Chapter Thirteen

Xavier

Afew minutes later, Xavier was pulling out of the parking lot of the bar and heading back toward his place. He had wanted to stay to spend more time with Madelyn, but she told him that she wasn’t ready to introduce him to her friends yet. So, he decided against forcing the issue. There was plenty of time for that now that she had finally agreed to be his and due to the fact that she now bore his mark.

A smile crossed his face as he drove down the highway, turning his thoughts to all the questions she had thrown at him instead of how horrible it felt to be away from her. He hadn’t minded them that all because he knew that was her way of trying to get to know him better and coming to grips with the fact that she had agreed to be his. It was a promising sign and gave him hope that she wanted to make this work as much as he did. Not that she had much of a choice anymore. A shifter’s mark was irreversible.

Normally, a shifter would get permission from their mate before he marked her, but he didn’t regret it in the slightest. The bond between them was solid now, meaning that she was his—mind, body, and soul—and it was that knowledge that kept a smile firmly planted on his face as he drove the rest of the way home.

The house he owned was about two miles outside of Cedarwood. He liked his privacy and still wanted to keep some distance between himself and the townsfolk, just in case. It was a little further away from Madelyn than he would have liked, but he had bought it before he met her.

It wasn’t much, just three bedrooms and two bathrooms, but it was what he had needed at the time. He had one of the spare rooms set up as a small home gym, and the other was an office of sorts. The house sat on a couple of acres and was surrounded by forests, so he had plenty of space to run and let his wolf free, which was exactly what he planned on doing when he got home to blow off some steam and keep himself occupied until he could see his mate again.

His cell phone rang in the center console, and he reached for it, wondering if his stubborn and beautiful mate was missing him already. However, the number on the caller ID was listed as unavailable, and his smile fell as he answered the call.

“Yeah.”

“Xavier,” the familiar gruff voice stated on the other end of the line. “It’s Rodrigo.”

Even without the introduction, Xavier knew who it was. He grew up hearing that voice every single day, and even though he was out now, it still seemed to have the same effect on him. His entire body went rigid, the muscles in his back stiffening, his spine straightening, and the knuckles on his left hand tightening on the steering wheel.

“Yes, sir.”

“Come now, Xavier. You are no longer under my command. There’s no need to be so formal.”

Xavier’s jaw ticked at Rodrigo’s playful tone. It felt like a trap, as did the phone call. Rodrigo always commanded respect, even from him and Isabelle. So, he decided to ignore his request. “What can I do for you, sir?”

Rodrigo sighed through the phone. “We have a bit of a problem. With Colby.”

“Yeah, I’m aware. Isabelle stopped by and told me that he put a mark on me.”

“Oh, I’m not worried about that,” Rodrigo told him quickly. “I know you can handle him. I’m talking about the fact that he somehow found out about you and what you are.”

That was one thing that he didn’t miss about his time with the Cortez Family. Rumors and things always spread like wildfire. He was willing to bet that everyone in the family knew what he was now, which could potentially be problematic.

Cursing himself and his lack of forethought, he turned onto the gravel drive that led to his place. “He found out because I shifted in front of him.”

“And why would you do that?” Rodrigo asked, a hint of irritation in his voice. “You always said that no one was supposed to know.”

“And they’re not,” he replied shortly. “I just didn’t have a choice.”

“I don’t understand.”

Xavier put the car in Park and killed the engine before heading inside. After closing the door behind him, he dropped his keys and his wallet into the small bowl on the entry table. He was now facing the same dilemma he had faced when Isabelle had shown up at the bistro.

Both he and Isabelle were ruthless and damn good killers. They could torture a person to the brink of death and yet keep them alive for days. They were talented, skilled, experts in their field, and yet, Rodrigo was so much worse than either one of them. He hadn’t wanted anyone from his old life to know about Madelyn, and it was bad enough that Colby had found out. The thought of informing Rodrigo as well rattled him.

Because of this, Xavier headed into the office and flipped on the light. All at once, fourteen monitors flicked to life on the far wall. He made his way over to the desk and hit a few keys, bringing up the security cameras for Iggy’s bar. Like the police station, the security protocols at Iggy’s were way too easy for him to get around. He found Madelyn immediately.

She was still sitting at the same table with her friends. She was laughing and having a good time, which made him smile as he brushed his fingers against the screen. She had pulled her sweater up to hide his mark, but he understood the reason behind that. He just wished he could see it on her again as he didn’t have enough time to admire it before she went back inside.

“Xavier.”

He shook his head, focusing once again on the call. “What?”

“Are you going to tell me why you lost control and revealed yourself to Colby?”

There was no getting around this, he knew that. Rodrigo was going to keep pushing him until he got his answers, and he always did know what buttons to push to get them. In order to avoid all that, he was going to have to tell him. It would be better if Rodrigo found out from him instead of someone else.

“Colby threatened someone important to me,” he stated simply. “And you know I don’t take too kindly to people threatening what’s mine.”

There was a thick pause on the other end of the phone while Rodrigo processed what he had told him. While he waited, Xavier watched as Madelyn and her friends got up from the table, clearly ready to leave the bar. He hit a few more keys on the keyboard and brought up a cell phone tracking app before typing in her number. Since Melanie had picked her up, he couldn’t track her car.

“She must be important if you revealed your deepest secret to Colby to protect her,” Rodrigo stated after a while.

