Chapter 3
"Shit," Asher hissed, instinctively backing away from the window. His heel caught on an exposed root, sending him stumbling backward just as the door was wrenched open.
Light spilled out of the doorway, silhouetting Gabriel's powerful frame.
Up close, he was even more imposing than Asher remembered: broader through the shoulders, radiating a contained energy that seemed barely leashed. The way he filled the doorframe made Asher's mouth go dry, made something hot and unwanted coil in his stomach.
"Asher." His name in that deep voice sent an involuntary shiver down Asher's spine, made his skin feel too tight, too warm despite the cool night air. "What are you doing here?"
The question was absurd enough to snap Asher out of his momentary paralysis. He straightened. "I could ask you the same thing," he replied, aiming for confident but landing somewhere closer to defensively brittle. "Considering this is my property now."
Gabriel's expression shuttered, something complicated passing behind his eyes. "Ray didn't tell you."
It wasn't a question, but Asher answered anyway. "My father didn't tell me much of anything. We weren't exactly on speaking terms."
The words came out sharper than intended, edged with years of accumulated resentment. Gabriel flinched almost imperceptibly, and Asher felt a twinge of satisfaction at having cracked that stoic facade. Good. Let him be the one off-balance for once.
"You need to leave," Gabriel said, his tone making it clear this wasn't a suggestion. His hands flexed at his sides, and Asher noticed the way his knuckles had gone white. "It's not safe for you to be here right now."
Incredulous laughter bubbled up in Asher's throat. "Not safe? On my own property?" He gestured broadly at the surrounding trees, the starlit clearing. "What exactly is going to get me out here, Gabriel? Bears? Wolves? Or just uncomfortable conversations about why you're squatting in my shed?”
Gabriel's jaw clenched. "Asher, please?—"
"You didn't come to the funeral," Asher interrupted, the accusation tumbling out before he could stop it.
A month ago, standing at the graveside under another full moon, Asher had found himself searching the small crowd for Gabriel's familiar face.
He'd thought there'd be more time—time to fix things with Ray, time to prove he wasn't a complete failure, time to maybe come home when he had something to show for his years away.
Instead, he'd stood there alone, twenty one and orphaned, desperately wanting someone steady to lean on. Someone who'd known Ray as more than just a disappointed father.
Someone who might tell him it was okay that things had ended badly between them.
But Gabriel hadn't been there.
"Dad's oldest friend, and you couldn't even show up."
Something raw flashed across Gabriel's face: grief, guilt, or some combination of the two. "I couldn't," he said, voice strained. "There were... complications."
"Complications," Asher echoed flatly. "How convenient."
Gabriel took a step forward, then stopped abruptly, as if he'd hit an invisible wall.
His whole body shuddered—just once, but violently enough that Asher noticed.
When Gabriel retreated back to the doorway, his movements were too careful, too controlled, like he was fighting every instinct in his body.
The light from inside cast harsh shadows across his features, and Asher could see beads of sweat on his forehead despite the cool night air. Gabriel's hands weren't just clenched now—they were trembling.
What the hell was wrong with him? Asher had seen plenty of people high or coming down in the city, but this was different. Gabriel looked like he was fighting something inside his own skin.
"I'm sorry about your father," Gabriel said, and his voice came out rougher than before. He cleared his throat, tried again. "Ray was... he was a good man. A good friend. But you need to?—”
"Good enough that you have a key to his property?" Asher cut in, nodding toward the building. "Good enough that you're making yourself at home in his secret clubhouse?"
It was petty, childish even, but Asher had never been allowed in that building. And here was Gabriel, acting like he belonged to Asher’s home more than Asher ever had.
Gabriel's expression hardened, but there was something else there too—his breathing had gone shallow, quick, like he couldn't get enough air. "I had an arrangement with your father. One that doesn't concern you."
"Everything on this property concerns me now," Asher shot back, taking a step closer.
Gabriel actually backed up, hitting the doorframe with his shoulder. The reaction was so unlike the steady, unshakeable man Asher remembered that it threw him completely.
"Listen," Gabriel said, pressing the heel of his hand against his forehead like he had the world's worst migraine. "I have a medical condition. One that requires isolation during certain times. Your father knew. He let me use this building."
"Medical condition," Asher repeated skeptically. "That's your explanation? That's why you're sweating like you ran a marathon and shaking like you're going through withdrawal?"
