Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
JESSE
The highway lights flicked rhythmically over my windshield as I sped away from Hale Valley.
Caleb didn’t ask where we were going. He’d been quiet in my SUV’s passenger seat since we left his neighborhood. But he wasn’t still. He bounced one knee up and down as if he needed to channel his nervous energy somewhere. Every few seconds, he checked his side mirror.
“Did something happen in the forest?” I asked.
His shoulders tensed, and the scent of fear rolled off him.
I reached over and placed a hand on his knee, halting his frantic bouncing.
For a second, I thought about pulling over so I could look at him when I spoke, but I quickly dismissed the idea.
He needed distance from his parents before he could process any of this.
And I had other, more important reasons for getting him out of town.
“You’re safe, all right?” I squeezed his knee as I injected humor into my tone. “You missed those check-ins, but I’ll let it slide this time.”
He shifted in his seat. A sideways glance confirmed he’d locked his gaze on my fingers curled around his kneecap. Abruptly, the heady scent of his desire filled the cabin.
I rubbed my thumb over the denim. “Next time, though…” I trailed off deliberately, letting him fill in the blanks. If I was honest, I’d hoped he’d turn up late. The paddle had been fun, but I wanted to put him over my knee and use my hand on him. Feel him squirm on my lap as I heated his ass.
And I needed to stop thinking about it before my dick got so hard that I couldn’t focus on the road.
“So,” I said, putting my hand back on the steering wheel. “You want to tell me what happened with the frying pan?”
He settled deeper in the leather seat and rested an elbow on his door’s armrest. Leather creaked as he stretched his long legs in front of him.
“My father said he didn’t approve of me moving out.
I told him I didn’t need his approval. When I tried to leave, he threw a crystal vase at the back of my head.
It startled me, and I think it triggered my, uh… ” He waved a hand in the air.
“Your wolf,” I said softly, shooting him another look.
“Yeah.” He licked his lips. “After that, I sort of lost track of myself. The next thing I knew, I’d grabbed my dad’s neck and lifted him off the ground.
My mother retaliated by smacking me in the face with a silver frying pan.
” He huffed. “It’s this stupidly expensive kind she bought at some party.
My dad was pissed when she came home with it. ”
But not about Caleb’s mother hitting her own son in the face with a frying pan. My anger wouldn’t do Caleb any good at the moment, so I stuffed it down. “Are you hurting now?” I stretched an arm across the center console and brushed my fingers down his cheek, feeling for blisters.
“I’m fine,” he said, more lust rolling off him. The smoky scent shot straight to my cock, and I pulled my hand from his face and adjusted myself as discreetly as I could. Unfortunately, my SUV’s interior didn’t lend itself to covert erection management, and Caleb sucked in a breath.
“I know,” I said. “There’s not much either of us can do about it.”
“My fault, right?” He looked at me, and his desire shivered along our connection. “Since I imprinted on you or whatever.”
A grin pulled at my lips. “If you’re going for a boner killer, I guess making yourself sound like a duckling or stray cat is pretty effective.”
He snorted and did a little adjusting of his own. “Yeah, well, it’s not working for me.”
“So we’re stuck like this.” I gave him a look as I made my tone light. “I guess I’ll just have to punish you for it later.”
His nostrils flared as he jerked his gaze back to the highway. “Jesus.”
I let my grin have its way. But my amusement faded as the weight of our previous conversation settled back over me. “Have things ever gotten physical with your parents in the past?”
“No,” he said quietly. “This was the first time. I’d like to say I can’t believe they called the cops, but I’d be lying. I wouldn’t put it past them to file a report.”
“If they do, I’ll take care of it.”
He swung his head toward me again. “You will? How?”
“I grew up in Hale Valley. It’s been a little while since I interacted with local law enforcement, but I know how to talk to upstaters.” I winked at him. “If that fails, I’ll just use my teacher voice.”
He nodded, but he didn’t look convinced as he returned his gaze to the road. He was anxious, and I couldn’t blame him.
But his anxiety was misplaced. He worried about the police coming for him. I wasn’t sure how to tell him we had bigger problems than the human authorities. After he’d left Welch’s office this afternoon, I’d visited the jogging trail behind campus.
