Chapter 33

Five years. Five long and lonely years since Rafe had been with his pack. He didn’t think he’d missed it. The posturing, the fighting, the bullshit with his father. But now that he was here, all the rest of it came back too. The companionship, the loyalty, the feeling that someone else understood who and what you were. Maybe he had missed it. A little.

They walked toward the encampment, Ruby tucked close to his side. The weight of his people’s gaze on him was heavy enough to slow his footsteps. What if they turned him away? He swallowed hard, half expecting his father to emerge from the shadows. The old bastard died shortly after Rafe left, his lungs finally failing him, but a chill ran down Rafe’s spine nonetheless. If anyone was going to come back as a vindictive ghost, it would be his father.

The camp looked the same as when he left it, clusters of tents around fire pits, a few trailers for the colder months. The state left them alone as long as they stayed out of trouble, but the threat of some developer buying the land was always looming.

Nothing was permanent. The pack had been here for years now but they still lived as though they might have to leave at any moment. Rafe remembered the times they’d had to leave in a hurry, usually after too many confrontations with local humans. Eventually, their neighbors fought back and as their weapons got better, the wolves became the ones being hunted. Nothing enraged his father more than being reminded that they were no longer the apex predators.

Rafe recognized the faces, wolf and human, peering at him as he and Ruby walked into the camp. He watched as their expressions went from shocked to questioning. No one looked outright hostile, which helped ease the tension in his muscles.

The old man is dead, he reminded himself, letting out a long breath. He grabbed Ruby’s hand and she hung on for dear life. He was an idiot for bringing her here, but there was no turning back now.

One of the older women of the pack approached them first. Dina had known him longer than most. Her tan face was creased with age.

“You’re back,” she said simply, assessing Rafe with her gaze.

“I am.”

Her dark eyes flicked to Ruby. “You brought a human.”

“She’s a friend.” If Dina sensed Ruby was anything more than that, she didn’t say it. She nodded once, but stayed in the way of the path.

“Did you come to bring trouble, Rafe?”

Shame flashed hot in his gut. This is what his pack thought of him even after all this time. That he’d come to stir up old battles.

“No, ma’am.” He cleared his throat again, his words sticking. Ruby squeezed his fingers. He took a deep lungful of her scent and reminded himself why he was here. “Just came to talk to my brother.” Dina’s gray brows rose but Rafe put up a hand in surrender. “Talk, Dina. That’s it. I didn’t come to stir things up.” This was what his relationship with his brothers had become. No one believed he would have any motive other than picking a fight. Why would they? He hadn’t had a civil conversation with Knox in nearly a decade.

She studied him a moment longer and Rafe’s skin prickled under her gaze. Wolves weren’t like humans. They didn’t bother with being polite. They stared and sniffed and took you in completely. You couldn’t lie or pretend around a wolf. They knew you too well.

Other wolves had gathered around them as they spoke, several still in wolf form. They sniffed around Ruby’s legs and she pressed closer to his side. He suddenly felt exposed, flayed open in front of everyone. Could they all see it? Did they all know she was his Mate? This thing that he’d never believed in was suddenly more real to him than anything else. He felt like the word was stamped across Ruby’s forehead. He should have told her this morning.

Rafe nudged a sleek black wolf, Leo, with his leg. “Back off,” he grumbled. The wolf huffed but backed up.

He glanced back at Dina to find a begrudging smile on her face. “It’s been a long time, Rafe.”

“I thought it was best.”

She shrugged her small shoulders. “You may have thought wrong.”

He didn’t have a chance to untangle that comment before more wolves and people were coming out of their homes to see what the commotion was about. It wasn’t easy to do anything around here without the whole pack knowing.

Rafe sifted through the familiar faces, some with hesitant smiles, some with furrowed brows. Faces of the people he grew up with. The people who did nothing to stop his father’s abuse. His brother wasn’t among them yet.

“You back for good?” Archer, a friend from a lifetime ago, patted him hard on the shoulder, daring to approach now that Dina had given her approval.

“No, just a visit.” Rafe’s answer barely made it past his lips. Sights and smells closed in on him from all sides, memories chasing them all. Home. The word, the feeling, struck him hard in the chest. Fur and pine and woodsmoke mingled in the air. Faces he hadn’t seen anywhere but in his dreams, lined the path in front of him.

