Page 6 of Unbreakable Bond
Chapter 4
Rafe Hudson was goingto rip his little brother’s intestines out and use them to choke him to death. It was a fantasy he’d been living over and over in his head for the past few hours. It was a fantasy that he would have fulfilled already if onlyshehadn’t stoppedhim.
Her. Zoey. His mate. He was still trying to wrap his head around how that was evenpossible.
All of those years out there in the big, bad world. All of his time spent roaming from city to town to countryside. He hadn’t been out there looking for her but he was what he was. He was a shifter and it was hard coded in him to seek the woman that was meant to make him whole. In the back of his mind, every time he encountered a new woman, a new wolf or other shifter, he’d wondered if she was theone.
He’d wondered if he would find her at his next stop or the one after that. He’d wondered where she was and if she was looking for him too. And, in his darkest moments, he’d wondered if fate had even seen fit to give him a mate when he’d already failed to protect those that meant the most to himonce.
He’d failed his family, his entire pack. He had been the one to run past the boundary line. He was the one the hunters had followed back to camp. He was the reason they were all dead, every one ofthem.
His proud father, the leader of them all. His mother, the sweetest wolf to have ever been born. And Gabe, his littermate, his twin, his other half in every way. The only member of his family that hadn’t been in the woods that day was Michael and because fate liked to throw punches when you were already down, Rafe knew that the reason his little brother hadn’t been there was because he’d been withher.
Zoey.
To find out, after all of this time, that she was his? That she’d been his all along? That she was his but that she’d been here withhis brother? Well, that was an injustice he wouldn’t, and couldn’t,tolerate.
Any other wolf being anywhere near her would have been enough to incite him to violence after he’d caught her scent. The fact that he’d scented her for the first time in his brother’s home had been shocking but not altogether unrealistic. Michael had taken over the position of Pack Alpha, it was reasonable for him to have invited a member of the pack into his home. But her scent hadn’t been casual or fleeting in Michael’s home and that had been his first clue that something waswrong.
Her scent had been strong because she’d spent a lot of time there and realizing that his brother’s scent and his mates were so closely intertwined had felt like the first blow in a fight he hadn’t known was coming. Not at the time. Not until Michael purposefully tried to keep her from him, going so far as to refuse to tell him who the scent belongedto.
Rafe had left town after the attack on his family. He’d been injured, weak and damaged. He should have been dead. He’d wished he were dead. He’d known he was in no shape to take his rightful place at the head of the pack and he’d known what would happen if hestayed.
Somebody would have insisted Michael challenge him. The pack would have demanded it. He’d been weak and a Pack Alpha couldn’t be weak. His little brother would have been next in line and he’d always been strong. He was the logicalchoice.
So Rafe had left. He’d refused to fight the only member of his family that was still alive for something he’d never wanted in the first place. Gabe was the one that had wanted to follow in their father’s footsteps and lead. Nothim.
Looking back, he could have simply stepped down. They probably would have let him. Nobody had wanted him as their leader then. A barely twenty-year-old Pack Alpha that was physically wounded and mentally unstable? No. They would have let him step down and stay but he hadn’t wanted tostay.
He’d needed to get away. Get away from the people that stared at him, wondering how he’d survived when the other, stronger wolves hadn’t. Get away from the little brother that kept telling him that it wasn’t his fault, when Rafe knew that he was wrong. He’d just needed to get away from all the reminders of what he’dlost.
All he’d wanted was to live his life in peace, to mourn the loss of his family and find his mate, to have the chance to make a new family for himself, one he swore he would protect with his last breath if only fate would give him anotherchance.
He’d never have suspected that by giving up his life here he would be forfeiting years with the one woman that could make him whole again. He hadn’t fought his brother to become Pack Alpha, to lead the pack or even for the right to the only home he’d ever known. But he would fight for this, forher.
She washis.
He growled again, or was still growling. He couldn’t seem to control it. Every time he thought about her and Michael, he wanted to rip his brother apart with his teeth and his claws. He was barely holding his skin, his wolf scratching at the surface, willing Rafe to set him loose on anyone that dared keep his mate from him, even the brother theyloved.
He hated that she was even standing next to his brother and seeing Michael touch her had ripped at the last shreds of humanity he’d been holding onto tonight. Maybe it had been stupid, definitely crazy, because the Sherriff was right. He could arrest him for the unprovoked attack. Worse, he could be subjected to pack punishment for attacking the Pack Alpha. But he hadn’t cared then and he didn’t carenow.
If Michael touched her again, Rafe was going to launch himself across the small space and take his brother’sthroat.
His little brother. The only member of his family that was still alive. He should want to protect him, and he did, but that thought got all jumbled up with the anger and jealousy that had overtaken him when he realized thathismate wasMichael’sZoey.
No. Not Michael’s. She wasn’t Michael’s. She couldn’t be. She was his and if he had to beat that truth into his little brother, then hewould.
Zoey wouldn’t like that, the little voice in the back of his head warned. He growled at the sliver of reason. She’d already stopped him once. She would try to do it again and he couldn’t risk her jumping between them. His pride would be hurt if she tried to protect Michael over him but worse than that she could be physically hurt if she stepped betweenthem.
She was human. Damn it, had he ever considered his mate being human? It felt like another cruel twist of fate. She wasn’t supernatural which meant she was weak, frail, mortal. She could be hurt far too easily. She could die far tooeasily.
And he’d already lost too many people that were important tohim.
A low moan filled the night air and it took him a moment to realize it was coming from him. It was a wolf’s lament, his pain escaping the only way it could. And every wolf in the vicinity heard it and responded inkind.
A dozen people or more had piled through the back door of the lodge to see what was going on. The Sherriff was still standing between him and Michael, his head on a swivel, trying to keep an eye on both sides. His brother winced at the sound, his head tilting in recognition though his muscles remained tense and ready for the nextattack.
He’d give Michael that. The boy had always been smart. Because Rafe might not have intended to let his grief emerge but now that it had, for just a split second there, he’d thought about using it to his advantage. If he moved quickly enough, he could drop Michael while he was distracted, grab his mate andrun.
