Page 37 of Fire Bound

Junk food wasn’t something I was ever allowed to have while living in the facilities. I was fed a very nutritious, clean diet in the hopes it would make me healthier and subsequently be stronger. Turns out, it didn’t matter how many plates of kale I choked down, it still never helped me harness the flames.

My metabolism is so high, I’m basically hungry all the time. Using my powers or shifting only makes it worse. After allowing my wolf out, I swear I can eat an entire cow. It takes so much energy from being in that form.

With one donut around my finger like a ring and another one shoved in my mouth, I freeze when I feel a heavy stare on me. Turning my head, I find Pruitt’s green eyes locked on me. Swallowing the food in my mouth, I ask, “These were for everyone, right? You’re not about to go all hungry-pregnant lady on me, are you?” When she doesn’t answer, I continue. “Come on, Blondie, the baby would want you to share with me.”

Still, she just stares at me instead of answering me or pulling away from the loft. We’re supposed to go back to Isabeau’s to train again. Usually, I’d just flash over there myself, but Pru was running an errand in town and offered to pick me up. I don’t usually do the whole ‘car thing’, it’s a slow and confined way to travel, but sometimes it’s good to humble yourself. Or so I’ve been told.

“We’re going to be late,” she finally grumbles, pulling away from the cracked curb.

We ride in weird, heavy silence to Beau and Ransom’s place. It’s never been awkward between Pru and I. For all intents and purposes, Pruitt should hate me. When we first met, I was working with Nicolai and was tasked with torturing Pru with hellfire. At the time her wolf was bound, and Nicolai thought pain would help entice it out. It didn’t work, but that’s not the point. The point is from our very first meeting we clicked. I hadn’t felt a connection to someone in a long time. No one had been on my side since my mom died, but Pruitt had my back from the beginning. She kept my secret from everyone—even Ryker—for over a year before finally letting it slip that Sterling is my dad last fall. She was the first person I felt like I could trust with that knowledge.

And then there was Remi.

The connection between us is so strong, it’s dangerous.

I trust Remi—that’s not the problem. The problem is I don’t trust myself.

Once parked on Beau’s U shape driveway, Pruitt gets out of the car without a word. She’s never been mad enough at me to not talk to me completely. We were stuck together in a small house on a beach for ten months,therewere definitely times I pissed her off during our stay there, but she never used the silent treatment on me before.

Jogging around the car, I catch up to her. Yanking playfully on the hood of her jacket, I make her stop. She whirls around, an angry snarl on her face, and bats at my hand.

“Who pissed in your cornflakes this morning?” I chuckle, truly thinking whatever’s got her bent out of shape is something insignificant.

“I’m mad at you,” she grumbles.

“Yeah, I know,” I deadpan. She glares at me, and I hold my hands up in surrender. “What? Was it supposed to be a secret? Hate to break it to you, but you’re not exactlyhidingyour emotions right now.”

“I’m not trying to hide them,” Pru snaps. “I want you to know that I’m mad at you. No, I’mdisappointedin you.”

“Disappointed?” I repeat. “What the hell did I do?”

Her green eyes cut to where pack members loiter around not far from us. Without a word, she snags my shirt by the collar and drags me away from any overhearing ears. With a less than gentle shove, she pushes me into the bed of Ransom’s silver truck. “If you knew you didn’t want to be with her, you shouldn’t have humored the flirting. Leading her on only to break her heart was a dick move, demon boy.”

Thatwas not what I was expecting to come out of her mouth.

My jaw snaps closed, molars grinding. Unease building in my body. “She told you?”

“Not everything. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I know whatever it was hurt herreallybad. What were you—”

I hold up my hand, silencing her. “I’m going to stop you right there,” I snap. “You just admitted you don’t know the full story, so you don’t get to stand here and draw conclusions. Usually I value your take on things, but I had ten months where I spent every waking moment with you. Don’t you think that if at some point if I felt like this was something I needed to discuss with you, I would have?”

“Jax, I’m just trying to understand what the hell happened. You’re both my best friends, but whatever you didchangedher. I can’t help her if I don’t know what happened.” Pruitt isn’t backing down. “What. Did. You. Do?”

“Fine, you want the truth?” I challenge, nostrils flaring. “I fucked her and then while she was still sweaty and naked, I told her it meant nothing to me. Thatshemeant nothing to me,” I hiss out in an angry whisper. “She admitted she had feelings for me, and I basically laughed in her face.”

Pruitt’s face pales and for the first time since we met, she looks at me like I’m the monster Sterling always wanted me to be. Ihatethat look coming from her. “Did you mean it?”

“It doesn’t matter if I meant it or not. It needed to be done,” I grit out.

“Why? What possible reason could you have to do something like that? Why was it so necessary that you hurt her like you did?”

I shove a hand through my hair, pulling at the strands. For a second the pain in my scalp distracts me from the pain in my chest as I replay that moment a year ago in my head. “I needed to make sure that whatever feelings she had for me went away. Breaking her heart was the fastest and most effective way to do that.” Letting her down easy or admitting what we’d done was a mistake would have left room for argument or debate. I couldn’t risk that. I needed it to be final.

“Jax,” she starts to argue. Of course, she would argue, to her, this situation looks like it could easily be fixed. In her mind, I just need to crawl to Remi on my hands and knees and beg for forgiveness. If it were that simple, I would have done it the second I saw Remi again after ten months away. Anger bubbles in my blood. Angry at myself for not being strong enough to control the side of myself that’s keeping Remington and I apart. And angry at Pruitt for sticking her nose in a place it doesn’t belong. “You need to talk to her. You need to make this right. You can’t just hurt her like that and—”

Before her eyes, I dematerialize into the faintest cloud of smoke before reappearing behind her, effectively switching our positions. No longer am I the one cornered against the truck.

Pru’s green eyes flare as I box her in. There’s only a hair’s width between us. I don’t touch her. I don’t need to get my point across. Pruitt isn’t the only one that can emit their power to the extent that people gag on it. I don’t usually have to do this. My reputation alone usually stops people from fucking with me. Pru is a powerful alpha, she’s not going to back down without a little nudge.

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