Desires of a Full Moon (6 page)

Now, in this moment, with Jayden’s mouth devouring hers, all she wanted to do was rip every stitch of clothing off their bodies. She wanted to feel his body against hers, flesh against flesh.

Jayden’s hands slid down to cup her ass. She snaked her arms around his neck, their tongues sliding against and tasting each other in an erotic game of desire.

Lust ached in her lower stomach as she pressed against his rock-hard body to soothe her need. Her fingers found the bottom of his T-shirt and dipped underneath. She ran her hands up and down each silky, well-defined ab, eliciting a rugged groan from his lips.

She felt herself go wet. Her desire for him was so overwhelming it scorched her skin.

She reached for his T-shirt and tugged it up. He dipped his head, allowing her to strip the clothing off his body. Their lips met again in a feverous kiss as his fingers slipped up her shirt.

The chirp of his cell phone made him tense. He growled as he reluctantly pulled out of her embrace.

Haley swallowed as he watched her with a thirst that had not been satisfied. He pulled out the phone, his gaze still locked on her.

“Hello.” Jayden blinked and then looked away, running his hand through his blond hair.

Just like that, their moment was lost.

She eased back onto the bed, sitting on her heels. She pulled the comforter over her bare legs, and for the first time in a long time felt naked and vulnerable. She hated those feelings. She’d done everything in her power to keep them at bay. One kiss with Jayden had left her emotionally exposed. It was the one thing she’d sworn she’d never let happen again.

It just cut too deep.

#

Jayden stepped over the broken bedroom door and grimaced. He wondered how Barrett would react to him damaging his property. Knowing the Were, he wouldn’t be pleased. He walked out into the hallway deciding now was not the time to get all confessional with his Pack Master.

“I ran the envelope and letter for prints,” Barrett said.

“You already got it?” Jayden frowned and looked at his watch. The deliver guy had only picked up the package less than four hours ago.

“The delivery company knows I have top priority,” Barrett groused.

Jayden wondered if the billion-dollar company was run by a werewolf as well.

“Both, the envelope and the letter were clean. They are running diagnostics on the paper to find out what stores in Fayetteville sell that specific type.”

Jayden nodded. Whoever had sent the letter knew enough not to leave any prints. “And then we can check to see if they have security cameras. Maybe they caught the perp on video.”

“Or maybe someone remembers seeing him. I’ll take whatever I can get.”

Jayden didn’t miss the deadly edge to Barrett’s voice. Barrett was taking this personally and for Haley’s sake Jayden was glad. The stalker needed to be caught quickly.

“So you are going to tell me why you moved Haley into my house with you? Or do you want to play twenty questions?”

Jayden cringed and gritted his teeth. “It was no longer safe for her to be in the dorm. Barrett, the stalker left that note while I was in her dorm room. He was on the other side of the damn door and I didn’t even sense it.”

Barrett was silent for a beat.

Jayden braced himself, ready to disobey Barrett’s order of making Haley return to the dorm.

“You know the stalker is going to be pissed when he finds out Haley is gone. He’s going to get more aggressive.”

“Or maybe when he realizes she has a boyfriend, he will give up.”

“Boyfriend? Is that what you are, Jayden?” Jayden didn’t miss the edge to Barrett’s voice.

“It’s what I want him to think. If he thinks Haley is in a relationship and sees us together, then he might give up. And then Haley can finally get her life back. Damn, man, she doesn’t even eat in the cafeteria because she’s too scared she’ll run into him. I can’ imagine having to live like that in college.”

“This whole situation is fucked up.” Barrett sighed. “She can stay with you. But stay close and don’t let her out of your sight for a second.”

The line went dead.

Jayden shook his head. His Pack Master wasn’t one for small talk.

“Was that Barrett?”

He knew she was standing behind him before she even spoke. He could still smell her arousal. He gritted his teeth, reminding himself that she was off limits.

“Yeah. There were no prints on the envelope.” Jayden didn’t turn around. He couldn’t face her just yet. If he did, his resolve might falter

“Jayden…”

He flinched when she touched his arm. She quickly pulled away.

