Punt: A British Bad Boy Football Romance (39 page)

“That’ll help a little bit, but I don’t see how that’s really going to solve our problem,” Shaw said.

“That’s where Jace comes in,” Maddie said. “He and Cera can set up some kind of massive video meeting thing, and we can all hash it out together. You can do that, right?”

Jace nodded, rubbing his chin. Jasper could see the gears spinning in his head.

“As long as they have a computer and a phone, we could make it work,” Jace answered.

“There you go. We have everyone together, all talking about the same thing. That’s a really good start,” Maddie said.

“Well?” Jasper said to Shaw, who seemed to be thinking it over.

“Yes to the video-conference,” Shaw said, nodding.

“I can help with the phone calls. I know a lot of the Alphas through my work as a Scout,” Connall said.

“It’ll take me a couple of days to get everything set up,” Jace said, looking excited.

“All right, then. Sounds like you guys have a lot of work to do,” Maddie said, shooing them out the door. “In the meantime, Jasper needs to rest.”

Ignoring the disbelieving snorts of the visitors, Maddie closed the door on them and turned to her mate.

“I like the way you think,” Jasper said, crooking a finger at his mate.

“I meant every word of it. Now I’m going to go get the doctor and see what she says about getting you out of here and back to our house,” she scolded.

A funny sensation burned in his chest at her words. Our house, she’d said. Not just her house anymore. As she opened the door to leave, Jasper called over her shoulder.

“I can see right through your plans for seduction!” he called. She rewarded him with a flip of her middle finger, making him laugh. Unfortunately, laughing made his ribs hurt.

“Oof,” he muttered, dropping back onto the bed. Alright, so maybe he could use a little more healing time. No matter. He’d have that little minx in his lap sooner than later, moaning and begging for his touch.

With a lazy grin on his face, Jasper leaned back and closed his eyes, eager for the healing to be done.

“
H
ello
?” Maddie asked, pushing the hair back out of her face as she answered her cell phone. The brightness of the phone’s screen stood out in the darkness of her bedroom, casting a faint glow over Jasper’s unclothed back as he slept on beside her.

“We found him,” came Jace’s voice.

“Who?” Maddie replied, trying to get her brain working. She’d stayed up half the night watching Jasper sleep, anxious that he might get sick again or… hell, she didn’t know. Just anxious.

“Donovan. The traitor?” Jace chided her. “Some of us have been working while you two are honeymooning all day. It’s noon, you know.”

“Damn. I pulled the blackout curtains to let Jasper sleep in. He’s still healing,” Maddie said.

“Uh huh. Well, Donovan is here in the prison cell whenever your mate is ready to deal with him.”

“Let me talk to Jas and see what’s happening,” Maddie said, looking over at her mate. He stirred, awakened by her voice.

“Gotta go,” Maddie said, ending the call.

“Who was that?” Jasper asked, rolling over and pulling Maddie close. He nuzzled her neck, purposely ticking her with his light beard. Maddie chuckled, pressing a kiss to his lips.

“My brother.”

“Mmm. Not interested,” Jasper replied, cupping her face and stealing another kiss. He ran a possessive hand down her bare hip and thigh, groaning with appreciation.

“Gods, Madd. You’re completely naked,” he said, pushing away the sheet that clung to her body. His eyes dropped to her breasts, her stomach, and lower.

“I am,” she agreed, running her fingertips down his muscular arm and basking in his attentions. “Too bad you’re still healing.”

Jasper let out a soft growl and pulled her atop his body, turning them both so that she straddled his bare body. He lifted his hips, grinding his erection against her bare sex and giving her a challenging stare.

“I think you are mistaken,” he said, his hands sliding from her waist down to her ass.

“Mmmm…. I’m not sure,” she said, playing coy.

“What will it take to convince you?” he asked, playing along.

“I’ll take your word for it… if you’ll make a bargain with me,” she said, giving him her most innocent expression.

His brows lowered as he gave her a suspicious look. It didn’t stop his hands from roaming across her bare skin, though. That fact gave Maddie hope that her little plan might just work.

“What bargain?” he asked.

“Welllll…” she said, fluttering her lashes to make him smile. His expression did soften, but he still looked skeptical.

“I want something,” she admitted.

“I gathered that much, mate. What do you want?”

“I don’t want you to fight Donovan,” she said, changing tactics. When it came to pack matters, bluntness was often the best tactic with Jasper.

He stilled, giving her an assessing look.

