Compound 41

Chapter 20

Jackson couldn't take it anymore. Evelyn was so close to him, and he was having a hard time restraining his wolf's urges to kiss her. But he knew that they needed to cover a lot more ground before he was ready for things to get physical. He felt like it would be dishonest to her to allow things to progress before she was somewhat more aware of his world, of their world, that she knew nothing about.

"Can I see you tomorrow?" Jackson asked abruptly, standing up from where he had been sitting on the bench in the garden.

"Yes" Evelyn replied, a little startled by Jackson's sudden movement. "I'm going to see a friend in the morning, but then I should be free in the afternoon" she replied.

"I'll walk you to your car, if that's ok?" Jackson offered.

"Yeah, sure... Of course" Evelyn replied, feeling confused about the abruptness of the end of the date.

They moved in silence to where Evelyn's car was parked, and she moved quickly into the driver's seat, putting her wheelchair behind her with expertise speed.

"I guess, just call me tomorrow if you want to get together?" She offered, not at all sure what to think about anything.

"I will, I definitely will" Jackson agreed readily. "Will you text me when you get home? So I know you're safe?" he asked, feeling the weird tension that seemed to be building between them for the last few minutes.

"Ok, I will" Evelyn agreed, not sure what else to say. "I'll talk to you later" she said and then closed her door, started the car and drove away, leaving Jackson standing there, watching after her.

When she got home, Evelyn sent a message to Jackson letting him know she was home safe. She also thanked him for dinner and the lovely evening. She wasn't sure what else to say, if there was anything else to be said. She spent the entire drive home dissecting the evening and trying to understand what had happened.

She thought things had gone well. They had a nice dinner, spent time sitting in the garden maintaining pleasant conversation the entire time. They had laughed at each other's jokes and seemed to be having a lovely evening. Then, when she thought he was going to kiss her, things suddenly got weird and she couldn't pinpoint what would have caused it. Every time she replayed the situation in her mind, she couldn't come up with a satisfactory answer other than that there was something wrong. The more she thought about it, the more she felt like he was hiding something.

Evelyn was disappointed. She really liked Jackson, and it made her sad to think that there was something big enough and relevant enough to stop him from trying to kiss her. She was sure that he had wanted to, and that he had even intended to, but something stopped him. Something that he wasn't willing to talk about with her.

She wondered if he was playing her. If this was all some elaborate plot to manipulate her in some way. But she reasoned that it didn't really make sense for that to be the situation. Typically, if a guy is manipulating a woman, it's to get her into bed, not the opposite. Something she unfortunately had experience with. She didn't understand Jackson's behavior, but she was definitely left feeling unsettled by it.

Before falling into a restless sleep, Evelyn read Jackson's response to her text message that didn't help to clear up her confusion. He told her he had a great time with her and was looking forward to getting together the following day and that he hoped she would have a great night.

Jackson, on the other hand was unable to sleep for a few more hours. After the date, he made his way over to the hotel where he and Dante had been staying since they came into town for the wedding. Dante had filled him in with a few details during the day about what had been going on at the clinic, but they still needed to find answers.

"I'm completely striking out with her" Jackson told Dante, shaking his head as flopped onto the bed in the hotel room.

"That bad?" Dante asked, feeling bad for his friend's predicament.

"Everything was going great. Dinner was good, she was smiling and we talked about a lot different things. She's adopted, by the way, which explains how she could be completely ignorant of being a werewolf" he prattled on, getting off topic. "Anyway" he continued, "we were outside and I almost kissed her. Goddess, she so damn perfect" he agonized, pulling at his hair with both of his hands.

"Why didn't you?" Dante asked, even though he was pretty sure he could understand why Jackson hadn't initiated a kiss with his mate.

"If I kiss her, when I kiss her, there will be no turning back. Just thinking about kissing her gets my wolf all riled up. I just can't go down that road yet, not before she knows what we are. What if I couldn't stop myself? What if I marked her? She'd think I was trying to kill her. She'd think I was a freaking psycho who tried to bite her. No way, I can't risk that."

"I wish I knew what to tell you" Dante replied unhelpfully. "All I can say is, we really need you to not screw up" he teased. "But seriously, we do need to figure out what the Doctor is doing at the Clinic, how Mark is involved and if there are any other wolves, beside her and Catherine being tested on."

"Yeah, no pressure" Jackson replied wearily. "So anything else happen after you followed Mark from the Clinic this morning?"

"Not really" Dante replied. "He went back to the apartment he stays at when he's in town. He was alone, I assume Catherine stayed at the Clinic, I didn't go in. I figure we can go in the morning. If we can get her alone, maybe she would be willing to tell us a little about what is going on, and why she's letting Mark and the Doctor experiment on her."

"Do you think Catherine knows that Evelyn is a werewolf?" Jackson thought aloud.

"I doubt it" Dante said. "I wouldn't have known if you hadn't been able to smell her and told me. That and when you shook her hand when we met her at the wedding. I'm sure it has something to do with the mate-bond, bringing her wolf forward or something. But it seems unlikely that anyone but the Doctor, and probably Mark are aware."

"I wonder if we could use that as leverage with Catherine" Jackson considered. "If she's not willing to talk to us about herself, maybe if she knows that Evelyn is being subjected to the same things, she'd be willing to help us figure things out, for Evelyn's sake."

"Maybe" Dante replied, considering Jackson's suggestion. "I think it's worth a shot. We'll go see her in the morning. We'll call in Jimmy to help run interference with Mark, so he doesn't find out we're there."

"Sounds good" Jackson replied. "Then I'm going to try to see Evelyn in the afternoon. Maybe by then I'll have figured out some way to start a conversation with her about the truth."