by Dena Christy
For a second she wished she had sunglasses on too, so she could hide what was going on inside her and keep it from showing in her eyes. She concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and suppressed the urge to be sick. Rafe had given no indication that Logan would send her packing. He seemed to believe that this was a formality for the sake of pack politics. She hoped so.
They walked into the bar, and she was relieved to see that there weren’t many people there. She could feel the eyes of the people that were there on her and heat crept up her cheeks. Rafe’s hand came up to rest on the small of her back and she smiled up at him. He wasn’t looking at her, but scowling at the man behind the bar. She looked over at him in time to see his eyes sweep from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, and there was a grin on his face.
“Logan’s office is this way.” Rafe moved so that his big body blocked her from the bartender’s view, and Honor looked at him out of the corner of her eye. Perhaps he was just being protective of her, but that didn’t explain the possessive hand on her back and the deep scowl on his face.
They came to a door marked private and Rafe’s behavior was soon forgotten. He reached up and knocked.
A deep voice bade them to enter and Rafe opened the door and guided her inside. She looked at him in surprise when he turned and shut the door, leaving her alone in the office with his alpha.
“Please sit down, Honor.” The man sitting behind the desk wasn’t as big as Rafe, but the power radiating off him was unmistakable. She would have pegged him as an alpha even if she didn’t already know, and the wolf inside her obeyed him instantly.
She sat in the chair across from his desk and knotted her hands together in her lap.
“Thank you for seeing me.” She licked her lips as she searched for what to say to convince this man to lend the protection of his pack to her. Rafe may feel that he owed her because of his relationship with her brother, but this man owed her nothing.
“Before we get into this, I want to tell you how sorry I am for your loss. I knew Quinn a little, and he was a good man and a good alpha.”
Honor swallowed hard as she nodded her head. She didn’t know if she was ever going to get used to people referring to her brother in the past tense. In her head, she knew he was gone, but her heart still hadn’t gotten the message.
“I’m sure Rafe told you a little about what is going on. There will be a struggle in my pack over who will be the next alpha. If I’d stayed in Eden Creek, I’m afraid that I would have been caught in the middle.” She wasn’t sure how many contenders there were for the coming fight for dominance but Barrett Todd seemed confident that he would be the next alpha of Eden Creek. She hoped that he was wrong.
“I understand that you don’t think your brother’s death was an accident?” Honor’s eyes widened when he made that revelation. “My enforcer has no secrets from me, and anything you say to me in this office will be held in the strictest confidence.”
“To be honest, I don’t know. My brother felt that his days as alpha were numbered, but Quinn always drove too fast. Maybe this time he was unlucky enough that it caught up with him. I don’t have any proof that it wasn’t a simple car accident that killed him.” And she didn’t know if she would ever have proof. It was just a gut feeling that she had but perhaps that was only something her brain made up to plausibly explain why a man in his prime was cut down too soon.
“And am I to understand that one of your brother’s rivals has made threats against you?” Logan’s voice was quiet and there was compassion in his blue eyes that made her want to tell him everything.
“Yes. Barrett Todd wants to mate with me and has threatened to brand me as a lone wolf once he becomes alpha. I’m sure you can appreciate that if he is alpha, he can do just that.”
Logan’s mouth settled into a grim line, and any hope that she was wrong about the power of an alpha died with that one action.
“He sounds like a petty little prick. Hopefully, Eden Creek will be smart enough not to make him alpha.” Logan cleared his throat and looked her directly in the eyes. “Is there anyone that you’d be willing to mate with?”
She almost laughed out loud when Rafe’s face instantly popped into her head. She gave a shake of her head. “There isn’t anyone. Why?”
“If you had a mate it would eliminate the worst of the threat against you. I won’t lie and tell you that everything will be okay. It won’t be while you’re single and vulnerable. I can offer you the protection of my pack until yours picks a new alpha, but that is all I can do.”
