Beaufort Creek Shifters (10 book series)
The Wolf’s Bullied Mate Chapter 10

Jada

Bliss wasn't a word that had been in my vocabulary. Not when it applied to men, anyway. It wasn't like I'd found much peace in men prior to getting publicly matched to a guy who had zero filters. Except for coffee filters. Suddenly, my daily life was completely different. I still took time to dance when I had the time, but it wasn't the fluttering fury that usually compelled me to move.

Now, my body responded to something else entirely. Passion.

Which had also been absent from my vocabulary for some time. As a kid, I'd managed to dance my way through many a stressful situation. Tricks played on me were easily converted to fuel. Insults became the inspiration for me to lean into music as a source of solace. Aside from my parents, who provided support throughout my years and continued to do so to this day, music and movement had been my guardians.

But things were different now. I had Isaiah. He moved to his own tune, creating music with a confidence I hadn't witnessed in anyone up to this point. Most men were intimidated by my attitude and sharp wit. Isaiah saw it more as a friendly challenge. Though that wasn't how we'd started. And to be quite honest, I wasn't sure how we even ended up in such a situation with a happy home life and a satisfying social life. People seemed drawn to us, drawn to the fire that motivated us. There weren't many complaints I could make.

All of that and more popped up in my head as I crouched over the wheel, listening to the intense silence crowding the cab of the car. Isaiah sat in the passenger seat with pensive eyes and a glower that could have been mistaken for disdain had I been unaccustomed to seeing that expression on his face.

"What's up?" I asked without glancing in his direction. "We've been in the car for ten minutes and you haven't even touched the radio."

It was true. The silence wasn't intentional. But then again, I hadn't bothered to turn on the radio either. I was content to sit quietly. I wasn't so sure about Isaiah.

Which meant there was something eating away at him.

He waved. "It's nothing."

"It's something if it's got you this quiet."

"It's nothing, Jada. Let it go."

A sharpness echoed from his tongue that I hadn't felt since....well, it had been weeks since our last argument. Was this the end of the honeymoon phase everyone talked about? Our mating ritual wasn't too far off. Maybe he was getting cold feet about that.

Panic crackled like static in my chest. Wait, no, it couldn't be that. If Isaiah had any qualms about our connection, he would have admitted it. His pride was too great to lie to anyone. I mean, I had caught him in a few tiny white lies a few times, but he typically fessed up eventually after a little prodding, and besides, he wore more emotions than he let on.

Let it go. The phrase rang through my skull like church bells. Isaiah didn't keep things from me. No, it just wasn't his style. A dominant wolf like him wanted everyone to know exactly what he thought and why. He was lying. I could tell.

Interesting, I thought as I pulled up to the main light in town.

The car came to a gentle stop, energy humming around us from the streetlights and bar signs. Music billowed from a nearby building. Laughter came through the thrum of noise. The night was alive with human interaction. Beer and corn syrup carried along the breeze. I rolled my window down to invite more of it inside.

Isaiah sat back and sighed. "Why doesn't Skye have a car?"

"One of the raids damaged our vehicles," I explained. "Blake meant to get a plan in action to replace the damaged ones, but most of us ended up being content with carpooling." "Why?"

I shrugged as the light turned green. "Saves money and resources."

A low hum rumbled in his chest. Various parts of my body tingled in response, recalling how it felt to actively feel that vibration against my skin. No matter what was happening with Isaiah, I could always get aroused by his presence, his general engagement with the world.

Was that part of the honeymoon phase too? And sweet gods, if that was the case, when would it come to an end?

"I see," Isaiah rasped. And not the sexy rasp he used on me when he was teasing his way under my top. "How much farther?"

"A few minutes."

Another hum. That was just his catchphrase tonight, I had to assume. Isaiah had the temperament of a house cat who had been spoiled by previous generations of owners. He was used to being treated a certain way by pack members, especially his alpha, and apparently hadn't ever had a girlfriend longer than a few weeks according to his friend Elias. This was new territory. For us both.

The engine of the Jeep became the only sound in the night air as I approached the community college. Skye bounced toward the vehicle and beamed as she hoisted herself into the back, patting the back of my seat as per usual.

I sighed when she cast a questioning look at Isaiah. Which he didn't miss. Not by a millisecond.

His eyes narrowed. "Hello, Skye."

"Izzy."

He huffed. "Only Jada can call me that."

"My apologies, Isaiah."

