Chapter 21
Devlin
What. In. The. Actual fuck?
I murdered this target spectacularly, and that stupid wraith isn't even here to see it. Three days of hard work completely wasted, the body reeks now, and everything is ruined. Ruined.
Fuck Havoc Knight and the horse he rode in on.
“Bastard doesn’t get to take anyone else away from me,” I grumble, making my way through town. First my brother, now he’s standing in the way of me bringing my wife home? Screw that, I’m not putting my life on hold because this inconsiderate jackass can’t be bothered to show up.
I wind up outside of her door and pull out my tools, picking the lock.
Not the most eloquent way to handle things, but after this week, I’m over being patient.
Kiara’s my mate. Thus, we belong together.
Everything else between that knowledge and my end goal is nothing but a formality, paperwork be damned.
Because I’m not sure how much longer I can come home to an empty house without losing my mind.
I was born to be Kiara’s husband. She’s just going to have to get on board sooner rather than later, because I’m sick of waiting.
The lock makes a soft snick as I finish picking it, and I stow my tools before letting myself inside. “Why’s it so fucking cold in here?” Not two seconds later, I’m tackled to the ground, my head smacking against the floor with a sickening thwack.
“Motherfucking ow.”
Wrapping my leg around the intruder’s, I twist and roll, drawing my knife and pressing it to his throat as I pin him beneath me.
“You must either be the stupidest fucking idiot in town, or you have a death wish. Regardless, you’re not leaving this house alive, but how much I make it hurt is up to you. Why her?”
Depending on his answer, yet another of my plans might be ruined.
If one of the countless criminal overlords I’ve pissed off over the years managed to track me down and have been watching me, we can’t stay here.
They clearly have no problem using my mate against me to get revenge. If it’s the wraith….
Well, I’ll be disappointed, to say the least. I thought he was better than that.
He’s always been big on containing collateral damage; it’s one of the reasons I get such a kick out of blowing shit up.
Hurting innocent women and children isn’t his MO, but it’s possible I crossed a line somewhere and finally drove him to his breaking point.
Fingers crossed it’s simply a dumbass that planned to rob the place, because if I have to abandon this homebase before my mate even gets a chance to see all of the upgrades I’ve been working on to prepare for her arrival, I’m going to be pissed.
Teeth bared, his amber eyes flash with murder.
He doesn’t say a word, only snarls, and a second later something coils around my ankle and yanks me off balance.
He capitalizes on the distraction and throws a punch to the side of my head that I narrowly manage to avoid, his fist clipping my chin.
But it’s enough to give him the upper hand, throwing me off and wrapping his hands around my throat, slamming my back against the wall and pinning my legs.
Adrenaline floods my system and I grin. It’s been a long-ass time since anyone actually gave me a run for my money.
Tapping into my power, I meld into the wall.
It’s the one piece of luck I was born with; an ability most people would kill for.
One that didn’t manifest until after my piece of shit parents threw me out on the street thinking I was a mystic dud.
Powerless. A worthless embarrassment on the family name.
By the time I got the hang of it enough to use it to my advantage and knew I could take care of him, I went back to free my little brother from those monsters, only to discover they’d sold him off to pay their debt to escape the bounty on their heads.
The one job that damned wraith never completed; actually paid the debt off for them, the fucking bastard. He saved my brother from those monsters, but let them go free. And left me behind to rot.
Fuck Havoc Knight, and fuck his guild. I didn’t want to be a Shadow Knight anyway. Too many rules.
Sliding up the wall, I release my camouflage and drop down on the shifter.
Between the claws and distinctly lion-like tail, I weigh the pros and cons of riling him up to goad him into fully shifting.
If we were outside, he’d have one hell of an advantage; my ability is far more effective on walls.
I could technically merge with the ground or a tree if it came down to it, but it takes a shit ton more energy and concentration to pull off.
Not really my strong suit. And if he managed to catch me head on, all it would take is one good swipe to do some serious damage.
In here, though? His size would work against him in the narrow hallway, and I have plenty of walls to merge with that work to my benefit.
But it also means Kiara’s at higher risk of getting hurt.
