It takes me less than an hour to make my mind up.
Of course by then, everyone is busy getting up, dressing, and doing last-minute packing, so speaking with Dayne becomes impossible. With Talis waking in a sour mood because it's before midday means he's even more distracted than usual.
Since we're going to be on the road for most of the day, a drive no one is particularly looking forward to-except me that is-Luka suggests going for a quick run so being stuck in a car for the best part of the day is a little more bearable.
Everyone leaps on the idea.
Everyone except me, because where else are we going to run but the Dawley-Stone private land, since running in the public forest during the day isn't an option. It's far too dangerous, because while there are natural wolves in the area, I have a feeling someone stumbling into a pack of ten wolves is going to cause problems, if not for us, then later for Jackson.
As far as I know, it isn't hunting season in Dawley, but what do I know?
So, after a hurried breakfast of eggs, bacon, and sausage with most of us standing to eat in the kitchen, we pile in the cars, and make the nearly fifteen-minute drive to the Dawley-Stone land.
When we get there, I breathe a sigh of relief that there's no sign of Jackson's battered blue truck. That's all I have time to do because we're heading into the forest knowing we maybe have an hour before the contractors arrive to prepare for work to start on the house from Monday.
On Thursday, our first night in Dawley, Savannah came over to the rental for dinner while Jackson and Jeremy hit up a bar. While we all knew the old house was going down, we hadn't expected Jackson would immediately start rebuilding a three-story house.
Although, I'm a little curious about what Jackson will do with the place, I'm not curious enough to tie myself to an alpha in order to find out.
No, my freedom is far more important for me to give it up for a guy who would undoubtedly spend the rest of my life barking orders at me.
So, yeah, that isn't happening.
"Regan?"
I lift my head and find Talis standing a couple of feet away from me. "Yeah?"
"You okay?" She's resting her hand on her large bump.
"Just thinking." I reach for the hem of my shirt.
Now that I'm paying attention, I notice that pretty much everyone else has shifted in the copse of trees a few feet from the old house and taken off, leaving me and Talis as the only ones who've yet to shift. Dayne is hovering nearby, just out of view, but that doesn't surprise me. He barely lets Talis out of his sight now.
A slow smile stretches across her face. "About Jackson's big-"
"Talis!"
We both flinch at Dayne's snarl.
"Sheesh." She rolls her eyes. "Come on, let's go before he bursts a blood vessel or something."
I can't help but feel a touch envious at how quickly and how easily she shifts into a small, light brown wolf and takes off.
But that's not all I'm envious of.
Sometimes Dayne's calm and relaxed, but he isn't always easy to be around. But no matter how bossy and demanding he is, Talis just lets it wash all over her. She's completely unaffected by it.
Even Savannah, for all she's less hot-headed than Talis, has her sticking points and she becomes unmovable, refusing to let Jeremy dominate her.
But me?
I'm not dominant and I'm not an alpha. So, if I were to stay with Jackson, it would take him two seconds to mold me into his vision of a perfect Luna.
So, while I don't have a problem cooking and cleaning, that's not all I am, and that's not all I want to do. I would want to be a partner, and I just don't see that happening with an alpha.
Jackson would expect me to stand in his shadow, quietly agreeing with everything he says, and looking horrified when one of the pack doesn't.
I should've told Dayne that. Maybe then he wouldn't have been so insistent about me giving Jackson a chance.
I reach for my shirt, easing it over my head, leaving me in my bra, jeans, and boots. I've just unbuttoned my pants when I hear something in the forest to my right.
I snap my head up and to the side with a frown because I don't think it's any of the pack. When I inhale deeply, all I smell is the faint scent of Jackson, which means he must've run through here recently. That and a wolf.
Wild wolf, I guess, since the scent isn't exactly fresh.
I stand there debating whether I should go check it out, since it's kind of unusual for our natural cousins to hang so close to us shifters. But before I can, someone loops an arm around my middle and jerks me hard against a hot and very naked body.
Briefly, I close my eyes because did I honestly expect to escape Jackson? Was I naïve enough to think that he wouldn't be here?
"Oh," I mutter. "It's you."
Jackson uses his height and build to cage me against another tree. I think I'm noticing a pattern here.
He lowers his face over my shoulder, so his mouth is at my ear. "You said your goodbyes, darlin'?"
I grip his arm and tug. It's no use. His arm is like an iron bar locked around me. It doesn't budge at all. "No need," I say sweetly.
