Love, Always, Promise [Wolf Creek Pack 5] (15 page)

“He mated that stupid little runt, and you never did anything about it. You just set him up to marry Susanna instead, like a reward. Susanna should have been my wife, not his.”

“How did you know Ethan was my mate, Robert?” Jace asked suddenly. He knew for a fact that he never mentioned it when he went home. He didn’t want his brother or father to even know about Ethan. It was safer that way. “I never said anything to anyone.”

“Oh, please!” Robert snorted. “You reeked of the man. You kept calling out his name when you came home. I thought you’d never shut the hell up.”

“You knew I mated Ethan and you never said anything?” Jace asked. He felt Ethan reach down and grip his hand. He gave the man a little squeeze before dropping his hand and grabbing his arm. He tried to maneuver Ethan behind him again, but Ethan refused to move from his side. Jace was grateful for the support but worried about Ethan’s safety.

“Oh, no, I said something all right,” Robert replied. “I told father, but he said it was because of your silver poisoning. He said you were delusional.”

“And you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you, Robert?” Jace asked. “I wouldn’t have had silver poisoning if you and your goons didn’t jump me and stab me with a silver dagger.”

“You stabbed your brother?” Jace’s father roared. “I thought he was attacked by someone from another pack. That’s what you told me.”

“Oh, sure, blame it on me,” Robert replied. “You get all so upset over a little argument, but you didn’t say a damn thing about JD mating with a man. You just let him go on and on about how much he wanted his little mate, his sweet little mate.”

Jace could feel Ethan’s shock in the tensing of the muscles under his hand. He couldn’t blame Ethan, especially considering what the man heard about the people in his family. He wouldn’t blame Ethan if he washed his hands of the whole lot of them.

“You knew I mated Ethan and you didn’t anything?” Jace asked, disbelief clear in his voice. “I was sick with silver poisoning. You knew and you never told me?”

Robert cackled like a madman. “Oh, he did something, all right. He already had Susanna picked out to be your mate. He sent me back to take care of your little whore.”

Jace suddenly felt cold dread take hold of his body. This wasn’t good. He gripped Ethan’s arm tighter. The man seemed poised to attack Jace’s brother. Jace couldn’t let him be hurt.

Robert sneered as he looked Ethan up and down. “He should have died. Who knew the little runt would be strong enough to survive?”

“What did you do?” Jace growled.

“Oh, please, don’t act so self righteous,” Robert snapped. “I heard you deny mating him with my own ears. You even tossed him across the room. I did you a favor. Who knew you’d get all emotional and come back for him?”

Ethan growled. This time it was a low growl that told Jace Ethan was getting ready to attack. When Robert sneered at him again, this time a dark, lecherous look in his eyes, Jace didn’t think he could hold Ethan back.

“Maybe I should have fucked him before I beat the shit out of him,” Robert said. He chuckled. It sounded cold and bitter. It made Jace shiver. His brother really was nuts. “I would have, too, if he hadn’t been unconscious, but I like my prey to fight back.”

Jace knew even before all of the words left Robert’s mouth that all hell was about to break loose. He wasn’t sure how much of the crap coming out of Robert’s mouth he could believe, but Jace wanted to believe all of it. It meant he was innocent of hurting his mate.

Before Jace could share his joy at the news with Ethan, his mate growled and leapt forward. Jace immediately had visions of blood everywhere, broken bones, and possibly bodies.

He reached out a hand to stop Ethan only to hear a loud bang. He felt a sudden pain in his chest. It was cold. His mind overloaded, and he crumbled to the ground, a splotch of red spreading across his chest. He looked up to see Robert standing there, smoke spiraling up from the gun in his hand.

* * * *

Ethan roared. Without thought of what it might do to him, Ethan shifted into his wolf form even as he leapt through the air at Robert. He heard screaming, felt warm, coppery liquid fill his mouth as he tore into Robert. All he could only see in his mind was Jace falling to the ground.

“Ethan!” someone yelled.

When someone grabbed him, Ethan turned, snarling. It took a moment for the red haze clouding Ethan’s mind to clear enough for him to recognize Joe as the person holding him.

“Let him go, Ethan,” Joe said. “He’s not going to do any more damage.”

Ethan looked down at the bloody body beneath him. He could see that the man still breathed, but just barely. Ethan growled, biting down harder on the arm in his mouth. He didn’t want the man to continue breathing. He caused too much pain to live.