“You don’t think I can beat him?” Jasper challenged, his eyes flashing.

“That’s not it, I swear,” Maddie said. She looked right into his deep brown eyes, willing him to see the truth of her statement.

“Then what is it?”

“I’m just… I watched you take two bullets to the back less than a week ago, Jas. I just had this moment where I suddenly realized you were dead and… I can’t do that again. I just can’t,” she said.

“And what would you have me do with him?”

“I want you to cede him to me. As your mate, I’m technically the next in line.” Maddie bit her lip at the flash of anger that crossed her mate’s features.

“Absolutely not. You’re not fighting Donovan. Are you out of your mind?”

“Hear me out.”

“I’m not hearing anything that has to do with you and Donovan in a ring together,” Jasper growled.

“Then you know how I feel, don’t you?”

“That doesn’t change anything.”

“I’m not going to do anything stupid. I want you to give Donovan to me so that I can cede him to Gwen.”

Jasper went silent, studying her face.

“Why?” he asked at last.

“She needs to take back her power.”

“I have no idea what that means.”

“Well, let’s see. She was sleeping with her Alpha, then dumped by that Alpha, then replaced very publicly with another female. Then that same male protected her during the siege, making her look weak in front of her pack. How the hell is she supposed to get any respect from them?” Maddie ticked off the events on her fingers.

“I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Jasper admitted.

“Men don’t really experience this kind of thing,” Maddie said with a shrug.

“If I cede him to you, how do I know you’ll really hand him over to Gwen?”

“You don’t. I guess you’ll just have to trust me.” Maddie brushed her cool fingertips across Jasper’s collarbone, giving him goosebumps. He sighed, reaching out to pull her closer.

“I guess I will,” he said.

Maddie slid her knee up onto Jasper’s hip, pressing against him intimately. He shuddered at the sudden warmth of her body against his groin.

“Thank you,” she whispered, brushing her lips over his earlobe.

“I expect a full reward for my good behavior,” he said, cocking his head to give her better access to his neck.

Maddie chuckled. She rolled her hips, pinning Jasper down harder.

“Does this work for you?” she teased.

“We can work with this,” Jasper said.

And then they were lost, all thoughts fleeing as Maddie pressed her mouth to Jasper’s.

M
addie stretched
, trying not to moan out loud as she did it. Looking around the small conference room, she was pretty sure she hadn’t given herself away. Her body ached everywhere, that delicious deep soreness that meant she’d been well and truly used by her mate. She turned her attention from the front of the room where Jace fidgeted with the wires connecting several large flat screen TVs. She tried to be stealthy about looking around to see Jasper, but her gaze drew his own. His eyes flashed, promising… well, something good, Maddie was certain.

Her cheeks suffused with heat and she turned away, swiveling in her plush office chair to face the large mahogany conference table. How could someone she’d known her whole life suddenly unnerve her so much? Maybe it was because every time she so much as thought of him, vivid memories of the past few nights surged forward. Memories of his hands on her body, skin sliding against skin, their wild cries of passion… Her whole body heated on recall, making her squirm and blush even harder.

Luckily, no one other than Jasper seemed to notice her discomfort. Tessa was helping Jace with whatever last-minute tech things he needed to do before the video conference. Shaw and Rhett were having a quiet argument in the corner, using lots of angry hand gestures instead of loud voices. Gwen and Declan sat at the other end of the table, opposite each other. The two Shifters seemed sized each other up in silence, eyes roaming over one another without an ounce of shame between themBeta.

“Sorry I’m late,” Kat said, breezing in the door with an armful of papers and notebooks. Picking a seat next to her brother Declan, she dropped everything onto the table and began shuffling papers to get herself ready for the meeting.

“All right, I think that’s all of us,” Shaw said. Turning away from Rhett, he took a seat next to Gwen.

“I’m just going to hand things over to Jace. I barely know how to work my cell phone, much less all this stuff,” Shaw said, waving a hand at all the TVs. “Are we ready to go?”

Jace nodded, pulling out a seat for Tessa before seating himself in front of his sleek silver laptop. He clicked and typed for a few seconds, and then all the TVs lit up.

“Okay. We’re live now. Every screen has two video feeds, each of a different pack representative. Representatives,” Jasper said as he addressed the screens, “please identify yourselves for us. You all already know me, I’m the Louisiana pack representative. Jasper over there is Alpha of the Alabama pack. Mellie, would you start please?”

