Page 92 of Wicked Savage Wolves
Surprisingly, he does as I ask. I give him directions to The Missing Piece and have him park in the first available space we can find. There’s no hesitation as I walk inside. I don’t even need to think about what to get. I already know. He follows behind, uncertainty written across his face.
The woman at the desk takes one look at the two of us and her smile brightens. She’s wearing a low-cut tank top in the middle of winter, exposing her arms, both covered in ink. “Do you have time for walk-ins?” I ask, ignoring the flirtatious smile she gives me.
“I’ll check for you,” she turns to her computer before her gaze returns to mine. “And what about him, sugar? You both here for some work?”
Liu shakes his head in a definitive no.
“Just me,” I tell her.
“Alright then. Henry has some time. What are you after?”
I give her a quick rundown of what I’m looking for, and she assures me Henry has silver alloy and can seal the piece once he’s done.
She purses her lips. “Are you sure you want that on your hands?”
I nod and she goes and gets this Henry guy who comes to the front, and I explain again to him what I want. He looks at me the way some tattoo artists do when they think you’re making a mistake, but he’s not going to say anything because he’s happy to take my money.
We sit down together, and he works on the sketch for both pieces. Laying the stencil on my hand, we go over placement and then we’re set. He doesn’t bother asking me for ID. I’ve learned that once you have some ink, no one really cares much about adding more.
“Last chance, man. You sure?”
I nod. I explained to Henry what the tattoos meant, it’s not every day a wolf walks in asking for what I’m after, and the explanation only cements his belief that this is stupid. But that’s okay. This girl is it for me. She’s not just my beginning, she’s my end. I’ve been fucking around and going through the girls in this town one right after the other until she showed up. That had worked for me these last few years. I never wanted more than one night with any of them. But with Isa, I don’t want just one night. I need more. I need her every day. For all of the days that are to come. I know we’re young, but I know, and my wolf knows. All that matters now is that she knows, too.
Isa is the first person I think about when I wake up and the last one on my mind when I go to sleep. She’s not just some random. She never was. She’s the real deal. She’s … it hits me. She’s my mate. Holy fuck!
Like a ton of bricks, the knowledge slams into me. Isabella Romero is my mate.
She needs to know that. On a visceral level. She has to know I’ll make the sacrifices. I’ll step up and put in the work. Because she fucking deserves it. I just hope this shows her exactly what she means to me because if this doesn’t do that, I have no fucking idea what else I can do to win her back.
It takes four hours for Henry to finish and like it did with my other tattoos, the silver alloy burns my skin and I barely fight back my shift as I ride through the pain when he seals the ink. When he does, he walks me through the usual list of how to care for the ink. But it’s worth it. She’s worth it.
There’s still around an hour left of school and another twenty minutes or so after that until she gets home. I need to talk to her where she’ll feel safe. I don’t want to do it at the school. We don’t need the audience and I know the parking lot holds bad memories for her, so I decide to head to her place. I don’t want to spring this on her or make her uncomfortable, but I don’t see an alternative.
“I can’t believe you just did that,” Liu says.
I shrug like it’s no big deal because it isn’t. I’d do a hell of a lot more for that girl than just get a little ink.
He gives me a sideways look as I tell him to head toward Isa’s place. “You really care about her?” he asks, sounding surprised.
I grunt because I don’t have to justify my feelings for her to him.
He parks across the street from the mansion where she lives, and I recline my seat and settle in to wait. A glance at the clock shows me we have some time before she gets home. Liu turns off the car and the silence between us stretches, becoming awkward.
“We ever gonna talk about—’
I cut him off. “No. There’s nothing to talk about.”
He sighs. “I fucked up.”
“That’s the understatement of the century.”
He turns toward me in his seat, nostrils flaring. “You’ve fucked up too, Rafe. Don’t pretend like you’re some saint.”
“Never said I was,” I tell him. “But I’m learning from my mistakes. Trying to fix them. Can you say the same?”
His face tightens and he looks away, staring out the windshield. “I was in a bad place back then.”
I nod. I’m aware. I might not have been at the time. He was good at covering his tracks, keeping his nose clean, but I found out later what he’d been going through. “We made a deal,” I remind him. “You help me, we wipe the slate clean. But, Liu,” I wait until he meets my gaze again, wanting him to see just how serious I am. “I won’t make this deal again. Whatever shit you still need to clean up, be sure that you do.”
