Page 50 of Witchwolf

He was effortlessly beautiful, as always. Looking somehow both like he’d just rolled out of bed and like he’d had a whole team of hair and makeup people to make him look that way.

“It’s fine,” I said, to no one in particular. “Everything’s fine.”

Jax squeezed my hand, bumping me with his shoulder. He still didn’t look up at Donnie, who was standing over us.

Donnie, who was pressing in, as though he wanted to push his way onto the bench between me and Jax, even though there wasn’t a bit of empty space there.

Behind me, Maia cleared her throat. I turned to look at her, and she was looking at Donnie. “I guess if you’re crashing, you can sit down here, next to Jilly. She’s good at keeping an eye on troublemakers.”

It was a little playful, yes, but it wasn’t... it wasn’t entirely playful. There was some tension in her, and in the words, and she didn’t let Donnie protest as she shooed him down the table toward Jillian. She put him in a chair she’d been inhabiting before, and stood there next to the table, between him and me. Like she was going to protect me from him.

Like everyone in the room wasn’t instantly charmed by his very existence.

That was a first for my whole life. Everyone loved Donnie. Everyone wanted to be close to him.

My coworkers were friendly enough, leaning across the table and introducing themselves, shaking his hand, but—but Jax didn’t even glance his way. He smiled down at me. “Are you going to sing?”

“Oh no, I?—”

“You don’t want him to do that,” Donnie interrupted from all the way down the table. “Kody sings like a cat in heat.”

Jax didn’t look away from me, and his smile only faltered for a second. “I haven’t spent much time at this, but it doesn’t seem to be about that. It’s not like all of us are going to be stars.”

“That’s right,” Maia agreed, and she came up on my other side, grabbing my hand and tugging me toward the end of the table, right out of my seat and toward what looked a lot like a firing squad to me.

But somehow, when the music started, a cute poppy sixties song about “his kiss,” it didn’t seem quite as scary. Not with Maia standing there with me. Not with all my coworkers smiling at us. None of them cringed at my voice, and they applauded when we finished the song—Seth even stuck his fingers in his mouth and gave a wolf whistle. I knew that was for Maia, not me, but still.

It was... nice.

When I walked by Donnie on the way back to my seat, Jillian was leaning on his shoulder, as though she was holding him in his seat, even as he was staring down the table at Jax.

Jax, who was looking at me.

Just me.

I couldn’t hold in my own smile in return. “Your turn?” I asked as I sat down, and everyone around me roared. It was seconds later that Seth was dragging him up to the front to pick their own song and just... fuck me, it was a work event, and I didn’t think I’d ever had so much fun in my life.

I forgot all about Donnie.

24

Jax

Dakota’s friend smelled wrong.

My hair stood on end at the confusion of scents. He and Dakota shared space, and Dakota’s scent had become so dear to me that it was strange, how even their mingling struck me as something to be wary of.

But Dakota was safe, right there beside me, and I had nothing to worry about. Clearly, his friend was only human, and I needed to get a grip. This possessiveness was getting out of control.

Maybe it was just my instincts going haywire after Dakota’s clear anxiety. I had to protect him from whatever had caused the upset, and that was the unexpected arrival of his... roommate.

But Dakota wouldn’t live with someone who posed him a genuine threat. He’d just been taken off guard, and after he sang, he relaxed. He was having a good time, and Donnie’s sudden appearance hadn’t ruined everything after all.

His laugh was the sweetest thing I’d ever heard. His glittering eyes locked on me as I stumbled my way with Seth through a song about being love drunk. Thankfully, I was edging close enough to actually drunk that it didn’t matter if I was terrible.

Seth was, without question, a better dancer than I was. He knew all the words and played them out dramatically, but his enthusiasm was infectious. Even if I was a disaster, I was out of breath by the time I fell into my seat beside Dakota.

His cheeks were flushed red, and he looked at me from the corners of his eyes. “You’re pretty good,” he mumbled.

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