Page 28 of A Deeper Blue
“Don’t,” he groaned. “Please don’t.” He grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her. Itwastoo late. Too late for him anyway. He’d been pretending that he could walk away, and there was no way he could do that now. Azure for a short time was worth an eternity with the pack.
“Why are you even with me?” he demanded.
“You have the world’s best composting toilet,” she muttered into his chest.
He tilted his head back to look her in the eye. “There is something wrong with you.”
“You could just tell me why they’re after you,” she suggested.
He growled out his displeasure with that idea. “This is my father’s fault,” he said at last. “None of this would have happened if I’d just ignored his message on the stupid answering machine.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because it’s the first time he’s contacted me since he kicked me out of the damn pack, and I thought….” He pushed away and stomped toward the pasture. The smell of him was making the cows nervous. They moved away, leaving the small pond behind in favor of a shed on the far side of the pasture.
“Wait, your dad kicked you out of your pack? What the fuck? What kind of a-hole kicks out their own kid?” Azure looked pissed for him, and he loved her for it.
“Thank you! I mean, I’m an adult, and it’s been like six decades, so I’m over it. I don’t need him, but still… what the hell? And then he just calls me up out of the blue and says he needs my help to do one little thing? I should have known.One little thing,my ass. Of course, whatever my dad wants gets me on the Warlock hit list.”
“What did your dad want?” asked Azure, frowning.
Rafe sighed and went back to his bike and pulled out the Hydro Flask. “This. I picked it up from Emilio at the bar back there in Montana. I’m supposed to bring it to Dad in Oregon by tomorrow. He said it was important.”
“Do you even know what’s in it?” asked Azure skeptically.
“No,” he said. “I think I was supposed to get more explanation at the bar, but fucking Warlocks and whatever.”
Azure scratched her head. “So, your father, who apparently you haven’t talked to in… however long.”
“Sixty-ish years.”
“OK, well, I mean… that is obviously something you need to address at some point.”
“Address… Fuck him. He kicked me out of the pack for being too modern and wanting to work with humans. He said I was causing pack imbalance. You know what? Fuck the pack. They should be unbalanced.”
“Yeah. I get a lot of that. The Supernaturals just want to isolate, but it doesn’t work out. We live on this planet too. We should get a say.”
“Yes!” he barked, angrily waving his arms. “Thank you!”
“But OK, so he calls you up and asks you to bring this thing to him in Oregon. Rafe…” Azure hesitated, then took a deep breath. “Goddess, I’m an idiot.”
“No, you’re not,” said Rafe.
“Yes, I really am. Your father’s Albert DeSandre, right?”
“Yeah?” Rafe wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say. This wasn’t how he thought things were going to go when he’d started the conversation.
Azure rubbed behind her ear. “You’re going to have to talk to your dad.”
“No, I’m not. I’m going to give Dad his stupid water bottle and get the hell back to Wyoming. And hopefully, take you with me.” He slid the last part out into the open and waited for her reaction.
“I can’t,” she said. “I have to stay and meet with your father.”
He blinked at her in confusion.
“What?”
“Your father has decided to develop a Supernatural Super PAC.”
