Page 20 of Denying Her Mate (The Wolves of Black Mountain #3)

Chapter 20

Sawyer

“I need you to do something for me.”

Roux leans her head against my shoulder, letting out a small, content sigh that makes my heart soar. I love that I have the ability to make my mate happy just with my presence.

“What do you need?”

I peer out over the Sanctuary, looking over the cabins that are starting to feel like home, despite my efforts to revolt against that. I don’t want us to get comfortable here. I have no idea what the future holds, or if it will remain safe for us to stay, but even so I am settled.

“I need you to get Dove away from Jackson for an hour.”

Roux pulls back, glancing up at me with brows drawn together. Concern radiates through our bond and my wolf whines. “What are you going to do?”

It has been almost a week since Dove came to us. In that time, my pack mate has not left her side for more than a few moments, certainly not long enough for us to talk. The depth of feeling he has for this woman is bizarre. He doesn’t know her and yet they seem like kindred spirits, as if they have known each other for an eternity.

I know my brother has tried to talk to Jackson multiple times, as has Wyatt, but there has been no opportunity to pry him away from the woman we plucked out of the hands of hunters.

“Nothing bad,” I say, pulling her back against me.

I wish she was not wearing so many layers so I could touch her skin, but the cold winter air has turned particularly bitter in the past two days. The snow, which had sat like powdered dust over the landscape, has now become a layer of treacherous ice, so we are both sitting on the porch outside Roux’s cabin in our coats, blankets over our legs.

“What does that mean?” She tries to sit up, pushing my hands away when I attempt to pull her back against me. “Sawyer?”

When my answer is not quick to come, she pokes my side. “No secrets, remember?”

A smile tugs at my lips. Of course she would throw those words back to me. She’s right though. We did promise to have no secrets between us, and even though I know she is not going to like my proposal, giving her the truth is the only option. “I want to talk to him without Dove in the way.”

Her expression turns serious. “Jackson will never allow it.”

“I know, believe me, I know.” I have considered every option from locking him in his cabin to kidnapping him and taking him somewhere remote where he can’t reach the woman he’s so besotted with.

We are quickly running out of options.

We are losing our pack mate to this woman, and I do not understand why. There is no mating bond to explain his overprotective zealousness for her. As far as I can tell, there is no connection between them at all, and yet Jackson acts as if she is his.

He has always been the most sensitive among my vargr brothers, and the most easily led. I don’t like the thought that she might be manipulating him as part of some plan from the Order to infiltrate our camp.

The set of Roux’s mouth tells me what I already know. This is not going to be an easy discussion. My mate has a big heart and a kind disposition. She doesn’t see Dove as a threat, but as a victim. I see both, and when it comes to protecting the people in my life who I care about, I can’t risk that she might be the former.

“Whatever you are planning, please don’t.”

“I’m not going to do anything to him,” I assure her. “I just want to talk without her clouding his judgment.”

The cute little dip that appears between Roux’s eyebrows has my gaze gravitating there. It is crazy how smitten I am with this woman. I would die for her, and those are not empty words. I truly mean I would give my life in exchange for hers. It would never be a choice.

“Do you really believe she is an Order plant?”

I don’t need to take more than a second to answer her. I have thought non-stop about why we found Dove and not the woman in Tessa’s vision who we were meant to be saving. As far as I know, Tessa has not seen that woman since we liberated the little blue-haired tau from her captors.

It all seems a little too coincidental, and while I don’t subscribe to conspiracy, I am suspicious enough to question her being here.

“Do you think she’s not?”

Roux considers her words. “I can’t know for sure, obviously, but she hasn’t questioned anything about our lives here, or the wards that keep out our enemies. She has tried to integrate, and it seems like she’s trying to make some kind of life here. She is either what she claims to be, a victim, or she is an incredible actor.”

Dove hasn’t told us everything about her time with the Order of the Crescent Moon, and she doesn’t have to. I can’t deny the trauma that reflects in her eyes. It’s there for anyone to see. There is a haunted darkness that peers out from her soulful irises that cannot be faked, but she has also been a captive for an undetermined amount of time. I’m familiar with concepts like Stockholm syndrome, and the fact that abductees can become aligned with their abductors, wanting to please them more than the people who may have liberated them. I don’t know if Dove has this, but there are times when she talks about the man she called Father, and I see no hate, but rather affection.

