16. Anna

16

Anna

I kept my back to Jax when he returned and pretended to be asleep. We both knew it wasn't true, but he quietly stretched out behind me and laid a hand on my hip. I almost gave him a warning growl, but his touch did help settle my wolf. Her anxiety at being alone on Marsh's land was suffocating.

I hated how he made me feel. Calm. Centered.

Desperate. Needy.

Furious.

The man gave me whiplash, and now, I had his kiss to haunt me. His real kiss. Not just the ones I sometimes had in my dreams.

Somehow, with him behind me, I managed to slip off into sleep. I had no idea how much had passed before my wolf's panic had been bolting upright.

Next to me, Jax had already started to pull me against him when a blade shredded the tent, and Marsh's face loomed near. He was streaked with blood and had a crazed look in his eye.

"Something wrong?" Jax said tensely.

"Stupid bitches think they have a say in what I can and can't do," he snarled. "This one is mine. Dirk gave her to me, and I'm taking her. You can find yourself another bitch or you can die."

"Don't," I whispered to Jax. If he shifted, he'd have a harder time hiding his alpha status.

Especially if he fought. I could handle Marsh. I needed him to believe that.

"Dirk always wanted you to keep your virginity for me. Then he had to fucking die. Now I'm going to see if that pussy is as good as that mouth."

My stomach rolled, and Jax started to shift. Marsh just laughed.

I was not going to die out here in Wisteria Woods because one man couldn't keep his mouth shut and the other couldn't keep his shit together. In one smooth motion, I pulled the flare gun out from under the pillow, aimed it at Marsh's chest, and pulled the trigger.

A look of horror crossed his face as he screamed and stumbled back. Jax's wolf bolted out of the ten after him, and I followed. "No," I shouted. "Idiot. Shift back. Now."

I didn't even bother to see if Marsh was dead. It was preferable but not necessary. I had bigger problems, like the fucking power that was oozing out of Jax's angry wolf. He looked at me, curled his lip, and started to shift back. From the corner of my eye, I saw a shadow move. I swung the flare gun around, aware it was no longer loaded.

"It's just me. I tried to follow him back to warn you that he was on his way, but I wasn't fast enough. Every wolf in a two-mile radius probably felt you. We need to lose your scent now.

I hope you can swim."

"We can trust him," Jax said, a little breathlessly, as he pulled some clothes out from his pack. He'd already shredded two outfits.

"I don't trust you at the moment," I snapped. "How could you be so stupid and let him goad you like that?"

"He said your father gave you to him," Jax growled. "What was I supposed to do?"

"Take a minute to come up with a plan that didn't involve you going all alpha on him and me shooting him with a giant flare gun! I can defend myself from assholes like that. I've been doing it my whole life. My father promised me to a lot of people, including Emerson Triggs.

Why do you think the alpha of the Snake River knows so much about me?"

Furious, I stormed back into the tent to grab my things. Snapping my pack around my waist, I glared at him from the opening.

He looked equally mad. "What about Danny?"

Really? That's what he wanted to bring up? "I could have gotten away from Danny if your wolf had not intervened!"

"As fascinating as this conversation is, we need to leave now," Finn said dryly.

I finally spared a look at Marsh. There was a gaping hole in his chest, and he wasn't moving.

With a smile of satisfaction, I plunged into the woods after Finn, Jax right at my back.

"You never told me about Emerson."

Jax's remark pissed me off, so I focused on doing my best to rake my fingers through my wet, tangled hair. We hadn't just crossed the river. We'd spent the remainder of the night wading down the shallowest part of the river and then huddled in the water under a rock while a wolf cleaned himself after a night of hunting.

I was wet, tired, cranky, and lost. It was barely noon, but we both needed rest. Finn's instructions had led us to one of his stashes, of which he had nearly a dozen spread through Wisteria Woods. We were going to lose a day of travel, but Finn swore that we were out of wolf territory.

And into the witches'.

"You never asked."

I hated not knowing where we were and having to follow the instructions of a stranger.

Finn had risked a lot to see us to safety, though. So much so that Jax didn't think he was safe in Wisteria Woods anymore. He gave the young man instructions back to Black Diamond with a message his guards would understand.

When Jax returned, Finn would have a chance at joining a pack. I was a little sorry that I wouldn't be there to see it happen.

"That would be a pretty targeted question for me to ask, wouldn't it?" Jax responded.

Shivering, I turned my back and slipped off my wet shirt. We were in a cave that, according to Finn, was part of a system of rock dwellings. He believed the caves would lead straight to the witch's den, but he hadn't explored them. He said he'd only tried to go further once when he became ensnared in a spell trap. It was two agonizing days before a witch released him and warned him away.

