Page 5 of Secrets in the Shadow

It wasn’t a prediction. Cody was stomping away so noisily that he might as well have a dinner bell around his neck.

Raziel just stood there and watched him moving farther and farther away. Why should he care if his mate hated him? It wasn’t as if Raziel had known a kind hand. Not even with Carol.

Their night together had been simply two people scratching an itch, but from their one-time encounter, a beautiful little boy had been born.

A boy he couldn’t tickle to hear those angelic sounds or… Stop thinking about it.

Grounding his teeth, Raziel flashed to Cody, who had started going in the wrong direction. “That road isn’t going to get you home, Dorothy.”

“What makes you think my name is Dorothy?” He stared confusingly at Raziel. “It’s Cody.”

Really? “You’ve never heard of The Wizard of Oz?”

“Have you ever heard of dirofilaria immitis?” Cody shot back in a snarky tone, but there was embarrassment in his pale blue beauties.

Despite knowing his mate was referring to heart worms in dogs, Raziel knew the sting of embarrassment.

In his case, the lashes of humiliation. “Never heard of it. Point taken.”

“I’m just…” Cody cast his eyes downward, his voice growing softer. It made him appear both vulnerable and frightened. “I just want to find my car.”

His mate was too much of a temptation. Raziel had to curl his fingers in so he wouldn’t tuck them under Cody’s chin to coax his mate to look at him. He needed to get away from the human. Raziel knew he wasn’t good for him, a danger in fact.

Just like he was a danger to his son.

Maybe Ethan was exactly where he should be, safe with others who could give him what Raziel could only dream of offering. What did he know of tenderness? Of love? Bitterness and pain had been his constant shadow, and he was sick of it clinging to him like a feral beast sinking its claws in deep.

After taking one last look at his mate, he sent the human, and his car, home.

The sudden absence left Raziel standing alone in the clearing, the wolves’ howls echoing faintly in his ears. He rolled his shoulders, the soft crack of tension snapping through his body as he tried to push down the surge of emotions threatening to surface.

It didn’t matter whether his mate was safe now or that he was better off far away from Raziel. Better off not knowing the fucked-up mess his so-called mate’s life had become.

Raziel tilted his head back, staring at the sky through the bare branches. Snowflakes fell softly, brushing against his face before melting away.

“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered, running a hand through his tangled hair. “I don’t need this. I don’t need any of it.”

Cody didn’t need him, and neither did Ethan. Not really.

Turning sharply, he flashed out of the clearing, the cold void he left behind nothing compared to the emptiness he carried within him.

Chapter Two

The following morning, Cody kept poking the air around him, unsettled from last night and unsure if it even happened. He’d been lost, desperate, and fearing he would die in the forest because the app on his phone decided it was done for the night.

Too late, he realized the compass had led him in the wrong direction. By then, he was turned around.

He thought he’d found help, but instead… He wasn’t really sure what he’d come across. The only thing he knew for certain was how freaking gorgeous the jerk was. Cody’d had an overwhelming need to curl his fingers in the man’s long, flowing, light blonde hair with darker highlights, to pull him close and kiss him. And that bronzed body… Jesus.

If the guy was even real. The jury was still out on that.

“Are you popping imaginary bubbles?” Marissa, the receptionist at Paws & Claws Vet Clinic asked, her auburn brows pulled together. “You’ve been poking at the air since you got to work.”

Cody froze mid-poke, immediately wishing for a hole to crawl into. “Imaginary bubbles?” he repeated, trying for nonchalance and failing miserably.

“You haven’t heard?” Zayde Martinez, the other vet tech, chimed in with a grin. He was Cody’s height and build, but his hair was a nice shade of brunet, and his eyes were green. “It’s all the rage.”

Marissa folded her arms, tilting her head toward Zayde. “Oh, this should be good. Do tell.”

---