Page 16 of Rogue If You Want To
But I couldn’t do that.
Instead, I yanked my head back, apologizing over and over again, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
He pulled me onto his lap, holding me close. “Mate, you don’t need to be sorry.”
“I do.” My eyes started filling with tears. “I’m supposed to be the strong one. I was raised to be a protector,” despite my designation. “I’m supposed to take care of you, and instead, I’m the one bringing all the trouble to the doorway.”
“First of all, fate gave us to each other, our job’s both to care for the other. So I don’t want to hear any more of that.” He tapped my nose.
“And the other thing is, we don’t know if trouble is coming to our door.” He sucked in a deep breath. “We don’t know what your pack even thinks happened to you. And I was talking toAuden this morning, and I think… I think I need to go find that out. If they think you’re dead and that animals took care of your remains, then we have time. If they think you got away, we don’t.”
“I don’t want you to go.” I closed my eyes, trying to keep my otter at bay. He was as scared as I was at the prospect of my mate being challenged by my brother, or worse, seen as an enemy by the entire pack.
“I have to. I need to know.” He held me closer.
“But if they find you… if they know that… if they know, you’re going to get…” I didn’t even want to think about it.
“I’m not gonna go find an otter and ask them what happened. I’m just gonna go hang around bevy lands, and if gossip comes through, then so be it. I promise you I won’t put myself in danger.”
“I really don’t like this. Isn’t there another way?” There had to be.
“I don’t think so.” He leaned back until I met his eyes. “But why don’t we talk with everyone and go from there, and whatever they agree with, we’ll do. Deal?”
I didn’t want to say yes. But what I wanted wasn’t going to happen. What I wanted was a place where we could just be us. Where I could mark him and he could mark me. Where we could live our happily ever after and not have any of this fear hanging over me.
Which meant… this was probably our only choice.
As much as I hated it.
9
TORIN
Otto was asleep, as he had been for over twelve hours.
It wasn’t surprising considering his now-healed injuries, the effort it’d taken to shift, along with his otter’s antics in the stream.
River. This is Stoney River.
My mistake.It wasn’t much of a river, but I let it go.
He’d agreed that we had to find out as much as we could about the attack and what his brother’s grievances were that he would take out a shifter hit on his twin.
I strode over to the small. newly built place that was Creven’s office. There was a knot in my belly, not the good kind, and it twisted my insides as I worried about another potential attack, perhaps with fatal consequences.
Creven was behind his desk, a large mug of coffee beside him, while Auden hovered around him, his nervous energy apparent in his frantic pacing. Their grim expressions didn’t improve my mood.
“You saw Otto’s wounds before he shifted.” It wasn’t a question. They knew I did, but I nodded at Auden.
“A huge beast who slashed from above.” Otto may have been sitting at the time of the attack.
“The slashes, as deep as they were, weren’t designed to kill Otto.”
I scoffed at Creven’s suggestion that this was, what? A playful tiff that got out of hand? There was no other explanation, and I refused to let these guys railroad me into accepting their version. It appeared they wanted to wash their hands of us so if the hunting party came looking for my mate, they could say they knew nothing.
Maybe it was wrong to trust them and I should get Otto out of here.
“I don’t believe that, sorry.”