Jax had commented that it was awfully nice of them for a group of blood-thirsty witches.

In any case, Finn had supplies stashed here, including some dry clothes.

I opened a bag and yanked on a musty-smelling T-shirt. It fell to my knees. That didn't bode well for the pants.

"Well, you didn't really present me with the kind of environment that fostered care and sympathy for difficult conversations and trauma sharing, did you?"

"I gave you Parker." Jax sounded hurt.

With a short laugh, I turned around with the pants in hand. "You really think Parker wanted me to talk about…" my voice died when I caught the look on Jax's face. He was pale and shaky, but there was an intensity in his eyes that I'd never seen before. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"You're wearing another man's clothes."

"Yes. I am. They're Finns. That was the plan."

"You need to take them off." His voice had gone eerily calm.

"Um, no. I don't. I'm freezing. What the hell is wrong…" he made a low keening noise, and my eyes widened.

No way. No fucking way. "You don't even like me, and you're going to be jealous that I'm wearing some stranger's clothes?"

"Finn is of mating age. He's only a year or two older than you."

"Unbelievable."

"I can't control it, Anna. Take the fucking clothes off or my wolf is going to come out, and I'm going to hunt Finn down. I like Finn. I do not want to have to kill him."

"You're a grown man, the alpha of a whole pack, and you can't control your damn hormones?" I snapped.

Jax growled and took a step toward me. "We're not exactly in a place where I can feel secure about our mating bond, and that makes it hard to control."

For a moment, I thought he might actually tear the clothes off me. Then he spun around.

"I'll sleep outside."

"Wait. Damn it, we don't know for sure that we aren't in rogue territory anymore, and if we aren't, that just means there'll be a ton more spell traps."

Swearing loudly, I turned and pulled the clothes off. Naked, I wrapped my arms around myself and stared at the wall. Now what the hell was I supposed to do? Be naked and shiver while I waited for my own clothes to dry?

"I can still smell him on you," Jax said hoarsely.

"Well, I'm probably going to get frostbite, so we're both going to have to suffer."

Silence followed, and then I felt his hands at my waist as he drew me against him.

"Jax…"

"You think I want to do this?" he growled softly in my ear. "You think I want to care what you smell like? Or if you're uncomfortable or in pain? Every time Marsh looked at you, I wanted to rip his throat out. I fucking hate this, but more than anything, I hate knowing that if I slip my hands between your thighs, I'm going to find you warm and wet for me."

I swallowed hard. "You wouldn't."

"Liar." With a dark laugh, his hands moved up my body and flattened against his abdomen. He was still dressed in wet clothes, but I could still feel the heat and hardness of his body pressed up against me.

The rigidness of his cock against the small of my back.

I was a liar. Every touch of his hands made my toes curl and sent liquid heat straight to my pussy.

"You've ignored it this long," I whispered and squeezed my eyes shut.

"That was before I touched you. Before I put my lips on you," he groaned. His hands didn't wander, but he also didn't let me go. "Before I knew I could get so fucking jealous of someone just looking at you. When I found out that Danny had touched you, I ripped him from limb to limb. He died slowly, painfully, and in terror."

Well, shit.

"Maybe if he'd known…"

Jax's hands squeezed me. "He knew. Everyone fucking knows. Nobody puts a hand on my mate. Nobody but me." His face nuzzled the crook of my shoulder and his teeth skimmed my neck. I couldn't help but shiver, and it had nothing to do with the cold. I was anything but cold.

Still, there was just a kernel of fear lodged in my heart. It didn't have anything to do with that Jax would hurt me. Somewhere along the way, I'd let that fear go. No, it was something deeper. Something emotional.

If I let him in, I'd never be able to leave.

But that was absurd. The lust was nothing more than a stupid bond that neither one of us agreed to. Giving in didn't mean that we wanted more. That we could be more.

But it also meant that we would not be able to resist it. And more than anything, I wanted to know that we could walk away.

"Are you going to let your wolf decide how you act tonight?" It had meant to be a challenge, but he just chuckled behind me.

"Trust me, my cock isn't thinking about my fucking wolf right now." His hands moved further up, brushing the underside of my breasts. I waited for the disgust. For memories of when men pawed at me whenever they wanted to rise up, but there was nothing.

I wanted Jax. I wanted to feel him against me. I wanted his hands everywhere.

Brushing and caressing. Even bruising. Maybe for tonight, I just wanted to feel alive.

"Turn around and push me away, Anna. Tell me to fuck off. Tell me that you don't want this, even though your body is rubbing up against me so sweetly."

Shit, I was rubbing up against him. Closing my eyes, I held my breath and whirled around. This was it. One little push, and this whole insane moment would be over.

I reached up and planted my hands on his chest.