In the Company of Wolves (SWAT, #3)(32)

Eric didn’t say anything for a while. And when he did, it wasn’t the disparaging comment about Liam that she expected.

“It must be rough,” he said quietly, “seeing the alpha you used to respect disappear like that.”

Jayna felt her throat tighten up, surprised at how accurately Eric had pegged exactly how she was feeling. Just thinking about it made tears gather in her eyes. She lowered her head so he couldn’t see, busying herself with some of the scratches that trailed down toward his stomach.

“So what’s your alpha like?” she asked suddenly, feeling his eyes on her and wanting more than anything to change the subject. She didn’t like the idea of Eric seeing her cry or feeling sorry for her. “He must be pretty tough to keep a whole pack full of other alphas in line.”

Eric chuckled, and Jayna had the pleasure of watching his abs flex.

“Sergeant Dixon? Yeah, I suppose at first he might come off as tough if you didn’t really know him. He’s stronger than just about anyone else in the Pack and absolutely fearless under fire. But more than that, he’s the man who brought us all together, and he’s risked his life for us more times than any of us can count. He’s not that much older than the rest of us, but in all the ways that matter, he’s more of a father than an alpha. There isn’t anything we wouldn’t do for him.”

Jayna almost felt jealous. At his best, Liam had inspired that kind of devotion in his pack, but that had been a long time ago. Then again, she had to wonder if she and the other betas in her pack would have responded as well to a leader who was so obviously alpha. Maybe Sergeant Dixon was a perfect fit for Eric’s pack, but would he have been for hers?

Jayna had cleaned off as much blood as she was going to and set aside Eric’s messy shirt, letting her fingers explore his stomach and trail across his muscular chest to his equally well-muscled shoulder. She told herself that she was simply checking to make sure there wasn’t any foreign debris in the deeper slashes near the top of his deltoids, but that was bogus. She liked touching him. It made her fingers tingle.

That’s when she realized it wasn’t just her fingers that were tingling. Crap. What the heck was going on? It was like she was sixteen again, getting a chance to make out with the hot guy at school. She licked her lips and surreptitiously glanced at Eric, hoping he hadn’t noticed her less-than-casual interest in his muscles.

But apparently he had noticed. That gold flare was back in his eyes, and for a second, they stood there face-to-face, so close that Jayna could feel the warmth of his breath on her cheek.

She licked her lips again, and she saw Eric’s sharp eyes follow the path her tongue made with the intensity of a predator. For a moment, she half expected him to lean forward and kiss her. She wasn’t sure she would have stopped him. Her lips were tingling now along with the rest of her body. The urge to lean into the kiss she thought was coming was so powerful, it was hard to ignore—and more than a little scary.

Jayna mentally shook herself and took a step back. She’d never liked feeling out of control or scared, even if those feelings were the result of a sexual response stronger than she’d felt in a really long time.

The golden glow immediately dimmed in Eric’s eyes. Giving her a small smile, he unzipped his backpack and took out a shirt and dragged it on. Even if she knew it was for the best, it was still hard watching him hide those muscles from sight. She could have gazed at them all day.

“I couldn’t help but notice how close you and Megan are,” Eric said, casually leaning back against the kitchen counter. “If you didn’t look so completely different from each other, I would have guessed you were sisters.”

Jayna was surprised by the change in topic, but grateful. It was like Eric had somehow realized she was having a momentary emotional crisis and was trying to help—another point in the big guy’s favor.

“In a lot of ways, she is my sister,” Jayna admitted. “When we first took Megan into our pack two years ago, she was in pretty bad shape.”

“What happened to her? Before she joined your pack, I mean,” Eric said, then added, “If you don’t mind me asking.”

Jayna didn’t answer right away. “Megan’s house caught on fire a few days after she turned eighteen. She woke up when she smelled smoke, but by then the whole place was already burning. She tried to get the rest of her family out, but they’d already succumbed to smoke inhalation and she wasn’t strong enough to carry them.”

“Shit,” Eric whispered. “Did any of them make it?”

Jayna shook her head. “No. A firefighter found Megan on the stairs beside her little brother. The guy got them out, but it was too late for her brother. Her parents and her older sister died in the fire too.”

“That had to be hard to deal with.”

“Yeah,” Jayna agreed. “When she woke up in the hospital a few days later and they told her, she didn’t handle it well. She blamed herself for being too weak to save them. She threw a chair through her hospital window and jumped out—from six floors up, onto the parking lot pavement.”

“Damn,” Eric hissed.

“Yeah. Damn.” Tears filled Jayna’s eyes like they did every time she thought about what had happened to Megan. “Megan should have died immediately, but the fire had brought on her change and the werewolf inside wouldn’t let her die. She was hobbling her way onto the freeway when Liam picked up her scent. I don’t know how he used to do it, but he could tell there was a werewolf in trouble. Somehow he realized that he couldn’t save her though—that I was the only one who could.”