Page 42 of Chasing Secrets
A backhand sent Derek staggering into the wall, ribs-first. A framed photo dropped and cracked, glass shattering.
“You have no idea who you’re messing with,” Derek rasped out, grabbing his wrist.
Addiction? Is that what you think this is? This is survival. This is the only way I can function without...
“I know exactly who you are. A man who hurt a boy and called it family.”
He didn’t just call him a monster. He stripped Derek of every lie, every excuse, and laid his rotten soul bare for the world to see.
Chase drove him into the carpet. Knuckles met jaw. Teeth clicked. Derek bucked and tried to bite, petty and mean. He clawed for Chase’s eyes. Chase caught that wrist and pinned it. He didn’t go for the throat. The throat was too kind. Claws slid out with a clean, electric sting along his fingertips. No shift. No fur. Just tools for a job that should’ve been done years ago.
Jalen’s face surfaced in his mind. That stubborn tilt of his mouth, the nights he’d sweated out poison, the way he’d looked at Chase hours ago like he might finally believe in something.
“This is for every tear, every pill, and every moment of pain you caused Jalen.”
He buried his claws into Derek’s gut and ripped. Warmth spilled across his hands. The body arched then stilled. Death had been too quick for the rot inside of him.
Derek had worn the face of family, and Chase wore the face of a beast, yet only one of them was the real monster.
Chase scrubbed his hands in the sink. Water ran pink then clear. His reflection was a stranger he recognized—jaw set, eyes edged with things he didn’t say out loud. Somewhere between the hum of the AC and the tick of the wall clock, he heard Jalen’s voice as if he were standing right there. Scare him into leaving me alone.
“He can’t hurt you anymore, baby,” Chase whispered, ready to get home to his mate.
Boots hit the porch. The back door swung wider, and two uniforms filled the frame. Deputy Santi and Deputy Leverton.
“Report of shots fired,” Santi said. “Everyone breathing who’s supposed to be?”
“Liam’s hit,” Zeppelin replied, not lifting pressure. “Gut. He needs to shift.” His mouth set. “We kept it contained.”
Leverton glanced at Derek and didn’t bother with a pulse.
Chase crossed the few steps to Leverton and Santi and filled them in. No details that would drag Jalen through this again. Just essentials. A child’s years lost. A den at midnight. A man who pulled a gun and paid for it.
Santi’s mouth went hard. Leverton’s jaw flexed once, subtle as a blink. No handcuffs came out.
“Homeowner?” Santi eyed the hall.
“Asleep,” Chase said. “Surprised she slept through it.”
Zeppelin held up a small bottle. “Sleeping pills. She would’ve slept through an elephant stampede.”
Santi looked at Chase for a beat that felt longer than it was then half turned to the door. “Go. We’ll secure the scene.”
“Appreciate it.”
They hauled Liam from the house and vanished into the night, leaving Santi and Leverton to handle the tale the humans would tell themselves about gun safety and tragic accidents. No one would see the actual wound to contradict the lie.
The vampire after Jalen still hadn’t surfaced. If he did, he would die like a bad memory.
Chase fell in at Wade’s shoulder, keeping pace with a bleeding wolf and the throbbing promise in his chest that his mate would sleep the rest of this night without waking to monsters. He’d delivered what he promised.
Derek had been scared.
Right before he died.
* * * *
Sun baked the grass until it smelled sweet, like summer had spilled itself out just for them. Smoke drifted lazily from the grill, sweet and savory, the sizzle of fat punctuating Zeppelin’s running commentary about not over-flipping.
