17. Archie
ARCHIE
We were halfway through our road trip and I was longing to be home. Three cities done and three to go.
Walter was working on some top-secret project, so hadn’t seen his face for two days and his texting was sporadic.
But as I walked into yet another generic hotel room, my phone rang with an unknown number. I almost let it go because it was probably some journalist wanting an exclusive interview or a fan had gotten hold of my number and I’d have to change it again.
It was late, and I had another game tomorrow night. My mate was a thousand miles away and I longed to hear his voice, but something made me answer the call.
“Archie?” It was an older man’s voice. “You don’t know me, but I’m Walter’s Editor-In-Chief, Truman.”
I bent forward and pain twisted in my belly as though I were being wrung out. Something had happened to my mate because the man on the other end was panicked. He was breathing hard into the phone, and his voice pitched up at the end of his sentence.
“I’m like you.”
I slumped onto the bed. “How?” Perhaps this wasn’t about my mate and he was looking for dirt.
“I think you know how.”
There were voices in the background which suggested why he was being vague.
“I scented you on Walter’s clothes. He smelled like a wolf, and I suspected he’d been marked, but he confirmed it. And that’s why I’m calling you now instead of minding my own business.”
No, no. This couldn’t be happening. It was a joke or I was imagining it. Walter was safe and nowhere near Garrick.
“What’s wrong? I bellowed down the phone, not caring if I offended this man and my mate lost his job.
“He took time off, and I thought it was to travel with you, but I saw your Insta saying you missed him, and that got me worried.”
There’d been an underlying fear inside me that having one foot in the shifter world would overwhelm my mate and he’d leave. But since we mated, I’d tucked those worries away.
“He’s asked a lot of questions about packs and being mated since you got together. The more I think about it, the more I wonder… could he have gone to your old pack?”
He kept explaining why he came to that conclusion, but I couldn’t hear any of it. I was too busy doing what I told myself I would never do–I checked his location. Fuck. Truman was right. He was already there.
My wolf was howling in my ears as I dropped the phone.
My mate, my beloved Walter, had gone to Garrick, an Alpha whose word was law, like generations of Alphas before him.
Garrick had never met my mate, and yet he’d threatened to kill him because of who he was.
No one had ever talked their way out of one of Garrick’s death sentences.
This was what he’d been hiding when we were at the rink. The idea had been forming or festering, and he’d taken off while I was away.
“Call if you need backup.”
I didn’t bother to pack, just took my phone and credit card and headed to the door. Trying to type a message with quivering hands as I took the stairs four at a time took longer than it should have.
Family emergency. Leaving now. I sent it to coach and my captain and put it on silent mode, hoping that Walter had access to his phone and he’d text me. I debated whether to message him, but if he was with Garrick, a message from me might antagonize Alpha more than he probably already was.
As I headed to the airport, I didn’t give a damn about my contract or letting down the team and the fans.
I’d pay a fine, management would be involved, and I’d be benched for a game or two, or worse.
But none of that mattered when my mate was in danger.
I’d set my career on fire if I could get Walter back safely.
What was on the poster was a dream, but I lived in reality. The dream was only worth something if my mate was at my side.
I sat upright on the plane, staring out the window at the darkness and thinking of how I’d driven those miles when I left home and Walter far behind to keep him alive.
Now I was traveling in the opposite direction with the same purpose, making sure Garrick didn’t kill him.
That Alpha might have his hands around my mate’s neck while I sat helpless in a plane filled me with dread.
And my wolf was raging, asking why it was taking so long.
Hold on, my love. I’m coming.
Garrick wouldn’t have Walter at his home, so I hired a car and drove to my parents’. Me banging on the door in the middle of the night woke not only them but their neighbors.
One look at their faces as they opened the door in their pajamas was enough.
Garrick wouldn’t have announced it, even for someone as rigid and bloodthirsty as him would not have told the pack he was holding my mate captive.
But in a small town where most of the inhabitants were pack, rumors circulated.
“Where is he? Where’s my mate?” I was past caring when they flinched at my screams.
“Garrick has him.”
If this was a repeat of eight years ago where they didn’t speak up for me, I’d tear the neighborhood apart until I found Walter. My hands and neck furred, and I allowed my wolf into my sight. My beast was bigger and stronger than either of theirs, and they backed against a wall.
“Garrick has him locked in the old hunting cabin on the ridge.” My alpha father shared a glance with his mate. “He’s alive because old Jonathan has been bringing him food.”
“Archie, please.” My omega dad grabbed my wrist. “You got your life together. Don’t mess it up.”
“You expected me to give him up once, and I did that.” I rubbed my brow, trying to erase the memories, and my dad got between me and the door. “But that didn’t save either of us. We just lost time. I’m not doing it again.”
My alpha father sighed and put a hand on my shoulder. “Then do it right. If you’re going to challenge him, you have to do it in front of the pack according to the old laws. There can be no argument afterward about whether what you did was legitimate.”
He looked at me as though he was proud and yanked his mate away from the door.
I hadn’t issued a challenge and hadn’t told him that was my plan.
But he was well versed in pack law and practice, and there was only one way this ended.
I could go up to the cabin and break Walter out, but nothing would change.
Garrick would still be Alpha. We’d be on the run by morning, and unlike when I was eighteen, the entire pack would know what had happened, so it wouldn’t be just Garrick we’d have to worry about.
There was only one way to keep Walter safe and that was to take the pack from the man who’d threatened him and become the one who made the laws rather than the one who broke them.
From my parents' porch, I looked up at the ridge in the distance that towered over the town.
“I’m coming for you.” He was too far away from me but perhaps through the mate connection he might sense me nearby. Him pleading for his life and our happiness was never going to work on Garrick.
“Call the pack,” I told my father. “Gather them together tonight.” I couldn’t put this off until tomorrow or try to get in touch with Garrick. Tonight I would challenge him, and only one of us might be alive at dawn.
It was time.