Furever Yours (10 page)

            His
brow furrowed.
“What’s
wrong? Did... did I hurt you?”

            "I...
” she swallowed hard against the tightness in
her throat. “It’s just, I have something to tell you. I was going to tell you
earlier, but...”

            He
sat up, the pleasure fading from his expression, replaced with concern.
“Whatever it is, Jade, you can tell me. I’ll
help you.”

            Jade
laughed.
“I would hope that you’d want
to help me. I’m pregnant.”

            Shock
rippled across his features, slackening his mouth as his eyes widened.
“What?”      

            "I
’m having a baby.” She searched his face for
some sign of happiness or excitement. Dread began pooling in her stomach when
she found neither. “Are... are you going to say anything?”

            "Wow.
” He raked a hand through his dark hair, looking
away. “Wow, this is really unexpected. No wonder you were trying to find me. I
- “

            "You
don
’t want to have a child,” Jade
said flatly. Tears burned at the backs of her eyes, but she couldn’t let them show.

            "No,
it
’s not that!” Dawson rushed to
explain. “I've always wanted children... and I want you.” His eyes softened
briefly before guilt flashed in their silver depths. “It’s just... there’s
something you don’t know about me, Jade. Something that I wanted to tell you
first so that you could really make up your mind about whether or not you want
to be with me. Some... some women don’t after they find out.”

            Sympathy
twinged in Jade
’s
chest at the sadness that had entered Dawson’s voice. “Whatever it is, it can’t
be that bad, right?” she joked, but her stomach was tumbling with nerves. He
wasn’t a fugitive or something, was he? The last thing she needed was to start
a family with someone who was on the run.

            He
shrugged, barely meeting her eyes.
“Depends
on who you ask,” he said evasively.

            "Dawson.
” She caught his square chin in her hand and
forced him to face her. “Just tell me already. I won’t judge.”

            "Okay.
” He took a deep breath and looked her square in
the eyes. “I’m not human.”

"Excuse
me?” Jade blinked, a nonplussed expression on her face. “I’m not sure I heard
you right.”

            Dawson
sighed. Women always reacted like this
—with
denial first. “I’m not human, Jade. I’m a wolf shifter.”

            Skepticism
twisted her pretty features.
“Okay,
now you're just pulling my leg.” She smacked him in the chest. “Come on, tell
me what’s really the problem.”

            "Trust
me, it
’s a real problem.” Not wanting
to argue, Dawson cut to the chase. He leaned forward and let some of the change
come over him. His eyes turned yellow, fur sprouting along the edges of his
face, and he opened his mouth to bare fangs at her.

            The
scream that echoed from Jade
’s
mouth nearly broke his ear drums. “Oh my God!” she shrieked, scrambling away.
“You're a monster!'

            Shame
and disappointment stung his chest, and he leaned back, letting the change fade
away until he looked human again.
“That’s
what most humans say,” he said softly.

            Shock
rippled across her features, and she stared at him for several long seconds,
then began creeping back over to him again.
“That
was some kind of trick, wasn’t it?” He hated the way her voice trembled. “I
mean, what you did... that’s just not possible.” Skepticism began to creep back
into her voice.

            He
opened his mouth in a wide yawn, and his fangs slid out again. Jade squeaked
but
, to her credit, she didn’t try
to run away again. “Seeing is believing, sweetheart.”

            Her
eyes were wide with awe when he closed his mouth.
“Can... can I touch them?”

            He
pressed his lips together in a thin line.
“No.”

            She
recoiled at his harsh tone, her hand already outstretched.
“Why?”

            "Because
I
’m not some kind of circus
animal or pet.” He knew the anger brewing inside him was irrational—with
her curiosity only natural—but he couldn’t help the way he felt. Humans
always did this to his kind. They refused to believe, then they started poking
and prodding, and, the next thing you knew, you ended up as a science
experiment.

