CHAPTER 3
1115 Words
RAFE'S POV
I didn't move. I didn't breathe.
The business card sat between Declan Cross's fingers, white and sharp under the garage lights, like a blade waiting to cut.
"Your mother never told you?" he asked again, softer this time, almost gentle. "I'm not surprised. Eleanor always was good at hiding things."
My mother's name in his mouth made something inside me snap loose.
"Don't," I said. My voice came out low, rough, barely mine. "Don't say her name."
"I held you when you were born, Rafael." His eyes never left mine. "I picked your name myself. Eleanor wanted something soft. I wanted something that meant fire."
My wolf clawed at the inside of my chest, desperate to get out, desperate to make this man stop talking. My hands shook at my sides. I felt my canines lengthen behind my lips, sharp and aching.
"Get out of here," I growled. "Before I do something we'll both regret."
Declan smiled like I'd told a joke.
"You're exactly like him," he said quietly. "Same temper. Same eyes, when they're not glowing like that, anyway." He slid the card back into his jacket without breaking eye contact. "We'll talk again, son. There's a lot you don't know."
Then his gaze slid past me, landing on Jade.
"Take care of yourself, Jade," he said, almost sweet. "Remember what we talked about. The clock is still running."
Jade went pale. Whiter than I'd ever seen anyone go.
Declan turned and walked away, unhurried, like none of this had touched him at all. His footsteps echoed off the concrete until they faded completely, and then it was just me and Jade standing in the cold garage, both of us shaking for completely different reasons.
"What did he mean?" I asked. "The clock is still running. What clock?"
"It's nothing," she said quickly. Too quickly.
"Jade."
"I have to go." She grabbed her bag off the ground and turned toward the elevator, but I caught her wrist before I even decided to move.
The second my skin touched hers, something happened.
It was like touching a live wire. Heat shot up my arm, straight into my chest, and my wolf went completely silent for the first time since the fight on the ice. Not silent like sleeping. Silent like listening. Like recognizing something.
Jade gasped and yanked her hand back, cradling it against her chest like I'd burned her.
"What was that?" she whispered.
I stared at my own hand like it belonged to someone else.
I knew exactly what that was. Every wolf knew. It was the spark, the pull, the thing the old stories talked about, the thing my mother used to whisper about late at night when she thought I was asleep.
A mate bond.
But that was impossible. I'd met this woman two hours ago. I didn't even know her last name until tonight.
"Nothing," I said, forcing my voice steady. "Static electricity. Cold air does that."
She didn't believe me. I could see it in her face. But she was too rattled, too scared from whatever had just happened with Declan, to push it.
"I need to go home," she said. "Please. Just let me go."
I let go of her wrist immediately. The loss of contact felt wrong, worse than wrong, like something had been ripped away that had only just been given to me.
"I'll walk you to your car," I said.
"You don't have to."
"I know." I fell into step beside her anyway. "What's between you and Declan?"
Her jaw tightened. "Nothing."
"Jade. He just told a complete stranger that he's my father, and then he looked at you like he owns you. That's not nothing."
She stopped walking. For a second I thought she might actually answer me, but then her eyes filled with tears, and she blinked them away fast, like she was furious at herself for almost crying in front of me.
"He's not your father," she said instead. "I mean... he might be. I don't know. But whatever he told you, don't trust a single word that comes out of his mouth. He's not who he pretends to be."
"Then who is he?"
"Someone I owe a debt to," she said quietly. "And someone who never lets anyone walk away clean."
We reached her car, an old beat up sedan with rust along the wheel wells, parked under a flickering light at the back of the garage. She fumbled with her keys, her hands still shaking.
"Jade," I said, and something in my voice made her freeze. "Whatever he's got on you. Whatever this debt is. I can help."
She laughed, but it wasn't a happy sound. "You don't even know me."
"I know that man scared you so bad you couldn't even look at him." I stepped closer, close enough to catch her scent again, vanilla and something underneath it, something warm and wild that made my wolf press right up against the surface of my skin. "And I know my body just did something it's never done before, the second I touched you."
Her breath caught. Her eyes lifted to mine, gold meeting brown, and for one long second neither of us moved.
"I felt it too," she admitted, so quiet I almost didn't hear it. "I don't know what it was. But I felt it."
The pull between us was so strong it physically hurt to keep my distance. I wanted to close that last bit of space, wanted to find out if her lips were as soft as they looked, wanted to bury my face against her neck and breathe her in until the ache in my chest finally stopped.
I leaned in.
She didn't pull away.
Then headlights swung into the garage, sweeping across us in bright white light, and a car horn blared twice.
Jade jumped back like she'd been caught doing something wrong.
A black SUV rolled to a stop a few feet away, and the back window slid down.
Cynthia Cross leaned out, her smile sharp as glass, her eyes locking onto Jade like a predator that had finally found its prey.
"There you are," she said sweetly. "Jade Langford. I've been looking forward to meeting you."
She glanced at me, then back at Jade, and her smile widened.
"My father said you'd be working here," Cynthia said. "He didn't mention you'd already be cozying up to my fiance."
I felt the ground tilt under me.
Jade's face went completely white.
"Your... fiance?" she whispered.
Cynthia's eyes sparkled with cruel delight as she looked between the two of us.
"Rafe didn't tell you?" she asked. "We're getting married in three months."
- Writer
