Her Hidden Scars (Loving Her Scars Series Book 2) Read online

  Megan laughed. “No, I prefer to sleep in just a t-shirt. Shayla has stayed over here occasionally over the past month, and she likes to sleep in Adam’s clothes. I think she said something about being able to smell him, helping her sleep or something.” Megan stared at him for a few seconds more, then a wide smile spread across her face and she pointed at him. “You thought those belonged to an old boyfriend. You were jealous.”

  “I don’t get jealous,” Jared deadpanned, but Megan’s giggling told him that she wasn’t buying his bullshit. Jared huffed and turned away from her to set his coffee down on the table by her couch, then he stepped into the shorts. They were a little tight around his thighs, but he’d expected as much considering the size difference between him and Adam. When he turned around, he noticed Megan look down at the shorts, and she swallowed like she was trying to keep something down … her drool perhaps. That made him smile again. He looked down at himself and realized that despite having put the shorts on, not much of him was hidden after all. The shorts were a little tight around more than just his thighs it seemed.

  After a few seconds, Megan seemed to realize she’d been caught staring at his groin, and she quickly moved toward the kitchen clearing her throat.

  “You want some breakfast or something? I think I’ve got some bacon and eggs in here.” She ducked her head behind the refrigerator door when she opened it, and Jared just smiled. He knew she was trying to hide from him, embarrassed she was caught ogling him.

  He grabbed the coffee that she’d been so kind to bring to him outside, and he made his way over to her kitchen island. “I could eat, as long as you’re going to eat with me and you allow me to cook for us.”

  Megan shut the refrigerator and walked toward the stove with a pack of bacon and a carton of eggs in hand. “You don’t have to cook, you’re visiting. I can cook for you.”

  “You caught me naked in your backyard, because I fell asleep watching you like a damn stalker or some shit. The least I can do is cook breakfast.” Jared took the bacon and eggs from her hands and gestured to the chairs on the other side of the island. “Make yourself a coffee and have a seat. I’ll take care of the food.”

  Megan was quiet while Jared cooked the two of them breakfast, but when he sat her food in front of her, she caught his gaze and he knew he wasn’t going to like what she had to say by the frown on her beautiful face. “I know I made light of finding you outside this morning, but stuff like that’s part of the problem, Jared.”

  “I swear I haven’t done that before, well not the falling asleep out there part. I can’t say I’ve never stopped by just to be close to you while I’m out on a run.”

  Megan shook her head slowly. “I am not talking about you wanting to see me, that part’s kind of nice. I’m talking about the way you’re always preoccupied when we’re together, because you think you always need to protect me, or the fact that I know you have members of your pack follow me to work and watch my house.”

  “I don’t know…”

  Megan glared at him over her coffee mug. “Don’t bother trying to lie to me, Jared. I’ve seen them following me. Did you really think guys that look like any of your pack members could follow a woman around without anyone noticing? They are hard to miss.”

  Jared ran his hand through his hair and sighed. “Megan … I … it’s hard to explain, but I just have to know you’re safe.”

  “I am fine, Jared. I’m a grown woman who’s survived a lot more than you know, and too many times I’ve let others fight for me, and I won’t keep doing that. I don’t need a babysitter.”

  Jared narrowed his eyes at her. “You might be equipped to handle most things that are thrown your way, Megan, but you’re clearly underestimating the danger you’re in every day just being associated with werewolves. You were there when Kevin attacked us, and even though we might have locked you in the basement, a werewolf’s senses are much more than sight, and I promise you, they knew you were there. You wouldn’t stand a chance against a werewolf if Kevin has any rogue followers out there. And we still don’t know what the hell that thing was that he changed into when Shayla and Adam fought him last.”

  “But they killed him, Jared, and now his pack follows you.”

  Jared shook his head slowly. “You weren’t there. You didn’t see what he’d become, and he said he’d be back and I believe that is true. As far as his pack goes, yes many of them have joined our pack, but his reach was global. We haven’t seen the last of him, and I know you don’t want to hear this, but you’re the easiest way for him to get to me, Adam, and Shayla. They will use you against us without a doubt if they get the chance.”

  Megan reached across the counter and put her hands over his. “Don’t you understand; if you’re always worrying about me, then you’re leaving yourself and your pack vulnerable? I never want to hide and watch another person I love get hurt while they fight to protect me. I’ve done that, and trust me, it hurts a lot worse to watch someone suffer because of you, than it does to just take the pain yourself.”

  “It can’t be as bad as the pain I’d feel if something happened to you and I wasn’t able to protect you, Megan. I can’t explain what it’s like when your wolf finds someone they want to bond with, but just know that it’s the strongest connection to another soul possible for a werewolf. Maybe Shayla can explain it from a female perspective, after all, she gave herself up to Kevin to protect Adam.”

  Megan looked away from him, but he didn’t miss the tear that trailed down her face, and he grabbed her chin between his thumb and forefinger and turned her head so she was looking at him again. “I don’t mean to upset you, Megan. I care about you, a lot, but I can’t do what you ask and back off. I need to know you’re safe, even if that means you can’t be with me anymore. It’s better to know you’re alive and safe.”