            A
frown settled
onto Jade’s face. “You
won’t let me touch them because you're afraid I’ll figure out the trick.”
Satisfaction crossed her features, followed by annoyance. “I really don’t know
what kind of trick you're trying to pull here, Dawson.”

            His
mouth dropped open.
“You
seriously think I came all this way just to pull some kind of practical joke on
you?” The idea was so insulting that rage began to simmer low in his gut. He
jumped off the couch, more indignant than words could describe. “Fine. If
that’s not enough to convince you, then this should be.”

            He
was about to shift when a fist banged on the door. Jade
’s eyes widened, and, from the look on her face,
he gathered she wasn’t expecting company.

           
"Get dressed,” he snapped. “I’ll go check
it out.”

            He
tugged his jeans back into place, pulled his shirt over his head, and then
peered through the peephole. His heart nearly stopped at the sight of Randy,
one of his pack mates, standing outside with Jeff and Ricardo. He didn
’t need to ask how they’d found him. The bond
that pack mates shared allowed them to track one another easily. That’s how
they’d found him at the ski resort, too.

            Annoyed,
he opened the door.
“Look
guys,” he said, in no mood to deal with whatever drama Romero had stirred up
now. “I’m kind of in the middle of something.”

            "Romero
is dead,
” Randy said, his voice flat.
He was a tall, sandy haired guy with slim shoulders and a lanky frame but the
steel in his blue eyes and the strength behind his deceptively strong limbs
more than made up for that.

            "What?
” Dawson rocked back on his heels, hardly
understanding what he was hearing.

            "Who
’s Romero?” Jade was suddenly at his elbow,
peering at the three men standing in the hall with wary interest. Ricardo
looked down at her, his black eyes flashing. Dawson didn’t have to ask to know
that he didn’t like Jade—not because of anything she’d done but because
she was currently pulling Dawson’s attention from the pack.

            "Romero
was our alpha.
” Jeff spoke up. He was
a blond with dark green eyes and built like a linebacker. “We're all members of
the same pack.”

            "Could
you guys say that any louder in the hallway?
”
Dawson snapped. Stepping back, he opened the door wider. “Just come in
already.”

            He
watched as the guys filed in, his head still reeling from the news they
’d given him. “How did he die?” Dawson demanded
once he’d closed the door.

            Sadness
filled Randy
’s eyes, and the other
two men looked away. “Offed himself,” Randy said. “Loaded up a gun with some
silver bullets and blew his own brains out.”

            "Oh
my God.
” Jade pressed a hand to her
mouth, her eyes wide. “Was there something going wrong with him?”

            Ricardo
snorted.
“I’ll say,” he said, his
angular jaw twitching. His glossy black hair was spiked up in a Mohawk,
revealing a paw-shaped tattoo inked into the left side of his skull. “He was
suffering from brain fever.”

            "Fuck.
” Dawson raked a hand through his hair. Guilt
swamped him, drowning out his annoyance and anxiety. “I should have known.”

            Randy
shook his head.
“We
all
should have known, man,” he said, his face tightening. “When he started
going ape-shit about every little thing we should have suspected.”

           
But none of us had.
Dawson’s hands clenched into fists at his sides.

            "I
’m sorry to interrupt,” Jade said hesitantly.
“But what’s brain fever?”

            Dawson
sighs.
“One of those rare shifter
diseases. It’s a parasite that eats at the brain. Because of a special chemical
it secretes, our brains disintegrate faster than we can heal ourselves.” His
throat tightened. “We could have gotten him help.”

            Ricardo
tossed his head.
“Yeah,
well, we're not here about that,” he said, his voice hard. “We're here because
the pack needs to move on. It sucks what happened to Romero, man, but people
are starting to come back now that we've told them what’s going down, and we
need someone to pull it all together.” He pinned Dawson with his black eyes.
“That’s you, man.”

