Page 74 of Howl for the Gargoyle

I double-checked the lock on Hannah's apartment as I stepped outside and then paused on her stoop, considering flying home to my apartment. But Chicago hadn't changed its mind about winter, and the wind was brutal, beating hard against my coat and the tight fold of my wings the second I stepped outside. My only route home would be to fly up along the lake, and I'd be fighting against wind the whole time. Finding the bus wouldn't take much longer, and it would be less likely to leave me sore, exhausted, and frozen.

I ducked my head, hunched, and drew my wings in tight, turning to march north up Lake Shore.

I made it as far as the tiny, dark alcove between Hannah's apartment building and the next, my eyes widening as something cold and tight snagged my wing hooks, yanking me backwards. I opened my mouth, yelping as my heels skidded over ice, and another binding tug wrapped itself under my wings, tying them shut.

I tried to twist when a hand slapped over my face.

Werewolf. Wet dog and pine. My brow furrowed, and I was about to teach this fucker where he and I were respectively on the monster food chain when he stepped close behind me and growled into my ear.

"She's mine, you know." The breath was sour, and the words made me stiffen to stone, readying to tear my wings free. And then he added, with sick, dark pride, "I made her."

White-hot rage stilled me in place, my gaze sliding left to make out the fuzzy shadow behind me. He was big, I would give him that, but he was still soft meat flesh compared to me. Something I would've been happy to demonstrate if he hadn't just admitted to being the man, the monster, who'd torn Hannah open under a full moon and shattered her life to pieces.

I was considering my options—shoving him back into the brick, knocking him unconscious, dragging him back to Hannah like a cat with a kill, or maybe straight to the police—when a sudden, shattering pain blanked my vision brilliant white. I screamed into the hand that stifled my breath as a cracking pressure in my wing sapped my knees of strength.

A fucking chisel. Stabbed into me like a dagger, forcing a crack through the flesh of my wing—a small injury, but painful enough to shock my system. Whoever was behind me knew what he was doing, how to hurt me.

"Move," he hissed, and he dragged my numb and stumbling feet deeper into the shadows.

CHAPTER 26

Hannah

At some point in the past two hours, I'd become obsessed with the hands on the clock at the corner of the rehearsal space. Maybe it was because I was fairly certain the battery was dying for how slowly the seconds seemed to tick by.

Or maybe it was—it definitely was—because I'd expected Rafe…almost two full hours ago.

It was three hours since he'd left my apartment and that wasn't an unexpected amount of time, but he'd acted like he hadn't wanted to be more than a few feet apart. It was sort of silly. We'd been stuck to each other for three days. I was ready for a breather…right?

I tore my gaze away from the clock once more to glance at my bandmates. Kelsey was stretching, Kiernan was winding cables, Mikey was texting, and now I was staring at the damn door, torn between the petty and wholly unreasonable worry that I'd been stood up and just…worry for my mate.

"Wanna tell me what's going on?" Kiernan asked, pretending to focus on the cord he was wrapping around his arm.

"Hm?" I dug my phone from my pocket for the third time in the past five minutes and frowned once more at the blank screen.

"Han, you came in with a shit-eating grin and an actual swagger in your step, and now you look like a pin drop away from…I dunno what," Kiernan said, tying off the cord and dropping it to the pile. "What's going on?"

"I…my boyfriend was supposed to be coming here to meet you guys. I just kinda thought he'd get here a bit ago," I admitted. "But we didn't set a time and—"

"Your boyfriend?" Kiernan asked, smiling at me. He wagged a finger at me. "I knew it. I knew you were…" And then he laughed and shook his head. "I'm surprised you invited him to rehearsal though, Miss Our Music is Our Business."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm bringing him on tour. I wanted you to meet him."

Kiernan sobered at that. "Wait, you're what?"

His arms crossed over his chest, and my gaze bounced between him, the door, and the clock once more. Behind the happy haze of the past three days, I'd known this was going to throw the band for a loop. Bringing Rafe along for the tour would solve a lot of my problems, but it was also the matter of introducing him to the others, telling them rather than asking them that I needed Rafe with me. And I'd really wanted to do it after they'd met him. Preferably after a dinner at my apartment, so Rafe's cooking could win the crew over.

"I…" My hand itched in my pocket, and I wanted to draw my phone free again, but I was already hovering on the brink of an argument with Kiernan and that would be the last straw for him. "I wanted you guys to meet before I said something, but Rafe makes everything easier for me. As a werewolf. And I know that doesn't necessarily mean it will be easier as a band having another person on the bus, but—"

"Is he your mate?"

I turned and found Kelsey shamelessly listening into the conversation, her head tipped, and Mikey crossing to join us.

"I think so," I said softly.

"Congratulations!" She offered me a bright smile.

And for a moment, my heart soared, because yes, this was something to be happy about, something to celebrate. Kelsey belonged in the same world as me, or I belonged in hers, and she didn't question how I could've been mated, or if I was sure—the way the human part of me wanted to. She just was happy for me. Happy for the certainty and the joy that having a mate brought.

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