Chapter Eight – Jack

“Take my bed.” Jack led his mate into his bedroom. This wasn’t how he imagined them spending their first night together. Eva would take the sleeping draft and spend the night in his bed, while Jack slept in a chair in the corner. Although his body was buzzing so much at being close to his mate, he doubted he would ever sleep.

Normally when he was this hyped up, he would go bear and run through the forest, leaving his fox tracks in his wake. That was not happening tonight. His place was here, by his mate’s side, and here he would stay.

“Are you sure? I could sleep on the floor.” She looked dead on her feet; he was sure she would keel over and sleep for hours even without the sleeping draft, but he was going to make sure she took it anyway. It would knock her out, which meant he wouldn’t have to worry about her trying to retrieve the Dragon’s Tear alone.

Yes, he’d seen the look in her eye. He knew what she was thinking, and he wasn’t going to let her go on a suicide mission. Tomorrow, they would work together and formulate a plan.

To go against the Council, his bear pointed out.

Yes, to go against the Council. But we may get lucky and the Council will never know. They’ve probably stowed it in some deep, dark room by now, and all we have to do is steal it back.

Without tripping their wards, his bear said.

“Here.” He ignored his bear and went to the closet, pulling out a shirt and some sweat pants. “To sleep in. I’ll wash your clothes, and have them dry for the morning.”

Eva was about to protest, when she looked down and saw the mud, and blood, streaked across her clothes. She touched her fingers to the black smears. “Degetty blood.”

“Yes. You caught him good.” He moved to stand beside her. “If it’s any consolation, when that degetty eventually gets free—and I have no doubt he will, he’s too powerful to be bound against his will for eternity. When he gets free, he will come after Gareth and make him pay for what he made him do.”

“They are that bad?” she asked.

“Degetty aren’t exactly bad. They wish us no harm. But they do not like being enslaved and used. Gareth forced his degetty to fight you. You cut him. He will remember. They always remember.”

“I don’t understand any of this,” she said, sitting down heavily on the bed. Eva put her face in her hands. “I always hated my life. It held no meaning. I always thought, dreamed, that one day it would change. Now I wish I was back at my boring job, in my empty apartment.”

“Hey, once this is over, I will teach you what you need to know. I will always be by your side.” He took her hand and kissed her palm. “Forever, we are bound.”

She pulled away from him and stood up. “Can I shower? I have blood and mud and goodness knows what else in my hair.”

“Yes. In there.” He pointed to a door leading off the bedroom. “Kick your clothes out the door, and I’ll wash them.”

“Sure.” She walked wearily to the bathroom, went in, and closed the door behind her. Jack tried to keep his mind off the thoughts that invaded his head. His mate was only feet away, and she was taking her clothes off.

The door opened, and he kept his arse on the bed, while she shoved her clothes out of the bathroom. When the door clicked shut, he got up, retrieved the clothes, and left the room, heading to the kitchen. If he put them on to wash now, he could hang them outside, and they would be dry by the morning. The warm summer breeze would see to that.

“How is she?” Kurt asked. His brother was doing the dishes, while Liam sat at the kitchen table drinking a beer. He got up, went to the fridge and passed a bottle to Jack.

“She’s good, all things considered.” He took the bottle. “Thanks.”

“Part of me is jealous you have found your mate, part of me feels sorry for you,” Liam said.

“I get what you’re saying,” Jack said, putting her clothes in the washer and adding detergent. “But this is fate, isn’t it? It’s for a reason.”

“I’m trying to figure out the reason,” Liam said. “Because all I can see right now is we are going to piss off the Council.”

“Which is why I want to leave you all out of it,” Jack said.

“Wait, no way. We are in this together. Brothers in arms.” Kurt turned around, his wet hands dripping soapy suds on the floor. “Don’t even think of doing this alone.”

Jack chuckled. “Now I know how I sounded when I told Eva the exact same thing.” He pushed his hair back off his face. He needed a shower too.

“We’re in this together. You know Helena will stand by us too. And what can the Council do? It’s not as if they can dump the squad? Who are they going to send in to do their grunt work, if they don’t have us?” Liam said reasonably.

