Page 46 of Unbelievable Faith
Chapter 20
Michael wasat his desk when he felt a sudden surge of worry. He frowned and glanced up but nobody else in the room had moved. Darius and Rafe still stood by the big table with the map they’d been marking up all afternoon. Neither of them had so much as looked his direction as they discussed the best path to take to lure their predator into becomingprey.
Suddenly uncomfortable, Michael shifted in his chair and shot a look at the clock. Luna hadn’t left all that long ago and she was no doubt enjoying her time alone in the woods, running and happy and free. He could tell when he’d run into her that she needed the time alone more than he needed to guarantee her safety. They’d compromised, as they were learning to do. He shouldn’t be any more worried about her than he normally was. She would be nearing the lake by now but there was no reason she should have calledalready.
He had no reason to worry. None at all. Only, even as he thought it, a sharp pain lanced through his body and he shot upright, stumbling back from his desk as if something beneath it had bittenhim.
“Michael?” Rafe turned back towards him instantly, his brows knitting together, “Michael, what’swrong?”
“I…” Michael frowned, looking from his desk to his leg and back again before shaking his head, “I don’t know. Something’s just…off.”
Another sharp pain lanced through him but this time, it made him nearly double over. It felt like his heart was being cut out. Like someone had taken a sharp blade and begun carving into him, intent on ripping his most vital organ out of hischest.
“Michael!” Rafe was at his side now, catching him as he stumbled and lowering him back into his chair. “Breathe!”
He sucked in a gasp and realized that he hadn’t been breathing. He’d been holding his breath, trying to ride out the sudden pain. He took a deep breath just like his brother said. He gulped in the fresh air but the movement only made the pain in his chest worse. He raised his hand and rubbed his palm over his left pec, just above his heart, as his mind raced and he tried to figure out what washappening.
Was he having a heart attack? It didn’t make sense. He was young. He was healthy. He was in the prime of his life. He’d just found his fated mate. He was a werewolf with a mate and a pack and he could heal himself from almost any injury. What was happening tohim?
“Darius, get him a glass of water and…” Rafe began to bark orders and the big Enforcer was already moving towards the door when it flew open so hard that it crashed into thewall.
Michael jerked his head up. Rafe kneeled in front of him protectively. Darius stumbled to a stop. But neither of them could block the intruder from his line of sight and as soon as he saw her, he knew exactly what it allmeant.
He wasn’t having a heart attack. Not in the traditional sense. But his heart was being ripped away from him and he felt it in every fiber of hisbeing.
“Luna.” He nearly choked on the name as a sob worked its way up histhroat.
Nova had tears in her eyes and she wiped at them with the backs of her hands, “She’s in trouble. She’s in trouble and I didn’t see it soon enough this time. I didn’t see it until it was toolate.”
“What did you see?” Michael swallowed past the lump in histhroat.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t think… I knew there was danger but I couldn’t see what it all meant. Not until it was too late. I’m sosorry.”
Michael growled when the young girl said those two words again. Too late. She kept saying it was too late. But dammit, he could still feel Luna. His heart hurt and he felt her pain but the bond was still there which meant she was alive. So long as she was still breathing, there was nothing he wouldn’t do to get to her, which meant it wasn’t toolate.
He bared his teeth, “Tell me what you saw,now!”
Leo stepped from beside his youngest sister and leveled a glare at Michael, “Don’t take that tone with her. This isn’t herfault.”
“Are you implying that it’s mine?” He rose to his feet, his claws unsheathing of their ownaccord.
Now was not the time for Leo to try and assert dominance. This was Michael’s territory, his pack lodge and it was his mate that was in trouble. Leo was her brother, sure, but mate trumped brother. And if it took shaking each of every DeLuca that was keeping secrets until they all fell out, he’d do it in order to find and protect hismate.
A second figure stepped in front of Nova, shoulder to shoulder with Leo and a big hand shot out, stalling Michael before he could get too close, “Calmdown.”
Michael stopped to glare at his best friend, “Don’t tell me to calm down, Darius. You don’t have any idea what it feels like to know your mate is in danger, to feel her pain and her fear and not be able to stop it immediately. Until you’re mated and you have someone you’d rip your own heart out for to keep theirs beating, you don’t get to tell me to calmdown.”
Darius snarled and Michael instantly regretted the words. His friends eyes glowed gold and his teeth elongated. Never, not once in the twenty years he’d known the Enforcer had he seen Darius react so viscerally, he’d certainly never unsheathed his claws with the intention of harming his Alpha. Michael knew he’d pushed too far and lowered his gaze inapology.
Leo made a growling noise himself and stepped between them but he didn’t face Michael. He turned to Darius. When the big man wouldn’t meet his gaze and continued to glare past him at Michael, Leo reached up and gripped his chin, hard, pulling that laser like intensity ontohimself.
“Let it go.” He said softly, just for Darius, “He’s hurting and he’s scared for Luna. We all are and emotions are running high. Let it go,D.”
Darius clenched his jaw so hard the sound of bone crunching was audible in the still and silent room. But his eyes dropped to Leo and slowly they shifted back from gold to deep, dark brown. His face softened slightly as he came back to himself and when he gave a small nod, Leo stroked his cheek before releasing himcompletely.
It was a powerful moment. One that told them all just how wrong Michael had been. Whatever was happening between those two, whatever doubts Darius might be harboring and any fight he might be putting up, it was clear right then and there that he was on the losing end of the battle. Leo had just calmed him from a full-on snarling rage, from a half-shift that could have gone terribly wrong if he’d attacked his Alpha. The power behind that kind of connection, that was the kind of power that could only come from a mate bond, sealed ornot.
Michael cleared his throat when Leo stepped away from Darius, “I’m sorry. He’s right. I’m just worried aboutLuna.”
