Chapter 10: Chapter Ten

All right, so she'd lost her mind. A little, at least. Okay, a lot. Because why else would she, Delphinia Greenbranch, claim a man as hers? Let alone be sitting in the car with him afterwards as they drove back to his place, because he wanted to stop in there before they went to dinner. No matter that his hand on her thigh made her magic coil and curl within her like a needy kitten looking to be petted. No matter that the feelings she had for him were getting so big, so intense, so quickly, that it was like someone was inflating a beach ball in her chest when she looked at him. A warm, fuzzy, delicious beach ball that she was finding it hard not to get addicted to. Okay, so the metaphor wasn't perfect. Was it her fault when this man—this werewolf—was so expertly scrambling her brains with every touch?

As if he'd heard her thought, Leo's hand tightened where he was gripping her thigh. She followed his gaze as the car slowed and realized they were almost at his place, but there were two cars parked in front of the tree-shielded home, each with a werewolf leaning on its hood as they chatted to one another. Their conversation faltered as Leo and Della pulled into the driveway.

"Do you know them?" Della asked. She hesitated, then added, "Should I be worried?"

"They're friends," Leo said, undoing his seatbelt before reaching over for hers. "Idiots, but friends. I just don't know why they're here."

The two wolves leaning on their cars unashamedly stared at Della as she stepped out of the car, pre-empting Leo's move to come around and open her door. Instead, he wrapped an arm around her, holding her to his side as his two friends approached. She tried not to shrink behind him. They might be werewolves—one leanly muscled, the other the size of a semi-trailer and grinning—but she was a witch, dammit. Where was her confidence?

"So, this is her," the massive—well, more massive—one said with what could have been understanding or appreciation in his voice. "I see what you mean about her scent."

"It would be in your best interests to stop seeing it as soon as possible," Leo practically snarled, his arm around her tightening.

Mr. Massive raised his hands in surrender and halted his approach, though the other wolf kept coming until he could hold out his hand for her to shake. "I'm Emmett. The idiot back there is Raj. Nice to meet you."

"Della," she said, accepting his handshake in a brief greeting. Brief, because she felt Leo tense the moment they touched. "I'm Leo's…" she trailed off, not sure what word to use. Girlfriend didn't seem to fit right. Partner, she knew, carried different weight with wolves and vampires than regular people.

Her cheeks were starting to flush at the expectant silence when Emmett interjected, "He's told us about you. We get it." She almost questioned his statement, but Raj's voice came from his position behind Emmett.

"A witch, huh, Leo?" Raj asked jovially, still not coming any closer. "How are you going to explain that to James?"

Leo fixed him with a dark look. "Leave James out of it. What are you two doing here?"

"Jesus, Leo," Raj said with a chortle. "Don't be too welcoming. We might not recognize you."

"You don't hang around the front of my house for no reason," Leo said. He relented after a moment, adding, "If you tell me what it is, you can take off, and I can take Della for dinner. Give me a break here."

"Lucky you, paired with the grumpiest wolf in Blue Crescent," Raj joked to Della.

She caught a glance between him and Leo that she couldn't decipher, but was distracted by Emmett saying, "It's James. He's looking for you—wants you to deliver a message for him. When he couldn't find you, he came to us. It wouldn't kill you to answer your phone, man."

"Can't he deliver his own messages?" Della asked without thinking. She didn't want her time with Leo to be cut short because he had to work, as hypocritical as that was.

Emmett and Raj both laughed. "James doesn't really like getting his hands dirty if he can avoid it," Emmett explained.

"Yeah, he's got Leo for that," Raj added.

"All right, message delivered. We're finally allowed to go home," Emmett added, rolling his shoulders. "Guess we won't see you at training in the morning, Leo. Nice to finally meet you, Della. Maybe we can all hang out sometime, next time the two of you come up for air."

"Sounds good." Della smiled at Leo's friends as they retreated towards their cars—Emmett's low and sleek, Raj's a rickety-looking truck. Before they had even turned on to the street, Leo was pulling her inside the house.

"What's going on?" she asked. This didn't have the flavor of desperation fueled by arousal that she was getting used to.

"I don't know who else James has out looking for me."

"And you don't want them to see us together?" she asked.

Leo stopped in his tracks. "Della, no. But James is—he can be brutal in the way he does things. He'd see you as something to use against me if I get out of line. And I'm trying to buy us time, so he doesn't realize I've got his message yet and expect me to report for duty immediately. I need time to drive you home."

"Won't he know from your friends?" Della asked.

"We've been friends since we were pups," Leo said. "Troublemakers tend to gravitate to each other. They'll hold off for a while, give us some time."

