Chapter 21

Gia looked over at the porch. She should probably go back in and clean that up. Two hours had passed, and Deacon still hadn’t come back. She squeezed her eyes tight for a second, still so annoyed with him she couldn’t breathe. He knew. He’d known for a long time and had done nothing about it. She’d already conceded that if he had made a move or told her five years ago, she would have laughed in his face and told him to get stuffed.

The idea of setting his fur coat on fire with a propane torch came to mind about an hour ago as well. She’d gotten over that one, mostly.

Now she sat on the unsplit logs and stared at the bush where he’d gone in. Twenty times she’d started after him and changed her mind every time. One thing that was consistent with her is she always went with her first thought with everything. This time the first one was to let him walk it off and then they’d talk. Okay, the full version of that had been let him walk off a cliff, but close enough. Chasing after him was something she wasn’t going to do.

Turning, she glared at the porch. The good news was she’d dealt with the bat on her own. The bad news was Deacon’s porched hadn’t faired very well. She’d tried to catch it with a towel, and a pot neither worked. When it had done a fly-by and touched her hair again, she’d come outside to regroup. A short while later it was on the porch dead. Chopped in half, and the ax was still stuck in the porch floor—one of his wooden deck chairs was missing an arm. But she had dealt with it by herself.

Blowing out a breath, she stood up and looked at the sky, like answers were going to be there. Groaning, she went over and looked it the window at the mess she’d made. She did not want to touch that and had already tried to get the ax free. Apparently, she had swung with a lot of force, because it was in there good. Maybe a walk to settle down and then deal with it.

Going around the side of the house, she spotted a fishing pole hanging on the house. Fishing, she could do that. She went over and stretched to get it off the wall. It was longer than she was tall, but she did know how to use one of these. There was just a bare hook and float, so she’d have to get creative for bait, but she was going fishing. Anything was better than sitting here staring at the trees waiting for her mate to come back so she could finish yelling at him. Ten steps later, she sighed again and turned around to grab her pack. Keep the phone close.

It had taken her a lot longer to find the river than she would have liked. She was going to blame that on Deacon, all she could taste was him and it had affected her scenting the direction of the water. She grinned at the fish flopping on the grass beside her and decided one more and that would make a good dinner. Having skipped lunch because she was too angry to eat, she needed to have dinner.

Opening her pack, she pulled out the phone. Jesse had said a call was okay. Brief and no information, she could do that. How short was brief? She didn’t know but if she didn’t talk to someone soon, her head was going to explode from all the thoughts whirling around in it.

Checking the tension on the line, she decided it could float around for a few minutes while she dialed her brother’s number. She didn’t even know what she planned on telling him, but just hearing his voice would be good enough.

“Hello?”

“Hi, it’s me.”

“Gia. I had no idea who could be calling me with an unknown number.” He sounded relieved.

“Yeah, long story. I’ll tell you another time.”

“What the hell is going on? I get that text from you, then you don’t answer, all hell has broken out at the clan offices and now you’re on some convert phone?”

Taking off her hat, she dropped it beside her and ran her hand through her hair. “I can’t say.”

“I’m not allowed to use our office computers temporarily.” She heard a door. “Hang on let me get out of the house.”

She watched the float on the water as it moved with the slight ripples.

“Okay, I’m back. Shit is intense around here.” He sounded all worked up. Which was the opposite of what she needed right now.

“I know.”

“Nox called Dad and I don’t know what the hell he said, but Dad was in a mood after the call.”

Gia closed her eyes, “yeah we were on the same team, and he was being,” she opened them and smirked, “Nox, so he’s off the team now.”

“And they kept you over him? Damn. That explains Dad’s mood. So where are you?”

“I can’t say.”

Walker laughed, “you can’t tell me anything or where you are—so why did you call?”

“I thought I’d better let you know I’m okay.”

There was a long pause, “you don’t sound okay, what gives?”

She blew out a breath, trying to sort out in her head what to say.

“Sister, my heart, talk to me.”

There was the tone she needed, that one that he had used every time she needed him to. The one where she could tell him anything and he would listen and help her fix it. “My partner on the team is from Nox’s and,” she winced, “he’s my mate.” She let go of the rod and waved her hand toward the sky, “and he’s known for years. Years Walker and I didn’t—and he didn’t do anything about it.” She snorted, “and now he says we can’t because I have Alpha blood and he’s a mutt.” She rolled her eyes, “I don’t even know what that is. Is it a real term or what? I don’t know.” She glared at the water, “I don’t know where he is right now, he went to move the traps but didn’t come back, I killed a bat with an ax and now I’m fishing.” She sighed.

“Uh, Jesus, I haven’t heard you speed talk like that in years.” He cleared his throat, “you found your mate?”

She nodded and then remembered he couldn’t see her. “Yes.”

“What do you mean he says you can’t be mated because of your Alpha bloodline?”

“That’s what he said.” She lifted her hand, then dropped it again.

She heard him blow out a breath and could picture him rubbing his hand over his brow like he did when he was thinking. “What clan is he from? Is he one of ours? I don’t follow who’s on Nox’s team.”

“He’s not from ours.” She could see Deacon standing there as he had earlier in his animal’s form. “His mother was from South America…”

“Jesus, I can barely remember clans from here.”

“His father was from here. His last name is Parrish.” Surely talking about this wasn’t giving away too much, what would anyone else do with this information.

“Parrish.” He blew out a short breath, “if I had use of my computer at the office I could look, but that won’t happen.”

She bit her lip. “He’s not a fox, Walker.” She winced, “his father was.”

“Ho-ly shit, Giana.” He made another long-drawn-out breath, “oh, sister, you are going to give me grey fucking hair one day.”

“Hey, I don’t get to choose my mate, it just is.” She reminded him.

“Okay. Okay, I know, but just once if you could do something normal and expected, that would be something, huh?” Another breath, “So what clan was his mother?”

“Maned Wolf.” She whispered.

“I don’t even—wait, yes I do.” He made some sort of sound, and she had no idea what it meant. “It was on a list, I don’t, fuck—remember where I saw it, but, sis, his kind is almost gone from this world.”

Gia sat straighter, “what does that mean?”

“That is your hail-fucking-Mary, sister my heart. It’s rare for mixing of the clans to happen and it can only happen if there is a true mating,” he mumbled something she couldn’t understand, “it’s in some by-law for our people or something, but with him being a rarity, it might,” he snorted, “it’s highly unlikely though, it might not make Dad’s face go purple where those veins in his forehead take on a life of their own—”

Eyes wide now, she looked across the river. “I don’t care what Dad thinks about all of this.”

Walker laughed, “you never have.”

She realized how long they’d been talking. “Shit, Walker, I have to go. We were told brief calls only on these phones.”

“Uh, okay. Look drop me a text when you can and let me know you’re well. If they let me back on the computers, I’ll look shit up for you.”

Gia nodded. “Okay.”

“Hey.” Walker’s tone had softened, “look, if you’re happy, don’t let anyone fuck it up, you got it?”

She smiled, her eyes watering. “Got it. Love you, Bro.”

“Be safe.” He hung up.

Gia looked at the fish beside her, “you hear that, don’t let anyone fuck it up.” She smirked, “even my unwilling mate.” The fishing rod started to slide off her leg. She grabbed it before she lost the rod and the fish.