Luna Lost

16. Enter Jace

Chapter 16 — Jace

Jace recognized her the moment she walked through the door.

He had been sitting alone at the far end of the tavern, exactly where he preferred to be, one shoulder against the wall and a half-finished drink in front of him. The place was busier than he liked. Too many voices, too much laughter, too many people who seemed incapable of existing without filling every second of silence.

Then Luna walked in, and his attention found her before he could stop it.

Damien’s description had been more than enough. Dark hair. Light grey eyes. A crescent scar beneath her wrist. Human. His mate. The woman who had somehow turned Damien into a pacing, overthinking disaster in a matter of days.

Jace looked away.

No.

Cassius could make a game out of anything. Damien could obsess over every possible outcome. Jace preferred simplicity. Damien had asked them to keep an eye on Luna, make sure she was safe and otherwise leave her alone.

That suited him perfectly.

His wolf had been restless most of the evening, shifting beneath his skin without any obvious reason. The moment Luna entered the tavern, it went quiet.

Jace frowned at his glass and ignored that too.

Luna scanned the crowded room. Almost every table was full, and the few empty chairs belonged to groups clearly saving them for someone. Her gaze moved toward the bar and landed on the empty stool beside him.

Jace stared straight ahead.

A moment later, she appeared beside him. “Anyone sitting here?”

He glanced at the stool. “No.”

“Good.”

She sat, and that should have been the end of it.

Instead, the strange quiet inside him deepened. His wolf wasn’t simply calm anymore. It seemed satisfied, as though whatever had been irritating it all evening had suddenly disappeared.

Jace’s jaw tightened.

Beside him, Luna ordered a drink. He could smell something faintly floral beneath the ordinary scents of the tavern. He could hear the steady rhythm of her heartbeat if he concentrated. He could feel the warmth of her body without needing to look at her.

So he didn’t.

Several minutes passed before Luna took another sip and glanced sideways. “You’re very committed to that glass.”

Jace looked at her. “What?”

“You’ve been staring at it since I sat down.”

“I like the glass.”

She blinked at him.

Jace looked away.

“All right then.”

He heard the slight change in her voice and told himself that was good. Maybe she would stop talking to him. For some reason, he didn’t particularly like the thought.

Silence settled again.

Luna lasted approximately thirty seconds.

“Long day?”

“Something like that.”

“Mine too.”

Jace nodded.

Nothing else.

He could practically feel her waiting for him to ask what had happened. He didn’t.

“Good talk,” she muttered.

The corner of his mouth moved before he caught it.

Luna noticed immediately. “Oh, you do have facial expressions.”

Jace’s mouth flattened.

“That was almost a smile.”

“No.”

“It absolutely was.”

“You imagined it.”

She narrowed those pale grey eyes at him. “You know, you’re kind of rude.”

“I’ve been told.”

“At least you’re self-aware.”

He finally looked at her properly.

That was his mistake.

She was beautiful. Damien had conveniently left that detail understated. Her eyes were expressive enough to betray every thought she was having about Jace, and currently most of those thoughts appeared to be unimpressed. He should have found that reassuring.

Instead, he wanted to make her smile.

Jace looked away.

Luna exhaled through her nose. “Okay.”

Something about the word bothered him.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Now it was his turn to look at her.

She took another drink, apparently deciding he was no longer worth the effort.

Jace lasted even less time than she had.

“You come here often?”

Luna slowly turned her head toward him. “Did you just ask me a question?”

“No.”

Her eyebrows lifted.

Jace took a drink.

A smile tugged at her mouth despite herself. “Wow. I feel special.”

“Don’t.”

There it was again. The amusement faded slightly, and this time Jace knew immediately that he’d done it.

Good.

This was what he wanted.

“That wasn’t how I meant it,” he said anyway.

She studied him. “How did you mean it?”

He had absolutely no answer that improved the situation.

Luna waited.

Jace looked back at his glass.

She gave a quiet laugh, but there was less amusement in it now. “Right.”

He was ruining this.

That was safer.

Damien was his brother. Luna was Damien’s mate. Whatever strange ease had settled over Jace’s wolf was irrelevant. The fact that he had already noticed the shape of her smile, the unusual colour of her eyes and the way she tapped one finger against her glass when she was annoyed was even more irrelevant.

“You have a name?” Luna asked eventually.

Jace hesitated.

He could refuse. That would probably end the conversation completely.

“Jace.”

She looked at him. “Jace.”

His wolf stirred.

Jace’s fingers stopped against his glass.

Oh f**k.

It was nothing. A sound. His own name. He had heard it from hundreds of mouths in hundreds of different ways, but something about hearing it in her voice moved through him differently.

His gaze snapped toward her.

