Chapter 7
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After dropping Rozi off at the B&B, I strolled into Quinn’s kitchen through the back door and saw everyone either seated or standing around the huge kitchen island. Talking ceased. All heads—Jasper, Mack, Emmett, Rhett, and Quinn—turned to stare at me.
“Well, well,” Jasper said with a shit-eating grin, raising his Elysium bottle in mock salute.
His eyes danced with that mischievous glint that had charmed half the women in the Ridge.
“Look who finally decided to show up. We were just discussing how I’m apparently going to be the last pack member to find his fated mate.
” He took a long drink and smirked, stretching lazily like the tiger he was.
“Which means more women for me while you all become domesticated. My dating app matches are about to skyrocket.”
Emmett’s beer sprayed across the counter as he choked mid-swallow. Mack’s hand shot out, a piece of turkey sailing through the air to smack Jasper squarely between the eyes. The tension in my shoulders eased a fraction as laughter rippled through the kitchen.
“Classy, asshole,” Rhett muttered, but he was fighting a smile.
“What? I’m just stating facts,” Jasper continued with exaggerated innocence. “You’re all mated now except for me.” He gestured vaguely in my direction. “I’m thinking my bachelor days just got extended.”
“Make me one of those sandwiches,” Emmett said to Mack, nodding at the impressive construction on the counter.
“Make your own,” Mack replied without looking up from his turkey slapping. “I’m not your mate.”
Quinn lined up six shot glasses, pouring BF Home-Brew into them. BF Home-Brew was a special, potent alcoholic concoction crafted by the Thornbern family for centuries, and I owned Thornbern Brewstillery, the proud maker of the brew.
I tossed back a shot before asking, “Stress eating?”
“Stress drinking,” Emmett corrected, emptying his shot glass. “Eating is just to keep us upright.” BF Home-Brew was the only alcohol that could get Others drunk.
“So,” Mack said, slapping turkey onto bread with military precision, his movements quick and efficient.
His eyes locked on mine without flinching.
“The doctor is your fated mate that you rejected.” Not a question.
A statement delivered with the blunt force of a hammer to the chest. He didn’t waste time with the preamble, never had.
“Yes,” I replied. “And the irony is, we never even exchanged names back then. Just recognized each other as mates before I walked away. When Quinn told me Dr. Rozi Dhahabu was coming to the Ridge, I had no idea she was the woman I’d abandoned in Kenya until I saw her photo.”
Jasper whistled low. “You rejected your fated mate without even knowing her name? That’s cold, even for you.”
“It’s why she didn’t recognize my name either,” I added, the shame burning through me all over again. “For years, she’s been haunted by a nameless wolf who walked away. Now we’re strangers with a history.”
After filling another glass, I downed the contents in one swallow, reveling in the burn as it went down.
The BF Home-Brew scorched my throat, actually managing to blur the edges of my consciousness.
My hands shook as I set down the glass, the tremors I could no longer hide betraying symptoms I couldn’t disguise.
I continued, “And her breakthrough research could save every unmated male with pre-feral symptoms in the Ridge.”
“The ultimate freedom,” Quinn said. “Like she said, safety without sacrifice.”
“Which is exactly why someone wants to kidnap her,” I said.
“Rozi’s research doesn’t just threaten pharmaceutical profits, it threatens complete control over shifter communities.
Her grandmother’s empire depends on keeping shifters partially disabled and completely dependent on treatments that steal half their soul. ”
“It doesn’t hurt that the doctor is beautiful,” Jasper said, and something in his voice made me look up sharply. “And controlled the town hall meeting like she was born to command alphas.”
The territorial growl that rumbled from my chest surprised everyone, including me. My hands clenched around the shot glass enough to threaten to break it.
“Easy, bro,” Quinn said. “Jasper’s just stating facts.”
“Facts that sound a little too appreciative,” I muttered, hating how possessive I sounded. All this time of separation and my wolf still considered her mine.
“Did you see how she handled Logan?” Mack added, slathering mustard on bread with deliberate focus. “No hesitation. Just moved in and fixed what was broken.”
“The question is whether the Ridge will let her do the same for our pre-feral cases,” Quinn said, his tone shifting to alpha-business mode.
“Even after she helped Logan, half the town still sees a Dhahabu and thinks of a pharmaceutical empire. The other half wants to kick her out of the Ridge on principle.”
I felt my jaw clench. “No one is fucking touching my fated mate.”
