Chapter 8 - Rick
“We’re making a mistake here,” Rick seethed as he slammed the kitchen door shut, the sound echoing through Felix’s modest townhouse.
Nicolas was already reaching for the liquor cabinet, while Felix and Dane sat at the kitchen table and exchanged a look.
They had just come from a pack meeting, held at Nicolas’s house, given that the Club was still under construction.
Most of the pack had remained there, enjoying food and a catch-up, but the inner circle needed to continue discussions privately.
“We have to stop riling them up,” Felix said, his jaw working, “the Black Claws are getting bolder and bolder. If we engage, we risk inciting war.”
“We’re already engaging,” Rick said, gesturing to Dane.
Dane shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ve gotta agree with Rick on this one, boss. If we ignore their creepin’ around the border, it’ll only get worse.”
“Have you thought about talking to Raph directly about the younger wolves?” Nicolas asked. “Perhaps he truly doesn’t know the extent of their…testing.”
“He knows,” Rick replied darkly, “and if we call him out on it, we’ll look weak. Whining. The only thing males like Raph respond to is strength.”
Felix steepled his hands under his chin, eyes unfocused as he concentrated on the problem at hand. It wasn’t just fringe scrapping anymore. It was targeted attacks on the border. Patrols. Recon missions. It couldn’t go on, not without the Iron Walkers losing face.
“They want us to strike the first blow,” Felix said, massaging his temples, “it’s the only way they can hope to get support from the other packs.”
“Surely the other packs aren’t stupid enough to believe we’d be doing anything other than defending ourselves?” Nicolas asked, adjusting a cufflink.
Rick’s eyes narrowed, “Fear is a powerful motivator. If we were to attack first, and the Black Claws manage to spin it as us attempting to capture more territory, it’s feasible that other packs will think it’s an expansion attempt. They’re worried enough as it is about our level of power.”
“But we’re not trying to expand our territory,” Felix said through gritted teeth. “I just want my people safe. I thought I’d made that clear.”
“Your people aren’t safe,” Rick said. “Dane nearly got his eye swiped out the other day, from what I heard.”
“It’s nothing I can’t handle,” Dane argued, folding his ridiculously muscular arms as if feeling the need to demonstrate his physical prowess.
“Not for much longer,” Rick replied, “and not if they keep sending more wolves. Stronger wolves.”
“Perhaps we should start joining the patrols,” Nicolas said, raising an eyebrow at Rick.
Ricked hummed in agreement, a grin spreading across his face. “Now there’s an idea.”
“No,” Felix said sharply, “it’s bad enough that Dane gets involved as enforcer. If you two start joining in the fringe scraps, it’ll be seen as a clear escalation.”
“Only if we leave any Black Claws alive to report back to Raph,” said Rick, his voice deceptively silky.
“It would send a message,” Nicolas agreed, coming to stand next to Rick.
Rick’s grin widened. As much as he and Nicolas could clash on pack issues, both slightly too inclined towards the more cunning aspects of their savagery to work in harmony, there was one thing they had in common.
Their sheer, unhesitating ruthlessness.
Dane had a certain playfulness to his violence, the easy, upfront boisterousness that came with his nature and size. Felix, while not exactly gentle, only ever resorted to violence when there was truly no other choice.
Nicolas and Rick were tigers. Crouching, ambushing predators fully aware of their sheer power and only too willing to use it to utterly obliterate their enemies.
Felix was aware of it, too.
“No,” he said, his voice offering no space for argument, “you stay out of it. Let Dane handle things. Nicolas, you ensure our weaponry and surveillance are uncompromised. Rick, you carry on working on whatever political web you’re weaving. We do not engage until we have no other choice.”
Rick’s jaw tightened, his grin turning into a baring of teeth. “Though the work I’m doing is certainly elegant, Alpha, it won’t be enough. Not on its own. And if the Black Claws find out I’ve discovered a loophole in their land charter…”
“They won’t find out,” Felix said, rising to his feet, eyes blazing. “Will they, Rick?”
Rick didn’t answer, resisting the urge to run his tongue along the scar on his upper lip. A bad habit, really, but one he’d picked up whenever Felix used that tone of voice. The unflinching, uncompromising command of a pack alpha. One he’d bent the knee to after needing some…convincing.
A different time.
“They won’t hear a word,” Rick said, his blood heating, “certainly not from me.”
Felix nodded once, turning from him. Rick’s fists clenched.
It was not in his nature to bow. And some days, it took more control than he would like to remember why he remained loyal. Why he accepted Felix as alpha.
