Chapter 32 Protective Wolf #2
“That sounds like a you problem.”
He looked like he was debating physically dragging me behind him. Apparently deciding against it, he settled for glaring instead.
“Two!”
I almost felt bad for him. Almost.
“One!”
The horn blasted and chaos erupted. Players scattered into the trees and through the structures as paintballs cracked through the branches overhead.
I sprinted left without hesitation. Behind me, Jackson swore my name.
My cat surged awake the instant the adrenaline hit.
God, I'd missed this.
I slipped low through the trees, weaving between barriers as shouts echoed deeper in the field.
“I'M HIT ALREADY?” The yell came less than thirty seconds after the start.
Paint splattered across the plywood beside me as I ducked behind a stack of barrels. Two players traded wild shots from opposite sides of a wrecked jeep, neither of them noticing me.
Unfortunate for them.
I leaned out once. Two quick shots. Orange paint exploded across one player's shoulder, then another burst splattered the other's chest half a second later.
“Oh come on!” one of them yelled.
A paintball whizzed past my mask, close enough to make me jerk sideways. Right. No lingering.
I moved deeper into the mock-town structures. Somewhere to my right Jason screamed, “I HAVE BEEN BETRAYED,” followed by Rick’s laughter and someone yelling, “Pink got Jason!”
I climbed onto a narrow platform overlooking the center of the field. From there I had a clear view of the field: players darting between cover, paint streaking through the air, alliances forming and collapsing in seconds.
Then I spotted Jackson. Even geared up, he stood out. He moved through cover with practiced efficiency, and people instinctively gave him space.
A random player tried ambushing him from behind a wrecked car. Jackson spun, tagged him without breaking stride, and kept moving. Show-off.
Then his visor tilted upward toward me. Damn it. Even across the field, I knew exactly what he was thinking. Stay where I can see you.
Absolutely not. I disappeared before he could relocate me.
By the time only ten of us were left, I had found a concrete barrier with a clean sightline.
That was when I spotted Lia crouched near the treeline behind stacked tires, marker braced against her shoulder.
Jackson stepped directly into her line of sight.
She hesitated briefly, then fired. Pink paint exploded across the center of his vest.
Silence.
Jackson looked down slowly at his chest like reality itself had offended him.
From somewhere across the field Jason screamed, “SHE GOT HIM!”
That was her mistake.
I leaned out, took aim, and fired once. Orange paint burst across her vest.
Her head whipped toward me. “Oh, you bitch!”
“You tagged Jackson,” I called back. “Actions have consequences.”
The game dragged on another twenty minutes before the final buzzer echoed across the field.
The sudden quiet felt strange after all the shouting.
I emerged from the trees with my marker slung over one shoulder, adrenaline still buzzing. My cat purred with smug satisfaction.
Near the fence Jackson paced with pink paint streaked across him, hair a mess from dragging his hands through it. The moment he saw me, the tension left his body.
He came straight toward me, caught me around the waist, and pulled me hard against him like I'd just walked out of a real battlefield.
He was impossible.
I pushed my visor up and grinned. “Told you I didn’t need backup.”
Jackson kissed me hard enough to steal the rest of my breath, then rested his forehead against mine.
“You did so well, baby,” he murmured. “Did Brian teach you how to shoot too?”
“Yep.”
Jason wandered over with paint streaked across his shoulder and half his mask pushed up.
“Dude,” he announced to Jackson, staring at me, “I think I’m in love with your girl.”
Jackson narrowed his eyes immediately.
Jason pointed at me dramatically. “If you don’t lock her down, I might.”
Jackson swung at him without a second's hesitation. "Try it."
Jason yelped, laughing as he danced backward out of reach.
After we turned in our gear and started walking back toward the parking lot the others argued about who had lost most pathetically. Lia insisted she would have won if I “hadn’t been lurking around the woods like some orange sniper demon.”
Personally, I thought I had been charming.
I was only half listening to Jason loudly reenact his own elimination when my cat stirred. Something moved near the tree line. I slowed.
“Wait,” I murmured.
Jackson immediately stepped closer to me like I had spotted a threat. But it wasn’t a threat.
It was a cat.
A thin gray-striped adolescent kitten, maybe four or five months old, with big wary eyes and a tail tucked low. He hovered half in shadow, half in sunlight, crouched and ready to bolt.
