Page 12 of Unbreakable Bond
“What happened? What did you do to him? If you hurt him in any way, Iwill…”
“You will what? You’re going to threaten me now too?” Michael scoffed, “I was trying to protect youZo!”
“What did you do?” She heard her voice rise an entire octave about the same time she saw Michael’s eyes widen in shock andhorror.
She’d never yelled at him before. Ever. She’d been angry with him plenty of times. They’d been friends too long for them not to argue, not to fight, but she’d never screamed at him. She’d never even wanted to. Untilnow.
“Easy there…” Wiley stepped between the two of them, holding his hands out in her direction as if she might go into full-attack mode, “He didn’t do anything. Calm downZoey.”
She turned her anger on the older man, “Tell me what’s wrong withRafe!”
“Nothing’s wrong with him. He’s just sleeping off thedrugs.”
“Thedrugs?”
“Yeah.” Wiley shrugged, “I tranquedhim.”
She sucked in a shocked gulp of air and then winced and stared down at her hands. She’d curled her hands into fists so hard that her nails were cutting into her skin. She consciously uncurled her fingers and fought off the urge to swing her fist at the Sheriff’shead.
“You did what?” She hissed through herteeth.
“Tranquedhim.”
“Why would you do that?” She struggled between keeping her eyes on the men that had already hurt her mate and turning her full attention back on Rafe to check that he was stillbreathing.
“Because I told him to.” Michael spokeup.
Vaguely, she remembered his words from earlier, when they’d been facing off and she hadn’t even known what was happening. Michael had told the Sheriff that if Rafe went anywhere near her to take him down. She remembered thinking that the Sheriff didn’t stand a chance of taking Rafe in a fight. She hadn’t realized they weren’t planning to fightfair.
“Why?”
“Why?” Michael growled, his face twisting into a menacing scowl, “Why? The fact that you’re even asking me is proof that you’re not thinkingclearly.”
She wasn’t thinking clearly. She knew that. Every single thought she had was being processed through a new filter.Rafe.
How did it affect Rafe? How did she get to Rafe? How did she protect Rafe? How did she get Rafe back? And how long would it be until she could have his skin against hers again, his body pressing into hers and sealing the bond once and forall?
“Jesus, Zoey! You’re not even listening tome.”
She snapped back to attention and felt a blush steal over her cheeks when Michael frowned at her. He knew where her thoughts had gone. It was clear from the disapproval on his face that he knew exactly what she had been thinking. Even still, she couldn’t shut itoff.
There was an invisible link between her and Rafe now and it was only getting stronger. Attraction had flickered to life as soon as she saw him, but it was more than that. She’d fought to get to him, felt the urge to be closer to him, and her body had responded to him fighting for her too. Then he’d grabbed her, touched her for the first time, and it was like a piece of herself that she’d never known was missing fell intoplace.
She glanced back at Michael and her heart squeezed too tight in her chest. It hurt, but not in the way it had for four years. She stared at his handsome face, but objectively, for possibly the first time ever. He was good-looking, too good-looking really, but her heart didn’t skitter and race at the mere sight of himnow.
Her attraction to him was gone. Her mind whirled as she tried to figure out how that was possible. He was just as handsome as he had been a half hour ago. He was still her bestfriend.
She still loved him, that hadn’t gone anywhere. Love like that didn’t just disappear. But it was different now, looking at him and knowing that he had been right before, when he’d said that being together would have felt wrong because they didn’t belongtogether.
She hadn’t understood it at the time. She hadn’t understood it today. Not until the moment her eyes had met Rafe’s and she’d felt the beginning of that bond take root somewhere deep inside her, could she have ever understood the difference in loving someone and beingmated.
She didn’t love Rafe. She wasn’t delusional enough to believe a magical bond could make that happen instantaneously. She did believe that it was possible for her to fall in love with him though, because otherwise, what was the point? The bond was only the beginning, not the end goal like she’d always thought itwas.
This was just the beginning forthem.
