He went after Sage instead. She needed him more.
Juniper and rain were strong in the air, but the sour stench of fear was even thicker. He was certain even a human nose would have been able to follow the trail with their eyes closed. And could he blame her? The fucker who’d ruled over her life and sold her like an unwanted piece of furniture stated plainly that he intended to return her to the hell she’d escaped. He’d be more surprised if she’d taken the threat as calmly as if she sipped a cup of tea.
He took the steps up her porch in one leap, then paused. What the fuck was he doing? This was Lindley’s job. Kyla’s. Any of the other mates would be better at comforting the woman than him. But when he glanced over his shoulder, all he saw was a pride scrambling like chickens with their heads cut off.
Seth and Lilah shifted and shot off down the ranch road, no doubt to make sure their unwanted visitors all made it out of the territory. Hailey stood on the porch with one hand cradling to her belly and frowned after them. Colette had a phone pressed to her ear that Trent snatched out of her hand a moment later, earning daggers from both her and Dash. Lindley tried to break away, but a snap of the alpha’s fingers kept him in place.
Sage was a concern, but not the biggest problem. His lion twitched his tail in agitation. Fuckers.
Rhys knocked a knuckle against the wood and waited. Not a single rustle of clothing or footsteps reached his ears. If not for the dull thud of her heart, he’d have tripped over himself to get to the back door and track her from there. She was inside, frozen like a hunted rabbit.
He wanted to maul something at the continued rise of fear in the air.
Bracing his hands against the frame, Rhys pressed his forehead to the door. “Sage, please,” he said. “I’m not going away until I know you’re okay.”
Still nothing. No words, no movement. He could deal with the former. Hell, he knew how little words mattered against actions. The lack of movement set his teeth on edge. He balled his hands into fists imagining her hunkered down in a corner.
Motherfuckers. They’d stolen her smile almost as soon as it appeared.
Anyone else, and he’d take the hint and leave. Even without his lion demanding a murder or twelve, he couldn’t drag himself away. The woman on the other side of the door mattered too much to just walk.
He didn’t know why the animal had latched onto her. Didn’t really care to poke at the problem too much, either. He’d already made the decision to try and fix her and wormed his way into the cracks of her foundation.
Yeah, fuck giving up. And fuck leaving her alone.
His long legs carried him off the porch and past the others. He yanked open the door of his truck and grabbed his latest project, then stalked back to Sage’s den, ignoring the glances thrown his way. They didn’t need him for the planning. He’d be there for the fighting, but until then he’d park his ass in the only spot that made any damn sense to his inner beast.
He turned the wood end over end, feeling for the weak points he knew where there. This one wanted to topple over with every breath of wind. Too top heavy, but he thought he’d figured a way to keep him from going over sideways. It just required a little extra help from the carving she already had in her possession.
“You don’t have to do this on your own,” he told her through the door.
Idiots. Fucking idiots. Didn’t they know trying to trap a woman like Sage would be as successful as Trent trying to rehab him back to sanity? Their best efforts were doomed to fail.
They were so convinced that their females were worthless. Somewhere along the line, after too many mistreatments, she’d started to believe it herself. What they failed to see, what she couldn’t believe, was that she was simply bent and far from broken.
She had fire in her eyes. He’d spent the last ten months watching it flare to life. That was the real Sage, not the one convinced she needed to keep her gaze locked on her toes.
She’d never break, but she just might snap.
“You’re safe here,” he said. “You have family. Friends. The pride will stand by your side.”
After all, she wasn’t a killer. They had no reason to turn their backs on her and leave her a sitting duck.
Rhys pushed down the sting of betrayal. It didn’t matter anymore. He was years past and a couple thousand miles away from that crater in his life.
Quieter, he added, “I’ll stand with you.”
And if he couldn’t? If he failed another woman?
Rhys shoved back on the unwanted, chilling thought, but the doubts still circled in his head and made his gut churn. He’d had a mate. He hadn’t saved her. What made him think anything would be different this time?
He was already worse off. Crazier. Ready to draw blood at the slightest provocation. As an attack dog, there was nothing better than a bloodthirsty lion. But as continued support? The kind Lindley gave Kyla or Seth offered Lilah? Hell, even the poking and teasing Trent and Dash dished out and received from Hailey and Colette?
He scowled. It wasn’t like he had to put his fangs in her skin. He could protect her without claiming her.
Claws raked through his insides. Rhys tightened his hands on his knife and carving to keep from chucking them right off the porch. Fucking lion. Idiot animal. They’d had a mate. They’d lost a mate. He couldn’t sentence someone to a few short years with a disaster like himself.
Sendings whipped through his head and he ground his teeth together to stem the onslaught. He didn’t want the replay of where his life went wrong. Living through
