Chapter 26
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
PHOENIX
We ended up in the backroom of a pub. I’d literally never seen so much meat ordered, but the wolves just kept adding more and more food until the poor waiter looked a little stricken. It took a while for the kitchen to fill the orders, but there was a ton of conversation while we waited.
The pub was dark and moody, but the room we were in was a little better-lit. It held two long banquet tables with thickly cushioned chairs. Sam faced out, looking into the main area of the pub, and I sat next to her.
For some reason, Max sat on the other side of me. The man hated me—or maybe not hated but there was a lot of jealousy there. It didn’t take a genius to see it. The man was devastated I was here with Sam, and he wasn’t hiding his hurt or disappointment. At all.
Tessa was seated on the other side of Sam, and I leaned toward the two of them, while Max stayed quiet. If he wanted to talk to me, I was happy to clear the air, but I wasn’t going to wait around for him to break the awkward tension between us.
Eventually, a few waiters came into the room carrying plates piled high with food. It took a while for everything to get handed out and arranged. Just as I was taking my first bite, Max finally spoke.
“I’m glad she has you.” He said the words softly and so evenly that it took a second to register that they were directed at me.
I turned a little toward him. That was completely unexpected given how he’d been since the plane. “Thank you.” I wasn’t sure what else to say.
“I apologize for my behavior. I’d thought…” He shook his head as he looked away. “Being a werewolf is difficult in some ways. There aren’t a lot of females born, and the laws around turning someone are very strict. But if you marry a human, they eventually die. It’s…it can be lonely at times.”
Wait a second. I didn’t know much, but I knew Tessa was bitten. And I was pretty sure that Chris’ father or grandfather was bitten—I couldn’t remember which. “But you could turn someone, right? I know it happens sometimes because Tessa was turned.”
“Sure, but Dastien almost lost his life for that move. He broke a lot of rules to gain his mate, but it worked out in the end. She forgave him, as did the council who used to rule the packs.”
This was the most he’d said to me, so I stayed quiet, letting him finish.
“I’ve been rude to you. That’s not how I usually behave, and while I cannot help that my wolf had chosen her, I know that she did not choose either of us.” He leaned back in his chair. “I met Sam a few years ago, and she made a huge impact on me. Her power and beauty and courage. It’s captivating. I tried to flirt with her, but she didn’t seem to pick up on it at all. So, I told myself it was because of our age difference—” He gave me a look. “I’m much, much older than you.”
“I didn’t realize.”
“It’s hard to tell among werewolves, but…” He went back to staring straight ahead as he spoke to me. “I decided that maybe Sam needed time to grow up, live a bit, before settling down. Something I wished my sister, Meredith, had. But she found her mate young and…anyway, I thought in a year or two, I’d formally court her. We’ve worked together a few times since then, and I always tried to show her that I was interested, but she never picked up on it. Ever. Which, in retrospect, is pretty humbling. So, imagine my surprise when she shows up with you. And she lets you touch her, lets you talk to her, lets you carry her when she needs it. You should know that she never does that with anyone.”
“She doesn’t? What happens when she passes out?”
“Tessa helps her or her mother or Eli. Once, Chris carried her, but she was totally passed out. Otherwise, I’m pretty sure she would’ve objected.”
“Really?”
“Truly. It seems I might have lost my window with her.”
There was no seems here. He’d absolutely lost his window. “She’s mine.” I said it without a challenge in my tone. I didn’t want to fight with him. It was just a clear, direct statement of fact.
“I get that now. Just know, she’s special to me. You’ve been given a gift, and if anything happens to her, if she’s hurt, if she’s upset, I’ll blame you.” When he looked at me, his eyes were glowing bright blue. “And I won’t hesitate to rip out your throat.” He said the last part so quietly that I barely heard him.
A hand slammed into the table, rattling all the glasses. “Max.” Tessa’s voice rang out. “ Enough .”
“What did I just miss?” Sam asked.
“Nothing.” I reached under the table and put my hand on her leg. “Everything’s okay.” I knew Max meant that literally. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill me if I let something happen to her, but if something…if Sam died, I was sure I’d let him. I didn’t want to live in a world without her.
Sam’s gaze searched mine. “Are you sure everything is okay?” She leaned in closer, whispering into my ear. “You don’t look okay. What’s wrong?”
Tessa started to say something, but I cut her off.
