by Aspen Grey
I looked up at him and nodded through blurry eyes. Back when we were together, this is when he would have leaned forward and wrapped me up in his arms. I didn’t expect that now, of course, nor did I want it in that way, but I did need something from him, and I hoped beyond all hope that I hadn’t made a mistake by coming here.
He’s going to tell you that you’re horrible. He’s going to tell you to stay away from anyone who’d ever consider being your mate. Because that’s what you deserve.
Worthless.
Home wrecker.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen, Sasha,” he finally said, putting a hand on my shoulder. I gasped and looked up at him.
“You don’t?”
He shook his head and smiled. “We made peace together. Remember? I forgave you. You understood what you did was wrong. I know how bad you feel about it, but I forgave you. Do you think you’d do what you did to me to anyone else—knowing what it did to us?”
I thought about his question for a moment, then shook my head.
“No.”
“No!” he said with a smile. “No, you don’t. No, you wouldn’t. You’ve been there. You know it doesn’t work. It doesn’t make someone love you. So why would you go back to your old ways?”
“I…I guess I wouldn’t,” I replied, starting to get myself under control.
“Exactly,” he replied, taking hold of one of my hands that was torn up pretty badly from the long run from Serra Mesa. “Look what you’ve done to yourself. Where did you run from?”
“You don’t even want to know,” I replied, managing half of a laugh. I felt suddenly stupid, but that was a good thing. It meant I understood what Jedrik had told me. It meant that I was beginning to realize that I was capable of love. I was beginning to trust myself.
“Come on,” he said, helping me to my feet. “I’ll take you home.”
“No!” I protested. “I can’t let you do that. Perry and Roberto—”
“Are sleeping,” he replied. “They know you and I are finished. This isn’t anything. It’s just a favor. You can’t run back on injured paws. Come on. I’ll take you home.”
Chapter Eighteen
Arnold
He’s going to come back. You know he will.
I’d told that to Jace and I believed it, but it had been a while now and Jace was starting to get antsy. It wasn’t long now until the sun came up, and if he wasn’t back by then, I don’t think either of us would be able to wait any longer. We’d have to go looking for him, despite the fact that he’d be almost impossible to find.
There were simply too many people in San Diego. Too many scents and too many smells to track him. If he was going to see Jedrik in Pacific Beach, that would at least give us a place to start, but it still wouldn’t be easy. I just hoped that when he got there, his ex didn’t kill him.
There’s nothing you can do now, I thought. This is something he has to work out for himself.
It’s important, especially as an alpha, to understand when it’s time for you to sit back and when it’s time for you to step in. As a detective, this is one of the first things you learn. If you have a lead, a witness maybe, and you confront them at the wrong time, they’re going to see you as the enemy. If you understand how to wait, hang back for the perfect moment, then they might talk to you. If I tried to get in the middle of Sasha and whatever demons he was going through right now, there was a real possibility that I’d drive him away, and I simply couldn’t risk that.
“He should be back by now!” Jace growled, slapping his hand against the counter for the twelfth time.
“Take it easy,” I told him. “I know you’re worried. We both are. But we have to let him do this.”
“Do what!? If he goes back to Jedrik, there’s a good chance he and his mates will kill him!”
“I don’t think that will happen,” I said, shaking my head.
“How could you possibly know that?”
“I may not know everything that went down between them,” I replied. “But I know Sasha well enough, as do you, to know that he wouldn’t put himself into that kind of a situation, no matter how he was feeling. He’s smart—like you.”
Jace thought about this for a moment and, not finding any real holes in my logic, shrugged and began to pace around the room.
“Maybe you’re right,” he conceded. “But still….I’m worried.”
“I know you are,” I told him. “You look out for him. But no one can look out for him with this. It’s a journey he has to take on his own.”
“He doesn’t think he’s deserving of love,” Jace said. “He thinks his past actions will forever determine his future.”
I nodded. “Well, hopefully his ex says something to make him understand that everyone deserves a shot at redemption. Everyone deserves a shot at happiness.”
Jace opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, there was a knock at the front door. He was there in a second, with me right behind him, and tore it open to find Sasha standing there, stark naked and obviously in an emotional state. But he was smiling.
Thank God.
Behind him, I saw a BMW pulling away. His ex had given him a ride home.
“Sasha!” Jace cried out, throwing his arms around his neck and pulling him close. His scent was everywhere, and I reached my arms around both of them and hugged them tightly.
“How did it go?” I asked.
“Ahhh, it was hard,” Sasha replied. “But Jedrik…was Jedrik. He was always smarter than me, and he told me everything I needed to hear. I think I’m finally able to start letting that stuff go, and I don’t think I ever would have been able to without him saying what he said to me.”
“So now you can finally stop feeling like you’re not good enough to love?” Jace asked him. “Because after everything that happened here…”
“I’m ready,” Sasha said, stepping back from our embrace so he could see our eyes. He looked at Jace, then looked at me. “I am ready, finally, to start moving on.”
Chapter Nineteen
Jace
“You’re crazy, Sasha,” I joked softly as I gently rubbed the grit and sand from his palms. The run across town had torn him up. He was even bleeding a little.