The farthest left figure blinked and nodded as if coming to life. She was a sleek bronzed brunette, her beauty evident even through the video feed. Clearing her throat as if nervous, she leaned into the microphone as she spoke.

“I’m Melandra, Mellie. I’m the procurer of the New Mexico pack. Our Alpha and our security team are here as well.”

“Thank you,” Jace ]said. “Randy, you’re next.”

“Randy Cossine, Alpha of the Dakota packs,” barked a blonde man in his mid-forties. From his buzz cut to his booming tone, he practically screamed ‘Former Military’.

“Right. Andrew?”

“Andrew Banks, Nebraska Alpha,” said a dark-haired young man.

“Aziz.”

“I’m head of security for Minnesota,” said an attractive and vaguely Middle Eastern man, maybe thirty or so.

“Torrie?”

“Yeah. Torrie Baker, Florida pack. I’m not in a top position, but I’m the only one willing to listen.”

Maddie blinked at the older woman, her tanned and wrinkled skin clashing with her soft white curls. Maddie was a fan of being blunt, but this lady clearly took it to another level.

“And Devin last, please,” Jace prompted.

“Devin Snopes, Tennessee pack. I’m um, the Alpha’s assistant,” said a nervous young man with oversized glasses that nearly distracted from his gorgeous face. He was all cheekbones and piercing blue eyes, easily model material despite his thick-rimmed brown glasses and mussed light brown hair.

Maddie knew that she was staring at the man, but she felt powerless to resist the pull until she received a sharp kick under the table. Looking across the conference table, she found a very displeased Jasper giving her a fiery glare. Maddie mouthed “sorry” and made a silly face, to which Jasper just nodded and returned his gaze to the front of the room.

Jasper, jealous? An electric shiver ran from her nape down her spine, giving her goosebumps along both arms. Maddie frowned, trying to keep herself focused. All the sudden she was like a sex-starved teenage girl again, looking at Jasper out of the corner of her eye whenever she could get away with it.

“—will take notes,” her brother was explaining to his audience in the room. Kat produced a pen, clicking it several times to make sure it was trustworthy.

“The reason we’ve contacted you all is concerning some attacks on our packs by the Legion,” Jace began. Several of the newcomers stilled, their interest flaring.

“We’ve had two attacks in three months, both with the goal of destroying our Dens and killing or capturing our pack members.”

“This is recent?” Torrie asked with a suspicious scowl. If the older female was supposed to be the friendly one, Maddie would hate to meet the rest of her pack.

“The second attack was only two weeks ago,” Jace confirmed.

“Our pack hasn’t seen any Legion activity in over ten years. How do you know that it’s the Legion and not someone else?” Aziz asked.

“They wear Legion uniforms. Plus we have several Shifters that were liberated from the Legion’s holding cells,” Jasper said, crossing his arms.

“Randy, if you would share your experiences,” Jace prompted.

“We’ve had four attacks this year by what we assume are Legion forces. They blindsided us on the first one, snatched four women and two children. We’ve entered several Legion properties by force, but all we found were a bunch of human scientists that claimed to know nothing. We successfully defended ourselves against the next three attacks, but they’re getting smarter. They used witches in the last attack,” the drill sergeant said.

“Mellie, you have something to add?” Jasper said.

“We’ve had three males just up and go missing. All upstanding guys, not the type to run off on their mates. All gone in the space of a month. Then it stopped all the sudden, we weren’t sure what to think.”

“Sounds like it could be the Legion,” Randy commented.

“Is there any evidence?” Devin asked.

“Nothing we could find,” Mellie replied.

“It sounds like you’re all jumping to conclusions here,” Aziz chimed in.

“I’m guessing you’ve never been in the middle of a Legion attack,” Jace said, his expression darkening. Maddie saw Tessa reach out and lay her hand on Jace’s forearm, causing him to visibly relax.

“We had a child abducted,” Andrew cut in. Everyone went quiet, waiting for him to continue. “Abby Folsom, just last week. Her parents put her in human school, wouldn’t hear a word against it. We’ve tracked down every pedophile in both Dakotas looking for her. No ransom demand, either.”

“If this is true, it sounds like certain Shifters are being targeted,” Devin commented. “Perhaps there is a common link among all those who have been abducted.”

“Hard to say what the criteria would be. They’ve taken males and females, adults and children. If it’s not gender and it’s not age… who the hell knows what they want?” Randy said, his expression turning bitter. The babble of speculative voices rose, both from the video feeds and in the conference room. After a minute, Jace put two fingers to his lips and whistled with all his might, drawing all the conversations to a halt.

