Chapter Seventeen #2
He raced after Meredith as she followed Sage’s scent.
Meredith was small and swift, but his longer legs allowed him to catch up with her.
She managed to elude his snapping jaws. After several close attempts after which she sped up and put more distance between them, Matt stopped trying to snag her tail.
Targeting his bite forced him to slow down.
Instead, he concentrated on keeping pace, planning to overtake her when the opportunity presented itself.
Meredith caught up with Sage all too soon. Matt watched in horror as she launched herself at Sage’s back and knocked her to the ground. But he was only seconds behind, bowling into Meredith, knocking her off his mate.
Unfortunately, his forward momentum caused him to roll off Meredith instead of holding her captive. As soon as Meredith righted herself, she went after Sage again. Close enough to be effective this time, he clamped onto her tail.
Sage scrambled quickly before bounding to her feet and backing away.
He wanted to tell her to run, but he was a wolf and thus incapable of speech.
Also, he had a mouth full of fluffy wolf tail.
Meredith yipped and growled and fought to escape his grip.
He bit down harder and yanked, dragging Meredith away from Sage, tossed her aside, sending her sprawling behind him.
He pinned her while she remained prone. She fought him, but his greater bulk gave him the advantage.
He went in for the kill, his teeth at her throat.
He didn’t want to kill her, and he especially didn’t want to kill her in front of Sage.
But Meredith gave him no other choice. Today proved that Sage would never be safe as long as Meredith lived.
Meredith yelped and struggled, but he didn’t let up.
A gun fired behind him, the loud bang echoing through the trees. Sage screamed. A quick glance at her assured him that she was fine.
“Get off her,” a male voice ordered.
Matt growled, refusing to release his prey. Patrick stumbled forward, one blood-soaked hand clutched at his side, the other aiming a gun at his head. “Off,” he ordered again, changing his aim to point at Sage.
Furious, Matt released Meredith. He shifted to his human form and moved to stand between Patrick and Sage. Meredith gained her feet and shook herself off. “How can you still defend her? After all she’s done.” He gestured to the wound in Patrick’s side.
“I’m not here to defend her,” Patrick said, this time shifting the aim of the gun to Meredith. “I’m here to do what I should have done years ago. Go on. Take your mate home. I will handle this.”
Keeping his eyes on Meredith, Matt put his arm around Sage and backed them out of the area. Meredith growled and lunged at them, but Patrick grabbed her by the scruff and gave her a rough shake. When Patrick and Meredith were no longer visible, Matt scooped Sage up into his arms and began to run.
“I can walk.”
“I know, but I need to hold you right now.”
“Your clothes—”
“I’ll go back for them later when—” Three shots sounded. Then the thud of a body hitting the ground. Matt jolted, but he didn’t slow, his priority getting his mate home to safety.
When they reached the house, he continued to hold her as he checked all the rooms. He didn’t expect to find anyone in their house.
Only Owen remained unaccounted for amongst the O’Connor pack members, but Matt didn’t think Owen had a reason to harm them.
Like most of the pack, they were sick of dealing with Meredith’s shit and were quickly growing increasingly dissatisfied with Patrick’s leadership.
Once he was satisfied that the house was empty, he locked the door and leaned against it.
Sage patted his chest. “Matt, you can put me down now.”
He dropped his head and buried his face in her fragrant halo of curls. She wore it out today in an angelic array of inky spirals for their wedding. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. If she’d hurt you—”
“Stop it. She didn’t hurt me. But even if she had, it wouldn’t be your fault. You didn’t encourage her to come here and do this. You didn’t ask her to attack you.”
“But if I’d been a better judge of character, seen what she was—”
“It seems to me as if she was obsessed with you. I don’t know if there was anything that you could have done to avoid what happened. You see the lengths she went to in order to get to you.”
Matt shuddered. “She killed her brother.” He set her down finally but didn’t let her go far. He ran his hands over her shoulders and down her arms.
“I’m fine,” she assured him as he turned over her hands.
