JUDE (Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance) (A Wood Haven Novella Book 1) Page 5

  “What’s my Mitchy want with her?” the woman who’d been grilling me before asked.

  My guide flashed her a smug smile. “Now, Darla, you know I can’t tell you that.” He motioned for me to follow him and then started down a long grimy hallway.

  I wiped my clammy palms against the fabric of my sundress. Swallowing hard, I stepped into the dilapidated building after him.

  The scent of greed and sex hung heavily in the air. Doors lined the filthy hallway, each more dented and worn than the previous. Music pulsed from a few of the rooms while loud laughter vibrated from others. Whenever this place was, everyone seemed to be having a good time. Everyone except me. I didn’t want to be here.

  “And here you are.” My solid mass of muscle for a guide reached for the knob on the door at the end of the hall and twisted. It swung open before I had a chance to gather myself. “After you.”

  I slipped past him into the room. Red lights assaulted my eyes, giving the space an ominous vibe. Deep-seated leather couches flanked the outskirts of the room covered with fluffy throw pillows in various colors. In the center of one sat Mitch, dressed in a slick suit similar to the one I’d witnessed him in before.

  “Well, hello, doll face.” He puffed on his cigar, sending smoke curling around his face. It dissipated into the air above him. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

  My guide closed the door behind me, leaving me alone in the room with Mitch. My scalp prickled.

  “I’m here,” I said, taking a tentative step away from the door. I didn’t like the idea of having my back to it. With the noise level of this place being so high it was too easy for someone to sneak up behind me.

  “Do you want to have a little fun or shall we get down to business instead?” His eyes raked up and down the length of me as he took another puff on his nasty-smelling cigar.

  “I didn’t come here for fun.”

  “Down to business it is then. I can appreciate a woman knows what she wants.” He held out a tiny vial. “Here you are.”

  It was warm to the touch. My eyes zeroed in on it and my chest tightened. I held the ingredient to Jude’s death in my hand.

  My breath caught in my throat. What if I couldn’t go through with this?

  “Having doubts again?” Mitch sneered. He reached for a tiny box beside him and held it out to me. “This might get you back on track.”

  My fingers shook as I took it from him. He noticed, and one of his throaty, evil laughs vibrated through the room.

  “Go on,” he insisted. “Open it.”

  I slipped the lid off and stared at the contents inside. With the lack of bright light in the room it was hard to distinguish what I was seeing at first—the second I did, though, I could barely breathe.

  A bloodied finger was nestled among white tissue paper.

  The room spun. I didn’t have to ask who it belonged to because I already knew. It was Stephen’s. This was the reason he’d been screaming last night in the background of Mitch and I’s call.

  My stomach rolled as acid hit the back of my throat. I dropped the box and my brother’s bloody finger rolled across the hardwood floor. My knees grew weak at the sight and the room continued to spin.

  Oh, God. Mitch had chopped off my brother’s finger.

  If I had any doubts before that Mitch wasn’t serious about following through with his plan, they would have evaporated right then. Mitch meant business. End of story.

  “Back on track now, doll face?”

  I nodded, but didn’t speak. If I opened my mouth, I’d throw up.

  “You take that vial and do what you were told. I want Jude Wilder dead. If not, your brother dies. Understood?”

  “Understood,” I muttered.

  “You’re free to go.” He shooed me away with a wave of his hand.

  My sour stomach gargled as I reached for the doorknob. I rushed down the long hallway, heading straight for the scuffed-up front door. My guide was standing there, laughing.

  “Didn’t like what was in the box, I take it,” he sneered. He reached to open the door for me, but I beat him to it, the need for fresh air fueling my motions.

  I burst through the door, nearly taking out a tall guy with dark hair and icy-blue eyes.

  “Jesus, crazy bitch!” he shouted after me as I rushed past him, bee-lining for my car.

  Laughter from the wannabe shifter women made its way to my ears, but I ignored them too. All I cared about was putting distance between me and this hellhole.

