Page 31 of The Enforcer’s Rejected Mate (Red River Rejected Mates #1)

Chapter

Twenty

THORNE

“ W hat in the seven hells was that about?” Clover pokes me in the chest as she stomps by.

She’s heading to the guest quarter kitchens to get dinner for Cordelia.

I normally would make my exit to make my rounds through the Keep and into Red River, but tonight I don’t.

I follow behind Clover to the kitchens. I want to see what she’s serving the omega for dinner.

Cordelia, not omega.

I grit my teeth. Even using her name feels dangerous. Like I’m handling a too sharp blade with fingers numb from the cold. I squeeze my hand tight and shake them out like I can chase away the ghost of what Cordelia’s skin feels like.

“What was what about?”

Clover shoots a glare behind her shoulder at me. “That state you brought her here in? You ever heard of a car?”

She’s being a little shit right now. I’ve got a truck everyone in town knows about because I’ve given everyone that needs it a ride home. I’d hauled that scared hiker into town in it just that morning.

“I didn’t run into her at the northern trailhead.

I came on her at the Meadows. I don’t like how she came in anymore than you do.

If there was another way, I would have seen to it but we hauled in a bunch of drunk hunters too.

It’s just one of those things,” I say, even though I know it didn’t have to be one of those things.

I could have done more than let her run along with the Defenders.

I could have carried her the entire way.

I might have too, if we hadn’t been hit by that damnable lightning.

That lightning strike made it different. Changed what others would think we were to each other.

What you are to each other, my wolf reminds me pointedly. Fucker. He’s annoying the hell out of me lately. A good shifter is in tune with their wolf but lately I’ve been on patrol so much that I think the line has gotten blurry. It’s the only explanation for his insistence that the omega is ours.

Clover harrumphs and keeps stomping along but she does stop giving me shit for the way I brought Cordelia in.

When we walk into the kitchens the scent of stew and fresh bread fill the air.

The quest quarter kitchens are a decent size, enough to fit Clover and the few staff she has working with her to manage the quest quarters.

Her job in the pack is to work in the Keep as the guest overseer.

She’s good at it, always ready with a comfortable and welcoming space for any visitors the pack gets.

There’s a pot on the stove bubbling merrily away that Clover hustles over to.

“I wasn’t expecting anyone tonight but thankfully, I was planning for the week so I went ahead and made a big batch of stew. Used up some of the venison you brought. Why don’t you sit down and I’ll get you a bowl. There’s fresh bread too.”

I nod and take a weary seat at the big table in the middle of the kitchen. I like the idea that the omega will eat the venison I brought in. I took down a buck last week and made sure to make my usual rounds with the meat.

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

I watch Clover start to dish out the stew. Does she like stew? Does she like venison? What if she doesn’t? What if she prefers rabbit? I press my palms to my thighs hard to keep myself sitting before I go out and hunt down a rabbit for her just in case .

Not her.

Cordelia.

Her name feels right even when I’m just thinking it.

Holy shit, I’m fucked. I bury my head in my hand and slump forward, elbows on the table while Clover serves me dinner.

It’s only when she sets down the stew and slides a plate of bread towards me that I lean back in my chair and she gets her first real look at me.

I know it’s the first because of the way Clover gasps.

“What happened to you?”

I look down at myself. Even though the blood got washed away by the storm, there’s evidence of the gunshot.

The wound is healing fast but even shifters don’t heal instantly.

There’s an angry red pucker where my skin is knitting itself back together near the center of my chest that not even my tattoos can hide. I make a face looking down at myself.

“Well that fucked up gran’s tattoo,” I tell her, examining wings I got in honor of our grandmother. She kept doves and had an affinity for birds all her life. I still can’t see a bird without remembering her joy over her flock.

Clover rubs her temples. “What. Happened.” She takes care to enunciate each word. A surefire sign she’s mad.

I shrug and lean forward to grab a hunk of bread.

“I got shot.” I don’t tell her about the lightning.

If I do, she’s gonna be hearing wedding bells and mating ceremonies.

Cordelia will walk right out to Clover planning exactly how she’s gonna see her walk down the aisle to me.

Most of the pack would do the same if they knew what happened in the Meadows.

I hunch my shoulders over and eat. I can’t let them find out.

“What do you mean you got shot? How do you just get shot?”

“We both did.”

“What?!” Clover smacks the bread that I’ve just started to butter out of my hands.

I groan and look up at her. “Really? Clo?”

“Don’t really, Clo me! You just told me you and Cordelia got shot and that’s not even touching on the fact that I know you were all over her, so when did you get shot? Before or after? Because never have I ever known you to-” I interrupt Clover because I know where she’s going with this.

I scrub a hand over my face. “During.”

Her mouth falls open. “Oh my seven hells,” she whispers and pulls out a seat to drop into. I go back to buttering my bread and eat a mouthful of stew.

“Pretty much my train of thought too. It was the hunters we’ve got locked up.

Handed them off to Lucian and his crew. They’ll keep an eye on them until morning when Ronan will give them a hearing.

