Shifter In Ascent (Louisiana Shifters) (5 page)

hadn’t noticed that it’d ended. She blew out a big breath, surprised at his storytelling skill. “Thank you for that,” she said, looking up at the stranger who’d saved her only a handful of
hours before. Handsome, courageous, and damn but he could spin a yarn. So basically, Tessa
shouldn’t go anywhere near him.
Jace nodded awkwardly, not meeting her gaze. “I thought it might take your mind off
supernatural stuff.”
“Not exactly,” Tessa said slowly, “But you’re quite a storyteller. And it did help me calm
down, thanks.”
“I didn’t mean to panic you earlier. Most Shifters are raised knowing about other
supernaturals, so I just figured you were too,” Jace said with a shrug.
“No, not at all. My parents were completely human, and I’ve never had anything weird
happen… I think this might all be some kind of mistake. At least I hope so,” Tessa finished
awkwardly, turning her gaze toward the wall.
“I hate to break it to you, but you’re definitely an Ascendant Shifter. Ascendants can come
from the human world, although it’s rare. Recessive genes, I guess. Usually the closest pack of
Shifters will find you when you’re young, though. They work something out with the parents,
bring Ascendants into the fold. Maybe you should drop some hints to your parents and see if
they were ever approached.”
Jace cleared his throat uncomfortably. That might have been the longest consecutive string
of sentences he’d ever said to anyone outside his pack mates.
“I’ll probably never know. My parents passed away when I was fifteen. I lived with my
sister and our guardian until Camilla was eighteen, and then we moved into our own place.” “Makes sense. Usually you would have been brought into a pack by the end of your
schooling, at least.”
“You’ve never met an Ascendant my age that hasn’t been introduced to this world?” Tessa
asked, cocking her head. Surely she couldn’t be that big of an anomaly.
“Not your age, no. Usually the Ascendant genes really start to bloom in teenagers.
Sometimes undiscovered Ascendants are strongly drawn to us, enough that they’ll show up near
our Den looking for answers. They don’t know why, but they know they should be there.” “Your Den?” Tessa asked, eyebrows arching. “I can’t help but wonder what that entails.” “It’s just a nickname. It in no way resembles an actual wolf den. It’s just…” Jace trailed off. “It’s just what?” Tessa pressed, her curiosity piqued.
“I’m not sure how to tell you without talking about supernatural stuff.”
“Ah. Maybe we can take a rain check on that? It sounds interesting, but you don’t want to
spend the whole night talking me down off the ledge,” Tessa suggested. She really did feel a lot
better, but it wasn’t worth the risk of another panic attack. Hadn’t the stranger already done
enough for her today?
Jace shrugged and cleared his throat again, but didn’t speak.
“Um. You could tell me a little about yourself,” Tessa suggested. “Like, are you from
Louisiana originally?”
“No.”
Tessa waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t.
“O-kay. Where are you from?” she asked.
“Georgia.”
Again, no elaboration. Asking him questions was proving exceptionally difficult. “Why’d you move here?” Tessa tried again.
“Could we not talk about me? There’s nothing to tell,” Jace snapped. Tessa blinked at his
chastisement, frowning.
“Fine. Just making conversation,” she said irritably.
“Well, don’t. Not about me, anyway.”
Tessa frowned again, but dropped the subject. Unfortunately, she wasn’t really sure what a
good subject would be with a complete stranger. Sighing, she lay back down on her pallet and
tried to relax. She could hear Jace doing the same.
The sun was just now going down, but the day’s events, hell the last month’s events,
weighed on her immensely. She rolled back and forth, turning over and sighing as she tried to
find a comfortable position.
Jace, for his part, didn’t make a single noise. Still, Tessa could tell he was completely awake.
The man was incredibly strange, not to mention pretty damned irritable. Oh, and there was that
part about becoming an animal sometimes. That was certainly worth remembering. Tessa’s thoughts drifted from Jace to Camilla, and her sister’s well-being. She’d put up with
a hell of a lot more than some cranky macho man werewolf for Camilla. The question was, just
how deep was Tessa going to have to get to save her sister?
Her thoughts turned cyclical, a cruel snake eating its own tail. Every end she reached, every
conclusion about this venture, didn’t end well. Sacrifice Camilla, or lead a perfect stranger to
death? Tessa shuddered at her choices.
Tessa rolled onto her stomach, burying her head under the blankets and praying for sleep to
take her burdens.
FIVE

Sleep must have come eventually, because the next thing Tessa knew she was drifting up to awareness slowly, unable to shake her dream. James had been kissing her ear very gently, driving her absolutely mad. Between kisses he was whispering to her in a sibilant hiss, the words unintelligible. Or perhaps Tessa simply couldn’t pay attention, flushed and tensed, waiting for him to brush his lips just so against the spot that made Tessa melt inside.

