Chapter 4
ADAM
Still dressed in my work clothes and reeking of tonight’s special, I brushed snow off the porch swing and sat down. The frozen chains creaked in distress, but I paid them no mind.
I pulled up my contacts and clicked on Gracie’s number. It went straight to voicemail. My stomach sank. Shit. That wasn’t a good sign. Was Fletcher right? Had Sky really done the unthinkable?
A few minutes later, though, a text rang in. I’m at the hospital. What do you need?
Hospital. Did that mean Xan was alive? I immediately texted her back: Is Xan okay?
The doctors say he’ll make a full recovery, and the baby is doing well, all things considered, came her reply, and I released the breath I didn’t know I was holding. It plumed out of me in an icy puff.
Fuck. Thank god. Xan was alive. He was okay. Sky wasn’t a murderer.
I’m sorry this happened, Gracie.
Yes, but how did you find out?
I grimaced, knowing she wouldn’t like the answer to that question. I replied anyway: Sky.
My phone was silent after that. I sat there in the cold, watching the snow drift down around the porch to blanket the ground.
Our house sat back from the road a ways, off a long gravel drive, nestled in the woods, so it was always peaceful, but tonight, the quiet felt like an echo. I could hear my pulse thumping between my ears. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.
Ten minutes later, my phone rang, startling me from my thoughts. When I answered, Gracie’s voice came over the line, cold as ice. “Where is he?”
Something about the way she said it made the hair at the nape of my neck stand on end. My wolf’s hackles rose, his ears and tail standing to attention. “Sky?” I asked. “He’s passed out on the couch. I—”
“You listen to me, Adam Rose,” she all but snarled, and I could practically feel the acid on her tongue, hissing against my skin.
“I don’t want that mongrel anywhere near my son or my grandson.
In fact, I want him out of my pack. Take him for a drive and drop him off three towns from here.
I don’t care what you do with him, but he needs to leave Rubydawn—and Greymercy. For good.”
My heart nearly stopped in my chest. Was she for real? Our Alpha, the leader of our pack, the one who was supposed to protect us, wanted me to abandon Sky in the middle of nowhere like an unwanted stray?
She continued on. “I know your mate is soft on him, and I know he’s your employee, but I warned you. He’s not safe, or sane, for that matter. He attacked Xan in cold blood. If it hadn’t been for Xan’s heavy winter coat, it would’ve killed both him and the baby.”
I clenched my hand into a fist. “Gracie—”
“No. I don’t care to hear it. I could’ve lost my son tonight, Adam.” Her voice quivered, betraying her true feelings in that moment. “Because that Omega is out of his mind. His energies are broken, and all the help in the world isn’t going to fix him.”
“What about River,” I countered. “He stabilized, didn’t he?”
Her laugh was humorless, barely a huff of a sound. “River got lucky. He bonded with Xan, and their magic attuned to one another. Xan is the Omega to River’s Alpha energy now, which is probably why Sky lost his damn mind.”
I frowned, rubbing my temple. I thought about it for a moment. “You don’t think Sky could achieve the same calm if he found an Alpha?”
Gracie scoffed. “From the sound of it, the only Alpha Sky wants is his own damn brother.”
I groaned under my breath. That was the gist I’d gotten too, but to just abandon Sky somewhere? To take him and dump him outside of city limits? That was too cruel a punishment. He’d been through too much already.
I thought of Fletcher. What if someone had done that to him? Hell—they had. The orphanage had kicked him out onto the streets at eighteen, leaving him homeless and alone. It was fate that we met when we did.
I didn’t regret a moment of it.
Something unfurled inside me, something I wasn’t quite sure what to name. The words came tumbling out of me before I really had the chance to think them over.
“Gracie,” I began. “What if I vouched for Sky?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, what if I kept him here, with myself and Fletcher, at all times? Always accompanied by one of us. I know of good psychiatric shifter services that would take him on and get his issues sorted out. He really needs help,” I said.
“He tried to kill himself tonight. Fletcher reached him just in time.”
Gracie was quiet.
I continued. “He told us he killed Xan. He knows that he’s a monster for what he did, but he does feel remorse.
” I took a deep breath. Held it. Let it seep out between my parted lips.
“Look, Gracie. Fletcher is attached to him, and I feel like if I don’t at least try to give Sky a second chance, to get him in a better headspace so that he can find a suitable mate, then I’ve failed as Fletcher’s Alpha. Please let me do this?”
Silence greeted me. Then, after a moment, she sighed. “I don’t like it,” she admitted. “If he so much as comes near my family, or steps foot on my property, I will kill him. Make that very clear.”
“I understand,” I said.
“But… I’ll allow it. For you. But let this be a warning to you: Keep a close eye on him, Adam, or he’ll destroy your life as well.” My throat knotted at the emotion in her voice. Raw pain and fresh anger combined into a powerful cocktail, threatening to knock me down flat.
“Thank you, Gracie,” I told her. “Tell River and Xan that I wish them both well, and congratulations on their bundle of joy. Goodbye.”
I hung up and, for a long moment, I stared at the cell phone gripped in my now-trembling hand.
What had I done? Had I just dug myself a grave, six-foot under? Or was there truly hope for Sky DuPree?
I guess we’d find out.