Chapter 9
Jax
This was all my fault.
I’d left Reeve alive.
I hadn’t pushed Cash to join us on the west coast.
I hadn’t sent word to those I’d left behind once we were better settled, once I was sure things were better for our pack than they’d been back in Idaho.
Because I’d convinced myself that they were fine.
Clearly, they weren’t fucking fine, and I’d never seen starker proof of my failures than Cash lying there unconscious while Prudence worked over him.
That was saying something, because I’d held my mate in my arms while he’d been burnt.
But Dakota had healed.
Dakota had healed. And I wasn’t remotely convinced that Cash would manage the same.
He looked horrible. He wasn’t getting better.
And all I could do was leave him in the hands of mages.
Of course, they were mages I trusted with my life. Pack.
Sure, Prudence might not be a wolf, but she’d taken care of us, and I’d never forget how much she’d helped Dakota when he was just learning about his magic. She’d been patient and kind and hadn’t hesitated to take him under her wing the moment I’d suggested he could use her help.
I owed her a lot. I just hated feeling impotent when shit was wrong.
Jillian didn’t come back, and with Dakota and Prudence busy, I set off on my own. Didn’t ask anybody to come with me. Not even Charles.
Instead, I stalked down the sidewalk back toward the motel, walking fast. I was still in the same clothes I’d been in for the flight, so stretchy pants and tennis shoes that made it reasonable to move at a quick clip.
It still took a long time to get there, but out in the open air, I could breathe deep, search out familiar scents. Cash or Reeve or something.
The pack would take care of Cash back at home, and I’d neutralize the threat out here.
Only, by the time I got to the motel, somebody was there waiting for me.
Seth was leaning against the wall outside the closed door to the room where we’d found Cash, his arms crossed, his brow arched high as he looked me over.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
My nose wrinkled against a snarl I barely held back. My wolf was riding close to the surface. We felt threatened.
It was no excuse to take it out on pack.
“Jax,” Seth said, deadpan, entirely unimpressed. “What are you doing here?”
I hissed, glancing away to glare at the door, unable to meet his eye. “If Reeve did this—”
I was going to kill him. I’d rip his throat out with my teeth. I’d scout the whole damn city and take out every wolf that posed a threat to my pack and my people, I’d—
“You’ll kill him,” Seth offered, like he could read every thought on my scowling face. The fury—the self-loathing—flowing through my veins right then . . . no one knew it better than Seth did.
I’d failed, and deep down, I wasn’t even sure I was more capable of doing what needed doing today than I’d been at eighteen.
“Don’t let him make you stupid, Jax,” he went on.
“You know as well as I do that Cash didn’t crawl his way from Idaho to San Francisco holding his guts in with one hand.
He was a hell of a lot closer when he got hurt, and maybe Reeve thought he was dead, or maybe he’s up to something, but the last thing we need is for you to go barreling into a trap and get hurt. ”
I growled. No fucking way was I going to let Reeve get the drop on me.
Right then, my wolf didn’t want to talk this through like men, didn’t want to be reasoned with.
Seth just held up his hands. “Our pack’s going to need you to get through this.”
Okay, that almost got me on its own, but Seth knew me too well not to make his point inarguable.
“Jillian needs you,” he said.
My lip relaxed from its angry curl.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been like this—furious, ready to fight, fangs threatening to grow long and sharp at any provocation. It was like I was a teenager again, on edge and looking for a fight.
I sighed, pressing the heels of my palms to my closed eyelids.
“Seth, if he dies—” I croaked.
He clapped my shoulder. “It looks bad, but Dakota looked bad too, and look where he is now. If Cash’s alpha rejected him, best thing to do is give him a new one. He’ll bounce back.”
I dropped my hands. “You don’t know that.”
Seth shrugged. “He’s a survivor. Wouldn’t have made it this long in Wildwood if he weren’t.”
He was just trying to make me feel better, but right then, I needed to believe it.
“You remember how it was,” he insisted. “Everybody who made it out of Idaho’s a survivor.”
Sure, but Cash had been there for close to two decades.
I’d left him behind.
Before I could spiral too far, Seth squeezed my shoulder and gave me a little shake.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go back to Crescent. I have a better idea of how to get this figured out than stalking around alleyways waiting to get a scent.”
Seth’s plan was to head to the IT department, and with all the servers and the scent of canned air pervading the place, I felt twitchy like I was about to crawl out of my skin.
“I know this isn’t exactly your field of expertise,” he was saying to Landon Smith, one of our newer hires and the reason we’d updated our servers over the last month.
He was a smart guy—that was half of running a company, recognizing when somebody was more talented than you and giving them what they needed to thrive—but I wasn’t sure about asking him to play private investigator for a pack he’d never met out in the middle of nowhere.
But I shouldn’t have doubted him. Word had gone through the office already, and it was all hands on deck. Landon didn’t even blink before his fingers were flying across the keyboard.
“Looks like things haven’t been going well for your old pack in a while,” Landon said, frowning at his screen.
“The land you talked about—it’s going up for auction.
The property was seized because of unpaid back taxes.
But like—okay, I don’t want to say it’s nothing, because money’s always a factor, but it’s hardly anything, taxes on that amount of land in Idaho. ”
Seth shook his head. “The old pack was never much for gainful employment. Any evidence they’ve left the area?”
Landon shook his head.
“I don’t see anything, but like . . . I mean, would a pack like that really leave a paper trail if they were on the move?”
I sighed. “Unlikely. But . . . thanks. This helps.”
At least we had some idea of what they might want. If I could throw money at this problem to make it go away—
Well, it wasn’t quite that easy, after what Reeve had done to Cash.
“Would you mind keeping an eye out? If anything changes—” Seth started.
“I’ll let you know.”
By the time I made it back to my office, a heavy exhaustion settled over my shoulders. I should have checked in with Dakota, but looking at my phone, I didn’t have any messages from him.
Maybe they were still busy. I had to believe no news was good news, but a cowardly part of me didn’t want to find out if it weren’t.
I dropped into my office chair when my secretary, Briton, knocked on the door.
“Hey . . . do you want me to do something with this?” They hefted up a big basket stuffed with all kinds of goodies. I thought I smelled summer sausage in there, and wondered how much they’d judge me for unwrapping the whole thing and just gnawing on it until I felt better.
“The high fae sent it.” Briton plucked at the ribbon that’d tied the cellophane closed, and turned over a little card attached. “The card says congratulations. Maybe they heard you’d taken a mate?”
Or maybe they heard we had a witchwolf in the pack now and wanted to strike some kind of deal.
Either way, I wasn’t up for navigating fae rules, even for summer sausage.
I shook my head, tipping it toward a side table. “Just leave it over there for now. I’ll figure out if they need something—”
Tomorrow.
Yeah, everything would be better tomorrow.