Chapter 36
She was the sweetest angel. My chest felt like it was exploding, and it magnified my guilt to a crippling point.
She was given to vile, fucked creatures like us, but we would never let her go.
Eva was still massaging Dorian’s shoulder.
She had him sprawled across the bed while she hovered over him while he full on snored.
Eva slowly retreated from the bed, and tiptoed backwards. It wasn’t until then that she found me leaning near the door watching her. She jumped but stifled her shout.
I jerked my chin toward the hall. She shuffled over to me, and I left the door cracked. Eva made a beeline for the living room with me on her heels.
Dorian seemed to have made progress. It was his sheer will that kept him away from her, and it was what I struggled with. I yearned for her touch. For her to look at me.
Yearned.
Fuck, I’d turned into such a sap.
Old me would have cackled at the current me. But I didn’t give any fucks which was the strangest part of everything. This . . . love . . . shit felt so foreign and crippling.
Rafe sat on the couch, watching a football game.
She slowed, and I could tell she was debating her next move.
Rafe’s emotions spilled over to me. Hope mixed with fear and excitement.
Outwardly though, he remained nonchalant.
It didn’t take her long to sit on the couch, and the fact that she chose the middle cushion instead of the furthest made happiness explode out of Rafe.
I splayed on the other end of the couch and tossed my arm over the shoulder.
Rafe gave me a look, and I curled my fingers into a fist before I slid my hand into her hair like I wanted to.
I huffed and sank into my corner. Touching her felt like a necessity at this point, but I’d settle for breathing in her caramel scent.
My cock was already fucking stiff with everything having to do with her.
Eva shifted and smoothed her small hands on her stretchy pants that hugged her beautiful legs. Rafe adjusted when she moved, his torso slightly turning more toward her.
I’d shifted in place too. Her effect on us was mind-boggling.
“Erm.” She cleared her throat. She wanted to ask something.
“Stop beating around the bush,” I murmured. She shot me a look from the corner of her eye, and I couldn’t stop my grin.
“So Susanna lived here?”
I stiffened at that name. Disgust swelled.
We’d let ourselves be led by that fucking bitch.
She’d always been there for us to come and fuck.
And when she didn’t want us, we were allowed to fuck other women.
She’d always been mercurial, but it had been something we’d been used to, something accepted.
I should have known she was never for us.
The signs were always there. Even when her letter arrived, we’d tossed it in the trash.
I didn’t know things could be different until Eva. Sweet Eva.
Despite the unease coming from Rafe, he cleared his throat and answered, “Yes, she lived in the room down the hall from the front door.”
She went silent, and I couldn’t stop fidgeting.
I hated making her feel bad, and there wasn’t a fucking doubt that she was feeling shit about that.
If she had lived with another man that she was screwing, it would drive me up the fucking wall.
A snarl stuck in my throat, and I swallowed it.
She hadn’t spoken, and I couldn’t read her face.
I tapped my fingertips against the back of the couch. “Are you okay?” I asked, holding my breath.
Am I nervous?
Her lips pressed into a thin line, and she hummed affirmatively.
“I’m sorry,” I blurted.
She turned to look at me with her full attention. I wanted to shrivel into a ball. Disappointing her fucking sucked. If she left me again, I wouldn’t survive. I couldn’t be without her. Emotion clogged my throat.
“All the ways we’ve hurt you, Eva,” I continued, unable to stop. A prickling sensation spread on my hands. “I-I should have waited for you o-or—”
“Cade,” she interrupted, eyes wide. “Breathe.”
The pressure in my chest was too much, and I felt like I was suffocating.
She scooted closer to me and rested her hand on the side of my neck.
Once her skin touched mine, breath exploded out of me like a valve releasing.
“You’re okay, breathe.” She repeated it with such worry. Is she worried about me?
No one worried about me other than Rafe and Dorian, my pack-brothers. But they weren’t soft, never had been.
