Chapter Three
Jordan’s heart raced as he stared into Nyah’s glassy eyes. She could have easily torched him again, or performed some kind of freakish spell. But she sat there, vulnerable. She needed help.
The intensity in her eyes told him he was going to be in trouble. His heart quivered, melting at her pain.
Fuck, what was wrong with him? He wasn’t some fucking sap.
Just moments ago they wrestled and fought, yet the entire time all he could think about was ripping her clothes to shreds and claiming her body for his own. The way her long blonde hair fell through his fingers like silk ribbons. He ached to grab her again, this time in the throes of passion while he drove himself into her.
His gaze raked her body, falling on two pebbled nipples stretching against her shirt. It took everything in him not to palm them and free them from their covering. The fire in her blue eyes now glassed over like ice.
She was obviously in pain at the loss of her sister. And something told him it was probably the first time she’d let herself grieve. But she was a strong, very powerful witch, and Jordan had to watch himself. She could have taken him down. But she hadn’t. Jordan could have killed her as well, many times over tonight. But he hadn’t.
Why?
He ran a hand down his face, trying to wipe away the thoughts filling his head. “You should rest. Tomorrow we’ll work on finding out who’s behind all this.”
“How can I trust you? What if you try and kill me?” Nyah stared him down.
Jordan arched a brow. “Oh, like you tried to kill me and my brother tonight?”
She pointed a finger that brushed the tip of his nose. “Hey, I never tried to kill you!”
“Oh right, like starting my shirt on fire was just some ploy to get me to strip for you?” Jordan crossed his arms with a smirk.
Nyah’s lips curled to a pout. “Maybe.”
Jordan’s dick twitched at the sight of her plump lips in that adorable pout. He’d love to slide himself right between them.
Shit, he had to stop thinking of her that way. Just as he talked himself down, her heartbeat sped in his ears and he zeroed in on her chest. Her fast pulse hummed like an electric current in the air.
Maybe she was feeling it, too. That undeniable draw. An insatiable lust his brain couldn’t shut off. His own heart sped at the thought, and he forced down a growl making its way up from his depths at the thought of pushing her back on the bed and fucking her until his name left her lips in a primal cry.
Nyah nodded and rolled over, inching her way to the edge of the bed.
“Where are you going?” Jordan clutched her by the elbow.
Nyah glanced over her shoulder to his hand, and then to his face. “Back to my motel room?”
“No, you’re not. You’re staying here. Where I can keep an eye on you.”
“You gonna cuff me to your bed, handsome?” Her tongue darted over her lips.
“I’ll do you one better.” Jordan winked and reached for the drawer in the bedside table. He pulled out the syringe, bit off the cap, and stuck it in her arm. “Sleep tight, darlin’.”
“What?” Nyah gasped and glanced down at her arm. “You’re fucking … drugging … me?”
A limp arm hung over the bed as she collapsed onto the pillows.
“Sweet dreams.”
He always had tranquilizers handy, should one of the young wolves get unruly during their first couple of full moon cycles until they learned to shift of their own accord. He never thought he’d need to use it on a human. But, this one was a witch, and he couldn’t let her run off in the middle of the night and attempt to kill them again.
Though, in his heart, he knew she wouldn’t do it. She had plenty of chances tonight. He saw her strength, her abilities, but he also saw her weakness. She wasn’t a killer. A killer didn’t hesitate. Someone who’d never taken a life had that moment of regret, that moment of guilt and remorse before ever even laying a hand.
Drugging her was more for her own safety than his or Zeke’s. If the rest of the pack knew there was a witch on the homestead, he didn’t have time or energy to explain the situation.
Jordan stared at the beauty sleeping soundly on his bed. Closing his eyes, he inhaled her scent mixed with amber and musk. He forced himself off the bed and released the deep breath. Nothing had ever smelled so good to him in his life. This desire welling up in him, almost an ache for this creature he hardly knew, had him bewildered.
He needed air.
He rushed out of the room and ran into Zeke in the common area of the large three-story estate.
“Awful quiet in there. Did you fuck her or drug her?” Zeke asked.
“Really?” Jordan shook his head and rolled his eyes.
“Well, the noises that came from the room earlier sounded a helluva lot like foreplay. Just sayin’.” Zeke smirked. “Not to mention you haven’t been able to stop talking about her or take your eyes off her since she got here.”
Jordan fanned his arm toward his bedroom. “That insane woman tried to kill you about ten minutes ago, or did you already block that from your memory?”
“Wasn’t the first time someone tried to kill me today. And, she was fighting to avenge her sister. I get it. If someone killed you, I’d do the same. Only I wouldn’t hesitate.” Zeke shrugged.
“You caught that, too?”
“If she had really wanted us dead, we wouldn’t be standing here. She’s a witch, a damn powerful one. She said Winston. The same witches who ran our ancestors out of the colonies and into the south.”
