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He still looks uncertain. “I’m not sure how I feel about the blood and biting part of this.”
I snort. “It’s the best part.”
His frown deepens. “What if I want to hunt other people?”
I throw my arm around his shoulder. “Control is overrated. Let it go. You’re a good man and—”
“Your wolf will be as well,” Harley interrupts.
“I had this well in hand.” I glare at him.
He grins at me. “What were you just saying about control?”
I grind my teeth.
“I came dangerously close to threatening to turn this car around,” Dariel says dryly. “Don’t make me do it again.”
Aden and Harley bark out a laugh. I just shake my head.
Dariel's eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror. "Are you sure they’ll be there?”
"No, they’ll be picking up their Thin Mint order at the mall,” I drawl.
Dariel doesn't even blink. "We don't need this coming back on us, Kade. I asked you a question."
I roll my eyes and give him a mocking salute. "They’ve hit that same bar for years. Wasn’t hard to figure out when and where. They’ll be there. And before you ask, no one saw me scope the place out. We’re good to go.”
Dariel meets my stare for a beat and then nods, refocusing on the bright city lights coming into view up ahead. “And no jumping on Harley’s back.”
I smirk at the recent memory of the run we went on a few nights ago. The run was a short one, and intended to reassure Aden he could trust his wolf away from the house. I saw an opportunity to turn it into something more… well, fun. “Maybe he should pay attention to his surroundings and not let himself get distracted.”
I should’ve been watching Aden, but he’s managing the shift okay, and his wolf is as chill as his human side. He won’t lose control the way Dariel has.
“Then maybe I won’t throw you into a tree next time,” Harley says, turning to grin at me.
I narrow my eyes. “You—”
“Are not taking this seriously,” Dariel cuts in, his voice granite hard. “Tonight is about one thing and one thing only. We cannot fuck this up. Or is your squabbling more important than Saige? Than pack?”
I meet Harley’s gaze.
He loses his smile at about the same time I lose my snarl.
“Nothing is more important than Saige,” I say. “Or pack.”
“Arguing cost us someone before.” Dariel pulls off a traffic-laden main road, and down a quieter side street leading to our destination. Our destination is not the grocery store, despite what Saige might think. “That isnothappening again. We’re not losing Saige, and I’m not losing you and Aden. Not again.”
I briefly meet his emerald stare in the rearview mirror. Anger hardens his voice, but all I see in his eyes is old pain. And determination.
He hasn’t told us what it was like living alone in the house. I couldn’t stay after Nica. Neither could Aden. Somehow, he did.
Every time he stepped foot in that kitchen, he’d have thought of how he hadn’t been able to save her. Of how our argument meant we got home too late to save her.
It was why I couldn’t stay. The guilt would’ve fucking killed me. It was already eating me alive. I had to get out as soon as fucking possible.
I drowned my emotions in the bottom of a bottle of whiskey and occupied my nights with hookers whose faces I never remembered the next morning. Aden buried himself in work, hiding his pain behind a practiced smile.
And Dariel? Dariel lost more control of his wolf each passing day. No fucking wonder he spent more time locking himself in his office at the Cerberus than going home.