“Stop it,” he whispered with a smile.
“You know me. I can’t stop looking out for you.”
“Well, hopefully you won’t have to any longer,” he replied. “Now that we have a big strong alpha!”
“I’ll never stop, Sasha,” I told him. “I don’t care if there were four hundred Arnolds walking around with you as bodyguards twenty-four seven. I’ll always look out for you.”
I looked into his eyes and kissed him, deeply but quickly, before going back to my nurse duties. His feet were soaking in a tub full of warm water, and he was sitting on the edge, completely naked, as I did my best to take care of him without getting completely turned on by his body. But after what had happened in the bedroom…that was getting harder and harder to do.
“What’s the matter, Jace?” Sasha teased, obviously noticing what I was going through. I shook my head and smiled.
“Nothing, Sasha.”
“What’s the matter, Jace?” he asked, leaning forward and pressing his lips against my neck where it met my jaw, causing me to shiver at the wonderful sensation. “Trying to concentrate or something?”
“Stop it!” I laughed. “I have to get your hands and feet cleaned up.”
“I’m a shifter,” he scoffed. “They’ll be fine by tomorrow.”
“Not if you have a bunch of disgusting San Diego dirt stuck in your wounds,” I corrected him. “But if you want your foot to turn green and fall off…”
I let go of his hands and pretended like I was going to get up and leave, but he squealed in protest.
“No, no! That’s okay. I’ll be good.”
I looked at him skeptically. “Mmmhmmm.”
“I will! Scout’s honor.”
“Hah!” I burst out laughing. “You are
the furthest thing from a Boy Scout that I’ve ever seen.”
“Hey, that’s not true,” he replied. “I can tie knots.”
“You can tie your shoelaces in knots,” I countered. “That’s about it.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I have you around then, isn’t it?” he whispered, leaning closer.
“Stop that,” I warned him. He was teasing me—trying to distract me as I doted on him.
“Stop what?” he asked, slyly running his fingers over the inside of my thigh.
“That!” I told him, swatting his hand away. He simply smiled like a naughty teenager as I continued my work.
“Do your feet still sting?” I asked. He shook his head.
“That’s good,” I replied. “Take them out now and we’ll wrap them up and get to bed.”
“Wrap up my feet? I’m going to look ridiculous!”
“To who?” I laughed, helping him step out of the tub onto a towel I’d already laid out on the floor. “There’s no one here but us two.”
Arnold was out. He’d left to head to the precinct to continue his work on finding the killer, leaving Sasha and me home to rest and recuperate. Working on barely any sleep. He was dedicated. I’d told him to take a day off but he’d refused.
“No. There are other boys like you out there on those streets. And they’re in danger.”
“Well, be careful,” I’d told him. “And come back to us.”
“Where else would I go?” he’d replied with a smile, kissing both of us on the head before he went out the door. I’d stood on my tippy-toes and watched through the small window as he got into his car and pulled away.
Please don’t let anything go wrong, I’d thought.
The killer was an alpha, but so was Arnold. Oh, was he an alpha! My rational mind told me that he would have no trouble taking the horrible predator, but my emotions were all over the place.
Get used to it, I thought. He’s a detective. It’s his job.
“You gonna carry me into the bedroom too?” Sasha joked, breaking me out of my thoughts. I frowned and reached for the Ace bandages, sat on the edge of the tub and began wrapping his feet. “I feel bad making you do this.”
“You aren’t making me, goofball,” I replied. “I want to do it. Isn’t this how our relationship has always been? I look out for you.”
“And then I get you into all kinds of trouble…” He sounded like he was about to get upset, so I squeezed his knee, causing him to jump, and looked up at him.
“You keep me cool,” I told him. “You’re my balance. We’re like Yin and Yang, Sasha. You know that. We’d both be lost without each other.”
Sasha’s eyes softened and he sat down beside me and nuzzled against my neck.
“And Arnold?”
“Arnold’s our rock,” I replied. “And our rock hard…”
“Oh, he is that!” Sasha giggled. “I mean—did you see that thing?”
“Biggest I’ve ever seen,” I replied.
“You can say that again!”
“Can you imagine walking around with that between your legs?” I chuckled.
“I bet if he gets a quarter chub, he splits his pants!”
Sasha burst out laughing and placed his hands over his mouth before leaning down against my chest. I smiled and wrapped my arm around him and held him tight, inhaling his scent and feeling the comfort it brought to me.
It was strange that somehow bringing a third person into our lives had made us realize our feelings for each other. What would have happened if we’d never met Arnold? Where would we be?
Thank you, Arnold. Thank you.
Chapter Twenty
Arnold
“Another street boy dead, Irons! Down by North Park!” Chief Marques grumbled as I stepped into his office, which still, despite it being 2019, stank of cigarette smoke. I often wondered if he’d seen the research. “The fuck you been anyway? I expected you here ten hours ago!”
“Looking after…the witnesses,” I told him.
“The working boys?” he asked. “Why aren’t they in here too?”
“I spoke with them, boss,” I replied. “Took their statements. I’ve got it all.”
