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“Roxy, what’s wrong?” I asked.
“I-I was walking to your house and I heard something.” She took a deep breath, as if she was trying to calm herself. “Are there a lot of wild animals around here?”
“Well, I mean... yeah. There are a lot of harmless animals around here, like squirrels and bunnies.” I intentionally made a point of not mentioning wolves. I wasn’t sure if there were wild wolves in Indiana. If there were, I’d never seen one. I didn’t want to say anything that could make her think there were werewolves.
Then again, what sane human would jump to a crazy conclusion like that?
“No, this was much bigger than a bunny,” Roxy insisted. “Not that I saw it or anything, but it definitely made more noise than a rabbit does.”
I hesitated, racking my brain for what to say next. “Are you sure it just wasn’t one of my neighbors doing yard work or something?”
She shook her head, her short pink-highlighted dark hair moving with it. “No, it definitely sounded like it had more than two feet. Do you know if there are bears, mountain lions, or wolves around here?”
I could’ve sworn she’d put extra emphasis on “wolves”, but I quickly shook the thought away. I was probably just being paranoid.
“I’ve seen bears before, but no mountain lions and definitely no wolves.”
“Hmm.” Roxy didn’t look entirely convinced, but she shrugged it off. “Oh, well. Anyway, the reason I came over is because I wanted to bring you this.” She handed me an ivory envelope with my name written on it in swirly letters.
“What’s this?” I asked, glancing up at her.
“Well, I never got to have a sweet sixteen party. We’d just moved and were in between schools, so I didn’t really know anyone yet. So my parents promised me that I could have a sweet seventeen when the time came,” she explained. “I know I’m in between schools again, but this time I know you, at least. I figured it could be more of a welcoming party. Plus, it will be a reason for everyone in Cedar Falls to get dressed up,” she added.
“Cool. I’ll definitely be there,” I told her. “At least, I think. When is it again?”
“Saturday.”
“That works for me.”
“Great.” She grinned. “If I give you the invitations, would you mind passing them out to everyone in town?”
“I can do that,” I promised, even though the task sounded really daunting with everything else going on in my life. “It is really short notice, you know. People might already have plans.”
“Call me crazy, but I can’t imagine that many people around here having more exciting plans than my party.”
“Good point,” I agreed. “Hey, I hate to cut this short, but I was actually just headed over to Jax’s house now.”
I wanted to catch up with Roxy, but I needed to know about the black wolf. The not knowing was driving me insane.
“Perfect. While you’re there, can you make sure that Ace knows about my party?” Roxy grinned.
I’d nearly forgotten about Roxy’s crush on Jax’s brother, in spite of the fact that she already had a boyfriend, Logan.
“Do you want all of the Sherwood’s to be invited to your party? There are a lot of them,” I reminded her, trying to get a feel for how long this invitation list was supposed to be.
“Yeah it’s fine. My parents said I can invite as many people as I want.”
“Okay,” I told her as I locked the front door.
“How are things going with Jax, anyway?” she asked me as we both climbed down my front porch steps.
I didn’t even need to think about it before telling her, “It’s going really good.”
“Are you two officially a ‘thing’ yet?” Roxy asked, shooting me a sly grin.
“Of course we are,” a familiar male voice said.
I jumped and found Jax standing behind me. “Where did you come from?”
“Utah,” he joked. Then, noting the dagger eyes I was shooting in his direction, he apologized. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”
Glancing over at Roxy, who was staring at him with curious eyes, probably just as confused as I was about how he’d popped up out of nowhere, he nodded. “Hey, Roxy.”
“Hey, Jax. I was just about to head home, but tell that cute brother of yours I said hi.” She winked.
“I have a ‘cute’ brother?” he asked jokingly.
“Yeah, Ace.”
As soon as she said the name, Jax’s whole body went tense. “Roxy, I don’t mean to sound like a jerk, but... if you know what’s best for you, you’ll stay away from Ace.”
“Why? Does he have a girlfriend?” She didn’t have to say the words for me to know that she was thinking it didn’t matter if he did, since she had a boyfriend.
“No, he’s available. But he’s not the guy for you. Trust me,” Jax said, meeting her eyes with a look of seriousness.
“Well, thank you for the warning. I’ll be heading home now.” She glanced over at me. “I’ll be over sometime tomorrow afternoon with the rest of the invitations, okay?”
