Leave Janelle by Sarah Spade

3

For all the darkness inside of him, Jack’s appearance is stunningly bright. A movie-star handsome male with tanned skin, a dent in his chin, and wavy blond hair, he has the build of a California surfer and an air of danger that makes him too, too attractive.

I remember being floored the first time I saw him, and when his lips curved slowly as he looked me over, I couldn’t believe my good luck to be his fated mate.

And then I met his eyes.

Jack has eyes of molten gold, but even when he was trying to convince my parents that his reputation was blown out of proportion, that he would be a strong and devoted mate to me—the first of many lies he told me—I noticed that something was stirring in those brilliant eyes.

It wasn’t long before I learned that it was evil. Pure and simple. His good looks are just another tool he mastered to manipulate, like his claws and his fangs. The Wicked Wolf of the West has earned every inch of his reputation, and that was back when he was only an alpha shifter. Once he took over the Western Pack as the Alpha, he was free to be the vicious, sociopathic wolf he truly is.

Still, as he lets himself into my cabin the night of his return, I can’t help but be stricken again by his beauty.

My pup looks so much like him. With her blonde curls and eyes of honey gold, Ruby is the spitting image of her father. Her good heart is all me, though, and I’d much rather her take after me in personality than have her match my appearance. So what if I’m dark where she’s fair, that I’m a brunette instead? There’s only good when I peer into her eyes, and I’m grateful for it.

I knew as soon as he returned to the Wolf District. The pack sentries howled to him in welcome—okay, in obeisance—but even without their howls echoing all the way to my cabin, I felt the tug on our fledgling bond and could sense him.

Tomorrow is the full moon. I hoped he would work off his need with any of his other girls, but he’d hardly been back on our territory when my door is flinging open, Jack looming in my doorway.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. It’s the motto I live by. So even though I hoped he’d go to any other cabin, I assumed he’d head for mine. I already sent Ruby to her room, tucking my pup into bed a few moments before he arrived.

I struggle to bring a welcoming grin to my face. I’ve learned that he takes offense if I don’t, and if I can avoid setting him off this close to the full moon, I have to.

“Jack. Hi. How was your meet?”

He slams the door shut behind him. “Fuck the meet.”

Oh, boy.

That… can’t be good.

He lifts his human nose, flaring his nostrils. I can only guess what scent he’s picked up on when his eyes seem to flash in recognition.

Uh oh.

I gulp. “Is something wrong?”

“I’d fucking say so. I smell Scott in here.”

I don’t deny it. I don’t even get a chance to before Jack is stalking toward me, a deceptively casual expression on his handsome face as he says, “Heard from some of my wolves that he stopped by last night, but I didn’t give him the order to. So, tell me, Janelle. Why was my Beta sniffing around you?”

“He wasn’t—”

I’m always so amazed by how fast he is. A man of that size shouldn’t be able to move that quickly, that easily, but before I can finish my sentence, he’s in front of me, already swinging his arm up at me.

Jack uses the flat of his hand to strike me in my face. He always says it’s because it tempers his strength so I only get knocked around just enough when I “deserve” it, but I know better. With his claws out, they tear into my cheek before his hit sends me flying into the wall nearest to me.

Another mark, I think dazedly as I crumple up on the floor. Forever another mark from my mate.

I watch as his boots appear in my line of vision. He grabs me by my upper arm, wrenching me so that I’m on my feet again. With a rough shake, he snarls, “Don’t lie to me, Janelle,” before he pushes me back into the wall.

This time, I stay standing.

His icily calm facade was just that, I realize now. It’s hiding the blazing fury of a temper that Jack is struggling to control. That first strike was a warning. If I push him, it’ll only get worse for me.

Yesterday, I thought to myself that, if I accepted Scott’s blatant invitation, Jack would kill him. This close, with my cheek on fire and my shoulder throbbing, I have to admit that I underestimated him.

Right now, I’m not so sure he’s not going to kill me.

“Jack.” I gasp out his name. “I don’t know what you think happened, but I told him to leave.”

“Did you?” His voice lowers, going so cold that I can’t help but shiver. “Was that before or after you gave him a sample of what’s mine?”

“I didn’t,” I swear. “You have to know I didn’t. I… ask Scott! He’ll tell you that I sent him right away. Please, Jack. Go ask him.”

“I would, but he’s in no state to answer me.” A hollow laugh. “Kinda hard to speak when you’re missing your throat.”

Oh, Luna, no.

Later, I’ll look back and recognize that everything went to hell at that very moment. I was so shocked and distraught at how easily Jack admitted to murdering his latest Beta for coming onto me that, for a heartbeat, I slip up. Fear rushes through me, and that stark terror travels straight through the bonds I share with my mate and my pup.

