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His chest rose and fell quickly as he struggled to catch his breath. Gathering his strength, he grabbed Quentin’s wrist and pulled him away, slipping past him to stand a few feet away.
His skin already felt cold without his mate’s touch.
“You’re such an idiot,” he said, shaking his head. “I have a pack.” He stepped closer and stared into Quentin’s confused eyes. “You have a pack. It doesn’t matter that you’re human. None of them care. All of the important things that make up a pack, you have that. You just need to get your head out of your ass and accept it.”
Quentin’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times, but no words came out.
Caden started to turn, ready to be off that plane before he did something he’d regret, but he paused to look back at him. “And if I didn’t love you so fucking much, I’d punch you in the face for saying that you weren’t my real mate.”
Chapter Fifteen
Quinten watched Caden leave the plane, and it felt like his heart physically ripped its way out of his chest to follow him.
He rubbed the space between his pecs as he sank into the seat Caden had been in just a moment before. How had he fucked things up so completely?
Oh, that’s right, because he was a coward, just like Caden had said.
Why was he fighting this? Why was he trying to make them both miserable?
He’d been so focused on trying to find the threat against Caden, against himself, that he’d pushed everything else aside. Nothing else had seemed as important, but Caden had been right.
He was scared.
The only person he’d let himself truly love that he wasn’t related to by blood was Liam, and he hadn’t even let himself be introduced to that little shit for a year.
But he’d fallen so hard, so fast as soon as he did. He would do anything for his brother.
Literally anything.
If he called him and said he had a body to bury, Quinten would fly down to help without a single question asked.
Okay, well, he’d send Dare down to help. Moving a dead body sounded like sweaty work and not something he wanted to do in his suits.
Either way, there wasn’t a single thing he wouldn’t do for or give his brother. His love for him was as absolute as his love for his son or parents.
But he’d never thought he would feel that way about anybody else.
The life he lived, the things that he saw and had to do, it wasn’t safe.
That was why he’d sent Liam away. It was why he kept Robbie hidden.
And yet… he’d walked into that warehouse two weeks ago, found a naked man chained to the wall, and felt his entire life turn upside down.
He hadn’t spent so long away from the city in years. People kept asking him when he was going to be coming back. He was sure there were rumors that he’d been injured or even killed since the only time he’d been back was for his meeting with Vlatko, and he’d flown back right afterward. Otherwise, he’d been conducting his business quietly, as far removed from the chaos of the city as possible, and it wasn’t even just because Caden had needed peace and quiet to heal.
He’d just been enjoying it.
Enjoying the time they were spending together, the time he was getting with his son. Relaxing in the evenings with Caden curled up next to him as they watched trashy TV instead of forcing himself to make appearances at events he didn’t care about.
It had been… nice.
And rather than ask himself why he’d been putting off going back to his real life, he’d shoved it down, ignored it, pretended that it was for Caden’s safety.
As if his penthouse—in a building full of his people—wasn’t three times as secure.
He pushed to his feet.
He had to make this right. The idea of losing Caden was far more terrifying than the idea of loving him. It had been shitty and selfish of him to think that he could just pack him up and ship him off, make him his brother’s problem while Quinten avoided dealing with his own issues.