“The Council doesn’t think like that. They’ll punish first, and deal with the repercussions afterward. Anyhow, they pulled Roman from somewhere to make up numbers when Ollie left. We are never indispensable. They can replace us if they want.”

“Good, then we can please ourselves, run in the forest, and work when it suits us,” Liam said, but they all knew life would not be that simple. They would lose their home, and possibly their business.

Ollie had been a squad member for the last four years, brought in when they went up against a nest of vampires over in Salisbury. They thought it would be ironic to take over the cathedral, and feed off those who came to pray. The Council thought otherwise; their goal was always to keep humans ignorant of the Otherworld.

Ollie had fit in well with the squad. Quiet and dependable, he stayed with them, living in one of the houses in the enclave. Things changed when he found his mate. She moved in with him, Claire was her name, a lion shifter from a small pride way up in the north of England. But she didn’t settle, and missed her family. The Council had reluctantly agreed to transfer Ollie.

Jack walked to the back door and looked out, breathing in the scent of the forest. He could never imagine leaving here, but then he had been born and raised in this small collection of houses. This was his home, but if Eva couldn’t settle here, if she insisted they moved, he would go. Jack placed his hand over his heart. It was no longer his. It, like the rest of him, belonged to Evaine Doe.

“Maybe we should show the Council how it would be if we weren’t at their beck and call.” Thoughts of mutiny erupted from Jack’s uncertainty over his future. His family would accept Eva, but the Council might try to drive her out once they learned she was a Night Hunter.

“You mean go on strike?” Liam asked. “I like the sound of that.”

“They need us. Yet they treat us like we’re nothing. Look at Gareth and that damn degetty of his. Who is going to have to go in and deal with it when it turns on the idiot who buys it off Gareth? And his father, who should know better, helped pull something so powerful from the Underworld. They don’t give a shit about us.” Jack’s temper was rising, as if a dam had been breached inside his mind. Maybe the Council had bound him, and Eva had freed him from it. A lover’s touch.

“It’s always been us and them,” Liam said. “Down through the ages. The druids have grown rich while we do their grunt work.”

“Then let’s change the balance of power. Make them see us as equals.” Jack turned back to look at his brothers. “There was a ward on the gully, they want it for something. We’re going to have to steal it. But if we survive, then I’m thinking it’s time we make a new deal with the Council. We have a right to know everything that goes on. They lock us out, and make decisions that affect us all. If we never make a stand, this is how it will always be, for us, our children, and our children’s children.”

“You want to go to war with them?” Liam asked.

“No. But there must be a way of getting their respect. Once we have mates. And children. I want them to have choices.”

“This is their choice,” Kurt pointed out. “It’s what our father, and our uncle did. It’s what their father, and their grandfather before them, did.”

“And that’s it?” Jack shook his head. “Why shouldn’t we have a seat on the Council? Why shouldn’t Helena? Why is it just druids?”

“Because they can blast our arses out of this world,” Liam said.

“Then let them deal with the dangers of this world. Let them spend their time hunting degetty or trolls, or chasing people who break their wards.” Jack tipped up his bottle of beer and drained it. He’d never challenged the Council before in any way. It seemed the arrival of his mate was already starting to make ripples. Speaking of his mate…

He put his empty bottle down on the counter and went to check on Eva. Jack hesitated outside the bedroom door. What if she wasn’t dressed? Should he knock?

He raised his hand and tapped gently. No answer. He didn’t knock again. Pushing the door open a crack, he looked over to the bed. She was asleep.

Jack went into the room, and crossed over to the bed, checking that she was actually asleep and not fooling him. The empty vial was on the nightstand, but she could have tipped it down the sink for all he knew.

The rise and fall of her chest told him she was asleep, or a very good actress. He watched her for a few minutes, wanting to reach out and touch her, to feel that buzz of electricity that passed between them, but he didn’t want to disturb her.

Satisfied she was asleep, he hit the shower, washing his hair and toweling himself dry. Then he settled down into the chair in the corner of the room, trying to get his big body comfy. It wasn’t happening, but it was a small price to pay to spend the night in the company of his mate.

Even if he would rather have been lying next to her in his bed. There was always tomorrow, or the night after that. And every night from now until one of them left this mortal world.