“Easy, Brody,” Emmett said, topping off my shot glass with a gentle smile that softened his features.
He squeezed my shoulder briefly, the gesture both supportive and grounding.
“We’re on the same side here. But Quinn’s right.
Tonight was just the opening act. Wait until word spreads about who she really is.
” He winked, adding, “Though, between you and me, I think the Ridge is more afraid of her than she is of them after that town hall display.”
“It gets worse,” Quinn said, his voice dropping to that authoritative tone that left no room for argument.
He placed both palms flat on the counter, shoulders squared like he was preparing for battle.
“After the town hall meeting, I got a text from the OIA. Intel says that Tabia is behind the upcoming attempt to kidnap her. And as alpha of this Ridge, I’m telling you right now, we’re not letting that happen in our territory. ”
“How much does Tabia know?” I asked.
“Enough,” Quinn replied grimly. “And remember that Dhahabu Pharmaceuticals supplies medications to half the shifter communities in North America. If Tabia cuts off supply, people die. She’s got leverage.”
“And she’ll use it,” I said, ice flooding my veins. “If Rozi’s research threatens her bottom line…”
“Things get messy and bloody,” Rhett said, his usual scowl deepening as he crossed his arms. “And when that happens, I’ll be there to clean it up. It’s what I do.” There was something in the way his jaw tightened that betrayed the protector beneath the gruff exterior.
Rozi was up against a woman who’d built her fortune on shifter suffering and who wouldn’t hesitate to eliminate her own granddaughter.
Protect, my inner wolf said through our mental connection. Guard our mate. Keep her safe from all threats. She is precious. Irreplaceable.
The territorial instinct was so strong it made my hands shake.
I reached for the bottle, my left hand betraying me with a violent tremor that splashed BF Home-Brew across the counter.
Cursing under my breath, I steadied the glass with my right hand and knocked it back in one desperate gulp, the burn doing nothing to still the growing chaos beneath my skin.
“Good thing Quinn assigned you as her security escort,” Jasper said, taking a massive bite of his sandwich.
He swallowed and continued with pragmatic efficiency, “Proximity protection. I’ve already started setting up digital surveillance around her lab and the B&B.
Motion sensors, video feeds routed to our secure server.
No one’s getting to her without us knowing.
” He shrugged as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “Figured you’d want the tech upgrade.”
“This shit is messy,” Emmett said. “Her grandmother is willing to sabotage and kidnap her granddaughter to protect her pharmaceutical legacy.”
“Speaking of messy,” Rhett said. “Ingrid came into the station today. Still wearing her tinfoil hat. Wanted to know how she could start a petition against the aliens causing pre-feral sickness.”
My shoulders dropped as Rhett spoke, a tension I hadn’t noticed suddenly uncoiling. The kitchen air seemed lighter somehow, the invisible weight pressing against my chest easing for the first time since I’d walked in. Emmett choked on his shot.
Mack started laughing so hard he dropped his sandwich fixings.
“Aliens?” I managed between my own laughter.
“Apparently, the electromagnetic frequencies from their ships are disrupting our defenses,” Rhett continued with perfect deadpan delivery. “She had charts. And graphs. Very analytical in a bizarre way.”
“More methodical than most pharmaceutical studies,” Jasper added dryly.
“There’s a rumor she’s hooking up with Chester the weasel,” Quinn said with a smirk.
“Talk about a match made in crazy,” Mack added, wiping tears from his eyes. “Two conspiracy theorists who love to complain and hear themselves talk.”
Our laughter bounced off the kitchen walls, echoing the countless nights we’d spent around this same counter before pre-feral symptoms and fated mates had complicated everything.
For a moment, I could almost forget the tremor in my hand, the clock ticking down on my humanity.
Like we were still the same pack of brothers who’d survived hell together instead of men watching one of their own slowly disintegrate.
But reality crashed back as Quinn’s expression sobered.
“Did you tell Rozi why you rejected her?” Quinn asked.
“Yes, but explaining doesn’t erase abandonment,” I replied, reaching for the bottle to pour another shot. “She’s hurt from the rejection, and frankly, I don’t blame her.”
“You were eighteen,” Emmett said, his voice softening with the compassion that made him the heart of our pack.
“And terrified of the mate bond after what happened with your father.” He passed me a plate with a perfectly assembled sandwich that I hadn’t asked for but somehow needed.
“Trauma doesn’t make the best relationship counselor. ”