“All right, all right. We can try to piece that together later. Devin is a skilled researcher, he might be willing to take on that project. For the time being, though, it’s important that we come to a consensus. Do we all agree that there is a threat to Shifters?” Jace asked.

Mellie, Randy, and Andrew agreed immediately.

“Aziz?” Jace prompted.

“I believe that there is something worth investigating,” the man said.

“Torrie?”

“I don’t feel strongly one way or the other. I would like to be kept in the loop, though. Just in case.”

“Same here,” said Devin. “Without more evidence, I don’t feel comfortable making a strong statement. I am more than happy to offer my researching skills, though. Safe over sorry, you know.”

“What about all the other packs? If there are this many coincidences just between what, eight packs? There have to be more. We need to get the word out to everyone to be on guard,” Andrew said. “I don’t want a repeat of Abby’s abduction anywhere else if we can help it.”

“And how are we going to do that? Not all the packs are high-tech. Some of them don’t even believe in phones,” Mellie said.

“We’ll have to send an actual person to do it,” Shaw spoke up. Murmurs of agreement followed. Maddie sat up a little straighter in her seat, clearing her throat. A job that required travel all over the country, maybe even the world? She gave Jasper a quick glance, flushing when she realized he was studying her reaction. She dropped her gaze, fidgeting. A job like that would be amazing, true… but it would also mean leaving her mate behind.

“What about Connall Hansard? He travels all over the place already, he probably knows a lot of the Alphas in the US,” Tessa pointed out. Declan shook his head, adamant.

“His work as Scout is too important. Now more than ever, in light of the Legion threat. He’s taken a mate, and they’re a powerful source for tracking undiscovered Ascendants. They’ve already interrupted the Legion trying to snatch an Ascendant boy from his front yard.”

“We’ll find a volunteer,” Jace said, flapping a hand. “All that matters is that we’ve taken a step toward tackling this problem. I think we should talk again in a few days after we’ve all had time to think it over.”

The Alphas and representatives all nodded, agreeing. A few pleasantries were exchanged, and then Jace tapped something out on the keyboard of his laptop to blank the screens.

Maddie sighed and stood, giving a little yip when she moved too fast and her muscles protested. Everyone else was standing and moving about, ready to go on with their day.

“Before everyone leaves, I wanted to announce that there will be a meeting with both packs tonight to inform everyone what we’ve decided to do,” Shaw said. “Mess hall, seven o’clock.”

With that Shaw pointed an angry finger at Rhett, who scowled as he followed the Alpha out of the conference room. That was one argument that Maddie was glad she wasn’t involved in.

She looked over to find Jasper again, but he had turned and half-sprinted for the door already. Where the heck was he off to in such a hurry? Maddie bit her lip, thinking that her eagerness over the traveling position might have hurt his feelings. True, she’d been up-front from the start that traveling the world was her dream. But certainly things had changed a lot since the last time they’d discussed their plans.

By the time she reached the doorway, Jasper had vanished. Maddie sighed, feeling a huge weight settle on her shoulders. She slumped, her lower lip protruding in a genuine pout. She felt silly, but she really wanted to catch him and talk things over.

“That’s not a very happy face,” Tessa said, coming up to stand beside Maddie.

“No,” Maddie admitted with a shrug.

“I was about to go to the mess hall and get a bite to eat. Want to come?”

“Sure,” Maddie agreed, distracted. She might as well spend some quality time with her brother’s mate while she could, before the baby came and dominated Tessa’s life. They might be on good terms now, but they still didn’t know each other very well.

They crossed the Grass and headed up the steps to the dining hall, each getting a tray of food before finding her seat.

“Shrimp po-boys today!” Tessa chirped.

“Your Northern palate must be getting used to the Louisiana food,” Maddie said, taking a huge bite of her own sandwich.

“You could say that. I had no idea that there was a whole culture built around red beans and Tabasco sauce,” Tessa said, reaching for a napkin.

“And what a delicious culture it is.”

“It’s not really that surprising that I didn’t fit into my wedding dress.”

Maddie sighed, setting her sandwich down.

“Tessa, I really am sorry for saying that.”

Tessa waved a hand, offering Maddie a sincere grin.

“Don’t worry about it. I think my hormones got the better of me.”

“I can only imagine that pregnancy does that.”

“Camilla is already teasing me about it.”