Wolf Under Fire, page 14
Jes barely realized Jake’s lips had left hers until she felt them wandering over her jaw, leaving a path of fire behind. As his hands found the buttons on her blouse, she thought about locking the door, but when he popped first one, then another, tracing along her collarbone with his tongue at the same time, she decided locking the door would have to wait.
She regretted that decision in the next breath as the door in question abruptly opened. Startled, she threw a look over her shoulder to see Caleb poking his head in.
“Sorry to interrupt, but McKay is on Skype and wants a full debriefing. As in five minutes ago,” Caleb said. “I tried to tell him you were resting, but he insisted.”
Jes steeled herself, waiting for Caleb to say something snarky, but instead he regarded them curiously for a moment, then ducked back into the hallway, closing the door behind him.
She turned around to look at Jake. His dark eyes swirled with heat, and it took everything she had to not kiss him again. Reluctantly pushing herself into a sitting position, she buttoned up her blouse.
“I guess we should go downstairs,” she said, not looking at him.
She wasn’t sure what else to say. Now that the moment had passed, she felt kind of flustered. She shouldn’t have let things get out of control like that.
“I guess we should.”
Swinging his legs off the bed, Jake stood and offered her a hand. Jes took it, letting him tug her to her feet. He didn’t say anything else as he took another shirt out of the wardrobe and shrugged into it. She didn’t, either.
What the hell were either of them supposed to say after what had just happened between them?
Chapter 10
“Where the hell did all these frigging pots and pans come from?” Caleb grumbled, dunking yet another saucepan in the sink filled with soapy water and swirling the sponge around inside it. “They must have multiplied when we weren’t looking because I don’t remember using this many to make dinner.”
Jake chuckled as he finished drying one of the aforementioned pots and stowed it in the cabinet. Caleb was right—no one should need five pots, four frying pans, and three saucepans to make spaghetti and meatballs. Unless you were cooking for a pack of werewolves and used five pounds of ground beef, four boxes of pasta, and four jars of marinara sauce. That wasn’t even counting the three loaves of garlic bread. And unfortunately, while the dishwasher could accommodate the plates and glasses, it wasn’t big enough to fit all the cookware.
Maybe he and Caleb shouldn’t have been so quick to turn down the help Jes, Harley, and Misty had offered. But after seeing how exhausted they all were, Jake didn’t have the heart to take them up on it. Considering they’d spent over two hours briefing McKay on what had happened tonight with the Robinson kid, they probably should have gotten takeout and called it a day, but when Harley suggested making spaghetti and meatballs, everyone had been down with the idea, including Jake. Of course, if they had gotten takeout, he could be upstairs with Jes right now, instead of doing dishes.
And what? They’d pick up where they left off before Caleb had interrupted them?
“So, you and Jes, huh?” Caleb said, giving him a sidelong glance.
Jake took the saucepan Caleb held out with a barely suppressed growl. Could the guy read his frigging mind or something? He should have known Caleb hadn’t offered to help clean up out of the goodness of his heart. He’d probably been waiting all evening to grill Jake about what he’d seen.
“There’s nothing going on between Jes and me,” Jake told him, focusing on drying. “We were talking, and it just happened.”
That was a ton of crap. Something was definitely going on between them. He’d figured that out long before kissing her. Unfortunately, he had no idea what it was.
“That kiss didn’t look like nothing to me,” Caleb said, reaching for the sheet pan they’d made the garlic bread on and dipping it into the soapy water. “From where I was standing, it looked like a whole hell of a lot of something.”
Jake bit back a snarl, the urge to go all alpha werewolf on the omega and tell Caleb to mind his own damn business hard to resist. But he ignored the impulse. Caleb was part of the pack he was putting together. So far, the guy seemed like he was making an effort to fit in. Ostracizing him would only jeopardize that. Still didn’t mean he wanted to talk about his personal life with the guy.