Collateral damage is my calling card, and I’m not really used to needing to fully flesh out plans of attack. Keeping a mate safe is far more complicated than I realized. I’m going to have to completely change my fighting style.
“As fun as this is, I can’t take any risks.
So if you’re not going to talk…” Arm banded across his neck from behind, I lock my legs around his waist so he can’t buck me off and adjust my hold on the knife.
He’s thrashing around too much to get a clean shot to the eye from this angle, and this blade really isn’t made for piercing skulls.
Neck’s the way to go, but it means loosening my hold, so I’ll need to be quick-
The flash of his wrist as he claws at my arm has me seeing red.
“Don’t hurt him!” My head whips to the side as my mate slides into the hallway on socked feet.
Instantly, I yank the blade away, but stay latched onto his back, ready to choke him out if he tries anything stupid.
I don’t know what’s going on, but I trust the light of my life.
If she wants the asshole alive, it’s for a reason, and I’m not about to start mated life out by sleeping on the couch.
Tempting though.
“What the fuck, Dev? You ghost me, then break into my house and attack my…. my friend?” She winces.
Friend, I could feel remorse for, but that mark on his wrist gives him away. This asshole is her fated mate.
He rejected her. My Kiara. What a fucking idiot.
My fist lands a solid hit on his temple, and his knees buckle. To his credit, he uses the momentum to his advantage and flips me off him, but I lean into the roll, ending up a few feet away in a crouch and spin, a genuine, bloody smile cutting across my face. “Not bad. But I’m better.”
He snarls, lunging for me, but the second Kiara throws herself at him, wrapping her arms around his waist, he goes stock still. “Z, that’s enough.”
Gods, she’s perfect. Nobody’s ever defended me before, but Kiara? She’s willing to dive headfirst into a fight with a shifter. For me.
Gonna marry that woman so hard.
“This the dumbass fated mate you told me about?”
She removes her grip on the shifter slowly, watching his reaction. When he doesn’t lunge for me again, but tucks her behind him while growling low in his throat and glaring daggers at me, she sighs softly. “No, this is the feral one. He's new.”
Instantly, the fight drains out of me. My girl knows the jackass-that-shall-not-be-named doesn’t deserve her.
All of my rage is directed at the idiot that wouldn’t know a good thing if it bit him on the dick, but it’s his loss.
So this new guy itching to tear my throat out to protect my girl?
I respect him all the more for it, even if I hate the idea of anyone standing between me and the light of my life.
He was looking out for her when I was distracted, and that opens up a whole new world of possibilities I hadn’t considered before.
If she’s fighting for him, there’s a reason. And I trust her.
“Do we like him?”
She doesn’t hesitate. “Yeah, we really do. He needs me, but honestly? I think I need him more.”
“That settles it, then.”
Like a flip is switched, I stop picturing his death.
He isn’t going to kill me; it’ll take a hell of a lot for him to come anywhere close.
But he is a threat, and I can respect his skill as much as I acknowledge that keeping a feral shifter around my mate poses a new set of problems that I’ll need to manage.
It’ll be tricky, but I do so love a challenge.
A cornered animal is unpredictable only as far as they’d do anything to survive. But they’re predictable in the respect that you know they’ll do anything to survive, so you can anticipate certain behavior.
“Alrighty then. Does he do any cool tricks, or is he more of an attack dog?”
She scowls. “He's not a dog.”
“Tomato, potato. Does he need special food?” Seriously, I’m not prepared for this. Keeping a mate alive is one thing, but all of her pets too?
You’ve got this, Dev. Just murder anything that looks at your girl or her pets longer than five seconds. Maybe three.
“You do realize he's a person, right?” the love of my life asks.
I shrug, rolling my knife between my fingers. “Only person I care about is you. Everything else is just part of the ride.”
Her eyes widen as she catches sight of the bandage on my wrist and breaks free to grab my arm, much to the shifter’s chagrin.
He rumbles his displeasure, staying a step behind her.
Every muscle is strung tight, ready to pounce if I so much as breathe wrong, but he’s well trained and seems to be following her lead for now.
“Are you okay? What happened?”
“Oh, this?” I peel off the bandage and grimace as the tape rips out my arm hair.