Right Wolf, Right Time (17 page)

“Yeah, yeah. Keep the big ears away, would you? I know they’re going to try to listen at the door.”

“Fuck. Fine,” Axel snarled and left. Outside, his voice could be heard nagging the other Ac-taw to move along.

Rafe sighed again.

“You should have that asthma taken care of.”

“Monty, give it a rest. Your mate needs you. She’s scared and hurt. She’s all alone.”

“What the hell do you know about it?” Monty paced, feeling the walls of his last sanctuary closing in on him. To say his nightmares had been off the charts lately due to being locked up at the Folly was an understatement. Apart from his mate, his wolf was going nuts.

“I know what it was like for you with Norris,” Rafe said quietly. “My brother spent some time there, and everyone used to talk about Demon, the wolf that got away. Sophie had a hard time too. You need to talk to her about it.”

“She won’t talk to me.”

“Make her,” Rafe growled. “Why are you really not going after her? Don’t you want her anymore?”

“I fucking love her. Okay?” Monty ran his hands through his hair. “But I put her in that danger. Norris was after me. She nearly died.” He felt shaky and uneven. His wolf didn’t know where to go, what to do. He only knew his mate didn’t want him, and it hurt so bad, he wanted to lie down and die.

He hadn’t felt Rafe move, and then the bastard was just there, putting his arms around him. He struggled, not ready to be touched again, not after all he’d done to his mate. “Easy, Monty. It’s okay. Just relax.” The soothing lull of the alpha’s power washed over him in a crushing wave of calm that had him relaxing for the first time in weeks. “Sophie loves you, and she needs you. Let go of your pride and find her before some other wolf snaps her up. No, not me.” He hugged Monty harder to stifle his elbows. Rafe chuckled. “I have a few female wolves looking after the ferals in the mountains. I keep track. Sophie’s still pack, and I’m still her alpha. I could be yours too,” he offered.

Monty didn’t know. He loved Burke and the guys. Sophie’s best friends lived on the ranch. But Burke hadn’t affected him like this, calming him. Rafe had some weird mojo Monty wasn’t sure he liked.

“It’s up to you. The offer’s there. Just…don’t tell Axel if you decide not to join. He’s already a pain in my ass,” Rafe muttered.

Monty laughed, and Rafe let him go.

Then Monty warned, “You say one word about that hug, I’ll deny it.”

The horror on Rafe’s face told him the secret would remain between them.

“Good.” When Rafe just looked at him, he swore. “Well, shit.”

“Well what?” Rafe waited.

“I want to see her, more than anything. But I don’t think she wants to see me.” And it hurt.

“You need to talk to her, man. Fear is keeping you apart. Fear of rejection. I get it. But it’s her fear you need to work on. Look at what it’s done to her wolf.”

Monty knew. Poor Sophie had spent so long repressing herself. After being reminded of Ted and his family again, he could only imagine what her life had been like growing up.

“Fine. I’ll go see her.”

Rafe pulled out a slip of paper with coordinates and slapped it against Monty’s chest. “Her den. But you didn’t get that from me, and you know nothing about my eyes in the forest. Then again, any tracker worth his salt could find her up there.” Rafe’s eyes narrowed.

“I know where she is. I just… I’ll go see her. Okay?”

Now eager, Monty wanted nothing more than to escape the office and run to his mate on four feet.

“Good. Go.”

Monty headed for the door. “I am. And stop telling me what to do.”

Rafe groaned. “Right. You’re never joining the order. I get it.”

Monty flashed him a grin and left. He had a mate to win.

It took him a few days to figure out how best to get her to talk to him. She hunkered down in that cave, and anytime he or anyone else ventured close, she lost it, snarling and snapping those teeth as if she meant to kill. Her eyes glowed like beacons from hell. He liked the thought of his pretty wolf so lethal.

He left her a set of earrings she ignored.

He tried a book, a painting and a few of his lady magazines. Still nothing.

