Chapter 21 - Tessa
When the door closes, I lock it, shutting myself in from the storm and whatever’s moving within it.
I stand with my hand on the deadbolt for a moment and listen to the wind outside, along with the distorted sound of them moving away from the house.
Moving back to the chair by the fire, I sit down and pick up my laptop, only to stare at the screen and feel the irritation moving through me in slow, steady waves.
As if I’m something to be stored somewhere safe while the real work happens.
While I understand his thinking about Hayes and how he might react badly after their confrontation, I’m too used to being excluded and pushed aside. It doesn’t matter that it’s supposedly for my own good when I spent most of my life feeling useless.
That nagging feeling stitches its way into the same place deep within me, just like it did every other time I was told to sit down, stay back, and keep out so that I didn’t make things worse.
Being told I’m not useless right before being treated like I am doesn’t change anything.
Taking a deep breath, I try to focus on the article draft I have open, even while my mind wanders to Hunter and Dominic out there, somewhere in the middle of this storm.
The fire crackles next to me, and the wind rattles the shutters. The rain comes down relentlessly, and I sit in the warm house and do nothing but feel useless.
I don’t know how long I sit around before I see it through the window.
Movement at the tree line catches my attention in my peripheral vision. A few small shapes stay low to the ground, moving despite the heavy rain and wind. They move like something frightened, and the longer I look, the easier it is to make out those figures.
Three smaller ones move urgently in a disorganized fashion while they cut across the open ground toward the house, more like they’re following the light seeping out.
Before I can fully process what I’m seeing, I’m on my feet and moving.
I can see clearly through the window as three children move with their hoods up, clutching each other and glancing out at the rain, seemingly debating whether to take the risk of pushing on.
My brows furrow as my heart clenches, not understanding why this is happening, but knowing immediately that I can’t just sit by idly.
When I reach for the deadbolt and pull the door open, I immediately see what they’re running from.
Two figures stand by the tree line behind the house, standing with the usual confidence of wolves, but in their human forms. Immediately, they stand out as Wraith Peak members, but they’re not chasing the children.
Instead, they’ve stopped short of the house where an adult is cornered between them with her back against a tree. Immediately, I know she’s one of the pack’s outer members, and one I’ve seen from a distance but don’t know.
The two wolves don’t move in, but they stand over her with those domineering stances like they’re enjoying the fear rippling through her.
The sight alone reminds me of that night when Hayes had me pinned before he grabbed me and tried to haul me away. I can still feel the fear that tore through me, along with how helpless it made me feel.
The thought of anyone else knowing that feeling immediately instills a sense of urgency I can’t just put aside.
Racing through the threshold and across the deck, the rain hits me like a wall, both cold and loud, while the storm feels all-consuming. Still, I push forward, heading straight toward the children.
The oldest-looking one sees me coming and flinches backward before she seems to realize I’m not posing a threat.
“Go to the porch,” I tell them, pointing at the house. “Hurry inside.”
The girl with dark hair looks terrified yet holds herself together as she grips the two younger ones, then she glances at where I’m pointing. Without hesitation, she nods, pulling them along as they run for the house.
I watch them reach the porch steps before I turn toward the tree line.
By the time I’m within a few feet of them, the other two wolves are already looking at me, well aware of my presence.
Good… that’s what I need them to do. I need them to look at me, not at the woman on the ground or the retreating children. Now they’ve reoriented, focusing on me.
Unfortunately, I have no plan beyond this point. I don’t have the tactical knowledge Hunter does, or the same kind of manpower behind me.
But I’m here, and I’m between them and the others.
Before, I was nobody who never would’ve thought about charging headfirst. Now I’m the alpha’s mate, and something about that, not just the title or the status, has been building in me since the fire and the anger became apparent.
Even if I’ve held it back, something in me has been wanting to know exactly what I can do with it. That thought becomes very loud.
“Hey,” I say.
They both look at me squarely, and the larger one steps forward.
The ground is wet under my feet, and the rain is everywhere else while I stand in my socks with no backup and two Wraith Peak wolves deciding what to do with me.
Unwilling to back down like I would’ve done easily before, I reach inward for the shift like I haven’t in quite some time.
Where I’ve spent more time repressing my inner wolf than anything else, I finally let her come up for air as she stirs within me.
It rises with a surge I didn’t prepare for, and just before I can let it take shape, something from the opposite direction catches my attention, halting me at once.
It doesn’t come from the invaders, but from two others.
Without any other choice, the two standing over the woman shift from pure instinct, letting their bodies contort until thick pelts of fur emerge, immediately soaked by the rain.
Hunter and Dominic race by me in a blur at once, crashing into the other two with deliberate force, throwing them to the ground under the impact. The collision is immediately violent, forcing the intimidating edge from the others to soften more like prey.
The Wraith Peak wolves whine as Hunter and Dominic overwhelm them with their sheer mass and strength alone, narrowly managing to escape from their jaws at the last moment. They both tear away, darting through the trees and vanishing without looking back.
Despite getting away, I already know that was the case only because they let it happen. If they really wanted to, those wolves would already be dead.
They’re gone before I’ve finished processing what happened, letting the urge to shift ebb away while the weather continues to pummel down all around me.
Dominic presses on, running through the trees, likely to track where the Wraith Peak wolves are heading.
Hunter approaches me immediately, shifting on the way.
It happens so quickly and with such ease that it looks more natural than anything.
He reaches me in four strides, and his hands are on my arms before I’ve taken a full breath, brows furrowed with intense concern.
“Are you hurt?” He asks, looking at me in a way I’ve never seen before.
It’s even more intense than the night he tore Hayes off me.
His hands move to my face, my jaw, and my shoulders, checking for even the slightest mark.
His eyes are dark with anger barely concealed behind his worry, and any neutral mask is gone entirely. “Tessa, are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” I tell him, trying to shake off his concern despite how it makes something foreign move through me. My inner wolf almost preens under the attention, but I force myself to focus. “They didn’t even touch me.”
“You’re soaked.”
“So are you.”
“That’s not the same. I told you to stay inside,” he retorts, still looking at me like I might collapse at any moment.
“Hunter,” I say more deliberately as I put my hands on his forearms and feel him still under the direct contact. “I’m not hurt. I’m fine.”
But even as I reassure him, his jaw is tight, and his chest is heaving while the anger threatens to take over. I can see it behind the relief as the two fight for center stage.
I hold his gaze for a moment, feel as something passes between us that’s too fast and too serious to focus on right now. Then I look over at the woman who’s on her feet now, looking a bit disoriented.
“The children are inside,” I say to no one in particular.
Hunter acknowledges this before we both approach her, guiding her towards the house to get her out of the rain.
As we move, Hunter takes a steadying breath, and I watch him decide to put his anger aside for now. It certainly isn’t gone, but it’s on pause long enough for us to see this through.
When we move up the porch and get the woman inside, she’s immediately surrounded by the kids, and relief cloaks them all.
Hunter glances at me and keeps his expression controlled for now, but beneath it, I can feel through the bond that there are things he wants to say and is deciding not to say them.
Well aware that I went against his word, I’m going to have to reckon with all of it, but for the time being, it can wait.