He turned. Hurt flickered across her face as she glanced away. His chest tightened. The last thing he ever wanted was to cause her more pain.

“Haley, I…” He took a step toward her.

She shook her head sharply and held up her hand. “I’m too tired to talk tonight. I’m going to bed.”

He watched her disappear back into her bedroom. What the hell was wrong with him? He hadn’t been interested in sex since October, since that night he’d been beaten half to death. But one moment alone with Haley and he was ready to fuck for hours.

Jayden pulled another bottle of beer from the fridge, making a mental note to buy something that wasn’t alcoholic. He went from room to room, checking to make sure the windows and doors were secure before heading out to the deck.

Jayden flung himself in the lounge chair and took a long pull from the bottle. The icy liquid burned.

Though they were in the city, the stars were out tonight, brilliantly lighting up the backdrop of the midnight sky. It would have been perfect for a romantic dinner and a glass of wine.

“Who the hell am I kidding?” Jayden scrubbed his hand over his face. “I don’t do romance.”

For years, he’d been satisfied having sex without getting involved in a committed relationship. Up until last year. When Jayden had seen how Ava’s love had changed Damon, he’d been hit with an unexpected dose of envy. Damon had never known what true love was until he met Ava. They had fallen in love and mated a short time later.

He’d never really thought about finding a mate. But when he saw how Damon seemed more content and happier than ever, Jayden wondered if it being mated wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

Mate.

To willingly choose to forsake all other females and bind yourself to your mate until death was a difficult concept for him to grasp.

After that night of torture, he hadn’t been able to bring himself to share a bed with a woman. Something had been stolen from him that night and he’d been struggling to reclaim the carefree life he’d once had.

Jayden took another drink and let his eyes drift shut.

Images of that night spilled out behind his closed lids. He remembered the stench of the room, stale urine and skunk, the typical telltale scent of red wolves. He’d gone into that filthy room in hopes of finding Haley. He’d been appalled when he found her, gagged and tied down to a filthy mattress that reeked of the rogue red wolf pack that had abducted her. She struggled with her bindings, trying to scream as a rogue wolf jumped on top of her and unzipped his pants.

Anger didn’t begin to describe the emotion vibrating through his body at the scene. Jayden saw red, literally red as he growled and snatched the wolf off Haley. Before the wolf knew what hit him, Jayden was there behind him, his hands placed strategically on the top and bottom of the wolf’s head. He twisted, feeling the snap of the asshole’s neck under his palms.

His rage had been so great that he hadn’t stopped. He twisted until he almost ripped the rogue werewolf’s head from his useless body. He would have pulled the guy’s head clean off if those other three red wolves hadn’t shown up and hit him in the head with a baseball bat.

Lights exploded from behind his eyes until he was blinded by the illumination. The blow had made him dizzy, unable to fight and defend himself. The next thing he knew he was stripped naked and tied up, hanging from the ceiling in a different room.

He grimaced against each slam of the bat against his body as the red wolf use his head as practice for his golf swing. Pain exploded throughout his head as he felt his eye socket shatter and his nose break in a snap. He could still taste the coppery acid as blood dripped into his mouth. He caught a blow against his ear, rattling his brain and making him momentarily lose all hearing on that side.

If Jayden had thought that was the extent of their torture, he had been wrong. Red wolves were violent and deadly and everyone thought they had become extinct by killing each other off. The Arkansas Pack had discovered there was still a small sect of red wolves, and they didn’t follow Pack Law. And they certainly didn’t play fair in the rules of war. Red wolves loved torture and got off on inflicting pain on others.

Jayden flinched as he recalled the feeling of cold wire being wrapped tightly around his genitals and thigh. Disgust and fear snaked up his spine thinking they were about to amputate his dick. He bit down hard, refusing to scream or to cry out. With every hit of the bat and kick in the ribs he’d only managed to groan out his pain. He wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of screaming.

“Scream for me, Were.” The red wolf’s rancid breath hit his nose as he smiled menacingly close to Jayden.

“Fuck off.” Jayden spat out another tooth he’d lost to the bat. He knew he could regenerate another tooth. If he got out alive.

