Wolf's Heir

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

Jalen slammed the cupboards as he paced around his kitchen. How could...? Where had she found him? Did she sleep with him at the wedding knowingly? He couldn’t wrap his mind around it. He drummed his fingers on the countertop while he waited for the food to reheat. It was too coincidental, like something out of a movie. But why would she have slept with him for the first time just for a job? It didn’t sound like a very good plan because if anything, it would more likely have worked against her.

The microwave sounded, and he took out his food and stabbed at the pasta with his fork. He didn’t know how he was supposed to forget her smell. It was tattooed in his memory, and he knew that was partly due to his shifting abilities. It came with the territory. He ate a mouthful and dropped his fork. He wasn’t hungry. Not for pasta.

He got up and paced; he could feel himself wanting, no, needing to shift. He prided himself on his ability to control his true nature and keep it under wraps most of the time. But when the need was this strong, Jalen knew he had to succumb. It had also been over a month since he’d last transformed. He’d always embraced that side of him; there was never a question of that. But he had to exercise extreme caution when the werewolf came out. He had enemies he didn’t know about, and they could be anywhere.

Jassie. His mind took him back to her this afternoon. He’d longed to trace his hands along the skirt that had hugged her backside. The backside that he had woken up to in the wee hours of the morning after they’d slept together. The backside that had pushed into his front and woken him up with an urgency. Jalen had wanted to flip her over and begin stoking the fire he knew that was burning inside her, but he hadn’t.

She would have been too sore from the night before. And although he knew she would have been more than willing, if her enthusiasm the night before had been any indication, he still felt guilty for having taken her with such force.

If only she had warned him, he thought irritably. What kind of woman didn’t at least give a guy a heads up? He raked his fingers through his hair in frustration. But he couldn’t very well ask her now; she was his employee now, after all. He had to ignore the fact that it had even happened. Oh, this was a big mistake. How the hell was he supposed to do that?

He bordered on calling her and confronting her or calling Bill and telling him to retract the job offer. He sighed. Neither. He couldn’t do either. Dammit, he’d gone soft since he’d left the SEALS. Now he was worried about everyone’s feelings. It had to have been Lucy who’d helped soften his edges. She had done so without him realizing it. It had started off innocently enough, but soon, he would anticipate her kind reactions to situations where she felt he could offer more help or if someone needed an extra hand. She had kept that side of herself well hidden from Bill, of course.

“I don’t need that guy thinking I’m a softie,” she’d scowl. “I’ll never hear the end of it.”

Lucy had threatened to leave him, and so he’d never told Bill out of fear. But now that she had left voluntarily, he wondered if the deal was off. He grinned wryly. Those two would make an amazing couple, but they were too stubborn or stupid to see it.

Jalen checked his watch and decided to go for a run to clear his head. He wanted to exhaust himself to the point where he could go into a deep sleep and not be tortured by the thought of Jassie in his bed. It was already after sunset, and a slight chill hung in the air. He changed and jogged lightly into the woods that ran along the back of his house. There, he shifted into his other form.

He relished the feel; it had been too long. He raced along a hidden path for over an hour. He’d stumbled and fallen toward the end, tired from his excursion. By the time he finished and transformed back, he was drenched and weary. Stumbling back to the house, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. A large gash ran from one side of his forehead to his temple. After showering, he applied a thick bandage to the wound, and as he suspected he would, fell into a deep sleep.

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