did everyone fuck her over and make her into this distrustful female with no reason to trust?
“Nothing,” I answer honestly. “I just want to help you.”
“Your help isn’t going to make me feel obligated to fuck you or anything,” she says crudely.
I can’t help it, I laugh. And then I laugh harder because her adorable frown deepens, making her look as mad as a hornet in a Coke can. “Jet, if you ever fuck me, it won’t be out of obligation, I can promise you that.”
To my delight, her perpetually cool face cracks. Just for the span of a second, but I see it. Her pupils dilate a fraction and her breath hitches, and my animal locks onto it. Now I’m remembering the way her lips circled around my cigarette. And the way her body looked when I woke her up for training. The sexual charge amps back up to one hundred percent, and my dick hardens in seconds.
“Are you really a wild boar?” she asks abruptly, maybe solely to change the subject or maybe because she just felt the same animalistic draw that I did.
I grin. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
She scoffs. “Fuck off.”
I laugh again, feeling lighter and more playful than I have in a long time. “You know, I find your surliness really charming.”
“Then you’re an idiot,” she fires back.
I chuckle, placing a hand to my chest. “Now you’re really trying to make me fall for you.”
“How about I just make you fall?” she says with a cruel smirk, and I know she’s remembering how she put me on my ass in the gym.
“Any time,” I grin. “Like tomorrow, when you hold another lesson for the pack.”
Jetta shakes her head. “What is it with this pack and being so fucking perky? Why is everyone so interested in training?”
“You’re kidding, right?” I ask her. When she just continues to stare at me like I’m an idiot, I chuckle. “Jetta, they’re not interested in training.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“They’re not interested in training. They’re interested in training with you,” I elaborate. “I mean, do you have any idea how fucking legend you are?”
Horror crosses her face at the thought that anyone would admire her. “I’m not,” she mumbles.
“You are,” I insist. “Every time you train or demonstrate, it’s fucking mesmerizing. You make it look like an art. Understand, some of the shifters here can’t even watch training normally. They’re too traumatized from their past. Any kind of violence puts them over the edge into flashbacks or panic attacks. We work with them as much as we can, but some of them are just too scarred,” I tell her, letting the truth sink in.
It’s important to me that she truly understands. She’s not just wasting time by doing this. She’s already helped some of them so much. And by doing this, by getting involved, it’s giving her a reason to make connections. To assimilate herself with the pack. To care.
“You know Janie? Freddie’s mom?” I go on. “She was one of the more timid ones. She had a fucked up past. Her mate helped her get through a lot of it, and she’s better, which is why she can counsel some of the others. But it’s still important that everyone in our pack knows how to defend themselves. Not just for their own safety, but because it gives them their power back.”
“You’re putting too much stock into what I’m doing,” Jetta tells me. “I’ve only been showing some moves for a week. Not even that long yet.”
“Exactly,” I tell her. “You’ve only been doing this for a week, and you’re already making an impact. The females feel comfortable with you. They’re amazed at what your body can do, and it gives them hope that one day, they can move like that too. So don’t sell yourself short. Don’t pretend like it doesn’t matter, because it does. To those women especially, and to Hugo, who always worries about his pack members. It matters.”
Jetta watches me silently, the moment stretching between us. I hadn’t meant to go all heavy and insistent on her, but I can’t help it. I need her to stop treating this place like a pit stop and start thinking about it with permanence.
After another second, she lets out a long, thoughtful breath. “No.”
I frown, confused. “No?”
“You asked if I wanted to leave once I got my collar off. The answer is no, I don’t want to.”