Chapter 41
ADAM
The minute I saw Gale on top of Fletcher, my wolf had gone postal. With red dotting my vision, I’d gunned the engine and blared the horn, dead-set on running that rat bastard down—and I did.
He was dead, but seeing the blood that soaked Fletcher’s fur, staining my upholstery, dulled the satisfaction at killing my ex-friend and packmate.
I drove, ignoring the speed limits in town, the scent of old pennies and desperation thick in the air. Fletcher huddled in the passenger seat, shaking like a leaf. God, was he okay? There was so much blood…
“Fletch?” I uttered, my voice hoarse. “Baby? Are you okay?” The lynx barely moved, but his big green eyes blinked up at me slowly. My heart clenched up. Was he dying? Were there wounds I couldn’t see?
“Please, talk to me,” I begged him. “Do you need a hospital?”
The cat made a sound of pain as magic shimmered in the air around him. Fletcher shifted back to man, almost too slowly, his arms wrapped around himself. He sank back against the seat, a whimper escaping his parted lips.
“Fletcher?”
“I… I think I’m okay, but it hurts,” he breathed out. “Everything hurts. Fuck. Your dad wants me dead, Adam.”
The memory of Father’s haunting words felt like a bullet hole in my chest. “I know.” I swallowed, my stomach lurching. God, I’d been so close to losing my mate. “He told me he was going to get rid of you. I’m done. I can’t do this anymore, Fletcher.”
He jerked back with a hiss. “Wh-What?”
I realized what that must sound like—that I was done with him—and I quickly moved to take his hand in mine. “Not us, baby. My family. My father. I can’t believe he’d do something like this.” I gently squeezed his fingers, but kept driving—right out of town and onto the freeway.
Fletcher glanced out the window, as if suddenly realizing we weren’t going back to the manor. “Where are we going?” he asked, his voice small. “Adam?”
“Away!” I barked, sharp and almost frantic. “I can’t trust anyone anymore! I can’t lose you! I refuse! Not after everything that’s happened, not after all of this. I need to take you someplace safe, someplace no one will be able to hurt you.”
I gripped the wheel so tightly, my knuckles went white. My breath came out jagged, because my thoughts were circling the drain. All I could think about was Father gunning Fletcher down, shooting him full of lead. My Omega, motionless, on the ground, bleeding out.
No, no, no. Not happening. Not on my watch.
“Adam.” Fletcher rested a warm hand on my thigh, squeezing just enough to bring me back to reality. “It’s okay,” he assured me. “I’m okay. Just some gashes and bruises. Really. I’ll be okay.”
I shook my head. “No. I’m not taking that chance. I love you too damn much to risk my asshole of a father sending another one of his cronies to finish what Gale started. I refuse.”
Fletcher nodded solemnly. “I understand, but where are we going?”
I frowned, because I wasn’t quite sure of that myself yet. Finally, after a few minutes of silence, I said, “Albany.” That was the city where our new home was located, and it only made sense to put us both up in a hotel there until we could fully move in. Start our lives anew, no strings attached.
So that’s what I did. I drove to the nicest motel I could find and bought a suite for a couple of nights. Then, with my hand on the small of Fletcher’s back, I guided him inside, to the elevator, and up to our room.
Once we were safely locked inside, I led Fletcher to the bathroom. He stripped out of his torn clothing and sat in his underwear on the edge of the closed toilet lid. I found a never-used First-Aid kit in the storage beneath the sink and got to work cleaning and dressing my mate’s wounds.
Every scratch, gash and bite-mark. Some were deep punctures, where Gale’s fangs had sunk in, and some simply scrapes and bruises. All of them made both me and my wolf furious. I was pissed. At my father. At Gale. At my pack for being a bunch of sheep who followed their Alpha blindly.
“I’m so sorry,” I murmured. “This is my fault. I never should’ve told my parents shit. We should’ve just left and been done with it.”
“No, baby. It’s not your fault,” Fletcher assured me. “You did the right thing. Your father’s insane.” He gingerly stood up, grimacing as he did so. “Ow… I’m probably going to be sore for awhile, though. Gale was definitely out for blood.”
He wrapped his arms around my waist, hugging me right there in the middle of the bathroom, surrounded by the stink of antiseptic and blood. Then he pulled back and gazed up at me, his bottom lip pouted out.
“Come lay with me? I don’t really want to be alone right now.”
“Of course, kitten,” I murmured, pressing a kiss to his forehead, and together we carefully climbed into the large hotel bed and curled up beneath the sheets.
As expected, Fletcher clung to me, one leg thrown over mine and his body nestled close to my chest. I ran my hands over his shoulders and down his arms and back, threading my fingers through his tangled auburn hair. When he blinked soulfully up at me, I felt like I might break.
“I was so scared,” I whispered. “When Father said that he got rid of you, that I’d never see you again… God, Fletch, I thought I was going to die. I was terrified that I would be too late.”
“You almost were.” His voice was a hush. “Gale wanted to drag me back to your father so he could ‘put a bullet between my eyes himself’ for tainting you.”
I growled, unable to stop it if I’d tried, and tightened my grip on my mate. “I’ll never let him near you again,” I vowed. “You’re mine. My love. My mate. Fuck him and fuck his stupid ideals. I’m a fool for not seeing it sooner, and I’m sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Fletcher told me. “You’re here now, but Adam… We have to go back.”
“What? No. You aren’t ever going back there.”
“Adam.”
“No, Fletcher, I’m serious.” I clenched him to my chest, burying my face in his hair so that I could breathe in the sweet elderberry scent that was wholly him.
“I refuse to risk your life again. I don’t trust my father, not the least bit.
I’ll go back, but you will stay here, locked safely away in this hotel room, until I get all of our stuff moved to the new house. Okay? Promise me.”
Fletcher pulled back just enough that we could look into each other’s eyes. When he smiled, my heart did a little flip. “I promise, but only because you’re adorable when you get all huffy and protective.” He wrapped his arms around me. “Love you, Adam.”
“Love you too, kitten,” I murmured. “Let’s try and get some sleep.”
But despite it being a long day, despite all the mental and physical anguish we’d been through, neither of us fell asleep. For the longest time, we just laid together, holding each other and breathing the same air, while I thanked the Fates again and again for giving me a second chance.