He perked up and stared ahead, eyes wide and mouth clamped tightly shut. I adjusted the rearview mirror as my boyfriend composed himself.

"Learn anything weird tonight?" I asked my friend. "Or are you still on the anatomy of a horse?"

"I'm just thrilled to actually be back in school," Skye replied with a sunny tone. "It's like, wow, I missed so much of this back when we were fighting those assholes all the time."

I chortled as I pulled carefully away from the curb. Signs led the way out of the small community college parking lot. We were soon back on the main road within a few short minutes. Easy as pie.

"It's different," Skye continued. "Humans are so much...nicer now."

"Yeah?"

She nodded and leaned against my seat, her hair fluttering around her face from the window being open. "Kids used to make fun of my body smell back when I was a teenager."

"Tell me about it."

"Like seriously, do you think I have a choice in how I smell? Gods." She flicked her hair back and popped her shoulders between the two front seats. "Y'all got any good country in here?" She rummaged through the center console. "No Conway Twitty? Shania?" She plopped back and sighed loudly.

Isaiah gripped his knees. After a few seconds, he reached for the radio and toggled the dial to a local radio station. Country came through the speakers, nothing particularly appealing to me personally, but it seemed to make Skye happy in the back.

I raised my eyebrows at my boyfriend. "You want to stop for some jerky?"

"We have jerky at the house."

"What about candy?"

He shook his head. "Too many dyes and artificial flavors these days."

"Coffee?"

That lit his face up like fireworks at midnight on New Year's Eve. Caffeine seemed to be the answer to all his problems, including the ones he refused to talk about with me.

Whatever. It was up to him to be honest. I guessed that most cohabitating couples kept some secrets.

Yet despite that logical reasoning in my brain, it pissed me off to hell and back that Isaiah was keeping something from me, something that was so important that it changed his behavior. He wasn't mistreating me. He wasn't even being rude. He was just being an awful lot of quiet for an awful long drive back to the ranch.

I pulled into a gas station just at the edge of the main street in town, knowing that the clerk behind the counter wasn't of this world. Though the guy never quite mentioned his origins, the slight blue tint to his umber skin indicated fae or fae-mixed. Not to mention the fact that just looking at him made me want to swoon.

If he was attempting some kind of glamor, it wasn't working very well. And the same effect applied to both Isaiah and Skye as they wandered the aisles of the gas station, looking every so often at the being behind the counter who merely smirked devilishly in response to the attention he was receiving.

"Mort," I greeted as I plucked three candy bars from the display in front of the register. "I'll get my usual vodka too."

Isaiah was at my side in an instant. "Vodka?"

"Yeah, it's been a day. I usually make a cocktail. Skye likes 'em too. Want one?"

He frigidly waved away the offer and reached for a prepackaged cold brew from the cooler. He set it on the counter, grabbed a few bills from his wallet, and slid them to Mort. I supposed Mort was picking up on the strange energy circulating the four of us because he stared at Isaiah like the man had three heads.

Was Mort seeing something that I wasn't?

Skye nudged me with her shoulder. "Actually, I'm feeling extra tired from that three-hour vet overview. Let's skip the vodka and just go for tea." She set a huge jug of the sugary stuff on the counter to which Mort shrugged and rang the items up. Isaiah disappeared before I could offer him anything.

Mort bowed his head, his eyes glowing with ethereal knowledge as I wished him a good night after paying for the items on the counter. The Jeep was quiet again until I turned the key in the ignition. Isaiah sat to himself, seeming to crunch into his corner with his iced coffee perched on one knee.

Looking at him now was like trying to figure out how a Dalmatian could curl itself up so small on a couch. Those long limbs appeared to fold in ways that I hadn't expected. I sighed as I popped the Jeep into reverse and backed out of the parking space. On the road again, I rolled the windows up, keeping the cab from getting too much wind.

Skye popped forward like usual whenever someone was in the passenger seat. "You think the humans would be upset if I used my animal powers to help other animals?"

I laughed. "Are you planning to reveal our existence to them?"

"No, I was just joshin"," she said with a chuckle. "But it would be neat, wouldn't it?"

"I guess you could use those things to your advantage in practice, yeah."

Isaiah turned slightly. "What are you in school for?"

"I want to be a vet."

"That's a lot of studying to do."

She made a chipper noise in agreement. "Sure is. Plenty of time to be spending around humans. Unlike our little recluse Jada here."

"I'm not a recluse," I retorted. "I'm a field manager."

"Eh, she's something," Skye said. "She ever tell you why she won't interact with humans?"