“If you don’t want to talk about it, dude, that’s cool,” Caleb said. “Even if I hadn’t seen you and Jes kissing, it’s obvious something’s there. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s picked up on the lengths you went to in order to protect her tonight.”
Jake scowled “What do you know about that? You weren’t even there for most of it.”
Caleb’s shoulders lifted in a shrug. “Yeah, but Forrest mentioned how you reacted when Damien and his bros lit you up at the Robinsons’ house. And I saw how Jes flipped when I tossed you in the back of the van. She just about lost it.”
Jake hadn’t known about that because he’d been unconscious at the time. As for what Forrest had seen, he hadn’t thought his overwhelming need to protect Jes was so obvious. Apparently, he’d been wrong.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” he finally admitted, sticking the saucepan in the cabinet. “I’m not really good at this kind of thing.”
Caleb snorted. “And you think I am? You do realize omegas completely lack normal socialization skills, right?”
Jake shook his head with a laugh. As sounding boards went, he could probably do worse than Caleb, he supposed.
“Can we at least agree you’re attracted to her?” Caleb asked.
“No shit, Sherlock.” Jake took the sheet pan from Caleb, running the towel over it absently. “But it’s complicated.”
That was one word for it. Perfect was another. The tender way she’d cared for his wounds, how she’d opened up to him, revealing stuff she’d probably never told another soul, the kisses that had made his head spin. Yeah, perfect was a really good word to use.
Caleb drained the sink, giving him a confused look as he dried his hands. “What’s so complicated about it? Jes is beautiful, smart, kick ass, and for some reason, thinks you’re worth her time. What are you agonizing about?”
Jake put the sheet pan away and closed the cabinet with a sigh. “The very real possibility that if we act on this thing between us and it doesn’t work out, it could rip the whole team apart.”
“So make sure it works out,” an exhausted-looking Forrest said from the doorway. “What, you think you’re the first person to have a relationship with someone on their team?”
Crap, Jake hadn’t even heard the guy let himself into the house. This thing with Jes had his inner wolf really screwed up. It was bad enough Caleb knew about him and Jes. Now, he had Forrest involved in his personal life, too.
“How much did you overhear?” Jake demanded.
Forrest shrugged. “Just the part about you having it bad for Jes but are worried getting involved with her would be bad for the team dynamics.”
Jake glowered at him. “So, you pretty much heard everything then.”
“At least he didn’t hear that part about me catching you making out with Jes in bed,” Caleb pointed out. “It’d be damn embarrassing if he heard that part.”
Jake growled softly in Caleb’s direction. The omega merely chuckled.
“Misty saved you a plate of spaghetti and meatballs,” Jake told Forrest. “It’s in the fridge.”
Forrest grinned, eagerly taking the leftovers out and sticking them in the microwave to heat. Caleb grabbed three beers from the fridge, handing one to Jake and one to Forrest.
“How are the Robinsons doing?” Jake asked, changing the subject as he took a swallow of the British ale.
Forrest took his plate out of the microwave and carried it over to the table. “Better. The support team is with them at the safe house and will be guarding them around the clock until we figure out what the hell is going on. The boy is still a little freaked out, but he’ll be okay. McKay was talking to Evie and her husband when I left, trying to figure out their connection to Darby and the other people on the list.”
As he and Caleb joined Forrest at the table, Jake got him up to speed on their earlier conversation with McKay. There really wasn’t much to tell, other than that their boss had people working around the clock trying to figure out what kind of supernatural creatures Darby and his crew were.
“I was listening to the local news on the way back to see if they said anything about you chasing Damien through Blackwall Tunnel and getting into a shoot-out with him,” Forrest said, spearing a meatball. “Want to hear something crazy? The cops didn’t make any arrests and they didn’t find any bodies. After the way you guys described the amount of damage you did to those creatures in the park, it’s hard to believe they’re still alive.”
