The Wolf's Surrender

CHAPTER 3



Ten minutes later, Mia padded quietly down a short hallway, drawn by the delicious smells that had flooded her senses the instant she’d left the bedroom. Rich coffee, toasting bread, potatoes and eggs and bacon...it was easy to push her nerves into the background when she was positive she’d never smelled anything so heavenly. And she felt much better since she’d changed into a fresh pair of jeans and a simple, fitted V-neck sweater. Her hair had been de-knotted, and she’d been glad to find the gorgeous bathroom across from her room so she could brush her teeth. Tired of her itchy, dried-out eyes, she’d opted to soak the contacts and had instead put on the geeky-chic glasses she favored for work. Thick woolen socks warmed her feet.

It was, Mia figured, no time to try to be glamorous, not that she’d really packed for that sort of charade. She’d stupidly thought that Jeff had appreciated her being basically casual and earthy, the sort of girl who liked to run barefoot in fields and catch fireflies on lazy summer nights before dancing wildly under the moon.

She really should have known better.

Troubled by the way her thoughts kept circling around Jeff, Mia tried to concentrate on the mouth-watering smells wafting through the air and followed her nose into a room that opened clear to the peaked ceiling. As soon as she stepped into it, she forgot her nerves entirely.

Before her was a wall of enormous windows, turning nearly the entire thing to glass. And just beyond, seeming to be a part of the room itself, was a forest ablaze with color. Crimson and gold, vibrant orange to deepest rust—the colors flooded her vision until they were all she could see. Though her job and her fears had long kept her bound to the anonymous city, Mia was possessed of a sudden, wild urge to dash into the waiting arms of the trees and just...run.

Wow, she thought. Except she must have said it out loud, because the next thing she heard was his voice, deep, resonant, and just as gruff as she remembered, though now colored with a hint of amusement.

“Thanks,” he said. “I’m partial to the woods, myself. Thought breakfast might get you up. Coffee?”

Mia turned her head toward the sound, seeing the portion of the great room that had been turned into a kitchen. She saw gleaming marble in deep earth tones, glass-front cabinets, a scatter of containers and appliances that indicated the kitchen wasn’t just for show...and in the middle of all of it was Nick Jenner. Still bigger than life. Still simmering with the kind of latent sensuality that left her nerves raw and quivering.

Damn it, he was even better-looking than she remembered. And he’d asked her something. Which she couldn’t seem to remember for the life of her.

You wanted a way to get your mind off of Jeff, she reminded herself. Of course, she hadn’t wanted her brain to shut down completely, either.

“Hi,” Mia said, and immediately wanted to cringe. Whatever he’d asked her, hi wasn’t an answer.

Jenner lifted one eyebrow before turning to fiddle with something he had going on the stovetop. “Hi yourself. You feeling all right? Last time I checked the wound it was healing up well, but it could take a while for you to get your thoughts all the way back together.”

He’d checked on her. Of course he had. Still, she was absurdly touched. People simply didn’t take care of her...that was her job. Mia breathed in deeply, forced herself to concentrate on forming a coherent answer. He was right...she did still feel a little scattered. But she couldn’t afford to stay that way for any length of time. She had a lot of questions that desperately needed answering. And goddess forbid she slip up and say something.

“No, I’m fine,” she replied, and tried for a friendly smile. “Still a little foggy, but I think some coffee might help with that.”

Which was what he’d asked in the first place, Mia realized. What a great impression she was making. She walked to stand at the edge of the kitchen, all while Jenner watched her with his intense eyes, more like a wolf’s than a man’s. He didn’t return her smile, but he didn’t look irritated by her presence, either.

“Well, I’ve got plenty of coffee,” he finally said in his deep rumble of a voice. “Probably too much food, too, but I didn’t know what you’d like, so...” He trailed off with a nonchalant shrug that Mia found ridiculously attractive. “Cleaned out the pantry. Made a little of everything.”

“Oh, I like everything,” Mia rushed out. “Eating everything, I mean. Er, but not all at once.” She wanted to die, Mia decided. Just lay right down on the floor and give it up. Her foot was already glued into her mouth. Maybe she could just choke on that.

A slow, lazy smile curved up both corners of Jenner’s mouth and deepened the appealing little lines at the corners of his eyes. The bundle of nerves all knotted up in Mia’s lower belly seemed to tighten all at once.

“Good,” he said, his amusement clear in his voice. “Try to eat a little more of everything all at once this morning, though. You’re going to need the energy.”