Dane, always the best at sensing his ire, clapped his hands together and rose. “Come on, Rick, let’s leave these housewives to their gossiping. Do you fancy a drink?”
“Don’t you have to attend to Lola?”
“She’s still around Nicolas’s with Daisy and the others, she’ll text when she’s heading back.”
“Speaking of,” Felix said, “have you talked to her any more about my proposal?”
Dane winced, rubbing the back of his neck, “Yeah, I have, but…you know how she can be. Utterly obsessed with her books. Stressed about the pregnancy. Absolutely horrified at the idea of a public-facing role.”
“It doesn’t have to be public-facing,” Felix said, “but nobody knows as much about our history as she does. Not even Rick.”
Rick huffed, “Though I would argue my library was instrumental in getting her there.”
Felix ignored him. “Her insights are always invaluable. I want her in the inner circle, Dane. And not just as your mate. As one of our leaders.”
Dane chewed his lip. “Between the two of us, I think she’s absolutely terrified she’ll mess up.”
“More than you do on a regular basis?” Nicolas said, earning himself a growl.
Rick rolled his eyes. “Why don’t I talk to her?”
Dane’s head whipped around, his mouth falling slightly open, “Are you…sure that’s a good plan?”
At the same time, Nicolas’s eye twitched. “Perhaps that’s not the wisest idea.”
Rick blinked, looking between them. “Are all your mates really that scared of me?”
“Not scared,” Nicolas said, “wary.”
“Wary?”
Felix and Nicolas exchanged a look, one that had Rick’s hackles raised.
“Okay, what aren’t you saying?”
Felix hesitated, hand bracing on the back of a chair. “Aside from your general lack of warmth and good humor—”
“For God’s sake, are we twelve?”
“—they’re a little bit worried.”
“About what?” Rick said with a sneer. “Do they expect me to braid their hair or join their book club? They know I’m loyal to the pack, that I’d kill to protect them and your children. I have killed to protect them. What more do they need?”
Felix hesitated, and it was Nicolas who finally broke the silence.
“Rosalia.”
Rick’s temper iced over, his muscles tensing at that one word, “Oh.”
Nicolas tapped the table a few times, considering his words carefully.
“Daisy says that every time she goes over, Rosalia shuts out any attempt to join in pack activities. She’s gotten better in recent weeks, but she…
we still worry that she never leaves your house.
You’ve been married for well over a month now, she’s been part of the pack for weeks, but she’s never been to a single event. It’s not normal.”
Rick’s jaw worked as Nicolas held his eye. The other two males had shifted slightly, their attention fixed on him.
Clearly, Daisy wasn’t the only one voicing her worries to her mate.
“Things were difficult at first, I won’t deny it,” Rick said, his voice clipped. “She clearly had some…adjusting to do. But it’s as Daisy says. She seems to have gotten over her depression and is now absolutely fine.”
Nicolas raised an eyebrow. “Did she tell you that?”
Rick growled, “I made it clear that I would not babysit her. If she has no interest in pack activities, then that is her business. I’m hardly going to force her to join the Yule committee.”
“She’s your wife, Rick,” Nicolas said.
“Yes, my wife,” Rick snarled, taking a step towards Nicolas, wolf thrashing beneath the surface, “not my mate. Our union is political. That is it.”
He didn’t mention the spike of anxiety in Rosalia’s scent whenever he entered a room. The terse, polite mask she adopted whenever forced to talk to him. The way his home had become a battleground, their own personal cold war.
The rage his wolf felt whenever she looked at him with fear in her eyes.
He was constantly on edge these days. Constantly looking for a fight, a challenge, any excuse to let his wolf free to blow off some steam.
Get some of the aggression out. More and more, he resented Felix’s restraint, his refusal to allow them to fight the Black Claws.
There would be nothing like the blood of an enemy in his teeth to cool his building fury.
Rosalia’s fear had woken something ugly in him.
Something cold and bitter. He was not a cruel male.
He was well aware that he was intimidating, calculating, even savage when he needed to be.
But only to those who threatened his pack.
His family. And like it or not, Rosalia was part of his pack.
She was under his protection. And her constant terror made his wolf viscerally fear he was harming those he had sworn to guard.
He was not his father. He had chosen Felix. The New Guard. The new way.
And now, his own brothers were calling his actions into question because it was so blatantly obvious how much Rosalia feared him.
Rick didn’t need her to love him. He didn’t even particularly care if she liked him.