Page 2 of Ash
ChapterOne
Ash
I was dirty, although filthy might come closer to describing how I looked. Mud and grime had mixed with the camouflage paint that I had smeared across my face. Making it impossible to tell which was which. Normally I wouldn’t mind. The women who stopped and waved at our passing truck didn’t seem to mind the state of us. Quite the opposite in fact. The sound of giggling floated towards me, followed rapidly by a loud incessant beeping as Ace hit the heel of his hand against the horn. Next to him, Leo laughed loudly, saying something no doubt flirty to the young women we were passing.
Usually, I would have followed suit. I would have flirted and laughed and acted like one of the boys.
Usually.
Glancing out the corner of my eye at the newest member of our troop, I frowned. It was when he had joined us that things had changed for me. or more specifically when he had found his mate. Laura was a nice girl, I liked her but… I shook my head. No.
No, I couldn’t blame Oz or even Laura for the fact that I had also found my mate and she wouldn’t look at me twice. That was all firmly on me. all they had done was put Lainey in my path.
Elaine Moberry. Known to her friends as Lainey. I was still stuck calling her Elaine. We weren’t friends. She had made that perfectly clear every time we came face to face. Which wasn’t half as often as I wanted us to be. There was a wary indifference to her tone every time I spoke to her. almost like I made her feel uncomfortable. If she had known the truth about just how much I watched her she would report me, I knew that. I just couldn’t help myself. She was my mate. my job was to protect her always.
Even if she didn’t know I existed.
“What’s up with you?” In the rearview mirror my commanding officer, Ace speared me to my seat with his ever knowing eyes. Sometimes I hated him for the uncanny way he always seemed to know what we were all feeling and thinking. But it was one of the reasons why he was in charge and the rest of us were just grunts. Not that my erratic behaviour since we had rescued Oz’s mates, friend from the mountain had gone unnoticed. The whole of Alpha Force was aware that something was going on between me and Lainey. Or they knew I wanted something to be going on anyway.
They had been trained to be observant and I hadn’t exactly been stealthy about it. especially not in the first few weeks. I always had an excuse for being where she was. at first, I was making sure she was recovering from her kidnapping in the hospital. That was my job after all. I had been the one to fly her down the mountain in my other form and I had to make sure she didn’t remember too much and out us all. Then when she had got discharged, she had gone back to work and… I had just kept hanging around.
Like some kind of crazed stalker.
So yeah, my brothers-in-arms knew I had an unhealthy obsession with the girl we had rescued from the Dire Wolves. They just didn’t say anything about it. and for that I was glad. It was one thing living with the fact that my mate didn’t give me a second thought and quite another to be teased about it.
“Nothing.” I shifted my eyes away, turning my face out the window to stare at the street. I wasn’t looking at the girls who had just been waving at us. The days of me flirting with other women were long gone. There was only one woman for me now.
“Oz, we can understand.” Leo chuckled. “He misses Laura but you….”
His twin brother elbowed him roughly. “Drop it, Leo.”
It might have been my imagination, but he looked like he understood. Which made no sense. King was the permanent bachelor. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had seen him with a woman. The thought made my brow furrow downwards and my eyebrows pinch together. God, it had been years since I had seen King with a female. Which made no sense because they threw themselves at the golden haired twins all the time. Did King have a secret mate, and he was just better at hiding it than I was?
“We all miss Laura.” The words left my mouth before I could stop them. And the young wolf turned to me with a growl. He was protective over her, I got that. Just like I got the sudden surge of anger on his face. I would have been angry if he had said the same about Lainey. I had just wanted to change the subject. To anything, anything at all. Apart from me being a miserable asshole.
Holding up my hands in surrender, I dodged the half-hearted fist he threw in my direction. “Not like that, Oz.”
He settled back into his seat with a huff. His eyes still half wild. Three months mated and the jealousy was just as fierce as ever. It would probably last forever.
“He might not mean it like that, but I do.” Leo’s laugh was loud and rambunctious. His hands made a motion that I couldn’t quite see and Oz flew at him in the small confines of the truck.
“Fucking children.” Ace, swerved to the curb and the two of them came apart in shock. “You don’t have to miss her anymore.”
It took maybe five seconds for his words to make sense. Oz was out first, calling his mate's name and opening his arms. She rushed into them. Flinging herself into his chest like he hadn’t just been running around the woods for five days without a shower. I knew how bad we all smelt but it didn’t seem to matter to Laura.
“You ladies want a lift?” Ace was hanging out the window. his smile wide and welcoming. And that was when I noticed her.
Lainey. Hovering behind her friend with her hands stuffed deep in her jeans pockets. She was looking everywhere but at the madly kissing couple and I was looking at nowhere but her. She filled my vision. Blinding me to anything else.
“Is there room?” With a laugh, Laura tore herself out of Oz’s arms. “Hey, guys.” She gave a dutiful wave.
“It’ll be a squeeze. But I think if you girls don’t mind sitting on laps…” The corners of Ace’s mouth twitched. “Laura on Oz, and Lainey on Ash then….”
“Is that even legal?” Lainey eyed me like I had grown another head, her bottom lip disappearing between her teeth. She looked at me like I was a monster. Which of course I was. but I was pretty sure she didn’t remember that.
In the front Ace, barked out a laugh. “Not even a little bit. Jump in.”
Chapter Two
