Chapter 42 What She Didn’t Say
Lia pushed through the crowd. “I don’t believe it. Harper’s not some violent lunatic. Whatever this guy is selling, it’s a lie.”
The silence that followed stretched thick and heavy. Half the room already had their phones out, recording.
I looked at Chad, then at the room, and said flatly, “No. He’s right. I stabbed him.”
From the corner of my eye I saw Lia’s head snap toward me.
Chad smirked. “See? She admits it.”
I tilted my head. “Want to tell them why?”
He scoffed. “Because you’re a violent fucking lunatic. That’s why.”
A few people exchanged uncertain looks.
I didn’t raise my voice. “Or was it because you pushed a twelve-year-old girl into the boys’ locker room, felt her up, and laughed about it with your friends afterward.”
No one laughed this time.
Chad barked out a laugh. “That is complete bullshit.”
I stared at him. “Back then, Daddy bought you a one-month suspension and made the whole thing disappear.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You haven’t changed.” I lifted my phone. “Chad Bowman, born September 5th, 2002. Charged with sexual assault in the third degree. Arraignment date set for February 12th. Currently out on bail pending trial.”
Chad’s face paled. “That’s not—”
I kept reading. “Victim was a minor at the time of the alleged offense—”
“Stop.” His voice sounded a lot less confident now.
I lowered the phone and looked around at the people still holding theirs up.
“You can look it up yourselves if you don’t believe me. It’s public record.”
More phones lit up around the room as people started searching. The shift in the air was immediate. Whispers started. A few people near the front stepped back from Chad without even realizing they were doing it.
Jackson stepped half in front of me, voice low and flat. “You’ve said enough. Get the fuck out of this house. If you don’t, you’re going to regret it.”
Chad opened his mouth, but Jackson’s stare pinned him in place. The whole room was watching him now.
He glanced desperately at Naomi and got nothing back. Then he threw one last venomous look in my direction before shoving through the crowd and fleeing out the door.
No one moved to stop him.
I felt nothing for Chad. He'd always been the same kind of predator, just a smaller, uglier version of the men I actually wanted dead. Watching him run was almost boring.
Naomi was next. I turned my gaze to her.
“The girl I allegedly beat half to death at my last school? Never happened. You made that up. You have nothing.”
Naomi forced a short laugh. “Right. And we should all just believe you because you say so?”
“You brought a registered sex offender up here to back your story,” I said. “That already tells people everything they need to know about your word.”
Her face tightened. For a second, she looked like she might keep arguing. Then she switched angles. “You still cost us State.”
I opened my mouth, but Cassidy beat me to it.
“Jesus Christ, Naomi.” She pointed at her own heavily wrapped ankle. “My ankle is the size of a fucking softball because you tripped me. You’re the reason I didn’t finish, and you’re the reason we lost points. You cost us State.”
Naomi folded her arms, defensive. “You can’t prove anything.”
“Neither can you,” Cassidy shot back, voice sharp. “You dragged some creep from another state just to humiliate Harper, and you got caught lying about a mystery girl she supposedly put in the hospital. That’s all anyone’s going to remember.”
A murmur of agreement rippled through the crowd. Several people shifted, looking at Naomi differently.
Naomi’s jaw tightened. “You’re all just taking her side because—”
“Because you’re full of shit and obsessed with Jackson,” Cassidy cut in. “You’ve been obsessed with him for years, and now he’s with Harper. That’s why you’re doing all this. Pathetic.”
Naomi stood there, cheeks flushed. No one stepped up to defend her.
I said nothing. I just watched her until she looked away first.
“You’ll see I was right about her,” she muttered, loud enough for half the room to hear. Then spun on her heel and stalked toward the kitchen.
The music picked back up a few seconds later, slower at first, then building again.
Jackson leaned closer, lowering his voice. “You should have told me about him.”
“About Chad?”
“Yeah.”
“I forgot he existed.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “He won’t come near you again.”
Cassidy appeared at my side, still limping but grinning. “Okay, the public execution is done. I’m stealing Harper.”
Jackson’s arm immediately tightened. “No.”
Cassidy rolled her eyes. “Relax. I’m taking her six feet away, not to another country.”
“Five feet.”
“Possessive. Got it.” She winked at me. “Come on.”
We danced despite her wrapped ankle. She moved carefully but refused to sit down.
I kept one eye on Jackson the entire time.
A steady stream of women had been approaching him all night, asking for dances, inviting him to the hot tub, trying to pull him upstairs.
He shut every single one of them down without looking away from me, standing at the edge of the dance floor with his arms crossed and that steady, possessive intensity fixed on me the entire time.
The house had gotten hotter as the night went on. The crowd was thicker now, and sweat dampened the back of my neck, sticking the costume to my skin.
Rick wandered up beside Jackson. I caught their exchange with my shifter hearing.
“You’re looking at her like she’s about to disappear the second you take your eyes off her,” Rick said.
