Page 33 of Welcome to Bone Town

The second Roman is two steps ahead of me, Jax is atmy side and taking my hand. Roman doesn’t stop him, so maybe I got through to him a little after all.

I give Jax a soft smile before removing my hand from his. No matter how natural it feels to be around him, he’s still a stranger.

He looks a little hurt as he takes off his cowboy hat and spins it on the tip of his finger like a rodeo performer. “Sorry. It’s just…”

“Yeah, I get it.” The urge to touch him is like the draw of lightning seeking a rod. But what do I know about him, really? It’s uncommon for scent matches to reject each other, but it happens. They aren’t always a perfect fit. And this man is, by his own admission, a thief and a stalker. I can overlook the stalker part, but can I overlook the fact that he makes a living breaking the law?

“So, you…” How do I even ask this? “Um, steal for a living?”

“I research artifacts, hunt treasure, and rob graves, little mate. It’s not so different from what you do. I just do it for someone who can pay more.” He grins and winks.

“And you’re… successful at it?” Right, ‘cause that’s the question I should be asking him right now. But, I’m curious. I mean, he may look a bit unpolished, with his cowboy hat and his unbuttoned shirt revealing his bare, chiseled chest, but his jeans are designer, and his boots and backpack are high-quality.

“Not successful enough to give you what you deserve.” He looks away and wanders over to one of the tattered tapestries on the wall, or what’s left of it. His fingers graze the worn threads. “You don’tlike it, do you?”

“Don’t like what?”

“What I do. It’s not exactly an upstanding profession.”

“It’s an ancient one, though. I mean, grave robbers have been around as long as there have been graves.” Why am I defending him? “So have stories about the dangers and spiritual consequences of robbing graves. Most civilizations consider it disrespectful to the dead at best, and sometimes far more taboo than that. There are stories of hauntings and?—”

He stops my rambling with a finger to my lips. Beneath the sweat and dirt of his calloused finger, the smell of absinthe peeks through, making my head spin.

“Shhh, little mate. Don’t worry. I won’t be doing this anymore. This was always going to be my last job.” His forefinger drags down my lips, tugging the bottom one a little. “But I never expected to find a treasure as priceless as you.”

I stare at him, breathless and shivering. A cramp twists my stomach, but it eases the moment his hands come to my shoulders.

“You’re cold.” He rubs my arms.

I shake my head. Definitely not cold, despite how my body is shivering. This is ridiculous. I am more than my biology, and this man isn’t my type. Nothing like my type. Roman is more the type of alpha I always pictured myself with, in the few moments when I allowed myself to picture being with an alpha at all, when I tried to pretend an alpha might want me.

Except Roman definitely doesn’t want me.

And Jax does.

He pulls me into his warm body, and like an addict, I let him, huffing in deep drags of hisintoxicating scent.

“Fuck.” Roman’s voice booms in the long hallway.

I jump away from Jax.

“We might have a problem,” Archer calls.

As I hurry to put distance between myself and Jax, and to see what the problem is, Jax takes off his button up and drapes it over my shoulders. I should give it back, but the closer we get to the others, the more of a draft there is, making me wish I’d worn pants instead of shorts. It feels like the temperature has dropped a few degrees, and goosebumps rise on my skin. That’s the only reason I keep Jax’s shirt. Not because it smells so good. Or because his bare chest looks so delicious. Nope. Definitely has nothing to do with that.

29

The crevasse blocking our path stretches across the entire hallway. There’s a thin rim of floor still intact against the right wall, but that’s it. It’s pitch black, so I can’t see the bottom, but there’s at least ten feet between this side and the other. Reminds me of the canyons near where I did my basic training. My buddies and I used to climb those all the time, but that was with full gear and supplies.

Cora gasps when she sees it, and Roman curses again.

“What do we do now?” Archer asks, looking at me. It warms something inside me to have him defer to me, like I’m already his alpha. We’ve been more cautious with each other since our kiss, but there’s no way I’m letting this beta get away from me. Once this job is over, I’m making him mine.

But first things first. We gotta get out of here.

While I’m still figuring out how to answer, Jax pulls a torch from the wall and tosses it into the pit. It makes athump as it lands sooner than I expected. We all peer over the edge.

Cora’s beside me, and the thought of her leaning over a drop like that has me instantly grabbing her waist and holding her steady. Fuck, I’d love for her to be mine, too. She feels so right tucked against me.

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