Then, using his head, he retrieved a pretty red scarf from his truck, all soft and fuzzy to the touch. He waited for a few hours, thinking she’d reject it too, when she tiptoed out of her cave. She smelled him on it, obviously, but she took it into her den anyway.

Encouraged, he spent the next few days leaving her treats. A dead squirrel, a few packs of steak, because hell, he wanted her to eat right. But he refrained from rabbits, conscious of what her uncle had once done.

She took his offerings, and he watched from afar as she came out of the den to claim them. Her wolf was so pretty. Soft and gray, like her eyes, but patterned to blend in with the snow and dark trees all around them. The weather in the mountains reminded him that winter would reach them all too soon. October had already neared its end. Time passed too quickly for recriminations and what-ifs.

God, in just another seven months, he’d have a kid.

The wooing shit was great, but he had little patience for it. The next time he left her something, he waited close by, downwind. When she trotted out to grab it, he slid inside the den and hid, away from her neat little bed of blankets and his scarf. It felt much warmer, and safer, and he could see why she liked it in here.

She trotted in with a pack of chicken he hadn’t removed from the Styrofoam. When she saw him, she froze.

She looked so damn cute, her teeth wrapped around the meat, her thick fur bristling with warning. But those eyes, they looked bright and sad.

He shifted back, wanting to tell her out loud how he felt. “I’m sorry. And I love you.”

She didn’t move.

He shivered, no longer covered in fur, but he didn’t want to spook her. “I was an idiot for not coming sooner. But I was hurt you didn’t tell me about Ted.”

She blinked at him and dropped the food. But she didn’t leave, and she didn’t speak.

He continued, “But more than anything, I was mad at myself, because all of this was my fault.”

Sophie sat on her haunches and watched him, and he smelled their shared grief.

“I want to hug you, to hold you. I should have gone after Norris a long time ago.” He didn’t want to, but he needed to tell her the truth. “I was afraid,” he said softly, not meeting her gaze. “He messed me up. A lot. And I didn’t ever want to see him again. Then when I ran into him with Dean and Stacey, I felt that terror, and I shook with it. I was weak, and because of that weakness, you were almost killed.” God, it hurt to say. The shame nearly overwhelmed him.

And then he felt her nose against his shoulder, and she licked him. She was so close he couldn’t help but hug her, praying she could forgive him when he still couldn’t forgive himself.

“God, Sophie. He killed and hurt so many people I cared for. When I saw him with you, when he did that to your wrist, I wanted to kill him. And then you put yourself between him and me. You taunted him.” He grabbed her by the ruff of her neck and stared into her eyes, furious his were welling with tears. “He shot you.” Monty rubbed her belly, where the bullet had passed through, conscious his child now sat somewhere inside her there. “My mate. The one person I’d swore I’d never let come to harm. And he nearly killed you while I stood by. Helpless.”

A bright light sparkled, and he felt her fur recede as warmth trickled over his fingers. Then smooth flesh was under his hands, and he hugged her tight.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She kept apologizing while she sobbed and held on to him like her life depended on it. “It was all my fault. He was looking for
me
. He wanted to hurt me, and he got to you through me.”

“Honey, no.” Monty forced her to pull back. Her hair looked a little longer, her eyes impossibly gray. “You grew up with that bastard, but none of it was your fault. He killed your parents. Not you.” He understood what Rafe had been talking about when he noted her deep grief that continued to grow. “Hell, Sophie. You’re not that dumb.”

She blinked at him through tears. “What?”

“You can’t possibly think you’re the reason Ted Norris went apeshit? He killed your parents, his own kids, and more Ac-taw than I want to think about. The guy refused his wolf. You know what that can do to a person.”

She tentatively nodded. “My wolf used to make me so angry growing up. But Uncle—Ted—would force me to bury it. To be sweet and nice. A coward,” she whispered. More tears poured down her cheeks. “I could have saved your friends. Even you. But I didn’t.”

“So you knew I was down there, under that barn of his he used to brag about?”

