“Oh cut it out,” Betsy was saying in the other room. Jonah’s ears perked up, hoping he would hear Lyla’s voice speaking to his sister, but he was shocked when he heard the deep voice of Douglas on the phone.
“You know it’s true,” Douglas was saying, his voice gentle and sweet; a quality that Jonah wouldn’t have believed his old friend was capable of. “It takes a special kind of woman…”
“Bets! I’m home!” Jonah called. If they kept talking, Jonah knew he wouldn’t be able to stop listening. But if Betsy knew he was there, she would be able to stop the conversation before he heard too much.
“I’ve got to go,” Betsy said quickly. “Jonah’s back.”
“Call again soon,” Douglas said.
“I will,” Betsy whispered.
“Welcome home,” Betsy said, coming down the stairs, attempting to hide just how flustered she felt, and Jonah looked at her as if for the first time. Betsy had never shown any interest in anyone before. She had always been painfully shy, almost to the point of being antisocial. But he had to admit, she and Douglas had always been pretty comfortable with each other. It was a natural progression that he had somehow completely missed. Maybe because he had been gone for three years.
“I have some bad news,” Jonah said. He had just gotten back from a brief meeting with the team and Gregors was adamant about sending them after the Serah Stone. They had pinpointed Thames and his cronies on the coast, about two hours away from Oak Mountain, where Nichols was from. “I have to go for a little while.”
Betsy’s face fell, and Jonah went to her quickly.
“But trust me,” he said. “It’s the last thing I want to do. And I will be back as soon as I can.”
“That’s not always really up to you, Jonah,” Betsy said quietly. “It’s not right for you to be here until your job is done, right?”
Jonah looked down at the ground and sighed. “I guess so.”
The truth was, he was dreading leaving more than he’d ever thought possible. Just knowing he would be leaving Lyla behind, and his childhood home after spending so much time away from it already…it was tearing him apart. But it had already gotten him hurt once to be distracted by matters of the heart. How was he going to justify staying and risking the lives of everybody in Stonybrooke? It just wasn’t worth it. He had no choice. Betsy was more right than she would ever know. His job wouldn’t be done until she was safe.
“I’m so sorry, sis,” Jonah said. It was tearing him up inside. How would he be able to leave Lyla behind? His sister? It was just too unfair.
“It really isn’t your fault, Jonah,” Betsy said. He knew that if she were a human, she would probably be crying right about then. But Betsy was proud shifter stock. She would rather die than show her emotions on her face. At least the most negative of them. And yet, being her younger brother, Jonah had always been able to read her like a book. It was easy to tell how she felt, especially with her being such a kind and compassionate soul. Even the slightest of things could wound her deeply, whether she showed those wounds to anybody or not. And now, he was abandoning her.
“It isn’t really about fault, is it?” Jonah sighed. “It’s about responsibility.”
“I know. You have a responsibility to the SEALs. I would never dream of getting in the way of that.”
“You’d never be in the way, Bets,” Jonah growled, holding his sister by the shoulders and looking into her eyes. “I love you more than I’ll ever love anybody. You’re my sister. My first best friend. And trust me when I say that I will come back as soon as I possibly can. I will never leave you for that long again.”
Betsy gazed at him silently for a moment, appreciation radiating from her body. “When do you have to leave?” she finally asked.
“In the morning,” Jonah sighed. “But there’s something I have to take care of first.”
Betsy nodded and Jonah smiled. There was nothing more that he could do about the situation except hope to try to talk to Lyla. They were distracting enough when he was on the job that he nearly lost his life once. And he suspected they would continue to be distracting to him until he managed to sort out these inconvenient feelings once and for all.
***
“Jonah! What are you doing here?!”
Lyla’s mouth gaped open when she opened the door to her small bungalow.
“Betsy told me you have a leaky pipe. Thought I would take a look at it for you.”
He didn’t know why he had lied, or how the lie had slipped so easily off his tongue. Somehow, things between him and Lyla weren’t quite transparent. As much as he wanted her – and the wolf had already more than laid its claim – he still wasn’t quite sure where he stood with her. It was an unpleasant place to be.