“I bet I can make you scream. I bet I can make you scream like a little bitch.” The red wolf stood and rubbed the frayed end of an extension cord against Jayden’s bloody cheek. “I bet you‘re gonna scream now.”

Jayden twisted in the air, trying his best to avoid the clamp being hooked to the wire around his penis. One guy wrapped him from behind, holding him still while the other snapped the clamp around the wire.

He twisted and turned and fought upside down and in midair trying to knock the clamp off. But he knew it was useless. The red Were held the frayed part of the extension cord in front of his face, taunting him with the pain that was coming.

Jayden watched wide-eyed as the other Were picked up the other end of the extension cord and held it toward the outlet.

“Did you think you could stop us from having that female? She’s ours now, and we’re gonna take turns using that tight little body until that pussy’s good and sore.” The Were grabbed his crotch and shoved it in Jayden‘s face. Jayden gagged at the rancid smell.

“That little piece of tail in there is gonna be begging for us to pound her hard.” Both red Weres laughed. “But first, I wanna hear you scream.”Jayden bit back a growl. The sooner he screamed the sooner they would get to Haley. He couldn’t let that happen.

“Go fuck yourself,” he sneered.

The red Were growled. “Light him up!”

Jayden had experienced broken bones, bruised internal organs, and even stab wounds during fights he’d gotten into over the years.

Nothing would have prepared him for what came next. With the extension cord plugged into the outlet, the Were touched the frayed end to the wire around his penis.

Hot angry pain spread from his dick to his balls before traveling throughout his entire body, making all his muscles contract uncontrollably. He wanted to scream, to cry out, but the muscles in his cheek clamped down, refusing to let the pain out as electricity racked his body. Pain, excruciating pain, beyond anything he’d every experience, licked through every muscle and organ in his body until he was sure his heart would stop. He couldn’t even breathe.

If the electricity didn’t stop his heart, he was going to die from lack of oxygen.

Jayden eyes popped open and he looked around. He was in Fayetteville, far from Louisiana. He sucked in deep breaths, the nightmare he’d relieved much too vivid.

He swiped a hand across his sweaty brow and sat up in the Adirondack chair. Night had fallen and the only light came from the neighbor’s back porch illuminating the back yard.

In the end, he had held out. He hadn’t screamed when they had tortured him. Not once. In between shock treatments he had tried to catch his breath so he wouldn’t suffocate with the next round of electrocution.

He must have passed out from lack of oxygen because the next thing he remembered was waking up tied to a chair and hearing Ava’s voice. She had on a little red riding hood stripper costume and was trying to get him out of that strip club where he was tied to a chair.

He discovered later that night that Haley had gotten out and was safe. That was all he had to hear before he passed out as the medical Werewolf Guardians worked on his broken body.

He never told anyone about the shock torture he had endured. He hadn’t even told Barrett when he came to visit him in the infirmary.

It wasn’t anyone business. And he wanted to leave it buried in the past. The funny thing about burying shit was, it had a tendency to sprout roots and want to push itself back up through the dirt like a weed.

In the end it hadn’t mattered. He hadn’t managed to save Haley from being raped.

Jayden stood and headed back inside. He tossed his glass beer bottle in the garbage can as he passed through the kitchen.

He had tried to take advantage of her just minutes ago while she was vulnerable. That didn’t make him any better than those rogue red Weres

He knew without a doubt that there was something wrong deep inside of him. Something that could never be fixed.

#

Haley looked up from sipping her hot coffee at the kitchen table as Jayden walked into the room. Dressed in jeans and a tight fitting T-shirt, his sandy blonde hair still damp from his shower, he looked like every red-blooded girl’s fantasy. Her heart fluttered against her chest and she couldn’t tear her gaze away. It wasn’t fair that he was so gorgeous without even trying, while she’d just spend half an hour trying to style her hair.

“You’re up early.” Jayden looked at his military style watch before meeting her gaze. “It’s only six thirty.”

“I wanted to look over my notes before class.” Haley swallowed.

Jayden nodded and poured himself a cup of coffee. She waited to see if he was going to add cream. He didn’t. Figured. He liked his coffee manly, not with French vanilla creamer and sugar like she preferred.