Chapter 36 The Wolf Is Out Of The Bag

BPOV

"What the hell is that?" Jake hissed angrily.

Fuck! This was exactly what I had feared. What do I do now?

"Not now Jake." I answered. "Please."

He glared at me with firey eyes. "Who marked you?" He demanded.

I took a deep breathe trying to keep things calms. This was exactly what I was afraid of. "Jake, we're at a wedding. I'll tell you later."

"Who?" He yelled a little louder and several people turned to see what was happening. His whole body began to tremble and I knew I needed to move away. I knew from past experience how dangerous he could be. I had to protect my baby. I slowly took a couple steps back, my breathing picking up in fear.

I stopped when I suddenly ran in to a hard muscles chest. I immediately knew it was Sam and relaxed because I knew he would keep me safe. Sam would make sure the baby and I were safe from Jake's rage.

"Jacob, you need to go. You're not gonna make a scene at Jared and Kim's wedding." Sam ordered, his voice positively vibrating with the alpha timbre. God I loved when he used the alpha voice. It did things to my girly bits.

A growl from Jake shook me from my sudden horny daze. Right, Jake is about to go wolf in the middle of a crowded dance floor. Cause he saw my mark. Not good.

Jake ran shaking from the wedding and out into the darkness. The rest of the pack, who had obviously heard everything, were now staring at me, probably wondering who had done the marking. I blushed, feeling more than a little embarrassed by the attention.

Sam gently laid his hand on my shoulder, causing me to look up in to his infinitely deep black eyes. "You okay?" He murmured low and growly, his body tense with protective rage.

I nodded though it wasn't true. The adrenaline coursing through my body was making me feel sick. I closed my eyes and took deep, soothing breaths through my nose, trying to calm the rising nausea.

"Are you sure?" He gently laid my hand on his hand on my shoulder, rubbing his thumb over the mark and instantly soothing my roiling stomach.

I smiled serenely, so enjoying the benefits of the mark, even if it had caused drama tonight. "Yeah. I'm fine." I assured him. "Just need to sit down for a minute."

"Then let's go sit."

We went over to the table and I sat down next to Paul and Rachel. Paul was watching me carefully, as if gauging my reaction to all the drama, while Rachel looked like her damn eyes might pop out of her head. For a moment I ignored the others, taking a small sip of water and enjoying being off my feet.

I finally looked up and right in to Rachel's narrowed eyes. She wanted answers and she wasn't going to take no as an answer. "Did he see...?" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

I shook my head. "He saw my mark." I answered her slowly, making it obvious that I didn't want to talk about the baby.

Her mouth dropped open comically. "You're marked?"

I nodded, feeling everyone at the table looking at me. Sam gently put his hand on my knee under the table, squeezing it as if to offer his calm reassurances that everything was going to be okay.

"Same guy?" She asked. I nodded and she glared at me. "Tomorrow, everything, and I mean everything!"

"Fine. Tomorrow." I assured her.

"I wanna see it." Rachel told me. "Show me."

I looked at Sam, who shrugged imperceptibly. So I moved my hair to the side and she studied it.

"Did it hurt?" she asked.

"Not really." I leaned closer to her. "And afterwards, it's amazing." I told her lifting my eyebrows to convey what I was talking about.

Suddenly she touched the mark and a zing of burning pain passes through my body, causing me to gasp aloud. Rachel yanked her hand back as if burnt. I covered the mark, touching the slightly warmer raised mark and wondering what the hell had just happened. It had never zapped anyone before, but then again Sam was the only person who had touched it.

"Don't touch it." Paul told Rachel, inspecting the finger she was cradling. "Only the marker is supposed to touch it. If anyone else does, the mark shocks that person in an attempt to show ownership." He explained to his shocked imprint. After kissing her finger lightly he met my eyes. "You okay now?"

I raised my brows at this new information. "Yeah. I'm sorry. I didn't know it would do that or I would have warned her." I turned a quick glare on Sam only to find him looking as surprised as I felt. "Is that normal?"

"I thought it only hurt men who touched it, but apparently women too." Sam responded, his face once again a neutral mask, but I swear I could see the cocky smirk in his eyes. He confirmed it with a wink.

"I had no idea." I growled angrily. "I think I'll have to talk to my "marker" since he obviously still hasn't told me everything about this thing."

The silence that covered the group was thick with tension. I immediately felt stupid for prolonging the conversation when the tension was already so ramped up from Jake's discovery.

Trust Rach to end the awkward silence. "So, why am I not marked?" She demanded of her imprinter.

Paul's face turned beat red. He was angry. He had never liked to talk about his feelings, but especially not in front of the entire pack. "Because I haven't done it yet."

"Well when are you gonna?" Rachel demanded.

"When we get engaged." He snapped.

That shut her up quickly as a huge smile enveloped her face. "Awww, you're so sweet." Then she practically launched herself at her imprinter and started making out.

Watching them, so obviously deliriously happy together sent a momentary pang of jealously through me. Don't get me wrong, I was incredibly happy for my friends, but I also wished I had that too. I wished I was in a secure relationship with Sam.

I was pulled from my melancholy by a tap on my shoulder and looked up at a grinning Kim. She gave me a pointed glance at my mark and I knew that Jared must have told her and she came to confirm it. I just shrugged. She squealed and pulled me up and in to her arms jumping up and down.

"I'm not the only one." She yelled a little too loudly.

I kissed her cheek. "I'm so sorry for the drama. I didn't think he would see it tonight."

She waved my concern off. "He'll get over it. I am just so excited for you. I want to know everything. We are having a girls lunch tomorrow night."

"But Kim, you should be home with Jared."

"He has work. Our honeymoon isn't until next week, so we are going to talk." She demanded. Then she looked up at the other boys who were still watching us carefully.

As if sensing my discomfiture she fixed a mild glare on the pack. "There's nothing to see here. Get back to dancing."

We all danced and hung out for another hour. I watched as the boys were watching each other. I wondered who they thought it was. I wondered if any of them thought it was Sam.

At the end of the night I drove back to Sam's and quickly fell in to a deep, exhausted sleep.