“Yes, I guess I will,” Mia said, glad that he didn’t seem to think she was as ridiculous as she felt right now. She felt as skittish as a deer scenting a predator on the wind. It was both unfamiliar and unnerving. But there was something she needed to get out of the way before anything else was said this morning. She took a deep breath and plunged in.

“Look, I want to say thank you,” Mia said. “For helping me. Your friends saved my life. And you took care of me. If there’s any way I can repay you...”

Jenner’s eyes seemed to brighten as she trailed off, their strange honey-gold lighting with some inner fire for just an instant as he eyed her in a way that made heat spread from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. But before Mia could do more than register it, he had turned back to the eggs and was poking them with his spatula.

“No need,” he said, his voice slightly huskier than before. “Wolves like this Gaines are scum. Dex and the others were happy to run him off. Just like we’ll be happy to make sure he never hurts you or anyone else again.” He paused, flicked a glance at her before shoveling some eggs onto a plate, then beginning to butter a slice of toast roughly enough that it looked slightly mangled when he put it back down.

Disappointment flooded her. “Oh. So they didn’t catch him last night,” she said.

Jenner shook his head. “No, not yet. But we will. Which reminds me, Bane’s going to want to talk to you as soon as you’re up to it.” He sounded apologetic, Mia noted with a prickle of unease.

“Who’s Bane?” she asked.

“Jayson Bane. He’s Alpha of the pack. Don’t let him intimidate you when you meet him, though. He can be a hardass, but he’s a good man. I sure as hell wouldn’t want his job, but he does it well.”

“Oh,” Mia said, slightly taken aback. Considering Jenner’s size, the aura of power and confidence he projected, it hadn’t occurred to her that there would be other men in charge of him. “I thought maybe you were, you know...the leader,” Mia confessed before she could stop herself.

Jenner lifted his brows, and he chuckled, a warm rumble. He looked genuinely surprised, but not in an unpleasant way.

“Me? No. I’m not what you’d call Alpha material. You could say I’m sort of his second-in-command, I guess, though that’s not exactly right, either. We’re more like...two halves of a whole. He handles the stuff that requires talking.”

She watched him curiously, fascinated by the casual, predatory grace in every small move he made.

“And you do the stuff that requires...”

His grin was fast, wolfish, and moon-bright. “Not talking. Come on and sit down, Mia. Not all of us bite.”

Jenner loaded the rest of the plate with bacon and hash browns, grabbed a fork out of a drawer, and set the plate down on the island, which looked as though it doubled as an eating space. Mia hesitated only a second before approaching. She settled herself on the leather-padded seat of a stool, trying not to feel unnerved by Jenner’s watchful gaze.

“Wait a sec. Napkin,” he said with a frown, and brought her a hastily torn off paper towel. Her fingers brushed his when she took it, and Mia shivered, pulling it quickly away. Even that slight contact left her with the ghost of that beautiful melody she’d heard singing through his veins last night. It was only one of her gifts, but it had never come to her so effortlessly, nor had any man ever responded to her abilities so openly, even if Jenner seemed unaware of how receptive he was. She could only imagine the heaven of joining with him, skin to skin...

“Thanks,” she said, trying for a smile as her heart fluttered wildly. What was wrong with her? Yesterday at this time, she’d been happily imagining a romantic weekend with Jeff. But Jenner’s mere presence seemed to eclipse every thought of Jeff, good and bad.

“No problem.” He drew back almost as quickly as she had. Did he feel it, too, she wondered, this weird chemistry between them? She decided it was a stupid question almost as soon as she’d come up with it. Jenner was a big, sexy, supernaturally powerful man. And she was just...Mia. Not that she was unhappy with being just Mia most of the time. But it was not something that seemed to have set the male hearts of the world aflame just yet.

Because it was easier than forcing her mind to formulate coherent sentences, Mia shoveled up a forkful of the hash browns and dug in. Her taste buds sang their praises so immediately and loudly that she was pretty sure her eyes rolled back into her head in pure pleasure. Apparently, she’d been hungry.

“Umm. Mmm,” she heard herself say.

When she opened her eyes again, Jenner had paused in the middle of sitting down next to her with his own loaded plate and was looking at her with that intense, heated expression again. Almost as though he was thinking about taking a bite out of her. But as quickly as she could blink, it was gone, leaving her to wonder if she’d imagined it.

It spoke to her addled state, Mia supposed, that she kind of hoped not.

“Tastes okay?” he asked.

Mia swallowed. “Yes, thank you.”