“Sounds good,” I replied, forcing a small smile.
I watched as she walked down the street and then turned to Jax. “Come on. Let’s go over to your house. We need to talk.”
He nodded and led the way.
Once we were far enough away from Roxy, I turned to him. “You can’t just do that, you know.”
“What?” Jax glanced over at me.
“You can’t just sneak up on me like that. How did you even do that?”
“Werewolves travel with incredible speed. We can get from one place to another in mere seconds. It’s a little talent that comes in handy, sometimes.” He grinned proudly.
“That talent is going to get you into trouble if you keep practicing it. You can’t just sneak up on humans or they’re going to start asking questions about what you really are.”
“That may be true, but... Roxy’s not human, Camryn,” Jax said, his blue eyes darting over to meet mine.
“What? If she’s not a person, then what is she?” I asked, staring at him wide-eyed. I fully expected him to say she was a werewolf. Who wasn’t a werewolf these days?
Oh, that’s right... me.
“I haven’t quite figured it out yet. But humans have a very distinct scent. And she doesn’t have that scent. In fact, she doesn’t have any scent.” He looked genuinely confused.
“What type of... species... doesn’t have a scent?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Well, that was odd. But it was the least of my worries at the moment, because a random thought had occurred to me. “Were you in your wolf form before you snuck up on me?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Because Roxy heard you in the woods. You need to be more careful or you’re going to get yourself caught,” I insisted.
“And I think you need to be more careful around her, Camryn. We don’t know what she is or what her intentions are. I know she’s your friend, but... I don’t trust her.” He shook his head.
“Well, I do. And I make the decisions about who my friends are,” I replied, crossing my arms over my chest defiantly. I wasn’t about to have this argument with him. He may have known me for years, but as far as I was concerned, we’d only just met. I wasn’t about to let him boss me around... now or ever. “What were you even doing in the woods, anyway?”
“Just goofing off.”
I rolled my eyes. “What was with that whole warning about Ace?” I asked. “Are you just trying to scare her away because you don’t trust her?”
He shook his head. “No. I don’t know what Roxy is, but I’m sure Ace can handle himself. I was really warning her about him. Ace... He has issues.”
“What type of issues?” I pressed.
“If I told you, you would look at him differently. You wouldn’t be able to trust him again.”
“Try me.”
“Camryn...” He sighed.
“Do you trust him? I asked, remembering that Jax had told me that, of all his brothers, he was closest to Ace and Elias. So, either he really did trust him... or he trusted his other brothers that much less than him.
“I do trust him,” Jax replied with a nod.
“Are you sure? Because you don’t trust him to date my friend.”
“It’s complicated, but trust me. If you want what’s in Roxy’s best interest, you’ll encourage her to date somebody other than Ace. There are plenty of human boys in this town who would be a better fit for her.”
I snorted. He made it sound like Cedar Falls had a huge dating pool, which definitely wasn’t the case.
Besides, he didn’t really know Roxy. Even I didn’t know her that well, but I knew that nothing I could say or do would encourage her to date someone else. If she wanted to be with Ace, she was going to find a way to make that happen – not that it seemed like it would be too hard. From what I’d seen, Ace had seemed just as into her as she was him.
“Anyway,” Jax said, swiftly changing the subject. “Someone needs to call Enzo back to let him know our pack won’t be taking part in his plan.”
“I’ll do it,” I volunteered without even giving it a second thought.
He shot a suspicious look in my direction. “Why? You’re not going to try to be a part of it all still... are you?”
I lowered my eyes to the ground, not wanting to admit to him that was exactly what I was thinking.
“You can’t do that, Camryn.”
“And why’s that?” I asked, my cheeks flushing with my annoyance. Demetrius was my father. If I wanted to take part in a plot to kill him, what was it to Jax?
“Do you really think I’d let you do it alone?” His eyes locked on mine, making my heart skip a beat.
“Really?” Was this what it was like to have a mate: having someone who would let you drag them down with you, regardless of how they really felt about it? Because, if so, I was pretty sure I could get used to this.
“Yes, really. But what you don’t understand is what that would mean for me.”
“What would it mean for you?” I asked with wide eyes.
“It would ruin my chances.”
“Your chances of what?”
