Twilight Hunter

rest until they’d found Allsun, and Jace couldn’t blame him for being furious at the delay, but he couldn’t focus on David’s rage right now. Not when he needed to beat Alejandro in order to save David’s woman.

Frankie threw open the door to the office and marched inside, with Alejandro close on her heels. When the door shut, Jace jogged the length of the hallway and pinned his ear against the wood. He needed any advantage he could get, and listening in on the conversation would provide more information than he would be getting out there with David.

Frankie’s voice carried through the closed door. “What’s your problem, Alejandro? Ever since I got back, you’ve been trying to block my every move. You’re my head warrior. How do you think that makes me look to the rest of the pack?”

“No worse than you made yourself look.”

Jace’s jaw clenched. He already he wanted to march in there and teach Alejandro how to respect his leader.

He felt pressure on the door and realized that one of them was leaning against the wood.

“What the hell does that mean?” The pitch of Frankie’s voice escalated. She was pissed. Royally pissed. Jace smiled. He hoped Princess hit the asshole where it hurt.

Alejandro scoffed. “What? Do you think no one noticed that you disappeared just in time to miss our mating ceremony?”

Jace heard a low growl, and he wasn’t sure whether it was Frankie or Alejandro—or maybe both.

“He took me captive, Alejandro.”

“Yes, but for how long? How long before you switched allegiances? Because you brought him into our home as if he were one of us.”

Frankie let out a loud huff, and he could hear her walking away from the door. “He is one of us, and you know it.”

Alejandro banged his fist on what was probably a desk. “He hunts our kind, Frankie. He’s not one of us.”

Jace pressed his ear closer to the wood, listening hard. Who ever told that bastard he could talk to a woman that way—and his leader, for God’s sake?

Frankie’s voice escalated to the point of yelling. “He’s our only hope of finding and beating this sadistic son of a bitch. You weren’t there. I’ve seen what this sicko can do, and Jace is the only one of us who even stands a chance against the guy. We need him.” Her breathing was audible by then. Alejandro was pushing every button Princess had, and like a bomb, she was about to detonate.

“We need him? Or you need him?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Her tone was filled with venom.

“You were with him the night of your mating cycle, Frankie. The night you were supposed to be married to me, and he held you captive. Do you mean to tell me that he resisted the Call and that you didn’t sleep with him before you returned? Or were you lying when you told Marshall that you and Jace had mated?”

A long moment of silence passed before Frankie answered. “That’s none of your damn business,” she said in a tone that would have frozen lava in its tracks.

Alejandro raised his voice to match Frankie’s in volume. “Like hell it’s none of my business. You stand me up at the altar and then bring a hunter home with you to join the pack, and you think it’s none of my business? You’ve been my arranged mate since we were children.”

“Exactly, Alejandro,” Frankie said. “Arranged. Do you understand that word? Arranged, meaning it was set up. I never wanted to be with you. I never chose to be with you.”

“So because you neglected your duties as packmaster and chose not to mate with the designated warrior, the highest-ranking warrior, I must pay the consequences? I must find a different mate than the one I’ve been waiting on before I even became a warrior? Is that what you’re saying?”

Frankie’s words were garbled, as if she were holding back tears. “What do you want from me, Alejandro? I can’t give you what you want. You’re my friend—a very dear friend, despite the fact that you’ve been acting like a complete asshole lately—and you know I love you.” She paused. “But I’m not in love with you.”

A long silence passed, and even through the door, Jace felt the heavy tension in the air. For a moment he wasn’t sure who he pitied more.

“I will act as your mate, even though I’m already bound to Jace—if that’s what you want from me,” Frankie said.

Jace stopped breathing, waiting for her next words.

“But you deserve a better mate than that, and I think you know it.”

Jace exhaled the breath he hadn’t planned on holding.

“I don’t want any other woman, but I won’t force you to be with me. I’d rather be alone. But what about you? If not me, who will your mate be? It can’t be the hunter, even if he is bonded to you now. As soon as this is over, he’ll resume his job, Frankie.”

After a long silence she finally answered, her voice barely above a whisper. “He was there during the Call. I don’t know if it...worked or not. I think the mating was one-sided.”

Jace’s stomach flipped. She didn’t want him?

A mix of anger and frustration filled him. He’d managed to get himself hung up on a female werewolf. A sharp pain hit his heart like a Mack truck, and he thought of the warm feeling that shot through his veins whenever he saw Princess.

It took every ounce of control he had not to punch his fist through the wall. Mother Nature had tricked his darker side into a mating ritual he’d never wanted, and all he got was a damn T-shirt that read Mated Moron. A woman he couldn’t stop thinking about who didn’t want him for a mate—he was screwed.

He forced his anger inside and tuned back in to the conversation.

“Please, tell me you’ll be reasonable and call off this challenge, then,” Frankie said.

“No. He needs to prove himself worthy. If he proves himself, he’s fit to be your mate and he can be the one to go after Allsun. Though either way, you know he won’t stay once this is over.”

She groaned in frustration. “But you set him up. You know there’s no way he’ll be able to shift quickly enough to win.”

“Let your mate fight his own battles. He accepted the challenge.”

Jace could practically see the smug look on Alejandro’s damn face.

He heard Frankie stride to the door and grip the knob, and he quickly moved down the hallway to escape notice, but not before he heard her stick it to Alejandro.

“I hope you know that when you can’t kill Robert, the blood of all the women he killed and all the women he will kill will be on your hands. You need Jace. You’re just not man enough to admit it.”

* * *

JACE WALKED INTO the shambles of his apartment. The door lay splintered in large pieces from the hallway all the way to the kitchen, left over from the fight. The screws from the hinges had scattered across the floor, and dried blood dirtied the floors. The place looked like shit. Not that he’d expected anything different. The super was too lazy to get off his couch unless someone dragged him off. In this building, if you wanted something done you had to do it yourself.

Jace stalked through the apartment. He checked the closets, the shower and underneath the bed. Damon, Ash and Trent were long gone. Good riddance...at least when it came to Damon. Ash and Trent were—or had been—his comrades, maybe even his friends.

After wandering into the kitchen, he slumped against the bottom cabinets by the sink. He reached into the brown paper bag, courtesy of the Lucky Bastard, and removed his last bottle of Bushmills. He held it up to the light as he examined its contents. Just great. Already down to the halfway point. He unscrewed the cap and started gulping the liquor. A warm, tingling coated his throat as the alcohol slid down.

The new cell phone Shane had given him vibrated in his pocket. He set down his bottle on the hardwood with a loud thunk before he pulled the electronic piece of shit out of his pocket.