12. Chapter 12
Chapter 12
Gage
“Take your fucking hands off me or lose them,” I snarled, slamming my whiskey onto the bar and standing.
I intended to be polite, or at least, I didn’t plan to go feral on the human woman now recoiling from me. Her type was common in places like this, the kind of woman even Kai would avoid. They wanted a walk on the wild side . There were plenty of names for humans that chased after shifters. None of them were flattering.
For good reason. My ex-fiancé was one of those women. She claimed she wanted true love, the kind that went beyond human words. Something unbreakable. A bond.
Turned out she just wanted the perks of having a shifter on a short leash, compelled to protect and provide for her while she fucked around.
I rolled my shoulders, reclaiming my drink, and trying to be subtle as I scanned the bar for the ever-present thorn in my side.
Damn, my brother was right. I was a tactless asshole.
A brooding teenager, sitting in the corner and straight up ignoring my closest friends because they invited Abigail to join us. At least they thought it was because I hated her and not because my wolf was a pining mess, and I couldn’t stand another second of his persistent whining when we were close but not close enough.
I was pissed when she returned my check, not only because my every instinct told me to make her life safer and easier but because she was making a stupid decision out of pride. Just because no one had bothered her out at Deer Base didn’t mean they wouldn’t. There was poor cell reception and emergency services were a good thirty minutes away. What if she had car troubles? Ran into an unfriendly shifter? Tripped on a root and broke her leg?
I might have overreacted to her rejection, spending the day holed up in my office and outright ignoring her. Well, pretending to ignore her because the reality was that she was the only thing I could think about. To the point of insanity. I couldn’t focus when she was on the other side of my desk, the animal in me writhing to get closer to her and stealing my attention from the very important work I was doing.
When she was on the other side of my office door, ignoring me as much as I was ignoring her? I couldn’t think straight enough to type in my computer password, much less do a remote setup of an advanced security system for Cargill’s temporary home in Issaquah.
The house was nice. Four bedrooms, a massive porch with an unobstructed view of Mount Rainier in all her glory. There were acres of forest surrounding the estate, lush old growth that had been untouched for decades.
Perfect place for an ambush. Perfect windows for someone to look through. Levi tried to convince him to find a place in the city, but Cargill stood firm. Suspicious as fucking hell.
I was this close to unlocking whatever secret motive Cargill had for hiring us. I could feel the answers right at my fingertips. I was just missing something.
And I wasn’t going to figure it out with my Abigail problem front and center. I wasn’t going to find Mackenna, or build a network of unaffiliated shifters, or contribute to The Initiative because all I could do was think about her.
I couldn’t get Levi to fire her, even if I wanted to. He was attached to her, the whole team was, and they would give me hell if I suggested replacing her now. She’d been at Silver Bullet for only six weeks, and she’d already fitted herself neatly into our rhythms. She understood the twenty-four-seven security jobs and how to best prepare the guys. She was excellent with even the most pain-in-the-ass clients and somehow managed to sound like an angel while standing her ground with pissed off CEOs and old money assholes that were used to getting their way.
I had to admit, she was good at this job. She anticipated needs and organized where I hadn’t even realized chaos was leading to inefficiency. She even remembered how everyone took their coffee.
It was stupid, and I hated that it made me feel all warm and fuzzy when she set a freshly brewed drink on my desk every morning.
Speaking of my Abigail problem…where the hell was she?
I crossed the room, hooking my foot around the leg of a chair from a neighboring table and sliding it over to sit next to Ezra. None of them spared me a glance, continuing their conversation and giving me a taste of my own medicine.
When there was a pause Ezra finally turned to me, smiling, and saying, “He deigns to grace us with his presence.”
“His majesty joins the lowly peasants,” Kai added. “Should we grovel?”
“He’s the one that’s going to be groveling…” My brother muttered over the mouth of his beer bottle.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” My plan was to sit patiently and wait for Abigail to come back from the bathroom—that had to be where she was—before making a swift exit.
Apparently, I couldn’t wait that long. Before Levi had a chance to answer I asked, “Where’s Abigail?”
The hair on the back of my neck stood up as Kai’s lips curved into a feline smile. “Y’know, she just bailed. Went to get another drink, saw you and some blonde chick getting cozy at the bar, and decided to call it a night. Isn’t that weird ?”
“She didn’t even say bye,” Ezra complained.
I stared between the three of them, rage pumping blood to my face so quickly my vision blurred. “You let her leave? Drunk and alone on a Friday night?”
“She’s a grown woman,” Levi said calmly. “It’s not our job to babysit her. Abby knew she could ask if she needed one of us to walk her back to her car.”
