Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
T his doesn’t end happily for us.
Rafe’s words played over in her head as she waited for him. He was obviously scared. Scared that she would end up like Scarlet. It was why he kept pushing her away, but beyond that, was he right? Was there no future for them at all?
Did it matter that he was a werewolf and she was a human?
When she was with him, it didn’t feel like it did. Being with Rafe felt right. But if she couldn’t convince him that they would work, then what was she supposed to do? Rafe’s soft grumble let her know he was back and fully clothed.
“You need to work tonight?” he asked, coming up beside her.
“I called in.”
He nodded. “We can take the truck part way but then we’ll hike in.”
“Okay, great. Let’s go.”
Rafe let out a sigh as they walked to the front of the house to his truck.
The white Ford pickup sat waiting for them and with it the memory of last night’s tense drive home and everything that had happened after.
She climbed up into the seat, willing the memory of Rafe’s head between her thighs from her mind.
It didn’t want to go. He’d been so damn enthusiastic.
Like licking her was his entire purpose in life, like she was his new favorite flavor…
“Buckle up.”
Rafe’s gruff command broke through her reverie. Thank God.
She did as she was told and sat back, watching the towering pines whizz past as they drove out of town.
“What are you thinking about?”
Ruby turned in her seat to stare at Rafe. “You want to know what I’m thinking about?” she asked.
He shrugged. “You got all quiet. And you keep sighing.” He shrugged again and Ruby bit her lip to keep from smiling. “Makes a guy wonder.”
“I was thinking about apple-picking and how we didn’t really do it anymore after my parents died.” Today would have been the perfect day for it, sunny and crisp.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. But then I was also thinking about my aunt’s funny little tea sandwiches she used to make and how we used to dress up to eat them. Like a fancy tea party.” She would miss her parents always, but her aunt had made her childhood special in her own way.
Rafe chuckled. “I bet you were cute.”
“I was super cute. The cutest.” She smiled. “I used to set two extra spots for my parents. Lena hated it. She didn’t want to hear about ghosts. Or any of my other ridiculous ideas.”
“You’re not ridiculous. I never should have said that.”
“It’s okay.”
“It’s not.”
Ruby sighed. “Well, you can add it to the running list of things you feel guilty about.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Theo mentioned Scarlet. Tell me about her. Please.”
Rafe let out a long breath, his hands clenching and unclenching around the steering wheel.
“She was sweet,” he said finally, his voice hoarse with emotion. “She worked at a convenience store in the town we were camped out near at the time.”
“Camped out?”
“We don’t really… We don’t really have a permanent place. The pack moves around, tries to stay?… unnoticed.”
“That must have been hard.”
“It was. Sometimes. We’ve lost a lot of land over the years. We’re running out of space.”
“What will you do if it’s all gone?”
Rafe’s brow furrowed. “Don’t know. We need it. We need to be wolves at least sometimes. We need to run and hunt. I don’t know what happens if we can’t do that anymore.”
She didn’t know what would happen either, but any thought of Rafe being in danger sent fear coursing through her. She shook her head. One problem at a time. Deforestation would have to wait.
“Tell me more about Scarlet.”
“Ruby…”
“I want to know, Rafe. I want to know about her.”
He sighed again. “She was in there working every time I’d make the trip into town for supplies. I started stopping in more often. Making more excuses to see her.
“She smelled like candy, like burnt sugar and sunshine. Her hair was dark like yours, but she had light eyes and she was always smiling. Seeing her?… it was like for the first time I saw something outside of my own world. Something that wasn’t violent or cruel.
” He paused, pushing his hair out of his face.
Ruby didn’t dare move or speak, afraid he would stop talking and she would lose this glimpse of his life, of his heart.
“She looked at me like…” He swallowed hard.
“She looked at me like I was something good. No one had ever looked at me like that before.” He cleared his throat and Ruby swiped the tears from her eyes.
“It didn’t matter, though. In the end. She stopped looking at me like that once she found out what I was. What I am.”
“You told her?”
“Yeah, I thought…” He let out a harsh laugh. “I thought I could leave the pack and be with her. But she basically freaked out when I showed her what I was. Convinced herself I’d drugged her and she was hallucinating the whole thing.”
“Rafe, I’m sorry.” Ruby pried one of his hands from the steering wheel and held it in her own. She pressed kisses to the back and to the palm until Rafe’s body relaxed.
“I should have left her alone after that.” His voice was rough and quiet. Endless trees flew past the windows and the road curved in front of them. “But I was a selfish bastard. I led my father right to her. I should have never?—”
“Don’t.” Ruby squeezed his hand and he tore his eyes from the road to glance at her. “What your father did is on his soul, not yours.”
His jaw clenched as he stared at the road ahead of them.
“I’m not her. This is different,” she told him.