Jenner slid onto the stool beside her without saying another word. Not much of a talker, that much was obvious. And it seemed like whatever questions she wanted answered, she’d probably have to ask them herself. While she pondered what to say next, she ate another bite of food. It was so good she quickly had another, and it took some time before Mia realized that she and Jenner had been eating for several minutes in complete silence. She glanced at him, certain she’d be confronted with at least an odd look, some sign that her lack of conversation was off-putting. But to her surprise, Jenner seemed perfectly comfortable in the quiet, eating and lost in his own thoughts.

It was easy to imagine him doing much the same thing every day of his life. A cozy thought, one that gave Mia a warm feeling she knew she had no business having over this man. But...it was so unusual, to be with a person who felt no need to inject words into a moment that was fine without them. Jeff had chattered ceaselessly, sometimes nervously...mostly about himself, Mia realized.

And he was as different from the man she was sitting next to as night was from day.

She looked back down at her plate, which she discovered was nearly empty. Jenner, it seemed, was noticing the same thing. He leaned over just a little to look, and now Mia could smell him again, a musky blend of forest and wood smoke. She had a mad urge to stuff her face in his neck and breathe it in.

“I guess that agreed with you,” he said.

“I...yeah, it did. Thanks,” Mia replied.

He eyed her plate, amusement glittering in his eyes. “I don’t know where you put all that, but there’s more where that came from if you want it.”

“No,” she said with a laugh. “Any more and I’ll explode.” She put her fork down and watched Jenner return to his breakfast. Mia took a sip of coffee, thought a moment, then plunged in.

“So,” she said, not missing the way his shoulders stiffened ever so slightly, as though he knew what was coming. “How long do I have before I turn into a werewolf? And when can I go home?”

Jenner had known she was going to ask the questions.

He just wished she’d waited until someone else had shown up to answer them.

He looked at Mia, her expression open and earnest as she watched him through a pair of glasses that shouldn’t have been nearly as sexy as they were on her. All that thick, dark hair was tucked behind her ears, and she looked like a young, bookish innocent.

Young, she most certainly was. Bookish, maybe. Innocent...well, he hoped Mia wasn’t as innocent as she looked, because otherwise her life was going to be very unpleasant until she got used to the way things worked with a wolf pack.

And she was still staring at him with those pretty eyes of hers, waiting for an answer.

“Well, you see,” he started, and then stopped again. Damn it, explanations weren’t his deal. Running off intruders and taking care of the filthy menaces that oozed around the edges of their territory was. He wasn’t valued around here for his communication skills...and he was now getting a very potent reminder of why not.

A crease appeared between Mia’s eyes, the beginnings of a frown. “I am going home soon, right? I’ve got work.”

“Work. Yeah.” God, he sounded dumb. What would a woman like Mia do for a living? he wondered. His curiosity about her—strange for a man who was picky about who he spent his attention on—prevented him from giving her an answer that was vague enough not to upset her.

Or any answer at all, for that matter.

“Okaaay,” Mia said, drawing out the word. “We have now established that we both understand that I work. Nick—”

“It’s Jenner,” he said reflexively, and knew at once how defensive he’d sounded. Well, great. That would do a lot to help his cause. He snuck a glance at the clock on the microwave and wished it were sometime in the afternoon instead of morning. Then Bane could deal with all of this. He’d expected, hell, hoped for a groggy Mia to feed and send back to bed. Instead he was getting grilled over breakfast.

Mia blinked at the sharpness of his tone, but to her credit, it didn’t seem to put her off much. “Jenner. Right, sorry. Look, I don’t know what you thought, but I’m not exactly living a life of leisure back in Philly. I need to get out of here as soon as possible, today if I can. I know you said you needed my help, and I’ll be happy to tell your...your Alpha, or whoever...everything I know about Jeff. But that shouldn’t take more than an hour or so, tops. I haven’t known him long.” She looked away. “I really think we should call the police. I don’t want him coming after me. I can’t have him coming after me. If he does, he’ll kill me. But I can’t stay here.”

Her blunt assessment, and the resigned way she delivered it, surprised him. Suspicion, always his first reaction, made the hairs at his neck prickle. He tamped it down as best he could, knowing it was unfair. Or maybe he was just hoping it was.

He still couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something important here.

“I don’t think he was trying to kill you, Mia,” Jenner said slowly, unsure of how close he should get right now to the truth of werewolf bonding. She looked back at him sharply, and in that moment, despite her previous uncertainty with him, he could see the steel spine lurking beneath the surface.

“Yes he was,” she said flatly. “I saw the knife. He was about to finish it when your men arrived.”

“Jesus.” Jenner stared at her, astounded she could be so calm about this. “Why didn’t you say something last night?”

“I didn’t know the knife made a difference,” Mia replied, shifting a little. “I thought it was pretty obvious he was trying to kill me. What, did you think he just wanted to...to make a new werewolf girlfriend or something?”

