Page 34

Harper

It couldn’t be that bad, could it?

Part of me was dead sure Mack was over reacting.

He was a grumpy prick most days, so that’s what this was.

It had to be. Like I was well acquainted with dysfunctional family dynamics, but then again, no matter how toxic things got, none of us had killed each other.

As we pulled up outside of their place, I stared at Mack, wanting to ask for more details.

As if sensing that, he was out of the car in seconds, scanning the pretty garden beds, the front of their house, before going around to my door.

“Come inside.” Mack took a deep breath and then let it out. “Please, Harper. He’s really close to the surface.” His fingers flexed, and I saw those claws, the smattering of hair replaced by thick grey fur. “Please?—”

I slid out of the car and pressed my palm against his, not mentioning the fact that the texture was now rough like a dog’s footpad, and that gave him all the permission he needed.

I was hauled up to the front door, several locks disengaged, then a security system beeped as he pressed in a combination in the hallway, before dragging me deeper into the house.

“Nice place…” My feet were forced to move fast to catch up with him. “Thanks for the tour.”

“In here.”

I thought I might end up in his room, or Tor’s or Kieran’s, but instead we walked into one that was spotlessly clean and beautifully appointed.

One that didn’t belong to any of them if the still quality of the air was anything to go by.

He flicked the light on, revealing pearl grey walls, pretty floral curtains, and the biggest bed I’d ever seen.

“I knew these guys would fit right in here.”

Tor was doing his best to act all chill, but his nervous smile made clear how he actually felt. The massive stuffed tiger was placed on the bed, somehow dwarfed by its breadth. Mack fussed with the thermostat, the unit beeping as he fiddled, then Kieran brought the other two toys in.

“Is the front door locked?” Mack skewed the bear shifter with his gaze. “Is it?”

That’s when I stepped forward.

“We’re home now.” My hands went to his wrists, and I felt the tension there. It took everything in him not to throw me off. “We’re safe.”

“Not yet.” Mack nodded sharply. “Stay here.” He glanced at the others. “You stay with Harper and keep her safe. I’ll…”

He didn’t want to tell me what he was going to do, so I followed him as he marched out.

Walking into his room, I watched him wrench open his wardrobe, then pull a long case out.

Never would I have guessed what was inside it.

The locks undone, the lid lifted, revealing a very well looked after, old rifle.

“Are you serious right now?” He ignored my question, drawing it out and then squinting as he looked down the scope. “Mack?—”

“I tried to get out.” There was something empty and grey about his tone.

“But when I did, I tried to take my mother with me. She begged me to leave her.” Bullets were retrieved from a box and the rifle was loaded, the sounds making my whole body stiffen.

“She was his fated mate.” A look sideways and his eye glowed bright silver.

“He would never let her go.” He flicked the safety on and then put the rifle back down.

“That’s what she told me, and she was right. ”

I wanted to retract my question, walk out on this conversation, because I wasn’t going to like the turn it took. Instead, I planted my feet, staying in place, even as my heart started to beat furiously.

“He would never let her go, never let her have other mates.” Mack shook his head.

“He killed them, anyone who’d help her get free of him.

” How could someone tell a horrendous story like this in such a soft voice?

“He tried to kill me for daring to leave, but that was a half-hearted thing. But when he saw I was trying to take my mother with me?” His smile was the same one you saw on bleach-white skulls. “That’s when it got serious.”

He tugged up his shirt, revealing the long faded, silvery scars that could’ve only been left by a wolf’s claws. I hadn’t seen them in my dream version of him, so they looked wrong now.

“Him or me, and I chose me.” His claws lengthened and he stared at them for a second, flexing his fingers, before they receded.

“I killed him, but in his dying breath, I was forced to watch her run towards him and then him break her neck.” He took a swinging step forward. “I wasn’t the only witness.”

If his parents were dead, who was left to hunt us? I was about to find out.

“My brother, Dax.” His lips twisted into an ugly smile.

“My twin, my dark half, he saw the whole thing, and…” He blinked as he stared at me.

“Has never forgiven me for it. In his mind, I’m the one that caused it all, robbed him of both father and mother.

Eye for an eye, that’s how wolves work, and now he’s decided to collect.

” He picked up the rifle, holding it with way too much ease.

“But if he tries breaking in here, I’ll make sure him and his flunkies go with me. ”

“What..?” That came out of my chest in an ugly croak. “Are you fucking serious right now? I get I don’t go furry on the full moon?—”

“That’s a myth,” he told me.

