Chapter 20
Evan
Iwasn’t sure what I’d expected to find when I finally got home, but it wasn’t this.
Reid and Ma were sat together on the sofa, countless photos spread over the coffee table. From the looks of it, she’d been giving him a whistle stop tour of my formative years. From the soft smile playing on Reid’s lips, he’d been enjoying the journey.
Seeing him sat on my sofa unlocked a need in me.
A need to come home to this every day. I’d barely been able to tear my eyes away from him since I’d entered.
The sight of him in my hoody had my wolf growling with satisfaction.
His hair was mussed from sleep, but his expression was bright and amused.
There was none of the darkness that had trailed after him like a shadow these past few months. Just a quiet…contentment.
Suddenly, I wanted to do whatever it took to make him feel this way all the time. Every minute of every day.
The best part of all was how he was sitting. Both of his legs were tucked under him, his torso twisted to face Ma. Reid didn’t look like a guest here.
He looked like he belonged.
Ma got to her feet, pausing as she reached me. She patted my cheek and shot me a sly wink. “I think Margie has those particular photos. I’ll pop over there now. Keep Reid company, won’t you? You know how she loves to natter. I’ll be lucky if I can escape before lunch.”
I knew what Ma was doing and couldn’t love her more for it. She’d gone out of her way to make Reid feel comfortable, and was now giving us time alone. I made a note to stop by Thistle Do Nicely and order something as special as her.
I waited until the door closed behind her. “She says that like she’s not just as bad as Margie. The two of them can talk for Scotland and the rest of the UK combined.”
Reid chuckled. “I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.”
“Stick around here long enough and you’ll witness it. You’ll regret thinking that then.”
I shoved off the doorframe and stalked across the room.
I wavered as I got to the sofa. Should I take Ma’s seat or sit on the chair instead?
Shit. I hadn’t questioned my instincts last night.
But it had been easier to ignore my brain when Reid was in shock.
When he obviously wanted me close. Touching him.
Now, in the cold light of day, was that still what he wanted?
Like he could hear my thoughts, he peered up at me. “What are ye hovering for? Is this, like, a kink for you?”
I blinked in surprise. I might have a million years ahead of me, and I suspected I’d need all of them to understand how Reid’s mind worked. “A kink?”
“Aye.” He gestured at me impatiently. “Emphasising the size difference between us by towering over me.”
I scratched at my head. “Um, no. Unless that’s a kink for you?”
Reid laughed, the lightness of the sound obliterating more of the darkness. “If it was, I’d be suggesting a more fun way to explore it than just having you looming over me like Lurch.”
Just like that, I was picturing what he hinted at. Him riding my cock, my big hands spanning his slim waist. His legs wound around me as I pinned him against a wall, surrounding Reid with my body as he writhed beneath me.
Like he did that night on the sofa.
I sucked in a breath and immediately choked on my own spit. I’d yet to be taken out by another supe, but apparently saliva was my true enemy.
As I slammed my fist against my chest in an effort to clear it, Reid dissolved into hysterics. He was doubled over, clutching his stomach as he gasped for air in between fits of giggles.
When I recovered, I stared at him, enraptured. Reid was always captivating. Had been ever since he’d walked out of the storage room in Thistle Do Nicely and into my life.
Right now, completely uninhibited and full of joy, he’d moved far beyond captivating.
Reid was the most beautiful being I’d ever seen. I couldn’t look away.
Suddenly, I wished there was a camera on me—something to capture the expression on my face. Evidence of whether or not I was looking at Reid the way I suspected I was.
The way Pa looked at Ma. How Finn looked at Chester. Danny at Riley.
Like Reid was the sole reason for my existence.
Oblivious to the revelation coursing through me, Reid wiped at his eyes with the sleeve of my hoody. “Christ, I haven’t laughed this much in a long time. What a morning.”
Fuck it, my brain wasn’t getting me anywhere. Maybe I needed to give my instincts a turn at the wheel.
Dropping onto the sofa, I picked up some photos at random. “Good to know my childhood memories have provided a source of amusement.”
Reid smiled as he held up a shot of me and Hamish eating rapidly melting ice pops. “You look like you had a happy childhood.”
“I did,” I answered honestly. “I’m lucky to have had Ma and Pa.”
“That’s not luck,” Reid said quietly. “It shouldn’t be, anyway. Good parenting should just be the norm.”
