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Chapter thirty-seven

Callan

The crowd drives me back and follows me as I retreat. Step by step, ignoring my fear, ignoring my silent screaming protests. The white flashes, the cameras in my face. I can’t think. I can’t speak.

“Did you know about the Raines sex scandal?”

I blink, unable to get my mind around it. It’s so stupid, they are only willing to hear me rip Raider down and throw him to their proverbial wolves. I won’t!

I end up with my back against the wall. I still can’t speak, and I still can’t find my voice.

I’m howling inside. I’m screaming so loud.

Kit is in the locker room, and he’s screaming, and I’m stuck. I’m stuck in my head. My voice is locked in my throat. I have no voice! My body is trembling, and I’m pressed against the wall, desperate to get away. My mouth fills with saliva, and I flinch when someone pushes into me.

This is my hell. My nightmare.

My father is snarling about Kit, storming back and forth, and Kit sits there, head down. I can’t say anything. I never defended him.

I don’t deserve Kit.

When Kit says we shouldn’t let anyone know Raider is our pack, I bite my tongue until it bleeds, swallowing the howling protests inside, and we let Kit treat himself like a dirty secret.

When Raider’s parents suggest he make Bethany his omega, it rips me apart. When Kit storms off because Raider says he’ll think about it, I follow, but I don’t have the words for either of them, and I know that if Raider wants to choose his sister over us or if we will let him. I would have let him back then.

I’m voiceless.

When the hockey coach sits us down and asks point-blank if I love Raider Raines and am I involved with him and then expresses his hope that we wouldn’t be so stupid as to ruin Raiders chances, I stay silent. Listening as he outlines how we should not be seen together in public or in the open. Raider should date other people.

I don’t say no.

The world doesn’t want us to be together, and I don’t say anything to defend us.

As years passed, I stayed silent, lost in the pain of being unable to voice what I want. To protect our pack. My pack.

I see all that in a fraction of a second. I relive my life in that one moment.

I hate that person. I hate the silence. My voice is loud, and it's strong.

Ryann.

She needs us.

“GET BACK!”

My bark hits everyone around us and pushes them back. Savage expressions of hunger are extinguished as reporters feel the weight of my bark.

I’m about to speak when I glance at a tablet that’s held out towards me. What the hell? I take the tablet from the reporter and turn it around and press play on the video.

Raider moves over and in the woman, his shoulders bunching and flexing as she moans like a fucking porn star beneath him. I stare at it until I finally spot what’s wrong with this picture.

It’s not Raider.

“Bailey?”

I pull the tablet up closer to my face and study the shoulders, catching the hints of tattoos.

I let out a laugh. It’s sudden and wildly happy.

“This isn’t Raider, it’s his cousin Bailey.”

The cameras click faster and stop.

“Bailey?” a young woman asks with a frown. “How do you know?”

“Yes, Lia Raines has a half brother. Bailey Raines. He and Raider could be twins, but my Raider, my pack mate whose bond I wear,” I announce, “does not have tattoos.”

I stop, shocked and pleased.

I spoke.

I found the words.

“It is Raider- ”

“No!” I say clearly. “This isn’t Raider. My pack mate doesn’t have tattoos, I just told you that. This is Bailey Raines.”

The guy with the tablet flips it around and zooms in. Several people lean in close, looking over his shoulder, but I’ve lost interest now.

“Excuse me, I need to make sure that Raider is okay.”

“Is this the end of his hockey career?”

I turn back, standing up straight and narrowing my eyes. “Whether it is or it isn’t, that is Raider’s decision. My place will be at his side, where I have been since I met him when I was fifteen years old. Whatever he chooses to do, I will support him. Now, I think today has been stressful enough for Raider. If you could return your attention to the game, that would be much appreciated. And no more slander about the actress, please. Raider has been devoted to our pack since we met in high school.”

I don’t know if they listen to me or they’re just bored, but it feels good to finally put my heart into words and defend the alphas I love.

I’m walking away when I spot Kurt, I rush after him, but he’s speaking to someone I don’t know. They look agitated and panicked.

“Listen, I’m telling you, his blades were damaged. They’re checked before every game, the guys check them each proactively. This isn’t left to fate. But Ainsel didn’t do this. You know he’s meticulous about the blades. He would never, ever sabotage a player like that.”

“Look, I don’t know what to tell you. It’s fucked up. But the police are coming for Ainsel. There’s no one else who could have done it.”

“But who was the last person to check them after him? Who was on the security video skulking around the place at two this morning?”

They move out of my hearing, so I only hear the mumbled reply, but it doesn’t make sense. As I watch, they enter the inner sanctum of the team’s rooms where I can’t go.

I stand perfectly still, struggling to breathe.

Someone tried to hurt Raider on purpose?

I reach out, holding onto the wall for support.

The bond opens, and all I feel is terror. It is so strong my knees buckle. I catch myself on the wall, stunned for a moment until I can work out who it’s coming from. The answer terrifies me.

I whip around, scanning the crowds, frantic.

“KIT!”