She blurred in my sight. My throat was closing up.
“Cade,” she whispered, and her caramel scent filled my nose. I reached out like I was starved for touch and pulled her onto my lap, clamping my arms around her like she would disappear.
She rested against me while I tucked my chin over her head, and I just held her. I incrementally thawed and realized I was the one shivering while she was gently smoothing her hand over my arm.
“Eva, I love you,” I whispered, feeling my heart clench for the first time in my life. It was agony—this love shit.
Her chest moved with ragged breaths and she sank into me even more, arms wrapping around my neck.
I didn’t know how much time passed, but I eventually relaxed, the pressure in my chest easing under her soft touch. Usually, when that happened to me, I withdrew in silence until I could stop the pressure from releasing.
Yet, she brought me back so easily. I relaxed, my mind at such peace that I closed my eyes and breathed her in.
“Rafe?” Eva rubbed her cheek against my chest.
“Yes?” he murmured, voice rougher than usual.
“What happened to the people who hurt you guys? Who were they?”
He went silent. Rafe was never one to talk about what happened at Forest Peak. “There were eight of them running the orphanage. All in charge of different areas.”
“Why are Dorian’s scars like that?”
“The director didn’t like Dorian’s . . . dominance.”
“Where are they?” Eva’s voice held a hard edge. Like she would find them and kill them for us. I smiled, pride expanding in my chest at her defensive tone.
“They’re gone,” Dorian called out, and his footsteps approached. Those disgusting bastards were dirt by now. I blinked my eyes open, and the game was still on the television.
A loud buzzing invaded the living room. Who’s here?
“I’ll get it,” Rafe said, standing with a grunt. He left the door to the hall open. From my vantage point, I could see him reach the foyer.
“You guys have a doorbell?” Eva lifted off my chest, sitting upright on my lap. I rested my hand on her thigh. She furrowed her eyebrows.
“And these people—” She stopped talking with the raised voices coming from down the hall. She stiffened and pushed to her feet to shuffle down the hall. Dorian and I were on her heels. As we approached, sounds of a scuffle increased.
“Rafe?!” she shouted.
The foyer was chaos. A man lay unconscious, blood puddling under his face. Three men in black and navy pinned Rafe to the ground as he thrashed. Why the fuck are the police here? Tranqs stuck out from Rafe’s arm.
“Rafe!” Eva bolted forward, and an Alpha got in her way. Too close.
“Don’t fucking touch her,” I spat. I snarled, getting between them and in his face. The name tag only had his last name: Taito.
“We have a warrant for the arrest of the Ironwyld Pack Alphas.”
“What?” I spat. Dorian pulled Eva to him.
“Go inside,” he ordered.
“But—but—”
“It’ll be okay. Just stay here, relax, and we will try to be home soon. Call my lawyer, Bill, and he’ll get you everything you’ll need while we’re gone. My phone is on the nightstand in Cade’s bedroom.”
The two cops each grabbed Rafe’s arms and hoisted him up, sweat beading on their temples. They were big ass fuckers and still Rafe had almost taken them out.
“Mr. Ironwyld,” Taito said, hooking his thumbs into his belt. He met Dorian’s gaze head on and dominance blared from both of them. “We want this to be as smooth as possible.”
“We’ll cooperate,” Dorian said, lifting his wrists. Officer Taito nodded, grabbed the cuffs hanging from his belt, and clipped them on. Another cop approached me, and I raised an eyebrow.
“Cade,” Dorian snapped. I stiffened my lips and held out my wrists. The cold metal settled against my skin.
Eva shouldn’t be watching us get cuffed. I avoided her gaze, shame eating me up. As they waved us out of the house, I couldn’t help but look back. Eva gawked from the entrance, the tan of her skin leeched of color.
They shoved us into the back of a van. I plopped onto the uncomfortable metal seat next to an unconscious Rafe. An officer sat inside with a gun in his belt.
We’re fucked.