“Yes, sir,” he replied. “If you don’t mind my asking, how did you find out about Colby discovering what I am?”

“Well, therein lies the problem. Colby started running his mouth to the rest of the family,” Rodrigo explained, further confirming his suspicions. “Most didn’t care because they knew you and were just grateful that you were on our side. However, there are a few who are angry. They feel betrayed that I allowed someone like you among our ranks. Those who feel that way have disappeared, no doubt making their way to meet up with Colby so they can help him take you out.”

Xavier ground his teeth together in irritation, pinching the bridge of his nose. He wasn’t worried about Colby; the guy was an ass but nowhere near Xavier’s level. He could handle him easily. He could probably handle the others as well. It just made things way more complicated than they needed to be. And if Colby told them about Madelyn, which was highly likely, then she, too, would be in danger, and he couldn’t have that.

“I’ve sent some of the guys and Isabelle to help. They have orders to kill the traitors on sight, and I wanted to give you a heads up,” Rodrigo continued when Xavier didn’t respond.

“No!” he snapped, sitting up straighter. “I can handle this myself, Rodrigo.”

The thought of so many trained killers so close to Madelyn sent him into a panic. It was a feeling he wasn’t used to but one he was not going to ignore. There was bound to be some collateral damage, and he would be damned if he was going to let that be his mate.

“No offense, Xavier,” Rodrigo said calmly, “but this isn’t your call. These guys disobeyed a direct order. They disrespected me. This is my problem now, and I intend to clean it up.”

“Then you should know, sir, I will destroy anyone who puts my mate in danger. Whether they are part of the family or not.”

Rodrigo clicked his tongue. “You know we do not harm innocents.”

Xavier chuckled darkly. “No, but there is always collateral damage. And Colby was willing to shoot her so that she wasn’t a witness to his killing me. There are flaws in the rules, Rodrigo. Flaws that guys like Colby can exploit to get away with whatever they want. I won’t let her get caught in the middle of your war.”

He could practically hear Rodrigo grinding his teeth through the phone. He had never spoken so brashly to the guy before; he had only ever been respectful. Rodrigo hated not having control because he felt it lessened his power, but he needed to know that he was not as in control as he believed he was.

“They will only be after the traitors and Colby, who I’ve deemed a traitor as well. You can help if you wish, but make sure you keep your mate out of the way. Just to be safe.”

“That sounds an awful lot like a threat,” he pointed out, watching the little dot on the screen that was Madelyn pulling into her house. He quickly switched to the camera feeds inside her place to make sure it was clear for her.

“It’s not a threat, Xavier,” Rodrigo spat. “It’s just fact. I need to keep my family in line, a family that you no longer wanted to be a part of. If you don’t want anything to happen to your precious mate, then you’d do well to stay out of our way. Is that going to be a problem?”

“Not at all,” he replied. “But as I said, anyone who threatens her is a dead man. So, you better make sure they follow their orders to the letter.”

The phone went silent for quite some time. Xavier had even pulled it away from his ear to make sure that the call was still connected. However, after a while, he heard Rodrigo sigh again. “How did we get here, Xavier? How has our relationship come to this?”

Xavier leaned back in his chair, his eyes locked on Madelyn as she moved into her bathroom, no doubt to take a shower to clean up the mess he had left behind during their time in the alley.

“I don’t know,” he replied carefully. “I hold no ill will toward you, Rodrigo, and I will always be grateful to you and for everything you did for me.”

“But you found yourself a new family, it seems,” Rodrigo added softly, “in this Madelyn.”

“I have,” he agreed with a small nod of his head.

“And she is important to you?”

“The most important thing to me,” he corrected matter-of-factly. “I would die for her.”

He was admitting far more than he’d like to admit to a skilled killer, but there was no point in keeping it from him. Now that Rodrigo knew about Madelyn, he had the right to know how far Xavier would go to keep her safe.

“Well, I’m happy for you, son. Truly.”

“You are?” he asked. He didn’t mean to sound so surprised. He just wasn’t used to hearing stuff like that from someone like him.

Rodrigo believed that emotions were a sign of weakness, and in all the years Xavier had known him, he had never heard him say anything like that. To anyone. He didn’t even think Rodrigo had ever told Isabelle that he loved her, and she was his only child.

“Of course I am,” Rodrigo replied with a chuckle. “I’ve always known that you deserved better than this life of violence and bloodshed. Isabelle was born into it; you were not.”

“But you… you raised me to be who I am. You trained me to be?—”

“I only did what you asked me to do, Xavier,” Rodrigo interrupted. “You asked me to give your life a purpose, a meaning, and you always wanted to do whatever Isabelle was doing. Since I saw a lot of myself in you, I couldn’t say no to you. But I’ve always wanted you to have better. Why do you think I let you leave? No one leaves. You know that.”

Xavier pressed his lips together. “I did wonder about that.”

“Well, now you know. Look, I can’t ask the guys to protect your girl, but I can tell them to be on the lookout and to make sure that she’s not injured or killed by any one of us.”

“Make sure that you do,” Xavier replied. “I’d hate for us to have to end on such bad terms.”

It wasn’t perfect, and there was still the chance that something could happen to Madelyn if he wasn’t careful and didn’t keep her out of danger, but he would do whatever it took to make sure that didn’t happen.

He guessed the police were going to have a lot more cases on their hands because it appeared as though war was coming to Cedarwood.