Alpha Warriors of The Cause - Tamara Rose Blodgett Page 0,9

will scour the earth if the Bloodling hurt a hair on her head.

“Anyways—” Jacky begins.

Jeb air slices a finger across his neck. “Enough.” Jeb meets Maddie's deep-bluish-violet eyes. “Beth's lack of pure Reflective genetics is the exact component that's allowed her to call to me.”

“So you two were working together all this time and didn't know she was your soul mate?” Maddie asks.

“The timepiece depresses the natural call,” Beth explains.

Maddie looks at Beth. “What about you?”

“My timepiece is still operational.”

Realization swarms Maddie's delicate features. “So he's digging you, and you're not feeling it?”

Jeb scrubs his head. “I'm hungry,” he says, diffusing a hard discussion.

Maddie shakes her head. “Me, too, but how is this working? What if your soul mate is different?”

Jeb releases a harsh exhale, his patience vanishing. “In theory, when her timepiece degrades, she should reciprocate.”

“Should—or will?” Maddie asks.

Jacky grins, leaning back against the couch and lacing his hands behind his head.

Jeb scowls at him but addresses Maddie's question. It's an important one. “Typically, a full-blooded Reflective will have a soul mate whose very being is linked to his own. Beth's blood is mixed and has allowed that. Pure Reflectives are not called to one another.”

Jacky claps his hands together. “So here's the thing. Beth can have someone else besides perfect Jeb and they have to fight it out.”

“You do you, Jacky,” Maddie replies sarcastically, shaking her head.

Jacky shoots a mock gun at her with his fingers. “Uh-huh, that's it.”

She rolls her eyes. “Sorry about him.”

“Sorry? Look at me.” Jacky splays his fingers on his chest.

Everyone stares. Jeb's eyes hold more than amusement.

Jacky meets his gaze. “Okay. I know you're pissed. But you have to admit, when has anything not gone Jeb Merrick's way?”

Beth strolls out of their little parlay and begins to pulse open a hidden safe in the wall.

Jeb steers his attention back to the boy. “I am Reflective. If you understood what that was, you would not ask such things.”

“What I understand is you kicked everyone's asses everywhere you went, screwed all the hot Reflective chicks, and enjoyed a fat paycheck.” He shrugs.

Jeb moves quickly.

Jacky leaps over the back of the couch and it tips, beginning to upend Maddie. Jeb soars over the back, using the backward momentum like a short step and scoops up Maddie to arrest her fall.

Jeb lands like a cat over Jacky, his feet planted on either side of Jacky's hips.

“Do not test me. I have no patience left.”

“You're hurting me,” Maddie says.

Jeb startles, realizing his fingers are digging into the girl.

“Apologies.” He sets Maddie on her feet and helps Jacky up.

Jacky glares at him. “This is karma taking a chunk out of your ass. You are all soul-whatevered to Jasper, and she doesn't have the mojo on her end. So she's just seeing all the shit we all see, and she's not signing up. That's all.”

Beth walks toward Jeb, and his breath catches at the sight of her. She's holding a bowl of fresh fruit, bread, and meats.

Jeb salivates, but the sadness in Beth’s eyes robs him of hunger.

Maddie and Jacky grab the food and begin to dig in.

Jeb goes to Beth and tilts her chin up, mentally going over Jacky's unflattering tally of his traits. “Is anything they say true?”

Beth's smile is crooked. “Every bit.”

Jeb scowls and turns from her. A soul mate is the one piece of happiness in the life of a Reflective, and he's been too selfish to see it.

Beth presses her forehead between his shoulder blades, putting her arms around his waist.

He's so startled, he doesn't move or breathe. His hands cover hers.

“It's all true. You're a selfish, domineering, man-whore who controls by fear and a healthy dose of intimidation.”

Jeb's heartbeat stutters.

“You're also honorable, terrifyingly strong, and brilliant.”

Beth comes around to his front, her hands trailing along his waist. Pebbling gooseflesh presses against his clothes.

Deep eyes regard him, and a cloud of dark hair has escaped her braids. Jeb cradles her face as she lifts her face to better meet his eyes.

The sounds of the Three's eating dims. Only her face crowds his vision. Her breaths are like music to his ears, her eyes eat every bit of him until he is nothing without her.

She speaks softly, and Jeb strains to hear, “You are the male who protected me when you hated who I was.”

Jeb gives a hard choking swallow, never more close to tears than he is in this moment. “I never hated you.”

“You are the man who loves me.”

He grabs her hands. “I do.”

She