Page 27 of Dutiful Wolf's Mail Order Mate

Days, just days ago, I had been trapped and facing a cruel future. Choice and chance brought me to the Dusk Valley pack house, and I was so, so grateful for the umbrella of Rafe’s protection. He had no reason to keep us.

Bloody, murderous evidence stacked up to make us problems not worth keeping.

The creak of the bathroom door jolted me from my thoughts. I whipped around, heart thundering, imagining another threat breaching our sanctuary.

Rafe stood framed in the doorway, his tousled hair and sleepy eyes at odds with the taut lines of his muscled frame and all the purple bruises and welts. Still, those didn’t stop the lazy smile curving his lips as his gaze raked over my naked form.

Didn’t stop the quickening of my pulse, either.

“Didn’t mean to startle you,” he rumbled, his voice still husky with sleep.

I exhaled a shaky breath, suddenly hyper-aware I wore nothing but hot water. “I thought?—”

“That I was someone else?” He arched a brow, amusement dancing in his steel-blue eyes. “After last night, I’d be offended if you weren’t a little on edge.”

Embarrassment flooded my cheeks, but Rafe didn’t give me a chance to respond. In two strides, he stepped in behind me, hands ghosting down my back. The heat of his body enveloped me, his fingers tracing the curve of my hips with maddening leisure.

“How are they?” His voice was a low rumble against the nape of my neck.

I leaned against his broad chest, savoring the solidity of him. Alive and whole. “Elise is fuming and snapping at everyone. Brielle’s still shaken, but Orion’s keeping her calm. Tara is only holding it together taking care of you and Kai, I think.”

Rafe’s fingers tightened on my hips. “And how is he?”

I winced at the sharp crack of memory. The cruel smirk, Kai’s screams. Delicate bones were hard for our kind to heal properly when the fractures tried mending themselves so fast, and even then, there was a chance of lingering issues.

He loved to sketch, too.

“Hurting. So naturally, he’s acting cocky and defiant.” I tried for a lighter tone, but the words rang hollow even to me.

Rafe made a soft sound of acknowledgment. For a few heartbeats, only the patter of the shower filled the silence between us.

“I thought I’d lost you all.”

The anguish in his voice pulled me around to face him. Rafe’s expression was tight, his eyes shuttered as he stared at a point over my shoulder. I reached up, cupping the rough line of his jaw until his gaze met mine.

“We’re here,” I murmured. “Thanks to you.”

His lips twitched in a pained approximation of a smile. “Yeah, well. Don’t thank me yet. We’ve got Bowen’s whole damn pack to deal with now.”

“Gone. The whole damn lot of them.” I huffed out a breath, pushing back the damp hair clinging to his forehead. “Apparently civility wasn’t what they wanted in an alpha.”

Rafe snorted. “Can’t say I was looking forward to a pack numbering in the dozens.”

His turn to attempt humor and not quite land. Something in his eyes remained dark and troubled.

“Someone told me you were never meant to be alpha in the first place.” I traced the fading bruise along his cheekbone, unable to shake the image of him lying crumpled and bleeding on the ground. “But last night, I saw a man who would risk everything—and that was just the trip to the bar.”

His brows shot together and another snort escaped him.

“I saw someone who would do anything for his pack,” I continued. He tilted his head back as my fingertips trailed downward and skimmed the sides of Bowen’s bite. “I saw someone who tried the bloodless way, and wasn’t afraid to show his fangs when there was nowhere else to turn.”

He took my hand in his, raising it to his lips. The tender kiss he placed on my palm sent a jolt of electricity racing through me. His gaze never left mine as he turned my hand over and brushed another kiss across my knuckles.

“I saw a wolf I would be proud to call alpha, and they’re idiots if they didn’t also see that.”

I gulped down the whine of my wolf. Pain carved itself on my heart. I’d thought about the next words while checking on the others, comforting Kai, watching Rafe sleep. My inner animal hated them; I needed to take away any guilt he might carry.

“And that’s why I will understand if you turn Kai and I out. We brought this trouble to your pack, and we will accept banishment if that’s your choice.”

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