“Ethan, sweetness, you need to let him go.”

He knew that voice. Ethan turned to see Jace squatting down next to him. He held a piece of thick cloth to the wound in his shoulder. The other one he held out to Ethan. Ethan dropped the arm from his mouth and walked over to nuzzle his snout against the hand Jace held out to him.

Jace stroked his fur, checking him over for injuries before dropping the cloth he held and grabbing each side of Ethan’s face in his hand. His face looked very serious.

“Listen to me, sweetness,” Jace said. “Don’t shift back. Stay in wolf form until we can get someone to look at you. Do you understand?”

Ethan nodded his head. Of course he understood. He wasn’t stupid. He just—oh shit! He’d shifted. He wasn’t supposed to shift. The doctor said it might kill him if he did. Ethan whined.

Would he have to stay in wolf form for the rest of his life? Would it kill him if he shifted back? How could Jace marry him if he remained a wolf? Would Jace even want to marry him after this? He attacked Jace’s brother. Jace might be pissed at him.

Ethan whimpered, nudging his nose against Jace’s face. Jace stroked his fur. “It’s going to be okay, sweetness. We’ll figure this out.”

Ethan growled and turned to bare his teeth at Jace’s father.

“Don’t you growl at me, you little upstart,” he shouted. “If it wasn’t for you, my son would be back home where he belongs.”

Ethan took a step closer. He felt Jace’s arms wrap around him and tighten, holding him back from attacking, which was just what Ethan wanted to do. He wanted to tear into the man that caused his mate so much grief.

“Shut the hell up, Father,” Jace shouted back. “Ethan had nothing to do with this. I left because I don’t want to be alpha. I want my own life, not the one you dictate to me. And I want to spend it with the person I choose, not one handpicked by my father.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t be alpha of the pack with a man as your mate,” Jace’s father said. “You will marry Susanna and provide cubs for the pack, just as you should have before you threw your little temper tantrum and moved out to this God forsaken hovel.”

“This little hovel is my home, Father,” Jace replied, “and Ethan is my mate, the only one I’m going to have.”

Jace’s father huffed. “Fine, keep the little runt, but you will come home and marry Susanna.” He grimaced as he looked down at Robert. “Now that your brother is no longer useful to me, I have no other choice but to choose you as my heir.”

“I’m not interested.”

“That’s not a choice that you have, JD. We have a pack that needs an alpha they can look up to, that they can trust. Our pack trusts you. They need you. You have an obligation to them.”

Jace stood to his feet and glared at his father. “I have an obligation to my mate and no one else.”

Jace’s father waved a hand at him. “I already said you could keep him. What else do you want?”

“Do you really think I could ever forget your part in all of this?” Jace shouted. “You sent Robert to kill my mate. My mate, Father, mine! I will never forgive you for that.”

Jace took a few steps closer to his father until the stood nose to nose. “I want you out of my life,” he said. “You’ve done nothing but try to control me all of my life. Well, I’m through, Father. I want you to leave and I never want to see you again.”

“You’re throwing away a good chance at being the alpha of your own pack, JD.”

“What part of this aren’t you getting? I don’t want to be the alpha. Not of your pack and not of anyone else’s pack. I just want to live in the country with my mate and raise horses. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

Jace’s father stared at him for several moments before turning and stalking away. He stopped at the doorway to his car to glance back at Jace. His face filled with so much rage and anger it appeared beet red.

“You will regret this one day, JD. Mark my words,” he said, shaking his finger at Jace. “One of these days, this will come back to bite you in the ass, and when it does, don’t come crawling to me.”

“Never going to happen,” Jace replied. He stepped over and kicked his brother. “Don’t forget to take your heir with you.”

Jace’s father snarled but walked back to lift Robert over his shoulder and carry him to the car. He tossed him into the backseat as if he were a useless piece of luggage then climbed into the driver’s seat. His tires screeched as he turned the car around and sped down the driveway.

Ethan leaned into his mate as Jace sank down onto the ground and wrapped his hands in Ethan’s fur. He licked his cheek. Jace chuckled and stroked his fur. “We’re going to be just fine, aren’t we, sweetness?”

“I think I need to lie down here a minute, sweetness,” Jace groaned as he fell backward. Ethan whined. He forgot that Jace was injured. He quickly scanned the area, spotting Joe and Nate standing off to one side.

