Chapter 25

Rafe paced the yard waiting for Theo to show up, the memories clinging to his skin like sweat. He hadn’t told Ruby the worst thing he’d done.

He hadn’t left Scarlet alone. He couldn’t. He was an animal. A beast. And he stalked her like one. He told himself it was for her protection. Her brothers were gone, her father was old and weak. This was werewolf country after all. Someone should look after her.

But he’d led death right to Scarlet’s door.

* * *

Rafe followed her to and from the store each day, sticking to the shadows but remaining in human form. She didn’t speak to him after the day he showed her what he really was; he didn’t give her the chance to. He stayed hidden, still clinging to the ridiculous hope that she would change her mind about him, still planning to explain himself better one of these days. He was weak and stupid, but he couldn’t stop.

Rafe strode into camp after walking Scarlet to the shop. The sun was barely up, but a few pack members were already up, cooking whatever they’d hunted for breakfast. Rafe smiled to himself. Wolves were hunters, but their human sides just couldn’t resist a hot meal.

They were still working on more permanent structures at this site, having just moved here a few months ago. They’d overstayed their welcome in their last location and some members had been shot and killed raiding a farmer’s chicken coop. It was a stupid move, but the pack was hungry. The pack was always hungry.

Before Rafe could even consider crawling back into his tent and sleeping another hour or two, his father emerged from behind the army green structure.

“Where have you been, boy?”

Boy. Rafe nearly laughed. He was over a century old and his father considered him a child. Alpha Devon never missed a chance to exert dominance.

“Doesn’t matter.”

The old man stepped closer. “It sure as hell does matter. I know you’ve been hanging around some woman.”

If humans had hackles, Rafe’s would be raised.

“There’s no woman.” Saying the words, Rafe felt the truth of it. There was no woman that wanted him anyway. He was just as pathetic as his father thought.

“Stay out of town.”

“You control where I go now?”

His father’s breath was a warm cloud of stale smoke. Rafe resisted the urge to flinch when he spoke. He’d received enough beatings as a child to know he should just take it like a man or it would last longer.

“I control where you go, what you eat, when you sleep,” his father rasped. “I decide if you live or die. I’m the goddamn Alpha of this pack and you better not forget it.”

Rafe stood stock still, letting his father’s words roll over him. He didn’t blink, didn’t breathe until the man walked away. Rafe watched him go, his cocky swagger still in place despite his age. It was hard to explain why Rafe didn’t push back. He knew, theoretically, that he was stronger than his father. If he really tried, head to head in a fight, Rafe could win.

But his father was right. He’d had complete control over Rafe’s life forever. For decades it had been drilled into Rafe that his father could do no wrong, that he was the strongest, wisest wolf in the pack. And if he didn’t believe it, if he didn’t obey, he was punished. A wolf that goes long enough without meals, without the light of day, without the ability to run free, quickly learns to obey.

So even now, Rafe shuddered as his father walked away. Even now, his stomach tied in knots at the thought of getting caught back in town. But the fear didn’t stop him.

By the time evening rolled around, Rafe was loping off back to Scarlet’s store. He shifted to his human form before hitting the first residential street. It was a small town. Backwoods Maine wasn’t exactly a bustling metropolis. He was the only one on the street as he waited for Scarlet to emerge.

She was dressed in light blue today. The color of the summer sky. She paused and took another glance at where Rafe stood in the shadows. His heart stuttered. It seemed she was staring right at him, but then she shook her head and started off down the street. Her steps were fast and frantic, like she was running from him.

And still he followed her.

When the old farmhouse Scarlet lived in with her father came into view, she stole a look over her shoulder. Fear glittered in her eyes. Rafe stayed tucked into the shadows of the trees and Scarlet pulled her cardigan tighter around her shoulders as she dashed into the house.

Despite her fear, despite his guilt, he kept coming back day after day, risking the wrath of his father, risking the scorn of his pack. Each day his plan to leave grew bigger. It solidified in his mind. Even if Scarlet never wanted him, he could go. He could build something just for himself away from his father and his brothers.

Once the thought had entered his mind it took hold and wouldn’t let go. He could leave. He could leave.

It took months to build up the courage to do it. Rafe had no resources outside of the pack, but he could live off the land. He knew how. He’d go completely wild for now until he had a better plan. It was worth the risk. He couldn’t stay here anymore. Not like this.

He walked slowly to town in the pre-dawn hours. He wanted to see her one more time before he finally did the right thing and left her alone.

Rafe stopped on the other side of the road from her house, his usual waiting spot, in the shadow of a giant oak. But something was off today. It was too quiet. Even the birds had stopped singing their good morning song to the sun. Everything was still except for the long grass in front of the farm house as it waved in the wind.

The creaky screen door on the house slammed shut in the breeze, sending Rafe’s heart into his throat. Something wasn’t right.

He raced across the road and the scent hit him so hard his knees buckled. Burnt sugar and fresh blood.

Scarlet’s body lay in a heap on the grass, her dark hair spread out around her among the wildflowers. Rafe dropped beside her, the howl already rising up in his throat. He covered her body with his own, his head pressed to her chest, willing there to be a heartbeat even though he knew it was impossible. The wound to her neck was deep and precise. Teeth marks at her jugular left no room for mistaking what had happened here, and yet still he listened for a beat, still he prayed.

He didn’t know how long he stayed there, the early morning dew seeping through the knees of his pants. Eventually, he lifted her small body in his arms and carried her onto the porch. He knocked on the door and faced her father. Watched as the man’s face crumpled, as his arthritic hands shook. Rafe moved past him and laid Scarlet on the tattered couch in the family room.

The sheriff would be alerted, the neighbors. A hunt would ensue. The pack would have to move again.

His father had endangered everyone just to prove a point. To show Rafe just how much power the man still held over his life. He couldn’t leave now. The old bastard would keep punishing people until Rafe submitted.

So he left Scarlet with her weeping father and went back to the pack, shifting before he even hit the woods. He was a monster, he might as well live like one.

* * *

A new painful thought gripped him, terror twisting his guts.

He’d done it again. He’d been following Ruby for weeks, longer than those other wolves. Had he led them to her? In trying to protect her had he led danger to her doorstep too? Rafe shook his head, the sob stuck in his throat. He wouldn’t let history repeat itself. Scarlet would have been safer without him in her life. And so was Ruby.

The only way to save his Mate was to stay the hell away from her.