I can tell Ezra is in a bad mood now that we had run into Jasmine. His fingers clench the steering wheel like he wants to wring someone’s neck. “Are you okay?” I ask him after we get to McDonald’s.
“Yep, but I can’t get a hold of Mateo,” he growls through grit teeth.
“What do you mean?”
“He keeps shoving me out, and now the link is gone like he’s asleep, usually I can wake him, but not this time,” Ezra answers.
I nod, maybe he is having an afternoon nap. The drive takes around twenty minutes before we pull up at home. Mateo’s car is in the driveway, so we know he is home. Ezra parks next to it.
“Oh, for the love of God,” Ezra mutters, making me look at him before I notice Mateo’s car is smashed in at the front end, and Mateo is slumped over the steering wheel. Ezra gets out, and rushes to Mateo’s car, opening his door, and all I can smell is liquor. Mateo nearly falls out of the car as the door opens, and would have if Ezra hadn’t caught him before he tumbles out.
“Come on, big fella, let’s get you inside,” Ezra encourages, and I put everything on the hood of the car, grabbing his other arm and helping carry a passed-out Mateo toward the house.
“Argh, he is heavy,” I tell Ezra.
He stops pulling him up higher before using his free hand to slap him softly. “Buddy, you need to wake up, so we can get you in bed,” Mateo mumbles incoherently but doesn’t wake.
Suddenly Ezra’s eyes bleed black, and Maddox comes forward. “Let him go, Kitty, I will get him,” Maddox orders, and I step back. Maddox tosses him over his shoulder. I run ahead, opening the front door for him.
Maddox carries him up the stairs, and I go ahead, opening his bedroom door. I watch as Maddox lays him down in his bed before turning around to face me.
“Kitty,” Maddox purrs, reaching out and brushing my cheek softly with his hand. I watch as he gives Ezra back control, his eyes returning to normal.
“Man, I haven’t seen him like that since his mother died a few years back,” Ezra says, before bringing the trash bin from the corner of the room over and placing it next to the bed. “Come, we can check on him later,” Ezra says as he walks towards me, when Mateo mumbles something.
“What did he say?” I ask, knowing Ezra was closest to him.
“Said always the second choice, I think,” Ezra relays, he chews his lip, looking at Mateo worriedly. He sighs, pressing his hand to my lower back as we walk out. We get back outside and grab the stuff from the car, then come back inside.
“How did his mother die?” I ask. Come to think about it, I don’t really know much about him, well, not personally anyway.
“Which one?” Ezra asks, and I stop to look at him.
“What do you mean?” I question.
“Mateo was adopted, his bio parents died when he was eight in a car accident, he was raised by an omega woman, she was also our house cleaner. When she found out Mateo lost his parents, she took him in and raised him. He was staying with us for a bit, but that was never a permanent solution, not with my father.”
“So she adopted him?”
“Yep, Mateo’s real mother and mine were friends, so she knew him, and when they died, she raised him, she passed away three years ago. Her name was Andrea, she had no kids and never found her mate, she died in a rogue attack.”
“Do you think he will be alright?” I ask Ezra.
He nods, walking me back to our room. “He should be.”
Ezra worked most of the afternoon and got someone to cover Mateo’s shifts. At dinner time I check on Mateo, and he is still passed out in his bed when tingles rush across my hip as Ezra comes up behind me, placing his hand on my hip. He glances over my shoulder looking at Mateo and I peer up at him.
He purses his lips, tugging me away from his room. “He just needs space, he’ll come to us when he is ready, let him sleep, Kat. I know you’re worried about him.”
“Are you?” I ask him, letting him steer me toward our room.
“Have been for months,” Ezra sighs. “More so now, I hoped Jasmine would help him.”
“Help him what?”
“Get over you, Kat.”
I stare at his door over my shoulder, is that why he was with Jasmine?
Ezra
It is killing me to see Mateo like this. I don’t think he has spent one night sober in the last week, each night I have dragged him to bed or found him passed out somewhere outside. He was even brought home by two patrols a couple of nights ago after falling asleep while on duty. And to make it worse, he is avoiding me and Kat.
I don’t know how he does it, how he even manages to drag himself out of bed every morning to take himself to training, he is never late no matter how obliterated he is from the night before. He may be severely hungover, but he is always on time.
Sitting in my office, I hear someone come down the stairs. I have been pouring over the journal, trying to find anything to help Kat, and anything to help us figure out what to do about Jackson. I pray I can find some way to reverse the curse on Kat, yet there is nothing. Kat hates being a Lunar wolf, and I am worried about her safety given her capabilities that she has barely tapped into. I look up when heavy footsteps creak on the stairs get closer, Mateo’s scent wafts down the hall, along with the strong smell of whiskey.
Sighing, I push the journal aside and call out to him. “Mateo, come to my office, please.”
He stops on the stairs and groans. My door opens seconds later, and he lumbers into my office, his clothes are all wrinkled and I know he hadn’t changed because I remember he was wearing the same thing last night when I hauled him to bed once again.
Mateo plops in the chair. His hair is a mess, and he looks like shit and smells like a brewery. He scrubs a hand down his face, scratching at the short beard he has grown in the past week, another sign he is not okay. Mateo is mostly clean-shaven and certainly wouldn’t wear the same clothes two days in a row. He looks depressed, and exhausted. “What?” He asks, leaning on my desk as if it was the only thing holding him up right now.