Caleb cursed. “How is that even frigging possible? I hit Damien so hard with the van he sailed twenty feet through the air, then I drove over that other a-hole and crushed him to a pulp.”
“Maybe Darby showed up and took them away before the cops moved in,” Forrest suggested.
Jake was still considering that possibility when Forrest changed the subject.
“I know this might come as a surprise to you, Jake—and will probably piss you off when I tell you about it—but I think hearing it might help you and Jes figure out what to do,” he said, wiping his mouth with a napkin and pushing his empty plate to the side.
Jake didn’t say anything as he waited for Forrest to continue. He got the feeling he already knew where the former FBI agent was going with this. From the grin tugging at Caleb’s mouth, he probably did, too.
Forrest took a deep breath, like he was working up the courage to reveal some big secret. “Misty and I started going out a few days after she began working at STAT. It was hard not seeing each other as much as we would have liked, since we rarely worked the same missions. When we heard McKay was putting a new team together, Misty got into the files and put us on the short list of volunteers.”
On the other side of the table, Forrest looked like he was bracing himself in case Jake exploded at the news. When Jake didn’t, he frowned.
“You aren’t pissed?”
“No,” Jake admitted, then added, “but that’s because I already knew.”
Forrest’s eyes went wide. “You did? How?”
“I picked up your scents on each other the first morning we were here, when you and Misty were setting up the video teleconference equipment.”
Forrest winced. “Shit. I didn’t even think of that. So much for sneaking around when you’re on a team with werewolves.” His blue eyes darted to Caleb. “I guess you smelled our scents all over each other too, huh?”
Caleb shook his head. “Nah. Like I said at the embassy, my nose is crap compared to Jake’s and Harley’s. But my ears work great. Which means I heard you and Misty sneak into each other’s rooms to have sex. Trust me, you’re a lot louder than you think—to a werewolf anyway.”
“You heard…?” Forrest’s face turned red.
“Yeah, I heard everything.” Caleb held up a hand. “But hey, I’m not judging here. You do you, that’s what I always say. Although, if you could do it a little more quietly, that’d be cool.”
Forrest had the grace to look a little chagrined for a second, but then he pinned Jake and Caleb with a pointed look. “Okay, we’ll work on that, but when did this conversation become about me? The only reason I brought up Misty and me is so Jake can see it’s possible to be teammates with someone and still have a relationship with them, too. You just have to be willing to make it work. And trust each other.”
“Trust shouldn’t be an issue,” Caleb said, swigging his beer. “Since Jes is The One for you, I mean.”
The words didn’t register for a second, and when they finally did, Jake was sure he’d heard wrong. “What are you talking about? I never suggested she’s The One for me. Why would you even say something like that?”
Caleb looked at him like he was a moron…again. But it was Forrest who spoke first.
“Am I missing something here? I thought you and Jes were already getting hot and heavy, but now it sounds like you’re not sure if she’s the one you want to be with? Are you just messing with her?”
Jake frowned. “I’m not messing with her. I’m sure Jes is the woman I want to be with. I’m just not sure if she’s The One.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Shit, this is even more complicated than I thought.”
Forrest stared at Jake, clearly baffled AF. “Now, I’m really confused.”
Caleb laughed. “It’s not your fault, dude. It’s a werewolf thing. When I suggested Jes is The One for him, I was talking about her being his soul mate. He’s either terrified at the idea or too stupid to accept reality.”
Forrest still looked perplexed. Jake couldn’t blame him. He was a little rattled himself. While he might know what Caleb was talking about—there probably wasn’t a werewolf out there in the world who didn’t know the legend of The One—the thought that Jes might be his soul mate had never entered his mind. Seriously, how could she be? When it came to werewolves, soul mates were supposed to be a one-in-a-million thing. Hell, maybe even one in a billion.