Jack moans at the flavor of my fear. I’ve heard him murmur in my ear before that it’s his favorite, that it’s fucking delicious, and his eyes go molten as it slams into him.

But my fear does something else to my pup. Breaking the hold I have on her, my little wolf suddenly appears in the front room of the cabin. I don’t even know how, considering I closed the door to her room behind me, but there she is and before I could try to retain control over the situation, she’s inserted her small body between me and Jack.

Ruby’s ears go back. She’s showing her teeth to her father, haunches raised as she assumes a defensive position.

My pup is protecting me—in front of Jack.

No. No, no, no.

I’ve done everything I could to hide the truth from my mate. Over the last year, on the few occasions when he would look at Ruby with a suspicious gleam in his gold-colored eyes, I did whatever I had to to distract him.

I would stick my ass out at him. He could never resist that. I’d go on my knees. All fours. He was always a beast in rut, and if my meek nature didn’t piss him off enough that he lashed out, then being his bitch would snare his attention away from my pup.

More than that, I used my omega nature to fool him. Not only did I conceal Ruby’s alpha aura from him by covering it with mine, but I played the part he expected of one of my kind. He thought omegas were weak? I gave him weak. I gave him gentle. I never fought back, and except for when it came to his mark, I never said no.

I never gave him any idea that I was less than loyal. Devoted. His.

And now, as Ruby challenges her alpha father without a hint of fear, he’s finally looking at her as if things aren’t what he thought they were.

“What’s this?” he asks softly. It’s not as cold as his earlier demand and, somehow, that scares me more. “What else have you been hiding from me, my mate?”

Ruby is still growling at him. I click my tongue, catching her attention. Though she’s smart enough to know that she shouldn’t take her eyes off of the bigger threat in front of her, she’s still my baby girl. Her head whips around, searching for me.

“Bed, Ruby girl,” I whisper. “Mama says go to bed.”

She hesitates, her small wolfish head swinging back to look at Jack again.

“Go,” he barks.

Ruby bolts from the room so quickly, her paws can’t keep up with her speed. She trips, rolling over herself before she’s back on all fours again. I sense her retreating to her bedroom, and though I can’t risk walking away from Jack to shut her door, I tell myself it wouldn’t do any good anyway. She got out before. My little Houdini would just find another way to escape.

For now, she’s out of the line of fire. It’s better than nothing.

And that’s when Jack says in a loaded tone, “Keep them.”

I look over at him. I didn’t even notice that I was staring after Ruby until Jack made his demand. After what just happened, I don’t know what I expected him to say first, but it wasn’t that.

Actually, I have no idea what he’s talking about. “Keep what?”

Blood glistens on the tips of his claws as he points. My blood. “The marks on your face. Keep them, Janelle.”

Oh.

My fingers lift up to my cheek, tips ghosting against the ruined skin. I’m not sure how since my face feels like it’s on fire, but I kind of forgot about the slash marks there.

He didn’t.

A small smile curves his lips as he continues to point. “You will wear my mark on your face just like that. Every fucking male will know you belong to me, just like that little bitch is from my seed.”

What?

No.

“Jack, I—”

“And if you heal them…” His smile widens. “If they’re gone when I come to fuck you next, you’ll regret it. I’ve told you before, Janelle. No one comes between me and my mate, not even your spawn.”

He doesn’t need to specify his threats. If he says I’ll regret it, then I will. He’ll do something to Ruby, even though she’s as much his pup as she is mine. Because it’ll hurt me, and because he knows that I’ll do anything to protect my daughter from his cruelty—even keep his marks.

It’s all he’s ever wanted. Whether he bound me to him or not isn’t really the issue because being marked by Jack is the one thing I’ve always refused to give him. Now? Now he’s leaving me no choice and we both know it.

Jack moves into me. Unlike before, his steps are slow. Purposeful. He wants me to see his approach as he says, “Tell me you love me.”

He does this sometimes. It’s another thing he gets off on, another way to prove he has all the power. I’ve told him a hundred times. In the three years that I’ve been his, he’s never said the same.

I don’t think Jack loves anyone but himself. Not me. Not any of his girls. Especially not our daughter.

But I know better than to refuse, especially after that too calm ultimatum.

“I love you, Jack.”

“More than anyone?”

“More than everyone.”

“More than the bitch?”

My inner wolf wants to lash at him for how he keeps referring to her pup as a bitch.

Lie, Janelle.

“Yes.”

He grabs me by my hair. Wrapping the length around his fist, he tilts my head back far enough that I’m forced to stare into his blazing gold eyes.

The tilt becomes a yank. I gasp, and my bastard mate takes advantage to shove his tongue in my mouth. It’s a kiss so deep, so unwanted, that it’s all I can do not to gag.

Right when I’m ready to plead for breath, he bites. Hard.

I whimper.