Her palms were reddened and dirty. Matt brushed the debris from her skin and began working on her clothing when there was a knock at the door. He tensed.
Sage peeped around him. “It’s Patrick.”
Matt growled. He positioned Sage behind him.
“You’re naked,” she reminded him.
“He’s a shifter. He won’t care.” Plus, if he needed to shift to defend them, he would have the advantage of already being undressed.
“Good grief,” she whispered. “Thank goodness the neighbors don’t have a good view of the house.”
As he swung open the door, Sage dashed into the den and snatched a throw off the couch then wrapped it around his waist. She clasped it together at the small of his back to keep it from falling to the floor. “Patrick,” he gritted out by way of greeting.
Patrick bowed his head in deference. “I only came to…try to explain…and to apologize.”
Matt shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ve had enough of your tired apologies, but if you have some form of explanation, I’ll allow you five minutes to give it.” He didn’t move aside or welcome Patrick into the house. If he wanted to talk, he could damn well do it on the porch.
Patrick nodded. “I understand. And given your feelings for your mate, I hope you will understand how driven Meredith felt to replace hers. I know what it is to lose a mate. My mate…she….” He stopped and shook his head.
“Meredith lost her mate at an early age. They were just teenagers—too young to exchange mating bites. We all thought they were so fortunate to find each other so early, but before the year was out, he was killed by hunters.” He shook his head.
“Meredith was never the same. After a few years, she seemed to perk up. We thought she was doing better. But then we found out that she was stalking a boy who resembled her mate. We managed to save him. We sent her away and while she was gone, the boy and his family relocated. Years passed. We stopped watching her so closely. She started dating. Though it wouldn’t be her fated mate, she could find another mate.
The bond isn’t as strong, but she had a chance to be happy.
He was a werewolf. They mated. Then she started disappearing.
She got a job out of town. He followed her eventually.
I don’t know what happened, but he came back a few days later, packed all his belongings and left the pack. We never heard from him again.”
Matt’s hands fisted. “She had a mate. All along. She had a mate! Why didn’t anyone mention this? Why were you trying to get me to come back with you—”
“Because she was calmer when you were around. After you left, she became nearly feral. It was impossible to contain her.”
Sage stroked his back, silently supporting him. “Where is her mate? Why didn’t you call him and ask him for help?”
“We can’t find him. Perhaps he found out about you and that’s why he left.” Patrick shrugged. “But he’ll feel what happened here today. He’ll be free to mate again.”
Matt grunted. “And her body? You’re not going to leave her in the woods, are you?”
“No. We’ll take her home for a proper burial.”
Matt nodded. He indicated Patrick’s bloody shirt. “Need a bandage?” Sage attempted to peep around him, but he shifted so that he remained between her and Patrick.
He shook his head. “It’s healing.” Patrick lifted his shirt.
He swiped at the blood to reveal a wound that was no longer bleeding.
“Look, I know that you don’t want another apology, but I…
.” He pressed his lips together. “You deserve an explanation. I viewed Mack and Meredith as my own children. After the death of my mate, there was no one else for me. I sympathized with Meredith. I see now that I let her take advantage of our familial tie to the detriment of my pack. Owen is one of the few pack members I have left.”
Despite the trouble Patrick’s inaction caused him, Matt found himself sympathetic to his plight. He understood loss. “I can’t tell you how you should have handled this. I am sorry that it ended this way.”
Patrick nodded. “Me, too.” He turned and trotted down the stairs.
Matt closed and locked the door behind him.
Then he turned and pulled Sage into his arms, holding her tight, grateful to have her in his life and beyond happy that she hadn’t been hurt.
He buried his face in her fragrant curls and inhaled.
“Maybe we should have a real wedding ceremony to replace the memory of today.”
“No. Not unless you want to have one. The day is not over. Their day had a tragic end. Ours did not.” She released her hold on the blanket at his waist, and it slid to the floor. “Take me to bed?” She ran her hands down his back and cupped his ass.
Growling, he bent and scooped her up. “My pleasure.”