Sure enough, I’d scented a rogue werewolf—the same one I’d been tracking for two weeks.
And the scent matched the one I’d picked up the night I found Caleb trying to gnaw through Welch’s leg.
But the rogue’s scent signature was stronger this time, which meant he was returning again and again to the forest.
It was typical rogue behavior. They didn’t necessarily intend to turn humans. Most of the time, they attacked because they were too far gone to stop themselves. On rare occasions, their victims survived the bite and became infected with the lycanthropy virus.
Caleb was one of those rare occasions. And now that the rogue had turned him, it would search for him.
All werewolves were driven to mentor the wolves they sired.
Going rogue didn’t blunt that impulse—just misdirected it.
Protective instincts twisted and warped, leading the rogue to view its offspring as a rival.
The rogue would hunt Caleb, and it wouldn’t stop until it killed him.
The steering wheel creaked under my grip.
Caleb looked at me. “What’s wrong?”
The connection between us tugged hard in my chest, temporarily robbing me of breath.
I had to be more careful around him. Otherwise, my emotions would leak across our bond and give him an insight into what I was thinking.
Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for bonded pairs with years of living together under their belts.
But everything between Caleb and me was new.
I cleared my throat as I eased my grip on the wheel. “Tell me when you first started experiencing anger you couldn’t control. Was it immediately after the jogging trail?”
He tensed, wariness hovering around him. “Is this related to what happened with my parents tonight?”
“Do you mean am I asking because I think you were wrong to grab your father’s throat? No. I think he had it coming, and I applaud your restraint. My question has nothing to do with your parents and everything to do with figuring out who turned you.”
The wariness faded, and Caleb relaxed in his seat. He seemed thoughtful for a moment before he said, “The anger started right away. I mean, I was angry the second I opened my eyes after…everything.”
“On the trail?”
“Yeah. I’ve always liked running there. Peaceful, you know?
” He released a humorless laugh, and I didn’t need our connection to know he was thinking the forest was anything but peaceful now.
After a second, he made a frustrated sound.
“All I remember is waking up next to the park bench. I was flat on my back, and the sky was dark. When I checked my phone, four hours had passed. By the end of the month, I’d put on twenty pounds of muscle.
None of my clothes fit. My football coach thought I was juicing. ”
My heart squeezed. According to his school records, he’d been a promising athlete. “Do you miss football?”
He shrugged. “I mean, it made things easier at school. With…you know.”
“Being gay.”
“Yeah. Guys didn’t seem to care as long as I caught the ball and blocked when I was supposed to.” He slanted me a look. “Did you play any sports in school?”
I kept my eyes on the road. “Not like you’re used to. Things were a bit less organized. Baseball was popular.”
“You said I’m immortal now.”
“That’s right.” And Caleb wasn’t stupid. I knew what his next question was going to be, so I reached down and flipped on the radio, filling the cabin with soft, meaningless pop music. “You hungry?”
He was quiet for a moment as he clearly debated whether he should push me to disclose my age. Finally, he smiled, catching my eye. “I’m twenty-three,” he said, more than a hint of mischief in his voice. “I’m always hungry.”
Fucking brat. He knew what he was doing.
I cleared my throat again. “Ordinarily, I’d insist on eating in, but I know a quiet place where we’ll have some privacy. Are you familiar with Albany?”
“You mean Albany, the hotbed of culture and fine dining?”
I shook my head, a smile tugging at my lips. “Okay, smart ass. Maybe I’ll just take you through the McDonald’s drive-thru.”
“And buy me a Happy Meal, Daddy?”
Christ. “You’re doing this on purpose.”
He laughed—a low, rich rumble I immediately needed more of. “Oh, yeah? What, exactly, am I doing?”
“You know I’m older than I look. You’re playing up our age gap and making us both harder than the concrete median I’m trying not to drive into.”
He laughed again, those goddamn freckles scrunching. “You haven’t told me how old you are.” A challenge sparkled in his blue eyes as I merged onto the exit ramp. “But I’m guessing it’s pretty bad since you don’t wanna say.”
I grunted. “We’ll talk about it when I have wine and a basket of bread in front of me.”