Chapter 92: Clash of Wolves 1

DRAVEN’S POV

"I need to know right now, Jade. What’s going on?" I asked.

"Okay." She held my gaze for a beat. "I’m not just going to tell you, Draven. I’m going to show you who I really am."

She took me to a back room inside the bar.

Then she took off her clothes.

I stood there, clueless about what she was trying to show me ... until she turned around and pointed to her back. A sign. Imprinted deep into her skin like it had been burned there.

"What’s this?" I asked.

She walked to the wall and pointed again. The same mark. Etched right there like it had always been waiting for me to see it.

"You belong to this group," I said slowly.

It clicked all at once. But then the next thought hit me hard ... how the hell had I never noticed that on her back? The few times I’d fucked her and I’d missed it entirely.

It was small. Too small. And my mind had never had the information to go looking for something like that. There was no way I could have known.

"So you’ve belonged to another group this whole time," I said.

"Not just any group." Her voice was steady. "The group. The Seven."

The Seven. That was the name. And the more she talked, the deeper I got pulled in.

"We’re a cult that goes back in the day," she said. "Almost half our members have already been killed."

"And let me guess ... Rex killed them," I said.

"Exactly. There are only four of us left and we still want to take over. Rex didn’t know me when I joined the Seven, so I was sent in as a spy. My job was to get inside the Mafia Wolves and pull Intel."

What the actual fuck.

Jade had been planted there for years and I hadn’t caught a single trace of it. Damn. The things people did in Valdris ... I was never happy about any of it. The entire time I’d spent with her, she had been something else entirely, and I hadn’t seen a single crack.

"So the Jade I met that day wasn’t really you at all," I said. The disappointment sat heavy in my chest.

I couldn’t wrap my head around it. How does someone wear a mask that completely for that long without slipping once?

"Yes," she said. "That’s exactly why I told you that you can’t love me. You don’t even know me." She reached out and held my hands.

"So what was the actual mission?" I asked. "And why did you stay there as a bartender for years just waiting?"

"Lucas kept delaying the execution of the mission," she said. "Then you showed up. And now you’re going to know exactly who I am."

"Why does my showing up change anything?"

She looked straight at me.

"Because I’m the one putting a bullet through Rex’s head."

I shook my head. Let out a long breath. The weight of everything she’d just told me pushed against my chest and I had to put my hand on the wall just to steady myself.

"One of the people he killed was my friend," she said quietly, stepping closer like she was afraid I’d walk away. "You can’t blame me for this, Draven."

"If killing Rex was easy, I would have done it a long time ago," I said. "But it’s not. The man is both a mafia and a rogue ... he can smell a threat from a mile out. That’s how his faction got this powerful. But I’m still going to kill him."

"You think he’s coming here ... that’s why you believe you can finish it now?" I asked.

"Yes," she said.

She took a breath and kept going.

"We were a small faction operating out of Valdris Academy. We wanted to take over the territories but the Mafia Wolves were too strong. I stayed under the shadows for a long time. Then they went out on a mission ... and my friend Alexa didn’t come back." Her voice cracked at the edges. "She was shot. Two others with her. They were trying to obtain something the Mafia Wolves were after."

Tears started building in her eyes.

I moved closer and put my hands on her. I couldn’t help it.

"After that I joined fully," she continued. "I didn’t hesitate this time. I wanted revenge on Rex for what he did to Alexa. I knew I was a chameleon so I played the part ... disguised as a bartender, worked my way into their circle as someone who just served drinks. But in reality I’m a brutal fighter. Rex made me one, indirectly." Her jaw tightened. "He did that."

I could smell it on her ... the hate, the passion, the years of it compressed into something sharp and focused. She had been locked onto this mission the entire time I thought I knew her. Interpreting her as something else entirely had been my mistake.

"Was that why you couldn’t say it back?" I asked. "When I told you I loved you?"

"Yes." She didn’t look away. "I had to make sure you knew who I really was before I let either of us go any further with those feelings. And I don’t want you carrying them anymore, Draven. I’m not someone who should be loved."

"That’s not possible," I said. "I love you. And none of this changes that. I’ve already fallen ... there’s no taking that back."

She stared at me, eyes wet, lips parted like she was about to say something.

Then a sound cracked from outside and swallowed whatever it was.

We went out.

"What’s happening, Lucas?" Jade asked.

"We’re locking down their exact location right now," he said.

They were all watching coordinates off a screen mounted on the wall. I scanned the room and counted the faces ... Lucas, Jade, and two other wolves on the system. The rest of the people hovering around didn’t carry themselves like fighters. Jade was the only woman in the room. Four members. Just like she’d said.

"They’re both moving together, Lucas," the wolf at the system said.

Jade smiled. The kind of smile that said she’d been waiting on exactly this.

"Good," Lucas said. "That’s what we want. There’s going to be a clash of wolves today." He pulled out guns and weapons again ... reloading like it was routine. The man had those things in bulk. Everything he did was backing up exactly what Jade had told me. "I’ve been waiting a long time for this."

He smiled too.

Then Jade’s phone rang.

Rex.

She stared at the screen and didn’t move. Lucas nodded at her ... told her to pick it up. They already knew we were here. She put it on loudspeaker and said nothing.

"Jade." Rex’s voice came through slow and deliberate. "I can’t believe you would do this to me. After everything I’ve done for you."

Nobody in the room made a sound.

"I pulled you out of the dust. Gave you a life. Shaped you into the woman you are ... fierce, sharp, someone who doesn’t break under pressure. And now you want to turn all of that against me."

Jade didn’t blink. Didn’t say a word.

"Just so you know, there’s no hiding forever. I’m going to find you. And when I do, I’ll be the one taking back the life I gave you."

The call cut.

"He sounded like he was already on the road," Jade said, scanning Lucas’s face. "But he scrambled the audio to blur it. He’s coming ... just not with the rest of them. He wants to be ahead of his own men."

"You sure about that, Jade?"

"I know Rex." Her voice didn’t waver. "He always needs to be one step ahead. It’s how he’s always operated. But not this time." She checked the gun in her hand and cracked it with quiet precision. "This time I finish the job myself."

The coordinates on the screen still had Carlos and his men closing in on my position. The gun they’d handed me was solid ... I’d already checked it. I wanted to protect myself. I wanted to protect Jade.

But watching her right then, calm and certain with that weapon in her hand, I had to admit the truth to myself.

She was probably going to be the one protecting me.