Chapter Four
JESSE
Here it came, whatever that alpha wanted from him. He might have said he didn’t want anything, but Jesse knew better.
The room he took Jesse to was small and felt dark, dominated by an imposing brick chimney, a large desk, and two brown leather armchairs.
Urban closed the door firmly behind them, and Jesse clutched the strap of his duffel.
He was determined to take it with him when he escaped, though he realized too late that most of his clothes would be lost to him now they were churning away in that washer.
But Urban didn’t touch him. He didn’t even look at Jesse as he sat down in an armchair and pretended to relax. Pretended, because Jesse could feel the tension in him. Tension coiled inside Jesse too, squirmy, restless, and worried.
“Take a seat,” Urban said mildly, tilting his head toward the other armchair in the room.
Figuring he had no other choice—Urban could take him down before he got to the door—Jesse sat, carefully twining his hand in the strap of his duffel where it sat on his lap.
He licked his lips nervously, and Urban’s gaze tracked the motion.
A muscle in Urban’s cheek twitched and something unreadable flickered in his face, but then it was gone.
“You know you’ve broken all shifter laws by coming onto my territory uninvited. I don’t necessarily intend to exact punishment for it, but I do want to know why.”
“What the hell?” It burst from Jesse before he could stop it, then he bit his lip firmly and stopped anything more escaping.
Urban had started out sounding like he was a schoolkid deserving detention but had ended up sounding pretty damn dangerous.
He didn’t know exactly what punishment Urban might deal out, and he’d like to keep it that way.
“Like I said, I was just running under the moon. Well, the clouds,” he added, because although he could feel the moon as a wolf, it hadn’t been visible.
Which made those other wolves running into him all the more unfair—it had been almost pitch black and they had miles of space to roam.
What the hell was his luck that they’d found him?
And what was it about Urban that reminded him of how it felt to run under the full moon? That made no sense.
“On my territory,” Urban reminded him. “You may like to think you weren’t doing any harm, but we both know better.”
Jesse knew Urban was dangerous. Knew he could tear Jesse limb from limb and Jesse wouldn’t be able to stop him. Even so, the damn injustice was too much for him.
“I didn’t fucking know, okay?” He was bolt upright in the armchair, glaring at Urban. “How was I supposed to know? Not like you put signposts up.”
Urban’s brow wrinkled slightly. Again, something flickered in his expression that Jesse couldn’t quite read.
“That’s exactly what we did. Wolf signs.”
He took his time, examining Jesse’s face, staring into his eyes until Jesse fidgeted in his seat under the weight of that gaze. His skin prickled, but not with fear. Something else. He set his jaw, refusing to look away first.
“Are you trying to tell me you couldn’t interpret them?” Urban asked. “And before you answer, know this—I might forgive trespass, but I won’t be lied to.”
“I ain’t a liar.” It burst out of Jesse, indignation overriding his tactical sense. Aw, hell. He was damned anyway—might as well go down swinging. “I didn’t know, okay? What do you want me to do about it? Cause I’ve already said I’m sorry for trampling all over your precious territory.”
He was gasping by the time he finished, torn between terror and fury. Urban could kill him here and now, and no one would ever know what happened to Jesse Turner.
But Urban was looking at him a little less like a threat and more like a bug under a microscope. It was everything Jesse could do not to squirm under that long, careful study.
“How can you be a shifter and not know this?” Urban asked at last. “Who the hell’s let you run around without basic survival tools?”
Let him run around? That, right there, was the problem Jesse had with other shifters. No one let him do anything. He did what he wanted. Which, for now, meant trying to get out of here in one piece.
He thought back to the small amount of research he’d done when he found out he could turn into a wolf.
All he remembered was that shifters were born, not made—despite what some ignorant humans said—and that alphas were bastards, each ruling their pack and their territory with a rod of iron.
Not a damn thing about scent markers, whatever the hell they were.
Urban was obviously not going to let this one go, because he was back on it again, worrying at the subject like a wolf with a bone. “How’d you get to your age without knowing scent markers?”
Goddammit, he made Jesse sound like Methuselah instead of being twenty-three. Or so. Not like he knew for sure.
“I’ve never been around other shifters, okay?” he shot back.
Urban stilled, and his fingers curled before he caught himself and stopped them. He kept studying Jesse, as if judging his truthfulness.
“That puts a different perspective on things,” he said at last. “But how the hell’s that possible?”
“Don’t see how that’s any of your damn business,” Jesse retorted swiftly. “Uh, no offense,” he added, remembering he was speaking to the alpha who was currently holding him prisoner.
To his shock, Urban’s lips lifted slightly at the corners, almost as if he found Jesse’s response amusing rather than enraging.
Urban rose from his chair, and Jesse tensed, ready to lunge out of his way.
But Urban seemed almost to have forgotten Jesse’s existence as he paced over to the window, rested his hands on the sill and looked out into the darkness beyond.
