Chapter 14 Stolen
Stolen
Felix
Something pulled me from my drunken stupor. As to how I roused myself from deep sleep or how I managed to defeat the entire bottle of whisky coursing through my veins, I hadn’t the faintest clue. All I knew was that Monte needed me.
Blood pounded in my skull to the beat of my wolf’s heart, and snarling came as easily as breathing.
I now regretted having my pity party at the opposite corner of the pack house, as far from my room as was possible.
I’d tried to distance myself from Monte in the hopes that it would make tonight easier, but I’d been a moon-damned fool.
I wasn’t thinking of anything at all as I sought Monte, and when a coherent thought threatened to surface, I choked the life out of it. If I thought about what Monte might have done with Hunter already, then I would lose what tenuous control I’d managed to achieve over my borderline feral body.
But then I shoved the door open, and what I saw made me completely lose control. I didn’t even think, I just shifted, reveling in the ripping claws that finally freed me from my self-imposed cage.
Hunter was on top of Monte, pinning him down, and my Omega was struggling to break free. I’d run through every scenario in my head, torturing my soul as I drank myself senseless, but I’d never even considered that my brother might stoop so low as to rape my Omega.
I slammed into Hunter before he even had a chance to turn, throwing the both of us from the bed and away from Monte.
My brother equal parts screamed and growled beneath me, trying desperately to fight back, but his panic crippled his efforts. With my paw grinding his face down into the floorboards and my claws cutting into his forearm, there was nothing he could do.
Without thinking, I opened my jaws. Worrying about the consequences could come later. For now, all I had to do was end the threat to Monte. Saving him could never be a mistake.
“Felix!” a voice cried in the distance. Such a familiar voice, so soothing, yet so, so far away.
My fangs closed around Hunter’s neck. It wouldn’t be a clean kill, but a primal part of me yearned to rip him limb from faithless limb. His screams intensified, oscillating between screamed insults and desperate pleading, but none of it could pierce the haze of my fury.
“Felix.”
This time, it was just a whisper, yet infinitely closer and louder. Somehow, without me realizing, Monte had closed the distance and was behind me, holding me tight. He embraced my snarling, vicious form without hesitation, not afraid that I might hurt him.
And when I was confronted with a level of unearned trust like that, what could I do but relent? I didn’t want to hurt Monte, and that was a very real possibility if I kept ripping Hunter apart.
Seizing his opportunity, Hunter wiggled free. I thought he was just making a break for the door, but yet again, I miscalculated.
Badly.
My skin burned, then I felt the wetness staining my fur. And then I felt the pain.
Hunter slashed and cut at me with his claws as he broke free, digging deep into my belly. I didn’t strike back, I just used my body to protect Monte and ensure that he didn’t get hurt in the chaos.
Nothing mattered but keeping him safe. Hunter escaping didn’t matter, and Hunter attacking me didn’t matter. As long as Monte was alright, then anything else was endurable.
Just as suddenly as the attack began, it was over. Hunter was gone, but the pain was intensifying. I had no idea where my brother was, if he’d fled forever or if he’d return soon, and so there was only one course of action before me.
I let the wolf go, and the nausea of shifting threatened to overwhelm me. Somehow, I managed to get up to my feet, but I didn’t dare look down at Monte. I was too afraid of what I might find there. Would I see fear in his eyes? Pity? Apology?
I couldn’t handle any of it. All I could do was lift him into my arms and marvel at how light he was.
Light, but not senselessly flopping, I noted as I carried him from the room, a trail of blood following me as I strode to the back door of the pack house.
If there was an uproar behind me, I didn’t pay any heed.
Once we were outside, beneath a full moon that bathed the world in pale glory, only then did I dare a look down at Monte.
He was so fragile and small, so defenseless. And I’d left him alone with a monster that wanted to break and use him as he saw fit. Even if Monte could forgive me for that, I’d certainly never forgive myself.
“Wh-where are we going?” he whispered through chattering teeth.
With the burning, unpleasant heat in my gut, I had no idea if it was actually cold out, so I just held him even closer as we made our way towards the deepest, darkest part of the forest.
