Page 37 of Unbreakable Bond
“That’s because you love her.” Rafe shook his headsadly.
Michael flinched, “Yes.” He scrubbed his jaw again when Rafe growled. “But not like that. Not like a… mate should. She’s my best friend. I want the best forher.”
“It’s more than that, Michael. Don’t try to deny it. We’re still family. I can sense how you feel about thegirl.”
Michael was the one that dropped his eyes this time, “I wanted her to be mine so badly. All those years together, we were so sure it was the two of us and then it was like, everything changed. I was Pack Alpha and you were gone and when she turned eighteen… she wasn’t mine. I didn’t handle it well. I know that. But I never expected for it to beyouand I handled that evenworse.”
“Yeah, you did.” Rafenodded.
“You just, you walked back into town yesterday and turned everything upside down. I was scared. Scared of losing her. Scared of losing the pack. Scared of losing you again too.” Michael met his eyes and this time there was no wolf, no anger, just the sadness and the distance that seemed to be a gulf between them, “I don’t want you to leave again, even if it means giving up thepack.”
Rafe blinked in confusion and then shook his head, “Jesus, Michael, no. I don’t want the pack. I never did. I didn’t come back for it and I’m not staying for it. I’m staying for her. She’s all I want. She’s all I’ve ever wanted. A chance at a home and a life, at regaining a piece of myself I thought I lost forever… myfamily.”
“You never should’veleft.”
“I know.” He winced at the accusation in his little brother’svoice.
Not the voice of the Pack Alpha. Not the voice of the man that he’d become in the years since Rafe left Noir. Just the voice and the accusation of the scared kid he’d been when his older brother abandoned him to all of thisresponsibility.
“If you’d stayed, maybe it wouldn’t all be so fucked up. I would’ve given up on the idea of her being mine a long time ago. I would’ve had to accept it instead of keeping her around like some kind of consolation prize and hurting both of us in theprocess.”
“Zoey is no man’s consolation prize, Michael. You should know that better than anyone. She’s the best. She’s everything I could ever want or need in a mate. She balances me and she soothes my wolf and I swear to you, just like I swore to her, I’m going to be the best I can be for her because she makes mestronger.”
“You better.” Michael flickered a sad smile, “Or I’ll snap yourneck.”
