Page 13 of Hawke

She saw no fear; she saw the good in everyone, and that was where she’d messed up. Because she had her sights set on me, and I had nothing to give her. I had nothing good about me. None of the members at this club did.

But she was broken, too. I could see it. She had secrets as deep as mine she had yet to spill. And yeah, I was an ass. I used it against her, telling her I didn’t need any of her drama when she clearly kept it hidden.

I snatched my leather jacket from the hook and left the havoc of my actions in my wake. I rolled my eyes, feeling the phone buzz in my pocket and I turned it on to see Anaki had already sent a message to the crew in the back that I had left the building, and it was safe to come out.

Asshole.

Along with those words, Delilah was given strict orders not to pick up the glass.

Anaki was walking a thin line. Hell, they all were. Why the hell would Delilah give Bones a hug? She didn’t give hugs willingly. She was only allowed to give me hugs.

Only me.

Was she going after another male? So quickly?

I felt a rumble in my throat, but I suppressed it by biting down on my tongue, as I made my way into the church. The upside down cross creaked in the wind as I entered, and before I could reach the sanctuary, men were already filing out.

Short ass meeting.

I watched as they all left, grumbling to themselves about the Goddess and second chances. Some seemed happy, rubbing their hands together and smiling at one another.

“A second chance. You really think that’s what Grim and Journey have?” a young pup asked.

“Don’t see why not,” another said. “She’s got a mark on her shoulder, doesn’t she?”

Ah, this was the meeting about Grim and Journey’s theories as to why they believed they were second-chance mates. Locke had already spoken to me about it. He was completely against the idea since we didn’t know if it was true.

You can’t get the club’s hopes up when there was no hope to be had. Miracles didn’t happen for us; they didn’t happen to anyone that had been cast out of their pack, their pride, and their families. We had done all that we could do, our graves were prepared, all that remained was when we would fill them.

This could all be black magic that some fae placed on Journey. No offense to her, but her memory of her time spent with the fae was fading. She could have had a spell cast on her, making it seem like she was a second-chance mate.

“Bullshit,” Bear grumbled as he walked past me, handing me a full cup of coffee. “Sober up,” he ordered gruffly.

I was taken aback as the big bear gave me a long, hard stare before stomping out the door and bellowing that he was going to take a shower. I couldn’t help but smirk when I heard the collective groans from the members.

No one wanted to wash while Bear was using the communal shower. He made everyone utterly uncomfortable about his size. He wasn’t just tall and built like a damn thick magical tree, but he was well larger than your average bear shifter.

I shivered, walking toward the front of the church.

Bones was inspecting Journey, listening for any signs of pain in her breathing. Her ears were dripping with blood. I furrowed my brows as I rubbed my hand over my beard, the sound of her symptoms muffled in my head. Loud noises? Heightened smell?

We both had a moment when our eyes met, however, we both decided to move on. There can’t possibly be a connection between a human and a shifter. It was unheard of, damn near blasphemous in our world. Hell, if the council found out that there was a shifter and human pairing, our entire operation could be shut down.

We would all have to split up and hide, instead of being with each other in our broken pack.

We’d go rabid sooner rather than later.

But Grim didn’t seem to care about any of that, disregarding everyone in the club. Sure, he wanted his female; he wanted a mate to save himself, but what about the rest of us? The brothers and sisters that just wanted to live in peace and try to find some sort of retribution before we turned to ashes?

Didn’t matter, not where Grim was concerned.

His mannerisms and attitude were certainly not the norm. He’d fucking smiled earlier; he didn’t glare at anyone for looking at him funny. No, he only glared when someone looked at hismatefor too long.

My whole body tensed, and my fingers trembled, wishing desperately to take hold of my gun. All of this was wrong. Something was different, and I couldn’t put my finger on it.

It could be Delilah and the raging guilt stirring inside me. She didn’t even leave her window unlocked last night, and she always left it unlocked.

But why would she? You told her she wasn’t worth anything to you.

---