“All right,” he grumbled, heaving himself back in the enormous wooden chair he used at his desk. Where he’d found that thing was anybody’s guess, but it looked like it had been thrifted about six times before he picked it up, and it squeaked like a bastard every time he moved in it. “So, let’s hear it.”
“Well, I got an eye on him too, boss,” I told him. “And he’s an alpha. A real crazy son of a bitch.”
Chief Marques was the only other shifter in the department. Together, we handled any cases of the shifter world and the human world colliding, which was why I’d been assigned to this case in the first place.
“This isn’t good, Irons,” he said, shaking his head and reaching for his cigarettes.
“Sir,” I said, raising my hand. “Do you mind?”
He cocked his head sideways and tapped a finger on the nameplate on his desk. “What’s this say, Irons?”
I frowned and looked away.
“Irons?”
“It says Chief Mar—”
“Chief Marques,” he announced, plucking a smoke from the pack and slipping it between his lips. “And in my office, I will smoke whenever the fuck I please.”
“Very good, boss,” I replied, reclining slightly in my uncomfortable chair and folding my arms across my chest. “Anyways…”
“Anyways, what’s the plan here? I’ve got reports coming in left and right about coyote attacks or some shit—these fucking humans, I’ll tell ya—and more dead working boys showing up every week. You got any leads on this son of a bitch?”
“I’ve got his scent,” I told him. His eyes lit up. “So, I’m going tracking today. See what I can pick up.”
“Well, you make sure you get it done, Irons,” the chief told me as he puffed smoke from his lips. “I want this bastard off my streets!”
“That makes two of us,” I told him as I got to my feet. I turned towards the door, but before I could grab the handle, he called after me.
“Irons!”
I turned to face him. “Yeah, Chief?”
“There’s something different about you…” he mused, taking another drag. “What is it?”
Shit, he’s on to me.
“I dunno, Chief,” I shrugged. “New moisturizer probably.”
“Nah, that’s not it,” he replied, getting up and stalking around the desk towards me. He puffed away, and I fought back the urge to cough as he got closer.
Shit.
The chief was no dummy—that’s why he was chief, and I felt like a tiny organism under the lens of a microscope as his eyes worked me up and down. He leaned in and sniffed me, and when I saw his eyes go wide, I knew he had figured it out.
“Well, fuck my ass and call me Charlie!” he blurted out with a laugh. “You’re fuckin’ ‘em! You’re fuckin’ my witnesses!”
“No, Chief, it’s not like that—”
“The Hell it ain’t!” he scoffed, shaking his head. “You trying to sabotage my investigation here, Irons? Because if that’s what you’re doing, just tell me and I’ll pull in another shifter detective from LA County!”
“That isn’t it, Chief!” I almost shouted. “They’re….they’re my fated mates.”
The chief’s face froze and his cigarette almost fell from his lips as he stared at me. His eyes were working overtime, running what I’d just said through his famous lie detector of a brain that had gotten him so far in his career. After a moment, a smile crept across his face and he took another drag.
“Shit, Irons,” he laughed. “You’re a wild bastard, you know that?”
I shrugged. “What can ya do, ya know? Can’t argue with fate.”
“Well, Hell,” he chortled, throwing his strong arms around my shoulders in a bro-hug. “I’m happy for you, you crazy cocksucker! Even if you are a sexually depraved heathen!�
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“Thanks, Chief,” I replied, rolling my eyes as he released me. I opened the door to his office and stepped out.
“Go down to North Park and ask around!” he called after me. “Body’s been cleaned up, but canvas the area. See if any of those boys saw anything.”
“Gotcha, Chief.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Sasha
Jace and I sat cross-legged in Arnold’s big bed, both of us having grabbed a pair of his sweatpants and a t-shirt to wear. Of course, all of our clothes were still back at our place in Mission Beach, and without a car, getting there would be a long run that I was in no shape, or mood, to make.
“We’ll have to get our things sometime soon,” I said, casually stroking Jace’s ankle. “Bring it over here.”
“You think Arnold’s going to let us move in that soon?” Jace replied. His question startled me. I hadn’t even thought about it being a possibility that he wouldn’t.
“We’re fated mates, Jace,” I told him. “Not hookup buddies. Not friends with benefits. Fated mates. Of course he’s going to want us living with him. He left us here while he went to work, didn’t he? ‘What’s mine is yours.’ That’s what he said.”
“He was talking about his dick, Sasha,” Jace said. I started to argue but saw the look in his eyes that told me he was joking. “You know me. Always the cautious one.”
“Still?” I asked, leaning forward and taking his hands. “You’re still cautious about Arnold?”
“No…not really,” he replied. “I guess I’m just cautious in general and it’s not an easy thing to shake. I don’t know if I ever will. It’s a bad habit.”
“It’s what kept us safe out there,” I told him, not wanting to let him get upset with himself. “It’s why we’re alive.”
“Yea, but you’re right,” he said. “I shouldn’t be like this with Arnold. He’s our fated mate. I know that, but I still always have this thing in the back of my mind saying we need to look out for ourselves.”