Rafe’s voice boomed across the porch. “I can promise you that we are all awake. Your old fan belt made sure of that.”
I swallowed back my retort as Tracey gave me a warning look and she replied, “Don’t be an ass Rafe, everyone is out running as a pack or back here cooking for when the pack returns.”
That made me feel better, slightly. Rafe scoffed. “We are feeding food to the outsiders now.”
If I bit my tongue any harder I would have tasted blood, so I stopped and grinned. Except my grin was anything but friendly. “I wouldn’t be here at all if it wasn’t for you.”
Rafe’s eyes flashed before he turned on his heel. “You’re right, you’d be dead.” And he left it at that. What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Tracey’s lips pressed together and she shook her head. “I don’t know what that means. He doesn’t tell my father much and he won’t open up to anyone anymore. We fear a sickness is settling in because he hasn’t found his mate yet.”
That word just kept popping up in normal conversation around here. “You haven’t picked a mate yet?” I found myself asking her.
Tracey bit the inside of her lip as I followed her into the pack house. The smell of steak hit me right in the face and I could have rolled over and shown my tummy for it. This was getting ridiculous. I rubbed my hands down my arms to get rid of the chill setting into my bare skin.
“Mates are complicated, especially when you’re an Alpha.” Tracey didn’t bother with lowering her voice as we walked into the massive home. “The Alpha has a responsibility to the pack to find a mate soon after he becomes an alpha. If he doesn’t he will get sick and risk the rest of the pack. My father is worried about him.” She threw a daring look at Rafe as we took seats at the long dining table I had sat at a few days before.
“Now we tell the pack all of our secrets?” Rafe hummed before he crossed his massive arms over his chest. Much to my horror, my eyes followed the vascular veins bulging in his biceps. The biceps that were covered in tattoos. “Like what you see, stranger?”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know how we could possibly be strangers after what you did to me.”
“Is there something that needs to be discussed?” a woman asked from the doorway. Her hair was up in a beige towel and a robe was wrapped around her body. I knew immediately she was Rafe’s mother. My mouth went dry.
Rafe wasted zero time. “I changed Jade against her will.”
Rafe’s mother looked between the two of us as her dark eyebrows pulled together. “You better have a good reason for this, Rafe. You’ve been acting crazed lately.”
Tracey threw me anI told you solook from across the table. I rolled my eyes. I didn’t care if he was losing his sanity or not, that didn’t give him a pass to hurt other people. I had the rest of my life to think about and he had ruined it all.
“You ruined my life,” The words slipped past my lips before I could stop them. Rafe’s glowing eyes snagged mine.
“I saved your life,”
“You’re narcissistic,” I bit out.
“One day you’ll understand.” He growled back.
Rafe’s mother blinked. “I can’t handle this. I don’t know why you did what you did, but you have to make it right.”
Rafe grinned with all of his teeth. He looked even more like a psycho. “She’s not a part of our pack, I don’t have to do shit.”
There was a gasp as Rafe’s mother slapped his cheek. “You are a lot of things, but first and foremost, you are the Alpha to this pack. If you don’t start acting like it, I’ll challenge you myself.”
Chapter 22
Jade Rivers
I knew I should have questioned sleeping arrangements sooner but as it grew later and later, I knew my options were limited. Low and behold, I ended up sleeping at the Crimson Manor.
Alice Crimson, Rafe’s mother, walked me up the stairs to my room while Tracey shot me apologetic looks from the side of the stairs. I rolled my eyes. This was just my luck. Alice sighed as we made it to the top of the stairs before she turned to look back at me.
“I know my son seems a bit irrational but I do believe it’s the mating call leading him to act this way.” She continued to the first door on the left and pushed it open. “I also know that if you don’t join a pack, your wolf will kill you.”
I pressed my lips together. Great. Tracey had mysteriously left that one out. I was damned if I did and I was damned if I didn’t. “Maybe I would be okay with that.”
Alice turned to me and shook her head. “No, you wouldn’t be. I see the fight in you. I know you wouldn’t be okay with that at all. I’m not telling you to swear under Rafe. God no, especially with all the trauma he has put you through, but you’ll have to move to find another pack and you might not make it in time.”
I thanked her for her words of wisdom and closed the door behind me. The room smelled like pine and something sweeter, like cinnamon rolls. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. This wasn’t so bad. Rafe had disappeared after he had made sure everyone in the pack ate and I knew I wouldn’t see him in the morning.