“You’ve heard wolves mate for life, right?” Caleb asked Forrest. When the guy nodded, he continued, “Well, in some ways, werewolves do the same thing. There’s supposed to be one perfect person out there for each of us who we’re meant to be with forever. When a werewolf meets his or her soul mate, it’s supposed to be like catching lightning in a bottle.”
“Soul mates. Wow,” Forrest breathed. “I mean, Misty and I are solid, but I made a lot of dumb-ass mistakes when we first started dating. Would have been nice to know we’re soul mates the moment we met.”
“You’d think so,” Caleb agreed with a snort. “But for some reason, Jake is too busy swimming around in that river in Egypt to notice what’s right in front of him.”
Across from Jake, Forrest was regarding him with an expression that clearly suggested the guy thought he was an idiot. “Why don’t you think Jes is your soul mate?”
Jake opened his mouth, then closed it again. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “It doesn’t seem possible. I’ve literally known her only a few days.”
“So what?” Caleb demanded. “Can you honestly tell me that Jes isn’t the first thing you think about in the morning when you wake up and the last thing on your mind when you go to sleep? Hell, right now, you’re probably thinking about the way her scent fills your nose almost all the time, the way her heartbeat seems to drown out nearly every other sound when she’s near, and the way she tastes when you kiss her.”
Jake stared at Caleb, stunned. He’d never pegged the big omega as the empathetic type, but seriously, the guy had nailed it when it came to describing the thoughts currently rolling through his mind. Jes had parked herself in his headspace, taking up permanent residency there.
“How do you know so much about soul mates?” Jake asked, wondering just how much he didn’t know about the werewolf who was part of his pack. “Did you ever…?”
A short, harsh laugh from the big man cut him off. “No, I’ve never had a whiff of someone that might be The One for me. But I did see it happen once between two werewolves in Dallas. They weren’t supposed to get together, either. They thought they were too different, kind of like you and Jes—well, except they were on opposite sides of the law at the time—but I saw it even when they couldn’t. Just like I see it now and you don’t. Because you don’t want to see it for some stupid frigging reason.”
Jake couldn’t miss the way Caleb’s heart thudded as he spoke. “Why is this so important to you?”
Caleb shrugged, gaze fixed on the label wrapped around his beer bottle. “Because I’m an omega—a loner. Which means I’m always outside the pack looking in. If I had even half a chance to find my soul mate and not have to go this shit alone, I sure as fuck wouldn’t turn my nose up at it like you’re doing.”
Before Jake could defend himself with a reply, Caleb pushed back his chair so hard he almost knocked it over, then strode out of the room, apparently done with the conversation.
Forrest nodded. “What he said.”
Picking up his plate, Forrest put it in the dishwasher, then left, ditching his empty beer bottle in the trash on the way.
Jake sat there for a long time, nursing the rest of his ale and thinking about what Caleb had said. Finally getting to his feet, he tossed his beer bottle along with the one Caleb had left, then slowly climbed the steps. Upstairs, he stopped outside Jes’s bedroom, listening to the sound of her breathing and the beat of her heart through the closed door. He had a sudden urge to walk into her room, wake her up, and ask her what she thought about the idea of being with a man who occasionally had fangs and claws.
But before he could give in to that desire, he continued down the hallway to his room and another long night without sleep.
* * *
Jes sipped her cappuccino, savoring the sweetly flavored drink as she covertly studied the Lanesborough Hotel directly across the street from the outdoor café where she, Harley, and Misty were doing a recon of the place. Originally a hospital in the mid-1800s, the Duke of Westminster purchased the building in the late twentieth century and turned the four-floor Regency-style building into the poshest hotel in London. The outside was gorgeous for sure, but it was the inside with all the marble arched doorways and fancy furniture that was enough to take your breath away.
With Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye, Hyde Park, and the Knightsbridge shopping district all within walking distance, it was easy to blend in with the other tourists grabbing a late-afternoon snack. Of course, if someone looked closely, they’d probably realize she and Harley were a little tense. That was because Misty was currently doing a deep dive into the virtual world through the laptop she appeared to be typing on. Thankfully, Misty was wearing sunglasses, so no one could tell her eyes were completely white.