Jenner resisted the urge to get up, get away from that too-perceptive stare of hers. “We thought he wanted to turn you and keep you, which is bad enough,” he said, skirting the issue as best he could. “Why would he want to kill you?”

He knew it was a stupid question the second it was out of his mouth, and Mia’s withering look said as much.

“Because he’s crazy. He thinks—” She hesitated, then shook her head. “It doesn’t matter what he thinks. He’s insane. I’m glad to know you and your pack are hunting for him, but I really think it would be best to involve the police, too, just to keep the bases covered. They don’t need to know what he is.”

Jenner’s instincts sharpened. He could hear the uneven beating of her heart, could smell the fear beginning to taint that seductive citrus scent of hers. His feeling that there was more going on here had been dead-on. He could see it in the stiffening of Mia’s shoulders, hear it in that unfinished sentence. But the look on her face, and the weariness still hovering over her features, made him stop. She’d tell him, or tell someone. She was going to have to.

Given what she’d been through, he’d wait to push her on it.

But not long.

“You’re forgetting, our sheriff is on it. Anybody asks, you’ve already been to the police. Buddy will get the word out, but this is going to work its way through both channels, Mia. Isn’t that better?”

She sighed and shook her head. “I suppose. I wish I’d never met him. Or at least that I hadn’t been so stupid when I did.”

He shouldn’t have felt relieved, but Jenner couldn’t help himself. All of his questions about her relationship with the feral were now answered. Mia hadn’t been engaged, or in love, or anything much at all with this Gaines. He could read it all over her face. And giving a damn about it, Jenner knew, was bound to put him in a foul mood when he had a chance to mull it over.

“It wasn’t stupid,” Jenner said, unsure why he was compelled to soothe her. Maybe she had been stupid about it, but he doubted it. “Sometimes we just get...unlucky.”

He knew more than a thing or two about that, and he could see that she got it right away.

Mia curved one corner of her mouth up in a small, self-deprecating half smile.

“Yeah,” she said. “You can say that again. Though fangs and fur kind of pushes the situation somewhere past just unlucky.”

Jenner chuckled. It seemed like he was going to end up liking Mia D’Alessandro, whether or not it was in his best interest. Her own smile faded away far too quickly, replaced by grim resignation.

“So about the going home?” she asked. “Like I said, I’ll talk to whoever I need to, but this was only supposed to be a weekend getaway. Just tell me what I should be expecting.”

“What you should be expecting,” Jenner repeated. He’d never met anyone who treated becoming a werewolf like catching a cold. He shook his head, amazed. “You’re a strange one, Mia.”

He could see right away he’d said the wrong thing.

“I’m not strange, I’m trying to be practical,” Mia replied, bristling. “Whatever’s coming, I can handle it. I can even come back at the full moon or whatever if it would help. But before anything happens, I need information.”

Jenner couldn’t do anything but stare at her. It was obvious Mia needed a few basic things explained to her, and he had no interest in being the one to do the explaining.

Damn you for sticking me with this, Bane, Jenner thought, taking care to keep it to himself. And though he hated to invade the Alpha’s thoughts almost as much as he hated having his own picked up, Jenner pushed out a request with as much force as he could muster.

Bane, could you get over here? Mia...that is, the bitten from last night...she’s asking a lot of questions, and I don’t think I’m really the guy to be answering them...

The response was quick, and though terse, laced with a little amusement at his expense that Jenner didn’t miss.

You’re one of us. Why not you? I’ll be over later, Jenner. Didn’t expect her to be up and lucid so early. Little busy right this second.

Jenner set his jaw and fought back a groan.

The blonde from the bar?

You got it. Smugness, Jenner decided, came through telepathy just fine.

“You can’t keep me here against my will,” Mia said. “I don’t care what you turn into, or what’s supposed to happen to me on the full moon, I’m not staying here indefinitely. I want Jeff caught, but as long as someone explains how it all works to me, I’ll handle my own...stuff. At home.”

The voice Jenner had found rich and warm just a few minutes ago had moved further into just plain “heated” territory. Innocent or not, he decided, this one had plenty of fire in her. Mia was obviously no pushover, nor a simpleton, which meant she’d probably do just fine here. Once she accepted the way things were.

He guessed an upside of being the bearer of bad news, though, was that Mia would probably want nothing to do with him after this. That would make things a hell of a lot easier on him. At least, he thought as he watched Mia cross her arms over her chest and glare at him with enough heat to set the house ablaze, it ought to. If he could somehow manage to ignore her presence in the Hollow altogether.

Which was unlikely at best.