“You’re a myth!” In the whole history of dumb comebacks, that was the worst. Enough to have him snorting despite himself. “Surely this is the time to get the police involved.” I was losing him with every word, his eyes going hard. “There’s shifter police, right? We could report?—”

“What?” The gun was set down carefully, right before he stepped closer. “Tell them what, Harper? That my brother is a homicidal maniac? They know. They fucking know.”

“Mack…”

I turned around to see Kieran standing there with a frown, Tor at his side.

“No.” I shook my head abruptly. “I need to hear it.”

There was something holding Mack back, and now was the moment when I’d find out exactly what.

“Half the murders that have happened in the south of the city can be traced back to Dax,” Mack said, his voice perfectly flat.

“Human police and shifter both have been trying to get a lead on him. Shifter biker gangs have a kill on sight order, but none of them have been able to achieve it. No one.” He moved closer.

“No one gets near my brother, not unless he wants them to. That’s why I never wanted to find you, Harper. ”

I’d never heard Mack’s voice break like this, watched his mask slip and shatter on the ground.

“When I formed a pack with the guys, I thought that would be the moment Dax struck.” I glanced back at the others for confirmation, and their grim expressions said everything.

“He turned up one day at a job site.” Mack’s fingers flexed.

“Laughed when I nearly dropped a load of bricks on my feet. There’s a reason why Kieran’s dads hate the fact that I joined their son’s pack.

I put a target on his back, Dax made that clear, but one he wouldn’t take aim at until I found…

until I found my mate. In Dax’s twisted mind, I took Dad’s mate from him, so I needed to pay with the death of my own. ”

I didn’t realise I’d taken several steps backwards, it only registering when Tor’s hands landed on my arms, stopping me from colliding with him. The feel of his thumbs brushing small circles was barely perceived as Mack continued.

“But he won’t get you.” The wolf was pushing Mack hard. His lips peeled back to reveal fangs, his eyes turning paler yellow. “He won’t. Dax wants to end this? I’ll end him.” I flinched as he picked up his rifle. “I’ll fucking kill him before he gets within ten feet of you, Harper.”

“C’mon.” Tor tried to turn me around, direct me back towards the room with the massive bed, but I wouldn’t be moved.

“What about what I want?” I asked, staring at Mack.

He frowned slightly, obviously not getting it.

“You’ve been all noble, holding me at arm’s length, denying that I was your fated mate, then rescuing me from my terrible date and going down on me, but…

” I shook my head. “What if this isn’t what I want?

” I couldn’t seem to take all of him in.

It was just glances at his hands, his rifle, his eyes, before settling on his mouth.

“You guys have fought so hard to make clear what this whole mate bond thing is and now...” My throat threatened to close up.

“Now you’re telling me I’m going to lose one of you to some dickhead with a death wish? ”

“Harper…” I didn’t catch him setting the gun down.

One minute Mack was there and in the next he was close, bringing my head closer so our foreheads touched.

“I wanted to save you from all of this. I really did, but… life doesn’t always give you a choice.

” When his hand went to the back of my neck, my eyes closed.

“But I will protect you until I take my dying breath, beautiful, that you can be sure of.”

“Is he coming tonight?”

My voice was small, like that of a child’s, not a grown woman’s.

“I don’t?—”

“Is he?”

“I don’t think so. Dax likes to play games. Letting me simmer all night, waiting for something that never happens is more his M.O.”

“Then you’re coming with us.”

Mack could’ve resisted me. His wolf strength would’ve stopped him from moving even an inch, but when I grabbed his shirt, he stumbled after me. All four of us moved down the hall, towards that massive room.

“Who does this belong to?” I asked as we stood in the doorway. “Unless the three of you sleep in a big puppy pile as a team bonding exercise, I’m thinking it doesn’t belong to one of you.”

“It’s the room we built for our mate,” Kieran said, lifting my hair back from my neck, then placing a kiss there. “Mack didn’t want us to build it, but?—”

“We did.” Tor stared into my eyes. “For you, Harper. We built this room for you.”

It was all too much to take in. Mack’s terrible history versus a manifestation of the pack’s dream of the future. As I hovered on the threshold, it felt like I needed to choose one reality or the other. I took a step backwards, the plush carpet of the room swallowing my footfall.

“And what did you dream would happen when I stepped inside?” I asked, watching their eyes track my every movement.

“Heaven,” was Tor’s answer.

“Completion,” was Kieran’s.

“Mack?”

I cocked an eyebrow as one hand went to my hip, the challenge clear. The muscle in his jaw ticced and then with a growl, he stepped inside.

“Everything,” he said, picking me up and then throwing me on the bed. “Everything I tried so fucking hard to not think about but couldn’t stop playing out in my head the moment I saw you.”