Page 13 of Unbreakable Bond
Chapter 7
“Zoey!”
“What?” She snapped when Michael growled her nameagain.
“I said you need to back off him. Wiley’s going to take him down to the station and lock him up so he can’t hurt you or anyone else until we get all of this figuredout.”
She gaped at him, “You can’t beserious.”
“Of course I’mserious.”
“There are so many things wrong with what you just said I don’t even know where tostart.”
“I’m Alpha of this pack, Zoey. You can question me. You can disagree with me all you want, but it’s my decision to make and I’ve already made it. He’s getting locked up for thenight.”
She’d never seen Michael like this and she found herself staring. She thought she knew every side of him. She’d been his best friend since she was ten years old. But she’d never seen him take a stand and be wrong and that was what he wasdoing.
He was wrong. Maybe for the first time ever. Michael was wrong about all of it. He was Pack Alpha because Rafe had left. He ruled over the pack but he wasn’t a dictator. And he had no right to interrupt or stop them from sealing the matebond.
Rationally, she knew why he was doing it. All of the cocksure arrogance was to hide the weakness he felt when it came to her and their complicated relationship. He needed to assert his power because this was something he couldn’t control. And she thought that maybe, just maybe, some part of him hated the idea of losing her, because earlier, on the shoreline of the river where they’d carved their names as silly kids, he’d looked at her and told her that fate had gotten it all wrong and she should have beenhis.
He’d known then. He’d all but admitted it. He’d known then that she didn’t belong to him, didn’t belong with him but he’d touched her and she was certain, still, maybe more so, that he’d been going to kiss her before Rafe tackled him to theground.
He’d known that his brother was coming for her, somehow, he had figured it out, and he hadn’t warned her. He hadn’t told her. Instead, he’d declared that she should have been his. He’d said that he was going to fix it, fix this, and that memory slithered slow and uneasy through her until a knot formed in herstomach.
Fix it? Fix fate? Fix the bond she felt to Rafe? How was Michael planning to do that? By keeping them apart? By keeping Rafe locked up so he couldn’t get to her? If she fought, would he knock her out too? How far was he willing to go to fix what he saw as aproblem?
Zoey licked her lips, darting a glance down at her mate, and made the decision. It was the only one she could make. If they kept fighting, she would say something she couldn’t take back. Michael would do something they’d never be able to come back from. And she couldn’t, wouldn’t, walk away from Rafe, not now, not ever. So she had to find anotherway.
She took a step back. It almost killed her. Every instinct in her body hissed at her to stop, to turn around, to stay close to Rafe and protect him, but she held her hands up and put some space between them. She stepped backwards until her unconscious mate lay between them, her at his head and Michael at hisfeet.
“Okay.”
Michael’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, “Okay?”
“You’re right. You’re Pack Alpha. If you think Rafe needs to be locked up tonight, then there’s nothing I can do to stopyou.”
Michael stared at her for a long moment. She could feel him picking through her brain, trying to figure out what her motives were. He was smart and a good leader and he knew her better thananyone.
She was more surprised than she probably had a right to be when his shoulders sagged with relief and he nodded. He’d accepted her white flag too easily. He expected her to still side with him, like she always had on everything. But she wasn’t that same girl anymore. She loved Michael but Rafe was her mate. He came firstnow.
“Good.” He sighed, rubbed at his jaw, and then sighed again, “Thankyou.”
“Forwhat?”
“For trusting me.” He tried for a smile but it didn’t take, “I promise I’m going to do everything I can to fix thisZoey.”
The fear and panic that she’d been expecting from the moment she realized what was happening finally made an appearance. Something dark twisted her guts and she clenched her fists again and bit her tongue to keep from lashing out at Michael. He wasn’t trying to hurt her, she told herself. He was trying to help. The problem of course was that for the first time, he didn’t know what she needed at all. He didn’t know what she was thinking. Because as far as she was concerned, there was nothing tofix.
Her body. Her heart. Her soul. She belonged to Rafe and that knowledge wasundeniable.
She swallowed past the lump in her throat, “I do trust you Michael. I trust you to do the rightthing.”
His gaze flickered over her, that mix of remorse and sadness, but he didn’t respond. If he understood what she’d really been saying, he didn’t let on. He simply stared at her for a long moment and then nodded, as if he was having an internal debate and he’d just decided something important. When he spoke again, she realized she’d beenright.
“You should go onhome.”
Her jaw fell open, “What?”