I crouched too, leaving him plenty of escape space. I made myself small, slow, uninteresting, and looked at the trees instead of at him.
“Hey, sweetheart.”
It took a while. He stayed crouched, deciding whether I was a trick.
Then he uncoiled slowly and crept across the grass toward me, low and careful, stopping twice to reassess.
On the third approach he closed the distance and sniffed my fingers.
A second later he pressed his head into my palm like he had been waiting for someone to find him.
“Oh, no,” I murmured. “You’re adorable.”
Rick crouched beside me and reached out to pet him.
The kitten hissed and swatted his hand.
Rick jerked back. “Okay. Rude.”
The kitten immediately turned back to me and head-butted my knee.
Jason snorted. "Maybe it likes her because he's a cat himself."
I slid one hand beneath his stomach and lifted him against my chest. Light. Too light. He melted into me like he had always lived there.
Jackson’s brows pulled together immediately.
“You’re taking him?”
I glanced up at him. “You jealous of a five-pound animal?”
“That depends,” he said. “Is he moving in?”
“Are you even allowed pets in your building?” Lia asked.
“There’s nothing in my lease that says I can’t have a pet,” I said.
“That is absolutely not the same thing as being allowed.”
“Too late now.”
Rick leaned in again. The kitten hissed again.
“Okay, he hates me,” Rick said. “I accept this.”
Jackson’s hand settled lightly at the small of my back as we started toward the parking lot again. “You already have a name?”
I scratched behind the kitten’s ear. “His name is Artemis.”
Jason blinked. “You just… knew that?”
“He told me,” I said dryly.
The moment I settled into the passenger seat, Artemis curled into my lap and started purring like a tiny engine. He already acted like he owned me.
Jackson slid into the driver’s seat and glanced at Artemis, then at me, then back at Artemis.
His brows furrowed.
“You okay?” I asked.
His eyes drifted back to Artemis. “I’m fine.”
Artemis stretched a paw onto my thigh. Jackson’s jaw tightened.
He cleared his throat. “I’ll drive you home.”
“Okay.”
He started the truck, his eyes drifting to Artemis one more time.
The kitten yawned.
Jackson looked faintly offended.
When we pulled up outside my house, Jackson came around to my side before I could get out.
“I'm walking you to the door,” he said.
The others stayed in the truck.
I unlocked the front door and stepped inside. Jackson followed without hesitation, closing the door behind him.
Artemis sniffed the air from my arms as I carried him down the hall to my bedroom.
“Well,” I said softly, nudging the door open with my shoulder, “welcome home, I guess.”
I set him gently on the bed.
Artemis circled once, plopped down in the middle of my comforter, and stared at Jackson as though he'd just claimed the place.
Jackson crossed his arms and stared back.
The silence stretched.
“Oh my God,” I muttered. “Are you two seriously sizing each other up already?”
Jackson eyed the kitten. “There’s something off about him. My wolf doesn’t like it.”
“He’s a kitten.”
“He’s judging me.”
I couldn’t help the small smile. “He probably is.”
Artemis blinked slowly. Jackson stepped closer to me, voice low. “He’s already acting like he owns you.”
“Maybe he thinks he does,” I replied. “He claimed me in the parking lot.”
He ground his teeth. “I noticed.”
I bit back a smile.
His attention shifted fully to me then, and his expression softened. The hard edge melted away in a single breath.
“Miss me while I’m gone,” he said.
The corner of my mouth lifted. “Okay.”
He exhaled, almost a laugh. “Damn it.”
“What?”
“You’re not going to boost my ego, are you?”
“Does it need it?”
“Where you’re concerned, yeah.”
“That’s a little hard to believe.”
He stepped closer, bent down, and kissed me slow and deep, the kind of kiss that threatened to pull us both under. Then he forced himself back.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he murmured.
“Yeah.”
“I’ll text you later.”
“Okay.”
He shot Artemis one last suspicious look before heading for the door. The moment it closed behind him the house fell quiet.
Artemis padded across the comforter and settled against my hip like he had always belonged there. I scratched his ear and let myself sit in the warmth for another minute.
Then I reached for my laptop. The camera feeds blinked to life one by one.
John's Sunday patrol shift was almost predictable enough to trust. Three more weeks would confirm it, and by then State would be over. Until that race was behind me, I couldn't afford an injury.
Three weeks until John. I still had work to do.