The last time he had seen them rushed to the surface. The rain and the mud, the shouts from the crowd. No one had tried to end it. No one had thought to stand against the Alpha. They would have let Rafe die. Bile rose in this throat, hot and acidic.

It was too much. How had he thought he could come back so easily?

“Rafe?” A woman’s voice broke through the din of the growing crowd. Everyone else fell away. She looked the same as the day he left, except this time there were no tears streaming down her cheeks. Her olive skin and light eyes still made her strikingly beautiful, just like her son.

She approached slowly, blinking like she couldn’t trust herself. “It’s you,” she said with a smile and then threw her arms around his neck.

Rafe held her tight, breathing in her familiar scent of lavender and strong tea. “Ma,” he breathed. Her long curls tickled his arms as she hugged him.

Ruby cleared her throat, startling him out of a million memories of this woman caring for him, loving him when no one else did. She had been his soft place to land. The only one in a childhood filled with harsh lessons and even harsher punishments.

He put her feet back on the ground and she beamed up at him.

“Ruby, this is my … uh … stepmother, I guess you would call her. Ma, this is Ruby.”

The only mother he ever knew, Nell, flicked her shrewd gaze to Ruby. A frown wrinkled her brow.

“Nice to meet you,” Ruby said, and Rafe realized it was the first she’d spoken since they got here. Nell didn’t speak right away, her gaze steady on his Mate.

More words tumbled out of Ruby in a nervous rush. “I met your son. Uh … I mean your other son … I mean Theo. He’s very nice. So charming. He looks just like you.”

Nell’s lips tipped into a smile at the mention of Theo. “He’s a good boy.” She glanced over Rafe’s shoulder. “Is he here?”

“Not this time. Sorry, Ma.”

Her beautiful face fell in disappointment but she quickly recovered. “Well, I’m happy you’re back, Rafe.”

“Not back.”

She flinched at his clipped answer and he softened his tone.

“Not back, just here to talk to Knox. It’s important.”

She studied him a moment longer before nodding once and gesturing for him to follow. She spoke over her shoulder as they followed her through the camp and the whispering groups of wolves.

“I’m sure Knox will be surprised to see you.”

An understatement, but his stepmother was always one to downplay whatever issues her Alpha’s sons were having.

“He’s been busy since your father died. He has big plans for the pack.”

“So we keep hearing,” Rafe muttered.

Nell turned sharply to face him. “Your brother is the Alpha now, Rafe. If you’ve come to challenge that, you should leave right now.”

Rafe ground his back teeth.

“He’s here on my behalf, not his own.”

Nell’s eyes snapped to Ruby. “Oh?”

Ruby rolled her shoulders back and faced the female werewolf. “Rafe is only here to help me and my sister. I was attacked by wolves.”

“Not one of ours.” Nell’s response was quick and defensive.

“No. But we thought Knox might have some answers.”

Nell studied them both, her earlier smiles gone. It had always been this way with his adoptive mother. The pack came above all else. Even her sons.

“Please. We just want to talk to him.” Ruby’s voice was steady even as Rafe could smell the fear vibrating beneath her skin. He wanted to grab her and run. Far away from here.

They’d stopped in front of a big green army tent in the center of the camp. Tarps were hung over the outdoor kitchen space and various mismatched chairs were gathered around the fire pit. The pack lived most of the year out here until the weather turned to cold. Then they moved into the trailers or some left-to-rent places in town for the winter. They were squatters at best, drifters at worst.

Rafe’s tiny cabin was a luxury compared to this. Whatever Knox’s big plans were, they didn’t seem to include housing upgrades, at least not yet. Not that he could do much if the pack didn’t own the land they lived on. But Rafe wasn’t here about any of that.

Nell waved a hand toward the chairs. “Knox is out hunting, but you’re welcome to stay and wait.” Her expression softened and she laid a hand on Rafe’s arm. “I am happy to see you.”

“Me too.”

She raised on her toes to give him another quick hug. “Be careful with that human,” she whispered.

Rafe’s heart stopped and stuttered frantically back to life.

Nell gave him a knowing smile as she pulled away. “Good luck, Rafe. Don’t stay away so long next time.”

He stared at her as she walked away, leaving him and Ruby alone at Knox’s campsite. Or as alone as they could be with wolves and people still wandering past to get a look at the former Alpha’s disgraced son.

“Well,” Ruby breathed. “That was … a lot.”

