Chapter 4
FOUR
Tucker
“Logan!” I shout as I round the corner into the fire station.
I saw Crew’s police cruiser out front so I know that he’s here too, and probably the rest of the guys.
Six heads poke out of the break room, and Crew comes running over to my side.
“What’s wrong?” He asks me urgently.
“I just made an arrest,” I start, and he frowns.
“You need back up or something?”
I can see the other guys looking me over for injuries, and I open my mouth, but no words come out.
Spit it out, my wolf barks, and I roll my eyes at him.
Stay out of it. You’re the reason that we’re in this mess.
He bares his teeth at me, and I push him down.
“I made a mistake,” I tell them right as our pack’s Alphas, Ryker and Griffin, come into the station.
“What’s going on?” Griffin asks.
“I messed up,” I admit and they both frown.
“What happened?” Crew asks me, sounding impatient and worried.
I get it. I don’t often make mistakes, and I never rush into a room anxiously like I just did.
“Calm down,” Logan says, taking control. He’s the fire chief for the station here in Twisted Oak and is always calm, cool, and collected.
“Yeah, man. It can’t be that bad,” Miles, the head EMT, agrees.
“I just arrested my fated mate,” I tell them, and all seven of them stare at me in shock and varying ranges of disbelief and horror.
“What?” Crew chokes out, and I nod.
“ Why !?” Jensen shouts, and I wince.
“She’s human, and she was trying to leave me,” I say, trying to defend my actions.
My wolf rolls his eyes, just happy that our mate is safe and secure back at the station.
God, I hate him.
He growls at me, and I ignore him.
“Let her go. Right now,” Ryker says urgently.
He looks freaked out, and seeing the normally confident Alpha looking worried only has me freaking out even more.
See! I scream at my wolf, and he snorts and starts to pace inside of me.
“Yeah, let her out and explain everything to her. She’ll change her mind then,” Griffin says, and I shake my head.
“And if she doesn’t? I mean, she’s pretty pissed at me right now.”
“No shit!” Crew says, starting to pace.
“Wait. What did she do? Why did you arrest her?” Harris, a firefighter, asks curiously.
“She was speeding.”
“Please tell me that she was going a hundred miles an hour,” Crew says desperately, and I shake my head silently.
“Fifty?” He asks, and I sigh.
“Forty in a thirty-five.”
“Dammit, Tucker!” He yells, and I scrub my hands down my face.
“I know,” I say miserably.
This is not going how I hoped it would. I was expecting them to reassure me that everything was going to be okay and send me back to the station with a solid plan. Instead, now all eight of us are freaking out.
“What do I do?” I ask, and they all stare at me blankly.
Logan takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. Then he breaks the silence.
“Go back and beg for forgiveness. Maybe if you apologize, you can shift and tell her about shifters and fated mates and then go from there.”
“Yeah, that seems like your only option. Maybe if you can win her over, things will be smoother,” Ryker adds.
“Alright. I can do that.”
I think.
“Good luck,” Crew says, clapping me on the back.
“Thanks,” I mumble as I turn and trudge back towards the police station.
Okay, so we just need to win her over. If we can charm her, then we can explain all of this and get our mate.
Or, counteroffer, my wolf starts, we can bite her and skip the other part.
No. We need to give her a chance and let her choose us.
Right, but if she doesn’t choose us, then we bite her and make her ours.
No!
Ugh.
I ignore him as I head into the police station. My eyes go right to the cell that my mate is in, and my eyes lock with her pale blue ones.
“Hey,” I say, and she glares at me.
Alright, we’re off to a rocky start, but we can come back from this.
Yeah, by biting her, my wolf says.
No! That is only going to make everything worse. Stop suggesting it.
He growls, and I try to smile at Nori. She ignores me and goes back to pacing her cell like a caged tiger.
“What’s your favorite animal?” I blurt, and she pauses to stare at me in disbelief.
“Let me out of here, and I’ll tell you.”
“I can’t.”
“Then I can’t talk to you. Get me a phone or a lawyer.”
“Nori, I…”
I want to explain, but I don’t know how to. I don’t know where to start or how to get her to see.
“Are you hungry?” I ask her, but she ignores me.
I head over to my desk and take a seat. Maybe she just needs some time, and then we can talk. I just need to wait her out. I can do that. I’ve been waiting all my life to find my fated mate. What’s a little bit longer?
I get started on some paperwork and try to lose myself in the monotony, but it’s no use. I’m hyper-focused on Nori. Every movement she makes, every breath she takes, I’m aware of all of it.
When I’ve read the same line a dozen times, I decide to give up on the pretense of working. At this time of night, I should be headed home, but I don’t want to leave Nori. I can’t leave her. She might not be talking to me, but I still want to be in her presence. My wolf nods, and for once today, we’re finally in agreement.
I shuffle papers around my desk, pretending to work while really trying to look at my mate. She gave up pacing a while ago, and now she’s lying down on the cot in there.
She should be in our bed, my wolf growls, and I sigh.
She will be. Soon, I promise him.
We watch her as she lays there, and soon enough, her breathing has evened out, and I know that she’s asleep. She must have been tired from traveling.
We didn’t feed her, my wolf reminds me, and I wince.
We’ll bring her a big breakfast. Maybe we can talk and take her out for something to eat.
My wolf likes the idea of that, and I smile as I push to my feet and head off to find a blanket for her. I grab one out of the small supply closet in the hall and head back to her cell. She’s out cold now, and I head inside and cover her, making sure that she’s covered and warm enough.
The wind whistles outside as I take a seat on the ground next to the cot and watch over her. I know that nothing bad will happen to her inside of the station, but I can’t bring myself to leave her. So, I settle in, determined to spend as much time with my mate as I can.
It’s going to be a long boring night…and also the best night that I’ve ever had, because I’m finally with my fated mate.
I smile softly as I watch her and wonder if she’s dreaming of me.