“Fuck you,” Jackson replied, not looking away.
Rick laughed. “Nah, I’m good. Don’t want her leftovers.”
Jackson didn’t smile.
Jason snorted into his drink. “Leave him alone,” he said. “He’s got mate-brain.”
“Mate-brain isn’t a thing.”
“It is now.”
I was still watching Jackson when Naomi sidled up to him from the side, a drink in one hand and a smile that was far too sweet after everything that had just happened. She leaned in close, ignoring that I was only a few feet away.
“I just wanted to make sure you’re okay,” she said, voice low and intimate. “That couldn’t have been easy to hear.” Her free hand moved toward his, fingers brushing the back of his wrist in a deliberate touch.
Jackson stepped back immediately, pulling his arm away. “Don’t.”
My vision went red at the edges.
I moved before I could think, planting myself directly between them. My shoulder hit hers hard enough that her drink sloshed over the rim and spilled down the front of her red dress.
“You bitch! You made me spill my drink!” Naomi snarled.
I glanced at the spreading mark before meeting her eyes. “That was your warning.”
I turned my back on her and looked up at Jackson instead, batting my lashes once with a sweet smile. Possessive satisfaction flickered through the bond.
“Are you serious right now?” Naomi snapped behind me.
Jackson’s gaze snapped over my shoulder. Before I could turn, his arm wrapped around my waist and he spun me out of the way. A split second later the glass shattered against his back and droplets of alcohol hit my skin.
Fury detonated in my chest. I lunged around him, but his arm locked around my waist like a steel bar.
“Let me go—”
“No.” He glared over his shoulder at Naomi. “You need to get out of here right now.”
Naomi laughed once. “Or what?”
“Or I’m going to stop stopping her. And trust me, you don’t want that.”
Naomi opened her mouth, closed it, then stormed off in a string of curses, heels clicking angrily across the floor. The crowd parted around her, murmuring.
I was still vibrating with fury.
“Five seconds,” I muttered. “That’s all I needed.”
Jackson tightened his hold. “I know.”
“That wasn’t a no.”
“It was.”
Cassidy hobbled up beside us. “Holy shit. What a trainwreck. Ten out of ten drama.”
I tried to twist around him. “Let me check your back. You took the glass—”
“I’m fine,” he said.
I glared. “Jackson.”
He didn’t argue again. Without another word he scooped me up. My legs wrapped around his waist automatically as his hands gripped my ass, adjusting the tiny skirt so no one else got a view of what was his. A low growl rumbled in his chest, vibrating straight through me.
He leaned in, teeth grazing my neck, and whispered against my skin, “I love you.”
My arms tightened around his neck. “I love you too.”
Several wolves within earshot went still. Heads turned.
The heat inside me surged, sudden and uncontrollable. I rocked against him without thinking, grinding slow and needy. Jackson’s jaw flexed, his grip tightening with a restraint he was clearly fighting to keep.
“Let’s get out of here,” he growled, voice rough. He started moving through the crowd, carrying me like I weighed nothing.
“Don’t worry about the cripple!” Cassidy called after us. “I’ll hobble home all by myself!”
Jackson slowed for half a step. Jason laughed. “I’ve got her, man. Go.”
Jackson picked up the pace again, arm tight around me as he carried me toward the door.
I caught a glimpse of Lia and Naomi in the corner on the way past. Lia was leaning in close, the two of them standing apart from everyone else.
Something about it snagged for a second.
Then the heat slammed into me again and I forgot everything except the man holding me.
I ground down against him shamelessly, needy and desperate, chasing any friction I could get.
Jackson inhaled sharply as he reached the SUV. He pried my clinging hands off his neck and set me in the passenger seat, shutting the door before I could drag him back in.
He got in the driver’s side, breathing hard.
“Harper… fuck. Your scent is changing.”
I barely heard him. The fire under my skin was getting worse.
I couldn’t sit still. My thighs kept pressing together, slick and aching.
Every brush of fabric felt like too much and not enough.
I reached across the console, fingers tugging at his shirt, trying to climb into his lap while he was driving.
His knuckles went white on the wheel. “The apartment’s close. I had some things delivered today. It’s not enough, but it’ll do.”
The five-minute drive felt like an eternity.
Jackson barely had the key in the lock before I was on him.
The door clicked open. I caught a brief glimpse of the living room, new dark couch, low table, before I launched myself at him.
My legs wrapped tight around his waist, mouth crashing into his.
The door slammed shut behind us. Jackson caught me with a low growl, hands gripping my ass as he walked us further inside.
I was burning. Aching. Completely out of my mind with need.
“Harper…” he rasped against my mouth, voice strained. “You’re going into heat.”
“Jackson,” I gasped, grinding down on him desperately, teeth scraping his jaw. “I don’t care. I need you. Right now.”
He snarled, pressing me against the nearest wall, hips rolling hard into mine once. “Bedroom.”
But I was already tugging at his belt, sanity long gone.