Something that had been niggling at her finally fell into place in her mind. "When you say James would use me against you—"

Leo turned away to rummage in a chest of drawers. "You don't have to worry. I'll never let anyone hurt you, Della."

"So, he'd threaten to hurt me?" Della asked, somehow not surprised.

"I told you," Leo said, "I won't let him touch you. I won't let anyone touch you."

Something clicked in her head. "Leo. When Raj said James wanted you to deliver a message… how exactly do you send these messages for him that requires you to 'get your hands dirty'?"

"Della—"

"Do you hurt people for him?" she asked, her voice so low as to be almost a whisper. "Is that the kind of thing he has you do? Have you been telling me about fixing fences and settling vegetable garden disputes when really you've been doing this for him?" She drifted closer to him and for a moment he looked relieved, until she pushed him aside to peer into the drawer where he'd been digging.

Tape. Bandages. Dressings. A full first aid kit. That's what he'd been digging through while he told her he wouldn't let anyone hurt her. Preparing to go and hurt someone else.

This time when she moved, Della was backing away from him until she almost hit the door they'd walked through together. Leo looked somewhere between pained and frantic, his hands outstretched towards her, but thankfully he didn't come any closer. Didn't come any closer, or she might not have been able to stay strong and remember what he'd done. Might just collapse into his arms because she felt so safe there.

But not everyone felt like that around Leo. The occasional looks of fear that had been directed their way as they drove through Blue Crescent territory that morning suddenly gained new meaning in her mind. Were those people Leo had hurt on his Alpha's command in the past? Messages he'd delivered in the times they were apart?

"Della, I'm his Beta," Leo said, his voice pained. "It's my job to do what he says. I have to. For the pack."

"The same pack that you're singling out members of and beating them?" Della snapped. "You really think you're doing the best thing for them by staying as second-in-command to a man who would have you do that? Not taking any kind of action against him?"

"I told you why I'm still here," Leo protested. "I told you I can't just up and leave, that there are ways you go about dealing with an Alpha like James, and your kind of political action isn't part of it."

"And your kind of total inaction does nothing to help the people you claim to want to protect," Della snapped. "Carrying out his acts of violence isn't exactly looking out for them, is it? Letting him continue to give those orders, even if you weren't the one carrying them out—it makes you just as bad as him." The image of Leo using the body that had held her so close, the hands that had brought her such pleasure, to carry out this kind of mob justice made her want to be sick. She spun for the door. "Don't bother driving me home before you go and deliver his message. I'd rather get a cab."

He was behind her before she could blink. He didn't have to speak for her to know he was there; she was so hyper aware of his body she'd know him a crowd of thousands.

"Della, don't go. We can talk about this." Leo sounded desperate.

"About what, Leo? About you beating people up for your boss and using the 'this is how it's always been' excuse to avoid actually doing anything about it?" She laughed mirthlessly. "I can't believe I actually thought you were one of the good ones. God, I can't believe I got sucked in by someone like you again."

His body was pressing hers to the door faster than she could reach for the handle, ridges of muscle pinning her to the hard wood. She tried to push away, but he didn't move. "Don't you dare put me in the same category as him," he growled in her ear. "I am not the same as the man who hurt you."

"No, you're just hurting other people," Della said, the words coming out like a sob. "When you said he used you like a mob enforcer, Leo, I didn't think you meant literally. But you're letting him make you into a monster and you're doing nothing to change things."

"I would never hurt you," Leo insisted.

"I don't care about that!" Della cried, tears now streaming down her face. "Not compared to this. Not compared to who it means you are."

"I am who I've always been," Leo protested. "I'm the same man you claimed as yours by the falls this afternoon. This doesn't change that."

"This changes everything," Della said. "The man I was with today wouldn't let someone else tell him to go and beat someone just to send a message."

"If I don't, he'll go after the people I love," Leo said, quietly as though he was ashamed. "Della, you are my mate. How could I not do anything in my power not to protect you?"

"I'm not your anything," Della snapped. "The man I gave myself to would find a way to change things, so he didn't have to hurt people on someone else's whim. He would find a way to do the right thing. Because what happens when the message he has you sending has to be delivered to me, Leo? Or someone I love? Or someone you love?" She pushed back against him, and this time, he moved. Della cast her eyes back over her shoulder once more, and something deep in her broke when she saw the absolute desolation on Leo's face. He looked… obliterated.

She ignored the tears running down her own face and blindly reached for the door handle. "If you ever find that man again, come and see me," she said softly. "Maybe then I'll be able to look you in the eye again." Without another word, she walked out the door.