Once he had air enough to move, he was gone, running out the door without looking back.
My wolf tracked his progress hungrily. It was only the knowledge that Reid was here that was stopping us giving in to the chase. We couldn’t protect Reid if we went after him.
There was a distant hum of pain in my bicep. Frowning, I looked down to see what had caused it.
Reid was hopping next to me, shaking his hand out as he cursed wildly. “Fuck, ow. Shitting bollocks, that fuckinghurt. What are your muscles made of, steel?”
I blinked a couple of times, trying to piece together what had happened. “Did you just punch me?”
Reid scowled at me as he continued to wave his fingers back and forth. “Of course I fucking punched you, Evan. What did you expect?”
“Shit. Are you okay?”
Instinctively, I reached for his hand, but Reid snatched it out of my reach and glared. “Are you serious right now?”
I rubbed my hand over the back of my neck, once more feeling on the back foot. “Um, I don’t know. I helped, didn’t I? I kept you safe.”
Immediately, I knew that was the wrong thing to say. The fury lighting up Reid’s eyes had nothing on the anger he’d felt a few moments ago with the interfering fucker. It was stronger even than what he’d unleashed on me in the shop.
Reid went toe-to-toe with me, digging a bony finger on his uninjured hand into my chest. “Now, you listen here, Evan McCarthy.”
Oh fuck.Reid might have been five-foot-fuck-all, but so was my mam. And Logan, for that matter. I’d learned long ago that the scariest things came in the tiniest packages.
“I do not need your protection. I asked for it once, and you let me down. But guess what?”
Each of his words was punctuated with another poke in my chest. If I were human, it would have left a bruise. Instead, I knew it was his words that would leave a scar.
“I don’t need your protection. I don’t need it, and what’s more, I don’t fucking want it.” He was on tiptoes now, baring his teeth at me. My wolf was all but lying on his back, tummy exposed as he showed his submission. “Maybe I wasn’t clear enough earlier. When I told you toget out, I didn’t just mean out of the shop. I meant my whole fucking life.”
I should say something, I knew that. But I was too stunned by the fire Reid was throwing at me. My pulse was racing like I’d run seventeen laps around the clan boundary. I couldn’t think with him this close.
“Let’s try again now. Get out of my life, Evan, and stay the fuck out. I spent eighteen years being controlled by shifters, and I’m not fucking having it again. I don’t give a shit if you think you owe me something or have some fucking stupid wolfy idea about needing to keep me safe. I don’t want it, ye hear me?”
I heard him. I even understood it.
I just wasn’t sure I could accept it.
It’d be easier if I could. I’d just shrug my shoulders, walk away, and never think of Reid again. Maybe that was how it was with jaguar shifters.
Sadly, that wasn’t the case with wolf shifters. I could respect Reid’s wishes by ensuring he never saw me again.
But not by not protecting him. He didn’t get a say in that. Neither did I.
Not when my wolf had decided Reid was his to protect.
“I’m sorry,” I said finally. “I’m so fucking sorry, Reid.”
He stepped back with a bitter laugh. “So ye keep saying. Yer apologies mean nothing without action, Evan. This time, why don’t ye try doing something about it by staying out of my life?”
I didn’t get a chance to respond. Reid was already pushing through the crowd, grabbing his red-haired friend by the wrist and gesturing at the other two. Thanks to the compulsion net, none of them had any idea that I’d intervened, or that I’d even been in the club at all.
The only one who knew was Reid.
And, from the final look he shot my way, he wished he didn’t know either.
Chapter 7
Reid
