Page 70 of UNAwere

It seems like so long ago, meeting him. Discovering the person he is. He doesn’t seem anywhere close to what I expected him to be. In more ways than one, Jude Briggs has surprised me.

Jude buys me coffee in the morning.

Real coffee. Not the stale stuff in the coffee machine in the motel’s foyer, or the instant packet stuff in our room.

And he remembers my order, handing me my cappuccino.

‘I asked for extra coffee,’ he explains, not meeting my eye. ‘I thought you might’ve wanted it to be strong.’

I smile. I’m wearing my oversized tee and nothing else, sitting in bed, covered only by a blanket, but I guess we’re at the point now where modesty no longer matters.

‘I didn’t even hear you leave,’ I murmur.

‘That was the aim.’

I take a sip and hum. ‘Did you get yourself a long black?’

He nods. ‘I forgot what they were called and just asked for a coffee with no milk. The girl said something about a “long” or a “short” black, and I told her I don’t give a fuck if it’s a “wide” black, I just want coffee.’

I laugh, ducking my head when he turns and looks at me, as if desperate to see the source of the sound. Desperate to see me smiling again.

‘How are you feeling?’ His voice is soft, edged with a cautious curiosity that I can’t ignore.

‘I’m okay.’

‘Good…’ He clears his throat and sits down in the chair he slept in.

I drink a bit more and then get up. ‘I guess you want to be leaving soon?’

He shrugs a shoulder. ‘Warner already knows we’ve been delayed. If you want to rest a little longer, we can.’

I fail to hide my surprise. ‘Since when are you so accommodating?’

He meets my gaze, and something passes between us. Something resembling the connection we made last night. The deep, primal thing that was breathed to life as he sucked on my neck, as he praised me with his gruff voice, guiding me through orgasm after orgasm. I’m the first to break our gaze and sip at my coffee again.

I sniff, checking my phone and tapping out a quick reply to Maeve. While I’m typing, Jude sighs and stands.

‘Yeah?’ he says, answering his phone. He takes the call outside, closing the door behind him.

I bite my lip, unable to hear the conversation he’s having, but I can only hazard a guess it’s Warner on the other side of the line. I shoot off a text to Maeve to tell her I’m doing okay and ask how she is, then get up and get changed. From what I can hear, it’s still raining, so I slip into a pair of jeans, a knitted sweater, and a denim jacket.

I’ve just tied on my sneakers when Jude comes back in, and his eyes rake over my body. Jaw stiffening, he closes the door and slips his phone into his back pocket.

‘We’ve got six days to go,’ he murmurs. ‘Nothing’s changed. Alpha Warner wants me to keep training you when I can.’

‘Even after I…?’ It dawns on me that I killed someone last night, and I feel the colour drain from my face. At the time, I hadn’t been myself, acting on pure primal instinct. To keep Jude safe. ‘Jeepers…’

‘Hey.’ Jude steps over when I lower myself onto the end of the bed, feeling like the world is about to fall over. ‘They were going to kill us if we didn’t kill them first.’

His hands are on me again, and I quickly pull away from the feeling of electricity buzzing through my skin. He snatches them back to his sides, apologising under his breath.

‘I—er, yeah. I… I know.’

I can hardly remember what happened between us last night, but at the same time it’s all I can remember. Like a vivid dream, my heat made me delirious. And I’m embarrassed. I feel weird, and like Jude was only obliged to help me because he was the only one out of us both who knew what was happening.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ I say. I’m making a declaration for the both of us. When I look at Jude, he’s staring at me, a deep line between his brows.

‘Alright,’ is all he says.