  The instant I reached my car, my stomach rolled one final time before emptying itself all over the pavement. Stephen popped into my mind. I couldn’t imagine the pain he was in. I prayed he would be okay long enough for me to follow through with what Mitch wanted.

  I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and tightened my grip on the vial. My thumb rubbed along its smooth surface. Something sticky caught on my nail. I glanced down and noticed a sticker barely hanging on. Bold black letters printed on it read wolfsbane.

  CHAPTER NINE

  JUDE

  Gravel crunching outside my front door captured my attention. I set the book I’d been reading aside and started toward the front door. I could see Sophia’s crappy car through my windows as it slowed to a stop behind my truck. She was here.

  I swung my front door open and leaned against the door frame, watching as Sophia climbed from behind her steering wheel. She held a grocery bag in each hand.

  “Hey there,” I said in greeting. I folded my arms across my chest, my gaze on her unwavering as I took in every inch of her.

  She wore another sundress—this one white with tiny red flowers. I grinned at the sight of the color. It would still give me an excuse to call her Red. Who was I kidding? She didn’t have to wear red for me to call her by the name, she’d always be Red to me.

  “Hi.” She slammed her driver side door shut and started toward the steps to my porch without glancing at me. Tension rippled through her body, I could taste it in the air. “Ready for another round of taste testing?” she asked as she slipped past me and into my house.

  My nose wrinkled as the scent of stale cigarettes and something else wafted to my nose. She’d been somewhere before this. The scent of the place had tarnished her signature strawberry scent. Damn, I’d been so eager to smell its sweetness again.

  “Having a bad day, Red?” I started toward the kitchen, where she was already setting out the items she’d brought with her.

  “You have no idea.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  I wasn’t big when it came to talking about feelings, but I’d always been good at listening. It came with being in a role of authority. Plus, getting her to tell me what was wrong might bring us one step closer, a place I desired us to be. There was something between us. I could feel it. Sophia felt it too. She had to, it was too strong for a human to miss.

  “No.”

  Toss that idea out the window. This woman wasn’t in the mood to talk at all. “Okay then, let’s get this show on the road. Let me see what you got here.”

  “Homestyle baked beans with crumbled bacon, savory cornbread with sage and sausage, a basic coleslaw, and hickory-smoked pulled pork with a tangy barbecue sauce.” She pointed to each dish as she said what they were. A heaviness entered my body. She’d been here five whole minutes and had yet to look at me. Had I done something during our last visit to piss her off? She’d laughed when I spit her muffin out. I’d paid her for her time too. What more did she want from me? “Tell me what you think. Honestly. I can tweak any recipe.”

  I reached for the tiny dish of pulled pork first. “Let’s start with the main event. This is my sister’s favorite. You should’ve seen her face when I told her it would be on the menu. Hopefully you make a shit ton of it because I’m sure she’ll be having one hell of a pregnancy craving she’ll want to satisfy come this weekend.”

  “You have a sister? A pregnant sister?”

  “Well, yeah. This party is for her. We’re hav
ing a gathering in honor of her having twins soon. Normally it’s a strict traditional event, but I’m putting a twist on it. It’s becoming a mash up of our traditional event and a common baby shower.”

  “Why?”

  “Why not? I’m the new alpha.” I reached for a plastic fork she’d set out and took a bite of the pulled pork. The savory taste of hickory wood and spices blasted across my tongue. It was perfect. “Amy is going to love this. Mmm, man this is good.”

  “You want to change something that’s been tradition for years because you’re the new alpha?” Disgust dripped from her words.

  “No, I want to change something that’s been tradition for years because as the new alpha I would like to open up human relations. I think it’s something that needs to happen. Enough time has gone by since shifters came out. Enough time has gone by since the war that took place here too. It’s okay for things in Wood Haven, things in the world, to move forward. Don’t you think?”

  Sophia didn’t say anything. She continued to stare at me, the color of her eyes darkening. Her lips pressed into a thin line and I knew I’d offended her somehow. How though? She was standing in my kitchen. A human in a shifter’s house. She couldn’t have been that against the idea.