When she opened her eyes, she was clutching a pillow as if it were her lifeline. The soft hiss from her dream continued, although thankfully Jameson was nowhere in sight. Tessa rolled over, pushing the sweat-dampened sheets off herself. Jace’s pallet lay empty.

Tessa slowly put together that the sound she was hearing was actually the patter of water falling in the shower. Jace was taking a shower, then. The idea of him naked under the hot water didn’t put much of a damper on the urges leftover from Tessa’s dream.

Tessa blushed at her own thoughts. Usually her libido was all but silent. Tessa could appreciate a good-looking man, but she never had much of an urge to do anything other than ogle.

Now her thoughts ran away with her, picturing herself joining her white knight in the shower, pressing her mouth to his, slipping her arms around his neck…
Tessa shivered. She didn’t have a whole lot of experience to fill in the rest, but it was probably better that way. She was here on a mission, and that didn’t include lusting after the man she was supposed to be ensnaring in her web.
She heard James’ voice, then. Not the sexy whisper from her dream, but the dreary monotone that James almost always used in reality.
Werewolves are often very attractive, Tessa. You are easily swayed by the flesh; it’s how we caught you in the first place. You must not be tempted.
Hearing the painful truth again bled any risqué thoughts from Tessa’s mind. She’d been attracted to James and allowed him to lead her by the nose. He’d fed her a few glasses of wine, made her laugh, and then got her into the parking lot. Then the big white cargo van had pulled up and opened its’ doors, and all Tessa could think about was that her night was turning into a bad Lifetime movie.
A rustle in the hallway made Tessa jump, breaking her free from her thoughts. Jace came stomping into the room, not even looking at her. He wore the same clothes but smelled freshly washed, and his shower-darkened hair was curlier when damp.
He tossed Tessa a clean towel without so much as a glance, then stomped back to the front room.
Tessa watched him go, keeping her thoughts to herself. Obviously she wasn’t the only one with dark thoughts looming overhead. In the meantime, Tessa needed a shower and some quiet time to figure out how she was going to get the grumpy Shifter to trust her. She had the feeling it wouldn’t be easy.

After she had fallen asleep last night, Jace had calmly and coolly explained to himself all the reasons that he shouldn’t be finding the girl so interesting.
First, she was a human. Even if she was Ascendant, it didn’t matter. Jace didn’t want a girlfriend, much less a mate, much less an Ascendant mate. Not to mention that she was almost entirely ignorant of Shifter ways; she was practically completely human. It was the opposite of the direction that Jace was heading with his life.
For another thing, she was a stranger. An attractive stranger who seemed to fall right into his lap. A damsel in distress. Jace knew there was something a hint off about the girl. He’d have to try to get some information out of her… as soon as he could stand to be in the same room as the girl. He had enough information to call in a background check, at least. He’d already got her basic stats from her wallet and texted it to Cera, his second in charge at the pack’’s security offices. He’d hear back from her within a few hours on the human’s priors and basic history.
Jace could hear Tessa moving about in the back of the house. She released a pent-up sigh, and then closed herself in the bathroom. That sigh was quite familiar by now, to his shame.
Sometime in the night Jace had awoken to soft mewls coming from the girl. A nightmare, he thought. He agonized for several minutes before crawling over to the girl and giving her a gentle shake. She didn’t respond to it or anything else Jace did, and he did everything short of slapping her in the face. This couldn’t go on all night; Jace needed to be sharp in order to keep them both safe. Sacrificing a night’s sleep was not an option for him.
Finally, Jace had grumpily flopped down and pulled the girl close, ignoring the sad little sounds she was making. Her sleeping form was soft and warm, and she was the perfect height to fit just so alongside his body. He didn’t want to be touching her, and he felt like a complete jerk for enjoying it.
His intention had been just to calm the girl down, but by the time her breathing grew deep and even Jace had found himself drowsing. He breathed in deeply, taking in lungfuls of her intoxicating scent. It was like lilacs and green apples and honey. Sweet-smelling nymphs ran through his dreams, and they looked like Tessa.
Jace woke up with both hands wrapped around the girl, clutching her hips. He’d slipped his hands under her clothes so that his palms touched the smooth, bare skin of her abdomen.
For a second he thought surely this was part of his dream. He moved forward and placed a probing kiss against her neck, just where her earlobe lay. Tessa sighed, all smoky heat and desire. Her Ascendant scent poured off her body in waves and Jace breathed it in like he depended on it.
Then she made the smallest, breathiest “oh” sound. It was the hottest thing Jace had ever heard. Part sigh, part exclamation, part demand for more.
That’s how he knew he wasn’t dreaming anymore. His mind would never invent a breathless little whisper like that. It was much too innocent for Jace’s lusty imagination.
Jace froze, and the girl released another breathy sound that made him painfully hard. Gods, this female was a seductress even in her sleep. This, Jace reminded himself, is why females were the enemy of the bachelor.
Slowly, so as not to disturb the girl, he released her and withdrew from the embrace. The girl shivered when his body heat was gone, so he covered her head to toe with blankets even though the early morning was already turning a bit hot.
Thus the cold shower, which had barely taken the edge off. The girl’s scent was everywhere, Thus the cold shower, which had barely taken the edge off. The girl’s scent was everywhere,

