Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
H ours later, Ruby was sitting at the table, stewing, when Theo’s soft knock came on the back door.
She knew he was coming. She’d seen Rafe pacing the yard, cell phone to his ear, face grim.
He was still worried about her even as he was leaving.
Apparently, Theo was here to babysit until the pack was alerted to their current predicament.
“Come in,” Ruby mumbled and, thanks to his super wolfy senses, Theo heard her.
“Good morning,” he drawled, striding into the kitchen.
“Is it?”
He gave her his best charming smile. “The sun is shining; the birds are chirping. What more could you ask for, Ruby love?”
Ruby glowered.
Theo gave a knowing nod and dropped into the chair across from her. “Let me guess, my brother is being an asshole?”
Ruby couldn’t help the surprised laugh that escaped her.
Theo grinned. “It’s a family trait but I think Rafe got the worst of it,” he continued with an easy smile.
He leaned back in his chair, taking up space like he belonged in her kitchen, like he belonged anywhere he wanted to be.
He was a cocky bastard for sure, but Ruby liked him.
“He’s very frustrating.”
Theo nodded. “Stubborn as rock, his whole life.” He ran a hand through his curls.
“But ultimately, not a bad guy. Though I hate to admit it.” He grinned again and Ruby could see how easy it would be to fall for a guy like Theo.
Unfortunately, she didn’t want a guy like Theo.
Unfortunately, she liked big broody idiots. “What did he do?” Theo asked.
“He didn’t tell you?”
Theo blew out a breath. “Well, he said he was going to talk to Knox, which I admit nearly knocked me off my seat.”
“Is it true that he saved your life?”
Theo paused mid-stretch, his eyebrows touching his hairline. His eyes were like green pools, light against his tan skin. “Is that what he told you?”
“Not in so many words. He made it sound like it was all his fault, that he hurt you and your brother. That he shamed your pack.”
“Typical.” Theo rolled his eyes. “He did save my life. My father wanted only one man standing and Rafe refused to do it. Of course he would see it as a failure though.”
“A lot of daddy issues, huh.”
Theo’s laugh echoed through the kitchen. He shook his head, his eyes sparking in amusement. “You have no idea.”
“He thinks he’s dangerous, that he’s not good for me. It’s like he doesn’t trust me to decide that for myself.” Ruby rested her chin on her forearms; the table was cool beneath them.
“Asshole.” Theo glanced out the window to where Rafe was still glowering in the yard.
Why he hadn’t left yet, Ruby had no idea.
“Look, Ruby. That bullshit is not about you at all.” His eyes cut to the window again and then back to her.
“I probably shouldn’t even tell you this and I don’t really know the entire story, but there was another human woman. ”
“Oh.” Scarlet. So, Theo knew about her too. “He told me.”
Theo looked surprised that Rafe had told her. She was sure it wasn’t something Rafe talked about very often, if ever.
“The guy was wrecked afterward,” Theo said. “He didn’t eat for days. I had to practically force-feed him.”
“Jesus.”
“Yeah, those were dark days.” Theo leaned back in his chair again, stretching his arms overhead. “It was over a decade ago, Ruby. But that’s some hard shit to get over. He blames himself. He blames himself for everything.”
Ruby rested her head on the table, trying to absorb everything Theo had just told her and everything she’d yelled at Rafe this morning. She groaned.
“Let me go talk to him.” Theo stood and Ruby peered up at him from the corner of her eye.
“I said some really shitty stuff to him.”
“And he said some really shitty stuff to you. That’s what fights are, right?” Theo grinned again, his perfect white teeth flashing. “I’m sure you two crazy kids can work it out.”
Ruby groaned again and Theo strode toward the door. “Don’t worry, Ruby, love. I’ll talk some sense into that asshole.”
Theo sauntered out the back door. Rafe stood on the edge of the forest at the back of Ruby’s yard. He should have left already. He should have left as soon as Theo showed up, but he wanted to make sure Ruby was okay before he did. Which was idiotic because he was the one making her feel like shit.
Theo crossed the yard looking like the smug bastard that he was. Rafe should shift and run. He was positive he didn’t want to hear what his brother had to say anyway, but he was rooted to the spot.
Maybe Ruby kicked him out. Maybe she didn’t want Theo in her house. In that case, Rafe couldn’t leave. For safety reasons. Not for feeling like his heart was being torn out every time he tried to leave reasons.
“You really are an asshole, aren’t you?” Theo asked, his smile growing wider.
Rafe growled in response.
“You have that pretty little thing waiting inside for you and you’re going to ditch her just like that?”
“I’m not ditching her.” Rafe’s jaw tightened. He was going to need extensive dental work after all this interacting with his brother.
“Oh, really? She seemed to think so.”
Rafe ran a hand through his hair. Theo was trying to get a rise out of him and it was working. “I need to go.”
“Then go,” Theo said with a lazy smile. “I’ll keep the lovely Miss Ruby entertained while you’re gone.” The bastard winked. And Rafe saw red.
He changed before he knew what he was doing, tearing right out of his clothes, like there was only one way to quell the blazing rage racing through his blood at the thought of Theo’s hands on Ruby. Theo rolled his eyes but tugged off his own clothes and shifted into his wolf form.
They growled and circled each other. Good.
This he could do. This he could handle. He lunged for Theo, fangs glinting in the sun.
They rolled, slashing and clawing at each other.
Rafe bit down hard on Theo’s leg and the metallic tang of blood filled his mouth.
Theo growled low in warning and then he flipped them so he was on top, a wolfish grin on his face.
They fought until half the lawn was torn up, and they were both bloodied and panting. Theo caved first, turning over on his back, belly up in submission.