She regretted that decision in the next breath as the door in question abruptly opened. Startled, she threw a look over her shoulder to see Caleb poking his head in.
“Sorry to interrupt, but McKay is on Skype and wants a full debriefing. As in five minutes ago,” Caleb said. “I tried to tell him you were resting, but he insisted.”
Jes steeled herself, waiting for Caleb to say something snarky, but instead he regarded them curiously for a moment, then ducked back into the hallway, closing the door behind him.
She turned around to look at Jake. His dark eyes swirled with heat, and it took everything she had to not kiss him again. Reluctantly pushing herself into a sitting position, she buttoned up her blouse.
“I guess we should go downstairs,” she said, not looking at him.
She wasn’t sure what else to say. Now that the moment had passed, she felt kind of flustered. She shouldn’t have let things get out of control like that.
“I guess we should.”
Swinging his legs off the bed, Jake stood and offered her a hand. Jes took it, letting him tug her to her feet. He didn’t say anything else as he took another shirt out of the wardrobe and shrugged into it. She didn’t, either.
What the hell were either of them supposed to say after what had just happened between them?
Chapter 10
“Where the hell did all these frigging pots and pans come from?” Caleb grumbled, dunking yet another saucepan in the sink filled with soapy water and swirling the sponge around inside it. “They must have multiplied when we weren’t looking because I don’t remember using this many to make dinner.”
Jake chuckled as he finished drying one of the aforementioned pots and stowed it in the cabinet. Caleb was right—no one should need five pots, four frying pans, and three saucepans to make spaghetti and meatballs. Unless you were cooking for a pack of werewolves and used five pounds of ground beef, four boxes of pasta, and four jars of marinara sauce. That wasn’t even counting the three loaves of garlic bread. And unfortunately, while the dishwasher could accommodate the plates and glasses, it wasn’t big enough to fit all the cookware.
Maybe he and Caleb shouldn’t have been so quick to turn down the help Jes, Harley, and Misty had offered. But after seeing how exhausted they all were, Jake didn’t have the heart to take them up on it. Considering they’d spent over two hours briefing McKay on what had happened tonight with the Robinson kid, they probably should have gotten takeout and called it a day, but when Harley suggested making spaghetti and meatballs, everyone had been down with the idea, including Jake. Of course, if they had gotten takeout, he could be upstairs with Jes right now, instead of doing dishes.
And what? They’d pick up where they left off before Caleb had interrupted them?
“So, you and Jes, huh?” Caleb said, giving him a sidelong glance.
Jake took the saucepan Caleb held out with a barely suppressed growl. Could the guy read his frigging mind or something? He should have known Caleb hadn’t offered to help clean up out of the goodness of his heart. He’d probably been waiting all evening to grill Jake about what he’d seen.
“There’s nothing going on between Jes and me,” Jake told him, focusing on drying. “We were talking, and it just happened.”
That was a ton of crap. Something was definitely going on between them. He’d figured that out long before kissing her. Unfortunately, he had no idea what it was.
“That kiss didn’t look like nothing to me,” Caleb said, reaching for the sheet pan they’d made the garlic bread on and dipping it into the soapy water. “From where I was standing, it looked like a whole hell of a lot of something.”
Jake bit back a snarl, the urge to go all alpha werewolf on the omega and tell Caleb to mind his own damn business hard to resist. But he ignored the impulse. Caleb was part of the pack he was putting together. So far, the guy seemed like he was making an effort to fit in. Ostracizing him would only jeopardize that. Still didn’t mean he wanted to talk about his personal life with the guy.
“If you don’t want to talk about it, dude, that’s cool,” Caleb said. “Even if I hadn’t seen you and Jes kissing, it’s obvious something’s there. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s picked up on the lengths you went to in order to protect her tonight.”