It’s those things that make me wary. Dove’s life only remains safe here because for now she is not a threat, but the moment that changes, I will kill her myself.

“She knows things that could help us free the other women,” I say, “but she refuses to divulge information. If she truly suffered as much as she claims, she would want to help the others she left behind, including this mysterious Clover .”

Roux keeps her silence for a moment, contemplating my words before she speaks. “Okay. I’ll do it, but you have to promise me you’ll take Cade with you. Jackson isn’t in his right mind. I don’t want you to risk getting hurt if he feels threatened.”

Since this is an easy promise to make, I agree without fuss. “Deal, but only if you have someone with you too. I don’t think she would be stupid enough to break her cover, but it’s not a risk I’m willing to take.”

“I’ll invite her to a training session. The other girls will be there then.”

A training session involves the entire coven, including my sister-in-law, Halle, and Hester. “Thank you.”

She lifts off the bench, readying herself to stand, but I pull her against me and press a tormenting kiss against her lips before she can. How did I ever live without her in my life? It should scare me how quickly I have become obsessed with Roux, but everything about us feels normal and natural, as if we have always been together.

When I have had my fill of her, I pull back, meeting her eyes. “Be careful,” I command.

“I can take care of myself,” she sasses.

I don’t doubt it for a second, but it isn’t fear of her inability to protect herself that has me saying these words. It’s other people I don’t trust with the safety of my mate. “You are very capable,” I agree, pushing her hair back from her face. “But there will never be a single moment when I do not worry about your safety, Roux. You are mine to protect, and it’s a job I take very seriously.”

The smile that accompanies her eye roll makes me smirk. She likes overprotective and overbearing, which is a good thing, because I am not sure I can change.

“You’re such a romantic,” she accuses, the smile still in place.

“Don’t tell anyone. I have a reputation to protect.”

She snorts. “Of course you do.”

Standing, she straightens her jacket and gives me a coy look, before she makes her way down the steps toward the main house. I don’t move for a while, concentrating on the mating bond, but I sense nothing but contentedness from Roux. This relaxes me enough to let me walk to the gravel path that leads to my brother’s cabin.

I knock on the door, stepping back to shove my hands in my pockets as I wait. My breath mists in front of me, the cold seeming to catch the back of my throat as I draw air in. The weather is set to change in the next few days, and with it, the snow expected to thaw a little.

I hear giggling from behind the door, and I try not to think about what I might have interrupted. My suspicions are confirmed when the door opens and I come face-to-face with Halle in a pair of tiny sleep shorts and a shirt that barely covers her body.

“Please tell me I did not interrupt you having sex. There is not enough bleach in the world that can clean my brain from that image.”

“Are you jealous?”

My brother steps behind her, wrapping his arms around her so he can pull her against his chest.

“Absolutely not,” I say pleasantly.

Cade’s irritation radiates from every tense line of his body.

“We’re busy,” he tells me. “Did you want something?”

Halle scowls at him. “Would it kill you to be nice to your brother?”

“Yes.”

I smirk at her indignation. Always my champion. I like how much it annoys my brother that she defends me. “As much as I would love to stand here and watch the fireworks,” I say, “this is kind of pressing.”

Grudgingly, my brother steps back from Halle, giving her space to move aside so I can enter their cabin. There is stuff strewn around, clothes hanging over the back of the couch, and used mugs and plates on the counter. “I’m getting flashbacks to when we were on the road,” I say as Halle shuts the door behind me and rushes to pick up as many things as she can.

“I’m sure your cabin is sparkling.” She grins at me. “Oh, except you haven’t been there since you and Roux became mates.”

“As much fun as this is, and it is fun, my being here is time sensitive.”

Cade leans against the counter behind him, crossing his arms over his chest. “What’s going on?”

I blow out a breath. “Jackson.”

The mood in the room changes instantly. Halle glances at her mate before bringing her attention back to me. “Is he okay?”

“Aside from being completely besotted with a woman he’s known for five seconds?” I snort and shake my head. “We need to talk to him, Cade. This has gone on for too long. I’m worried he’s in too deep, that she is manipulating him for her own gain.”

