Chapter 2 Jace
JACE
Jace made it to the alley behind the community center before he half collapsed on the muddy ground, falling on hands and knees in a heap of half-melted snow from the recent snowfall a week ago.
The smells were more intense than they should be, mud and spilled beer and old cigarettes. Inhumanly intense.
He was losing control of his wolf.
His hands curled, the fingertips itching as they turned into claws, the uncomfortable prickle of the hair on the backs growing thicker.
He had to fight it back down. He’d thought he had it under control, but then—she—
It had been a pure spur of the moment impulse to help the beautiful woman who was obviously being harassed by that jerk. Jace couldn’t understand why no one had stepped in to help her, but he wasn’t about to stand by and watch that sleaze creep on her without doing anything about it.
Just the thought sent another spasm of wolfishness surging through him. He could feel the prickle of hair down his spine, and gritted his teeth, fangs clicking against his human bottom teeth as he forced the change back.
His mouth tasted ... odd.
It should have tasted like stale coffee from the community center vending machines. Instead, there was a strange salty heat that seemed to send sparks racing through his body.
Half lost in his wolf mind, it took him a few moments to realize that he’d bitten her.
Way to go, Jace, he thought bitterly, as the coherent, verbal center of his brain started to come back online.
Way to show her the monster you really are.
After a few more moments’ struggle, he managed to fight his way fully human again.
Or mostly human—he could still feel the points on his teeth when he ran his tongue over them, and the backs of his hands were hairier than usual.
His back ached, and his joints felt slightly wrong as he straightened up.
The palms of his hands were filthy, and he wiped them on his jeans, only to be reminded that he didn’t have a clean pair to change into.
The rest of his clothes, one duffel’s worth, were back in the men’s shelter and locked up during the day.
Jace took a few deep breaths and looked up at the leaden sky. He had done the repairs he’d promised the community center. That part of his day had been fun. He loved the chance to feel helpful, useful, to do some real good.
And then the woman ...
He could still see her, a vivid image in his mind’s eye.
She had a heart-shaped face with a light spray of freckles across her cheeks and a full, sensual mouth.
Brown hair framed her rounded cheekbones, fetchingly slipping in wisps and strands from a clasp holding it back.
She had green eyes that were oddly shot through with gold, something he had previously only seen in people of shifter heritage—the few that he had known.
There was no way he was going to walk away from a woman, any woman, being harassed by a guy. But the reaction he’d had to seeing that jerk creeping on her, leaning into her space, whispering into the small round ear half-hidden under her falling strands of brown hair ...
It had been all Jace could do to control his wolf as much as he had. His inner animal wanted to sink its teeth into that guy’s throat, fling him down, make him beg for mercy for the crime of touching her.
Then she flung an arm around his neck, and her scent filled his senses: fresh floral shampoo and the delicate fragrance of her skin. Her lips pressed against his, soft and warm, and for a few instants he had stopped thinking at all.
And then he came back to himself, to the taste of her and the horrifying awareness that he was losing control of his shift.
He had only the dimmest recollection of stumbling outside. He wondered what that had looked like to everyone else.
To her.
It was just as well if she thought he found her kiss revolting. There was no way he ever dared to be close to her again. Not when his wolf was as badly controlled as it was.
He shuddered for a few minutes. Phantom pain ghosted up his side. He was rarely aware of the scar tissue anymore, but he could feel it now, tugging when he twisted or moved at all. The wolf inside him was a tangible pressure.
No, there was no way he could let a mess like this anywhere near a woman like her. If he hurt her ...
He ran his tongue over his teeth again, now fully blunted back to human teeth. The metallic, salty taste lingered, and he ached bitterly with guilt and regret.
He had already hurt her. If he went near her again, he would hurt her more—emotionally, physically, he didn’t dare take the chance.
All of him had shifted back except his hands. He rubbed a finger with a slightly pointy-tipped nail across the coarse black-and gray hair on the backs of his hands. Then he dug a pair of old brown gloves out of his pocket and pulled them on.
He’d thought he had gotten past this level of difficulty controlling the outward signs of his shift. He had his wolf on a leash, if barely.
Or he’d thought he did.
