Hunt Me! (I Crave The Chase) - Page 157

“If you’re past that part of your life then why are you out talking to local hunters, hmm?” Harry hissed out, betraying himself and the fact he’d apparently been following my mate.

Angry again, the rumble in my chest started up again.

How dare he.

How dare he follow my mate.

“Because—” Jeffrey looked at me, confused. His brow furrowed. “You…”

“Because he’s trying to help me,” I snapped, angry that Harry was bringing this up when we were both doing our best to ignore it whenever possible. “Because it’s getting worse.”

“What do you mean it’s getting worse?”

“I mean, it’s getting worse.” I hadn’t actually admitted this to him. Not out loud. I knew my brothers suspected, and that there were physical signs. But this was the first time I was openly acknowledging it. I ducked my head and buried it in Jeffrey’s neck to leech his strength, suddenly exhausted.

“Oh.”

Harry called my dad. Because of course he fucking did. Tattletaled on me immediately. And Jeffrey got to be privy to that entire conversation as we rode the rest of the way to his apartment in Elmwood.

Ignoring Harry’s protests, I followed Jeffrey up the steps to his apartment, crowding him against the front door with my face at the back of his throat as he fumbled with his key. The plastic bag he carried rustled. “You should probably…you know—damage control?” Jeffrey offered, twisting a little.

“No.” I nipped at his shoulder and he laughed, shivering.

“Mutt.” When he flipped around to face me, he blocked the doorway, hand at the handle. His tone was serious.

“You need me. You called me?—”

“I know.” Jeffrey’s smile was soft. His scent was sure. “But your brother is freaking out,” he reached up, gently stroking over my cheek. “And he needs you too.”

“But—”

Jeffrey kissed me, fingers twisting into my t-shirt, his tongue pressing against the seam of my lips. He rubbed and licked, lighting me up from the inside out as I groaned and pressed back against him. Too soon the kiss ended.

When Jeffrey pulled back his lips were swollen pink, and his eyes were at half-mast.

“I’ll be waiting for you when you’re done,” he said softly. “But you need time with your family. And if things are as bad as you say they are…maybe you guys need to have a game plan. Besides, I’ve been monopolizing you.”

“I…don’t know what that means.”

Jeffrey’s scent was amused-amused-amused.

“It means I want you here all the fucking time, every fucking day,” he admitted, releasing my shirt. “But I think you need to go talk to your family.”

“I…”

“Trust me,” his eyes were full of monsters all over again. “I…for a long fucking time I was quiet. I avoided my brothers because I was scared facing the truth would make it hurt more.” He shook his head, his lips twisting. “But it doesn’t. It’s the lies that fucking suck. And maybe you’re not like me—maybe you’re not outright withholding the truth.” I kinda was—from him too. “But you owe it to them, and yourself, to have a clean slate.”

“Jeffrey—”

“Don’t be like me,” Jeffrey’s eyes were dark. “Don’t repeat my mistakes.”

A car passed by on the street, the sun sinking low, the creak of one of Jeffrey’s neighbors opening and shutting their door echoing inside my head. Despite this, I narrowed my focus, centering myself in him as I met his gaze and fell even more, helplessly in love with him.

Jeffrey was no wilting flower.

He may have been stomped on but his petals remained firm. What had once withered had fallen free and grown anew. Ever enduring. Solid and sure.

Not at all like I was. Telling him there was no need to lie when here I was, a fucking liar. Afraid to be vulnerable with the people that loved me because I didn’t trust them not to take him away from me.