Honor’s shoulders sagged, but whether it was from relief or disappointment, she wasn’t sure. She had the protection of Cold Bay for now, but it would not last long.
“Thank you, alpha.” She was grateful for the small reprieve she was being given.
“Call me Logan.” He gave her a smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes as he stood. She stood up too and held her hand out to him. He looked down at it in surprise before reaching out to grasp it in his much bigger one. “I wish I could do more to help you, but unfortunately you aren’t a member of my pack.”
And she wouldn’t be unless the alpha of Eden Creek released her to go to Cold Bay or if she mated into the Cold Bay pack. Unfortunately, neither situation would ever happen.
“So who’s your friend?” Alex was still wearing that infuriating grin on his face. It had stretched across his mouth the second he’d seen Rafe walk into the bar with Honor, and Rafe wasn’t sure he liked it much. Normally he got along well with the bartender, but something about the way he’d looked at Honor had Rafe scowling.
Alex was unattached and unlike Rafe, he seemed to be open to taking a mate, he just hadn’t found the one he wanted.
“She’s not my friend.” Rafe didn’t want to delve too deeply into his connection with Honor. It was complicated, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to sit at the bar and untangle it with Alex.
“Sure she’s not. You escort random women into Logan’s office all the time. One thing’s for sure, she’s not a member of Cold Bay or East Brook, so who is she?”
“Don’t you have work you could do?”
Alex laughed as he raised the glass of ice water he had behind the bar and took a sip. “Not at the moment. So what is this I hear about you taking a break from tail chasing?”
“Mason has a big mouth.” Rafe rubbed the back of his neck. How long was Honor going to be in with Logan? “Did he come running over here to tell you all about it?”
“We have a bet going to see how long you’re going to last. I’m giving you a week before you’re on the prowl again.”
Rafe rolled his eyes. “Your faith in me is admirable.”
“So how does the hot redhead fit in with your lifestyle choice? Is she single?” Alex turned his head to Logan’s closed door, and there was a look in his eyes that said he was definitely interested in getting to know Honor better.
“She’s off limits.” Rafe’s hand curled into a fist on top of the bar, and Alex whipped his head around to look at him. His eyes narrowed speculatively.
“Now this is very interesting. You sounded a little too much like a dog guarding a bone when you said that. If you want her for yourself, just admit it.”
Rafe didn’t bother to answer. He would not have this discussion with Alex. Besides, Honor was coming out of the office, and the look on her face was unreadable. Rafe stood up and strode toward her.
“How did it go?” He was certain that Logan would not have changed his mind about offering her the pack’s protection. He reached down and took her hand.
“The pack will protect me until Quinn’s funeral and a new alpha is chosen.” She gave him a shaky smile. Rafe wanted to pull her into his arms but he knew that Alex was watching them closely. He didn’t want to feed anymore fodder to him.
“That will buy you some time to decide what you want to do next. Do you want to get out of here or do you want to stay and have a drink or something?”
“I co
uld use something to drink. My mouth is pretty dry.” Honor gave his hand a squeeze, let it go and walked over to the bar. Rafe turned on his heel to follow her and suppressed the urge to growl when he saw the way Alex looked at Honor.
“What can I get for you?” Alex’s eyes were riveted on Honor and he didn’t take them off her when Rafe sat beside her at the bar.
“Just a cola, please.” Honor glanced over at Rafe and he did his best to smooth out his features. There was nothing wrong with the way Alex spoke or looked at her. There was admiration in his eyes but nothing disrespectful. She was a free woman. That didn’t stop Rafe from wanting to pull her close, put his arm around her and tell Alex to take his eyes off her.
“I haven’t seen you around here before. You staying in town long?” Alex put a cardboard coaster on top of the bar and set Honor’s drink on top.
“I’m from Eden Creek. I’ll be here for a little while at least.” Honor took a sip of the drink and Alex slowly turned his head back to look at Rafe. There was a knowing look in Alex’s eyes.
