6. Rafe
CHAPTER SIX
RAFE
“ W ere you following me?”
Madison twisted around—or tried to. The iron grip I had on her upper arm hampered the outrage she clearly wanted to unleash.
“It’s a small town,” I seethed. A light shove got her trudging up the steps to the pack house. “I know the comings and goings of wolves in my territory.”
And just that, it seemed.
Tara sent a text when the siblings left our little neighborhood that morning. Elise called me on Orion’s behalf, shouting at him to watch the road with equal annoyance as telling me about a stranger hiking down Mill Road.
But the woman coating the air with the sour scent of indignation? The details were scant. Twenty-five, a member of a pack struggling to provide for its members. Surface level likes and dislikes meant to entice on a dating profile.
Mine.
I swallowed back my wolf’s possessive snarl and pictured a whole damn room lit up with caution lights and warning signs. I knew even less about the brother, and nothing but the scent of the one who’d had them both cowed in their seats.
I didn’t want to imagine the what-ifs and fuck-mes of walking into that diner five minutes later. The humans of Mill Creek were happy to continue pretending we didn’t exist. As much as I hated the immediate quieting anytime my pack walked into the few places still open, I could live with the holdover fear of Marcus’s rule and a heaping dose of not-my-business.
But they’d done nothing wrong. Any of their deaths would be another mark against me, a sign of my failure to secure my borders.
I marched Madison to my office and shut the door with a decisive click. She whirled to face me the moment I let her loose, eyes flashing as her chin hit that stubborn angle that teased out my inner beast.
“I want to know what trouble you brought to my pack.” I advanced on her, backing her up with every step. “Now.”
Her eyes flickered with surprise when she bumped against the desk, but she recovered quickly and crossed her arms over her chest. “Why? So you can hand us over to Bowen and wash your hands of the problem?”
A growl rumbled in my chest. “In case it’s escaped your notice, I don’t take kindly to threats against my pack. Or against my mate.”
“I’m not your mate,” she snapped. “I’m a business transaction. A warm body to keep your bed and bear your pups.”
The words stung, even though I’d thought the same damn thing when I filled out that application. But hearing them from her lips, laced with bitterness and disdain, ignited a fury I couldn’t tamp down.
I leaned in close, caging her between my arms. Her scent—night blooming flowers and sea spray—filled my lungs, stoking the primal need to claim her, mark her, make her mine in truth. My wolf clawed at my control, desperate to assert dominance over the female who dared to challenge me.
With a growl, I reined in the impulse and shoved away from the desk. Back stiff and fingers itching to take my frustrations out on that fucker—Bowen—I stalked to the flimsy bar cart and sloshed whiskey into two glasses. I knocked mine back with a gulp, relishing the burn and trying to find my composure.
It was still mostly missing when I poured a second serving.
“Madison.” My voice was low, controlled. I held the drink out to her, then set it at her side with a hard clink when she didn’t take it. “Answer the question.”
“I’m not sure I heard anything but demands.”
A muscle ticked in my jaw. I fought the urge to slam my fist against the desk and roar my frustration. Instead, I took a measured sip from my own glass and settled into a lean against the door.
She wasn’t the only one familiar with the dark arts of stubbornness.
Madison’s lips pressed into a thin line. For a long moment, the only sound was the ticking of the antique clock on the mantel. Then, with a huff, she sat on the edge of the desk.
“It’s Kai’s fault,” Madison muttered, picking at a loose thread on her sleeve. Her gaze darted away, fixating on the clock’s swinging pendulum. “He got involved with Shauna, the daughter of our alpha. I don’t know why; they’d hardly ever looked at each other before. He’s just... reckless at the best of times.”
She shook her head, a wry twist to her lips. I sipped my drink and waited impatiently for the rest of the story.
“Only, Shauna was promised to Bowen. An arranged mating, to keep his Black Sands pack from murdering us all in our beds.” Madison’s fingers clenched, knuckles white against the dark fabric. “When Bowen found out about Kai and Shauna, he was pissed. Raging.”
She said the words with bite, like everything else from her lips, but her scent betrayed her. Real fear and heavy worry leaked through the bitterness and anger.
I swirled my drink and took another sip. Waited. Strangled my inner wolf to keep him from galloping off to annihilate any and all who contributed to those buried emotions and posturing.
“Bowen demanded Kai’s head for ‘ruining’ his newest mate.” Madison reached for her glass and emptied it in a single swallow. “And for me to take Shauna’s place. As retribution.”
