The Captain's Forbidden Mate

Episode 12: THEOFFER

COLE

She did not respond to my texts for four days.

I told myself I understood. After all, I had dropped the bomb on her and sped off like an i***t. Of course, she needed space. I distracted myself with practice, skated until my legs shook, growled at Coach until he was hoarse about a power play we'd already run a hundred times,anythingto stop myself from thinking about that parking lot every ninety seconds. My wolf did not care as much about personal space; he spent the next four nights trying to convince me that pacing outside her building at three in the morning counted as giving her space, and I had to remind myself quite forcefully several times that I did not have claws to rip out my car seatbelt.

On the fifth day, she responded. Not me. To no one, not me. To the team group chat Noah had, incredibly enough, added her to weeks ago, in some idiotic prank I hadn't paid any attention to in the first place

Tell Cole Damien wants to meet. Says he has information about my family. Says he'll only give it to me

It took me four times reading it before understanding what it meant, my stomach already knotting with something unpleasant on the second pass. Of course it would be now. Of course, he'd wait just long enough to let her stew in what I told him, let her feel alone in all this, before presenting himself as the only lifeline left to get real answers.

I was already in my truck when I finished reading it twice, still staring at the phone as I threw the gearshift into drive

Noah stopped me at the door with a hand to my chest, as if that'd ever kept me from doing something stupid in the past

Think, for one second, before you do something we can't undo. Obviously he's playing with her, doesn't mean you charging in there solves anything - it means you walk right into whatever trap he's set up with your feelings plastered on your forehead for him to read.

Noah's grip on my shoulder was tight enough that I actually had to look at him, instead of past him, as he spoke. "You want to actually protect her, use your head for once. Find out what the hell he wants before you go leaping into his arms like some sort of wounded puppy." He stopped there, his voice darkening. "Damien doesn't do anything without an angle, you know that better than anyone - you two have been circling each other since you were about twelve years old at that first summit, and he has never once made a move that wasn't advantageous by himself three steps down the line."

Hated that he was right. Hated that it took me a full minute of glaring at the floor to admit it, my hand still curled around the truck keys so tightly that my palm ached where it met the metal

"Fine,"I said sharply. "We do this smart."

I texted her for the first time in four days. Three little words, because anything more and it would've sounded like everything I actually wanted to say and wasn't prepared to yet

Don't go alone.

Her response was instantaneous, as if she'd been waiting for this exact moment

Then come with me. But Cole - I need you to promise me something first. Whatever he says in there, about my family, about the m******e, about you - you don't get to decide how I react to it. This is mine to carry. Not yours to manage.

Read it three times before answering, because a small, traitorous part of me already knew what she was asking. The one thing an Alpha's son was never taught, really. To let someone else bear the weight and danger of the knowledge, instead of trying to take it from her.

Okay, I typed back. I promise.

Set the phone down afterwards and stared at it for a long, long time, that one word settling like lead in my chest, somehow heavier for being so few letters and devoid of any emoji. Noah watched me from the doorway, arms crossed, saying nothing as I did that, not giving me the satisfaction of saying

I-told-you-so, but somehow that made it worse.

"You're going to break that," he said quietly. Not a question.

"I know,"I said, and hated that I did. "I'm going to try not to. But if it comes down to her plan or her staying alive, I already know which one wins." Already knew, in that next, unspoken truth, which choice I'd make if it came down to that, and some part of me hated how little it hurt to admit it.

Noah shoved off the doorframe and sat across from me in the living room, dropping into the chair with the kind of sigh he usually saved for those long post-game film sessions I always fell asleep through. The kitchen light cast long shadows over the counter, the only sound in the apartment the fridge humming softly as he spoke. "For what it's worth, I don't think she's asking you to sit on your hands if something actually goes wrong, I think she's asking you not to treat every conversation with Damien like a hostage situation before it's even become one. There's a difference between protecting her and hovering so close she can't breathe."

"Since when did you become Mr. Relationship Advisor?"

"Since I've spent the last month watching you white-knuckle your way through the first real emotion you've allowed yourself in four years, probably."

Said it lightly, but I could hear the truth in it, the same way I could hear the sincerity in the next thing he said, because it was the same thing I needed to hear and apparently not nearly enough in that moment. "Just try to trust her a little, Cole. Not because it's easy - because she's earned it, even in the short time you've known her."

Was, I would learn very shortly, a promise I would not be able to keep, no matter how hard I tried to in that quiet kitchen at one in the morning, no matter how much I wanted it to be a promise I could actually keep, no matter how badly I needed it to be in that moment and afterwards when it wasn't, no matter how sure I was as he said it that this time would be different, that I would've truly learned from my mistakes in the past.