“I think they are. That’s why he destroyed the toy.”
“But you could’ve been hurt. He’s willing to fight others on your behalf. But will he fight his own demons?”
Outside, a truck with a big engine rumbles past my house. If Deke’s ride wasn’t parked outside my house, I’d run out to see if it was him.
But then there’s a knock on the door.
“Miss Diaz?” A deep voice calls. I head towards the door, peeking out the window as I do. It’s Rafe. A khaki-colored Humvee idles in the cul-de-sac, Lance behind the wheel.
Adele rips the door open before I can get to it. “What do you want?” she says in a frosty tone that would cow lesser men.
Rafe doesn’t cower. He does stand up straighter, like he’s in the presence of a commanding officer. “I’m here to pick up Deke’s ride.”
“Is he all right?” I quaver.
“He’ll be okay, Sadie. We found him, brought him home.”
I go and grab Deke’s keys, but instead of returning them to Rafe I grip them tight. “I want to see him.”
“I know you do,” Rafe says patiently. “But it’s not a good idea.”
“I just want to know that he’s okay.” My voice catches. Adele puts a steadying hand on my back.
Rafe angles his head to the side, a very wolf-like movement. His eyes glitter strangely in the low light. “Deke can’t be with you.”
Adele takes a breath, and I know she’s gearing up to protest, to defend me. Rafe holds up a hand, stalling her.
“It’s not you, Sadie. He can’t be with anyone. He’s not relationship material.” He holds out his hand for Deke’s keys. I relinquish them, shoulders slumping as I do. My eyes burn with tears. The clink of metal is so final. It’s really over.
“I’m sorry, Sadie,” Rafe says softly, more gently than I’d believe he could sound. “It’s better this way.”
“Goodbye,” Adele snaps and shuts the door in his face. I wait, crying as silently as I can, until the rumbling from both vehicle’s engines recedes before falling into her arms.
Chapter 16
Rafe
“You know this is fucking jacked, right?” my brother demands.
“Excuse me?” I keep my face blank but toss the wrench I’m working with into the tool box. It’s been a week since I retrieved Deke’s Mercedes, but he hasn’t touched it, which isn’t like him. Normally this SUV is his baby. Lance and I changed the oil to see if we could tempt Deke back to normal, but no luck.
We haven’t had any missions to distract us. After we got made on the last one, Colonel Johnson put the recon on Gabriel Dieter on hold. We still haven’t figured out how he knew we were there.
Lance wipes his hands on the grease rag. “Something’s wrong with Deke. He’s fucked up. Way more than usual.”
Understatement. Since we retrieved Deke, he hasn’t eaten, has barely slept. Most of the time he’s in wolf form.
I shrug. I can’t disagree. “I’m doing all I can.”
“Bullshit.” Lance’s cheeks are bright. He holds my eyes bravely, but his swallow belies the innate difficulty of standing up to his alpha like this. “I thought like you. I acted on orders, I went to break Deke and Sadie up. But this isn’t some one-night stand. This woman’s really good for him.”
“Deke’s unstable. His wolf can’t be around humans long term. It’s not safe.”
“I’ve never seen him smile like he does with her. And he was after her from the first whiff of her scent he got. She’s obviously his mate.”
That stops me short. “His mate,” I repeat, testing the words. Mate. I never thought we’d get mates. It just didn’t cross my mind. “Deke has a mate.”
“Yep.” Lance sounds casual, but his shoulders relax. He got his message through.
Deke has a mate. Unbelievable. But my wolf confirms it’s true.
“Fuck,” I mutter. Keeping him from his mate will actually drive him straight to moon madness. He could be dead before the next moon. But what can we do? He can’t have a human. None of us can, but especially not Deke. He’s the most feral of all of us.
“This changes everything,” Lance says.
“No, it doesn’t. Brother. Think. Sadie’s a human. Even if Deke is bound to her, we can’t ask her to be shackled to him. He’s a monster.”
Lance is shaking his head. “He won’t hurt her.”
“You don’t know that—”
A roar cuts me off. I kick the toolbox in my haste to race outside. Lance follows at my back. On the lawn in front of our lodge, there’s a blur of white and brown, followed by a dark streak. Channing in wolf form, getting the shit kicked out of him by Deke’s midnight black wolf.
“Aww hell,” Lance says and starts stripping off his shirt. He sets his Rolex aside carefully before shucking off his khakis and striding, bare-assed, into the fray. He shifts, and his grey wolf joins the fight.
I sigh. Pack fights are fine, but Deke’s been picking fights nonstop for days. Right now, his black wolf is growling and snapping, ripping at Channing before rounding on Lance. Channing darts away, half his ear chewed off. He looks like he wants nothing more than to slink off, but he waits patiently on the sidelines for Lance to tire, so he can run at Deke again. The only way to get Deke to stop is to tire him out. Unless we want to escalate things.
I’ve stayed out of the fights. If Deke turns on me, my wolf will take it as a challenge. And a challenge is a fight to the death.
Across the lawn, Lance leads Deke on a merry chase. The grey wolf’s mouth hangs open, half laughing as it threads between our cars. Lance emerges from behind my Humvee, slowing to a trot. Deke is nowhere to be seen. But then—
“Look out,” I shout.
Lance turns just in time for the black wolf to sail over my Humvee and crash into him. The two wolves become a blur of speed and snarls and fur. Then a pained yelp, and I wince. Deke has Lance by the nose, his fangs sunk into his muzzle. A dangerous move, and an effective one. If Deke hangs on too long, Lance won’t be able to breathe.
Channing’s wolf flashes by me. He hits Deke’s flank and bites the black wolf’s rump. Deke’s head flies up, his body jackknifing in an attempt to reach Channing. Channing plants his paws and hangs on.
Lance backs away looking dazed, his muzzle bleeding. Deke drags Channing now, trying to run in a circle to catch the brown and white wolf’s tail.
This is ridiculous. Time to escalate things.
I stride onto the lawn just as Channing lets go of Deke and leaps out of the way. Deke doesn’t quit. The black wolf lunges for Channing again and again.
“Enough,” I order. I put the force of my alpha command into my tone. It should stop the fighting at once.
But instead of stopping, the black wolf turns and races my way, its jaw spread in a snarl as it launches at me in attack.
Deke
I get close enough to see the whites of my alpha’s eyes before Rafe throws himself out of the way. I crash into the side of the lodge, cracking a shutter. The impact makes a section of the gutter fall but the stone wall holds. I’m on my paws as quick as I land, shaking my head to clear it.