18. Rafael/ James
Rafael/ James
RAFAEL
I reached for James the moment I woke up, expecting warm skin and the quiet rise and fall of his chest beneath my hand.
But the bed was cold.
The blankets beside me were still rumpled, like he’d just slipped out. I blinked blearily, rubbing at the ache in my shoulder as I sat up.
The pain was familiar now. A dull throb from healing injuries that still hadn’t faded. I’d gotten used to the way my ribs protested every breath.
What I hadn’t gotten used to was waking up without James.
“James?” I called out, voice gravel-thick from sleep.
No answer. The apartment was too quiet. No clatter from the kitchen, no kettle whistling, no soft humming from the bathroom. Just silence.
That’s when the feeling hit me. Low and coiling in my gut. A wrongness I couldn’t shake.
I swung my legs off the bed and winced as my feet hit the cool floor. The air was crisp, too early even for the breakfast crowd at Bear & Bun. I checked the bathroom. Empty.
No sign of him in the hallway, either. It wasn’t until I turned back toward the bed that I saw the piece of paper on the nightstand. Folded. Centered. Like he wanted me to see it right away.
A note. My stomach dropped before I even touched it.
Rafael,
I’m sorry. I didn’t know how to say this to your face. If I had, I never would’ve gone through with it.
But I have to go. Just for a little while. I need to make this right on my own. I can’t let anyone else get hurt because of me. Not you. Not the others.
Please don’t try to find me. I’ll be okay. I promise.
—James
I stood there, the paper trembling between my fingers, heart beating hard enough to shake my ribs. He was gone. James was gone. And not just off for a walk.
Not off to work early or down the street for tea. Gone. On purpose. Alone. Even though I thought we came to an understanding last night.
“Dang it, James,” I snarled, crushing the note in my fist.
I grabbed my phone off the nightstand, thumb trembling as I dialed Callum’s number. He picked up on the second ring.
“I know,” he said, voice grim.
That stopped me. “You know?”
“James just texted me. Said he was leaving town. Said it was for our safety,” Callum explained.
I paced the length of my living room like a caged animal. “When?”
“An hour ago, maybe less. I’ve got Rowan and Cyrus checking the roads. Beau’s already out by the highway.”
“Why the hell didn’t you call me the second he texted you?” I demanded.
Callum’s voice didn’t rise. It never did. “Because I figured you were still in bed and I didn’t want to wake you unless it was confirmed.”
“Well, it’s confirmed,” I growled, my hand tightening around the phone. “He left me a note.”
“I know you’re angry.”
“Angry?” I barked out a bitter laugh. “I’m furious.”
James had promised. We talked and I assumed we’d handle it together. And now? He’d ghosted me.
“We’ll find him,” Callum said, calm and steady like always. “He may not have made it far.”
“You better update me the second you hear anything.”
“I will,” he promised. “But you need to keep your head on. This isn’t the time to go rogue.”
I ended the call before I said something I’d regret.
Then I threw the phone onto the couch hard enough that it bounced and hit the floor. It didn’t break. I almost wished it had.
Every inch of me was bristling. With hurt. With helplessness.
With the gnawing fury of someone who’d seen the person they loved walk straight into danger because they didn’t think they were worth being fought for.
I needed to do something before I broke something. So I left the house, shifted partially, and ran.
The forest behind Beau’s place was thick and damp from recent rain, but I didn’t care. I pushed through underbrush and brambles, not caring if they tore at my hoodie or scraped my arms.
I ran until my lungs burned, until my side screamed in protest, until I found the clearing where I could finally let it all out.
I grabbed a fallen log and hurled it as hard as I could. It crashed into the undergrowth with a dull thud. Then I screamed. Just once. Loud enough to scatter the birds.
I punched a tree. Not smart. My knuckles split, sharp pain blooming beneath the skin. I didn’t care. I hit it again. And again.
He didn’t trust me to protect him. That’s what it came down to. And the worst part? Maybe he was right. I couldn’t keep him safe in that alley. Couldn’t stop those bastards from hurting him.
From using me to get to him. I’d bled all over the pavement and it hadn’t been enough to stop any of it. What kind of mate did that make me?
I sank down on a stump, chest heaving, hands raw and shaking. That’s when I smelled Leo. The man moved quieter than most bears, but his scent of cedar and black coffee gave him away.
