16. Walter
WALTER
Archie was off for the first leg of his trip.
It was the longest we were going to be apart.
If I hadn’t already taken time off to go deal with his pack, I’d probably be sitting at home, being miserable, missing him terribly, and dreaming of being at his side.
Aside from the sitting-at-home part, the rest still applied.
I was so ready for this to be over and for him to have his pack back.
It surprised me how easily I was able to get the time off.
I hadn’t been at my position very long, but I had worked a lot of comp time in the first few weeks and was cashing them all in.
Truman didn’t love me taking off, but I let him assume I was going with Archie, and if anyone understood the need to be with one’s mate, it would be him.
I told myself that I wasn’t really sneaking around and lying.
I was problem-solving. That didn’t stop the guilt from riding me hard.
But I couldn’t change that Archie needed to be gone, and I couldn’t change the past with Archie’s pack.
The only thing I had any control over was our future, and what kind of a mate would I be if I ignored that?
If I’d told Archie about my plans ahead of time, he’d have worried about me more than he did already.
He’d have told me not to do it, that things were fine the way they were, that he’d made his choice and he was happy with it.
But how could he be? Leaving everyone he knew and loved behind to protect me was a sacrifice no alpha should have to make.
I planned to be in and out. Go to his pack, meet with Garrick, show the Alpha that I wasn’t a danger to anyone, have him accept me, go back home, and when Archie came home, surprise him with the amazing news.
From there, we’d have our happy ever after.
Easy peasy. But if it were so simple, why was my stomach in knots?
Getting there proved to be a pain in the ass.
Between the flight and the rental car, the crappy dinners, and the shitty motel, I was so ready to be there already.
The last stretch of the drive felt like it took for-freaking-ever.
On top of that, it had sucked up most of my savings, but if it gave my mate back his family, it’d be worth it.
What I hated the most was how my lies got increasingly more prevalent as I traveled.
Archie would text me and ask what my day was, how work was, and I’d say fine, even though I hadn’t been to work.
He’d ask me what I was doing, and I’d say working on a surprise, which I was, but he was probably envisioning me making a bookshelf or painting a room or something equally domestic, not going to his pack.
The more we talked, the faster the lies rolled in.
I was beginning to second-guess my judgment when I finally got into town. The driving part of the trip took a lot longer than I’d calculated. I didn’t know why my default assumption was I could go seventy on all the roads. It wasn’t like I’d never been to the area.
As I passed the hardware store on my way to the pack lands, it reminded me exactly why I was here. I was here for Archie. All that came before it was worth it to make that happen.
I didn’t know exactly what I expected of a shifter community.
Bunches of wolves running around and maybe a compound like you saw in shows about cults, I supposed.
But it looked like a normal place to live, with homes, roads, and people tending gardens or walking down the street.
Small-town vibe, sure, but nothing that said they turned into wolves, which was good, because I might not know wolves, but I knew people.
I understood how to have conversations with strangers and to control said conversation thanks to work.
And I was pretty good at persuading people in that setting.
Fingers crossed that skill set carried over.
I parked my car, unsure exactly where to go to find Garrick. I didn't need to worry about that. I was instantly recognized as not belonging and someone came out and asked if I needed help. It was like a neighborhood watch but intense.
“I’m looking for Garrick.”
He stared.
“Alpha Garrick.” I wasn’t sure if that was how to refer to him, but his name alone hadn’t gotten me anywhere.
“Does he know you’re coming?”
“No, but you can tell him I’m Walter, Archie’s mate.”
He looked at me like I had six heads. Then the man’s jaw tightened, and he sniffed at me and stared at the collar of my shirt.
“Stay. Here.”
I expected him to come back. He didn’t, but someone did.
No one needed to tell me he was Garrick.
There was a presence about him that emanated power.
The man was fucking terrifying. In my head I’d seen him as a little old man who liked to knock on doors and get votes for his run for mayor, but he was a million percent not that.
“Explain yourself.”
He skipped all introductions.
“Hi. I’m Archie’s mate, Walter, and I wanted you to know I’m not a threat.
