they’d officiated their bonds in the eyes of the
entire pack.
Calm and
intelligent amber eyes stared at Jules from the bushes. Heart racing, Jules
could hardly control himself from letting out a whine of protest. He didn’t
want the killer to get suspicious. What was his idiotic mate doing? The wolf
inside of him was smug, although it was pleased that Pat didn’t run. Jules saw
Cole’s lifeless eyes again and tried to prevent panic from eating him inside
out.
Pat didn’t just immediately come after me. He waited. He fought
against the instincts of his beast to protect and stupidly defend his mate
despite the consequences.
Jules’s fear
turned to hope and his heartbeats slowed down. Pat had a plan. Jules had
forgotten the most important thing. If he and Pat really wanted this
relationship to work, then they had to trust each other and he trusted Pat with
his life.
The little captive
wolf let out a tortured sound of pain, interrupting his thoughts. Unable to
help himself , a growl of protest came out of his own
throat, but the killer was thankfully still fixated on his task. The man was
still bent over the smaller wolf with his knife raised, its end dripping with
blood.
Pat didn’t wait a
second longer. Emerging from the bushes like a liquid amber blur, he howled a
battle cry of anger. Slamming into the killer, both Pat and the man fell to the
ground. Jules let out a snarl when the killer jerkily raised his knife, and its
edge drew a line of blood from Pat’s flank. His mate let out a howl, but didn’t
let the small nick bother him.
All Jules sensed
was the unexplainable rage that wrapped around Pat as he opened his mouth and
tore through the man’s neck without a second thought. Watching the killer’s
hands flail miserably and helplessly as blood spurted from his neck, Jules
realized it was his rage that Pat was feeling. Pat was feeling his rage from
all those tortured years of tracking and hunting.
Tearing his eyes
from the gory, but satisfying sight, Jules caught the phantom image of Cole by
the trees. All the wounds that decorated his body were gone. So was the
sorrowful expression on his face. All that was left was the familiar smile on
his lips.
If wolves could
cry, then Jules would have wept a downpour, but it seemed Cole understood. Then
a second later, he was simply gone and the heavy weight in Jules’s heart eased.
Mottled shapes began pouring through the trees, howling and growling in anger,
then in celebration. The New Haven local pack. Jules
wasn’t worried about them though. Pat and him would
work out the pack politics later on.
For now, Jules
only had eyes for his mate.
Pat jumped off the
corpse and trotted to Jules with a self-satisfied expression on his wolfish
face. Jules whined in approval when Pat leaned his great chocolate furred head
against him. Amidst the violence that surrounded them and the wolves that
howled for more blood, a moment of indescribable peace filled Jules.
Pat leaning
against him like this felt so right he was unaware of anything else but his
mate. The other wolves, the bloody carcass on the ground and even the pain
shooting up his paw from the trap no longer mattered. It was all finally over.
With Pat by his side, he could remember how to start living again.
Chapter Eight
By the time Pat
helped Jules into his apartment, he suspected that the
other man was faking how painful his injured hand was. Jules certainly didn’t
need to lean onto him so closely and he didn’t have to groan in pain with each
step they took.
“One more whine
from you and I’m letting you taste the ground, wolf,” Pat threatened, grunting
as he hauled Jules into the apartment.
He was holding
onto most of Jules’s weight, and while Pat was large, it didn’t mean he could
easily lift Jules like a sack of rice.
“You wouldn’t do
that to your injured mate, would you, Patty?” Pat sneered at the nickname, but
Jules hooked his hands around his neck and began to nuzzle him, the
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