threatening to turn Jace into a drooling, mindless puppy. He needed some way to muster his selfcontrol around her, or this was going to be a tortuous couple of days. He couldn’t simply take the girl back to the Den; Shaw would have to be notified, preparations made.

He couldn’t automatically trust the girl, and on top of that he wasn’t sure how to explain about the Den. It wasn’t every day that humans left their own realm and went into a Shifterowned, Faerie-created world cum Shifter bolthole. Just trying to put it into words was an enormous headache.

As soon as the girl was up and in the shower, Jace stepped outside to get some fresh air. His head cleared a bit and he cursed his own stupidity.
You locked yourself in a small space with a single female whose Ascendancy is blooming, probably because of being around you. On top of all that, she’s not unattractive. Add the fact that she needs your help and that she seems innocent… IDIOT.
Jace was muttering angrily at himself when Tessa came out on the porch to join him, still drying her damp curls with a towel. She joined him, sitting on the broad cement stoop as she worked at her hair. The girl’s scent, sweet yet crisp, invaded Jace’s senses. How did she do that? Damn her.
“How did you know what to do last night?” Tessa asked.
Jace frowned. He’d assumed she didn’t remember his embrace any more than her nightmares. He wasn’t sure how to answer her question, so he shrugged.
“I’ve had a panic attacks before, since I was a teenager. Not just anybody knows what to do in that scenario,” she pointed out, sounding curious.
Jace let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Apparently the girl didn’t realize how close they’d come to something a hell of a lot worse than a panic attack.
“My sister has had panic attacks since she was young,” he replied coolly.
“Ah. Well, thanks for helping me last night.”
Jace nodded, unsure how to start digging for Tessa’s background information.
“You were cool under pressure. You should be a paramedic,” she commented.
“How do you know I’m not?” he said suspiciously.
“I guess I don’t. But I don’t think you’re in the medical field,” Tessa said, pursing her lips as she surveyed him. As if just by looking at him she could know everything about him.
“I’m thinking… a consultant. But not a lawyer, and not a money guy… are you in law enforcement?”
Jace raised a brow, impressed.
“Security,” he filled in.
“I have trouble seeing you walking around the mall with a flashlight and scaring off teenagers,” she said, eyeing him.
“I run all high and low tech security at the Den. I’m more like your company’s IT guy, but with a lot more responsibility,” he said, allowing a little bit of pride to wash through his voice. He was damned good at his job, and he helped protect his pack. At least he could be useful in that way.
“Ah, the Den. Still sounds a little sketchy to me. Are you sure it isn’t a big hole in the ground?”
“It’s definitely not below the earth. It’s our name for the whole compound. It’s kind of like a commune, Shifters only. It’s a safe place for us.”
A flare of interest lit Tessa’s features.
“You all live there?”
Jace shrugged, not keen on giving away information on his territory to a stranger. Even an attractive blonde whose Ascendant scent was somehow stifling him even now, though they were in the open air. It was like sitting in an apple orchard.
“That must be tough, all of you crammed in together,” Tessa commented absently.
Jace grimaced, imagining sharing one big room with the whole pack.
“It’s not like we sleep in tents or anything. The Den is a huge spread of land. We all have separate quarters.”
“I guess you manly Shifters need your privacy.”
Jace was silent, attempting to hide the lecherous thoughts that sprang to mind. Jace’s wolf had lots of ideas for ways to use his private time. He was acting like some horny teenager, for god’s sake.
What is it about this female that is so distracting?
Jace wondered.
“Why is McDonough following you?” Jace asked, the question out of his mouth before it had even fully formed in his mind.
Nice,
he thought,
very subtle interrogation
.
Tessa’s brow wrinkled for a moment, showing a hint of confusion before she answered. “I assume it’s because of the Ascendant thing. I can’t see any other reason why he’d notice me in particular.”
Jace could think of several reasons, namely physical attributes. But it had to be more than that. There had to be another layer to this whole affair, and Jace just couldn’t see it yet.
