“The kind that keeps his mate safe.”
“From the danger I put her in.”
“Dodger, enough man! Geez! You’re acting like you’re going to fight your bond forever! You can’t. It’s not how we are wired. Every day you stay away from her, you grow weaker. Go fuck her and see what it does for you. Go see what it does for her. Or wither away and kill your wolf slowly. I’m not watching this shit though.” He hopped over the railing and strode off through the snow.
“Where are you going?”
“To stop enabling you.”
Dodger didn’t know what that meant though. His confusion held as Liam stormed through the snow and chucked Dodger’s phone at him. It landed in the snow near his porch. Asshole.
Whatever. Dodger turned for his den and made his way inside, but turned without telling his body to do so, and before he knew it, he was squatting in the snow next to his phone.
“No,” he ground out.
He poked the screen, wishing for a text from her, but that was impossible. He still had her blocked.
Freaking Liam. All he’d had to do was keep his phone away from him, and now it was sitting here, face up, taunting him.
It was this connection he could so easily have with Destiny.
There was no text from Destiny, but another number had texted him several times. Eyes narrowed, he opened up the message. There were no words. Only two videos and one picture.
He opened the first and pushed play.
It was of him carrying Destiny over the ice toward the restaurant.
Fuck. His chest ached. He couldn’t draw a breath.
Dodger pushed play on the second one, and it was of him opening the door for Destiny at Copper’s. She was wearing the same skirt he had laid on the end of his bed right now so he could feel close to her.
The picture was next, and it was of them through the restaurant window, smiling at each other as they talked. It was in black and white.
He saved them all, and typed out,Thank you. Send.
It was Destiny’s mother who had sent these. He just knew it.
She responded immediately.Stop hurting her.
Those three words gutted him. What did she mean? He wasn’t hurting Destiny. He would never. He couldn’t even imagine it.
He was protecting her.
My life is complicated.Send.
No shit, Asswipe.Geez, this lady had a foul mouth.You locked your wolf onto her, you got her tethered to you, you bound the both of you, now you can fuckin’ figure it out.
Dodger was confused. This didn’t match the nice lady he’d met at Coppers.Is this Destiny’s mother?Send.
Stepdad. You can save me as Behren. If you hurt my daughter, I’ll cut you from throat to dick and piss on your entrails. That’s an oath.
The blood drained from Dodger’s face.
Behren. Her stepdad’s name was Behren. Destiny’s last name was Young.
Her dad was Behren Young of the Michigan Packs. Packs, plural, because he was head of three Packs for half a decade before he disappeared into the ether.
Holy.
