Page 80 of Their Mate
He’d done all of that for me. Not for himself.
That thought slid deeper than any blade ever could.
My boots hit the ground, and I folded into a low crouch, syncing my breath with the hush of the night. I looked up at the brickbuilding, searching the windows for each of the members of my pack. No movement at the window. They hadn’t raised the alarm. At least, not yet.
Time to run.
Keeping low, I moved across the broken tarmac. I put the building at my back and the water to my front and didn’t look anywhere but forward.
Jamie’s grin flashed in my head, quick and cocky, but softer around the edges tonight. He’d let them think the worst of him if it meant I could slip out without the pack at my heels. Not many men would do that. Not in my world.
He’d chosen my priority over his pride. Over his pack.
God, he surprised me.
My muscles were tight as I cut across a narrow lane that stank of fish and rain, and vaulted over a rusty metal fence that squealed traitor-loud, making me cringe. I landed hard and kept going. As I approached the quay, the sound of dilapidated boats rocking and creaking restlessly against the docks filled my ears. Chains clinked and rattled in the wind.
I squeezed my hand, and the keys were a firm, reassuring bite against my palm.
I picked out the boat Jamie had pointed out to me by the way the tarp had been hurriedly half-tucked into place. It was a sleek boat, big enough to handle the choppy waters to the Isle of Man, but not much bigger. I slipped aboard, crouched low, pulled the tarp free, and dropped into the cockpit.
The key slid home with a tiny click that felt loud enough to wake the city.
“Don’t you dare,” I breathed to the motor, to the river, to fate. “Not tonight.”
The first turn coughed and died. The second caught on a hiccup. On the third, the engine cleared its throat like an elderly man about to tell a story and then smoothed into a low, purring growl. Noise shivered over the water, a ripple of sound that I couldn’t take back. My pulse jumped up with it.
Hurry.
I cast off the mooring lines, the wet rope cold as ice under my hand, and nudged the throttle. The bow nosed away from the quay as the water welcomed me in with a slap of black waves, and the boat slid into the channel like it had been waiting for me all along.
Only then—only when current took me—did I look back.
The city lay spread out before me, only visible under the light of the moon. Somewhere beyond those roofs and chimneys and broken glass, Aidan and Declan were probably joking about something together. Edward was likely watching lines of sight with a soldier’s vigilance. Logan would probably be pacing the living room, trying to plan the pack’s next move.
And Jamie—Jamie would be busy trying to buy me time until he couldn’t any longer and then he’d be under fire from the rest of the pack.
A stupid thing happened in my chest: a squeeze I didn’t authorize. A warmth that had no business coming to life in a woman like me, one built of duty and orders and promises that didn’t leave room for anything soft.
I gripped the wheel until the leather bit into my skin. The wind whipped hair into my mouth. I spat it out and tasted salt.
This was necessary.
The Watch hadn’t ceased to exist just because my heart ached for these five men. There were missions I was still duty-bound to take and monsters I was still meant to hunt, and the Elder Lycan was a beast far worse than any of us had ever dealt with before.
Still.
I let my breath out slowly, watching the smear of the docks grow smaller, the knot in my chest pulling tighter the farther away I got. It wasn’t long ago that I would have left without a second thought, my mission firmly at the forefront of my mind and the wolves nothing more than a handful of enemies.
Now I knew the rhythm of their laughter across a smoldering fire. The way Logan’s voice softened when he said his sister’s name. The quiet spaces Edward made and let me fill or not. The way Aidan’s grief lived under his skin like a second pulse. How Jamie could pull a grin out of me no matter the circumstances. How Declan could make me smile just by the twinkle in his eye.
There was a danger in caring. It made you slow and slow could get you killed.
I couldn’t risk that.
The quay had narrowed to a darker line in a dark sky. The engine hummed steadily beneath my feet. Night pressed in all around me as I left the city behind.
“I’ll come back,” I said to the water, to the city, to my pack. “I’m not done.”