A thread of suspicion wormed into my mind, but I couldn’t follow it, my thoughts too muddled by panic. This wasn’t the worst part of Seattle, not by a long shot, but it still wasn’t a place I wanted my mate walking alone in the dark.
I froze. My…mate? I hadn’t referred to her as that since the first day we met, when I realized what she was.
No, Abigail wasn’t my mate. She was a potential.
She was potentially going to make me lose my shit.
“Goddammit!” I left to the sound of murmuring and laughter at my back, my middle finger tossed over my shoulder. I didn’t see what those assholes thought was so funny about letting her get mugged or worse because they didn’t feel like leaving their drinks unfinished.
The rain moistening the air heightened the worst of the city scents, and it took a moment for me to pick out Abigail’s delicate trail mingled with the motor oil and garbage. I followed my nose left, away from the office and where her car was parked. Why did she go this way?
Only ten steps in and I could make out two silhouettes in the fog. They were between streetlights. There was a significant height difference, making it clear which one was Abigail huddled against the wall of a brick building.
“I’m sorry,” I barely made out her words through the roaring in my ear as I closed the distance between us at a sprint. “I don’t think I can help you.”
There was a quaver in her voice, and I didn’t have to hear the erratic pounding of her heart to know she was scared. I just knew , as if I could feel her fear echoing through me.
Echoing through the bond.
Humans were so fragile. How did they go about their lives without being in a constant state of anxiety? Anything could break them. Do irreparable damage. Kill them.
The shifter looming over Abby had his face covered with a hood. I wasn’t sure how I knew he was a shifter because his scent didn’t betray him. His scent didn’t betray anything, leaving this odd blank where the olfactory signature that was unique to him should be.
I increased my pace, charging them with every intention of murdering his ass. I would figure out who he was after he was dead.
No one blocked their scent for shits and giggles. He was trying to hide his identity and doing a damn good job of it.
The stranger slipped two fingers into his hood, pulling it back and revealing his face to Abby. He murmured something, too quiet for even my keen ears to hear, then he turned tail, running far faster than a human was capable of.
There was a familiarity to his gait, the shadowed outline of his features, how he hunched his shoulders as he ran…I couldn’t place it. Was he in the file of shifters I’d flagged as potential dangers to Cargill? It didn’t make sense. I wouldn’t recognize those details based on images and criminal records.
I stored whatever memory was trying to surface, concentrating one hundred percent on Abby as I shielded her with my body. The threat was gone but my wolf wouldn’t be satisfied until I’d made a cocoon out of myself, wrapping her safely in it. Without a scent, my mystery shifter could be lingering just out of sight, waiting for me to let my guard down.
I surrounded Abby with my back, sliding one hand behind me to press her firmly against the wall. A ballistic missile would have to blow me to bits to dislodge me from my position as her shield.
“Are you hurt? Did he touch you?” I couldn’t swallow the growl that garbled my words.
“Did you see his face?” Abby was panting, more stunned by my sudden appearance than she was by the stranger she’d been speaking to. “No. No! What’s going on?”
I didn’t answer her, my pupils widening to take in the invasive city lights and scan the shadows for hostile figures. As I did, I walked backwards, sliding Abby along the wall and back toward the bar. Reinforcements were down the block. Once she was safely inside and under my brothers’ protective watch, I could pursue my quarry and make good on my promise to end him.
Belatedly, I realized that Abby was talking again, her words growing more frantic. I tuned back to her voice in time to hear her squeak, the toe of her shoes catching in a crack on the concrete and sending her sideways. I whirled, catching her with both arms and meeting her eyes for the first time since she handed me that check.
They were crinkled, equal parts confused and exasperated. “ What’s going on? What are you doing?”
I blinked, trying to process five too many observations at once. Deep veins of red rimmed her brown eyes, making the color richer and more beautiful but also giving away the fact that she’d been crying. Did she lie about him touching her?
At the same time, I was distracted by how close we were. Wasn’t that a mind fuck? Too far away and she distracted me. Too close and she distracted me more. The night was cool, but her skin was warm. I could only tell because her shirt had three-quarter sleeves, leaving her exposed to the rain.
“Where the hell is your jacket? And why are you crying?”
Abby pushed away from me with an indignant huff, crossing her arms over her chest and scowling. “You can’t just answer questions with more, unrelated questions.”
I tried to take her arm and keep escorting her back to the bar, but it quickly turned into dragging as she dropped her weight into her legs. “Gage! I’m starting to freak out! Please, tell me what’s going on.”
“Did you know he was a shifter?”
She gave me a half decent growl, pursing her lips. “Yes.”