Jax sighed as we walked onto his front yard. “Do you understand the dynamics of a werewolf pack?”
“Yeah... I think.” I’d read quite a few books about werewolves. I just didn’t know how it worked in real life.
“So, as you know, Elias is Alpha,” he said. “I’m Beta, which means I’m next in line to be Alpha, whether it’s on a temporary or a permanent basis.”
“I get it, but what does all of this have to do with me wanting to kill Demetrius?”
“The reason I’m Beta is because Elias chose me to be,” Jax explained. “If I do something he doesn’t approve of – and go against what he wants for the entire pack – well, let’s just say I’ll be lucky to still be a member of the pack, let alone Beta.”
“You think he’d kick you out of the pack just for helping me?” I asked with raised eyebrows. It was sort of hard for me to believe. Elias was so... nice. The idea that he would kick Jax, his own brother, out of the pack, seemed ridiculous.
“It wouldn’t have been the first time,” Jax murmured.
“What are you talking about?”
“Nothing.” He shook his head.
“I need to know who the black wolf is.”
“I can’t tell you that,” Jax replied.
“I hate it when you do that!”
“Do what?”
“You dodge all of my questions and give me half answers about everything,” I replied. “It’s so frustrating. You may know a lot of things about me and what my life was like in the past, but do you realize that I know hardly anything about werewolves and you? I’ve barely gotten the chance to know you yet, which sounds crazy because... I’m in love with you.”
Holy crap. That was the first time I’d ever said it aloud. I’d never thought about how I would confess my feelings to him one day, but I figured it would be special: over a romantic candlelit dinner, at prom, on Valentine’s Day – not while we were fighting.
“You are?” Jax’s lips curved upwards into a big grin.
“Yes, but don’t ask me why. You annoy the shit out of me.” I shook my head in frustration.
“You’re in love with me because of biology – because of the soul-binding process. It’s because we’re meant to be together.”
“Oh, so it’s not just because you’re a loveable guy then,” I said teasingly.
“I don’t know. You tell me.” He leaned in closer to me – so close that his forehead was practically resting against mine. His blue eyes gazed into mine for a few moments before he tilted his chin and pulled his lips in closer to mine.
His lips grazed lightly against mine before he met my eyes again. “What do you think?”
“I think...” I took a deep breath, hoping it would mask how fast my heart was beating. “I think you need to tell me who the black wolf is.”
Jax’s forehead crinkled in frustration. “I can’t, Camryn.”
“Who are you trying to protect?”
“I can’t tell you that,” he replied.
“Okay, then why?” I blurted. “Why can’t you tell me, your mate, who it is? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Because I promised I wouldn’t,” Jax said. “He wants to introduce himself to you.”
So, the black wolf was a guy, not a girl. That told me something, but not much. Not enough for me to figure out who it was on my own.
“Why does he want to meet me so bad?” I asked.
“You’ll find out soon. Now, let’s stop arguing, okay?” he said, glancing over at me, as we began to walk up his front porch. “I don’t want anyone to hear us fighting.”
“Well, we wouldn’t need to fight if you would just give me answers,” I pointed out.
“You’ll get answers – about everything – eventually. I just need you to be patient right now.”
“Fine.” I sighed, feeling defeated. No matter how hard I tried, I knew he wasn’t going to give me answers right now, anyway.
“Come on. Let’s go inside,” Jax said.
As I twisted the doorknob to open it, I saw something black dart across the room. I couldn’t tell what it was – it wasn’t a person or a wolf. It was a... a thing – a thing that looked more like a cloud of smoke or a shadow than it did something that could be moving or breathing. At the same time, I was pretty sure that it was breathing. It was wearing a black hooded cloak and it looked like it was moving straight for us.
A second later, it was right through the other side of the screen door, staring straight at me – except I wasn’t even sure if the thing had eyes or not. The place where its eye sockets should’ve been looked so black and lifeless.
I wasn’t going to lie. It was seriously freaking me the heck out.
It reached out for the doorknob.
Before I could move my hand away, an electric jolt shot through me – no, actually, it crashed through me, completely knocking the wind out of me.
“Camryn,” I heard Jax say. He continued to say other things, other words, but they didn’t make any sense to me. They simply droned into the background as my eyes fluttered shut and everything faded to black.