A Vigil in the Mourning (Soulbound #4) - Hailey Turner Page 0,72
one could get your green card revoked and you kicked out of the country.”
“I told Casale I was talking with the vampires about borders when the hunters attacked. I wasn’t arrested.”
“That doesn’t mean you won’t be when we get back.”
It was a possibility Sage had made clear could happen, but Jono had faith in her ability to lean into the rights accorded a god pack alpha werewolf fighting for their territory. “That won’t happen.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I’m not going to apologize for making sure the packs under our protection are safe.”
“You putting your life on the line isn’t going to do that.”
“How is that any different from what you do?” Jono shot back. “You having a sodding badge doesn’t make your choices better than mine.”
“Me having a badge complicates everything if you’re arrested. If the government starts investigating you, then it’ll start investigating me, and I won’t be able to hide the soulbond from SOA agents with a goddamn warrant giving them the authority to go digging in our souls.”
“We’d find a way around that if it happens, but since it hasn’t, it’s not an issue right now.”
Patrick laughed in his face. “If you think it won’t be, then you’re wrong.”
“What would you have had me do? You weren’t there to make the decisions with me, so I did. I’m not going to bloody apologize for the choices I made.”
“You should’ve called me,” Patrick spat out, stalking past Jono.
“Where are you going?” Jono demanded, snagging Patrick’s arm before he got very far.
“Work. You know, that thing I need my sodding badge for.” The mockery in Patrick’s voice didn’t match the angry twist of his mouth. When he tried to jerk his arm free, Jono refused to let him go. Patrick smacked his other hand against Jono’s chest, glaring up at him. “Let. Go.”
Jono didn’t listen, hating everything about this argument. “Drop your shields.”
“Fuck you. I need to get to work.”
Patrick twisted his arm to break the hold and Jono let him, unwilling to hurt him. Jono followed Patrick to the door and pressed his hand against it when Patrick tried to open it.
“You asshole,” Patrick snarled, twisting around to press both hands against Jono’s chest and push. Jono planted his feet and refused to move.
“The gods put you in too much fucking danger every time they waltz into our lives,” Jono bit out, staring into Patrick’s eyes. “You put enough on the line when they make you fight for them. I know you can compartmentalize shit, but I didn’t want you to have to.”
“You don’t get to make that choice for me.”
Those words cut through Jono like the hunter’s knife, leaving him cold. He took a breath to steady himself, leaving more of his weight against the door so Patrick couldn’t open it when the other man turned around to try again. He still couldn’t smell Patrick, but that wasn’t the only way Jono could read him.
He reached for the soulbond, the tie deeper than where Fenrir lingered in his soul. The soulbond was a warm connection that Jono let wash over him, bringing with it a twisted sense of Patrick’s emotional state. It wasn’t easy to pick any one emotion out, but something still came through. Unlike in August and the fear Jono had sensed when Patrick had gone to the Crimson Diamond, all Jono got this time was a cracked sort of pain he knew he was responsible for.
Jono knew Patrick lied to survive but that he hated being lied to by the people who mattered. More than that, he hated having choices taken from him, because so much had already been stolen from him.
Jono knew that. He did.
But he’d still hurt Patrick in the worst way—and he couldn’t take those decisions back.
“I’m sorry,” Jono said thickly as he pulled his hand away from the door and tried to get Patrick to turn around and look at him. “You’re right. I should’ve rang you about the hunters, but I still would’ve gone to Lucien.”
Patrick shook him off, gripping the door handle with one hand even as he half turned to look Jono in the eye. “Even if I told you not to?”
Jono gave a slow nod, knowing he couldn’t lie here. “We need more than what we have for this fight. You know that, and you have to know you’re so bloody wrong about me not trusting you, Pat. Because I do. I always will.”
“You have a real fucking funny way of showing it.”