Page 29 of Pack Rage
“Bite me?” Brand’s eyes snapped open and bored into mine. It felt like I was being judged by some wolf god. I hid my trembling hands, but returned his stare until he narrowed his gaze.
Then he shook his head as he struggled to answer. “Never.”
Chapter 14
Brotherly Love
BRAND
Luke flinched as he hovered over me, waiting, but I’d begun to cough and couldn’t finish my reply. As I struggled for breath, Finn leaned close to me as well, the two of them working to lift my head and torso off the cold marble of the bathroom floor. Luke was full of nerves. Finn was laughing his ass off.
“Give him a set of mate marks on the other side, Luke. Make it symmetrical.”
Finally, I could breathe again, but Luke rushed to explain the idea he’d suggested before I could speak. “I didn’t mean on his neck; it’s not some kind of mating bite. Stoplaughing, Finn!” Finn slapped a hand over his mouth, but his green eyes still shone with mirth. I almost had enough energy to give Finn the finger.
Almost.
Ignoring Finn, Luke jutted out his chin and went on. “I think if we establish a bond—abrotherlyone—between us, it could cut off Elina’s access to you. Or slow it somehow.”
My voice was raspy as I asked, “How?”
Luke shrugged. “I’m not really sure how, or what’ll happen if we try. But when Flor was little, and she was being beaten, my blood and hers mingled together. I think that’s what ignited our bond so early. It tied my strength to hers, and kept her from dying.”
“Mates,” I grunted.
“No, not back then at least. It wasn’t a mate bond when we were children. That happened later.”
For some reason, that set Finn off again. “Your love… could grow.”
Luke blanched. Nothing about this situation was humorous, but I still found my lips turning up as I mustered the strength to finish my original reply to him, the words slurring as my tongue grew numb. “Never thought I’d take a second mate. What’ll Flor think?”
Luke’s concerned expression eased slightly, and he shrugged. “There’s no way of ever telling what that woman’ll think. She’s unpredictable.”
“To say the least,” Finn muttered.
I could feel my strength being siphoned away, though I’d done my best to shut down the pack bonds and even Flor’s, though not feeling her in my mind made my wolf rage. Luke and Flor were mates now, already bonded. If she trusted him that much, who was I to argue? Who was I to trust him less? We were mate-brothers, or brother-husbands, whatever expression Glen had come up with.
I refused to think of Grigor, and whether she would want to add him to our ranks. That was not the same. Every shifter had limits, and he was one of mine.
Luke’s grip on my shoulders tightened, his hands warm through the cloth of my shirt. If he really thought this would help, I was willing to try, but not if it meant he was putting himself at risk. “Don’t want… to hurt you.”
His brow furrowed. “I don’t think you will. I can’t explain why I think this is right. My wolf is just telling me it’s the only way.”
For some reason, hearing it was his wolf’s idea had me relaxing. Our shifter sides were so much more intuitive, aligned with the moon’s power. Smarter than us, in a lot of ways. “Do it,” I whispered, turning my neck to one side. I’d hoped to make him laugh. It worked.
He snorted, then lifted my left arm to his mouth, the same one that Elina had marked. His jawline changed slightly as his canines grew, and he set his mouth to my forearm, striking right over the marks she’d left with her nails.
He froze in place, his blazing, silvery-blue eyes locked on mine. Emotions flew across his face. Fear, fury, and resolve. His mouth stained with my blood, he snarled as he bit deeper.
Lightning moved through my veins, and even though Luke had said it wasn’t a mate bond, it felt similar as it began to bind us. But rather than filling me with the need to protect and love a mate, I was flooded with a wave of deep brotherhood. I could feel his own bond to Flor that mirrored mine. Could read his thoughts as they flooded my mind, and I knew he read mine as he swallowed a mouthful of my blood.
We were united in our need to protect our mate. Our packs. Our kind.
I read his soul, as the connection formed. Luke felt the responsibility to care for shifters in his marrow, and had since before he protected Flor as a child. He was strong, but not in the same way I was, or the other Heirs. His strength lay in his resilience.
He may have come from a smaller pack in Europe; he may not have been destined to stand shoulder to shoulder with the strongest shifters in North America as an Heir. But he had earned that place, by surviving the tortures at Southern.By living through and overcoming the hundreds of Alpha commands he’d been given, letting every scar become a part of his armor. By sacrificing himself for our mate when she was a tiny child, and doing it again and again ever since. He may have failed to protect Flor from all the injustices in her young life, but he and his wolf would never fail our little one again.
And he didn’t fail me now.Brother, he breathed into our bond.
