Chapter 41
Rafe
My chest felt empty. I knew Jade was valid in her feelings but I had done nothing but watch her walk away. My wolf surged back to the surface and I had to fight to keep him away. This was exactly what I didn’t want to happen. My damn anger and pride had gotten in the way, again. Now all that was left was to sit here and stew over what I had done. I could barely hear the guys talking in the next room over. The sound of the tv drowned out what they were actually saying. They hardly ever watched tv so I knew they were trying to talk without anyone eavesdropping on their conversation. I pushed the door open and crossed my arms over my chest.
Knox’s cheeks turned pink. “What’s up, Alpha?”
It didn’t get past me that Mav wasn’t in this little meeting. I crossed my arms over my chest. Duncan was the only one that didn’t look comfortable with what was going on. Archer kicked his boots up on the table and grinned like nothing was wrong.
“What are we discussing?” I sat down across from Gabriel. He shifted nervously.
Knox licked his front teeth. “You,”
“Oh?” I had figured as much.
Gabriel sighed and then shifted again. “Yes, how you put yourself in danger last night and Mav let you.”
Archer snorted. “All for some tail. Does he think we are all okay with being celibate? I would love to be out there surfing the pussycat lane but here I am.”
Knox leaned forward and scratched the back of his head. “Look, you could have gotten killed last night. That’s the last thing that any of us want to happen. You could have led them all back here.”
I cracked my neck. “They wouldn’t have been able to make it through the wards.”
“What if they tried? What if they knew a loophole and could use it with you in their possession?” Duncan said as he crouched in the corner.
I squared my shoulders and prepared to argue but all the fight left me. I had done enough fighting the night before. The last people I wanted to fight with were the men in this room. “I screwed up.”
“We should probably talk to Mav about this too.”
I laughed. “Probably not, I think he learned his lesson. The girl he slept with wasn’t all that pretty without her glamour. The moment she touched Mav it washed away. Wasted the entire night on this one girl who is actually a troll.”
Archer’s brows shot up. “Wait seriously?”
I nodded. “Yeah, he stopped my fighting to drag me back home. He was beyond done with the night at that point.”
Knox leaned forward. “What happened with Jade?”
I didn’t know if I wanted to talk about that but I knew they wouldn’t leave me alone until I did. “She’s upset about the brawling last night, like all of you. But you’re all much more forgiving than she is.”
Knox shrugged. “She isn’t invested yet. It hasn’t been long enough for her to connect with you like that. But she also knows that if you needed to fight that bad, you could have waited for us. We were all feeling the call of war after that mess.”
My shoulders slumped. “What do I do?”
Duncan stood up. “You could start with apologizing.”
Archer shook his head. “That won’t be good enough.”
I rolled my head on my shoulders. “Then what do I do?”
Mav took that moment to walk in and lean against the doorway.
“You continue to show her who you are and you don’t let this get in the way of your progress. You act as if she was ready to move in with you to begin with.”
“She told you all of that?” Archer’s brows pulled together.
Mav shook his head. “No, she didn’t have to. Iknowher.”