Jake scowled “What do you know about that? You weren’t even there for most of it.”
Caleb’s shoulders lifted in a shrug. “Yeah, but Forrest mentioned how you reacted when Damien and his bros lit you up at the Robinsons’ house. And I saw how Jes flipped when I tossed you in the back of the van. She just about lost it.”
Jake hadn’t known about that because he’d been unconscious at the time. As for what Forrest had seen, he hadn’t thought his overwhelming need to protect Jes was so obvious. Apparently, he’d been wrong.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” he finally admitted, sticking the saucepan in the cabinet. “I’m not really good at this kind of thing.”
Caleb snorted. “And you think I am? You do realize omegas completely lack normal socialization skills, right?”
Jake shook his head with a laugh. As sounding boards went, he could probably do worse than Caleb, he supposed.
“Can we at least agree you’re attracted to her?” Caleb asked.
“No shit, Sherlock.” Jake took the sheet pan from Caleb, running the towel over it absently. “But it’s complicated.”
That was one word for it. Perfect was another. The tender way she’d cared for his wounds, how she’d opened up to him, revealing stuff she’d probably never told another soul, the kisses that had made his head spin. Yeah, perfect was a really good word to use.
Caleb drained the sink, giving him a confused look as he dried his hands. “What’s so complicated about it? Jes is beautiful, smart, kick ass, and for some reason, thinks you’re worth her time. What are you agonizing about?”
Jake put the sheet pan away and closed the cabinet with a sigh. “The very real possibility that if we act on this thing between us and it doesn’t work out, it could rip the whole team apart.”
“So make sure it works out,” an exhausted-looking Forrest said from the doorway. “What, you think you’re the first person to have a relationship with someone on their team?”
Crap, Jake hadn’t even heard the guy let himself into the house. This thing with Jes had his inner wolf really screwed up. It was bad enough Caleb knew about him and Jes. Now, he had Forrest involved in his personal life, too.
“How much did you overhear?” Jake demanded.
Forrest shrugged. “Just the part about you having it bad for Jes but are worried getting involved with her would be bad for the team dynamics.”
Jake glowered at him. “So, you pretty much heard everything then.”
“At least he didn’t hear that part about me catching you making out with Jes in bed,” Caleb pointed out. “It’d be damn embarrassing if he heard that part.”
Jake growled softly in Caleb’s direction. The omega merely chuckled.
“Misty saved you a plate of spaghetti and meatballs,” Jake told Forrest. “It’s in the fridge.”
Forrest grinned, eagerly taking the leftovers out and sticking them in the microwave to heat. Caleb grabbed three beers from the fridge, handing one to Jake and one to Forrest.
“How are the Robinsons doing?” Jake asked, changing the subject as he took a swallow of the British ale.
Forrest took his plate out of the microwave and carried it over to the table. “Better. The support team is with them at the safe house and will be guarding them around the clock until we figure out what the hell is going on. The boy is still a little freaked out, but he’ll be okay. McKay was talking to Evie and her husband when I left, trying to figure out their connection to Darby and the other people on the list.”
As he and Caleb joined Forrest at the table, Jake got him up to speed on their earlier conversation with McKay. There really wasn’t much to tell, other than that their boss had people working around the clock trying to figure out what kind of supernatural creatures Darby and his crew were.
“I was listening to the local news on the way back to see if they said anything about you chasing Damien through Blackwall Tunnel and getting into a shoot-out with him,” Forrest said, spearing a meatball. “Want to hear something crazy? The cops didn’t make any arrests and they didn’t find any bodies. After the way you guys described the amount of damage you did to those creatures in the park, it’s hard to believe they’re still alive.”
Caleb cursed. “How is that even frigging possible? I hit Damien so hard with the van he sailed twenty feet through the air, then I drove over that other a-hole and crushed him to a pulp.”
