Chapter 41 - On your terms...

Chapter 41 - On your terms...
Raine

As the curtains closed around them; Raine and Joe stood staring at the red velvet of the curtain trying to catch their breaths.

Neither of them uttered a single word, they simply stood.

Beyond the curtain, they could hear everything. The scraping of chairs as patrons began to depart, the buzzing of voices as they discussed the performance and the thunderous steps that were getting further and further away. But Raine knew there was one set that wouldn’t retreat with the rest of the crowd.

Joe’s mate was out there and she knew he was waiting for him. The bond would be pulling them towards one another, a force beyond their control, like two magnets.

A small whimper pulled her from her thoughts and Raine’s head whipped to the side to look at Joe. He was still standing by her side staring ahead at the velvet curtains. But she quickly noticed that his fingers were nervously twitching by his sides, his bottom lip was trembling and his eyes were filled to the brim with unshed tears.

“Joe…?” Raine managed to say before he made another strangled whimper sound.

“I’m scared…” Joe whispered, still staring ahead.

Raine tilted her head to the side and waited for her friend to continue. She had never heard him sound so vulnerable or afraid before.

“Why?” She asked, despite knowing exactly why.

Joe let out a heavy sigh and squeezed his eyes shut tight.

“What if he doesn’t want me?” He whimpered. “What if he only came here to reject me and get rid of the bond? What if…” Tears had begun to spill from Joe’s eyes and trail down his cheeks. Raine couldn’t stand to see her friend like this, so she grasped his hand to pull him from his state.

“Stop!” She whisper/yelled back at him, causing Joe to open his teary eyes and finally turn to look back at her.

“What if he came to win you back?” She asked, not expecting an answer. “What if he’s here to audition for the lounge?” This earned her a raised eyebrow and a confused look from Joe. “What if he’s here to warn us about a meteor heading this way?” She laughed at the absurdity, which caused Joe to chuckle as well.

She smiled at him and gave his hand a firm and reassuring squeeze.

“We can stand back here and come up with the millions of ‘what if’ scenarios that could happen.” She continued. “But you won’t know the actual reason or situation until you go out there and face him.” She told him firmly.

Joe stared at her for a long time before closing his eyes and taking a shaky breath.

“But only if you are ready!” Raine stated, causing Joe to look at her again. “If you aren’t ready to see him, then you don’t have to. I will get you out of here and if he follows us, well then I will fight him for you to get away.” She laughed making Joe smile at her.

“Remember, no one can force you to do anything! This is all on your terms.” She firmly told him.

He looked at her for a very long time, staring into her blue eyes that were staring right back. He then closed his and took a long and steady breath before opening them and looking at her with a determined smile and a new resolve in those eyes.

“I’m ready!” He told her, with strength behind his voice.

“You’re sure?” Raine asked, giving him his final out.

“Yeah!” Joe nodded. “I need to face this! Face him!” He looked away from her, staring back at the velvet curtain. But Raine knew he was seeing beyond the curtain, where they knew his mate would be waiting. “Whatever happens, happens… I will face him head on…” Joe breathed.

Raine wasn’t sure what more she could say, so she chose to give his hand a reassuring squeeze instead.

He looked back over at her with a gentle smile and grateful eyes.

“I’m ready.” He told her again.

“I’m with you.” She reminded him, to which he smiled more.

They made their way from the stage to the backstage and finally arrived at the door they knew would lead them to the VIP lounge.

They stood in front of the door for a couple of minutes, neither of them daring to reach forward and take them further.

Joe suddenly let go of Raine’s hand and at first she was confused as to why, but then quickly realised why. Joe’s mate would probably not look so kindly to Joe walking in, hand-in-hand with another and his wolf would more than likely take over and react. That would not be a good start for anyone.

After a couple more minutes of staring at the door, Joe took a deep and shaky breath. He reached forward to rest his hand on the door handle.

“I can do this…” Joe muttered, more to himself than Raine.

Raine still replied though, resting her hand momentarily on his shoulder.

“Yes, you can!” She confirmed.

Joe didn’t look at her but she saw him smirk. Without any warning, Joe turned the door handle and pushed the door open and the two of them walked into the lounge.

Despite anticipating that people would have started leaving after the end of their performance, Raine was surprised to see how empty the lounge was after they took a couple of steps through the door and into the room. There was virtually no one.

She stood by Joe and observed the room. A tall, dark-haired man was by the bar having, what looked like, an intense conversation with Sigmund; though it was hard to tell since she could only see the stranger's back. Pixie was by the door looking very annoyed and irritated as a goofy young man who looked like he was attempting to flirt with her was failing miserably.

When Raine turned to the right, there was only one person. The person who had all of Joe’s attention at that moment. She knew instantly that this was Joe’s mate.

There were an intense few minutes of silence as they stood and stared at one another, drinking in the appearance of the other and Raine watched as both wolves' eyes flickered between their natural colour and black; their inner animals were aware that their mate was nearby.

“Joseph…” Raymond whispered; the first to speak.

Joe tensed, still unsure of the situation happening or what the outcome could be.

“It’s just Joe, now.” He told Raymond, meaning for his voice to sound firm but it came out more breathy.

“Joe.” Raymond tested and smiled, causing Joe to shudder involuntarily.

Raymond glanced nervously at Raine and then back at Joe.

“Can we talk?” He asked, gesturing to the booth behind him.

Raine watched Joe for his decision and physically relaxed when he turned and smiled at her. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that Raymond wanted to speak to Joe alone, which Raine thought might happen and from the way he smiled and looked at Joe she was confident that the outcome would be a positive one. Though she wasn’t sure why he was looking at her nervously, she was sure they had never met before and as far as she was concerned it was going well so far.

Joe left her side and followed Raymond to the booth behind him and they sat and began their long discussion. She stood and watched them for a moment with the intention of retreating to her dressing room after a minute or two. She was happy that Joe was going to reunite with his mate, but it also made her a little sad. Once they had discussed their ‘issue’ and came to an amicable understanding, Joe would leave Runagate to be with Raymond in his pack, wherever that was.

He would leave her…

It was a sad and selfish thought but Raine would miss Joe a lot. She was used to having to leave people but not have them leave her.
She would miss him!

Raine decided now was the time to retreat away to her dressing room before her sad thought caused her to start balling like a baby, but something stopped her.

A voice…

“Raine!” A deep voice called out to her, causing a strange shiver to run down her spine.

Raine turned towards the bar to see who had called out to her but something inside of her already knew. It had been years since she had last heard him, but somewhere inside, she remembered.

Once she had turned and faced him she felt the blood drain from her body and utter dread raced in to replace it. Her face paled and she fought the urge to turn tail and run as his bright emerald eyes were trained on her like a hawk stalking its prey.

Her throat tightened painfully as panic set in.

He never wavered and continued to watch her every move

“Alpha…” She managed to choke out as she stared back at him.