“Eden Creek. You are from Eden Creek originally, aren’t you, Rafe?”
Rafe didn’t bother to answer, and fortunately, Alex’s snooping for answers to Honor’s identity was cut short when his attention was drawn to the door of the bar. The smirk was immediately wiped off his face to be replaced with a serious look. The scent of strange wolves hit Rafe, and he stiffened but didn’t turn around.
“You can turn around and go back where you came from.” Any sign of a joking and jovial bartender was long gone. Alex’s hands rested on the top of the bar as he glared at whoever was behind them.
Honor turned her head to look and her face drained of all color. Rafe didn’t need to look to know who was behind them.
“We’ll get out of your hair in a minute, we’re just here for something that belongs to us.”
Rafe stood up slowly from the barstool and turned around. Just as he suspected, Barrett Todd stood inside the bar and two wolves stood behind him. Rafe crossed his massive arms in front of his chest as he stepped slightly in front of Honor. The message was clear, Barrett wasn’t getting anywhere near her without a fight.
“Looks like she isn’t going anywhere.” The warning in Rafe’s voice was clear, but Barrett Todd was as dense as he had always been.
“You aren’t a part of our pack anymore, and what is between Honor and me is none of your business. Now step out of the way and let me take back what belongs to Eden Creek.” Barrett Todd took a step forward, and a growl rumbled in Rafe’s chest.
“I’m not a possession Barrett, and I’m not going with you.” Honor spoke from beside Rafe, and while he didn’t take his eyes off Barrett, he was proud of the steel he could hear in her voice. She was tougher than she looked, and it pleased him that she was willing to stand up for herself.
“You heard her, it appears she doesn’t want to go with you.”
Barrett Todd’s face suffused with a dull red color that rose up his neck and spread across his cheeks. He wasn’t as cool about this as he appeared to be, and Rafe hoped that he was pushed into doing something stupid. He was itching for the chance to wipe the floor with this jerk. Even standing here, with him so close, had all Rafe’s protective instincts toward Honor rising up. This asshole deserved to pay for the threats he’d made against her, and Rafe wanted to deal out the punishment.
“Honor, you know where your place is. Now stop this silliness and come home. Your pack needs you, especially in such difficult times.” Barrett would now appeal to Honor’s loyalty to her pack. Rafe wasn’t fooled for a moment by the softening of the other man’s face. The calculating look in his eyes was too hard to miss.
“I would come home if I thought I was safe, but I’m not, am I, Barrett? You seem brave when you have back up, but I know exactly what kind of person you are. The kind that threatens women when they are vulnerable.”
Honor tucked herself closer, and Rafe reached down and took her hand. Barrett’s eyes darted down to where their hands were clasped, and Rafe suspected that this was all the other wolf needed to send him over the edge.
“You little bitch.” Barrett seemed to forget where he was and who he was dealing with when an ugly snarl came over his face and he took a step forward. Rafe growled in response and he shoved Honor behind him.
“Enough.” The firm, unmistakable authority of Logan’s voice rang out in the bar and everyone froze. Rafe turned his head and watched his alpha stride to the middle of the room. His face was neutral, but Rafe had seen the look in Logan’s eyes enough to know that he was pissed.
“I’m glad you’re here, Sawyer.” Barrett turned to Logan and his slimy, snake-like smile crept back up on his face. “Your enforcer seems to be operating under some misunderstanding. Honor is here in Cold Bay territory and is refusing to come home. We’ve only come here to provide an escort for her so she can be with her pack in her time of mourning.”
Logan’s face was impassive as he folded his arms across his chest. He turned to look toward Rafe and Honor for a second before turning his attention back to Barrett.
“I’m afraid you are the one who has misunderstood. Honor is here as my guest and is under my protection. Rafe is preventing you from taking her because she clearly doesn’t want to go with you.”