He stepped out from the trees, holding a brown paper bag. “Didn’t want to interrupt the rage fest.”
I didn’t look at him. “What do you want?”
He walked over and plopped down beside me. “Cass said you skipped breakfast. Again. Figured you might want something before you collapse from low blood sugar and emotional instability.”
I grunted but took the bag anyway. Inside was a ham and egg sandwich and a thermos of black coffee, still hot.
“Thanks,” I muttered.
He didn’t say anything for a while. Just sipped from his own thermos and stared at the trees.
Finally, he said, “Sometimes love shows up looking like trouble.”
I gave him a side glance. “Is that your idea of comfort?”
“Yeah.” He scratched at his beard. “Sometimes love looks like late-night arguments, dumb decisions, and running into danger without a plan. Sometimes it looks like leaving without saying goodbye because you think it’s the only way to keep someone safe.”
My jaw tightened.
Leo shrugged. “Doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you. It just means he’s scared out of his wits.”
“I know that,” I snapped. “Doesn’t make it easier.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Leo leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “But he’ll come back. You’re too much a part of him now. Hell, we all saw it.”
I stared down at the sandwich, appetite gone.
“He thinks he has to handle everything alone,” I said quietly. “He’s been like that since day one.”
“So were you,” Leo pointed out. “Until he cracked you open like a walnut.”
I huffed a laugh despite myself.
Leo stood, brushing off his jeans. “By the way, a new shop opened down the block from Bear & Bun. Secondhand bookstore. Guy who runs it gives me grief every time I stop by. Calls me puppy bear. I think he might be the devil.”
I raised a brow. “That sounds like your type.”
“I think so too,” he said, deadpan.
Then he turned to me, expression softening. “You’re not alone in this, Raf. You’ve got us. We’re gonna find him.”
I nodded. “Yeah. I know.”
But deep down, I also knew something else.
If James was doing this to protect me… then nothing I said would bring him back. Not yet. Not until he realized he didn’t have to face it alone.
And God help anyone who got in my way when I went after him. Because I would.
* * *
JAMES
I stood at the edge of the tree line, just where the pavement bled into gravel and the gravel faded into scrub.
The outskirts of Sugarpaw Springs always looked a little abandoned, like the town itself had drawn a line and refused to cross it.
It felt like a fitting place for this.
The morning was cold, overcast, the kind of sky that made everything look gray and lifeless. I clutched the envelope tighter in my hand, the edges damp from sweat.
Inside was every cent I could scrape together. Tips. Savings.
And the last piece of my family I had left. My mother’s ring, pawned to a guy who kept the lights off in his store and counted bills like he hated every one of them.
It still wasn’t enough. But it was all I had.
Avery and his crew were already there, waiting near a dented black SUV.
He leaned against the hood, arms folded like this was a business lunch and not the culmination of months of fear and threats.
Three of his goons stood nearby. One was chewing gum, one was cracking his knuckles, and one wore that same sneer he’d worn the night they attacked Rafael.
I stepped forward anyway. Because I had to.
Avery smiled. “Well, if it isn’t my favorite little debtor. I was starting to think you’d skip out.”
I swallowed, the fear rising in my throat like bile. “I have the payment. All of it. We're done after this.”
He didn’t move to take it. Just raised an eyebrow. “Done? Oh, sweetheart. That’s not how this works.”
I held out the envelope. “It’s what you asked for. It’s everything.”
He took it, slow and deliberate, peeled it open, and started counting the bills with exaggerated care. “Hmm. Very tidy. And here I thought you’d need another few months.”
I said nothing. My jaw ached from how tightly I was clenching it.
He looked up. “Still... see, here’s the problem. You’ve caused a bit of a mess. Got your boyfriend involved. Stirred up the locals. My guys got hurt.”
“You hurt Rafael first,” I said, voice tight.
Avery shrugged. “Maybe. But now we’re in a different place. This? This payment? Think of it as... a retainer.”
I took a step back. “That wasn’t the deal.”
“No,” he agreed. “But it’s the new deal. If you want to keep that bear of yours breathing.”
That’s when the fear turned into something colder. Sharper. Rage, maybe. Or desperation. “You said if I paid in full, it’d be over.”
“And I changed my mind,” Avery said, his tone flat. “This town’s ripe for opportunity. You opened the door. Now I’m walking through it.”