Taking a deep breath, he started walking. He couldn’t go back to the community center while Miss Mistletoe was there. Not with his wolf this out of control. And the shelter was closed during the day. With that in mind, he took a slow loop through the back of town.
Pine Junction was a pretty little town, framed by hills and farm country. Jace had come here on a tip from his former CO, Dave, who knew he had been struggling since he got his discharge. Dave had an old Army buddy who used to run a B something about the guy’s wife passing away and the B the holiday rush of retail and delivery staff had already been accounted for, and other businesses were waiting until after the new year to fill positions.
In a small town like this, there weren’t many opportunities.
He had already talked to every garage in town about hiring him on as a mechanic, only to be turned down.
Doing handyman work at the community center was a decent gig, even if they couldn’t afford to pay him. There was free food, and it was a little local work for his erratic resume.
Now he might have blown that up too.
But if he had it to do over again, he’d step in again without hesitating. What was the alternative, leaving that poor woman to be creeped on?
He avoided the downtown, with its postcard-picturesque shops and holiday shoppers, instead taking a meandering route through the residential part of town, just walking with no real destination in mind.
It was very quiet, with hardly any traffic.
His wolf was calming down a little, soothed by the solitude. Low gray clouds threatened snow.
With hardly anyone else around, his attention was drawn by two kids, preteens or young teenagers, crouched on the edge of the road.
From their shared red hair, they were probably siblings.
The two of them were bent over a bike that had slipped its chain, the boy struggling to get it back on while the girl looked things up on a phone.
“No, that’s not how it’s done. You need to hold down the—the thing there, you’re just going to break it.” When it was clear her brother wasn’t listening to her, she planted her hands on her hips. “Billy!”
“You two need any help?” Jace asked.
He regretted it immediately; in a big city, they probably wouldn’t have given him the time of day, and rightfully so. But here in this small town, they looked at each other and the girl whispered, “It’s the maintenance guy at the community center, he’s okay.”
“Can you help us fix the bike, mister?” the boy asked.
“Sure. I’ve fixed a bunch of these. Here, let me show you.”
With a small wrench from the tool kit on the back of the bike, it was an easy fix, slipping the chain back into its sprocket and tightening a few links. The kids both watched as if he was doing a magic trick.
“What’s wrong with your hands?” the boy asked.
Jace hadn’t expected either of them to notice that he’d kept the gloves on. But it wasn’t just that. His fingers were slightly clumsy. He’d already dropped the wrench twice, as his right hand struggled to remember how to hold a tool like a human being.
“Billy!” the girl whispered, jabbing her brother with an elbow. “Don’t be rude.”
“It’s cold out here, that’s all,” Jace said. He straightened and raised the bike on its wheels. “Here, should be good to get you around for a while, at least.”
The girl grasped the handlebars and rolled the bike back and forth. She lifted a foot and spun the pedal and grinned. “That works great! Thanks, mister!”
“No problem,” Jace told the kids. “Just be careful with that chain, you’re going to want to get it looked at by a bike shop, or someone who knows what they’re doing.”
They both climbed on the bike, the boy riding, the girl standing up behind him with her hands on his shoulders, and pedaled away toward downtown. The girl twisted around to wave.
Jace grinned. Maybe he was still capable of doing some good in the world, after all.
He knew he would never see the beautiful woman with the summer-forest eyes again. He couldn’t afford to let her close to him. But that kiss under the mistletoe lived vividly in his mind.
When he finally returned to the community center, the adoption event was over and people had mostly cleared out. There were just a handful of volunteers left, cleaning up. Jace quietly moved in help stack chairs.
A flyer lay abandoned on a table. He picked it up to throw it away, but handwriting caught his eye. He wasn’t sure what made him pause to read it.
Holiday cottages for vets
Free - just call us
And a number.
Jace gazed at it. Was this the place Dave had told him about? Maybe they were still open after all. The serendipity of finding it like this made him feel as if it was meant to be, like something was gently nudging him in that direction.
He really did need a place to go. If nothing else, to get away from the memory of that woman who drove his wolf wild, with those green shifter eyes of hers. Whatever this place was like, it was better than sticking around in town, where he might run into her at any moment.
He folded the flyer and put it in his pocket.