Chapter 21
CHAPTER 21
“ I ’ve got her,”
Hearing his voice, Deb wanted to cry, but she didn’t know why. Was it because she felt safe whenever he was near or because she had been misled again by a man? Maybe if she just slapped him, she’d feel much better. But seeing him bloody and injured had her wanting to take care of him and how messed up was that. She might as well realize she was a lost cause.
“Asher can get me back, Brock,” Deb said firmly, standing her ground despite the ache in her foot—and the storm still rolling through her heart. But the flare in Brock’s eyes made her instantly regret those words.
“The fuck he can.” Brock’s voice was a low growl, and before she could blink, he was closing the distance between them, his jaw tight with barely restrained emotion.
Asher wisely stepped back, scooping up a soaking wet Pepper. “I’ll make sure Pepper gets home,” he said casually as he turned to walk off.
Deb narrowed her eyes. “How do you even know where she lives?”
“She told me,” Asher called over his shoulder, throwing her a cheeky grin as Pepper licked his face like they were lifelong pals.
“Traitor,” Deb muttered at the poodle, then rolled her eyes before glancing back up—right into the searing stare of one very pissed-off wolf shifter. “
“What?” she asked, already on the defensive.
Brock’s arms were tense at his sides, his voice low but no less dangerous. “What in the hell were you doing out here?”
“Chasing Pepper,” she answered flatly, crossing her arms. “Obviously.”
His brow twitched. “Didn’t you hear what I told you earlier? Taz found tracks near your property.”
“I heard you,” she snapped. “But Pepper ran off and?—”
“I don’t give a fuck about the fucking dog,” he roared, stepping in so close she had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes.
“That was rude,” Deb swallowed hard and looked up at him. “Pepper didn’t deserve that.” Okay, here she was starting to ramble again.
His growl was loud, hoarse and raw. “Dammit, Deb, you could’ve been killed out there tonight.”
The rain was starting to pick up again, thunder crashing closer, but neither of them seemed to care.
“I know that!” she yelled back with a growl of her own, her fists clenched at her sides. “You think I don’t know that? I was the one being stalked by a goddamn wolf, Brock!”
Rage flared in his gaze as he stared at her, but he remained silent, which drove her nuts. All she wanted to do was scream at the unfairness of her finally catching feelings for someone only to realize he had a Mate.
She tried to breathe and calm down her emotions before saying something she would regret. And yet her mouth had different plans. “Shouldn’t you be more worried about your Mate?”
Brock froze. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t lie to me, Brock.” She whispered, feeling her heart sink further into her stomach. Turning her head away from him, she sighed. “Do not fucking lie to me.”
“You really don’t get it, do you?” He said, his tone back to normal as he reached out, grasping her chin gently and bringing her gaze back to his. “You are my Mate, Deb.”
“Wait, what?” Her breath caught as it started to register with her. “No,” she shook her head and took a step back. There were so many things he didn’t know about her. What if she fell even harder for him, and then he found out about things from her past? No, this can’t happen.
“What the hell do you mean no?” Brock’s voice went from calm to angry again.
The quiet anger in his tone made her spine stiffen, but she didn’t look away.
“I mean, I’m not going to be the reason you end up regretting something that felt good in the heat of a storm,” she said. “Pun totally intended. You know, since we are out in this storm.” Yep, let the rambling begin.
“Deb,” Brock warned, his eyes narrowed.
“You’re just… overwhelmed. High on adrenaline.” She continued ignoring his warning. “I get it. But once the dust settles, and you know everything about me, you’ll think twice.”
“You don’t get to decide how I feel about you,” he said, voice low but intense as he leaned so close she could feel his warm breath on her face. “I’ve seen your strength, your kindness, your smart-ass attitude. And I’ve seen how scared you were tonight and how you still stood your ground. That past of yours? Whatever it is, I’m not running from it.”
“You say that now?—”
“I’ll keep saying it. Every fucking day, if I have to.” His jaw clenched, and his eyes searched hers. “I’m not a man who scares easy, Deb. And I don’t back down from what’s mine.”
Her lip trembled, but she held it together. She couldn’t just melt like she wanted to and say, okay, I’m yours. She would not do that to him. “Do you know why I was crying?”
“I don’t care,” Brock said, then frowned. “I mean, I do care, but?—”
“I know what you mean,” She decided to let him off the hook on that one. “I was drunk at Janna and Garrett’s baby shower. I made the most vile and nasty comment about her losing the babies. Is that the kind of Mate you want in your life? Is that the kind of person you want around your nephew?” Damn, even saying that killed her, but it needed to be said. He needed to know exactly who she was. It was time.
He just stared at her, and her heart broke, but she expected his silence. She was right. He was rethinking this whole Mate shit like she knew he would. Though she understood you couldn’t just turn the Mate situation on and off like a switch, she was saving him from her.