Rafe huffed a laugh despite the emotions roiling in his gut. “Sorry. I should have prepared you better. They can be very intense.”

“Which is surprising since you are so laid back,” she quipped, sinking into the closest chair.

He shook his head, wanting to scoop her up and hold her close, wanting to return to this morning when he held her in his arms. But not here. Not with everyone watching them.

“Are you okay?” she asked, her gaze following him as he paced in front of her.

“Fine.”

“Rafe.” Her voice was soft, imploring. “Sit.”

He obeyed, lowering into the chair next to Ruby’s. “I wasn’t expecting to feel so … conflicted.”

Ruby took his hand and traced the lines of his palm with her finger. The touch sent tingles through his whole body. “Going home is always hard.”

“I thought I hated all of this and all of them.” He lowered his voice even though he was sure everyone’s ears were perked up and listening. He didn’t give a shit what they heard. “But being back here is more complicated than that.”

“I get it.”

He turned to look at her, and the sight of Ruby at his old home added to his tangled emotions. “You do?”

“Sure. Maybe not to the same extent, but right before we left, Lena basically told me she thinks I’m a ridiculous person who makes up scary stories to get off, and yet here I am trying to save her ass. So yeah. I get how families are complicated.”

Rafe brought their entwined hands to his mouth and ran his lips over her knuckles. “It was a stupid idea to bring you, but I’m glad I did.”

Ruby’s smile grew, her red lipstick still perfectly in place. He wanted to kiss it off, to smudge it and wreck it. He wanted to do so many things to Ruby, but if he did … what then?

A realization settled in his gut as Ruby smiled at him. He wanted her to want him not because of some fated paranormal bullshit reason, but because she actually just wanted him. For him.

It was as simple and complicated as that.

“Ruby, there’s something you need to know.”

She leaned toward him, giving him her full attention, but he didn’t get to tell her everything that was on his mind. It would have to wait.

Knox was back.

* * *

The man that strolled into the campsite was obviously Rafe’s brother. They had the same dark brown hair, the same eerie eyes, and the same murderous expression etched into their features. But where Rafe’s hair was long and tied back at his nape, Knox’s was short with silver at the temples. Ruby took in this tiny hint that werewolves did age eventually.

He’d allowed his beard to grow fully while Rafe kept his to a delightfully scratchy stubble. Both men were large, but Rafe had at least a few inches on his older brother.

Rafe stood and Ruby followed, keeping hold of his hand. Knox stopped in front of them, his cool gaze sliding from Rafe to Ruby and back again.

“Rafe.”

“Knox.”

The men greeted each other with a terse nod. Ruby could swear the entire pack went still around them. Goosebumps broke out across her arms.

“It’s been a long time.” Knox’s voice was deep and smooth, lacking Rafe’s rough edges. It was the voice of a leader, demanding yet comforting all at once. Under other circumstances, Ruby could imagine herself liking this man.

Rafe shrugged. “Didn’t seem worth coming back.”

Knox narrowed his eyes. “And yet, here you are.”

Tension rippled through Rafe’s body and into Ruby through their linked hands. “We need your help.” How he got the words past his clenched teeth Ruby would never know.

Knox smirked. “I haven’t seen you for five years and now you want my help?” He let out a low laugh. “Rafe who always thought he was better than us has come crawling home.”

“Don’t repeat Devon’s bullshit. I never thought that.”

Knox’s eyes slid to Ruby and a chill ran up her spine. “You always preferred humans to us.”

Rafe growled, taking a step in front of Ruby, shielding her with his body. “I didn’t want to fight you then and I don’t want to fight you now.”

Knox sneered, his handsome face turning ugly with the expression.

Rafe went on, “You got what you wanted, Knox. You’re the Alpha. Nothing left to prove.”

Something shifted in Knox’s face, a flash of regret before he schooled his features. “It’s been five years. What makes you think you can walk back in here now?”

“After you almost killed me, it didn’t seem worth the visit.”

Knox scoffed. “I wouldn’t have done it.”

Rafe went rigid beside her, seething. “You sure as hell would have. And then you would have killed Theo too.”

The other man’s eyes went wide with shock and anger but when he spoke his voice filled with a deadly calm. “You seem to know everything I’m thinking: I wanted to be the Alpha; I wanted to kill my brothers, my own fucking blood. You’re a goddamn mind-reader, Rafe.”