Luna caught it. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“You keep saying that.”

“Because you keep asking.”

She stared at him for a second. “You are exhausting.”

The corner of his mouth threatened to move again.

Luna caught that too, but this time she merely shook her head and returned to her drink.

Jace should have been relieved.

Instead, he found himself watching her from the corner of his eye.

“Aren’t you going to ask me mine?”

He already knew it.

“No.”

Her head snapped toward him. “No?”

Jace realized too late that he’d answered a little too quickly. “No.”

“Wow.”

He said nothing.

Luna stared at him another moment before turning away. “Okay, Jace.”

His name in her voice did it again.

His wolf lifted its head.

Jace ignored it.

She took a deliberate sip of her drink. “Well, just so you know, my name is Luna.”

This time his wolf went completely still.

Jace’s eyes moved to her.

He had known her name before she ever walked through the door, but hearing her say it herself was different. The restless part of him seemed to fold down around the sound until, for one strange moment, everything inside him felt perfectly settled.

Then the name itself registered.

Of course Damien’s mate was named Luna.

The word carried a significance among their kind that humans had long forgotten. It belonged to the moon, but also to some of their oldest traditions—to strength, balance and the women who had once stood at the heart of their packs.

And Damien had never been ordinary.

He was the only one among them born able to shift, a walking exception to rules older than any of them.

Naturally, fate had given him a human mate named Luna.

“What?” Luna asked.

Jace realized he was staring.

“Nothing.”

She rolled her eyes. “There it is again.”

He should stop. He knew he should. But something about her growing irritation made him want to pull her back into the conversation.

“It suits you.”

That caught her off guard.

Her expression softened for half a second before suspicion replaced it. “Was that a compliment?”

“Maybe.”

“I don’t trust it.”

“You shouldn’t.”

“And we’re back.”

Jace looked down, but not quickly enough to hide the smallest smile.

Luna saw it. “There!”

He frowned. “What?”

“You smiled.”

“No.”

“You absolutely smiled.”

Jace shook his head.

“I knew you could do it.”

There was satisfaction in her voice, like she had accomplished something. For some reason, that made him want to give her another one.

That was enough.

Jace pushed his glass away and stood.

Luna looked up at him. “Seriously?”

“I’m leaving.”

“I gathered that.”

He pulled on his jacket, covering some of the black ink running over his arms. Tattoos disappeared beneath the fabric while others remained visible across his hands and along his neck. Luna’s eyes followed the movement for a second before returning to his face.

There was irritation there now.

Good.

“Well,” she said, lifting her glass slightly, “it was… something meeting you.”

Jace almost apologized.

Instead, he nodded. “Luna.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Jace.”

His wolf reacted again.

He left before she could see it.

The cool night air hit him as the door closed behind him. Jace walked several steps down the street, putting distance between himself and the tavern.

His wolf became restless.

He stopped.

For several seconds he stared ahead, refusing to acknowledge what had just happened. Then he slowly looked back.

Warm light spilled through the tavern windows onto the street. Luna was somewhere behind that glass, probably deciding he was the biggest asshole she had met all week.

Good.

That was exactly what he wanted.

So why did every instinct in him want to turn around?

Jace shoved his hands into his pockets and kept walking.

Inside the tavern, Luna watched the door close behind him.

“Good riddance,” she murmured.

She took another drink.

What an ass.

A ridiculously gorgeous ass, unfortunately.

Her eyes drifted toward the empty stool. White-blond hair, tattoos covering nearly every piece of skin she could see and eyes so bright blue they barely looked real. Apparently the universe had decided to package an absolutely terrible personality inside one of the most attractive men she had ever seen.

Worse, she had spent half her drink trying to make him talk to her.

Luna frowned.

That was becoming a little strange.

First Damien had appeared out of nowhere, bleeding and enormous, and instead of running like a reasonable person, she had taken him home. Then there had been Cassius, another absurdly attractive stranger she had somehow fallen into conversation with almost immediately. Now Jace had barely given her more than a handful of words, and she had practically interrogated him just to keep him talking.

Since when did she do that?

She wasn’t afraid of people, but she didn’t normally feel compelled to know them either. She certainly didn’t make a habit of talking to strange men simply because something about them made walking away feel like the wrong choice.

Yet lately, gorgeous and slightly concerning men seemed to be everywhere.

Luna took another sip and stared thoughtfully at the empty stool.

Maybe she needed to reevaluate her decision-making.

Then Jace’s almost-smile flashed through her mind.

She sighed.

Or maybe she needed to start coming here for a quiet drink by herself more often.

Not because of him.

Definitely not because of him.

But if that face happened to be sitting at the end of the bar again, she supposed she could tolerate another terrible conversation.