Stray. Rachel Vincent

side. His fingers tickled, sending promising shivers all over me. I squirmed beneath him and heard his breath catch.

      “I don’t need a head start,” I breathed, my cheek pressed into the floor. His stomach was warm against the curve of my lower back, bare between the seam of my shirt and the low waist of my jeans. On the radio, a new tune played, intense, and heavy on guitar and drums. My heart raced along with its rhythm, and my legs ached to run. But instead of glorying in the freedom of speed, I was trapped, immobile. “I’ve always been faster than you, and a few years with limited practice time isn’t enough to give you an advantage.” I twisted my neck, trying to see him. “Besides, you can’t run while you’re holding me down.”

      His fingers eased beneath the edge of my top, brushing the sensitive skin over my ribs and beneath my breast. I gasped, fascinated by the curiously delicate sensation and my own conflicting impulses. One was to fight, to claw at the carpet in a bid for freedom. But the other was to lie still in anticipation of what might come next. Because whatever it was, knowing Jace, it would be good.

      Okay, maybe today was a little different after all, I thought, more puzzled by my body’s reaction to him than by anything he’d done.

      “I’m just slowing you down to give the guys a chance,” he whispered into my ear.

      I froze, listening, and heard laughter and footsteps coming from the backyard. They were already heading for the trees.

      Damn it! How could I have forgotten? As teenagers, Ethan and Owen had taken turns “delaying” me by tripping me or distracting me through even less honorable means. Apparently they’d now recruited Jace to do their dirty work. If I couldn’t get out from under him, they would start the hunt without me.

      Fueled by impatience and mounting aggravation, I bucked, trying to throw him off, but he rode me with ease. I couldn’t help being a little impressed, in spite of my frustration. I hadn’t been near another cat in ages and had forgotten how good our balance really was. “Whatever liberties you take now, you’ll pay for outside,” I panted, winded by my own struggle.

      “Oooh,” he purred, his nose skimming the surface of my skin. “Say that again.” His fingers brushed the wire edge of my bra cup, but went no farther.

      “You’re all talk,” I said, trying not to squirm. But my voice was throatier than I’d intended, and the hitch in his breath told me he’d noticed.

      “Is that a challenge?”

      “It’s a fact.” I threw his own words back at him, and he laughed, his body shaking against me.

      “How ’bout a bet?”

      “You’ll lose,” I warned, still listening for the others. I could barely hear them now; they’d already disappeared into the trees, their laughter blending into the chorus of sounds that defined the night. And as interesting as Jace’s distraction was proving to be, I was eager to join the hunt.

      “Maybe,” he said. “But if I don’t, you owe me.”

      “Owe you what?”

      His voice deepened, and he grew still against me. “The chance to prove I’m not all talk.”

      Five

      My heart thumped in surprise, accompanied by a tiny, treacherous spark of curiosity. I’d expected him to ask for something typically lecherous—like me washing his car in a tiny bikini—but I was completely unprepared for his actual request. I was tempted to laugh it off as a joke.

      But Jace wasn’t laughing. He wasn’t even breathing. He lay on top of me, heavy and completely motionless, his pulse racing as he waited for my answer.

      I strained again to look at him over my shoulder, trying to see if he was serious. Surely he was only teasing. But no matter how I twisted, I couldn’t see his face. I saw dust bunnies under my desk and the edge of a long-lost CD case jutting out from beneath my dresser. But all I could see of Jace was his shadow, stretching in front of me and into the hall through the open doorway.

      “What’s the matter?” he asked, soft lips brushing my ear again. “Afraid you’re going to lose?”

      Was I? I’d never lost a race to him, but I’d never bet on one either. And my body was a high price to pay for a stumble at the wrong time. But if I won… My reward would have to be huge to match the one he’d named. I could ask for practically anything.

      Did he have anything I wanted?

      An inkling of an idea formed in my head. I smiled, my decision made. Jace didn’t know it, but he’d just given me an opportunity I couldn’t pass up—assuming I won. And if I lost? I’d worry about that when and if the time came.

      “What do I get if I win?” I asked.

      Jace purred in anticipation, trailing a finger slowly across my neck as he brushed back a strand of hair. “Anything you want. Name it.”

      “First, let me up.”

      He started to get up, then hesitated, considering. “Promise you won’t bolt?”

      “I don’t make promises.” Anymore, I amended silently.

      Jace chuckled. “Glad I asked.” He wrapped one hand around my right wrist, holding tight as he got to his knees, in case I made a dash for the hall. Pulling my arm forward with him, he knee-walked three steps to the door and swung it shut, then sat down and leaned against it, pulling me toward him by the arm he held captive.

      I let Jace tug me down into his lap, my back resting against his chest. He moved my hair to one side and propped his chin on my shoulder, making a small sound of contentment deep in his throat. “So, what am I wagering?” he asked, wrapping his arms around my waist.

      Okay. No big deal, I thought. I’ve been in his lap before. We’d wrestled on mats in the basement and fallen asleep on the couch watching old horror movies. We’d even shared a sleeping bag once, on a camping trip. This was just more of the same. Friendly cuddling. Riiight.

      I took a deep breath and held it, preparing to set my newly hatched escape plan in motion. “I want you to take my side. Convince Daddy to let me go back to school.”

      Jace stiffened against me, lifting his chin from my shoulder. The back of his head thunked against the door. “Faythe…you know I can’t do that.” His arms were gone, as was the heat in his voice, drenched by the cold wash of reality.

      I smiled, glad he couldn’t see my face. Ask for the impossible, then settle instead for what you really wanted in the first place. My father had taught me that lesson years ago. He probably never suspected I’d put it to good use.

      “Are you afraid?” I asked, daring Jace to say yes and own up to a weakness.

      “Of you or your father?”

      I laughed. Good question. “Of losing.”

      “Yes.” He didn’t even hesitate. “Pick something else, anything you want. But I can’t go against orders.”

      “You mean you won’t.”

      “It’s the same thing.” His tone pleaded with me to understand. “I swore myself to him.”

      I nodded, and his arms snaked around my waist again, a gesture of relief that I’d accepted his decision. I’d counted on him saying no, and he hadn’t disappointed me.

      Like all adopted Pride members, Jace had sworn allegiance to my father when he joined the Pride, and again when he became an enforcer shortly before I left for college. Any violation of his oath would end his association with the south-central Pride, and without endorsement or acceptance from another Alpha, he would not be welcomed into any of the others. He would become a wildcat—a natural-born werecat who either left his birth Pride or was exiled from it, usually for the commission of a crime. Such as breaking an oath of allegiance.

      Wildcats have no recognized territory, no companionship,