Isaiah raised a curious eyebrow. "She just spoke to the gas station attendant."

"Oh, Mort? Shoot, that guy is some kind of weird like us. Fae or maybe even troll."

"Troll?" I repeated anxiously. "Come on, Skye. You know trolls don't live in towns."

"Why do you think I said some kind?" she replied. "Anyway, our Jada here avoids the humans like they're a plague. You ever notice that?"

I glared at her in the rearview mirror. "Skye, stop it."

"I've never noticed," Isaiah commented, turning in his seat so he could speak to Skye more. "We've only been to the farmers market together."

"Shoot, that market is owned by all kinds of supers, you know that, right?"

I pressed the gas pedal a little harder. "Skye, sit back, please."

"Well, she got picked on so bad in school her parents had to pull her out. That must have been about...oh, she was just breaking through puberty at that point." "Really?" Isaiah didn't spare me a glance, but I could feel the pity rolling off him in waves.

How ridiculous.

"They made fun of her so badly," Skye proceeded. "Called her names. Picked on her. Chased her right out of class. Her parents had enough of it. They never went back."

I hit the brakes. "Skye!"

My forehead nearly collided with the steering wheel when the Jeep stopped in the middle of the highway. It was just one of those two-lane highways, of course, nothing fancy, but a highway, nonetheless. If anyone had been behind us, we would have been slammed. A truck would have mowed us down. Isaiah gaped at me while Skye fussed in the back.

"I can't forget the horrible things they did to me," I mumbled. "They called me Beard Girl. They cornered me in the bathroom. They tried to pluck the hair right from my face."

Skye touched my shoulder. "You gotta let that go."

I shrugged her hand away. "Yeah, I'd be able to if people stopped bringing it up."

Nobody spoke as I resumed driving. Once we got back to the farm, I dropped Skye in front of her house and promised to pick her up the following the night so long as she behaved. She apologized swiftly and retreated into her cabin where her family was waiting for her.

Oh boy, the silence was heavy now. Isaiah didn't make a peep as I drove slowly back to our condo. We were nestled between the original houses and the new structures that had been built to accommodate the wealth of new members. Plenty of them were welcomed after the final battle with the Gilberts and Myrtles. Four of them came from the Bravecrests.

I snapped my belt off and hopped out of the Jeep, marching quickly into the condo. My heart was racing so hard that I felt like I was about to drop off the edge of a cliff. I left everything in the Jeep, including the sweet tea that I had grabbed with every intention of just hanging out with Skye like usual.

But everything felt so unusual. Skye normally wasn't that chatty about stuff that wasn't hers to share, yet she had spilled every detail to Isaiah like he had a right to know. I would have told him eventually. Just not with the same gusto or intensity.

Isaiah appeared beside me in a heartbeat. I jumped back, clutching my chest, trying to keep myself from actually falling over the edge. My feet kept slipping on the uneven ground. I could feel the drop, too, the awful clenching of my gut, that weird falling feeling that happens whenever I jump from a high place.

"It wasn't her business telling you," I snapped. "It wasn't her place."

He nodded, calmly taking my shoulders, leveling his gaze with mine. "I know."

"They were so mean to me."

"I know, sugarplum. I hear you."

I shuddered as my throat cinched. "They...called me... Beard Girl...because I couldn't fully shift in either direction."

He shushed me as he pressed me to his chest. "Breathe, babygirl. Just breathe."

It was so bad. It was so painful. Those memories poured back in like someone had broken the latch on a dam. I was flooded by the taunts, the jeers, and every awful statement that had been thrown in my direction.

The gall of the teacher when he'd suggested to my parents that I should shave crawled right back in, joining the mess that swirled inside me, worsening the anger. "It hurts. Oh gods, it hurts so much, Izzy. Make it stop..."

He squeezed me. My head should have popped off with how tight he hugged my arms to my sides. But goodness, that was the kind of soul-crushing weight that made me feel safe. It was like when he held my wrists back while he railed me-just the right amount of pressure.

I sagged into him. He murmured into my ear, most of it lost, but some of it sticking and making me smile. "I'm sorry I've been such a d**k today. I don't mean it. I swear, I'll try harder." "Promise me."

"I promise, sugarplum. I'll try. I'll even quit drinking coffee."

Well, that made me smile real big. So much that I stepped back so he could see it. So brightly that he squinted at me. So much that my cheeks burned.

He smiled right back. "There she is. There's my girl."

His girl.

That was me.