Chapter 17

Coward? Well, that fucking hurt. Rafe sat and waited for Ruby to be ready, grappling with what he’d done wrong. He’d let the bastard stroll out of here with his skin still on, against every instinct roaring through his body. What more did she want from him?

The memory of Ruby’s flushed cheeks and panting breaths flooded in and reminded him of exactly what she wanted from him. But Rafe already knew how this ended. Humans were not for him, no matter how bad-ass they thought they were. This whole mess would only end with one or both of them hurt and that was only if Ruby made it out of whatever this was alive.

Again, Scarlet hovered around the periphery of his memory. Her blood, bright red in the morning sunlight. Rafe shook his head, scattering the image. This wasn’t the same. He’d make sure this time things ended differently.

Ruby strode across the bar toward him, her usual bag of leftovers clutched in one hand, anger still darkening her expression. He’d fucked things up with her again.

“Ready?” she asked, not meeting his eye.

He stood slowly, unfolding himself from the cramped booth, and followed Ruby out the door. Somehow the walk home was even more strained than the walk there. Ruby didn’t bother teasing him about the scowl he knew was on his face. He wanted to carry her bags again but had the distinct feeling that if he tried, his foot would get the same treatment as the guy who groped her. An unexpected smile crept onto his face. He liked seeing those boots be put to good use.

“I’m sorry,” he said, finally into the heavy silence between them.

“Oh?” Ruby kept her gaze straight ahead.

Rafe cleared his throat. Apologies felt foreign on his tongue. “You are clearly capable of taking care of yourself.”

Ruby paused to look up at him, surprise on her face. They were near the path to the woods now and the shadows called to him. Fireflies flickered through the trees. The breeze lifted the small wisps of hair on Ruby’s neck.

“Thank you.”

“In most situations,” he went on, not stopping even when her eyebrows rose and her hand went to her hip. “You can handle frat boys at the pub, Ruby, but these wolves are something else entirely. You need to take this more seriously.” They were on the hunt. The yard reeked of it. And yet every asshole he’d talked to tonight didn’t know a damn thing. How was that possible?

She opened her mouth to protest but then clamped it shut. A small shiver ran through her as though she was remembering the wolf that attacked her. He knew he was.

“Fine,” she said, finally. “But you’re not those wolves. I don’t need to be protected from you.”

He wanted to argue. He should argue. But God, how he wanted those words to be true. He also wanted to lean down and taste her lips, her tongue, that spot on her neck that made her practically purr. But he knew how this ended. Eventually, Ruby would see his true self, the monster beneath the man and she would stop looking at him like that. And that was the best-case scenario. That meant she was alive.

Besides, Ruby deserved far better than him. What she said at the bar was true. He was a coward. A coward who abandoned his family. A coward who did his father’s bidding for centuries. A coward who didn’t want his heart torn out again.

Humans were not for him.

He cleared his throat, breaking the moment, and they continued their walk in silence.

By the time they walked up the path to Ruby’s cottage, Rafe had decided he would sleep outside tonight. If he stayed on the edge of the woods, he could watch the house and still stay out of sight from the neighbors. It was for the best, he told himself as Ruby pushed open the front door.

The living room was dark when they stepped in.

“Lena must have gone to bed,” Ruby whispered, flicking on the light, but the house felt unsettled, awake. The hairs rose on the back of Rafe’s neck. He grabbed Ruby’s arm and tugged her close.

“Wait.”

A quiet murmuring filled the room, like someone praying.

“Lena.” The name tore from Ruby’s lips.

Ruby’s sister was lying in a heap on the floor, words tumbling from her pale lips. Ruby strained against Rafe’s grasp but he wouldn’t let go. Not until he’d scanned the room. No blood on the floor, no movement in the other rooms. He couldn’t smell anything other than Ruby’s fear and the coffee and bacon from their breakfast.

Ruby yanked her arm and this time he let her go. She collapsed in front of Lena, placing her sister’s head in her lap. Lena’s hair looked silver in the moonlight as it spilled over Ruby’s legs. For the first time since he met her, Ruby looked truly terrified. Rafe’s guts twisted inside him. Every instinct in his body roared at him to make it stop, to make Ruby stop hurting. It was worse than seeing that asshole grope her, although that had nearly sent him into a murderous rage. This feeling was helpless. No amount of violence was going to cure Ruby’s sister.

He dropped down on his knees beside them. Lena’s eyes were open but unseeing. She stared up at the ceiling. Ruby stroked her hair, her hand trembling.

“They’re coming,” Lena whispered over and over.

“Is that what she always says?” Rafe asked, his voice also a whisper as though he didn’t want to wake the woman.

Ruby just nodded, her dark eyes rimmed with tears.

Rafe put a hand on Lena’s shoulder. Her body was light and fragile compared to Ruby’s lush curves. “Lena, can you hear us?” He gave her shoulder a small shake and Lena’s head rolled to the side. She stared at him without seeing and a chill crawled up Rafe’s spine.

