Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

Soon the bright lights and strip malls of the city give way to rolling countryside. No one speaks as we trundle down the dark, two-lane road, the way lit only by the truck’s headlights. I catch Leon glance at me out of the corner of his eye, then turns his gaze back to the road.

The truck slows and we turn right, the corner marked only by a huge oak tree. Up ahead I glimpse a small house—a log cabin, really—that looks like it has one, maybe two bedrooms in it. Where are they taking me? Finally I have the sense to be worried.

“Hey.” Leon brushes my knee with his hand. “We’ve got you. Okay?”

Whatever is ahead of us, I know Leon won’t lead me wrong.

The truck stops at the house, and Leon gets out of the driver’s seat. He walks around to my side and opens the door, but before I can get out, he’s lifting me up into his arms.

We don’t head toward the house, like I expected. Instead, Leon starts down a small path around the side of the house, toward the tree cover. I grip his arm, wondering where he’s taking me.

“Shh.” He takes my hand and holds it tight in his. “Our house is just a little farther.”

The path continues through the forest until we reach the base of a hill. There, shockingly, is a big door built into the hillside, with a wooden structure seated around it that seems to be a part of the landscape itself. Leon nods at the door, and Quinn quickly runs to open it for us. Then Leon carries me inside.

I’m too numb to really appreciate where we are. The walls seem to be made of dirt and rock, held up by bare wood beams. There’s a big table on the left with four chairs next to a surprisingly large kitchen. On the right are two couches and a television, a big flat screen which strikes me as odd against the clay wall behind it. There’s a fireplace, too, but it’s not lit.

When we step inside and Jace closes the door behind us, Leon starts assembling logs and tinder in the fireplace. Quinn takes my hand and leads me to one of the couches.

All my thoughts feel sluggish. “He saw us.” I drop my head into my hands, feeling the tears return as I think about his face, that awful grin, the way he cornered me against the wall like he knew that he’d won. “He knows now. And he’s not going to let me forget it.”

Next to me, Jace snarls in a way that’s distinctly animal. “Fucking asshole.”

“I should buy a cobra so I can put it in his bed,” growls Quinn.

I’m too tired to even laugh. Jace wraps his arm around me as the fire crackles to life, and this time, I let him hug me. Now I just feel exhausted, like all the life has been wrung out of me. I don’t even have the energy to worry about tomorrow.

Eventually, I find myself drifting off, the weight of the world crushing me. I hear hushed whispers, and a voice that’s distinctly Eli’s. I want to open my eyes, to apologize to him for today and give him a big hug, but I’m too exhausted.

I feel someone carrying me, and by the scent, I know it’s Leon. There’s a creak as someone opens a door, and then I’m set on what must be a bed, and a pillow is tucked under my head. Then something soft, so soft, lies down next to me.

“Go to sleep,” a deep, husky voice says. I can tell it’s Leon, but different. Changed.

Another body curls up behind me. “We’ve got you, Tiff,” says Jace, low and thick, like he has rocks in his mouth.

And so, I obey and tumble away into the abyss.

My phone alarm startles me awake. I’m surrounded by the softest, warmest fuzzy blankets that have ever existed, and I have to wriggle to get my hand into my back pocket, where my phone is buzzing against my butt.

I hold it up, blinking bleary eyes at the screen. It’s time to get up and go on my run. Or that’s what my brain says until I take in where I am. In front of me is a big wall of white, and it groans as the alarm continues going off. I finally have the sense to silence it when the wall moves.

“Tiff?” It’s Leon’s sleepy voice. My eyes travel up the broad, thick chest that seems to go on for miles, to his neck, to his face.

In his werewolf form, Leon is snow white, with the same blue eyes that he has when he’s human. His snout is long and pointed, with a wet black nose at the end. His lips peel back in what could be either a snarl or a smile when I look up at him, and I choose to believe it’s a smile.

“Hi,” I manage to say.

Leon’s big, furry arms wrap around me and drag me in close to his chest, while his wet nose burrows into my hair.

“Good morning,” he murmurs, his voice chalky and thick like it was last night. On the other side of me, someone else is moving. I feel clawed hands, enormous ones, slide over my hip.

“Do you feel any better?” asks Jace’s deep voice, and when Leon releases me, I turn over to find a thick, gray pelt. When I look up, a big werewolf face is peering down back at me, and I know by his glittering eyes that it’s Jace.

“I…” I fumble for my words, still groggy. “I think so?” My face feels tight after crying so much last night.

“Maybe you should call in sick to work.” It’s Quinn this time, and I finally sit up, wondering exactly where I am.

The room is huge, and so is the bed. Morning light streams in through a high skylight overhead. Quinn is sitting up like a dog waiting for dinner, while Jace and Leon are both sprawled across it—all of them in their werewolf forms.

“I can’t.” I rub my eyes and look down at my phone one more time, knowing I don’t have long to get home and change before work. “He would kill me.”

“Then quit.” Leon sits up next to me, towering over me. Holy shit. He’s even bigger than Jace or Quinn—truly monstrous. “That piece of shit doesn’t deserve you.”

It just makes me want to cry all over again. I don’t have a choice, and I really don’t want to explain it to them.

Pulling away from the fur pile, I climb off the huge bed. It’s definitely big enough for three full-grown werewolves and one… me.

“Sorry,” is all I can say as I tuck my phone back into my pocket. “I have to go.”