“Oh,” Lyla said, stepping aside to let Jonah inside. “Come in.”
The house was refreshingly familiar, and memories of the night when they had come there together sprang to life in his mind. He wanted her more than he had ever wanted anybody in his life.
“Lyla,” he said, reaching for her arms.
Somehow, she avoided his grip and had slipped into the next room.
“I’ve been having trouble since I first moved in, but it only got worse with time.”
“Yeah,” Jonah said, trying his best not to feel brushed off. “That does tend to be how these things happen.”
“I didn’t know you were such a handyman.”
Lyla’s voice was muffled now, half of her body hidden by the open door of her refrigerator as she dug around and pulled out a bottle of water for herself.
“I just know my way around a house, that’s all,” Jonah said.
“Do you want anything?” Lyla asked.
Why was she being so casual about all of this? Surely, she had felt it too; that moment between them when the wolf had made his claim and she had surrendered to it; allowed herself to be his, and his fully. He hadn’t just imagined it. It had happened. What was going on?
“No, thanks,” Jonah said, avoiding her eyes and heading to the area where the pipes were obviously having the most trouble.
They were silent for a few moments as Jonah examined the pipes, the tension in the room so thick between them he was sure he would burst if they went another second without saying anything. When he turned around to face her, Jonah opened his mouth to speak.
Before he could, the wolf had taken over in an instant, and his hands were suddenly on her shoulders, his body pressed close against hers. He dipped his head down and sampled the sweetness of her lips, and Lyla gasped softly, surprised and aroused by the advance.
But soon, her hands were on his chest and she was pushing him away, walking toward the other room.
“Jonah, we need to talk,” she said miserably.
There was something he really didn’t like about the tone of her voice.
“What do you mean?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Other than everything?” she mumbled.
“Lyla…”
“It’s just…whatever you’re feeling…you get that I can’t feel the same way about you, right?”
Jonah frowned. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Well, this is just sex, right? We can’t be anything more than that. I can’t…I can’t love you, Jonah. It isn’t right.”
Jonah felt like he’d had the wind knocked out of him.
“You think I just want to be here for the sex?” he asked, surprised by how hurt he was by the implication. Why was she acting this way? He knew he had connected with her in a deep way reserved only for those who had mated for life. And sure, she wasn’t shifter enough to know these things, but still, the wolf had certain expectations.
Lyla swallowed hard, a dark flush creeping across her face.
“I can’t be with you Jonah. It just isn’t a good time. Don’t you get that?”
Jonah squared his jaw, the wolf suddenly baring its teeth at the woman it loved and turning its nose up at her.
“What I get is that I’m leaving, Lyla. I leave Stonybrooke tomorrow morning. I just thought that maybe we could…”
Lyla’s body responded to the suggestion, but her mouth was set in a firm line.
“I don’t owe anything to you, Jonah Lucas. You would be better off going off on your mission and forgetting about me, all right? This isn’t the time for us to be talking about this.”
There was something behind those ocean-colored eyes of hers. Something Lyla was hiding. What was it she wasn’t telling him?
“Please,” Jonah said, gripping her hand in his and staring deeply into her eyes.
But Lyla tore her eyes away and sighed, walking through the kitchen back to her living room and sitting heavily on the couch.
“I think you should leave,” Lyla said. Again, Jonah’s stomach did a flip-flop and he wondered what kind of alternate dimension he had wound up in. Lyla was his. Wasn’t she?
“All right. But I don’t know when I’m going to see you again,” he said to her, his eyes boring into hers. Again, he got that feeling that there was something wrong here. He just couldn’t put his finger on what it was.
“You’ll see me when you see me,” Lyla said, looking down at her hands. “Just go do what you have to do. Forget about all of this. You already know for yourself that it isn’t worth the trouble.”
She had him there. Jonah sighed, trying his best not to show the betrayal he felt on his face.
“If that’s how you really feel about it,” he said. “Then I’ll be on my way.”
Lyla said nothing, and Jonah waited for a moment longer, hoping beyond hope that maybe she would say something to change his mind and convince him to stay. But her begging wasn’t forthcoming, and Jonah sighed, turning his back on Lyla to head back home.