“You can’t—”
He snapped his fingers. One of the goons stepped forward, cracking his knuckles again. “You gonna tell us we can’t, pup? You gonna stop us?”
I knew I should run. Should’ve brought someone. But I couldn’t bear the thought of someone else getting hurt. Not again. Especially not Rafael.
So I did the only stupid, reckless thing I could think of. I stepped closer.
“I did what you asked,” I said. “And I’m telling you now, if you don’t take the money and leave, it won’t be just me you’re answering to.”
Avery’s smile vanished. He lifted a hand and the guy lunged. But before I could so much as blink, the trees behind me exploded.
A massive roar shattered the morning silence. The shifter froze mid-step, his eyes going wide.
And then Rafael charged out of the woods like a nightmare made flesh, his bear form fully out, teeth bared, eyes wild. He didn’t hesitate.
Rafael slammed into the first guy, sending him flying into the gravel. The man screamed as bone cracked, his arm twisted at a wrong angle.
Another tried to draw a weapon, but Rafael swiped it from his hand and knocked him out cold with a roar that made the trees shudder.
Avery shouted something. I didn’t catch it. I was too busy falling back, heart hammering in my throat, as Rafael rounded on the last man.
The guy raised his hands and bolted into the woods, crashing through branches like the devil himself was on his heels.
Avery had backed up toward the SUV, breathing hard. “Your boyfriend’s a monster!”
I was about to answer when the backup arrived. From the tree line and down the road came more figures. Beau, Cass, Callum, Rowan, and even Leo.
Wolves. Bears. All of them ready to finish what Rafael started.
Avery looked around and seemed to realize for the first time that he was outnumbered.
Rafael shifted back, crouching near me. Blood smeared his mouth, his chest heaving. He was still in fight mode, his hands curled into claws, but his eyes locked on mine.
“You okay?” he rasped.
I couldn’t speak. I just nodded.
He stepped in front of me, his back straight even though I could see a bruise already blooming along his side.
He hadn’t come out of the shift clean, but he didn’t care. Not when it came to me.
Callum stepped forward, his voice calm but edged like a blade. “You got your answer, Avery. You don’t belong here. And you’re outnumbered.”
Avery glanced between us. Me, Rafael still half-shifted and snarling, and the circle of wolves and bears closing in like the walls of a trap. The confidence in his face began to fracture.
He went for the envelope, probably to shove it in his coat and make a break for it, but Beau was faster.
He lunged forward and snatched it out of Avery’s hand, slamming the man face-first into the hood of the SUV in one brutal, practiced motion.
“Try to move,” Beau said coolly, “and I’ll break more than your arm.”
Cyrus and Rowan flanked the others, grabbing the loan shark’s crew.
One man tried to bolt toward the trees, but Leo caught him by the back of the neck and hauled him to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
It was over in seconds. They didn’t stand a chance.
Avery struggled, snarling, but Beau had a knee between his shoulder blades and a hand twisted in the back of his jacket.
“You’re done,” Beau said flatly.
Callum turned to me, his expression grim. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, my voice caught somewhere in my throat. “Yeah. I think so.”
He gave me a curt nod, then pulled out his phone. “The sheriff’s on his way. He’ll keep them pinned until the Paranormal Police gets here.”
Avery lifted his head and snarled, blood at the corner of his mouth. “You don’t know who I work for.”
“No one that scares me,” Callum said coldly. “But the people you answer to? They’re going to have a real hard time pulling you out of this one when the human sheriff reports a violent shifter incident on record. And when the Paranormal Police hears what you’ve been doing on neutral ground…”
He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t have to. Avery paled. For the first time, he looked truly afraid. I turned toward Rafael, heart hammering, and that’s when it hit me.
This was really over. Not postponed. Not delayed. Over. My knees buckled from the adrenaline crash, and Rafael was beside me in a flash, catching me as I sank into the gravel.
“What the hell were you thinking?” he snapped, voice raw with fear and fury.
“I—I couldn’t let anyone else get hurt,” I said, the words catching in my throat.
His arms tightened around me. “You are someone. Someone who matters. To me.”
That undid me. Not the violence, not the threats. That. I pressed my face to his neck, sobbing quietly as he held me against his heartbeat.
Sirens wailed in the distance. The sheriff closing in fast.