  The tears were steadily running down Megan’s face and knowing he was the one who hurt her, was ripping him apart, but he had meant what he said. He might be able to live without her in his life as a mate, but he could not live with himself if something bad happened to her. He walked around the island and bent to place a soft kiss to her forehead, inhaling her scent and committing it to memory. He knew that once he walked out her door, it might be the last chance he had to get this close to her again.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Megan

  Megan tossed her eyeshadow brush into her makeup bag and glared at her reflection in the mirror. “You are getting to be too old to cry yourself to sleep over a guy,” she told herself. She checked the time and saw she was twenty minutes behind schedule. “Ugh, of course,” she groaned, then she headed for the kitchen to grab her keys and purse and headed out to go to work.

  When she got to work thirty minutes later, she headed straight for her office, hoping she wouldn’t run into Charlotte before she was able to shut herself in for the day. If Charlotte saw her puffy eyelids, she’d have the whole office spreading unfounded gossip about all the possible reasons she might have swollen eyes. She made it into her office and was shutting her door, when Charlotte appeared out of nowhere. The woman was a witch or something, Megan was sure.

  “Hey Megan, sorry to bombard you before you get settled in, but there’s someone here from Hall Global Inc. wanting to speak with you, and he’s been waiting for about twenty minutes already. I know that account is a big deal for you and Shayla, so I thought you’d want to know right away.”

  Megan fought to keep her expression composed, despite the cartwheels her stomach was performing on the inside. As far as Megan knew, Hall Global Inc. should have been dissolved, considering its owner had been dead for over a month, along with his partners in crime so to speak. When Megan didn’t respond for several seconds, Charlotte arched an eyebrow and cleared her throat like she thought that Megan had zoned out on her. She hadn’t really zoned out; she was just trying to wrap her mind around the shit-storm Charlotte had dropped in her lap first thing.

  “Should I go get Mr. Falin and bring him to your off
ice?” Charlotte asked, drawing out her words like she wanted to make sure Megan could understand her.

  “Mr. Falin?” Megan questioned.

  Charlotte pointed behind herself with her thumb, even though there wasn’t anyone behind her. “Yes, the man who’s here to see you from Hall Global Inc. His name is Demetri Falin.”

  Megan couldn’t recall ever hearing that name, hadn’t even come across it while they had been researching the company to prepare for their pitch. Knowing everything she’d learned about who Kevin Hall and his employees really were, she couldn’t rule him out as someone truly associated with the company.

  “Give me five minutes to get logged in to my computer, then bring him back,” Megan instructed Charlotte.

  Megan knew Charlotte didn’t approve of her making this Mr. Falin person wait for even another minute, but she had to take a couple of minutes to compose herself, before she met this person who supposedly represented Hall Global Inc. She sat down behind her desk and signed into her laptop. While it loaded, she pulled out her phone and found Jared’s name in her contacts and hit call, but she quickly hit the cancel button before the call had a chance to go through. She’d spent the weekend trying to make him understand why she couldn’t stand to sit back, while he worked so hard to make sure she was safe; she couldn’t call him at the first sign of … what? Well, she didn’t really know what to expect from her surprise visitor, but she was certain nothing good could come from anyone associated with Kevin or his business.

  She was still looking at her phone screen, when she heard a light tap at her door, then Charlotte was opening it and she held it open so that the man with her could walk in ahead of her.

  “Mr. Falin from Hall Global Inc.,” Charlotte announced him, like he was a Duke being presented to the Queen of England.

  “Thank you, Charlotte.” Charlotte nodded and exited the office, pulling the door closed behind her. Megan stayed behind her desk, she needed something between her and the man before her, but she held her hand out and he quickly grasped it in his own and after a quick shake, she pulled her hand away. Demetri Falin was an attractive man, in a flashy, Armani suit kind of way. He had golden blonde hair, which was styled perfectly, slicked back and to the side, and his blue eyes looked like they’d been lifted directly from the blue waters of the Caribbean. He was tall and clearly in shape, but his build was much leaner than that of say … Jared. He reminded her of Zack Morris in Saved by the Bell.

  “I’m sorry about your wait, Mr. Falin, but I wasn’t aware that anyone from your company would be coming in this morning. Honestly, my partner and I haven’t been able to contact anyone from Hall Global for several weeks." Megan waited until Demetri took a seat, before she sat back down. He already had the upper hand and she needed to find a way to run the meeting between them somehow.

  “I know and I’d like to apologize on behalf of all of Hall Global and Mr. Hall himself. We’ve been undergoing a bit of a change in our executive management department, so marketing got pushed to the backseat while everyone got acclimated to their new positions.”

  Megan had to fight to speak through the lump that was sitting like a bolder in the back of her throat. It was one thing for this guy to show up on behalf of Hall Global Inc., but he had just insinuated that Kevin himself was still active in the company. For that to be true, Kevin would have to be alive, and that was enough to make her reconsider her stance on Jared sending pack members to follow her to work.

  “Since you’re here now,” she said slowly, “I take it everything is in order and you’re ready to move forward with our plans to revamp your marketing strategy then?”