I’m not gonna, like, tell people about you guys.
I would never do anything that could hurt Archie.
I love him, and I know you wanna protect his pack, and I do too.
” I was talking a mile a minute, but I knew that if I stopped, I’d never get it all out.
Gone were all the conversational skills I learned in school and through experience.
In their place was rambling me that was a teen.
“I want him to have his family back. And I know you don’t like humans, and I don’t care if you don’t like me, but I want you to accept that I’m Archie’s mate.
I want you to make it so that he can come back here and see his friends and his family. ”
Garrick didn’t speak the entire time, his eyes turning an odd color that I could only assume was his wolf being present. Archie had mentioned that could happen sometimes, but seeing it in real life was freaking horrifying, at least from this man.
“So basically, that’s why I’m here.”
“If you want to challenge my decision, then challenge me,” he said, his voice not hiding the undercurrent of a threat.
Wasn’t that all I was doing? Challenging his decision?
“Okay. What more do you need from me? What details? I’m an open book.”
Garrick laughed, but it wasn’t like he thought something was funny. More like he’d won.
“The challenge is set, and if you lose, you lose everything.”
Shit. He wasn’t talking about me explaining myself. He thought I meant that kind of challenge, the ones I thought were book fodder until my conversation with Truman, and then it was all hypothetical and what I assumed was outdated.
I couldn’t fight against a human who had their eyes closed and one hand in their pocket. How was I going to fight a wolf? I should’ve talked to Truman about this plan. He would’ve told me what to say, what not to say.
And what kind of a freaking alpha would be willing to taunt or trick a human into challenging him? No wonder Archie had left. Gosh, I was a fool.
“Are you saying this challenge is to the last breath?”
He growed.
Great. Garrick meant dead-dead, back then and now. And here I was serving myself up to him.
Garrick scented the air. I was getting kinda used to people doing that around me, but then he turned and scented in the other direction. Something was happening, something I didn’t understand. He turned and scented me again.
“You thought you could come in here, deceive me, and force my hand,” he seethed.
“What are you talking about?” If anything, I’d been too honest. He saw my weakness and used it to his advantage.
“You’re carrying his pup.”
“Pup?”
“You’re pregnant.”
Pregnant. No way. I would’ve known if I was carrying a baby. Right. Although, we hadn’t been doing anything not to be pregnant, and we’d done a whole lot of what did get you pregnant.
“How—”
“I can scent it on you.”
“You could smell my baby?” Which meant I really was pregnant. There would be no reason for him to make something up that very obviously pissed him off as much as this did.
“You thought this baby was gonna protect you?”
I hadn’t thought the baby existed. But even if it did, I still didn’t see how it would protect me.
“It can’t.” Spit hit my face as he spoke.
He nodded, and the two men that were standing off to the side came over.
“Take him to the cabin.”
They didn’t ask him which one. The cabin. The. That couldn’t be good.
“I don’t need to spend the night. I’ll just go.”
“No.”
The two men each grabbed one of my arms, and I froze. They were stronger than me and struggling would only hurt me, or worse, harm my baby.
“You can’t keep me here.”
“Except I can. You challenged me. And until the challenge is complete, you can’t leave.”
Garrick reached over and grabbed my phone out of my back pocket. I tried to grab it, but my arms were held in place.
How was I going to call for help without it?
“Give it back.”
He ignored my demand.
What would I say to Archie if I did call him? “Hey, I was a dumbass and thought I was fixing everything, and instead, I got my sorry ass kidnapped. Oh, and by the way, I’m pregnant.”
Would I even want him to come here? He’d be in danger, too, if I did. I couldn’t let that happen.
The world went fuzzy, and I only half caught what was happening around me as I was dragged to a cabin. The door was locked, my phone was gone, and the room was black.
My brilliant plan was the most epic fail in all the history of failures.
I put my hand on my belly. I didn’t feel pregnant, but I believed the piece-of-shit alpha. I was carrying our baby. Archie’s child was growing inside.
Our little one wasn’t here yet and I was already the worst father ever.