I can tell my words hit Halle in the wrong way. “All of you are so suspicious. Can she not just be someone who needs our help? It’s not as if she sought us out. She didn’t stumble across the Sanctuary or fall into our path. In fact, if I remember correctly, she was trying to kill us.”

“Oh, great. She was trying to kill us. She must be on our side.”

Her eyes roll at my sarcastic tone. It also earns me a hard thump to my shoulder from Cade. “Play nice.”

I rub at the pain blooming out from where he hit me, scowling at my brother. He didn’t hit me as hard as I know he is capable of, instead, giving me a warning that I take seriously. “Asshole,” I mutter. “Are you going to come with me or not?”

“Obviously,” he says as if it was never a question.

I turn to his little redheaded mate. “Roux is gathering the coven together to do some training so we can get Jackson on his own.”

I don’t have to ask her if she will go too. “I’ll get dressed,” she says before I can speak.

I didn’t expect the wave of gratitude I feel, or the relief at knowing my mate will have someone there to watch her back. Particularly someone with the strength of magic my sister-in-law possesses.

Cade watches her as she steps into the bedroom, softly closing the door behind her. Then his eyes find mine. “What do you think this will achieve?”

“I don’t know, Cade, but what I do know is that we have allowed our brother to slip away from us. I can’t stand by and watch Jackson be taken in if this is all bullshit.”

My brother considers this, folding his arms over his chest as he stares down at the floor. I know Cade well enough to understand my brother is contemplating the consequences of confronting Jackson head-on. “I think she’s his.”

What the fuck?

Yeah, Jackson behaves as if Dove is his true mate, the one fated to him before he was even a twinkle in his parents’ eyes, but there is no sign of any mating bond between them. It doesn’t make any sense, none that I can unravel anyway. Unless she has used magic on him. Dove is powerful, we all know that, and while she has shown no intention of using her magic to hurt anyone while she has been here, it doesn’t alleviate any of my concerns.

I have seen the women in the care of the Order. The ones that came to attack us were like robots. They were being fed instructions and they carried those out like highly trained dogs. Until I know for certain that Dove is acting on her own volition, I cannot, and will not, let my guard down.

“His what?” I demand, my tone harsh. “There is no bond there.”

“No,” he agrees, “but there is something. They know each other as if they are old friends.”

Old friends… Is it possible? Could Jackson know this woman from before he came to us?

We stumbled across Jackson half crazed, feral, and completely lost. He had been running, his wolf completely in control of him following his first shift. By the time we got him back to the cabin, subdued using Cade’s alpha powers, he was so far gone we had to put him out.

It took him a month to regain himself and to calm his wolf. Cade questioned him, trying to discover where he came from or what happened to him, but Jackson didn’t remember anything other than the pain of his shift.

We’d been trusting back then, not understanding the dangers that lurk within the world around us. All we saw was a vargr wolf in trouble, someone who was like us, and so we helped him.

“Do you think she is someone from his former life?” I’m not sure even as I say the words, but my brother shrugs his shoulders.

“I don’t know. He doesn’t know either, which is why we have to tread lightly. None of us want to push him away, especially not when we are already losing Wyatt.”

Our cousin has become distant since we came to the Sanctuary. I hate that he is unhappy, because I love my cousin and I want the best for him, but leaving is no longer an option. Halle and Roux are safer here than they would be in the outside world, as much as that pains me to admit.

“Wyatt will come around once he stops sulking,” I say, even though I doubt these words myself.

Cade doesn’t agree either, and I can’t blame him for that. There is no denying our little pack, once solid, is fractured. There are no words to describe how much I hate that. These males have been my rock, my friends for so long, it pains me to see how much things have changed between us all.

“He’s worried,” Cade counters.

“We should all be worried,” I agree.

The sound of the door opening stops our conversation mid-flow and I watch my brother track his mate as she steps toward him, dressed in jeans and a thick winter jacket. She rolls to her toes and presses a kiss to Cade’s lips. When she’s had her fill of him, she pulls back and turns to me. “Bring Jackson back to us,” she says. “We need him.”

I don’t realize how true those words are until Cade and I are trudging through the snow toward his cabin. Jackson is part of our pack, part of our family, and Halle is right. We do need him.