Chapter 6 - Rick #2
Wordlessly, Nicolas handed him a crystal tumbler of amber liquid. Rick knocked it back in one, relishing the sharp burn down his throat, holding it out for another. Nicolas was more generous with the second glass.
“Where’s Evangeline?” he growled, scenting the air for his daughter.
“She’s in the den with the other kids,” Daisy said gently. “They’re all half-asleep watching Disney films.”
He grunted in affirmation, already nearly done with his second drink, his fist tight enough around it that he wouldn’t be surprised if it shattered in his hand.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dane adjust slightly, moving subtly in front of Lola, who sat with a steaming mug of tea balanced on her swollen stomach. Blocking her from sight.
Normally, something like that would have pissed him off.
Tonight, he could understand. After everything that had happened…he didn’t entirely trust himself to be rational right now.
Ironically enough, it was Cassie who finally broke the tension, despite the fact that she had the most reason to fear him after that incident in the woods before she and Felix mated. She had always been braver than most.
“I think it’s pretty safe to assume you’re not doing so good, hey Rick?”
He glared at her. “What do you think?”
Felix growled softly in warning.
“Do you want to go run in the woods?” Nicolas asked, folding his arms, also hovering close to his mate. “It might do you some good?”
“No,” Rick said, fixing his eyes out the window so he didn’t have to look at any of them with their damned concern. “I want to drink.”
“Is Rosalia okay?” Daisy asked, fiddling with her hands, her bright green eyes wide with concern.
Rick’s jaw clenched, his muscles practically trembling with rage.
“Did you…” Dane asked, trailing off as he exchanged an anxious glance with Nicolas. “I mean, have you and Rosalia…”
Rick turned to him with a snarl. “What? No! Of course we fucking haven’t! What the hell do you take me for?”
“Rick,” Felix hissed, “the kids are next door, watch the language!”
“My apologies,” Rick bit out, baring his teeth at Dane. “No, I haven’t touched her. You know as well as I do that she wants no part of this, whatever she might say.”
Felix looked down, anger flashing over his face. “I gave her every opportunity to withdraw.”
“It’s not your fault, Felix,” Lola said, sipping her tea, “it’s her father’s. The Green Mountain Pack is practically the textbook example of toxic top-down leadership coupled with mid-century integration of humanistic gender ideals.”
Dane coughed. “In English, that means John’s an asshole.”
Lola sniffed, “Well, quite.”
“I won’t force myself on her, no matter what her father wants,” Rick snapped. “She’s terrified enough as it is without having to worry about any damned marital duties.”
Nicolas shifted. “I hate to ask, but I know you too well, Rick. Is this some sort of ploy to get the marriage annulled?”
Rick’s eye twitched, “I won’t insult you by pretending I hadn’t considered it. But no. I said I would marry her, be married to her, and I won’t break my word.”
An image of Rosalia flashed before his eyes, half-naked and near hysterical with fear at what his refusal of her might mean. And, to his immense surprise, he found himself entirely unwilling to expose her to her father’s wrath if it was within his power to keep her safe.
He suppressed a growl. It was his wolf responding to a female in distress. Nothing more.
And yet something inside him wrenched at the fact that the first time she had dropped her carefully polished walls around him, it was due to sheer terror. Perhaps it was merely his bruised ego.
Or perhaps…
No. No, he was tired and angry and in no place whatsoever to be thinking about the girl. His ire at his predicament, his rage, was purely aimed at John Heath. The girl was merely incidental.
“She’s actually very lovely, underneath all the…” Daisy waved her hand in front of her face. “Refinement? Is that what we’d call it?”
“Whatever it is,” Dane said with a sly smirk towards Rick, “awfully familiar, don’t ya think?”
Rick’s answering snarl ripped through the air.
“Leave him alone,” Lola said, tugging her mate’s wrist. “Tonight is not the night to goad him. I don’t want to have to scrape you off the floor if he decides to go for you.”
Dane snorted. “As if he’d win.”
“Want to find out?” Rick asked, his voice dangerously soft.
Dane shuddered. “On second thought, perhaps not.”
Rick scowled, secretly disappointed. Dane was one of the only males he could trust himself to actually spar with, secure in the knowledge that no matter how wild they let themselves be, both would walk away with minimal damage.
Nicolas seemed to sense his encroaching desire for violence, and he pushed off the countertop. “Come on, I know you said you want to drink, but you’ll feel a hell of a lot better if we run the woods.”
Rick looked at him for a moment, his jaw working, before biting out, “Fine.”
Nicolas glanced around the room, “Anyone else coming?”
“Not tonight,” Dane said, rubbing Lola’s shoulders. “I’ve gotta be out on patrol tomorrow.”
“And I don’t want to,” Lola added with a helpful thumbs up.
“You go,” said Felix, “I’ll watch the kids. Take as long as you need.”
“Try not to get into too much trouble,” Daisy said, reaching up on her tiptoes to give Nicolas a brief kiss.
Rick turned away from them, his jaw working. In doing so, he caught Cassie’s eye, and she laughed with slightly too much bravado to be convincing. “I’ll come with you!”
If she expected him to laugh with her, she was in for a rude awakening.
“Oh no, you don’t,” Felix said, tucking her under his arm. “Even if you weren’t a human, you think I’d let you out in the wild with him in this state? I’m worried enough about Nicolas.”
Rick scowled. “I’m not a rabid animal.”
“Tell that to your face,” Dane said with a slightly forced grin. “Go on, go hunt down some deer or something.”
Rick hissed something insulting under his breath, but followed Nicolas out of the house anyway, not even registering the cold bite of the night air.
A bit of time in his wolf would probably make him feel better, loath as he was to admit it. But as he gave over to the transformation, bones snapping and reshaping themselves within them, he realized too late what that meant.
His wolf was entirely preoccupied with the girl currently alone in his house, and he had to fight with every step to keep his eyes on the forest ahead of him, and not turn tail right back into her bedroom.
To comfort her or claim her, he couldn’t work out.
And that made him angrier than anything.