Chapter Ten #2
He let off a laugh that didn’t sound humorous at all. Shaking his head, he gave her a dark look as he approached her slowly. “You’re fuckin’ with my head.”
“I’m not doing that. You are doing that. I was sleeping. You came here uninvited. I tell you I need space from you, and you give me no space. I say I don’t want you to fix things for me, and you fix everything.”
“You say I’m a stranger and I answer whatever questions you have.”
“You answered three questions.”
“Ask more,” he barked, eyes full of fire. His chest rose with his deep inhalation. “You’re getting in my head, Delta, and I don’t know how to do this.”
“I don’t want your help—”
“I have to!”
She grabbed a pair of red lace panties from her duffel bag and pulled them on. “You don’t have to do anything. I already told you, you’re free.”
“I don’t feel free at all.”
“Well, I absolve you of your guilt—”
“You think I’m doing any of this because I feel guilty?”
“Of course you are,” she said, anger slowly boiling in her blood.
“What do you want from me?” he asked.
“Nothing!”
“Fuck,” he gritted out, and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
Delta clenched her hands. He just made her so…so…
The door swung back open and Nathan stormed back in. He didn’t slow as he approached her, and okay. Here he would go again. He would kiss her until she forgot she was hurt for a little while.
Only this time he didn’t kiss her. He pulled her into him and crushed her against his chest instead. He cupped the back of her head and gripped her hair gently in his grasp. “I hurt you,” he said against her ear. “I hurt you, and I hate it, and I’m sorry.”
She didn’t know how to respond. Tears prickled her eyes, and there was such a confusing tornado of emotions going round and round inside of her.
“I’m sorry too.” Her words surprised her.
She was sorry for so many things. Sorry she hadn’t been able to figure out how to talk to him before he’d destroyed them.
Sorry she’d sent in the paperwork to dissolve their Arrangement so fast. Sorry they had fallen apart.
Sorry she hadn’t been able to fix them before it was too late, and they had to do this dumb thing—navigating friendship.
Navigating how to be in the same Pack while they carried around this unfinished business between them.
She was sorry she was hot and cold, and sorry she didn’t know herself right now, and sorry he was having to put so much effort into fixing up her den. She was sorry for the mess they’d made.
“Delta,” he murmured against her neck, and picked her up off the ground.
She wrapped her arms around him and her legs too and she just existed there in his arms as he swayed them gently. This connection was what she had so desperately wanted. How poetically unjust that it happened for them only after their pairing was dissolved.
Her phone dinged with a message, and a split second later, Nathan’s phone signaled a text message as well. Another identical text sounded on their phones, and another.
And the moment between them was broken. The Pack text thread was going off.
Nathan set her down with a sigh. “Let me make sure everyone is okay.”
She nodded, feeling hollow and full all at once.
She watched him check his phone and frown down at the screen. “I have to go.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked, rushing for her phone.
Nathan connected a call and headed for the door. “Hey Vic? I’m going to go get him. Can you come up to the property and grab Delta? She needs a ride into town for an interview.”
Delta read the text messages, following him out the door.
Nory had texted them 911. Liam snapped on Jackson. Stalker. It’s bad. Police are taking him into custody. He’s trying not to Change. I’m following in my car! Someone get Nate!
Dodger had responded. Which precinct??
Vic had said, Hopping on the freeway now. Nate, are you reading this??
Bridger had asked, Is the stalker still alive?
Delta typed out Nory, Nate is headed your way! Send.
Crap, crap, crap.
“Don’t worry about it,” Nate called without turning around. “Just get ready and kill the interview. I’ll handle Liam.”
“How can I do the interview when our Alpha is in human jail?”
“You have to trust me, Delta. I’ve got him. Vic will be here in a bit to give you a ride. I’ll update you when I can.”
He hopped into his truck and the engine roared to life, and then Nathan was fishtailing out of the clearing and blasting down the road.
Delta stood there stunned in her panties, wondering what the heck she should do.
It didn’t feel right to do her interview when the Pack was in trouble, and it was in trouble.
If an Alpha went down, a Pack went into chaos.
Already she could feel this sick sensation in the pit of her stomach.
Sure, they might just be a Pack of Rogues on paper, but to her, they were real.
Liam was her Alpha, and Nathan was her Second, and it was impossible to carry on with her personal life when things were up in the air.
She bet Nory was a mess.
She should’ve gotten ready faster and gone with him.
No, Nate couldn’t wait for her. He was Second. He was Liam’s right-hand man. He would be speeding a hundred miles an hour down the highway right now to get to him.
“Please be okay,” she whispered to the sky.
She’d been so lost in her and Nathan’s back and forth over the last couple of days, she’d forgotten his role in this Pack.
He was at the top. Him being here making sure she was good while he was just stepping back into the responsibilities as Second meant more to her in this moment as she remembered who he was.
When it came down to it, he was still a Donn, the seventh son, the Second of this Pack, who could’ve taken her old Pack if he would’ve finished that fight with Decker.
The way he was now felt accurate. Nathan felt genuine, monstrous side and all, while Nate felt like a distant stranger she’d never understood.
If they were going to find a steady ground, and pursue friendship, she was going to have to figure out a way to get over him.
The crinkling of the tarp on the wood pile dragged her attention from where Nathan had disappeared. He’d already done so much here.
To get over him would mean to forgive him, and to forgive him, she had to forgive herself for her own mistakes.
And to do any of that, she needed to find herself.
Her phone dinged in her hand, and she looked down at the text message that had just come through from Nathan. Go to your interview. It’s important.
He had a job to do right now as Second…and she had a job to do as an independent woman in progress.