Page 75 of Tempting Fate

Chapter Thirty-One

Jamie

My phone is ringing. I turn over, eyes still closed, slapping at it, but it keeps ringing, will keep doing that, I guess, until I pick it up and answer it.

Rude.

When I do answer it, at first, I don’t recognise the voice on the other end. “Wha—Who is it?”

“Kieran,” Kieran says. His voice is grave. “I need you to get up and get dressed. Something has happened. I’m coming to get you.”

I jerk upright, heart thundering. “Something… Is everyone okay? No one’s—” I can’t say the last word.

Kieran sighs. “Everyone is alive and well. Alpha Axel is talking to Em and Patch.”

“I don’t—” I shake my head. “I don’t understand.”

“I’ll explain when I get there. Ten minutes. Get dressed.”

He hangs up, and I look through my notifications, but I have nothing from Em or Patch, and nothing from Vince, either. What’s the big deal? So they’re mates. Doesn’t everyone know already?

I climb out of bed and start to dress. Maybe Patch told Em what he was and things went south? I don’t see why they’d need me for that. And even if they do, it’s one in the morning.

Nick comes out of his room when I stumble into the hall. He looks like he’s been asleep for a while, too, hair sticking out at odd angles. “Everything okay?”

“Something’s happened with Patch and Em.”

“Em?” Nick leans over and shoves Em’s door. It swings open easily, the room beyond dark and silent. “Fuck, is he okay? Do you think something happened?”

“Kieran said no one was hurt or dead. Alpha Axel is talking to them.”

“Who’s that?”

“Patch’s alpha.”

“You know him?”

I shake my head.

“So why are you going?”

“I don’t know.” I’m worried, though. Something feels wrong. My head is pounding, skin too tight. I’d think I’d been crying, but when I touch my eyes, they’re not swollen or hot. “I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s good.”

Nick nods. “Want me to come with you?”

It’s a far cry from where he was months ago. Far cry from where he was days ago, even. I’m glad he’s coming around, but I shake my head all the same. “Kieran’s coming. He won’t let anything happen to me.”

Nick sets his jaw but nods. He thinks Kieran is dangerous. He’s said so, and it’s why I don’t know if he’ll ever truly get along with all of them. But he knows, too, that Kieran will keep me safe. If there’s one thing he’s good at, it’s keeping people around him healthy and whole.

“Okay. Text me when you have eyes on him? And let me know what’s going on. I mean, what you can.”

“I’ll let you know all of it,” I say, because Nick already knows about wolves and the rest, so where’s the harm? “I’m gonna have to ring into work anyway, I think—” My phone lights up in my hand and Kieran’s name flashes up on screen. “Fuck. Gotta go.”

Nick nods. I hurry down the stairs and out into the night.

It’s a twenty-minute drive to Alpha Axel’s packhouse, and Kieran fills me in on what he knows along the way. I don’t think he wants to, but Lucien is sitting up front, Sam’s driving, and he turns around and looks at Kieran until he sighs and gives in.

All these mates seem to have a silent way of communicating with each other. Sometimes I find it funny. Right now, it’s kind of infuriating.