Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 47519 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47519 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Brian growled and then winced. He didn’t want to scare his mate. “Sorry.”
“He wasn’t.” Keith put his hand over Brian’s, which he realized was clenched into a tight fist. Instead of being angry, afraid, or even offended, he was trying to calm Brian. He had never met anyone like Keith. Awed, he stared at him. “Being with you leaves no question that he wasn’t.” Keith frowned. “I don’t understand why I thought he was. I need to figure that out.”
“Where is he now?” Residual anger made his voice rumble. Nobody else could lay claim to his man. He had known Keith Iredell for one day and he was already sure he couldn’t live without him.
“Dead.”
The tightness in his shoulders eased.
“Something wasn’t right with him.” Keith shook his head. “He was all messed up, angry at being taken from the Golden Valley presumptive Alpha, mind all over the place. I tried to calm him, told him I’d help him, but it was like he couldn’t focus, and he wanted nothing to do with me and then…” He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “He went back to Golden Valley and blew up the Alpha house, killing everyone in it, including himself.”
“That’s what happened in Golden Valley,” Brian said to himself. He had heard about the fire but not what caused it.
Keith nodded.
“Why did he do it?”
Keith shrugged. “I don’t know. Nobody does.” His jaw clenched and his brow furrowed. “I could tell he wasn’t right, but I didn’t understand why, and I was…” He frowned. “I don’t know what I was. It’s hazy when I think back to it. But I remember thinking he was my mate and that I had to help him, protect him, that I was responsible for him. When I failed in my responsibility, Rupert told me and everyone else that I wasn’t fit to lead Green Field. It was the only time in my life that I agreed with him. How could I take care of my pack when I couldn’t even take care of the man Mother Nature entrusted to me?”
In an instant, Brian was on his feet, palm curled around Keith’s nape. He brought their foreheads together and met Keith’s gaze. “You’re my mate. Not his. But even if—” He couldn’t finish that sentence. “But regardless, you aren’t responsible for someone else’s actions.” Keeping his hold on Keith’s nape firm, he cupped his jaw with his other hand, nipped at his lips, and then slipped his tongue past them and kissed him deeply, possessively.
When they parted, Keith grinned at him, clearly unbothered by the show of dominance. “Staking your claim?” he asked, making no effort to dislodge Brian’s hold. “Sexy.”
“You’re my mate,” Brian said again, voice slightly lower. “Mother Nature gave you to me.”
“I know. I told you that, remember?”
He had said that, more than once. Brian’s racing heart rate slowed.
“Something was off with Timothy Tillers and I need to get to the bottom of it.”
Brian growled again, seemingly unable to rein in his body’s reactions. “Sorry,” he said, embarrassed. “I normally have great control.”
“Don’t apologize. I like it.” Keith leaned back and into Brian’s hand on his neck. “Your wolf is close to the surface. It’s hot.”
“I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Looking amused, Keith arched his eyebrows. “I’m petrified. The big, bad Alpha wolf is going to eat me. Oh no.”
Any shifter should be nervous with an Alpha looming in his face and asserting his dominance, but his mate clearly wasn’t. Relieved but disarmed, Brian plopped back into his chair. “You confuse me.”
“At least I’m keeping you on your toes. You wouldn’t want to be bored, right?”
His life had been predictable, orderly. Things had always gone his way, stayed on track. Brian wouldn’t have described himself as bored but as he reflected on how he felt at that moment, he realized he had never felt as alive. Shaking off that thought to be considered later, he returned to their conversation. “You said you thought this man was your mate.”
Keith nodded.
“When you were with him, did you…” He swallowed down the sudden thickness in his throat. He hadn’t been insecure a day in his life and he didn’t like the feeling. Forcing his shoulders back, he took a deep breath and then calmly asked, “Did you feel like you do with me?”
“No,” Keith said firmly. He pushed away from the table and climbed onto Brian’s lap, straddling him. “I don’t think I felt anything. I remember thinking he was my mate. It was strange and completely different to how I feel with you, about you.” He shook his head. “It wasn’t at all comparable to this, and like I said, I don’t understand why I thought it.”
Refusing to fall victim to jealousy, he focused on the information he was learning. “That’s odd,” he said. “And very problematic.” Two words that reminded him of someone he had met that morning. Two someones and the pack they were leading. “Do you think Rupert Jackson and his son had something to do with it?” Brian asked.