I watched him go, feeling something slip through my fingers that I hadn't realized I was holding.
Rafe closed the door behind him.
“He likes you,” he said, moving into the office with that fluid grace that made my wolf pay attention. “Michael. He's careful about showing it, but he likes you.”
“Rafe—”
“And you like him.” Those amber eyes tracked to me, something flickering in their depths. “I can smell it on you, Daniel. The want. The way your body responds when he's close.”
Heat crawled up my neck. “That's not your business.”
“No, it isn't.” He moved closer, and I caught his scent now. Pine resin and cold river stones and something sharper underneath that I couldn't name. “But I know what it's like towant something you think you can't have. To be so careful about keeping distance that you forget how to close it.”
“What do you want, Rafe? You said something about patrol rotations.”
“I lied.” He was right in front of me now. Close enough that I could see the fine lines around his eyes, the way his pulse jumped in his throat. “I wanted to see you. Talk to you. Alone.”
Something cold settled in my stomach. Warning. My wolf stirring, not with attraction but with unease.
“About what?”
“About you.” Rafe's voice dropped, went soft. Almost tender. “You're wound so tight, Daniel. All that wanting with nowhere to go. It must be exhausting.”
“I'm fine.”
“You're drowning.” His hand came up, fingers reaching for my chest. “Let me help. Just to take the edge off. Just so you can think clearly enough to figure out what you actually want.”
I caught his wrist before he could touch me. Held it. Not hard enough to hurt, but firm enough that he couldn't move forward.
“Don't.”
Rafe's expression flickered. Surprise, maybe. Or something that looked like it. “Daniel?—”
“I said don't.” I released his wrist, stepped back, put the desk between us like a barrier. “I don't know what you think is happening here, but you're wrong.”
“I'm offering?—”
“I know what you're offering.” My voice came out harder than I intended, Alpha weight bleeding through despite my best efforts to stay calm. “And the answer is no. It was no the moment you walked in here, and it's going to keep being no.”
Rafe's pleasant mask cracked, just slightly. Hurt underneath, or a performance of hurt. I couldn't tell anymore.
“I didn't mean to offend you.”
“Then what did you mean?”
He was quiet for a moment. His hands, which had been reaching, dropped to his sides. “I meant to help. You've been good to me, Daniel. Better than I deserved. I thought maybe I could give something back.”
“By seducing me?”
“By making you feel less alone.” His voice cracked on the word. Real or fake, I couldn't tell, and that uncertainty made me angrier than the proposition had. “I know what loneliness looks like. I've been drowning in it since Ash Hollow. And I thought?—”
“You thought wrong.” I moved toward the door, opened it. “Get out.”
“Daniel—”
“Now.”
Rafe's jaw tightened. For a moment I thought he'd argue, thought he'd push, thought this would turn into something I'd have to handle as Alpha instead of just as a man who'd been propositioned by someone he didn't want.