“ Nothing . I promise.” I leaned away so she could see my face and believe my words. “Don’t worry about a thing.” I leaned forward so I could raise a brow at Tessa, hoping she’d let this go.
Tessa rolled her eyes and muttered something that had a few of the pack members laughing.
Max didn’t say another word, but what he’d said sank in. This—what Sam and I had—was unusual for her. It was more intense than anything I’d ever had before, and I knew she was it for me. Somehow, Max’s words solidified that in my mind. They shouldn’t have, but they did. It wasn’t just the bond. It was more than that. If she’d needed someone other than me, she would’ve picked any number of supernaturals. I saw how they looked at her. I saw how they followed her as she moved. She was captivating to all of them, but it was me that she picked. Me that she let in.
Something inside me uncoiled with that thought. I hadn’t forced her. She wanted me. Eli told me that, and I believed him. But not fully. Now, as I took in Max’s words, it hit me that I had been there in that bathroom for a reason. It was destiny.
Destined. Meant to be. Ordained by God.
That was why it felt so right and easy to turn down Win’s offer. To walk away from everything. Because this was my true purpose—to fight evil beside Samantha.
I sat there in the noisy room with conversations flowing every which way, but my mind wasn’t there. Instead, my life was flashing before my eyes. Every choice. Every step. Every path led me straight to Samantha. It felt like it was orchestrated by the Divine Mastermind.
I was going to need to snag that ring from my safe.
I’d have to deal with my mother, too. That was going to be trickier. But if my sisters helped…
As everyone ate their meals, the pack members asked Sam more and more questions, some of them about demons, others more personal. She tried to answer them the best she could and even made jokes about the things that seemed completely off the wall, poking fun at herself. She talked with her hands a lot. It was adorable.
She was adorable.
When I was done with my food, I pushed back from the table to stretch my knee.
Tessa pushed her chair back and leaned close behind Sam’s chair so that I could hear her.“Sam’s pretty amazing,” Tessa said softly.
I glanced at Sam to see if she could hear us, but she was leaning forward, telling one of the other guys a story. She was an introvert and a little shy, but when they asked her about the spiritual realm or about things they’d heard she did, that shy part of her seemed to dissolve. I was pretty sure she wasn’t even aware of it, but she had the whole room riveted, and even a few of the people beyond it were taking peeks at her.
“Agreed,” I said to Tessa, and then as my gaze drifted back to Sam, I saw her plate. Oh, hell no. She’d spent too much time talking and not enough time eating her dinner. I nudged her. “Hey, babe. Don’t forget to eat. Okay?”
“I’ve been eating.” She looked down at her plate and winced. “Okay. Right. I should be eating more.” She stabbed a bite of roast and chewed.
“Better.” I looked at Tessa, who was smiling at me. “What?”
“You’re good for her.”
“Thank you. I’m hoping I will be. I’m pretty new to this, and dude , talk about a learning curve. But I’m catching on.”
She considered me for a second. “You know, I keep forgetting you’re a total outsider. You just slid right into our lives at the Sanctuary so easily and naturally that I forget you probably don’t know much about us.”
Easily and naturally? I took that as an amazing compliment. “That’s okay. I’m just picking things up as we go. I really try to just go with the flow in life.”
“That’s good and all, but I’ll try to fill you in a little better from here on. I was the outsider once, and it was really…unsettling.”
Dastien reached over, running a hand down her back. I saw their bond light up, and knew they were having one of their silent conversations.
Sam leaned across me to tell Max something. I took the opportunity to reach out and run my hand down her braid and give it a gentle tug because I couldn’t be near her and not touch her.
Her gaze drifted to mine, and she gave me a soft, questioning smile.
“Everything is still fine.” I brushed my hand down her cheek.
She let out a small breath. “You sure?”
“Absolutely.”
I waited until Sam went back to answering another question before looking at Tessa again. “So, how do we go about patrolling tonight? This is my first time doing this, and I want to make sure I’m able to protect her in any way I can. I’m not sure how I should prepare for this.”
“The bad news is there’s no way to really prepare. Especially on this one. We’re just going to wing it and let her take the lead. Just know that none of us want her hurt. Sometimes demons come through the portals, and I can see them. We—” She motioned to herself and the rest of the wolves. “—can fight those kinds of demons. So, we’ll jump in front and take the lead there. No problem.” Tessa paused. “Well, not exactly no problem , but we get it done. Sometimes it can get dicey, though.”