  “For some of us, it’s a little harder to move past it than others.” She shoved the container of baked beans at me and took away the pulled pork.

  My inner wolf growled at the aggression in her movement, but I tamed him. “Time heals though. Don’t you think enough time has gone by for healing?”

  “Time might heal, but it can also be looked at as a marker of how long it’s been since you’ve seen someone you lost.”

  I forced a forkful of baked beans into my mouth, giving myself a second to think about my next words before I blurted something out. It was clear she’d lost someone she loved dearly during the war between shifters that took place here a few years back. No wonder she found what I said so damn offensive. To her, it was.

  Something shifted across her face, in her eyes, and I knew I was losing her to old memories. Painful memories of the past. Tears glistened in her eyes. I struggled to think of something to say that would pull her back, but in a good way.

  “It’s okay to miss someone you’ve lost, but it’s not okay to live in the shadows of that misery forever.”

  Her gaze lifted to mine, and for a split second I thought I saw relief flicker through the color of her eyes. She looked so fragile, so human, so broken. The wolf inside me howled for her sadness to disappear, and the man in me understood everything then. It all made sense—her aversion to shifters, how flustered she’d been when she first came here.

  She’d lost someone she loved at the hands of a shifter. She hated my kind.

  Why was she here then? Money. She must need the money. My jaw stiffened. I’d hoped she’d been here for other reasons, but knew how much of a motivator money was.

  “I guess I’ve never thought of it that way,” she whispered, pulling me from my angry thoughts. Her hand reached out for the container of baked beans. “It makes sense. I truthfully think I’ve been living in the shadows of my misery. But what do you do if you think that’s where you belong?”

  Her words gutted me. How could this beautiful, strong woman think she was unworthy of stepping into the light? “I wouldn’t know, because I’ve never met anyone who belongs there.”

  I hoped she understood my meaning, that I was saying in a roundabout way she didn’t belong there.

  Her expression grew serious. “Maybe you just didn’t get to know them well enough.”

  “Or maybe they decided to never give me the chance.”

  I took the baked beans from her hand and set it aside. They were just as good as the pork. Sophia was a damn good cook.

  “Well, what do you think so far?” She placed a piece of cornbread on a napkin and held it out to me. It was clear our earlier conversation was over. She’d already put up walls and moved back to business.

  I was okay with that. For now.

  “Fantastic,” I said around a mouthful of cornbread. “Everyone is going to love this menu.”

  “You sure? I can always change the flavors of something.”

  “No, don’t change anything. It’s all fantastic.” I polished off the rest of the cornbread as she situated herself on one of the bars tools. I reached for the coleslaw and took a bite. “Mmm, so good.”

  “Okay, now that’s out of the way, let’s talk price.”

  “Name it. I’ll pay whatever you want. Your food is that good.”

  “Two hundred.”

  “Six,” I countered. “It’s worth it.”

  “No, that’s too much. It only cost maybe a hundred bucks or so for the ingredients and fifty for labor.”

  I reached in the fridge for two bottles of water. “Six, and that’s my final offer.”

  “Okay, six it is.” Her eyes lit up and the corners of her lips twisted into a smile. Satisfaction shifted through me because I was responsible for that smile.

  I passed her a bottle of water and settled on the bar stool beside her, watching as she placed the lids back on her Tupperware containers and stacked them.

  “So who did you lose?”

  Her back stiffened and she froze. I knew it might not be the best topic, but I was curious.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Who did you lose in the war?”

  Her eyes softened. “Why does it matter?”

  “Because it matters to you and whether you believe it or not I think you’re starting to matter to me.” They were the most honest words I’d ever said to anyone. An uneasy sense of vulnerability I couldn’t shake made its way through me. I was glad I’d said them though. Sophia needed to hear them, and maybe there was a part of me that needed to hear them as well.

