Page 30 of Hawke

“I certainly hope they catch the right man,” he said. “We wouldn’t want the innocent to suffer, otherwise the accusing party will suffer dearly. And trust me, there are friends on the other side of the glass that are making sure the innocent are set free, dear sister.”

I kept my ticking jaw from being seen, but Shane just chuckled. “I can’t wait to get out of here, Delilah. We have much to catch up on. I hope you wait for me at the mansion. I would hate to have to find you. It would break my heart to send out our guards to find you. I need to protect you.”

I stared at him, seeing the evil in his eyes. My stomach turned into knots, my consciousness telling me loud and clear.

Run.

Chapter Ten

Hawke

WhenIfelttheengine rumble between my legs, I was whisked away to a destination far from my current reality. A place where I didn’t suffer from the absence of shifting into my wolf.

Since losing my wolf and the ability to transform into the animal that I shared this body with, it’d broken me. Hell, it had broken all of us in the Iron Fang.

That’s why we took up riding. To feel the wind in our hair, the power beneath our legs. We wanted to ride all day to feel…alive.

I rode for hours, and the loud engine, the wind in my hair, and my wolf’s snarls kept me company. It wasn’t a pleasant experience; the longer we rode, the more my wolf became frantic. His panting was labored and loud, like he was trying to break through the windows of my mind.

I hadn’t felt this sort of power from him in a long while. He had become docile when our mate rejected us. It was like he was in a drug-induced coma, only sniffing or huffing when he approved or disapproved of what I did.

That all changed when Delilah came around. He would stand, pace, and nudge me to get closer. Sometimes he won, other times he didn’t. I was in the driver’s seat; I was the one in control. I’d always had excellent control over him. But there would be a day he finally snapped and took over my body for one last time.

When I go rabid, it’s over. There was no going back, there wasn’t changing back into my human form and going about my day. When I went rabid, I would be an angry beast, and there would be no stopping it.

That was why the rogues had banded together. The good ones anyway. We wanted to make sure we didn’t harm any innocent beings and to be put out of our misery.

So, when my wolf woke, when Delilah was around, it scared the shit out of me.

Was this when he took over? Was Delilah truly safe around me?

My hand trembled as I rubbed it down my face, overwhelmed with frustration.

I cared enough about her to push her away. But she didn’t understand that, and I knew when I found her, I would have to grovel. I would sit on my knees at her front step until my skin bled and my body ached from the cold. I would get her back.

Somehow.

I’d have to tell her what I was. Why I pushed her away. And how all of this was fucking dangerous.

I’d gone back and forth between telling her who I was or just coming up with a lie. That I had an incurable disease, and I couldn’t have sex with her, but I’d give her everything she wanted, so she didn’t have to know my secret.

That I was a wolf, I had a knot, and her knowing about all things supernatural was against the law of the Royal Council.

But she knew I got hard for her. My cock ached when she was even in ear shot, and I heard her sweet voice. I felt the shape of it through my jeans as I grew closer. My wolf could sense her, feel her inner turmoil as we approached.

I was such an ass. I’d been so blind before. All this time, I was trying to protect her physically; I hadn’t thought of the mental.

I straightened my back, taking a deep breath as I looked in through her window.

Delilah was asleep, barely though. She was tossing and turning like she had for the past five days I’d been here. Dede wasn’t sleeping; she woke with dark circles under her eyes, and she cried randomly in the night.

I wanted to break down the door, wrap her in my arms and whisper promises until her tears were all gone.

But I could no longer do that because I had broken what we had. The trust she had in me to take care of her not just physically, but emotionally as well, was gone.

Delilah had come from a past so terrible she said she never wanted to speak of it. I didn’t know what she was running from, but she said being a part of the Iron Fang was the closest thing she’d ever had to a family. She felt safe with them, with me.

I pulled out my switchblade, waving it back and forth as I stood on the top floor of the extended stay hotel. This place was a shit hole. No one even dared to call the cops on me. I had to set up my own cameras to make sure no one broke into her room.

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