“You win again, Rafe,” he panted as soon as he was back in human form. He lay sprawled out naked in the sun, and blood trickled from a wound in his arm. How many days had ended like this back when they were younger and full of wolfish energy?
Rafe lay next to him, trying to catch his breath, memories of all the other times they’d done this racing through his head.
It wasn’t always bad. It wasn’t always some forced show for their father and the pack.
For a long time, it had just been him and his brothers pouncing on each other in the tall grass, for fun, for petty victories, to settle their latest argument.
But it hadn’t lasted. Their father wanted a winner.
“Keep your hands off Ruby,” he muttered.
Theo laughed. “For fuck’s sake, Rafe, you don’t own the girl. You won’t have her and you won’t let anyone else have her either?”
Rafe sat up and Theo did the same, his green eyes flashing merrily in the sun.
Everything was always a joke to him. The youngest, the prettiest. He never had to care about anything.
Until they were in the ring and their father wanted blood.
But even then, it was left to Rafe to make the hard decisions.
“Stay away from her.”
Theo’s eyebrows raised. “You’re serious? What are you going to do? Hang around here scaring off any guy that comes around?”
Rafe was ashamed to say the thought had definitely occurred to him. The idea of any man near Ruby sent his entire body on edge, every muscle coiled to pounce, every atom ready to act.
Theo saw it. He smelled it. The difference in Rafe’s body chemistry.
“Oh my God?—”
“Don’t say it,” Rafe warned.
“She’s your?—”
“Don’t fucking say another word.”
“Mate.”
Rafe closed his eyes at the word, like he could hide from it.
Theo stood, yanking on his shorts. “She’s your Mate! Holy shit.”
“Keep your voice down.”
“This is huge. What are you going to do?” Theo’s face was lit up like a pup with a bone.
“I’m going to leave, just like I said.” He had to leave. This was the only thing that made sense, the only way to keep her safe. Safe from him, safe from these other wolves, safe from whatever this damn Mate bond might mean for her.
Theo stopped in his tracks, staring down at where Rafe still sat in the flattened grass. “You’re going to abandon your Mate? What the hell are you thinking?”
Rafe ground his teeth together. “It’s for the best.”
“For the best?” Theo shouted. “How could this possibly be for the best? Can you even leave her? I mean, physically. I heard wolves that try to leave their Mates go mad.”
Rafe stood so they were nose to nose. He hadn’t heard that one, but he’d been feeling like he wanted to crawl out of his skin since he figured out what Ruby was to him.
Every moment he wasn’t near her felt like being flayed alive, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell Theo that.
“She’s human. I won’t force her to be tied to me forever.
She doesn’t need any more of this werewolf bullshit in her life. ”
Theo blew out a breath. “You didn’t even tell her, did you?”
Rafe flinched.
“Christ, Rafe! You didn’t even give her a chance to decide!”
“She’s not one of us! I don’t even know if it’s possible.”
“Of course it is! You found your Mate. That’s… That’s?… amazing.” Something wistful crossed Theo’s face, but Rafe ignored it.
“It’s not amazing. It’s impossible. I’m leaving.” He didn’t want her to understand. This couldn’t work; none of this made sense. He had to get out of here before he did something rash, before he really did go mad with the need to touch her.
“I’m coming with you.” They both swung around at the sound of Ruby’s voice.
She strode down the back steps, a backpack slung over one shoulder.
She’d changed from that absurdly small skirt into a pair of black jeans, but the tight red tank top remained to torture him.
She’d topped the whole thing with a red cloak that somehow suited her perfectly.
How much had she heard?
“I already told you, you can’t.” Rafe’s response was immediate and gruff, taking every ounce of strength he had left after his never-ending night of denying his response to her.
Ruby put her hand on one hip and stared him down. Theo laughed. “You are so screwed,” he whispered under his breath, but Rafe ignored him.
“Good thing you’re not the boss of me.”
“Ruby…” Rafe’s voice was nothing more than a growl.
“I’m serious, Rafe. I’m coming. We can be done playing house all you want, but I’m not sitting here and letting you handle all of this alone. This concerns me and my sister. I’m coming.”
Rafe stood speechless.
“Lena doesn’t believe me about what you guys are, by the way,” she yelled to Theo before he snuck in the back door. “So good luck with that.”
Theo gave her an encouraging smile before he slipped inside. Ruby turned back to Rafe. “Let me come. Please.”
Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea. Everything about this was a bad idea and yet Rafe couldn’t seem to find the words to tell her that she couldn’t come.
He’d tried, and she’d vetoed him anyway.
He was at war with himself. His plan to keep her at a distance battled with his primal urge to keep her close.
In the end, it wasn’t even a question. It hadn’t been a fair fight.
He swallowed hard. “Fine.”
Lena was her sister after all. Who was he to tell Ruby that she couldn’t try to help her own family? He ignored how his heart rate slowed as soon as he knew he would be near her. Everything in his body settled into a gentle thrum at the knowledge that Ruby would be by his side.
Ruby grinned. “Great.” Her gaze flicked down and then back to his face. “So, are you going to put some clothes on for this trip?”
Rafe’s face burned. He’d completely forgotten he’d ruined his clothes when he shifted. He covered himself with his hands, already half-hard under Ruby’s appraising stare.
“More than I got to see last night,” she muttered, the hurt still fresh in her voice. But he couldn’t have that conversation with her, especially not right now with him bare-assed in her backyard.
“I’ll go get some things and meet you back out here in five.”
“Aye aye, captain,” she said with a smirk. He strode past her and tried to pretend he couldn’t feel her gaze watching him walk away.