Quinn frowns and gets to his feet, too. He stops me with a clawed paw on my shoulder. “Wait. Are you sure? That was a really bad panic attack last night.” He leans down so his big muzzle is in front of my face, and he licks me across the cheek. “We’re worried about you.”

I push him away.

“I’m fine.” I have to keep my resolve hard and unyielding, or else I’ll never leave this warm, wonderful place. “Can you take me back to the restaurant so I can get my car?”

That’s when the door opens, and someone walks in. It’s Eli, in his human form, dangling my keys.

“We got it for you last night.” He tosses them to me, and I barely catch them. I can’t read the look on his face. Unlike his brothers, Eli seems to keep his feelings much closer to the chest.

“Thank you.” I grip them tight in my hand. “I appreciate that.”

Eli just nods.

Jace leads me back to my car, leaving the others behind at their odd house-in-the-hill. My sedan is parked out front of the cabin right next to the Lupine Landscaping truck. He doesn’t seem at all worried that someone might see him in his werewolf form.

“I’m sorry things went so sideways last night,” Jace says, bringing up one of his enormous hands to my cheek. He pulls me in for a hug, and reluctantly, I accept it. Once I’m buried in his gray fur, though, all I want to do is stay. His huge paws roam down my sides, over the wrinkled edges of the dress I wore yesterday. It felt so cute at the time, and now I wonder just how much my makeup ran last night.

When I tense up under his hands, Jace leans back and peers down at me. “Tiff…” He strokes my cheek with one huge, clawed paw. “I hate seeing you hurt like this. Please don’t go back to that office today.”

I don’t want to go, either. I don’t want to face Mr. Bosley after last night, but I can’t leave until I have another option lined up or I won’t make rent next month.

“Thank you,” is all I say in answer, putting my small hand over his big one. “Thanks for being there for me last night.”

Jace nods slowly, but his eyes are concerned. “I’ll always be there for you.” He rubs his cheek against the top of my head. “You’re mine, as long as you’ll put up with me and my inane jokes.”

I can’t help a sniffle, because they’re all so sweet, so kind and genuine, that I don’t even know if I deserve them. Jace licks my cheek, clearing away my tears.

“Put up with you?” I ask with a shaky laugh. “You’re the one who has to put up with me.”

“Never! I…” Jace halts for a moment, then takes a long, deep breath. He crouches down in front of me, so we’re close to eye-level, and briefly touches the tip of his wet nose to mine. “I love you, Tiff. You could ask anything of me, and I’d do it for you.”

My heart stutters in my chest at these fully vulnerable words. I just want to cry all over again, but I settle for throwing my arms around him and hugging him with all my might. Big arms loop around me, and Jace brings me in as close as he can. I giggle a little when I feel something rather large and wet nudge at my belly.

“Sorry,” he says, voice muffled by my hair. “I guess hugging you turns me on.”

As tempting as it is to ask him to take me right here, I have to get to the office and face whatever is waiting for me there.

Of course I want to leave my shitty job—but I don’t have that kind of luxury.

Eventually Jace lets me go, and he watches me as I get in my car and back out, heading off down the country road.

I’m not sure what I was expecting to find at the office, but it’s not what I get. When I deliver Mr. Bosley’s coffee, my hand shaking and my breath already growing shallow, he just grins at me. It’s an eerie, too-wide sort of grin that looks unnatural and dangerous on him.

“Good morning,” I squeak out. A few seconds pass, and when he doesn’t answer—still smiling—I scurry back to my desk and plant myself in the chair.

God. I think this is even worse than the alternative I had imagined. Is he just going to wear that knowing, shit-eating smile all day?

I try to focus on my work, but it’s impossible. Luckily, I’m ahead on things, so while Mr. Bosley’s hiding in his office, I flick mindlessly through my social media. I have a friend request from Quinn, which makes me giggle under my hand. His profile picture is of himself in sunglasses, arms over two pairs of shoulders whose owners are off-screen, standing in front of a gorgeous mountain backdrop. I accept the invite, of course, and start browsing through his photos. He definitely likes to take selfies at the beach, and usually drags one of his brothers into the frame, all covered in sand.

This is just avoiding the problem, though, of what to do about this fucking job. I turn over Beatrice’s warning in my mind. I’ll never be able to find another gig like this, with a good salary, dental insurance, and a 401k. But after last night, it’s feeling more and more like I’m a bug being ground under a boot.

I need to escape, or it’ll crush me.

I look up my title of executive assistant on Job Finder, just to see what’s out there. Most of the positions listed require a bachelor’s degree, and every job description makes me cringe—there’s no way I know how to do all that stuff—but I read through them anyway.

I guess I should start writing a résumé. I may not be qualified for any of these, but there’s no harm in trying. Not when this is the alternative.

At closing time, I decide to pack up and leave, even though Mr. Bosley still hasn’t left yet. I thank every star in the sky that I didn’t have to face him again after this morning, and he decided to keep a low profile in his office. I couldn’t stand that grin of his any longer. He wouldn’t have the gumption to give me a smarmy smirk like that if Leon and Jace and Quinn were there—no, he’d cowered in front of them like a spineless rodent.

I’m so dazed on my way home, remembering that rather wonderful moment when the guys told off Mr. Bosley that I don’t notice the black SUV behind me until I’m nearly to my apartment.

Oh, shit. Not this again.