Chapter 27 #2
“On it.” We go into the bridal dressing room where the women got ready for the ceremony. I carefully unhook the six hooks that attach the train. “Okay, you’re free. I’m going to go back out and make sure Billy’s okay.”
Madi blinks at me. “You two are really a thing, aren’t you? It’s so crazy. You’re as different as they come, and I never would’ve seen it coming.”
I hesitate. “Honestly? I don’t know if we’re a thing or not.” The dull ache that’s been there ever since overhearing his indecision gnaws at me.
I find Billy waiting for me just outside the dressing room holding two glasses of champagne, and I want to hug him. Even when he’s torn up inside, he’s always a gentleman.
I accept a glass. “Any sign of your dad?”
“No.” Billy suddenly stiffens and swivels to the right like he smelled him first. “Yes.”
A tall man with the same grey-blue eyes as Billy’s, salt and pepper hair, and an expression that looks like he sucked a lemon advances toward us.
“Who’s this?” the man demands, giving me a disdainful up and down. He lifts his nose in a decidedly canine gesture, then wrinkles his nose. “You’ve been slumming, son.”
My natural instinct is to throw all my sass at this guy, but I don’t want to make things worse for Billy, so I remain quiet, my chin lifted, a matched look of disdain on my face.
“You weren’t invited, old man.” Billy’s voice is flat. Lifeless.
“I was next door at the Adalwulf party, and I just thought I’d pop over to say hello,” Billy’s dad says. “I have powerful friends too, son. You forget how far my reach goes.” He sends another narrow-eyed glance my way.
What a pompous asshole. I don’t care what he thinks about me, but I want to kick him in the balls for being a horrible father. But maybe I’m the one making this worse for Billy. Should I walk away, so he doesn’t have to try to shield me from his dad’s derision?
“You’re not welcome here. Leave before I throw you out.” Billy still sounds deadened. Like all animation leaves his persona when he’s near his father.
I’m sure a child who was in physical danger all the time would learn to mute his very being. Adult Billy’s nervous system still reacts in the presence of his tormentor. He remains perfectly still, but I hear the air ripping in and out of his lungs like he’s running a marathon.
His dad’s gaze rests on me as he speaks to Billy. “You’d better not be following the path of your weakling alpha.” He shakes his head slowly. The way he looks at me makes my skin crawl. I see evil behind those eyes, and it’s directed right at me.
Billy stops breathing altogether.
“You should know that I wouldn’t allow my son to make that mistake.”
It’s a threat, and I register it. Ice sluices through my veins.
“Fate makes no mistakes.” Billy’s tone could freeze lava.
Rage ripples over William White the Second. His eyes flash silver. “Are you trying to tell me fate chose this trash for my son?” he roars. “She’s a pet, no more.”
Before I even see him move, his hand snaps out, grasps the pearl choker Madi gave me as a bridesmaid gift, and yanks. The pearls explode from their strings, rolling onto the floor.
Billy delivers a powerful kick to the older man’s gut, driving him back with so much force he flies eight feet through the air and crashes against a wall. Good thing we’re out in a hallway where the guests can’t see us.
He thrusts his champagne glass into my hand and stalks after his father, who seems to be struggling to breathe. Billy must’ve kicked his diaphragm.
Madi comes out of the dressing room. “Oh shit,” she mutters. “I’ll get Brick or one of the guys.”
I just stand in place, frozen. I live in Brooklyn, but I haven’t seen violence like that. Never like that.
Billy’s father struggles to his feet but not before Billy grasps him by the throat and picks him up with superhuman strength.
The older man is tall, but Billy lifts him above the ground and bashes his head against the wall.
“You don’t touch her. You don’t look at her.
If you speak of her again, I will fucking end you. ”
Billy
Rage pours from me in waves. He reached for Aubrey’s throat.
He wants her dead.
The cold steel of a blade seems to rip across my chest. I never should have let on what she means to me.
Flashes of my father murdering the human hunter years ago throw me off balance. Bring back the stench of blood to my nostrils. Screams in my ears.
I’m that five-year-old in the woods–horrified and afraid. Forced to watch him torture a man for wandering across the line onto pack land.
Fear grips me. I can’t let him torture her.
But I’m not small anymore. I can fight back.
I punch my dad in the gut, even though he hasn’t recovered from having his head smashed yet. I should kill him right now. My wolf wants to. He attacked our mate.
I’m sure now–Aubrey is my mate. I knew it all along, but I was in denial.
I think this is why.
I’d locked up the memory of that hunter’s murder until now–but the five-year-old in me still fears for Aubrey’s life if I claim her.
In my mind, the hunter is replaced by Aubrey. I see my father circling her with a knife. Her legs broken. Flesh torn from her by wolf jaws. Her screams cutting through the forest.