“You’re right, I shouldn’t look at it that way.
” I put the photos down and rested my hand on Reid’s knee.
“Luck suggests a lack of intent and responsibility, and I don’t want any of your family having even a theoretical out.
What you went through wasn’t because you were unlucky. It was because they were cunts.”
I went to draw back my hand, but Reid stopped me by covering it with his own. My eyes snapped up to his face, but aside from a slight blush on his cheeks, he didn’t acknowledge it.
“Did ye get the information you needed from them? Neil and the others?”
“No,” I sighed. “Logan’s still working on them, but I decided to call it a day.”
As soon as the sun had peeked over the horizon, I’d been itching to get back to Reid. I’d satisfied both myself and my wolf with the suffering I’d inflicted, and then I’d wanted to get back to what truly mattered.
Making sure Reid was okay.
I’d only stopped long enough to shower off the gore before coming home. I didn’t want to hide anything from Reid, but equally, he didn’t need to see the evidence of just how bloodthirsty I’d been.
Very, it turned out.
Reid carefully set down the photo he’d been looking at. “They’re still alive, then?”
“Aye. For now.”
“Can you…” Reid cleared his throat, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. “Do ye think Finn would spare them?”
“Why would ye want him to? You didn’t care about Clyde.” Not in the way I’d mistakenly thought he had, anyway.
Reid’s fingers drummed on his thighs. “That was different.”
“How?”
“Because,” he said stubbornly. “It just was.”
“Reid.” I squeezed his knee gently. “How was it different? Clyde came onto our lands and violently threatened a human. Those shifters last night didn’t just use violence, they planned on kidnapping you.
Their lives are ours to take.” He made a small moue of protest but I rubbed his leg soothingly.
“I’m not saying that’s going to happen, Reid.
I suspect Finn is already planning to spare them, if for no other reason than to stop a full war breaking out.
Neil is the new alpha, and the last thing we want is to have deposed two in a row.
That’ll cause all sorts of fucked-up shit.
But I want to understand why ye think they should be spared. ”
“I already told you—because it’s different.”
I was about to push him on it when realisation dawned. With it, a yawning pit opened in my stomach. “Wait, are you saying what happened with Clyde was okay because Chester was the one in danger?”
Reid nodded, drawing his legs up to his chest. My hand fell away as he did so, and I was too shocked by what was happening to protest. “Exactly. Clyde threatened Chester, so he deserved to lose his immortality.”
My wolf growled. I was in full agreement with him, but my instincts were warning me to tread lightly. “But when you’re the human who was endangered, it doesn’t matter?”
“Not in the same way,” Reid muttered, leaning his forehead against his knees. The weariness I’d observed in him during my shifts was even harder to witness up close. “They’re my family, so it’s kind of on me that they’re even here.”
I ran my fingers through my hair as I exhaled. “Reid, I canna say this clearly enough. You are not your family. Their decisions are not your decisions. You deserve protection just as much as any other human in our lands.”
He shrugged, picking at a loose thread on the hoody. “Maybe. Maybe not. I’m just saying there’s no point causing more trouble just for my sake. It’s not worth it.”
There was a strange ringing in my ears. “Do ye mean you’re not worth it?”
“Well, it’s not like there’s anyone who’d really care or miss me. My friends might, but they probably hate me now given I’ve ghosted them. And I know all of ye would fight for me, and I’m grateful, but it’s not like with Chester and Finn.”
I stared at him as he let his legs fall to the ground, his head dropping onto the back of the sofa in defeat.
How could he think that? Did Reid not realise that this was exactly like with Chester and Finn?
This man consumed my every thought, and he believed that if he disappeared or was killed, I’d just… move on?
That was when it hit me. I’d spent months watching Reid. Countless hours spent learning his habits. His routines. His preferences. I knew more about him now than I knew about myself.
But he couldn’t say the same about me. Looking at this from his point of view, I was some bloke from his past who he’d had a handful of encounters with.
He didn’t see a future for us…but I did. Fuck. When had that even happened?
Ages ago, moron. It’s just taken you this long to acknowledge it.
I didn’t just want to protect Reid—I wanted to love him.
I couldn’t expect him to be in the same place as me. That was unreasonable. But there was no fucking way I was letting Reid think he wouldn’t be missed if he was taken. There were a few things Reid needed to learn, and this one was at the top of the fucking list.