He barked at them. Joe cautiously walked over and knelt down next to Jace. When he gave Ethan a worried look, Ethan scooted back and settled down on the ground, his head resting on Jace’s abdomen.

“Okay, Ethan, I’m just going to apply some pressure to Jace’s wound,” Joe explained. “It’s probably going to hurt, but we have to stop the bleeding. Do you understand?”

Ethan wished that he were in human form so that he could roll his eyes. Of course he understood. Why did everyone keep asking him that? Instead, he let out a small woof, then leaned forward to lick Joe’s wrist.

“Good,” Joe said. “Okay, Jace, here we go.”

Ethan whimpered when Jace cried out. He inched forward. He couldn’t help but feel that if he acted faster, Jace never would have been shot.

“He’s going to be just fine, Ethan, don’t you worry.”

Well, Ethan was worried. He couldn’t help it. Jace was shot. Ethan shifted into wolf form after the doctor told him not to. And now some manic father knew where they lived and carried a grudge against them. Things were just peachy.

“It’ll be okay, sweetness,” Jace whispered. “I’m not going to check out now, not when I just found you. Remember? Love, always, promise.”

Chapter 9

Jace chuckled. “Sweating bullets,” he replied to Joe’s question. He glanced at himself in the mirror again, smoothing the lapel of his tux down for the hundredth time. “You’d think that since we’re mated I wouldn’t be nervous. It’s not like he’s not going to show up for the wedding.”

“Don’t feel too bad, Jace,” Joe said. “Nate got a flat tire on the way to our wedding. He arrived almost an hour late. Poor man never fixed a flat before. I was positive he changed his mind.”

Jace glanced at Joe, worry filling him. “You don’t think that—”

“No, lucky for you, I’m having my father drive him here.”

Jace laughed nervously. “Good, good.”

“It’ll be fine, Jace,” Joe assured him. “Don’t worry. Nate and my mother planned this thing down to the last detail. Nothing is going to go wrong.”

Jace frowned. “Yeah, thanks for that, by the way. When Nate said your mom might have a few ideas, I didn’t know that this would turn into the wedding of the century.”

“Dude, you have no idea.” Joe laughed. “This is only half of what my mother did for Nate and me. I swear the entire valley attended my wedding. I haven’t seen a turn out like that since Marla Robinson rode a horse naked through town doing her impersonation of Lady Godiva.”

Jace blinked. “That must have been a sight.”

“Yeah, probably wouldn’t have been so bad if she didn't take an ad out in the local paper a week before hand. When she said she wanted to bring theater to the valley, I don’t think the town council quite had that in mind.”

“It’s never boring ‘round here, is it?”

“Oh, Wolf Creek has its moments, true,” Joe replied, “but I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Everyone here is family, even if not by blood. They’ll always be there to guard your back when there’s danger and to help you celebrate the happenings in your life.”

Jace nodded. “Everyone’s certainly been there for Ethan and me since my father came and Robert shot me. We got home from the hospital and your mother rounded up every lady in the valley to fill our fridge with food. We didn’t have to cook for a week.”

Joe laughed. “Yeah, I’ve been there a time or two. Just stay away from Mrs. Thompson’s green bean casserole. I don’t know what that woman puts in it, but you’ll have heartburn for a month.”

“Green bean casserole?” Jace asked, wincing “I think Ethan dropped that one trying to get it out of the fridge. He’s getting back to normal, but he still has his moments.”

“How is he doing?” Joe asked. “Any lasting effects from his shift?”

Jace shook his head. “No, in fact, the doctor said it might have actually done some good. Ethan won’t ever heal completely, but he has better movement now and he’s in less pain, which is all I really care about. And he can shift now. He’s just not supposed to tax himself too much.”

“I’ll bet it’s a relief to know you didn’t cause his injury, though.”

Jace shrugged. “I don’t know if it really makes a difference. I mean, ultimately, I’m still responsible even if I didn’t actually cause the damage. If my father wasn’t such an asshole, he never would have ordered my brother to come back here and kill Ethan.”

“I don’t think you had anything to do with it, Jace. Your father’s just an asshole. He would have eventually gone after any mate you chose, and you know it. It wouldn’t have mattered if it was Ethan, the man on the moon, or even a woman. If your father didn’t hand pick your mate, he would have been pissed.”