  When her breath hitched, I reached out for her hand and pulled it to my lips. I kissed along her knuckles without thought. Her gaze drifted to lock with mine, but she didn’t pull away. I flashed her a small grin.

  “My parents.” Her eyes welled with unshed tears. Memories of the past were creeping up on her, threatening to drown her. Her muscles stiffened and twitched as she braced herself for them. I could smell the scent of her heartache and loss as it saturated the air.

  My wolf howled a symphony in reflection of her emotions, while my man did the only thing he knew how to—I leaned forward, erasing the distance between us, and pressed my lips against hers.

  Sophia surrendered to my kiss with ease, her lips quickly falling in sync with my own. When her mouth opened and her soft tongue lashed out, a low growl from my wolf erupted from deep within my chest. She was tormenting him more than me. His desire to claim her was overwhelming, but I refused to give in. I was selfish in wanting this time with her to myself.

  My hands cupped either side of her face as I delved my tongue between her parted lips, devouring her mouth and taking control of the kiss again. I possessed her mouth the way I’d wanted to upon first seeing her. My hands skimmed the length of her slender neck, across her delicate shoulders, and along the silky smooth skin of her back her low-cut sundress left exposed. Heat flowed through my veins, causing my fingertips to tingle as I continued to trail them over her skin. She leaned closer to me, her knee brushing against mine. Images of her legs wrapped around me rippled through my mind. God, I wanted to bury myself in her center. I wanted to claim her as my own. My wolf seconded my final thought with a growl of approval that ripped past my lips.

  He wanted Sophia Davis just as much as I did.

  Her hands fisted the front of my shirt, having mistaken my low growl for something it wasn’t. She tugged at it and I broke our kiss long enough to peel it off and toss it to the floor. My lips crushed against hers again, igniting the fire we both felt to a new level as I touched along her inner thigh. Her smooth fingertips trailed along the contours of my chest, dipping down the length of my stomach, and pausing once they reached the button on my shorts. I knew what she wanted, and I was damn tha
nkful we were on the same page.

  “Hold that thought, Red,” I muttered as I slipped my hands around to cup her ass and hoisted her into my lap. She wrapped her legs around me as I stood up and peppered the side of my neck with kisses from her sweet lips. “Let’s continue this elsewhere.”

  Her tongue trailed along the length of my neck as her teeth nibbled and grazed my skin. My shaft throbbed, eager for a release, but it was my wolf garnering my attention more. Maybe it was the pain and pleasure mixed together from her little love bites and licks, or maybe it was Sophia herself, the scent of her pheromones riling him up. I couldn’t be sure, but whatever it was, Sophia had stirred the wolf inside of me in a way no one ever had before.

  Once we reached my bedroom, I laid her on the bed. Her dark hair fanned out around her across my sheets. I hovered above her, staring into her hooded eyes.

  God, she was beautiful.

  I pressed my lips against hers, resuming our fiery kiss from before. My tongue alternated between light strokes against hers and deep penetrating ones as I covered her body with mine.

  There was something intoxicating about this woman.

  I could barely form thoughts as I explored her body with my hands. Her breath hitched as I brushed against her slick center. My cock throbbed at the soft sound, and I nipped at her bottom lip. I shoved her panties aside and played with her silky folds before inserting one finger inside her moist heat. My rhythm was slow at first, but once a couple of moans fluttered past her perfect lips I increased my pace.

  Sophia’s nails dug into my back as she became lost in my touch. The scent of her arousal was driving me wild as it saturated the air. It clung to my sheets and built on the tip of my tongue.

  I wanted to taste her. No, I needed to taste her. Now.

  I broke our kiss and skimmed my lips down the length of her neck. My fingers continued to work their magic between her legs, while my mouth found enjoyment in teasing her nipples until they pebbled beneath my tongue. I trailed my way down the length of her abdomen and a hiss of air flew past her parted lips as her back arched from the promise of where I was heading. Once my mouth reached her swollen clit, I licked and sucked, eager to bring her closer to the earth-shattering climax I wanted her to have.