Jordan sighed and nodded, collapsing into a recliner. “I know. I know.”
“What’s wrong?” Zeke quirked a brow.
“I wish I knew. There’s just something about her, I can’t fucking explain it. I can’t stop thinking about her. I go near her and everything inside me feels like an all-consuming fire raging through my blood. Her scent, it’s like a drug and it takes all my power not to throw her against the damn wall and fuck her until I can’t see straight.” Jordan glanced at his hands. The ones that were around her throat, holding her down on the bed. The ones that tingled as they connected with her skin. “I think she put a fucking spell on me.”
“Or, she could be your mate,” Zeke said, a smirk twitching at the corners of his mouth.
Jordan shook his head. “You’re fucking high. There’s no way she’s my mate. She’s human. And a witch! No. Not in our bloodline. We’ve never mated outside of a wolf. Another pack, maybe. But not with a human. It can’t be so. She’s got me under some spell. I swear it to you. The moment she got here, I knew something was up.”
“If she had you under a spell to throw you off, then how come you still feel this way when she’s knocked out of her gourd right now in the other room?” Zeke pointed to the other room. “What you just described was exactly how it was for me with Gina. I think you’ve found your mate.”
A tremor ripped through Jordan’s heart. That couldn’t be true. He refused to believe it. Why? Why her?
“No. I’m the fucking Alpha of this pack, a pure bloodline wolf pack. Why would the powers that be mate me to a witch?” Jordan laughed at the words coming out of his mouth.
The idea was complete insanity. He would have to claim her, bite her, turn her, and make her part of the pack. She would never do it, nor would the pack ever accept her.
“I have no idea. But you can’t change the fact if it’s true. If you ignore it, should you even have the willpower to, you’ll never again find your mate. You have one shot at it. And you absolutely know when it hits you.”
“I don’t know. It can’t possibly be her. I wouldn’t be this confused, right?” Jordan fought the panic in his heart.
The more he thought about it, the more the idea took residence in his mind. It would explain everything, his feelings, his lust, his carnal desire to claim her. He’d been attracted to humans before, even had sex with them. But he’d never experienced this need, this ache that overwhelmed his entire being the moment he even thought about her, let alone stood in the same room with her.
“You’re confused because you’re trying to fight it.”
Jordan looked at his younger brother, wise beyond his twenty-six years. “She would never be accepted by the pack. I … I couldn’t bring her in to the homestead. A place she would be shunned. I would never be taken seriously as Alpha again. This just can’t be, Zeke. It can’t.”
“You’re Alpha. What you say, goes. They don’t have a choice.”
Jordan snorted. “Easy for you to say, you’re mated to Gina. Fucking gorgeous, smart, a wolf, and the best tracker we have in Eden’s Bayou.”
“They don’t have to like it, but they have to accept it.”
“She fucking tried to kill you!” Jordan shot out of his chair and paced the room.
Zeke folded his arms, leaning against the hallway door frame. “She also healed me. She didn’t have to. If I can get over that fact, maybe you should try.”
“I can’t destroy our bloodline. Maybe this is a test. Maybe I’m not meant to have a mate, to keep us ancients, we have to suffer. I don’t know.” Jordan ran a hand over his smooth, bald head. “I do this and we’re no better than the Bayou Vista pack.”
“Maybe it’s time to stop thinking we’re better. And start evolving.” Zeke shrugged. “She’s the last of her kind. We’re the last of ours.”
Jordan’s shoulders slumped, and he glanced at the bedroom door.
“You want her, yes?” Zeke asked.
“More than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life.” The words flew off his tongue before he could stop them. He realized what his brother had done. Fuck.
“You have your answer. She’s your mate.” Zeke pushed off the wall and headed toward the kitchen.
Jordan forced down a snarl climbing the back of his throat. “I will not yield to it.”
“Bro, you’re not gonna have a choice.” Zeke disappeared down the hallway.
Jordan marched to the bedroom, kicked the door open, and lunged at the bed where the woman … his possible mate still slept. He gripped the wrought-iron headboard and hovered over her before lowering his face to the nape of her neck, inhaling a long, slow breath, taking in her scent.
Tremors rocketed through his hands and arms as his heart raced in his chest, thumping loud and hard against his ribcage. Moonlight lit the side of her pale face like a sleeping angel, her golden hair like a halo. To say she was stunning would be a falsehood, for there were no words he could think of to describe her beauty. He’d never laid eyes on such a creature as her.
Maybe there was indeed a reason he was to be mated to her. She was the last of a powerful line of witches. He, the last of the ancient pure-bred wolves. Their new bloodline would be invincible. Maybe Zeke was right.
He swallowed hard as he inhaled her scent once more. But he wouldn’t take her while she slept. He wanted to look into her eyes as he claimed her, hear her shout his name as he thrust into her, giving her pleasure unknown.
Tomorrow, he would claim his mate.