Chapter Seven

“WHAT THE hell are you doing?” Adam demanded as Jackson watched Leo walk away, feeling like a complete failure.

“Adam….”

“No,” his friend said, clearly angry. “You know you shouldn’t be involved with them. You know it never works out when we have relationships with humans. You remember what happened—”

“I remember,” Jackson cut in. “I remember, trust me.”

“We’re just worried about you,” Grant said, his voice softer than his brother’s.

“He’s my soul mate,” Jackson said. And felt miserable about it.

He felt the brothers recoil. The silence that followed was loaded, even as the bar throbbed with noise around them.

“He’s human,” Adam said eventually.

“Yeah.”

“And a man.”

“I’d noticed,” Jackson said drily.

“I didn’t think you were into either of those things.”

Jackson chuckled darkly and drained his beer. “I’m not. I wasn’t.”

“Past tense?” Grant asked.

“Still trying to figure that out.”

“Jackson… there is no way this ends well. You know that, right? No way at all.”

The brothers were werewolves too, though their parents weren’t. They’d been adopted as children without having any genetic testing, so when Grant first shifted when he hit puberty, it had come as something of a shock.

At eighteen, Grant had filed for custody of his brother, citing emotional and physical abuse from their parents that both boys had endured since Grant’s first shift. They moved into a halfway house run by a werewolf charity, and Grant worked days in gas stations and nights in bars to keep them going.

Despite the hardship and struggles, Grant was more mellow than his brother. Adam was still spitting mad that the “parents” who had adopted them hadn’t faced any repercussions for abusing their children. No one was interested in listening to them. Unfortunately their story wasn’t uncommon.

So Jackson didn’t blame them for being wary of his human soul mate.

“He’s not what you think.”

Adam dropped his head back. “Jackson, I swear to God, if you tell me he’s not like the others, I will actually scream.”

“He works with sick kids.”

Grant slapped his hand over Adam’s mouth before he could make good on his threat.

“I know everyone wants to pretend there is no ‘us and them’ anymore, but you should know better than that,” Grant said. “Be careful. That’s all I’m saying. Because if there’s ever any hint of anything going wrong, you’ll be the one thrown under the bus. No matter who’s at fault.”

“I know,” Jackson said softly.

“It doesn’t fucking sound like you do,” Adam muttered. Grant elbowed him in the ribs.

“Run with us this month?” Grant asked, changing the subject.

“You could come out to my place? It must have been a while since you got out of the city.”

Adam was already nodding. “That sounds good.”

Jackson slipped out of the booth and put on his jacket. Adam gathered up their empty glasses, then pulled Jackson into a hug.

“I just worry about you.”

“It’s okay.” Jackson squeezed him tight, then hugged Grant too. “I’ll speak to you soon,” he promised, waving as he headed out into the night.

IT WAS stupid and dangerous, and would definitely, definitely, get him locked up if anyone ever found out about it. But Jackson was feeling reckless.

He got into his truck and started the engine, then rolled down the windows, letting the cool night air inside. He took a few deep breaths, trying to find Leo’s scent on the wind.

It wasn’t there.

That would have made it too easy.

He drove in circles for a while, a little aimlessly, rolling the windows back up when he noticed a cop car at the stop light. There was no need to draw attention to himself. The radio was playing some jazz with a good beat, and Jackson let his conscious mind focus on that while the bond Leo had yet to recognize led him to his soul mate.

About forty minutes later, he pulled up in front of a nondescript apartment block not too far from the hospital. Without needing to check, Jackson knew Leo lived here. He parked in one of the free spaces and killed the engine.

It was getting late now, and activity in the different apartments was starting to wind down. If Jackson concentrated hard, he could sense movement around him, people going about their lives. He was also more than aware that this was territory; that other wolves lived in this area. Peacefully, but still. He was encroaching.

Jackson closed his eyes and let the feeling of the bond with his soul mate wash over him. Even as his emotions pitched and swirled around the fact of Leo being a man, this bone-deep contentment spread like a balm over his aching heart.

Jackson had never felt so unsure about himself, about his sexuality and what he wanted from his life. He’d never sought out his soul mate, believing that if it was meant to happen, then it would. Now it actually had and Leo was here, and Jackson had absolutely no idea what to do.

With his eyes closed, Jackson let himself tune in to his soul mate, feeling Leo’s heart beat alongside his own. He was definitely not comfortable owning the label “gay,” but it felt like his soul mate had already found a place in Jackson’s life.