  Demetri sat further back in his chair, put his foot upon his knee, and clasped his hands together. A sly smile spread over his face, making his pretty-boy good looks transform into something sinister. Megan felt a chill run down her spine and she knew before he opened his mouth to respond, that he had not come to see her about anything related to marketing.

  “Ms. Shafer, I think we both know I don’t give a shit about your marketing plans. Why don’t we save some time and skip over the false pretenses?”

  Megan ground her teeth together. “What do you want?”

  “Your friends tried to kill my Alpha and took a large portion of our pack members against their will. Mr. Hall would like you to pass along a message to your friends, Shayla and Adam. Tell them to surrender our pack members, or he’ll be coming back to claim them himself, and Ms. Shafer.” Demetri put both of his feet on the ground and leaned forward in his seat. “Believe me when I say, they don’t want Mr. Hall to pay them a visit.”

  He didn’t wait for Megan to respond, not that she had the first clue what to say or do, before he stood up and walked out of her office like he hadn’t just dropped a nuclear warhead in her lap. Megan didn’t move for what felt like hours after he left. Hell, she might have even stopped breathing for a while. She heard someone calling her name, but it sounded so far away, until Charlotte walked around the side of her desk and gripped her shoulder.

  “Megan, are you okay? What did he want to discuss with you?”

  Megan blinked a few times while she stared up at Charlotte, but her mind was too scrambled to comprehend what the woman was saying. “What?”

  Charlotte took a step back and, for once, the look of concern on her face seemed genuine. “Megan, you’re not acting like yourself. I’m worried you might be getting sick. Maybe you should take the rest of the day off.”

  Charlotte’s words finally made their way through the fog in Megan’s head and she nodded slowly. “Yeah, I think you’re right, Charlotte. I’m really not feeling very well.”

  Megan didn’t waste any time going home after that. She checked her mirrors every couple of seconds on the drive to make sure she wasn’t being followed. She didn’t know everything about Kevin and his people, but what she did know was that nothing good would come from Demetri’s visit to her office. What she hated to admit the most was that Jared had been right—she was in danger and she didn’t have a chance in hell of protecting herself against Hall’s people as a human. When she got home, she practically ran inside and quickly locked the door behind her. She pulled Shayla’s number up on her phone and only hesitated for a second, while she decided that the visit from Demetri Falin had been something that was worth interrupting Shayla and Adam on their honeymoon. Besides, she wasn’t ready to call Jared, because he’d have her in lockdown so fast her head would spin. No, she wasn’t going to hide ever again. People she loved were about to be in danger, herself included, and she would do whatever it took to fight right beside them. Nobody would die for her, never again.

  The phone rang three times before Shayla answered the phone, “Hey Meg, what’s up?”

  “I’m sorry I’m interrupting your honeymoon, but I need your help with something and I don’t think it can wait.”

  “Anything.”

  “Make me a werewolf.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Shayla

  Shayla stared at the phone in her hand for several seconds after she hung up the call with Megan. Adam rolled over onto the beach towel she was stretched across and brushed her hair out of her face. “Something wrong?” he asked her.

  Shayla finally put her phone down and turned to look at him. “Megan thinks Kevin Hall is alive.”

  Adam sat up and his jaw went rigid. “Why does she think that?”

  “Some guy named Demetri Falin just showed up at our offices. Told her he was sent there by Kevin himself.”

  “We’ve got to go home.” Adam jumped up onto his feet, then he held out his hand and pulled Shayla up beside him. “If this is true, then our pack isn’t safe, and neither is Megan, especially if they’re using her to get to us.”

  “Yeah, about Megan,” Shayla’s voice trailed off, while she went over her friend’s request in her mind.

  “Yeah?”

  “She asked me to turn her - to make her a werewolf.”

  Shayla watched Adam’s eyebrows draw
together. “Jared’s never going to go for that.”

  “I know you’re right, but I can’t say I agree with him. She is our friend, and we both know that Jared is never going to be able to let her go. His wolf has already begun bonding with her, and you know as well as I do, that’s not something any of us are strong enough to ignore.”

  Adam leaned over and brushed the hair behind her ear. “I do understand, but that doesn’t mean it is our place to change her, Shay.”

  Shayla was not going to be placated, not when her best friend was in danger. “She is a part of our world because of you and me, Adam! I can’t think of anything that could possibly make this more of our responsibility if I tried. We brought her into this world, and we are the reason she is not safe, especially while she remains human.”

  “I understand that babe, and I’m not saying we won’t help her, but maybe we should go back home and talk this over with her and Jared. I just don’t think this is something we should help her rush into.”

  “If Kevin really is still alive, he isn’t just going to wait around. You don’t know Megan like I do. She won’t sit by and just let us fight to keep her safe, human or not. All her life, people have protected her and in her eyes all it got her was a life without a family. Have you never noticed that we are her only friends? That she never talks about anyone from her family?”

  Adam took a deep breath, but Shayla saw him let his resolve fall away. “You’re right. You know her better than any of us, and if you think it is best to do as she asks, then we will.”

  “Thank you.” Shayla leaned in and gave her husband a sweet kiss before she pulled back again. “We should get packed and make our way back home. We need to hurry up and get back.”