“Lena,” he said again, letting his voice grow louder. “What do you see?”

She paused her litany and her eyebrows knitted together as though she could hear him and was considering how to answer.

“Wolves,” she said, the word hanging in the still air of the house.

Ruby’s gaze snapped to his, her eyes wide. “She’s never said anything like that before.”

Lena reached out a hand and Rafe took it in his, wrapping his fingers around her chilled ones. Lena’s eyes widened for a moment and she blew out a long sigh.

“I see blood,” she told him. “So much blood. You’re not safe.”

Rafe’s body had gone cold. What wolves? Whose blood? He needed to know more, but Lena’s eyes had shut, her breathing gone slow and steady like she had fallen asleep. He wanted to shake her. He wanted to yell. He wanted to grab Ruby and run until she was safe.

But he couldn’t do any of those things.

So instead, he sat back on his heels and looked at Ruby and told her the truth.

“I think your sister is a seer.”

* * *

“Tell me more.” They were at the kitchen table, each with a cup of camomile tea. Lena was tucked up in her bed. Her eyes had fluttered open when Rafe”d lifted her in his arms, but she hadn’t remembered anything she’d said or seen during the episode. He’d carried her upstairs and laid her down with so much care, Ruby had to swallow the emotion in her throat again just thinking about it.

He let out a long sigh and leaned back in his chair. It groaned under his weight and he stilled, but the little chair held.

“I think Lena’s a seer, someone who has visions about the future.” He ran a hair through his dark hair. “I haven’t heard of one around here in a long time.”

“So what does this mean?” Goosebumps covered Ruby’s arms despite the mugginess of the kitchen. It was one thing for her to be in danger, but for her sister to be involved made her stomach cramp. And why did that word “seer” echo deep inside her? The dream about her parents’ accident floated to the surface of her thoughts. Had she really had it the night before the accident? Maybe she’d just had it so many times since, she couldn’t tell anymore.

But her own dream wasn’t the issue right now. “Why was she talking about wolves? She’s never said that before.”

Rafe grimaced but didn’t hold back, just like he’d promised. “It must be related to the wolves that have been stalking you. Maybe that’s what she’s seeing. Maybe she knows…”

He didn’t need to finish his sentence. Ruby knew from the anguish on his face what he was going to say. Maybe Lena knew what was going to happen to her. Maybe she’d seen Ruby’s fate and it wasn’t good.

Rafe swallowed hard. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” The force behind his statement sent heat through Ruby’s body.

“Why?” she asked and his silver eyes widened.

“Why what?”

“Why do you care about what happens to me? Why were you following me for so long? What am I to you that you would fight so hard for me?”

Rafe shook his head like he didn’t want to consider what she was to him. He swallowed again, his Adam’s apple bobbing beneath his stubble. For a minute, Ruby thought he might give her some bullshit answer about wanting to do the right thing and protect an innocent life, but he didn’t.

Instead he held her gaze, his silver eyes flashing in the moonlight, and he told her the truth.

“I don’t know. I don’t know what it is about you. I haven’t given a shit about any human in decades. I’ve avoided them at all costs.” He leaned forward, his arms braced on the table between them, the muscles in his forearms tensed and rigid. “I don’t know why I can’t stay away from you, why you haunted me even before I knew you. I don’t know why I’m here and why I can’t leave. But I know I can’t. I know that even if I went home now, I’d be tormented by thoughts of you, of your scent and the taste of your lips and the feel of your skin, but mostly by the sheer terror of thinking you weren’t safe, and I know I would run right back here.”

Ruby sucked in a deep breath, drowning in his words, in his confession, in the intensity of his stare.

“I don’t know anything except that I would kill for you.”

She didn’t know if he said those last words to shock her or simply because they were true, but it scared her how much she loved them.

She met his stare and smiled. “Okay.”

Rafe blinked. “Okay?”

“Okay. I’ll allow you to do your caveman protector thing. If it helps you sleep at night.”

He slumped back in his chair and his bark of a laugh surprised them both. He ran a hand down his face and shook his head like she was the mythical creature and not him.

Ruby stood and held out her hand. He hesitated and then took it.

“Come on, wolf-man. Let’s go to bed.”

* * *

Ruby sunk her fingers into Rafe’s soft fur, his warm body curled around hers. He still insisted on sleeping as a wolf. For safety. Ruby didn’t argue, just patted the bed beside her and invited him up. She’d stroked between his ears until his wolfy breath came out in soft, snuffly snores. He smelled like pine even in his wolf form and she let the comforting scent surround her.

Rafe’s confession still rumbled through her, about his inability to stay away. She knew that staying in his wolf form was a compromise with himself, a way to stay close to her without crossing the line he’d set for himself.

She’d let him stay on that side of the line for now, until he was ready. Until he saw that she wasn’t going anywhere.

She sank lower into her pillows and let Rafe’s soft breaths, the steady rise and fall of his body, lull her into a dreamless sleep.