Royce nodded before quipping back, “Hey, you don’t want to mess up this new rug. Do you? I’m sure blood red doesn’t match your color scheme, boss.”
Marissa giggled, her hand flying to cover her mouth as her cheeks turned scarlet. Shade’s arm circling her shoulder to keep her tight against his side as he scowled at Royce. “Ever the joker.”
“My sincere apologies, Alpha. I deeply regret upsetting you,” Royce replied in his most respectful tone.
“Accepted, now tell me why you’re here so late.”
“I just wanted to let you know that all three Evans’ brothers are here. Their Alpha has thrown them out and they arrived earlier saying they’re waiting until they can take their injured one and get on their way.”
“What?” Shade released Marissa, striding toward Royce. “No fucking way. One of them on my land is more than enough. Tell them they’re not welcome and they have to leave, immediately. Wait, why are you here instead of Ash?”
“First, that’s what we thought you’d say. Second, I’m here because Ash and his men are standing guard at Lana’s. He refused to leave those Evans’ guys alone. He doesn’t trust them and sent me to speak to you.”
“Right, good thinking.” Shade should’ve known Ash had a reason for not coming himself. His brain was addled with his upcoming mating. Damn. He wasn’t thinking clearly. “I want them gone, Royce. Now. Advise them that they’ll be called when their brother is fit to travel and they can meet our men at the entrance to pick him up. They are not allowed back on our land, under no circumstances. Got it? If they argue then Ash has my permission to use whatever force is necessary.”
“Got it,” Royce replied, giving Shade a two-finger salute before bowing to Marissa. “Sorry for interrupting your evening.”
When his Beta left, Shade turned to find Marissa’s face white with worry, her hands wringing in front of her, and her voice shaky. “Are you sure everything’s okay?”
Shade closed the distance between them in three long strides, gripping her shoulders and staring into her fearful eyes. “Of course it is. Those Evans boys are just a pain in the ass and not too bright. Ash and his men will take care of them easily so don’t worry about them.”
“But why are they here? What’s their brother even doing here?”
Oh hell. Shade huffed out a long breath. “That’s a short story really. It’s something that happened just before I came looking for you.”
“Tell me,” she implored, her eyes full of concern as her head tilted back to look up at him. He could feel her turmoil rolling around inside of her and that hurt him more than he thought possible.
Shade sighed, nodding. “Let’s sit down.”
He took her hand as they sat on the sofa, her body tense, and her lips a tight line. Shade paused, wondering if he should skim over the facts, but that didn’t sit well with him. He thought the truth was best, even if it was already leaving a sour taste in his mouth. “This isn’t going to sound good, the beginning anyway, and I know I was a complete ass, but I was almost out of my mind with that damn Hunger. I didn’t know what was going on and my head was all over the place. Marissa, please try and understand that for me that was very . . . fuck, I can’t describe what it was doing to my head.”
Marissa’s fingers squeezed his. “I’ve heard it can be pretty intense.”
Shade exhaled, running a hand through his hair. “That’s one word for it. I thought I was going insane. Anyway, after a few days of this Hunger, and trying to feed it, with no luck by the way. I went to The Den and decided to try and feed it another way . . . with a woman.”
He stopped as her eyes dropped her voice soft as she mumbled, “I see.”
“No, you don’t, because I sure as hell didn’t. I wasn’t thinking, not clearly anyway, and there’s this She-Wolf that’s been after me for months, and I knew she’d be there. Hell, she’s always at the club, and I was right. There she was and we, well, we went to my office and had sex.”
Marissa inhaled sharply, her eyes lifting to his with a cocked eyebrow. “In your office?”
“Yes, cheap and tacky, I know.” Shade shook his head, miserable he was having to tell her this. “But I knew it was wrong straight away, and it didn’t help the Hunger one damn bit. So I told her to leave and that’s when things got ugly. She scratched my face, called me names that I deserved, and threatened me.”
“Wait up, what’s her name?”
Shade saw her mind working, connecting the dots. Clever girl. “Her name is Trixie Evans.”
“Hell, those are her brothers?”
“Yes, they are. She told them a cock-and-bull story of me leading her on, saying I was going to mate her just so I could have sex with her, and then throwing her to the curb. All of which is untrue, of course, but her brothers are more brawn than brain. It’s not the first time she’s done this, and I suspect it won’t be the last. Anyway, Royce, Ash, and I had just found out what the Archives said about the cure for the Hunger, and were leaving here to go look for my mate when all three brothers arrived. They wanted my blood, and attacked en-masse without warning. I had to defend myself and one of them was badly hurt, one ended up with a shattered leg, and the other had no injuries whatsoever. He was the one that seemed to understand the position and backed off. Anyway, Lana had to keep one of them here, or he would’ve died. Hence the problem we have now.”
“Shoot, I can understand why