Look how weak she is. Don’t look away while I end her, Billy.
No! I almost shift to wolf form to save her.
“Not here.” I hear Sully’s calm, efficient voice through the screaming in my head.
I blink. I’m not in the woods.
Not five years old watching Aubrey die.
“You’re scaring Aubrey.”
I suck in a sharp breath and look over my shoulder. She’s frozen where I left her, in a blood red dress, holding our two glasses of champagne. Her eyes are wide with horror.
He's going to kill her.
I deliver four more punches in rapid succession, reveling in the sound of his ribs cracking.
“Not. Here .” Sully growls between clenched teeth.
Right.
Not here.
He, Vance, and Jake stand behind me. They have my back–not that I need it. I’m bigger now. The days of my father’s torment are over. I could snap his neck right here.
But Aubrey’s watching. I didn’t want my father anywhere near her. I definitely didn’t want her to see this.
And Sully’s right. It’s my alpha’s wedding. Our luna would be horrified.
Vance and Sully each grasp one of my dad’s arms.
Jake tilts his head toward another hallway. “Back door.”
“You can deal with him later. Go to your mate–she’s scared,” Sully says.
Your mate.
They know already.
I haven’t marked her, but everyone knows. I’m the only fool still denying it.
I turn slowly to face my beautiful female. Pearls are scattered across the floor. I can’t quite remember how they got there.
Aubrey swallows. “Billy?” She sounds unsure. Like she’s scared of me.
Like my mom was when my father raged.
Fuck. Shame floods me. I’m just like him.
It’s my deepest fear. Far worse than the instinctual terror he’ll kill Aubrey because my logical brain knows I won’t let that happen.
But I just reenacted the violence I saw as a pup on the man who delivered it in front of the female I love. The female who I’ve been denying was mine.
Somehow I make my feet move. I make them arrive in front of her. My lips move, and a rusty sound comes out. “Fuck, Aubrey. I’m sorry.”
Her chest heaves, full breasts spilling from the strapless bodice.
“Are you okay?”
Very lightly, I brush my thumb across her neck. There’s a scrape there. What happened? I’d thought he was going to choke her, but he’d had restraint. He’d yanked off her necklace.
She nods. “Are you?” she whispers. Her hands find my face.
One part of me wants to pull away. It’s not safe to be touched. But I catch her scent, and it soothes my wolf. I lean my cheek into her hand.
“Billy…am I your mate?”
My body goes rigid, ice stiffening my spine. I glance at the direction they took my father.
Did he hear? If he knows she’s my mate, he’ll try to kill her.
Once more, I’m in the woods. The hunter’s on his knees. My father presses a knife into my hand. I’m supposed to stab Aubrey.
No, not Aubrey.
It’s a wedding. She’s safe. She’s not in the woods on her knees.
“I think…I think things are really complicated.” I see a depth of sorrow in Aubrey’s eyes, but I don’t understand it.
I barely know where I am.
“Billy, I don’t even know if we’re in a relationship. I don’t think we are because if we were, we could work through this stuff together.”
Wait. What is she saying? I catch sadness in her scent, and it makes me want to fall to my knees.
I made her sad. I lost control.
I’m a violent, dangerous wolf. I’m not safe to be with a human. I’m not fit to mate.
Her hand still cradles my cheek. I catch it and hold it there. I don’t want her to ever let go of me.
“You need to figure out what you want. So do I. Let’s take some space and do that.”
Take…some space?
Fuck.
She’s breaking up with me.
I can’t make my lips move. Can’t figure out any words to say. I’m the fixer for the pack and the company, but I’m at a complete loss for how to fix this.
“Aubrey.” There. I said something. Except I don’t know what to say next. I don’t know what the right words are. Where to take the conversation.
My brain is unwired. Powered down. I don’t know what Aubrey wants or how to make her stay.
I don’t know how to be anything but the man I hate.
William White’s scrappy runt of a son. The one who learned to be violent, ruthless, and cunning to survive.
I don’t know how to be the kind of mate Aubrey deserves.
Her face comes closer to mine. I blink as she stands on her tiptoes and presses a kiss against my lips.
“Don’t,” I murmur.
She lets out a little whimper as she pulls away.
“Wait.” I catch her elbow.
She looks into my eyes. “I love you.”
My heart detonates. My head explodes. I want to say it back. I want to drop to my knees and beg for forgiveness except I’m not sure what part upset her. I’m confused because she doesn’t seem upset. Just sad.
I love you.
I want you.
You’re my mate.
The words ring out in my head, but no sound comes from my lips, and she’s already walking away.
Already leaving me behind.
I stand perfectly still and watch the best thing that ever happened to me walk out of my life.