CHAPTER 20

JARRETT

The house was completely silent when she came back.

Helena claimed she was picking up files from her old apartment, but she smelled exactly like that old freight yard by the docks that got shut down three years ago.

And she completely refused to look at me.

"Get what you needed?" I asked from the kitchen. There were dishes piling up in the sink. I hadn't eaten a thing, and I hadn't slept either.

"Yeah," she said, answering a little too fast. "Just some old playbooks."

She walked straight to the guest room and shut the door behind her.

I stood there holding a mug I wasn't even drinking from, listening to the sound of her not sleeping.

Something was incredibly wrong.

I had been a wolf since I turned sixteen, and you learn how to read the air when you live like that. Helena was absolutely terrified, and she was doing everything she could to hide it from me.

That made me furious. I wasn't angry at her, but I was furious at whoever made her feel that way.

At 1:47 in the morning, my phone lit up with an unknown number.

I ignored it at first, but then it buzzed again. It was a text this time.

"You think this makes you safe? It makes you a target. K"

My blood went completely cold. K...as in Kade Merrick. He was right here in my city, and he was already talking to her.

I didn't go to her room. I wanted to so badly. I wanted to kick that door off its hinges and demand answers. But the last time I cornered her with questions, she ran away.

So I did the only thing I actually could do. I waited but by morning she was already out of the house and there was a note sitting on the counter that said, "At the rink. Don't wait up. H"

Don't wait up, as though I won't be able to.

I grabbed my car keys and drove straight to the rink anyway. I tried to tell myself it was because I had an official meeting with the general manager, but that was a complete lie.

She was out on the ice entirely alone, skating laps. They were hard, angry laps, the kind you do when you are trying to outrun your own thoughts.

I leaned against the boards and just watched her. She didn't even notice me for ten minutes.

When she finally came to a stop, she was breathing heavily. She looked up and froze completely.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Missing you," I said. It was simple and it was true.

She looked away from me. "You shouldn't be here right now."

"Why is that? Is it because Kade called you?"

Her hockey stick hit the ice with a loud crack.

"How do you know about"

"I got a text at two in the morning," I cut in. "Signed with a K. Very cute."

The color drained right out of her face. "I didn't mean to"

"Didn't what? Didn't go see him?" I pushed off the boards. "Didn't meet up with him at the old freight yard last night?"

She went totally still, knowing she was caught.

"Jarrett, listen to me"

"Don't," I said, keeping my voice low. It was far too low. "Don't lie to me, Helena...not about this."

She dropped her head. "I didn't tell you because I knew you would react exactly like this."

"Do what? Be furious that the man who is probably behind your parents' murder just offered you safety?"

Her eyes snapped right back to mine. "He told me it wasn't him. He said it was a group of rogues."

"And you actually believe a word he says?"

"I don't know what I believe anymore!" she snapped. Then she grew quieter. "He said... he said my mom had Alpha blood. He said the council wanted me, and that you"

"Me what?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

"That you ran away because you didn't want the responsibility. That you are only here with me now because of instinct and all that fated mate nonsense."

Hearing the words fated mate come out of her mouth with his specific venom on them made me want to put my fist straight through the glass.

"Kade has been running this exact game for ten years," I said. "He tells you a half-truth so you will swallow the whole lie."

"So what is the truth then?" she asked. "Tell me."

I stepped right onto the ice, skates or no skates. I didn't care.

"The truth is I ran away because I was eighteen and stupid, and I thought if I stayed around I would hurt you," I said. "The truth is I smelled you the exact second you walked into my locker room six months ago, and I wanted to burn this entire league down just to keep you safe. The truth is I don't give a damn about any fated mate instinct. I stayed here because of you, Helena. Because you are the only person who ever looked at me and didn't just see a wolf."

She was visibly shaking. "He said you would leave me when I am no longer useful."

"Then let me prove him wrong," I said. "Starting right now."

I held out my hand to her. She stared down at it, and then she looked back up at me, I truly thought she was going to walk away.

Then she took it, and her fingers were freezing cold.

"Show me the text," she whispered.

I pulled out my phone and showed her the message. "You think this makes you safe? It makes you a target."

Her jaw tightened instantly. "He said the exact same thing to me, almost word for word."

"Because he wants us to be scared," I said. "Scared people make massive mistakes."

"What else did he want?" I asked.

She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a plain black card with just a phone number on it.

"He wants me to call him," she said. "When you hurt me or when Brent hurts me."

I took the card from her and snapped it right in half.

"We are not calling him," I said. "We are going to that hearing tomorrow together, and then we are ending this for good."

Helena looked down at the broken card in my hand, then back at me.