“I saw the news footage.” Before that, there were some rumors that of supernaturals existed, but the cameras caught everything the day Tessa, Dastien, and the rest of Sam’s friends fought demons in a chapel in Santa Fe. It woke everyone up to the fact that normal humans weren’t the only advanced creatures on Earth. There were way more out there, and things went a little crazy for a while.
“I guess most people saw that footage, huh?”
“Yep.” I was sure no soul alive had missed it.
Dastien muttered to Tessa in French about how he hoped to never face a situation like that again, and Tessa answered back in French, telling him not to worry.
Cute. These two were cute. I liked them as a couple. Usually, I liked only one of the people in the couple. It was rare that I liked both. But the more time I spent with them, the more I appreciated the family Samantha had found for herself.
The room slowly went quiet, and I noticed Sam wasn’t talking anymore. She wasn’t eating either. Instead, she was staring off into the restaurant’s main dining room. All the werewolves’ eyes were bright.
“Phoenix? Can you still see the spiritual realm?” Max asked.
“Yeah.”
“What’s she seeing that we can’t see? She didn’t answer when we asked. She’s too in the zone. If she’s found something, I’m scared to snap her out of it and have her lose a trail.”
I searched the room, trying to find what Sam was focused on. The spiritual realm was a mess, and I wasn’t sure how to process any of what I was seeing. That was going to take some major time to figure out. But as I focused, I didn’t see anything unusual. Just a bunch of people having dinner or drinks. One group was getting up from their table. Another group was laughing by the bar. A few dudes were playing darts. Nothing seemed weird.
But when I peeked another look at Sam, she was clearly looking at something in the dining room, tracking it with her eyes as it moved.
“What is it?” Tessa asked.
“I don’t know.” I could still see what Sam could see. It was like a transparent haze over everything, but the main dining room seemed full of regular people. Some of them glowed. Some of them were shadowed. Some were just…nothing. Normal, I guess? Did the glow or shadow mean that they were some sort of supernatural? Or was that from their aura? From sin? Or what? I didn’t know, and now wasn’t the time to ask.
“Samantha,” I said. “What should I be looking for?”
She didn’t answer. Just kept staring, narrowing her gaze a little and tilting her head to the side as she watched whatever it was.
She said sometimes things on the spiritual realm were tricky and they took all of her focus. It was why she sometimes disappeared without saying anything. This was definitely one of those times.
I went back to looking at the bigger room. I tilted my head the way she had, but nothing screamed unusual to me. But what the hell did I know?
The couple at the table directly in her eye-line had a little thread linking them, and I figured they must be married. They were older than me, maybe about ten years or so, and likely out for a date night.
There was a bigger table beyond it with a large, rowdy group who were?—
The scrape of a chair being pushed along the floor echoed in our now silent room. Sam grabbed her belt bag that was hanging over the chair and walked out of the room, quickly weaving through the pub.
I rose from my seat. “That’s not the exit. Where’s she going?”
“The bathroom is down that way,” Garrett said. “But there’s a door that leads to the kitchens, too. There might be a back exit.”
“I don’t think she’s going to the bathroom. I’m following her.” Tessa rose from her seat and moved through the room.
Screw that. “I’m going, too.” If she was in the bathroom, then I’d just have to play the overbearing, overprotective boyfriend card. But I didn’t think that was where Sam was going, either. Even if I couldn’t figure out what she had seen exactly, I knew something was wrong.
I tried to stay calm as I wove through the tables, but the main restaurant was packed with people and waiters with trays and I didn’t want to cause a scene.
Tessa was smaller than me, sliding around people, and I lost her when she rounded the corner.
Damn it. I turned the corner just seconds behind her, but the hallway was empty. There were three doors—men’s and women’s restrooms and a door that led to the kitchens.
I cracked the ladies’ door just in case. “Samantha? Tessa?” I shouted through the crack.
No one answered.
I checked the men’s just in case, but it was empty.
I went to the kitchen door. I ignored the shouts and the heat and the chaos and kept moving back until I found another door. One that led to an alley.
There was a parking garage behind the building, and I could smell the trash in the dumpster behind the kitchen. And off in the distance, Tessa ran around the corner of the parking garage.
I took off, sprinting to catch up, feeling grateful that my knee was healed.