Page 117 of Piece You Saved

“A lot less confused than the wolf,” he replies.

“Makes sense. You did kiss her. Maybe the wolf knew she was getting ready to punch you in the throat after all the shit you put her through,” I suggest, only half-joking.

He snorts in amusement. “Maybe.”

“And Claudine?” Aden prompts. “How does your wolf feel about that?”

A long pause. “Surprisingly silent.”

“And the man?” I ask.

“Unsurprisingly unconcerned,” is his flippant response.

Aden releases a relieved sigh. “I thought you’d go crazy. Isn’t she supposed to be—”

“The other half of my soul,” Dariel continues in a flat voice as he stares at the opposite wall. “Mate not only to my wolf but the man. A part of me I should never willingly want to do without.”

I glance at Aden and find him eyeing Dariel warily. He peers over at me.

I shrug. “If his dead mate didn’t send his wolf into a killing frenzy, might not be a good idea to go poke a wolf with a pointy stick.”

“You realize I’m standing right here.” Dariel’s voice is dry, but there’s a trace of a smile in the stare he points my way. Enough of one that I know he’s good. Or he will be.

Aden wisely drops his questioning, and we go back to studying Saige.

“You know, while she’s distracted, we could do this without her.” I consider Harley. “I might even let the doctor live long enough to watch her while we deal with Rylan.”

“No, Kade,” Aden says. “She’s a part of this. There has to be a way we do this together because every time we’ve done something behind her back, it’s bitten us on the ass. We need to involve her.”

“Aden is right,” Dariel agrees. “We do this together.”

We fall silent to watch the woman who is ours. She’s Saige to all of us. No playing favorites. She’s the samewithall of us. Or she would be if Dariel hadn’t fucked things up between them.

“We should call her in,” Aden says after a long moment.

Saige stops firing to load up a handful of bullets she digs out of her sweatpants pocket. She does it with more confidence than when Aden showed her when he first took her out there.

I nod in approval, and out of the corner of my eye, catch Aden doing the same.

“No,” I say. “Just leave her for a little longer.”

“And Harley?” I feel Dariel glance at me. “What about him?”

I stare at the man watching Saige with undisguised interest. “I’m still holding out hope that your wolf will savage him.”

Aden snorts in amusement, and Dariel shakes his head.

“My wolf doesn’t seem to mind him,” Dariel says.

I peer over at him and raise a brow. “You sure about that? Maybe you should go shift. Make sure.”

Dariel shakes his head. “He’s trying to protect her. Like us.”

“He’s also trying to fuck her.” I pause. “Unless you don’t have a problem with that?”

“Do I have a problem with Harley fucking Saige?” he repeats, speaking slowly.

As if Harley feels our attention, he glances up at the window and lifts one hand in a wave. His posture is protective of Saige, but I’d swear there was a smile in his eyes.

---