Forcing a politeness he wasn’t feeling into his tone, he held Marco’s gaze as he spoke. “Write me a new contract, then. I want all my profit going to repay their debt.”
“Adrien, no!” Rafe burst out.
Stalking over to the infuriating wolf, Adrien poked him in the sternum. Hard. “Itoldyou I didn’t need saving. Itoldyou to stay the fuck out of it. You don’t own me just because we fucked once. You don’t get to tell me what to do. No one does.”
Irritation crashed through him in a wave as he noticed Rafe waving off the bodyguard like he wasn’t worried about Adri at all.
“That’s not what I meant, sweetheart. Please, think about this more carefully. I only just healed you from two broken legs and so many bruised organs I lost count. You don’t need to be here. You could be safe,” Rafe pleaded, reaching up to cup Adri’s jaw.
His body betrayed him and he almost leaned into that touch. Almost. Why was Rafe so damn hard to resist? And why did he have to go and break the little trust they had between them before Adri even got a taste of him?
“You’re wrong. I do need to be here. And you need to stay the fuck away unless someone needs a doctor,” Adri said, turning away.
“Adrien, look at me,” Rafe growled.
Adri ignored him.
“Will you sort a new contract? Please?” Adrien asked Marco, finally tilting his head in submission the tiniest amount in the hopes it would placate the Alpha into doing what he needed.
Marco’s eyes flicked behind him to Rafe and a silent conversation seemed to pass between the two wolf shifters before he nodded. As if the doc should have any say in his future.
“If that’s what you want.”
“It is. Thank you.”
A strong hand on his shoulder stopped him as he strode for the door. He didn’t turn around. Couldn’t. Because if he had to look at those soulful brown eyes one more time or drag that intoxicating scent into his lungs, he’d lose his nerve.
“I’m sorry your life led you to this place where you can’t let someone help you, but I’m not sorry I did. I’ll respect this boundary you’re drawing, but I will always be here for you, Adrien. I will always come if you call. When you’re ready to let your pain go, I will take it from you.”
Adri swallowed hard. “You promise?” he whispered.
Rafe’s voice was deep and certain. A promise that sunk under Adrien’s skin and shone the soft moonlight of Rafe’s healing power on all the lonely, dark places of his hurt soul.
“I swear it.”
PROLOGUE: RAFE
Thirteen years later…
“I needyou at the fight, Doc. Now.”
Marco hung up before Rafe could ask what was going on, and more importantly,whoexactly needed him. Was it his Adri? Raging fear had him racing out of the clinic without bothering to lock the doors. Luckily, his last patient had left an hour earlier. He’d just been cleaning up and restocking before he went home.
At least he didn’t need to ask where he was going. He made a point to always know where the fights the Lunettis organised were happening ever since that night thirteen years ago when he’d watched his too-young mate walk away from him after telling Rafe that he didn’t need saving and to stay the fuck away.
At the time, he’d thought for sure the jaguar shifter would come around. Cat shifters might not feel the drive to mate the same way a wolf did, but they feltsomething. Years had passed in the blink of an eye, and he’d only been called back to the fighting ring twice in all that time. Marco’s manager, Viviana, ran a much tighter ship than her predecessor, and it was rare for a shifteror a vampire to need his healing power even in such a violent occupation. Each time he’d returned, he’d worried it was Adri who’d been hurt. Adri almost dying. And each time, he wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or frustrated when his elusive mate was nowhere to be found. Avoiding him.
Police lights flashed in the distance as he pulled up to the warehouse. The stench of fear from whoever had just left was overpowering. It took a lot to scare a shifter. This was bad.
A ragged cry left his lips as he stepped into the building and his greatest nightmare came true. Adri’s jungle scent, hismate’sscent, was thick and heavy enough to drown him. It wasn’t the scent of arousal, frustration, or anger. No. This was blood. Pain. Suffering.
“Pull yourself together or he’s going to be learning to write with his left hand, Doc.” Marco’s voice cut through his panic with Alpha steel, and Rafe snapped into professional mode.
Adri’s whimper of pain had him striding toward the ring.
“I don’t need him,” the jaguar protested, voice weak.
Rafe ignored the words. He was done giving Adri space. Kneeling down beside his beautiful, broken mate, he fought to control his emotions as he took in the mangled mess of his arm.
