Chapter 24
“I swear I can hear you thinking. Has anyone ever told you that you think loudly?” Kira grimaces and pushes Jayden’s chest playfully.
“Stop trying to listen!”
“I’m sorry, it’s just that you’re the smartest person I know, so I’d like to get a direct line.”
“I’m lucky you can’t do that when we shift,” Kira mutters.
“Imagine if all your Alpha superpowers meant that you could look straight into my mind? You’d know all the silly, embarrassing things I think about you.”
“What kind of things?” Jayden grins.
Realizing that she dug herself into that hole, Kira sighs. “Don’t make me say them out loud.”
She has visions of Jayden hearing about her tendency to turn to jelly when his muscles flex, or how annoyingly attractive she finds him whenever he turns out to be right about something they mildly disagree on.
“Okay, okay,” laughs Jayden, but then his face falls. “You don’t mind, do you? My Alpha superpowers? Because I know that it isn’t easy being in a pack, and then me being in this role and you being... I know it’s complicated.”
Kira knows from his face that Jayden is serious about this, so she lets the playful edge drop from her tone. “I don’t mind.”
“Honestly?”
“I don’t mind,” she repeats. Deciding to be honest, she elaborates.
“I talked to Noel about it. I was worried that maybe the relationship that my wolf had with your wolf might influence the way I felt about you, but he reassured me. He made it clear that you’re everyone’s Alpha, but no one else has ever been inclined to jump your bones. That made me feel better.”
“If I could forget being an Alpha and leave it behind to make you feel more secure, I’d do it,” Jayden whispers.
It’s such a raw promise that Kira’s heart feels strange and tense in her chest when he says it.
“You don’t need to. I know you wouldn’t use your... superpowers on me.” She snickers, to show Jayden that she finds the whole thing entertaining, and she thinks she sees him relax.
After a second, Jayden lifts an eyebrow, his cockiness restored. “Tell me more about how you want to jump my bones.”
“Don’t push it.”
Jayden lifts his hands in defense. “You said it, not me.”
As she picks at her leftovers, Kira thinks that she’d be happy spending every morning like this.
In the vision she stores in her mind, Jayden is in the bed beside her, rather than arriving from the couch, and the shutters are covered in dark curtains so that she can sleep in until later in the day, but otherwise this is how she pictures the scene.
The two of them are messing with each other. Playing with each other. Kissing each other. She couldn’t think of anything more that she’d want for a morning.
In a choice between this and crawling out of bed at an ungodly hour in the city to prepare for another day of exhausting classes or an unpaid internship in a profession she never truly wanted, she knows which she would choose.
“You’re thinking loudly again,” Jayden says, lifting her hand to kiss her knuckles.
“Damn.” Kira snaps herself back to reality. “You know what? I think I will tell you more about wanting to jump your bones after all.”
With the entire pack working on it (if with varying degrees of commitment), Kira finds her house gutted and put back together in an alarmingly short space of time.
She thinks the gang could have a future on television doing 24-hour house renovations if they so desired it.
Before long, the floors are laid and Jayden and Frank have started plastering. To make herself useful, Kira walks with Noel to the dining hall to bring back fresh tubs of his mother’s cooking.
The aromas are almost overwhelming in the kitchens. Fried fish and barbecued meat, garlic and chili and sizzling onions, heady spices and fresh herbs and thick bubbling sauces that make Kira feel as though she’s inhaling red beans.
She wraps up an extra parcel for her and one for Jayden, causing Noel to complain that he never gets any special parcels, and his mother orders him to stack up the boxes.
Kira shyly accepts. She’s getting used to being embraced as one of the town’s most spoiled inhabitants.
On the way back to the house, Noel starts eating pancakes straight from the paper bag. “So how was your date?” he asks through a mouthful.
“Magical. Jayden makes me feel... amazing.” Noel pulls a face.
“I just mean when we’re talking together!” Kira says quickly, realizing the implication.
“And when we’re not talking, too. Last night we just laid side by side and watched the woods, like we didn’t even need to say anything.”
“I’d bully him about being such a softie for you,” sighs Noel, “but I don’t even have it in me. It’s so cute to watch. I’ve never seen him get like this about someone before, and we’ve known each other a such a long time.”
“Has Jayden seen other people?” Kira asks hesitantly, nervous at the thought of any potential love rivals being in town.
“Not really,” Noel shrugs. “Not the way he’s seeing you. He’s always been all work and no play. Whenever I asked him about it, he said that he didn’t have time for a relationship, but I think no one’s ever interested him enough either. It’s so nice to see him like this. I think he’s head- over-heels, so be gentle with him, please.”
There’s a protective edge in Noel’s tone. Jayden isn’t just his Alpha, but his friend, and Kira knows that the same can be said of everyone in town.
That’s a lot of pressure. She doesn’t think it would go down well if she broke his heart.
It’s a good thing, then, that he doesn’t have any intention of doing so.
“Head-over-heels?” She laughs. “Honestly, I’m not sure what I’ve done to deserve so much from him.”
“Well, you’re beautiful. I think he finds you fascinating, with your city ways and big-time education. But I also think he finds you charming. Jayden is hard on the exterior, but he’s a little soft inside, and he needs someone who knows how to break down his walls and take care of that vulnerable part. You’re insightful and careful and calm, everything that I think he needs; a part of him must know that. Plus, I think he likes being able to teach you about being a wolf,” Noel laughs, nudging her shoulder as they walk.
“It probably makes him feel all Alpha, getting to show you the ropes.”
“You think?” She smiles.
“I know Jayden . You’ve landed yourself a really amazing guy, Kira.” He stops now and turns to face her. “Jayden is loyal and devoted. You won’t find a better man anywhere, and I mean that. He’ll dedicate himself to you and I don’t ever want to see him get hurt, so promise me that you’re serious about him? Because if you’re planning to run off back to the city out of nowhere, then he’s going to be heartbroken. You need to make the choice that’s best for you, but give us some warning, so I can be prepared.”
Kira stares. She hadn’t expected to have such a conversation with Noel, but she could see from his eyes that fierce, protective charge. He’s Jayden’s beta, after all. “I don’t want to go back to the city,” she whispers.
“You don’t?” Noel falters like he can’t quite believe that.
“Not because of Jayden,” she says, to herself as much as Noel, because she might be more than a little head-over-heels herself, but she’s still sensible enough not to throw away everything she’s built for a guy she’s fallen for way too fast.
“The truth is that I don’t want to go back because I don’t think I ever really belonged there. I never felt like I belonged anywhere until I came here. I thought this place would be somewhere I associated with my father, but now it’s where I think of my mother. I feel close to her when I shift.”
“For what it’s worth, I think you do belong here.”
She nods, looking up at the clear sky. It never looked like this in the city with that thin layer of pollution. Here she can see the moon during the day, and the clouds are a bright gray-white against flat blue.
“I love the woods. Shit, I love the town and I thought I’d hate it. You guys are amazing and Jayden is one hell of a bonus. I feel like before I came here I was sleepwalking through my own life, and now I feel truly awake for the first time.”
“So you’re staying?”
Kira swallows, watching the expanse of blue. Woods can’t be under any flight paths; she doesn’t even see a plane in the sky. “I want to.”
Noel exhales. “Okay. Good. But there’s more than one way to break a man’s heart, so I’ll still be keeping an eye on you!”
The tension broke somewhat, Kira laughs. “I promise I won’t ever hurt him.”
Noel looks much happier for the rest of their walk back up to the old house.