Free Deadly Mates (Deadly Trilogy) by Ashley Stoyanoff Page A

this situation sucks so much for you.  And I’m really sorry that I’m such a crappy fake girlfriend.  I won’t blame you if you want to call it quits, but I have to tell him the truth.”
    “I’m not going to give up on you, Jade,” he said, his voice thick with emotion that sounded more like anger than anything else.  The man didn’t have a warm cell in his body, in that moment, I was sure of it.  Anger and hatred always won out with him.
    “You should,” I said, meaning every word.  “You really should.”  Because you don’t have a chance, I thought, not able to say it out loud.
     
    ~ AIDAN ~
     
    I was a wolf and I stood below her window.
    I knew I shouldn’t have come here, but after seeing Jade today I needed more. Maybe I was just a sucker for punishment. Yeah, that was probably it. The window was open, just a sliver, and her sweet, sweet scent washed out. She sounded ... sad, angry, frustrated. Her voice was just barely a whisper by the time it reached my ears, just loud enough that I could pick up bits and pieces of the conversation. I shouldn’t have been listening. I shouldn’t have come. And I knew I needed to leave, but I couldn’t.
    Maybe it was my guilt that held me in place.
    There were many things a wolf could do that wouldn’t actually complete mating, and in the last hour, I had done pretty much all of them. 
    After everyone had left my house, and I ’d been alone with Jade’s tormenting scent, I’d needed a distraction.  And I found it in the all too willing arms of Erika.  I wasn’t proud of it.  Truthfully, I felt more than a little sick about what I’d just done, but even if I felt bad about it, I had still done it.
    I had left my house five minutes after Dominic went home and I’d ended up on Erika’s doorstep.  I was telling myself it was because I wanted to know why she hadn’t been available for Jade.  Erika was her beta and as far as I was concerned there should never, never , be a reason for her not to be reachable when Jade needed her.  Dealing with Erika was the one thing I knew I could do.  But one thing had led to another and before I knew it, I was in her room with her tearing off my clothes.  She had been more than happy to provide her alpha with the relief that I’d needed, and dammit, I’d been more than willing to let her.  Her lips, her hands, caressing my entire body was … a short-lived relief, effectively shattered by a text message from Jade.
    I couldn’t believe how easy it had been for Erika to lie to Jade — her alpha.  She had glanced at the phone and quickly fired off a message: At home studying .
    That small interruption had been more than enough to stop everything.  I had grabbed my clothes, yanking them on as she tried to convince me to stay.
    And now here I was planted on the lawn outside Jade’s house listening as she begged Jared to forgive her.
    I’d been telling myself that Jade was probably doing the same things with Jared as I had been doing with Erika.  She might not be mated with him yet, but I knew they were sharing a room, and I was sure, her bed.
    Jade’s voice rose.  I could hear the tears.  Damn, I could feel the heartbreak as her voice reached my ears.  “I don’t want to feel this way about Aidan, but I’m his.  He’s mine.  I can feel it in my bones.”  She paused and then whispered, “I feel it here.”
    Clearly I’d been wrong.  So very, very wrong.
    I’m his.  He’s mine.   The words beat at my mind, repeating over and over.  My throat started to close up.  My heartbeat started to race.  The beginning of a growl built in my chest and I fought against my inner-wolf to keep quiet.  I started to back away.  Self-disgust filled me like a nest of snakes writhing in my gut.  My inner-wolf tried to hold me in place, demanding me to go and retrieve her, get her away from Jared, but I fought it.  I’d been sure she’d been hiding something from me, but I hadn’t imagined it would be