“Well, no, but I—”

“And did you laugh and enjoy the pit fights? Did you name me Demon? Did you tell him when I tried to escape the first time?”

“N-no. Of course not. I would have—”

“You would have died. Your uncle was a psychopath. He enjoyed killing. And I guarantee, if I hadn’t ripped his throat out,” he said, enjoying the remembrance, “he would have killed you, me and anyone else he could get his hands on. He was made wrong, Sophie. And that’s not on you or me or anyone but him.”

“But I’m his niece. What if I’m wrong too?” She sounded so forlorn.

He started laughing.

“It’s not funny.” She finally looked angry with him.

“You’re a drama queen! I knew it. Had to be something wrong with you. You cook like a dream, actually like me and you’re into porn. You have the sweetest body I’ve ever seen, and you’re nice. So there we go. You’re melodramatic. But that’s okay. I can handle that.”

She just stared at him before a slow smile worked over her lips. She snickered, then laughed harder, her tears drying up, and thank God, because she killed him when she cried.

“Sophie, I love you. I miss you every second you’re not with me. And if I have to listen to the pride telling me what to do and how I went wrong anymore, I’m going to lose my mind and murder them all in their sleep. Even Rachel.”

“Rachel too, huh?”

“Burke’s mate is pretty and may seem nice, but she’s almost wolf-like when she gets the notion in her head a woman’s been mistreated.”

“But you—”

“Let pride and my own issues keep us apart. You’re not to blame for any of it. No,” he forestalled her objection. “I get why you didn’t tell me about Dickhead being your uncle. I really do.”

“O-okay.” She grew quiet, and he grabbed a blanket from her pile and wrapped it around them to still his chattering teeth.

“What now? I can see you’re thinking, and it can’t be good.”

She tried to smile but failed. “Where will we go?”

“Um, I was thinking of expanding the cabin, now that we’ll have another mouth to feed.” He rubbed her belly, still in awe of the life they’d created.

“But people know. I can’t go back there.”

“To the pride?”

She glared. “You know what I’m talking about. To Cougar Falls.”

“Again with delusions of grandeur. I hate to break it to you, but only a few wolves heard what you and Ted talked about before I killed him. With my bare paws and teeth, I might remind you.”

“Quit bragging.” But he’d gotten her to smile for a second time.

“Honey, you helped bring down one of the biggest Hunter’s Follies in years. You’re a celebrity. And this scary feral mystique you have going is attracting all kind of wolf attention we don’t want. Did you know Rafe is instituting some foolish threesome thing with the order? Imagine one girl and two guys trying to live like a unit.” He scoffed.

“Hmm. Really?” She seemed lighter now.

“No way. Uh-uh. You’re mine and only mine. I’m not sharing you with another guy.”

“How about just his cock?”

She threw him with the frank talk, and the sly woman knew it. Especially because he continued to grow thicker and longer beneath her curvy little derriere.

“Sophie,” he growled. “So are you coming back with me or what? Because if not, move over. This den is big enough for both of us and a little one.”

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and nuzzled his nose. “I love you so much. Are you sure, Monty?”

“Sure about what?” he muttered, positioning her hips over him so he could better…appreciate…her curves.

“About me. Us. Living in town as a couple.” She paused, toying with his hair, and he had to fight not to howl and shove into her in one hot push.

“Sophie, I claimed you. You’re mine. I love you, and the whole town loves you. Ben at the grocery store is beside himself missing you. The bears don’t know what to do with you not helping them out at the store, and the wolves are tired of driving by and not being able to ogle the sexiest she-wolf in town. Put me out of my misery and marry me already.” He reached for his jeans and swore. “Shit. I forgot your necklace—you know, the one you left behind at my place?” He’d thought he’d died a thousand times that day, seeing her rejection up close in that pendant left on his dresser.

“I didn’t want to give it back.” Her big gray eyes seemed so sad. “But I didn’t think you wanted me wearing it.”