Letting go of my hair, he snatches my chin, angling my head so that he can run his gaze over the bloody rips in my cheek. I purposely kept them from healing—keep them, he said and, if only for a moment, I’m listening—and he rumbles in pleasure when he can tell that he’s won.

“Atta girl.”

I swallow, but say nothing.

He pinches my chin anyway. “The full moon is tomorrow, Janelle. You will fuck me then, and you will mate me. We will be bonded. For good this time. No other males for you, and I’ll give up my females. I won’t need them. Not when I have a mate like you.”

I’m scared. For me, but mostly for Ruby, I’m fucking terrified. And then Jack drops that bomb on me and the only thing I can think to do is squeak out, “Like me?”

“The moon knew what she was doing when she gave you to me,” is all Jack says before he does something that scares me even more.

His gaze goes over my head, and he smiles again. There’s something in that grin that has me pulling my chin out of his grip, turning to look over my shoulder.

And there’s Ruby.

The Wicked Wolf is grinning at Ruby.

My stomach lurches.

He knows.

There’s no way he hasn’t figured it out. I can sense a smugness coming from Jack that overlays the possessiveness and the anger that was exploding off of him earlier. Not only that, but he’s almost… excited.

Of course he is. After a year of hiding Ruby’s true nature from him—after three years of keeping from becoming his bonded mate—Jack believes that he has everything he needs to be the most powerful Alpha in reach. He has the only female alpha as his daughter, and the perfect leverage to get me to bond to him irrevocably.

Unless I leave.

I could. On some of the roughest nights, I would lie awake and think about all the ways I could escape the Wolf District; after Ruby was born, the fantasies developed an urgency even if I admitted that Jack would never let me go. So what if he thought she was an omega? She was still as much his as I was, and he’d do anything to keep us trapped here. There was no point in trying to leave if, in the end, all I’d do was piss him off.

Now? I’m the only thing standing between my vicious mate and my vulnerable pup. Even if being Jack’s prisoner is inevitable, it’s still my choice. My decision. A mate has to choose, and if I disobey him, if I heal his marks, I might be able to buy some time to figure out another plan to save my girl from her father.

Jack is an alpha. His rank comes with its own abilities, but empathy isn’t one of them—and not just because he’s twisted and broken deep inside. He doesn’t need to be able to sense my emotions to know what I’m thinking. His ironclad control over the pack—control over me—is enough to give him some insight into my chaotic plotting.

Or maybe it’s the way that I’m trembling in fear, pure desperation eking out of my pores as I watch Ruby lower herself into another defensive position.

She’s going to try to protect me again. I need to calm down. She’s reacting to my emotions the same way Jack is, only she wants to save me from them instead of enjoying how distraught I am.

He laughs. It’s a low chuckle that only makes his next threat all the more chilling.

“I know what you’re thinking, my mate. Don’t. Because if you even think of refusing me tomorrow, I’ll drown the bitch.”

He wants a reaction? He gets one.

Whirling back on Jack, I gasp. “You wouldn’t.”

“Wouldn’t I?” His golden eyes glitter brutally. “Oh, Janelle. You know me better than that.”

He’s right. I do.

“She’s just a child!”

“And? She’s mine.” Jack lashes out his paw, wrapping his claws around my neck before yanking me toward him again. “Just like you are.”

The points of his claws slice easily through my skin. I freeze so that they don’t go any deeper.

I’m pinned. Just like always with this male, I’m trapped.

He slowly lowers his head—but he doesn’t kiss me this time. No. Instead, he darts out his tongue, gathering up the blood that spilled down my cheek, dripping to pool against my collarbone.

Another guttural moan, then he pushes me away from him. His claws rip through the side of my throat, adding more blood to the pool he just lapped up, but I barely notice.

I lose my footing, but recover in time to turn and swoop Ruby up before she can launch herself at her father.

He laughs again. The light-hearted sound only adds to my terror, and I cling to Ruby for comfort almost as much as to shield her from him and his threats.

As Jack reminds me one final time that he expects to see his marks turned to scars when he comes back during the full moon, all I can hear is the repeated refrain of two words beating against my skull:

Leave, Janelle.

Leave.

Janelle, leave.

Leave—

The spell is broken as soon as he slams the door closed behind him. For the moment, at least, we’re alone.

Stumbling backward, clutching my daughter tightly, I sink down on the couch.

I have to leave. And maybe it’s a death wish, maybe I’m putting both of us at risk, but I can’t sit here and wait until my fate is sealed tomorrow.

He threatened to bond me to him against my will. He promised he’d drown my pup if I didn’t.

Who’s to say that he wouldn’t do that anyway the next time I pissed him off?

I can’t stay. I can’t.

We can’t.

We have to leave, and if we fail, at least I can say I tried.

For Ruby’s sake, I have to try.