He was silent, the set of his shoulders revealing nothing of his thoughts.
Jesse flicked his eyes toward the closed door, working out if he’d be able to reach it before Urban got to him. And then all his muscles tightened as Urban turned once more.
“I want you to stay here tonight. If it’s true you don’t know something as basic as scent markings, I need to teach you enough so you don’t get yourself killed out there. Then you can head out.”
Jesse bit his lip and ducked his head without thinking.
Shit—that looked submissive, like he was begging.
He yanked his chin back up fast as he weighed Urban’s words.
He seemed legit. And if he wanted Jesse to stay, he’d have no need to dress it up in fancy reasoning—he could just force him.
Unless he was trying to get Jesse to drop his guard.
And the hell of it was, ever since Urban’s lips had twitched, Jesse was having problems seeing him as the threat he’d been before.
Weird, how fast someone could go from potential predator to maybe just a shifter with some cockeyed sense of honor, trying to play teacher.
But Jesse wasn’t sticking around to find out.
“Nah, I’m good. Don’t need a lesson either,” Jesse said. “Reckon I’ll just keep to myself in future.”
“That’s what you thought you were doing tonight,” Urban pointed out. “Didn’t go too well for you, did it?”
Damn the man. There was no arguing with that. He sighed, irritated that he couldn’t find a comeback.
“I also want to know about that bite you’ve got,” Urban continued. “You’ve obviously had some interaction with shifters.”
It still rankled, the way Urban said what he wanted and just expected it to happen, but Jesse saw no problem telling him about the bite. Wasn’t as if it was a big secret.
“I ran into another pack out in the mountains,” he confessed. “When they saw me—well, they didn’t exactly sit me down and feed me steak and potatoes.”
“The mountains?” Urban’s voice was sharp, sudden tension vibrating through. “Where?”
“Hell, I don’t know. Not like I was carrying a map. Just—out there.” Jesse waved his hand in what he thought was the right direction.
Urban was silent for a long time, his gaze resting on Jesse’s face with a weight that Jesse didn’t care for. It was like he was assessing Jesse, judging him again.
Eventually, Urban raked his hand through his hair and stood up from where he’d been leaning against the windowsill. “It’s been a hell of a day. Why don’t you bunk in the room Bryce put you in earlier, and we’ll sort out the rest of this tomorrow.”
It wasn’t a question. Jesse rose to his feet.
Urban’s eyes flicked to the duffel he was holding. “I’ll put your clothes in the dryer so they’ll be ready in the morning.”
That was a thoughtfulness Jesse hadn’t expected, but there was no way he wanted Urban pawing through his clothes. They weren’t much, but they were all he had.
“Don’t worry about it. I got it,” he said.
Urban didn’t argue, but he was still determined to act like Jesse’s jailer. “In that case, I’ll show you how the dryer works.”
“Okay,” Jesse said gruffly, lowering his head in acknowledgement. Realizing that was perilously close to a gesture of submission, he yanked his head back up.
Urban looked amused more than anything, which kind of freaked Jesse out as he silently followed him out of the room.
Clothes safely in the dryer, Urban walked him back to the bedroom he’d been in earlier. “I’m in the room next to the den,” he said. “Any problems during the night, let me know.”
Jesse wasn’t sure what sort of problems he might mean, and this was feeling all kinds of intense, with Urban standing so close to him.
The nerves that had been shrilling with anxiety somehow seemed to have changed their pitch, and the hairs on Jesse’s arms felt like they were standing on end at being so close to Urban.
Like he wanted Urban to touch him. Which was not the case.
He intended to get out of here safe and sound and unmauled by anyone, especially an alpha—he’d heard tales of their cruelty.
Urban was still standing there, like he expected Jesse to open the door and invite him in.
“Reckon so long as you haven’t put a pea under the mattress, I’m fine,” Jesse said, and Urban’s lips did that twitching thing again.
“Alright then,” he said, stepping back. Somehow, under his relief, Jesse felt disappointed.
“Oh, and in case you get any ideas about trying to leave before morning, don’t,” Urban continued. “Karl’s out there patrolling, and he hasn’t met you. I’d rather your first meeting wasn’t when you were on our territory uninvited.”
“Not the kind to roll out the welcome wagon then,” Jesse surmised.
“You could say that. See you tomorrow morning.”
He turned and walked away. He was still between Jesse and the front door, so it seemed safest for Jesse to go into the room he’d been given, at least for now.
But as he wrapped his fingers around the door handle, he found himself watching Matt Urban’s back view.
And goddamn, if the situation had been different, Jesse would have loved to get up close and personal with that ass.
Tight black jeans left little to the imagination.
Sounds from the kitchen reminded him he was surrounded by strange wolves and wasn’t safe. Scowling, he stepped into the room and shut the door, locking it firmly behind him.