"It's complicated?—"
"So uncomplicate it!" The frustration was building in Asher's chest, familiar and acidic. Always secrets, always things he wasn't allowed to know. "What is it? Some kind of mental health thing? PTSD? You’re hiding during the full moon like some kind of?—"
He cut himself off, but his mind finished the thought anyway. Like some kind of werewolf. Which was insane. Completely insane.
There weren’t any of those up here. They had their own lands, their own territories. Asher had seen a few in the city, coming and going from their own business, but never at home.
"No," Asher said, crossing his arms. He was being a brat, and he knew it. Fuck it. After everything he’d been through, he was allowed. "I'm not going anywhere until you explain why you're on my property, looking like you're about to have some kind of breakdown?—"
"For once in your life, just do as you're told!"
The words cracked through the air like a whip, and suddenly Asher was seventeen again, standing in this same spot while his father shouted about responsibility and disappointment and everything Asher would never be.
It was exactly the wrong thing to say.
"Fuck you," Asher spat, stepping closer until only a few feet separated them. "You don't get to show up here and give me orders. You're not my father—thank fucking god for that."
Gabriel flinched like Asher had hit him.
His breathing had gone ragged, harsh, and when he gripped the doorframe, Asher heard the wood creak under the pressure.
But then he squeezed his eyes shut, visibly gathering himself.
When he opened them again and met Asher's gaze directly, there was something different there—not the desperation from before, but something steadier. Man to man.
"Tomorrow," Gabriel said, his voice low and controlled despite the tremor in his hands. "Give me until tomorrow. I'll explain everything, I promise. Just... not tonight. I can't tonight."
The directness of it, the way Gabriel was looking at him—not like Ray's disappointing kid but like an equal—threw Asher completely off balance. He'd been ready for more orders, more condescension. Not this.
"Fine," Asher said curtly, not knowing what else to say. "Tomorrow. But if you're not here with actual answers, I'm calling the sheriff."
Relief washed over Gabriel's face, so profound it was almost painful to witness. "Thank you," he said, with such genuine gratitude that Asher felt a twinge of guilt for his hostility. "Tomorrow. I promise."
Asher nodded stiffly, turning to head back to the cabin. He'd made it only a few steps when Gabriel called after him.
"Asher?"
He paused, glancing back over his shoulder.
Gabriel stood silhouetted in the doorway, his expression unreadable in the shadows. But when he spoke, his voice carried a warmth that made something flutter in Asher's chest.
"It's good to see you," he said softly. "Despite everything. You've grown up."
Something warm and unwelcome fluttered in Asher's chest at those words—at being seen, at being noticed as more than just Ray Sutter's disappointment of a son.
He squelched it ruthlessly, refusing to acknowledge the complicated mix of emotions Gabriel's presence stirred in him.
"Yeah, well. Three years will do that," he replied, forcing a casual shrug. "Even to disappointments like me."
Gabriel's face did something complicated that Asher couldn't read in the shadows.
"You're not a disappointment," he said quietly.
Asher's next step faltered, his foot catching on nothing as the words registered.
He couldn't—wouldn't—turn around. Couldn't let Gabriel see what those words did to him, how desperately he'd needed to hear them from someone who'd known both him and Ray.
His throat felt tight, and he had to swallow twice before he could get his feet moving again.
By the time he reached the cabin door, his armor was back in place, sarcasm and indifference wrapped around him like a shield. But his hands shook as he turned the key in the lock.
Inside, with the door locked behind him, Asher leaned against the solid wood and let out a shaky breath. His heart was racing, though whether from anger, confusion, or something else entirely, he couldn't say.
Gabriel Stone. Here. On his property. With some mysterious "condition" that necessitated isolation in a building his father had kept off-limits for as long as Asher could remember.
What the fuck.
Asher pushed away from the door, moving to the kitchen to rummage through the cabinets until he found what he was looking for: a bottle of Jameson, still half-full. He poured two fingers into a dusty glass and downed it in one swallow, welcoming the burn.
Outside, the forest was quiet except for the normal night sounds. No more movement from the outbuilding, no sign of Gabriel. Just the moon starting to rise over the mountains, full and bright enough to cast shadows through the windows.
Asher poured another measure of whiskey, carrying it to the window that faced the outbuilding. The glow from inside was still visible around the edges of the curtains, a warm beacon in the darkness.
Asher drained his glass, setting it down with a decisive click.
Gabriel had promised answers.
And Asher intended to get them—whether Gabriel liked it or not.