Understanding dawned, cold and unsettling. “So, you told him you were already promised to someone else. To me.”
Madison’s silence was answer enough. I cocked my head, watching her. My wolf paced, agitated, torn between fury at the deception and a fierce, primal need to protect what was mine.
“And you thought, what? That you could just show up here and everything would be fine? That I’d just accept you and your brother, no questions asked?”
“I didn’t have a choice! Bowen is a monster!” Her voice cracked, her composure slipping. “He would’ve killed Kai. Killed me. Kai was supposed to escort me here and then disappear. I could safely say I had no idea where he went while staying under the protection of another’s mate mark. He understands property.”
She spat the last word like it was poison.
I dragged a hand down my face, exhaustion settling heavy on my shoulders. This was a mess. A dangerous, complicated mess that threatened everything I’d worked to build. Everything I was responsible for.
But beneath the anger, beneath the fear, there was something else. A flicker of admiration for the woman in front of me. For her bravery, her loyalty. Her clever, stubborn will to survive.
Madison’s eyes flashed, her posture defensive as she squared her shoulders. “So, there it is. You can send us on our way now.”
The words were sharp, biting, but I caught the drop of vulnerability in her gaze, the slight tremble in her voice. She expected rejection and anticipated being cast aside like she was nothing.
Like hell I would.
Like hell my wolf would allow anything close.
“I’m not sending you anywhere,” I said with a slow shake of my head.
Surprise flittered over her features, followed by a wary confusion. She opened her mouth, no doubt ready to argue, but I held up a hand to stop her.
“I was never meant to be alpha, you know,” I admitted. Madison watched me approach, her posture still guarded, but there was a flicker of curiosity in her eyes. “It should be Elise. She was raised for it. Fates know she has the balls for it. But she refused when her father crossed too many lines and paid the price.”
A slight narrow, a tiny tilt of her head. I plucked her glass from her toying hands and turned to refill our drinks. “That shit you saw with Elise? I don’t have a taste for it. I’m a fixer, a problem-solver. I try to find the bloodless compromise before anything else.”
I took a sip, savoring the burn, before turning and holding out her glass. Madison’s fingertips brushed mine as she took the drink. Warmth tingled up my arm. My wolf stirred, suddenly far too aware of the proximity to our mate.
Our very unclaimed mate.
“The old ways—like Bowen, like the alpha before me—they’re not sustainable in the modern world.” I gestured to the window, to the trees and the dying town of Mill Creek beyond. “You have eyes. You can see the state of this place. A gold rush town that refused to open roads to their neighbors, and look what it got them. They choked off their own opportunities to thrive. That’s what our kind is facing if we don’t adapt.”
Madison’s brow furrowed, but she remained silent, listening.
“The humans are encroaching, whether we like it or not. We’re running out of space and shadows to hide in, and let’s face it, war with humans wouldn’t be war at all. We would be massacred.” I stepped closer, my gaze locked with hers. “When I became alpha, I vowed to protect this pack. And that includes you, Madison. Both you and brother.”
Her eyes snapped to mine. Suspicion swirled in her scent. Unease. Sour lack of trust.
What she hid in her straight spine and lifted chin, she couldn’t hide in her eyes. Fierce determination battled with anxiety. Desperation. And maybe just the smallest bit of hope.
“Why?” she whispered, her voice barely audible. “Why would you protect us? You don’t even know us.”
“Because that dipshit’s mindset has no place in my territory,” I answered, a snarl on my tongue. My wolf ached to sink fangs into him, wanted to make the payback slow and deadly. “Because I won’t tolerate threats to my pack.”
I breathed deep, forcing myself to calm. “Or to my mate.”
The tension between us stretched taut, electric, alive. I fought the urge to bridge the gap and close that distance.
My wolf paced restlessly, urging me to claim her, to make her mine in every way possible. But I held back, knowing that trust had to be earned, not demanded.
Madison searched my face, as if trying to gauge the sincerity of my words. I met her gaze unflinchingly, willing her to see the truth in my eyes.
This claiming was born of necessity, not choice. A part of me thrilled at the thought of making her mine, of keeping her safe. But another part, the rational, human part, knew the guilt that would come with it. The knowledge that I’d had a part in forcing her hand.
The choice was stark: let Bowen have her or fight for what was right.
There was only one path forward. Only one my wolf would allow.
Because I wasn’t afraid of what happened when the bloodless options failed. I would kill to protect what was mine.
Madison was mine.
“Okay,” she breathed. “Okay. I accept.”