“Maybe Darby showed up and took them away before the cops moved in,” Forrest suggested.
Jake was still considering that possibility when Forrest changed the subject.
“I know this might come as a surprise to you, Jake—and will probably piss you off when I tell you about it—but I think hearing it might help you and Jes figure out what to do,” he said, wiping his mouth with a napkin and pushing his empty plate to the side.
Jake didn’t say anything as he waited for Forrest to continue. He got the feeling he already knew where the former FBI agent was going with this. From the grin tugging at Caleb’s mouth, he probably did, too.
Forrest took a deep breath, like he was working up the courage to reveal some big secret. “Misty and I started going out a few days after she began working at STAT. It was hard not seeing each other as much as we would have liked, since we rarely worked the same missions. When we heard McKay was putting a new team together, Misty got into the files and put us on the short list of volunteers.”
On the other side of the table, Forrest looked like he was bracing himself in case Jake exploded at the news. When Jake didn’t, he frowned.
“You aren’t pissed?”
“No,” Jake admitted, then added, “but that’s because I already knew.”
Forrest’s eyes went wide. “You did? How?”
“I picked up your scents on each other the first morning we were here, when you and Misty were setting up the video teleconference equipment.”
Forrest winced. “Shit. I didn’t even think of that. So much for sneaking around when you’re on a team with werewolves.” His blue eyes darted to Caleb. “I guess you smelled our scents all over each other too, huh?”
Caleb shook his head. “Nah. Like I said at the embassy, my nose is crap compared to Jake’s and Harley’s. But my ears work great. Which means I heard you and Misty sneak into each other’s rooms to have sex. Trust me, you’re a lot louder than you think—to a werewolf anyway.”
“You heard…?” Forrest’s face turned red.
“Yeah, I heard everything.” Caleb held up a hand. “But hey, I’m not judging here. You do you, that’s what I always say. Although, if you could do it a little more quietly, that’d be cool.”
Forrest had the grace to look a little chagrined for a second, but then he pinned Jake and Caleb with a pointed look. “Okay, we’ll work on that, but when did this conversation become about me? The only reason I brought up Misty and me is so Jake can see it’s possible to be teammates with someone and still have a relationship with them, too. You just have to be willing to make it work. And trust each other.”
“Trust shouldn’t be an issue,” Caleb said, swigging his beer. “Since Jes is The One for you, I mean.”
The words didn’t register for a second, and when they finally did, Jake was sure he’d heard wrong. “What are you talking about? I never suggested she’s The One for me. Why would you even say something like that?”
Caleb looked at him like he was a moron…again. But it was Forrest who spoke first.
“Am I missing something here? I thought you and Jes were already getting hot and heavy, but now it sounds like you’re not sure if she’s the one you want to be with? Are you just messing with her?”
Jake frowned. “I’m not messing with her. I’m sure Jes is the woman I want to be with. I’m just not sure if she’s The One.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Shit, this is even more complicated than I thought.”
Forrest stared at Jake, clearly baffled AF. “Now, I’m really confused.”
Caleb laughed. “It’s not your fault, dude. It’s a werewolf thing. When I suggested Jes is The One for him, I was talking about her being his soul mate. He’s either terrified at the idea or too stupid to accept reality.”
Forrest still looked perplexed. Jake couldn’t blame him. He was a little rattled himself. While he might know what Caleb was talking about—there probably wasn’t a werewolf out there in the world who didn’t know the legend of The One—the thought that Jes might be his soul mate had never entered his mind. Seriously, how could she be? When it came to werewolves, soul mates were supposed to be a one-in-a-million thing. Hell, maybe even one in a billion.
“You’ve heard wolves mate for life, right?” Caleb asked Forrest. When the guy nodded, he continued, “Well, in some ways, werewolves do the same thing. There’s supposed to be one perfect person out there for each of us who we’re meant to be with forever. When a werewolf meets his or her soul mate, it’s supposed to be like catching lightning in a bottle.”
