Torn Mate by Belle Harper
Saint
Tobias was still here.The angel who saved the day—and was Lexi’s dad—was the strangest thing I had ever seen. When they said Lexi was like an angel I thought they were just messing with everyone. She could heal shifters, and her blood could make a vampire able to compel shifters, so you knew she wasn’t human. Plus, her scent that called to all wolf shifters. She just smelled like a wolf. There wasn’t anything you could do about it, it was always there.
But to see this guy just fly in, yeah, I now believed in angels. Lexi was an angel, or half angel. But still, if they really existed, what other supernatural creatures were out there?
I was on patrol today. After everything that had happened in the last two days I was happy for the distraction. But there wasn’t a distraction. It was all quiet and boring. The threat had left, and with Tobias there was no fear of any threats at all. If anything, I think our pack just became the strongest and safest in the world.
Tobias could heal others with just a click of his fingers. He healed so many of us in just a few seconds, it was truly amazing. But he only healed physical wounds, not those from within. I wished he could have for me. My secret was slowly eating me up from within. Just, nobody knew, they never asked. I hid it so well that at times, I didn’t believe it was real. Then the nightmares returned and I was drowning from the burden I carried. It was heavy, and no one else needed to be weighed down by it. It would only cause pain if anyone knew… especially the Lovell’s.
Was that why I just watched when the panther was attacking Huxley? I just stood there, frozen, while it was ripping at him, tearing him apart. I didn’t hesitate with Noah. I knew I fucked up and I had to protect him. But it was like something had triggered when I saw it attacking Huxley. The sight was so real, just like in my nightmares, that I couldn’t help him. I stood back and watched him almost die before I finally snapped out of it. But I was too late, he was almost dead by then and he struggled to heal. He couldn’t heal when all other wolves could. I didn’t know why. Maybe it was related to the scar that marred his face.
“Hey, how you holding up?”
I knew he was there before he even spoke. I turned where I was seated at the Lovell’s front gate and I shrugged to Nash. I had been staring at my phone for a while now. Maybe I was waiting for Ada to text me that she got home safe. But she didn’t have my number, and I didn’t have hers. I would have taken her home, but after what I did with Hux… I didn’t think she would want me around. Hell, I didn’t know if I wanted to be around her either. What she needed and what my wolf wanted were two different things. It was as if I was at war with myself constantly around her.
“Good, I guess. You?” He gave me a half smile. He knew I was just being polite.
“Yeah, I guess, considering everything that happened and how bad everything was. Now it’s just a little too quiet, you know?”
I did know. It was good to have a challenge like that. We had the skills and we never used them, never had to, unless it was on Kenneally and Rawlins. But that was different. We weren’t trying to actively kill them, just blow off steam. Being a teenager was hard, but adding in the wolf, things got messy fast. Hormones and new wolves were bound to try to rip each other’s throats out. That was the world we lived in. That was normal to us.
“So… you and Ada?” Nash asked, like so many already had, including my mom. I shook my head. I didn’t want to answer that because there was no me and her. There never would be.
She left yesterday and didn’t even say goodbye. Not like I would have, why would anyone bother to say anything to me? Only, a part of me wishes she did. But she had kissed Huxley… fucking slimy Rawlins. He couldn’t have her. What would he do with her? She needed someone stronger that wouldn’t take others’ shit when they fucked with her. Protected her when she needed it.
Noah wasn’t that guy either. He was huge, but his heart was too big. He would be stomped all over by others if they became a thing. I already knew his friend Luca didn’t approve of her. Maybe he was hoping Noah would be his packmate and he didn’t want Ada, and if she chose him, then that would never happen.
Ada, she needed to be protected, even from herself. Plus, I didn’t want a relationship. That was what she wanted and I couldn’t do that to her. I didn’t want to change her, something I knew my parents would want. I never wanted to do that to any girl. It scared me too much, that you could lose them over something so stupid. You could still have children, live normal lives. Just, those kids wouldn’t be shifters… and was that such a bad thing? I wanted her to stay the way she was. Because she was perfect. Fuck.
Nash seemed surprised.
“No, really? I knew Noah was very interested still and heard of a possible packmate deal with each other.” I warned him with a low growl that I didn’t want to talk about it, my wolf prickling beneath the surface.
He raised his hands and he chuckled slightly. “Message received. You can do perimeter for a while, then come back and do gate duty ‘til midnight and Elijah will swap over with you then.”
That suited me fine. I stood, taking my shorts off. I wasn’t wearing anything else, no point when I was on patrol, but needed to be presentable at the gate with clothes. People didn’t want to see you just standing there in your birthday suit it turns out. That was Alaric’s rule. I didn’t care if they saw me or not. It was just flesh.