Knox had stepped forward and the two men stood toe to toe in the dirt. Ruby clung to Rafe’s hand as she cowered behind him. So much for not being afraid of anything.

“It was hard to think anything different when your teeth were at my throat,” Rafe growled.

“I’m not the one that nearly blinded Theo.”

Another wave of tension rolled through Rafe’s body. “We were all in that ring. We didn’t have a choice.”

Knox smirked. “My point exactly, little brother.” He emphasized the word little and Ruby bit down on an ill-advised giggle. “We all did things we regret.” It wasn’t an apology but some of the rippling fury seemed to leave Rafe’s body.

“We did.”

Knox nodded like something was settled between them. Ruby would have argued that all three brothers could use some time in extensive family therapy, but no one asked her.

“You said you need my help?”

Rafe nodded. “Ruby’s in trouble.”

Ruby peeked out from behind Rafe’s huge form and gave Knox a small wave. He quirked a questioning eyebrow like he didn’t quite know what to make of her, but he gestured for them to follow him.

“Too many ears out here,” he said and the casually meandering wolves suddenly had places to be, scurrying off in various directions.

Knox led them to a trailer set back in the pines and they followed him into the dim interior. It was hot and stuffy inside compared to the shade of the woods.

“Something to drink?” Knox asked, wandering into the small kitchen. The entire space was a rectangle with a kitchen at one end and living room at the other. Ruby assumed the two doors off the living room led to bedrooms.

“Beer, if you have.”

“Uh … me too, please.” If Ruby was going to survive this day, she needed a drink. Even if it was only beer.

Knox handed them each a bottle and Ruby took a swig, letting the cold, bitter liquid fortify her. She was still trying to come to terms with the fact that they were sharing a drink with the man who tried to kill Rafe, but she had the odd feeling that this was how the brothers’ entire relationship worked. Neither man seemed particularly nonplussed by the situation.

“So what’s the problem with Ruby?” Knox asked, leaning against the kitchen counter, arms crossed over his wide chest. Ruby made a mental note later to ask Rafe if werewolves worked out a lot.

“There’s no problem with Ruby.” Rafe grumbled. “Ruby is perfect.”

Well, shit. This man was trying to kill her. Heat rose into Ruby’s cheeks. She took another sip of beer and lowered herself into the closest kitchen chair. Her knees were suddenly weak.

Knox’s eyebrows lifted to his hairline. “Then what is the problem?”

“She was attacked by a wolf. About a week ago. And then a few more came sniffing around her door.”

Ruby’s gaze flicked between the two men, Rafe dark and glowering, Knox deceptively calm. The Alpha kept his features carefully neutral, but Ruby could see the flash of interest in his eyes.

“They weren’t ours.”

“I know.”

“Then why are you here, Rafe?” Knox spoke with a hint of impatience, a man who had too much to do to sit around and chat with his long-lost brother.

Rafe blew out a long, frustrated breath. “I was hoping you’d know something about it. Any other packs on the move? Have you heard of any attacks on humans?”

Knox stared at them, his gaze moving from one to the other like he was trying to piece together a puzzle. He shook his head. “I haven’t heard of any other attacks.” He took a swig of his beer. “But the pack up north has been getting antsy. Crossing the border more and more often to hunt.”

Rafe ran a hand down his face, the rasp of his stubble filling the cramped space. Ruby longed for a simpler time when all she had wanted was the feel of that stubble between her thighs. A time before international werewolf incidents were a concern to her.

“Could have been them, I guess.”

“But why attack a human?” Knox asked, gesturing at Ruby with his beer bottle. “What’s so special about this one?”

The air in the tiny house shifted and whatever tentative peace the men had shared evaporated in an instant.

“Everything,” Rafe growled.

Knox rolled his eyes. “Fuck, Rafe. When will you learn?”

“Ruby, go wait outside.” Rafe didn’t even glance at her as he gave the command.

“But … no. What about Lena? We didn’t get to ask—”

“Go,” Rafe snapped.

Ruby bit down on the spike of pain his words sent through her. She swallowed her hurt and her tears and got up from the table.

“Fine.” She stomped out of the stale trailer air and perched on the top step outside the door. Fucking werewolves. One minute he says she’s perfect and the next he’s barking orders. Rafe had more mood swings than a premenstrual teenager during a chocolate shortage.

He was clearly an asshole.

But she still hoped his brother didn’t kill him.