“Just as long as you don’t go hearing things it’s not saying. I’m not going to let you claim me.”
“Ever?”
Rafe’s grey eyes were deep enough to drown in as he stared into what felt like Adri’s soul. It was too much. Closing his eyes, Adri twisted, huffing when he still couldn’t get free. The grip on his throat loosened, and Rafe slid his hand to his nape, gripping firmly in a way that had his jaguar instantly relaxing insidehim. The silence between them was heavy as Rafe stood there. Waiting. Just like he had been for the last thirteen years.
“You’re the most patient wolf I’ve ever met.”
Rafe smiled, leaning forward to nuzzle under his ear. “You’re worth the wait, kitten. Besides, wolves are persistence hunters. I’ll just keep running and running after you until you’re ready to drop all those defences you keep so high.”
A laugh burst from Adri’s chest, and he tilted his head to let Rafe trail his kisses down his neck. “So, you’re just going to wear me out until I give up?”
“Will that work?”
“I can think of more fun ways to wear me out.”
“I’m willing to negotiate. I can be flexible like that.”
Adri snorted. “You’re the most deceptively dominant person I’ve ever met. Lulling everyone into a false sense of security with your whole ‘I’m just a caring doctor’ routine. You could give Marco a run for his money with how much you want to take control.”
“You love it.”
“I’m not just going to roll over for you.”
“I’d be disappointed if you did.”
Adri opened his eyes, blinking against the light as Rafe’s face came back into focus. “You really would, wouldn’t you?”
“I told you, you’re perfect for me. I don’t want to change you. I just don’t want to give the world the slightest chance to break you.”
“I don’t break that easy, Doc.”
“Everyone breaks easily,” Rafe said, old pain in his eyes. “The reason I studied healing was because my best friend died in my arms, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I lived through the last shifter wars when the pack lost most of a generation to weapons that never should’ve been allowed. I watched Marco step up to lead far too young, only to witness his mate gunned down in front of him less than two years later. We may heal faster. We may be able to live foreverin theory, but we’re still fragile. I know that better than anyone because I see it in my work every day. Deep down, we will always be as mortal as any human because we succumb to fear, and hate, and violence just like them.”
Adri’s eyes pricked with tears. There was so much pain in him. Such deep wounds he’d had no idea were there. It explained so much of Rafe’s behaviour. His compulsion to heal Adri when he didn’t have the power to spare, the way he tried to keep him from any danger, even when he knew it would piss him off. The knowledge cracked something open inside him.
Because he’s our person, his jaguar said inside him, all casual like he should’ve already known.
“Humans aren’t all bad. They can love, too. Their lives could end at any minute, and they need to seize each moment that they have,” Adri said.
Rafe rested his head on Adri’s collarbone, his body going lax as he let his hands slide down Adri’s arms. “That’s not how humans love, sweetheart, but it’s how I would love you if you let me.”
“Give me time,” Adri whispered.
Rafe raised his head, searching his eyes. “Don’t say something you don’t mean to make me feel better. I don’t need false hope.”
Adri reached up to cup his jaw, leaning forward to press a soft kiss to his lips. The need to take some of Rafe’s pain outweighed all his efforts to hold himself back. “No. You need real hope. Enough to balance out a lifetime of loss and guilt. I can give you that much. I’m not ready for you to claim me today or tomorrow, but I’m so fucking gone for you, Rafe. I have been since that night you got on your knees for me on the dirty changing room floor all those years ago.”
“So, next week, then?” Rafe teased, sparking another laugh from him.
“I take it back. Least patient wolf ever.”
Their moment was interrupted by an urgent patient at the clinic, and a string of messages Rafe needed to deal with that had him stuck downstairs. Adri used the time to make the overworked doctor a meal that would be easy to heat when he was ready, before slipping out the back entrance as soon as Angelo texted to tell him his bodyguards were there.
The two women who’d be shadowing him blended into the background despite the air of danger that came from their wolf sides. They quickly set him up with a tracker—a tiny dot pressed into his skin that they said would stay with him even if he shifted—along with a few spares he could use on the fighters he was targeting if he got the chance.
He was more grateful for their invisible presence than he thought he’d be when he returned to the gym. It was suspiciously easy to get a couple of the newer guys to bring him along with them to what they called a selection waiting point, wherefighters could be picked up for the evening’s entertainment wherever this unsanctioned ring was operating from. Either the ring was desperate for new fighters because they kept killing off the ones they had, or someone had identified Adri as a problem and was luring him into a trap. He suspected the latter.
Confirming his theory, Axel and Bo—the two guys he’d targeted for this—seemed nervous as they led him through the city on foot. Their conversation was a stilted back and forth of the type of toxic masculinity fighter bullshit Adri didn’t have time for. He wasn’t worried about the guys jumping him. He’d seen them in action at the gym and knew he could take them both if needed. What he was worried about was how far into vampire territory this meeting point was. It was pinging all his jaguar’s instincts. An ambush predator could sense when it was walking into one, and the dead-end alley overlooked by three storeys of dark windows he couldn’t see into was the last place he would’ve chosen to linger.