“You said you’d run into McDonough before, right?”
Tessa nodded.
“He came up to me in a bar last week. It was my second night in town, and I didn’t know anyone. We talked for a few minutes, but I didn’t stick around for long,” Tessa said, with a laugh. “You know what’s funny? He was actually pretty nice, if a bit full of himself. But there was something off about him. I went with my instinct. I’ve been avoiding him for a couple weeks now.”
“McDonough may seem friendly, but you don’t want to run with his pack. It never ends well for the females.”
Tessa gave Jace a surprised glance.
“You know him?”
“I wouldn’t really say that.”
“Oh. Well that’s probably good,” Tessa said, leaning back against the house and crossing her arms.
“If this is only your second week in New Orleans, where did you move from?” Jace probed.
“Boston,” she said simply.
“Is that where your parents are from?”
“I’m not really sure. We never talked about things like that before they passed away.”
Jace bit back a frustrated groan. Getting information from Tessa was more difficult than he’d anticipated. Most females were eager to spill their whole life story at the drop of a hat. That Tessa seemed reluctant made him suspicious.
“Is your sister here, too?”
A glance at Tessa’s face showed a flicker of dark emotion – anger or fear, maybe. Jace didn’t know her well enough to distinguish between the two. An interesting response.
“She’s nearby. Is there anything here to eat?” Tessa asked, standing abruptly and brushing herself off.
“Kitchen’s that way,” he groused, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.
“Uhh. Okay. I can make you something, too. If you want,” Tessa blurted, a faint blush rising on her cheeks.
Jace averted his eyes and shrugged, which made Tessa frown.
“Fine,” he said, hoping to keep her talking and find out some more about her past. He didn’t feel the need to mention that making food for an unmated male or female was considered tantamount to a come-on in the Shifter world. What she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her, right?
Jace followed Tessa inside and into the tiny kitchen. She opened the refrigerator and pulled out bread, deli meats and cheeses, and several different types of condiments. She hesitated, then turned to Jace.
“What, um… what can you eat?” she asked, shy.
Jace blinked, confused. It took him a second to realize that she didn’t know whether he could eat people food. Gods, she was so very human.
“I’m not picky. Whatever you have is fine,” he said, leaning back against the wall and inspecting her closely.
“Oh.”
Jace caught a brief look of confusion on Tessa’s face as she nodded and opened the refrigerator. Pulling out all the sandwich makings he’d had Ronnie deliver earlier, she started putting the sandwiches together quietly, lost in thought.
“What is it?” Jace asked.
“What? Oh, it’s nothing.”
“You might as well ask me whatever it is you want to know,” he grumbled. His voice sounded irritable even to his own ears.
“It’s just- well, my Shifter source said that you guys can only eat raw meat. Like, freshly killed raw meat.”
Wrinkling her nose, Tessa glanced over her shoulder to find Jace looking less than impressed.
“Your source is totally wrong. We eat just like everyone else,” he said, not bothering to keep the harshness out of his voice.
But come on. Raw meat?
“Oh. Well that’s good,” she said, blushing as she hurried to finish Jace’s sandwich and hand it over on a plate.
Jace noticed she’d made the sandwich a triple-decker. It was positively giant, and he approved of her methods. Shifters needed a lot more calories every day than the average human, so picky eaters and dieters didn’t go over well.
“You can’t believe everything you hear about us,” he said.
“I’m starting to see that,” Tessa replied.
Tessa finished making her own sandwich, and Jace led them back to the front room. They made themselves at home on the folding chairs and card table.
Jace frowned when he saw that Tessa’s own sandwich was about half the size of his. She was definitely on the thin side, as if she’d been sick recently. Strange, because Ascendants didn’t get sick any more than Shifters did. Their amazing immune system was part of the reason they burned so many calories. If Tessa was going to make it as a wolf, she was going to have to learn burned so many calories. If Tessa was going to make it as a wolf, she was going to have to learn