The flash of pain was swift but I loved the feeling of being in my wolf form. I shook my fur before I started a run around the Lovell’s property line, determined to not think about the blonde girl who smelled like strawberries. I failed in less than five seconds.
Back on gate duty,it had been quiet… I was supposed to be here with Harley but he was off doing something for Alaric right now so it was just me until I finished at midnight. An old beat-up blue sedan rolled down the court, stopping right outside the gate. I moved around the gate and made myself be seen. I stood tall and flexed my abs a little. The guy rolled his window down. “Pizza?” I shrugged. I was usually told about this type of thing, but he got out and questioned me again. I could smell his fear of me and my wolf liked that. A lot.
“Ah, I have a delivery for Hazel?” the human guy asked again.
“Yep,” I replied. I didn’t give him anything else. I assumed she paid over the phone or she would have been out here to greet him with me. He handed me a stack of pizzas—my stomach grumbled at the smell—then another stack, and another.
“That’s all man, thanks.” He quickly hurried back into his car and turned around as I watched him leave.
I counted the pizza boxes as I walked towards Galen’s house. Fuck, they ordered ten of them. Hazel was there with her vampire boyfriend Ben, who was a strange kind of guy. Were they having a party or something? There were two vampires in there and they didn’t eat pizza, so unless they had more shifters over, this seemed like a lot. Maybe I could grab a few slices before going back to the gate, which had seen no action until these pizzas turned up.
Mom had brought me some tacos for dinner, it wasn’t like I hadn’t eaten, but this smelled too good as I made my way over.
I knocked sharply at the door. I couldn’t hear them because they had turned on their device to stop shifters and any supernaturals from hearing what they were talking about. Ranger opened the door with a huge grin and a bounce in his step and signaled for me to come in. Hell yeah, pizza for me. I was sure Harley would be back for gate duty soon, it would be fine.
“Pizza is here,” I called out to the room. I moved in and gave Ranger the boxes. I took a look around inside the open living area. I hadn’t really been in here in years. We used to break in here and play pretend house when we were little. Callum and Ranger would pretend to be packmates and pretend cook for their mate. Mav and I would pretend we were unruly shifter kids driving their dads crazy.
It’s funny looking back on that now… Now Callum wasn’t here things had been different, but not in a bad way. It was like he needed this, he needed to leave. There was something broken in Callum and hopefully Pack Bardoul could help him. He didn’t use to be like that. He was nice as a kid, sweet like Noah, but the last year or so something snapped and he wasn’t the same.
But now this place was really lived in, vampire stink and all, warning my wolf not to be here. It was hard to battle with that around Galen. I had no idea how the guys all lived together in here. But as I moved further in, I then scented shifters. The vampire scent was mixed heavy with the shifters and… arousal. That one surprised me with Ben and Hazel over. She wouldn’t smell that being human, but I knew vampires could smell things. Ben would have noticed that in the air.
I started walking towards my best friend who was seated on a stool in the kitchen area. Lexi said something that had me stopping. She was wrapped up in Galen’s arms.
“I would ask if you were happy to see me, but I think that was all Maverick’s doing.”
I just stood there and looked between them both. Oohhh boy. When Mav’s cheeks turned a deep pink, I realized the arousal smell was coming from him… and Galen. Well… I could smell Lexi’s too, but it wasn’t as strong.
Finally, Mav. Hell yeah. It finally happened for him. I wasn’t going to get in the way of this, he had been crushing after Galen forever… I only recently found out, but still. He had a crush on him for so many years and now… now something happened, and fuck. I was so happy for him, but I kinda felt like I disturbed a very important moment. I couldn’t wipe the grin from my face as I backed up and saw Lexi eyeing me. I winked at her.
“I’ll take that as my cue to leave. Have a great night.”
Mav looked over at me like he was too scared to before. Was he worried I would judge him for his choice in men? Honestly, you couldn’t do any better than Galen. The guy might have been a tough ass and a vampire but he treated everyone with respect, so I made sure to show my encouragement by putting two thumbs up before I left. “You got the guy and the girl, man, congrats,” I whispered under my breath so I didn’t embarrass him in front of Lexi and Hazel.
“I wouldn’t come back tonight…” Ranger whispered lowly just for me. I closed the door and chuckled to the night’s air.
Yeah, I wasn’t going back there tonight. Would give them a wide berth until they had all that out of their system. I would speak to Mav tomorrow.
Speaking of systems, mine was affected a little by the scent of arousal and all I could think about was kissing a little blondie and making her mine.
I growled into the night’s air. I was fucked.