“Soul mates. Wow,” Forrest breathed. “I mean, Misty and I are solid, but I made a lot of dumb-ass mistakes when we first started dating. Would have been nice to know we’re soul mates the moment we met.”
“You’d think so,” Caleb agreed with a snort. “But for some reason, Jake is too busy swimming around in that river in Egypt to notice what’s right in front of him.”
Across from Jake, Forrest was regarding him with an expression that clearly suggested the guy thought he was an idiot. “Why don’t you think Jes is your soul mate?”
Jake opened his mouth, then closed it again. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “It doesn’t seem possible. I’ve literally known her only a few days.”
“So what?” Caleb demanded. “Can you honestly tell me that Jes isn’t the first thing you think about in the morning when you wake up and the last thing on your mind when you go to sleep? Hell, right now, you’re probably thinking about the way her scent fills your nose almost all the time, the way her heartbeat seems to drown out nearly every other sound when she’s near, and the way she tastes when you kiss her.”
Jake stared at Caleb, stunned. He’d never pegged the big omega as the empathetic type, but seriously, the guy had nailed it when it came to describing the thoughts currently rolling through his mind. Jes had parked herself in his headspace, taking up permanent residency there.
“How do you know so much about soul mates?” Jake asked, wondering just how much he didn’t know about the werewolf who was part of his pack. “Did you ever…?”
A short, harsh laugh from the big man cut him off. “No, I’ve never had a whiff of someone that might be The One for me. But I did see it happen once between two werewolves in Dallas. They weren’t supposed to get together, either. They thought they were too different, kind of like you and Jes—well, except they were on opposite sides of the law at the time—but I saw it even when they couldn’t. Just like I see it now and you don’t. Because you don’t want to see it for some stupid frigging reason.”
Jake couldn’t miss the way Caleb’s heart thudded as he spoke. “Why is this so important to you?”
Caleb shrugged, gaze fixed on the label wrapped around his beer bottle. “Because I’m an omega—a loner. Which means I’m always outside the pack looking in. If I had even half a chance to find my soul mate and not have to go this shit alone, I sure as fuck wouldn’t turn my nose up at it like you’re doing.”
Before Jake could defend himself with a reply, Caleb pushed back his chair so hard he almost knocked it over, then strode out of the room, apparently done with the conversation.
Forrest nodded. “What he said.”
Picking up his plate, Forrest put it in the dishwasher, then left, ditching his empty beer bottle in the trash on the way.
Jake sat there for a long time, nursing the rest of his ale and thinking about what Caleb had said. Finally getting to his feet, he tossed his beer bottle along with the one Caleb had left, then slowly climbed the steps. Upstairs, he stopped outside Jes’s bedroom, listening to the sound of her breathing and the beat of her heart through the closed door. He had a sudden urge to walk into her room, wake her up, and ask her what she thought about the idea of being with a man who occasionally had fangs and claws.
But before he could give in to that desire, he continued down the hallway to his room and another long night without sleep.
* * *
Jes sipped her cappuccino, savoring the sweetly flavored drink as she covertly studied the Lanesborough Hotel directly across the street from the outdoor café where she, Harley, and Misty were doing a recon of the place. Originally a hospital in the mid-1800s, the Duke of Westminster purchased the building in the late twentieth century and turned the four-floor Regency-style building into the poshest hotel in London. The outside was gorgeous for sure, but it was the inside with all the marble arched doorways and fancy furniture that was enough to take your breath away.
With Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye, Hyde Park, and the Knightsbridge shopping district all within walking distance, it was easy to blend in with the other tourists grabbing a late-afternoon snack. Of course, if someone looked closely, they’d probably realize she and Harley were a little tense. That was because Misty was currently doing a deep dive into the virtual world through the laptop she appeared to be typing on. Thankfully, Misty was wearing sunglasses, so no one could tell her eyes were completely white.