“Yeah, I would be speechless if I were you also.” Deb pretty much answered for him. “That, to me, is the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life and something I have regretted, but it happened, and I can never take it back. I’ve been cruel to the people of this town, and my sister getting the worst of it. She lived in a tiny room above the Feed Mill instead of living with me. So yeah, I’m a prize. Her own sister would rather live in an attic room that was a fire trap instead of her sister because I was such a bitch.”
“Are you finished?” Brock asked with a cocked eyebrow when she paused.
“No,” Deb wrapped her arms around herself, not to block out the cold, but to shield against the memory that always left her raw.
“There was someone,” she said quietly. “A man I dated… a while back.”
Brock’s jaw tensed, but he didn’t speak. He just waited, patient and still.
“He was older. Confident. Smart in that smug kind of way that made you think he knew things no one else did.” She let out a humorless laugh. “And I was stupid enough to fall for it.”
Her voice caught, and she looked away. “I didn’t know who he really was. What he really wanted. He told me he loved me. Promised me things I’d been desperate to believe were real. That I wasn’t alone. That he understood me.”
She glanced back at Brock, eyes clouded with guilt. “But it was all a lie. I didn’t know it at the time, but he hated Shifters. Hated the idea of their existence—called them unnatural, dangerous. Said the world needed to know what was living among them and annihilate them.”
Brock’s expression darkened, but he remained silent.
“He must’ve done a hell of a lot of digging to find out I lived among Shifters,” she said bitterly. “He used me, Brock. Gained my trust, made me think the worst about everyone around me. He turned me against the people who had allowed us to stay in this Shifter town after our grandfather died—against a community I should’ve protected.”
Her voice cracked. “And the worst part? I believed him. I believed the things he fed me. I turned my back on people who never deserved it.”
She swallowed hard. “Then one day, a woman showed up at my door—his wife. ”
Brock flinched. “He was married?”
“Yeah,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “And worse—he was already planning to go public. To expose Shifters to the world. He took things I’d told him—conversations, details, personal things I never should’ve shared—and twisted them into some disgusting exposé. He published it. Worldwide.”
Brock’s fists clenched at his sides.
Deb met his eyes. “I helped him, Brock. Not knowingly, but I did. I gave him fuel, even if I didn’t mean to. All the lies and promises not kept, as well as the secrets I had to keep, just made me bitter and angry against everyone. And now I’ve been trying to make up for that ever since. You are the only person I’ve ever told this to. Not even Emily knows.”
She stepped back, emotion bubbling just beneath the surface. “So now maybe you understand why I can’t be what you want me to be. I’m not just damaged. I’m a liability.”
Brock was quiet for a moment, but the intensity in his eyes never wavered.
“You were manipulated by someone who knew exactly how to prey on your trust,” he said, his voice low but steady. “That’s not weakness, Deb. That’s being human.”
“No, that’s being stupid and naive.” She shook her head, but he stepped closer.
“We all have a past,” Brock said, his eyes shifting away from hers. “I killed an innocent man. A good man.”
Deb stilled. He didn’t look at her, not right away. His jaw clenched, a muscle ticking as he stared into the distance.
“His name was Jimmie. He was a quiet guy who took care of his grandmother. Never asked for more than his fair share. The Pack liked him. I liked him.”
Brock exhaled harshly through his nose. “But someone I trusted told me Jimmie was planning to challenge me for leadership. Said he was stirring whispers, gathering support in secret. I’d just become Alpha. I was younger, cocky, always on edge. I couldn’t risk letting even a rumor fester.”
He finally looked at Deb, pain raw in his eyes. “So, I confronted him. He denied it. I didn’t believe him. I challenged him. And I beat him. Hard. Too hard. By the time I realized he hadn’t even shifted to fight back, it was too late.”
Deb swallowed hard, her heart cracking at the pain in his voice.
“Later,” Brock said, voice hoarse, “I found out the one who’d spread the lie had been trying to divide the Pack. Jimmie wasn’t a threat. He never had been.”
There was a long pause.
“I stepped down not long after,” Brock added. “I told everyone it was for the good of the Pack, but the truth is—I couldn’t look them in the eye anymore. Especially not his grandmother. She hugged me at his funeral and said she forgave me. That was the day I knew my life needed to change.”
Deb’s throat tightened as she reached out, placing her hand gently over his. He looked down at her hand on his and nodded slowly. “I’m not proud of who I was. I let fear and pride guide my hand. And I’ve spent every day since trying to be the kind of man Jimmie deserved.”
“You are,” Deb whispered. “You are that man now.”
Their eyes met, two broken souls sitting in the shadows of their pasts—finally, finally seeing the light in each other.
“And for the record,” he added, “I don’t want perfect. I want you. Mess and all. And I would trust you with Ben’s life.”