He brought her hand to his lips this time, his breath warm across her knuckles when he spoke. “I know.”
This was different, but would it be enough?
They drove the rest of the way in comfortable silence, broken only by Ruby’s casual questions about his life.
It was hard at first, talking about the past, like the words were stuck somewhere inside him.
But Ruby just kept digging. She was like those archeologists who painstakingly brush the dust off dinosaur bones.
Patiently working until the whole thing is revealed.
He told her about never knowing his mother and growing up with Theo’s instead. About his father’s expectations for him, about almost leaving the pack even before Scarlet died. None of it fixed anything, but he felt better, lighter just telling her.
He still didn’t know what to do about Ruby possibly being his Mate and he couldn’t bring himself to confess that piece of the puzzle, but God, it felt good to have her listen and still want to be near him.
Maybe she’d been telling the truth the whole time.
Maybe she wasn’t scared of him. He let a tiny sliver of hope work its way into his heart.
It was barely an hour drive from Maple Hollow to the trail that would lead them into the current pack lands.
But by the time he was pulling the truck onto the gravel patch on the side of the road, the autumn sun was already dipping below the tree line.
They should have just waited until tomorrow to come, left early and gotten to his brother and back before the sun even set, but he’d been impatient, desperate to get away, to escape his feelings for Ruby.
Clearly, that was going well.
“So, what’s the plan?” she asked as he parked.
“We’re going to have to camp here tonight and then hike in tomorrow.
It’s only five miles but we won’t make it before dark.
” When he’d made this plan, he figured he would shift and run the rest of the way, but he wasn’t having Ruby traipsing through the woods at night.
Even though she used to do it all the time.
But not for five miles and not headed straight into his brother’s territory.
Ruby’s eyes widened. “A five-mile hike? You clearly think I’m in better shape than I am.”
He couldn’t help his grin. “Your shape is perfect.”
Color crept up her neck into her cheeks. He shouldn’t take such pleasure in that. Especially not when he had no intention of fucking her. But maybe another taste wouldn’t hurt…
“And what happens when we get there?” Ruby’s question tore him away from thoughts of how delicious she was.
“Uh?… not sure.” He’d been so determined to leave, to find another way to protect Ruby, a way that didn’t directly involve him, that he hadn’t really thought this plan through.
“Well…” Ruby leaned toward him, crowding him in the tiny truck cab. “I was thinking we could see if your brother has any thoughts about what Lena’s visions mean.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Why not? I thought that was why we were going to see him.”
“I want to find out what he knows about Highlanders in our territory.”
“But you don’t want to tell him that Lena is a seer?”
Rafe swallowed a growl. The idea of telling his brother about any of this was turning his stomach. He must have been insane to think Knox could help them. He didn’t want to tell Knox anything he didn’t have to.
“As much as I hate to admit it, my brother has pull around here. He’s the Alpha. If something is going on, he’ll know about it.” He would decide how much to tell Knox later. Maybe they could get the information they needed without ever letting his Alpha brother know about Lena’s powers.
Ruby watched him as he spoke.
“He tried to kill you.”
“Yes.”
“Will he do it again?” she asked, fear threading in between her words. And the shortsightedness of his actions slammed into him. He’d brought her here. He’d led her directly into danger. Again. Just so he could keep her near. Just because she asked.
He swallowed hard, once, twice, until he could finally breathe. “I don’t think so.” Rafe tried to sound confident in his answer, but now that they were this close, he realized he had no idea how his brother would react to seeing him. Or any other pack members for that matter.
But he didn’t think Knox would hurt them. Not now that Devon was gone.
Ruby nodded like it was settled. “Okay. We’ll suss him out first, but let’s try to find something we can use to help Lena.”
“We will.”
“Thanks, buddy.” She smirked and clapped him on the shoulder as she said it, the word and the gesture combining in an awful gesture of friendship. Buddy? What the hell just happened?
His idiotic behavior from the night before came rolling back to him. He made her come and then he’d rejected her. He’d run away. No wonder she was acting like they were just friends now. What the hell did he expect?
It was what he’d wanted. For Ruby to stay away from him, for her to never find out she was his Mate, for her to be safe.
But God, that word, that nickname: buddy .
It was something you called an acquaintance, a neighbor whose name you always forgot.
An essential part of him curled up and died at the thought of being Ruby’s buddy.
His gaze raked over her as she sat beside him in the truck.
Ruby’s jeans were no less erotic than her usual skirts, her lush thighs and ass filling them completely.
She looked delicious. Friends sometimes go down on each other, right?
He was an idiot and he had no idea what to do next, although his cock had some very strong opinions on the matter.
Any half-hearted plans he made last night to keep away from her were rapidly slipping through his grasp.
“Now what?” Ruby met his gaze with a smile.
He had no fucking idea.