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
“Don’t you have a date waiting for you at the bar?”
I did a second scan, taking in the bloodshot eyes, forgotten jacket, and her walking the wrong direction. Then I remembered what Kai said, and I cursed myself. Abigail wouldn’t understand why the sight of me with another woman bothered her, only that it did. Immensely and more than was logical for two people that had only met a month ago. That was the unfortunate nature of the mating bond.
But wait, that didn’t add up. She was human . She shouldn’t be able to feel the bond. That was what the elders told me before Jenna and I were engaged.
Whatever happened, she was clearly upset by my actions. Which was what I wanted. Another way to create distance between us, to tear at the bond.
It felt horrible, and I hated myself more in that moment than I had in a long time. If the roles had been reversed, I would have beheaded a guy for touching her like that.
I still plan to when I find that hooded asshole.
My stomach curdled at the thought of her with another man. I could only imagine what she was feeling.
I glared at her, pissed that she made me feel guilty.
Internally, my wolf was more pissed, throwing a tantrum because he knew I’d done it on purpose. Not invited the woman over but allowed her to hover longer than I should have. Longer than I wanted her to.
Because I was trying to convince Abigail—and the rest of them—that I was completely and totally unaffected by her. Revisiting the night now that my mind was clear—clear-ish, considering I was half a foot away from my mate and desperately trying not to touch her—I could see exactly what Kai was doing. Ezra and my asshole brother too because he lived to torment me above all else.
They knew I was interested in Abigail. That’s why they were antagonizing me all evening.
I hadn’t done a great job of proving them wrong.
Shit, shit, double fucking shit. What was I going to do? Ignoring it and her wasn’t going to make the bond go away, and I had a feeling if it did, I would be even more fucked.
Rock, meet hard place.
Rock, meet Gage fucking Griffin. Supernatural TNT, one match away from a massive explosion.
I looked back to Abby, still impatiently waiting for my explanation. TNT, meet match.
As much as I was dreading it, I needed to make a call to Alaska. Tonight.
Arlo would know what to do, if I could get her to drop the idea that I just needed another round in a sweat lodge or to take up meditation. She could tell me how to release the bond, so it wasn’t swallowing me whole.
“She’s not my date,” I finally said, forcing myself to take a painful step back. “Never met that woman before, don’t intend to meet her again. I don’t like humans. Especially humans that invade my personal space.”
Her mouth opened and closed, obviously debating if she should be insulted or bring up the fact that I was constantly invading her personal space.
She doesn’t smell right. Needs more of my scent.
Yes, my wolf was very insistent that I rub my scent all over her every chance I got. She was clueless about scent marking, thankfully, or else the expression on her face would be much darker. Some humans saw shifter’s territorial behavior the same way they saw dogs pissing on fire hydrants. Not romantic or flattering.
Shit, no wonder the guys were messing with me. I was coating our office assistant in fuck off, it’s mine pheromones every chance I got.
Abby’s downturned bottom lip relaxed, turning into a bemused pout that made me want to lick it.
Focus, Gage. Focus, focus, focus.
“Now, it’s your turn to talk. What are you doing out here by yourself?”
“Going home.”
“Your car is that way,” I pointed.
“I don’t know the city well. I was going to pull my phone out for GPS before you showed up.”
I looked between her silky top and skirt. “Where’s your phone?”
Her eyes widened. “My jacket! My keys, too.” She placed her palms over her cheeks, covering her blush. “I guess I had more to drink than I thought.”
The guilt hardened in my gut, making the whiskey slosh uncomfortably. “You can’t do that shit. I don’t know what you’re used to, but this is not the city to walk around alone at night. Not with the job you do. Not with the people you know.”
“Am I in danger?”
I sucked air through my teeth, debating how honest to be. “Maybe. That guy you were talking to? He was covering his scent.”
“How do you know?”
I tapped the side of my nose. “Wolf shifter.”
“Duh.” She exhaled shakily, leaning her shoulders against the wall. “I’m guessing that’s a bad thing.”
I noticed goosebumps on her arm and took it, more gently than before, guiding her back toward the bar. “Let’s get you warm and I’ll explain better. I promise.”
Except I didn’t get the chance to explain. Levi came bursting into the night, cell phone pressed to his ear. Ezra and Kai came rushing after him, moving with the control of well-trained soldiers.
The vicious gleam in my brother’s eye told me everything I needed to know.
“There you are. Back to the office, now. ” He waved for us to follow, mumbling an affirmative into his phone.
“It’s Mason,” he explained as my legs pumped to keep up with him, still holding Abby by the arm and hauling her along with me. “Someone shot up Cargill’s house tonight.”