t smell himself on me anymore, a fact which he sounded way too disappointed by, but the second I stepped into the pack house, Iknew.
Xen stood frozen at the sink in the kitchen. He’d been about to make me a drink before our guests arrived, but the second I’d stepped within six feet of him, he’d stopped what he was doing, eyes narrowing.
I watched, dread weighing heavily in my stomach as he took another, deliberately obvious inhale. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” The words were no more than a whisper, but they cracked like a whip in the silence.
I knew better than to feign ignorance. Nor was I about to admit to anything until he came out and said it.
“They’ll be here in about ten minutes,” he said, crossing his arms and leaning against the sink, gaze boring into mine. “You have that time to get upstairs and wash off the evidence that somehow you’ve managed to override a fuckingalpha’sorder.”
“We didn’t—”
“Go,” he roared, and I really hoped the rest of the pack house was empty. I didn’t need anyone else hearing.
Without acknowledging him—because fuck being spoken to like that—I turned and headed up the stairs. We all had clothes stashed at the main pack house, there was always a time when we’d need them, so I grabbed some of my spares and did as I was told.
Didn’t mean I had to like it.
I showered with a scowl on my face the whole time. Now Xen had pointed out I still carried Max’s scent on my skin, washing it off for the sake of another felt wrong on a base level. Like I was betraying Max. And no matter how many times I told myself it was the only option I had, I left the shower with a sense of unease, my wolf an agitated mess inside me.
But I must’ve smelt better because Xen acknowledged me with the barest nod of his head when I joined him again in the kitchen.
“They’re almost here,” he said as I registered the approaching sound of a car. “I shouldn’t need to tell you what’s at stake here. You will greet Myla properly and play your part. Don’t embarrass me, Jake, or I guarantee neither of us will enjoy the consequences.”
If by consequences he meant punishing me, then I got the feeling he’d very much enjoy that. And how fucked up was that?
Or he could mean something else. Something to do with my dad. I didn’t get chance to dwell on that because Xen was already opening the door.
“Xen, good to see you again.” Alpha Haylen Frost greeted Xen with a warm smile. It faded somewhat when he caught sight of me. “Mr Allen.”
“Alpha Frost,” I returned, just as pleased to see him.
Xen glanced over Frost’s shoulder. “Hello, Myla.” He stepped back and to the side. “Please, come in.”
Myla looked as excited to be here as I felt. I caught her eye and offered her a grim smile, which she returned with an added eye-roll.
Xen left the door wide open, the breeze helping to dilute the foreign scents now swirling around the kitchen. Another alpha in our space made the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention. It had to be affecting Xen twice as badly.
I hoped so.
“Please, have a seat.” Xen gestured to the chairs around the kitchen table and we all dutifully took one. The whole thing felt clinical, like a business transaction. Which I supposed it was.
Myla didn’t want to be here anymore than I did.
None of this was about us,forus.
I thought of Max. His smile, the way his deep brown eyes darkened to almost black when he looked at me sometimes. The way my body responded, and how it felt like one touch from him would set me on fire.
It was about as far away from how Myla and I felt about each other as you could get. And yet, if we didn’t find a way out of this soon, that would be our lives.
A sharp kick to my shin snapped me out of my thoughts, and I looked up to find everyone looking at me.
Bollocks.
“You agree with me, right, Jake?” Myla said, coming to my rescue. “It’s too soon for us to be seen out together.”
