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)
“You paused him?” Brian had never seen anyone knock out an Alpha with one punch. Chaotic situation or not, he was now hard as a rock. Brute strength had never been a turn-on for him, but apparently, he had developed a new kink. All his life, he had thought he wanted a weaker, submissive mate but looking at his Alpha mate take charge made him realize that this was better.
Keith tipped his head toward the unconscious man on the ground. “Yeah, he’s paused, see?”
Though his cock was throbbing, his heart was racing, and his brain was crashing, Brian chuckled. “Only you can make me laugh and turn me on in the middle of complete mayhem.”
“You’re turned on?” Keith asked. “Show me.”
Brian gazed at his beautiful, unhinged, unexpectedly perfect mate and he was overcome with affection and desire. “I love you, Keith.”
Lips slowly curling up at the sides, Keith looked into his eyes. “I love you too, mate.”
“I can’t believe I let you come with me,” Brian grumbled as they drove onto Green Field territory. “You belong at home where you’re safe. I’m supposed to protect you. I don’t know why I agreed to this.”
Beside him, Keith looked out the window. “This place is in ruins. I shouldn’t have left it in Rupert Jackson’s hands. I should have protected my pack.”
The melancholy and regret in his mate’s voice stole his attention away from his own worries. “Hey, don’t say that. You were a kid, and they messed with your mind. You couldn’t have known what they’d done to you or what they’d do to this pack.”
“I should have figured it out.”
Brian took a few minutes to think that over. He reflected on what he had experienced that morning when Rupert Junior walked up to his door. Though he was loathe to admit to his own weakness, he would do it to help his mate.
“I wouldn’t have,” he confessed. “I didn’t endure any of the struggles you went through as a kid and I’m a full-grown Alpha leading my own pack, and I wouldn’t have realized Rupert Junior wasn’t my mate.”
From his peripheral vision, he saw Keith turn his head and look at him. “What do you mean? You realized right away. You told him he wasn’t your mate.”
“That’s only because of you.” He drew in a deep breath and tried to articulate the confusion that had clouded his mind. “Whatever it is they made infiltrated my head. Everything was out of focus and hazy, but there was this message that he was my mate invading my brain. With you, it’s different. I don’t think you’re mine, I know it. Heart to soul, bones to blood, I know. We’re connected, fated. I want to breathe you in, consume you, make you smile, keep you safe. I sense you inside every part of me.” He shuddered. “You’re everything to me, Keith Iredell. Your essence fills me so completely that there wasn’t space for their trick to take hold. But if I hadn’t met you…” He shook his head and gulped. “I’d like to tell you that I’m too strong for it to have worked on me, but that’d be a lie.”
Keith placed his hand over Brian’s, gently removed it from the steering wheel, and brought it to his mouth. He pressed his lips to Brian’s palm and then brushed his cheek against it. “Thank you. For the longest time, I’ve been mentally carrying a list of injustices, mistakes, and failures. It became an obsession, and I clung to it with everything I had and let it dictate everything I did.” He clutched Brian’s hand with both of his, rested it on his lap, and looked out the windshield in the direction of the Green Field Alpha house. “It’s time to clean out the mess so I can burn that list and start fresh. For my pack, for you…” He drew in a deep breath and whispered, “And for myself.”
Chapter 14
Hands crossed over his chest, Keith leaned against the side of the car, tipped his head up so the sun could warm his face, and inhaled the scents of his home pack. He had left before he was eighteen and returned seven years later with the goal of being laid to rest in his packlands. By then, he was so exhausted and demoralized that he hadn’t been able to focus on anything until his mate’s arrival had snapped him back to reality. If he had been even a little clearer-headed, he would have realized that Rupert Jackson was much worse than a weak, power-driven Alpha.
What he could smell and sense around him wasn’t merely the stifling effect of a leader who didn’t have the strength to connect his pack to Mother Nature; there was something rancid in the air and essence of his pack. Whatever chemicals and witchcraft Rupert had been using likely hadn’t been limited to what Keith had already seen. Mother Nature wasn’t just disconnected from Green Field, she was angry and the land and pack were withering and rotting as a result. It was long past time for him to step up and lead.