Dante as he made his way out of the bar and over to the SUV. It made more sense to lay Jaime across the backseat, but Dante found that he wanted her close. Not bothering to question the impulse, he placed her on the passenger seat and draped his jacket over her.
Impatient for answers, Dante only waited until he had reversed out of the parking space before he started to dig for an explanation. “Well,” he drawled, glancing in the rearview mirror at the male wolf, who was fidgeting nervously in the backseat. “It would seem that she isn’t submissive.”
“Nope,” Gabe confirmed.
“But Jaime keeps her wolf subdued?”
“Yeah.”
“Why? It’s clearly driving her wolf crazy and making her—” He broke off as realization dawned. “Her wolf was already this way. That’s why Jaime subdues her.” Gabe’s voice was sad as he spoke. “She doesn’t see that she has any other choice.”
“But I remember seeing her shift once when we were kids, and her wolf was fine. What happened to make her like this?”
“That’s Jaime’s story to tell.” Although Gabe’s tone wasn’t disrespectful, it was resolute.
Dante admired his loyalty to his sister.
“How long will she be out?”
Gabe shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen her have to fight her wolf so hard before. It’s usually a few hours before she wakes up. It drains her.”
“Wait a minute, what do you mean you’ve never seen her have to fight her wolf that hard before? Are you saying it’s getting worse?”
“She doesn’t talk about it much. She doesn’t want me to worry. It used to be months at a time before her wolf had the strength to put up a fight like that.”
“When was the last time?”
“A few nights ago. When she has nightmares, it freaks out her wolf.” Dante’s hands clenched around the steering wheel. “Fuck.”
“She wasn’t going to put any of you in danger,” he assured Dante, clearly worried that his sister was in trouble with the pack. “She’d planned to leave as soon as it got too bad. She didn’t say it aloud, but I know her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she leaves tomorrow.” His voice broke with the last words.
“Why?” It came out a growl; both he and his wolf had no intention of letting that happen.
“After that incident, she’ll see herself as too much of a risk to the pack.”
“It looked to me like all she did was respond to a challenge.” Okay, so there was much more to it than that, but that was pretty much at the crux of it.
“Yeah, but you and I both know that won’t mean squat to Trey, given his overprotective state right now. It won’t mean squat to her conscience either.”
“If she leaves, if she’s without the connection of a pack and without territory, it’ll most likely make her wolf worse.”
“I know,” he croaked. “She’s done so much for me, you know. When our parents died, we went to live with our aunt and uncle, and they were great and all, but they already had five kids of their own to care for. A year later came a set of twins. You know what it’s like to live in a full house.
We were only their niece and nephew, so we came last. Jaime took more care of me than they did—
as if she didn’t have enough to deal with. I hate it that I can’t do anything to help her with this.” So did Dante.
Once they were finally on pack territory, Dante retrieved her from the passenger seat and kept her cradled against his chest as he walked up the stairs of the cliff face. Going by the fact that Trey wasn’t blocking the main door wearing the mother of all scowls, it was clear that neither Tao, Trick, nor Marcus had called to warn him. Dante wouldn’t have blamed them if they had; he’d have understood. He’d have also kicked their asses.
Acting on instinct, he took her straight to his room and settled her down on his bed. No one would dare walk into his room without permission, so he knew she’d be fine in there. Recalling that Gabe had said she’d be out for hours, he left her there and went to Trey’s office. He knew it would only be a matter of time before someone told their Alpha something, and Dante wanted it to come from him. He also wanted to make sure that Trey didn’t make any rash decisions—something he was prone to do at times when the