For a second, he stills against me, and then he takes a step back, dragging me with him. He turns me so we're mirroring yesterday's pose, me with my back against a tree and him standing in front of me with his hand braced over my head.
He peers into my eyes for several seconds and I stare back, unblinking.
This goes on for so long I start getting uncomfortable, but not wanting to reveal it, I squint at him. "You trying to figure out if I'm the same girl? Or are you in the habit of snatching girls in the forest and pinning them to trees that we all look the same to you now?"
"No," he says, in that sexy growl as he leans closer, "I'm trying to figure out how you're meeting my stare when you're not an alpha."
I blink rapidly. "Oh, I think I've got something in my eye. I'd better-"
Jackson's hand lands on my hip and squeezes, halting my attempt to slip around him.
"Talk."
I stop blinking. "Don't order me around like that. You are not my alpha."
"Tell me why you can meet my gaze."
"No."
I feel his fingers lightly rubbing the skin on my lower belly, just above my jeans. "Tell me."
"No."
When he bends his head toward me, I lift my hands and shove at his chest.
Again, it's as effective as trying to shove a boulder uphill. So, he goes nowhere. Slowly, he edges closer and closer, and I know I have seconds until he's kissing all resistance from me.
"What makes you think I'm not an alpha?" I ask a little desperately as I lean my head back.
His fingers slide up my belly and toward my breasts. While I'm counting my blessings that I'm still wearing a bra, I know black lace isn't going to offer much in the way of protection from the heat of Jackson's touch. Since his kisses are enough to have me grinding against him, I don't want to know what effect having him stroking my breasts is going to do.
"Because while I'm still working out whether these pretty eyes are green or hazel, they are not telling me you're an alpha. Nor are you a beta, or submissive. Which leads me to wonder just what you are?"
I open my mouth to tell him my eyes are hazel. Only to freeze because I'm sensing something I shouldn't. Human pain, and it's close, but not from Jackson.
My out-of-control omega gift flickers to life.
Probably my stillness makes Jackson relax his guard or something, I don't know, but when I wrench myself away and sprint in the direction I scented the wolf, I get away.
He chases me, of course, but I'm not thinking about him charging after me. Not this time. My focus is on the wolf I thought was just a wolf.
It's ridiculous and I tell myself I'll laugh about it later, that here I am chasing after a wolf while Jackson chases after me.
But approximately a minute later, the wolf I was chasing just seems to disappear.
As I'm slowing, trying to figure out where he went, Jackson runs into me and again I find myself pinned against another tree.
"You realize," I say to the bark about an inch from my face. "That this is in no way attractive to women?"
"Why did you run?" he snarls against my neck.
"I wanted to get away."
"You were chasing a wolf." His response is just as quick as my own.
"Was I?" My question is so syrupy sweet, it's enough to make my teeth hurt.
"Is there a problem?" Dayne's voice is rather less sweet.
"No problem," I say, wriggling a little until Jackson gets the message and unpins me from the tree.
When I turn, I find Dayne naked and leaning against a tree, his arms folded, and his eyes narrowed on Jackson. Where the rest of the pack are, I don't know, but I doubt Dayne would've let Talis go far. I guess he has Luka watching her while he shifted and came after me.
"I was just informing Jackson about my decision to stay… for a couple of days," I tell Dayne, drawing his gaze to me.
I can feel Jackson's surprise as he stands beside me, though for the time being, I keep my eyes fixed on Dayne since I can see he's not buying this.
"You're staying," Dayne says, sounding doubtful.
I nod firmly. "Yes. I feel compelled to."
Dayne's eyes tell me he doesn't believe me. Not that I blame him when hours ago I was so strenuously against the idea, and then just after he finds Jackson pinning me to a tree, I'm telling him that I'm staying.
"Compelled?" He has every reason to be doubtful.
When Dayne abandons his relaxed pose to straighten, I start thinking. Fast.
I know Dayne's thinking that Jackson's forced me into my decision. Which means it's going to end in a fight I don't want to be in the middle of. So I do the only thing that's going to convince Dayne this is my choice.
I throw myself into Jackson's arms and kiss him.
Jackson doesn't wait to take advantage. He wraps his arms around me and he's kissing me back a heartbeat later, and while he does, all I'm thinking-okay, maybe not all I'm thinking-is who was the boy who ran from me, and why is his pain so sharp that it triggered my omega need to heal his heart?