            Dawson
stiffened. He knew that as the beta, leadership naturally fell to him, but...
“Guys, I’m sorry. This is all just so sudden - “

            "Look,
man,
” Randy interrupted. He spread
his hands wide in supplication. “We get you were pissed at Romero and wanted a
break. We all did. But we've been in this pack a long time and pack is family.
You're the one best suited for the role, and we need you. Things’ll be better
once we've got some stability and order again, you know that.”

            Dawson
raked a hand through his hair again, glancing at Jade sideways. She was staring
at all of them wide-eyed, her expression telling him she didn
’t know what to believe. “I need to hash things
out with Jade first.”

            Jade
shook her head, taking a step back.
“No,”
she said slowly. “No, you should go with them. They need you.”

            Confusion
tumbled around in Dawson
’s
head. “Yeah, but you need me, too,” he said, stepping toward her. He didn’t
understand why she was retreating. “The baby - “

            Jade
held up a hand, shaking her head. Her face had gone pale, her lips pressed into
a thin line.
“I don’t know about all
this wolf stuff,” she said. “I don’t think I want to have anything to do with
it. Maybe it’s better you just go. Take care of your responsibilities. I’ll
figure out how to manage the baby on my own.

            Dawson
felt as though she
’d
struck a hard blow to his gut. “Are... are you saying you don’t want to be with
me because I’m a wolf?”

            Jade
hesitated.
“I... I don’t want to
say that because I don’t like to discriminate against anyone just because
they're different. But...” her eyes flickered over to the other guys.

            Ricardo
let out a harsh laugh.
“But
you're afraid of us, and you don’t want your safe, boring life messed up by
freaky guys like us.” he bared his fangs, and Jade’s face whitened.

            "Ricardo!
” Dawson stepped between the two of them,
shielding Jade with his body. “That’s enough,” he growled, rage simmering in
his gut.

            Ricardo
stood down, his fangs receding, but he pinned Jade with a scathing look.
“Just remember,
chica
, that your baby’s
gonna be half-
lobo
when he pops outta you,” he said, using the Spanish
word for
wolf.
“Let’s see you try to hold onto your normal life then.”

            Jade
turned her wide-eyed gaze to Dawson.
“Is...
is that true?”

            Dawson
’s heart sank at the stark fear in her gaze.
“Yes,” he said, reluctantly. “Sometimes half-breeds are born almost completely
human with just a few sensory perks but other times they're shifters like we
are.” He gestured to his pack mates. “It’s hard to tell until the baby is
born.”

            Relief
filled Jade
’s expression. “So it’s
possible my baby will be mostly human.”

            Anger
tightened Dawson
’s
face. “
Our
baby.”

            Guilt
flashed across Jade
’s
face, and she took another step back. “Dawson, please,” she said softly. “I...
I need time to think about this. Please, please just go.”

            Dawson
wanted to take her into his arms and shake some sense into her. Didn
’t she see how stupid she was being by rejecting
him? That baby was going to need him when it was born, and shifters were very
territorial of their young. He’d be damned if he let her raise the cub on her
own. But, he knew that pushing her right now would only make her dig her heels
in more, so he buried the hurt and anger and simply shook his head.

            "You
know how to reach me if you need me.
”
He pulled a card from his pocket and set it on the living room table. He turned
to his men, whose gazes were filled with sympathy, and then nodded. “Let’s go,
guys.”

            He
left the apartment, his heart heavier than it had ever been in his life.

Chapter
Twelve

Hours
later, Emily came prancing in through the door wearing a glittering purple
evening gown, her cheeks rosy and flushed and a gift bag dangling from her arm.
“Jade, I’m home!” she trilled, her blue eyes sparkling.

            Jade
sat up from the couch and
, in a
futile gesture, tried to wipe the tears and snot from her face. “Hey,” she
said, her swollen throat making her voice hoarse. “Looks like you had a good
time.”

            "Oh
my God.
” Emily dropped her bag
instantly and rushed to her side. “What happened, hon?” She crouched down
beside Jade, searching her face.