Chapter 33
ROY
I limped back into the lobby of the Four Seasons and checked into the same suite I’d checked out of six hours before.
After leaving my weeping mate, I’d gone back to the woods near Mark’s cabin and ran until my paws bled. I had hoped it would clear my head. That some genius idea would kick in, and I’d figure out what I had to do to win Brooke back. To prove to her that I wasn’t a mistake.
That we could work through whatever reservations she had about us being together.
But she’d shut me out.
I couldn’t fix whatever was bothering her if she wouldn’t talk to me. If she didn’t want me around. I couldn’t smother her either.
I wanted to toss her over my shoulder and kidnap her. Tie her to my bed. Fuck her until she was so worn out from orgasms that she’d be swayed.
None of those ideas would work. Brooke had to be all in on her own, and that made my wolf furious and lost.
We’d had her. She was ours. She’d run off into the woods, and I’d marked her.
Made her mine.
She was running scared now. Not of me because she’d have done that within an hour of meeting me. Something else.
I had to figure this shit out.
My phone buzzed with a text from Boone.
What’s your ETA?
Fuck. I hit call to dial my brother. I needed some fucking advice right now. Maybe he could help because he’d had a tough time claiming Summer.
“Hey, Roy. You guys on the road?” he asked.
I frowned as I ran up the stairwell. I knew these steps too fucking well. “Uh no. I’m still in Denver.”
He paused. “What happened?”
I turned on the landing and went up the next flight.
“Well…I think it was too fast for Brooke. I dropped her off to pack a bag, and then when I came back to pick her up, she’d talked to a friend and had changed her mind.
The friend somehow dug up the thing with me leaving the Marines, and I think it freaked her out. ”
Boone was silent for a moment.
I froze between the third and fourth floor.
“Boone?” I dragged my hand through my hair. My fingers were raw from running for so long. The front desk person hadn’t said anything, but he probably wondered what had happened to me. I didn’t feel it. All I felt was my mate bond tugging fucking hard. “What do I do?”
I made my way up to the penthouse level and used the keycard to enter the suite. It was exactly as I left it, but clean. And there was no scent of my mate lingering in the air. Only the sharp bite of cleaning supplies.
“Can you hang on there in the city for a while longer? Take the time to court her properly? Humans are different. They don’t have the biological urge to commit the way we do. They don’t understand that it’s instant. One whiff of her scent, and that’s it.”
Yeah, that had been exactly it. “I know. And yeah. I’ll stay here forever if I have to. She’s my fucking mate . And now she doesn't even want to see me.”
He sighed. “Give it time. Don’t pressure her–that will only freak her out more. See if you can figure out what exactly spooked her.”
I frowned. “I think I know. I just don’t know how to fix it.”
“You’ll think of something. She’s your mate. You’re wired to provide her with everything she needs.”
I didn’t know how, though!
Frustration exploded behind my eyes. I cocked my fist to punch the wall, but pulled back at the last second. Boone was paying for this suite. I didn’t need to add a huge damage charge to the bill.
“I gotta go,” I growled.
“Okay, let me know if you need help. Summer and I could fly down if you think she’d want to meet us.”
“She doesn’t. She doesn’t want anything from me right now.” I paced to the window and yanked the curtains open to look outside. I longed for the big open skies of Montana, not this urban jungle.
“Well, anything you need, just let us know.”
“Yeah. Thanks. I’ll talk to you later.” I ended the call, staring out the window without seeing anything.
Think, Roy. Think.
Boone believed I’d think of something. That I could provide Brooke with everything she needed. But what did she need?
I reviewed what had happened. The murder charges I was brought up bothered her. Was she scared of me? Scared I would hurt her? Or was it something else?
Brooke liked a sure thing. What had she said about why she became an accountant?
I was looking for something quiet and stable. Numbers don’t lie, and everyone’s got to pay their taxes.
I probably felt like the opposite of quiet and stable. Moving to a new state–even visiting a new state with a guy she just met two days before–was the opposite of quiet and stable.
She’d had a chaotic childhood where she and her mom had been financially dependent on a string of her mom’s conquests.
She wanted to feel safe on her own, which she’d definitely done. Then I came in and fucked with that. Lazano and the whole drug thing didn’t help either.
I stood in this same spot with her. She’d talked about what she wanted…
There.
My eyes snagged on the building she’d pointed out. The one where she said she’d buy a place. A place that was hers, and no one could take from her.
I could give her this. Safety. Consistency. If my mate wanted that apartment, then it would be me who gave it to her. I had saved all my money from when I was enlisted, and Boone had invested it. I had plenty. Enough to buy her that fancy downtown loft outright, without a mortgage.
If she wasn’t going to move to Montana with me, I’d make sure she felt safe and provided for here.
Yes. Fuck, yes.
She might want me out of her life, but she didn’t know much about marked mates. It was my job to care for her. Protect her. Make her happy.
If that meant an apartment in the midst of all this fucking concrete, then that was what my mate was getting.