3.1 | Animal Instinct ✓

19 | heart

1 9

h e a r t

JED AND I decided to stay home the next day. Based on a text that Jade had sent me, Lorraine had returned to the diner but she was still ranting and railing at everyone who so much as crossed paths with her. Jed had no wish to be anywhere near her and, as much as I wanted to help her, I couldn't help but feel the same.

Just thinking about how she'd come so close to attacking me the other day was enough to backtrack on my impulses and send a message to Dimitri to stay home too. Putting the sardonic, sharp-tongued Dimitri and the emotionally-unstable Lorraine together was like adding fuel to the already-blazing fire.

Meanwhile, Jed had revoked his previous orders and simply moved the prisoners into a holding cell for the time being. He'd then retreated into his study to contact several other packs for reinforcements. There wasn't any time to lose because Prometheus still had Lance and Giles, if they were even alive. Based on what I understood of the situation, Titan had the distinct advantage of having several extremely well-trained fighters.

But Prometheus had nothing to lose. And that in itself gave Malthus Trevino the upper-hand.

Two upper-hands, in fact.

I was still mulling over the issue of the rogue within Titan. We needed to flush that rogue out before Titan made its next move, because Titan could very well get burnt if the rogue leaked our plans out to Prometheus. Finding the ring was imperative, as Dimitri had already said.

But what was even more important was convincing Jed.

Biting my lip thoughtfully, I started to contemplate the best way to go about it as I stood by the kitchen counter and began to prepare breakfast. Cooking, as always, was therapeutic, and I found myself beginning to calm down as I pulled out one ingredient after another out of the fridge. I was just about to push myself up on the counter so that I could retrieve a pot when I felt Jed step up behind me, his familiar scent washing over me like the best kind of aphrodisiac there ever was, his tanned arm reaching out to pull the pot off the shelf and set it down on the counter.

"Hi," I greeted brightly when I turned around, feeling rather surprised when I saw how close he was standing. The expression on his face was calm, the tiny smile flitting across his face almost relaxed, like we had all the time in a world that had, momentarily, stopped spinning on its axis. When he took a step closer still, his eyes darting down to my lips, I suddenly felt flustered as my heart began to race. "Are you hungry?" I blurted.

His eyes widened in visible surprise before a lazy smirk tugged at the corners of his lips.

Rapidly, I realised the ramifications of my statement and shut my eyes in brief embarrassment. "In retrospect, that might not have been the best question to ask."

Jed let out a low, husky laugh that sent thrills all the way down my spine and, without any warning, swiftly leaned down to capture my lips with his. He kissed me in a way that was wonderfully familiar, lips sliding against mine so smoothly that seemed like he'd done it a thousand times before, first nipping at the corner of my mouth and then on my lower lip to wrench a breathless whimper from me, before kissing me fully over and over again until I was almost numbingly devoid of all thoughts but him.

All too soon for my liking, he was pulling away in an action that was perfectly reminiscent of all the times he'd just kissed me with that vague curiosity, only to pull back in time before his irises went fully obsidian. Somehow, the thought of that thrilled me very much and I couldn't help but wonder how it would feel like, what Jed would do, when he was no longer in full control. And somehow, a part of me knew that this was a perfect time for it to happen.