I suspect I’ll be taking them back to Oak Fast and handing them off to the Sheriff to deal with. We don’t need that trouble.”

It’s true. We don’t. Not with the ferals on the loose and us being wolves. Oak Fast has come a long way to seeing wolves differently but there’s prejudices that have deep roots in the shifter town and some only see our kind as predators.

Clover nods. “It’ll be better if they handle it.

I grunt in reply and keep eating. Thankfully, Clover doesn’t keep pressing me with questions. She drops a beer on the table next to my bowl when I’m done with the bread.

“Figure you can use one of these.”

I grab the beer and stand with a stretch. “You have no idea. Is this her dinner?” I ask and go to the counter to look down at the tray Clover’s set out. There’s a bowl of stew and a serving of bread. I frown. There’s not enough meat in this stew.

“Yeah, that’s for-um, what are you doing?”

“Adding meat.” I open up the stew pot and fish out the biggest chunks of venison I can find along with potatoes.

The bowl is nearly overflowing when I’m done with it.

I move on to the bread and cut an extra thick slice of bread and slather on a healthy serving of butter.

I’m so intent on the food that I don’t even register Clover’s question.

“What the heck are you doing?”

“You didn’t put enough food on here for her, Clo.”

“I gave her as much as I gave you.”

“Not enough.”

Clover falls silent and just watches me fuss over the tray of food before she shrugs and adds a beer to the tray I’ve been prepping for Cordelia. “She probably can use one of these too.”

“Is that for me?” A soft voice sounds from the door.

Cordelia.

She’s not mud-caked or soaked, not the way I remember her looking when she stood in the storm proud, strong, fucking sexy as hell.

Now she looks…younger. Innocent. Fresh faced and rosy-cheeked after a good hot scrub.

Her hair is damp and in a braid. She’s standing in loose fitting grey sweatpants and a cozy cream and red-striped sweater that matches the striped socks she’s wearing.

My wolf howls with delight. He wants to run right up to Cordelia and push his head into her side. Curl up at her feet while she sleeps and keep her warm.

“Cordelia, hi! Did you have a good soak?”

She nods shyly at Clover. “I did and that cupboard was amazing. It had everything I needed, just like you said. It’s more magic, isn’t it?”

“I spelled it myself,” Clover tells her proudly.

Cordelia gives my cousin a wide-eyed look. “You’re so powerful.”

Clover blushes hard and waves her off. “I-well, it’s only a small thing really but it did take me a week. I can show you how it works if you want.”

“Really?”

Clover jerks a thumb at where I’m standing beside the tray with the butter dish and knife still in my hands. “Sure but your dinner-”

Cordelia ducks her head. “Here, I’ll bring it with us.” She looks up at me. “I, ah, I can take that if it’s okay.”

If it’s okay.

My jaw clenches because where is the spitfire that attacked the hunter? The one that outran me on the trail today? She’s gone. Has been since she started trying to bargain her way into the pack.

There’s something delicate about Cordelia right now. Breakable. Like a fresh cut flower that makes her seem fragile. But when she looks at me again, there’s a hint of the woman I had in my arms in the meadow. I want that woman here with me now.

I toss the butter and the knife onto the counter with a clatter that has Clover gasping. I ignore my cousin and keep my eyes on Cordelia’s. “You’re more than welcome to come take it.” I cross my arms and hitch a hip against the counter while I wait to see if she takes the bait.

For a second none of us moves. I don’t even think Cordelia breathes but then she does. Her breath comes out in a long whoosh before she looks up at me and lifts her chin.

“Thank you, Enforcer.” Her voice is still soft but there’s steel there.

Good. So the woman I almost had is still there.

She comes close, one step and then another.

I don’t move a muscle as she approaches.

She’s right beside me, body so close I can feel her warmth, feel the whisper of the wool of her sweater sleeve when she reaches to take her tray from the counter.

I inhale to see if I can pick up on her scent but there’s nothing there again.

Just the sweet-smelling soaps that she used to clean up.

Chamomile and rose, something sugary but nothing that’s her. Not that I can tell anyway. I frown. Where is her scent?

“Thank you,” Cordelia says to me. She peeks up at me through her lashes.

Fuck, she’s beautiful. There’s only a few inches between us, maybe less.

If I wanted to I could lean down and close the space, claim her sweet mouth again.

I like the idea so much that I start to lean into her while Cordelia turns and does her best to angle away from me.

A valiant effort to not touch me even though she’s this close.

I stop her when I put one hand down on the counter. I lean down and look her in the eyes. “Clover made it.”

Cordelia bobs her head, taking that as her cue to hurry towards Clover. “Thank you so much. Everything looks wonderful. I haven’t eaten a ton today.”

Clover smiles at Cordelia but shoots me a death glare as she ushers the omega into the hallway.

“It’s venison stew and sourdough bread. I hope you like venison.”

“It’s my favorite.”

I watch them go and make a mental note of Cordelia’s preferences for my next hunting trip.