In the Company of Wolves(77)

Megan set down the plate she’d been holding and moved on to the next. “Maybe we won’t have to leave Dallas.”

Jayna gave her a sidelong glance. “Would you be okay with that?”

Megan nodded. “It’d be nice not moving around every few weeks.”

That was one more vote in favor of staying. “What about the guys? Do you think they’d be all right with staying here? So close to another pack of werewolves, I mean?”

“Why not?” Megan shrugged. “They already have a serious case of hero worship where Eric is concerned.”

Jayna smiled. Yeah, she’d noticed that too.

“And Eric would do anything for you,” Megan continued. “You should have seen the way he stood up to his alpha yesterday. Eric told him he’d walk away from the pack to keep you safe. You’ve seen Sergeant Dixon, so you know how scary he can be. But Eric was willing to fight him and as many of his pack mates as he had to if that’s what it took. He’d do anything for you.”

“I know.” Jayna swallowed hard, emotions welling up all of a sudden. “That’s why I can’t let him walk away from his pack.”

Megan stared at her. “That makes no sense. If it’s what Eric wants to do, then why not?”

Jayna looked away.

“It’s because you’re scared to death of letting Eric get too close, isn’t it?”

Jayna looked up sharply. “Too close? I think it’s a little late for that since we’re already sleeping together.”

Megan set down the last plate, then came around the table to take Jayna’s hand in hers. “Sleeping with a guy isn’t the same thing as opening your heart to him. It’s about being willing to open yourself up and risk getting hurt for a chance at finding something real. That’s not you, Jayna. You’re really good at keeping people at a distance, you always have been. But I’m guessing Eric makes you feel things you’ve never felt for a guy, and it’s freaking you out. And when you get freaked, you run.”

“I’m not running from Eric,” she said stubbornly.

“Aren’t you? Can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me the only reason you don’t want Eric to come with us if we leave is because you don’t want to make him choose between you and his pack?”

Jayna opened her mouth to tell her friend exactly that, but the words wouldn’t come—because they would have been a lie, and she didn’t want to lie to the only person in the world who really knew her and liked her anyway. Well, the only person besides Eric.

“Okay,” she admitted. “Maybe I am running. But I’m just so scared of getting hurt.”

Megan put an arm around her shoulders. “I know you’re scared. But why? I mean, I know your mom and stepdad weren’t the poster couple for happily ever after, but you and Eric aren’t your mom and stepdad.”

Thank God for that. “I know. But, Megan, Eric believes I’m this mythical soul mate that werewolf legends talk about. That we’re destined to be together. That he loved me the moment we met.”

“So?” Megan said. “I still don’t see what the problem is. You fell for Eric the second you met too.”

Jayna started to deny it but couldn’t. “Maybe. Probably. The first time we met in that warehouse full of werewolves shooting at each other, I couldn’t think about anything because I was too lost in those beautiful blue eyes of his.”

Megan shook her head with a laugh. “People are trying to kill each other all around you, and you’re losing yourself in some guy’s beautiful blue eyes. Sounds like a magical power at work to me. Again, what’s the problem? If you and Eric are magically destined to be together, what are you worried about?”

Jayna gave her a small smile. “I’m worried that there really isn’t any magical power pulling us together, that it’s all in our heads. What if I’m not nearly as wonderful as he seems to think I am and he figures it out a few weeks after he’s run off with us? What if he wakes up one morning and realizes he doesn’t love me at all and that he screwed up his whole life for nothing?”

“Okay, I’m going to say this as gently as I can—you’re an idiot.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“Jayna, I can promise you one thing for sure: Eric is never going to stop loving you. I’ve seen it in his eyes. He can no more stop loving you than he can breathe underwater. It’s impossible. You’ll never lose his love, but you can screw around and abandon it because you’re too stuck in the past to see what’s right in front of you.”