The smile fell off of Barrett’s face, and for a second Rafe thought that he was going to quit while he was ahead.
“Her place is with her pack and I am taking her back.” Barrett’s lip curled and behind him the faces of the wolves backing him up paled. Apparently, Barrett would not quit and the wolves with him looked like they were realizing just how stupid their companion was.
Logan drew himself up to his full height, and Rafe could feel the power of his authority radiating from him. The two wolves standing behind Barrett shrank back as they too felt the power of an alpha. Logan may not have any authority over them but he was the only alpha in the room and they would not want to challenge him.
“Barrett, let’s go back to Eden Creek. She’ll have to come home, eventually.”
“No. She’s coming home now.” Barrett’s eyes were furious as he stared straight ahead.
“And under whose authority are you here to collect her? I thought Eden Creek was without an alpha at the moment. Am I wrong about that?”
“You aren’t, alpha.” The tall wolf standing behind Barrett answered and the venom in Barrett’s face when he turned his head to the wolf who spoke was unmistakable. “We were unaware that she was under Cold Bay’s protection. We meant no offense.”
“Then I suggest you go back to your own territory. Once Eden Creek chooses an alpha, and if said alpha exercises his authority to command Honor to return to her pack, I will not interfere. Until that happens, she will remain in Cold Bay.”
Barrett’s face grew redder and Rafe could see that the other wolf knew he was beaten, at least for now. There was a look in his eyes that was made of pure malice and he turned it Honor’s way. Rafe could feel his muscles swelling and he took a step forward.
“I think you should go now, Barrett.” Honor’s voice was quiet as she put her hand on Rafe’s bicep. Her touch soothed him, and just in time as Logan gave him a look of warning.
“This isn’t over,” Barrett promised before he spun on his heel and stomped toward the door. He shoved his way past the wolves who were behind him, and they turned apologetic looks to Logan.
“Sorry for the intrusion.” They turned and followed Barrett out of the door of the bar.
Rafe felt Honor’s body sag against him and he put his arm around her and held her close. She trembled slightly, and he gave her a squeeze.
“He’s gone for now.” His voice was reassuring as he looked down at her. There was fear in her large doe-like eyes and he wanted more than anything to wipe that look away. He tore his eyes away from her just in time to see Logan looking at him with a speculative look on his face. It cleared in a matter of moments.
“I don’t think he’s stupid enough to
come back until he has the authority to do so.” Logan walked closer and looked down at Honor. “When is Quinn’s funeral?.”
“The service will be in two days.”
“And will the service take place at the funeral home?”
“I thought it best given the circumstances that it take place there.”
Relief went through Rafe. Hallaren’s funeral home was in Cold Bay since it was the biggest town of the three wolf territories in the area. The funeral home was neutral territory because all residents of Cold Bay, East Brook, and Eden Creek used it to say goodbye to their dead. At least Honor wouldn’t have to worry about trouble while she said goodbye to her brother.
4
Honor’s feet ached, her hand was sore because of how many times it had been shaken and all she wanted to do was get out of here. She was standing in the reception room of Hallaren’s Funeral Home after the service to say goodbye to Quinn. Now it was time for the members of the pack to pay their respects to her and say their own goodbyes to their alpha.
She wanted it to be over, but a part of her dreaded what would come next. The protection she enjoyed by the Cold Bay pack would soon be over, and she had no reason to believe that Barrett Todd wouldn’t come after her. His absence from the funeral smacked of disrespect but she was glad that he hadn’t shown. She didn’t want to look at him, not when her pain over losing Quinn was so raw and close to the surface.
As she shook yet another hand and accepted words of condolences, she wished Rafe was standing with her, but this was something she had to do alone. He was there, trying to be as unobtrusive as he could be, but she knew this was hard for him too. She could tell by the sadness in Rafe’s eyes that he was mourning the friend he once knew.
“How are you holding up?”