When I finally recovered enough, I turned an ear back behind us. However, there were no signs of pursuit, so we continued on our way.
“I can’t do this,” Monte whimpered. “Please, Felix, I can’t.”
I knew that my reassurances were incoherent.
I knew that I didn’t give him anything more than grunts and growls, but at the moment, I couldn’t possibly manage anything more.
It took all I had just to put one foot in front of the other and advance deeper into the only sanctuary that I trusted at the moment.
Above, the moon blazed so hot that I could feel my skin burning in response.
Or maybe that was just the gaping wounds in my belly making me delirious.
“Felix!” Monte cried out, pounding his fist weakly against my shoulder.
“I can’t take this. If you make me go back and face Hunter again, then I…
I’ll run away. I don’t know where, but anywhere would be better.
” His voice broke, and he buried his face in my shoulder, but he wasn’t done yet.
“If you won’t claim me, then I’m leaving. ”
My uneven, loping strides slowed, then stopped altogether. I leaned against a thick oak, just as off-balance from his words as by my own unsteady steps.
“Do you… do you really mean that?” I asked hoarsely.
I peered down at the Omega in my arms, but Monte didn’t look up to meet my gaze. If anything, he burrowed even deeper into my arms and pressed his cheek hard against my chest. Even when he ran from me, he grew closer to my heart.
“Yes,” Monte whispered. “I would rather leave than be given to Hunter.”
I didn’t think it was possible, but my throat got even drier. I licked my lips, but it barely helped.
“Even knowing the consequences for your family and pack?”
Monte nodded once again. It was jerky and wrought with emotion, but it was most definitely a nod.
There was a blistering headache building in my head, but I could still manage some semblance of thought.
Out of several kinds of self-preservation, I eased Monte down and helped him stand on his own, alleviating some pressure off my wounded body.
Once I was sure he was steady, I turned away and inspected my wounds in the moonlight.
My shirt was torn and bloodied, but the flesh beneath was raw and sensitive rather than flowing freely.
My body had begun to heal, hastened by the Goddess’s blessing above, but that just meant that my body was condensing several weeks of recovery into a single night.
The toll had to be paid, no matter how quickly or slowly.
“Come,” I rasped, and started deeper into the forest. I didn’t take Monte with me or even coax him along beyond my initial request. No, this had to be a decision he made of his own accord. If he turned back and left me here, then that would be his answer, and we’d both have to live with that.
After trudging for several moments in silence, I heard the crack of branches behind me.
Monte was coming, and I would have felt relieved if I wasn’t so exhausted and drained.
Suddenly, he hissed out a breath. “This is—”
“Yes,” I interrupted as we stepped out into a glade that felt both startlingly familiar and terribly foreign at the same time. “It is not the same glade as on the Night of the Bloody Moon. However, every sanctuary of the Goddess does feel similar, doesn’t it?”
I don’t know where the words came from, but it certainly wasn’t a place of conscious thought.
I found a stump and slumped down upon it, my body crushed beneath the burden that I’d placed on it.
Even before Hunter had returned, I’d been falling apart from the effort of keeping my hands off Monte.
In fact, the wounds and poor sleep I’d endured tonight were just a drop in the bucket compared to the everlasting torment of keeping my promise about not mating again.
“You deserve better,” I groaned, putting my face in my hands.
“You deserve more than a bitter, duty-bound Alpha who can’t cherish his own mate, even if it’s just a temporary arrangement.
You’d be better off finding happiness with a younger, livelier wolf that’s free to socialize and dedicate all his time to you. ”
Monte drew to a stop before me. After a moment, he dropped down into a crouch, restoring our usual height difference once again. I didn’t look up, but I knew that he was watching me intently.
“Is that what you thought?” he asked softly. “Did you think that Hunter could give me those things better than you could?”
I shrugged, too tired to be as prickly as usual.
“Come on, you’re not that much of a fool,” Monte whispered. “You didn’t really think that Hunter would suddenly become monogamous and dedicate himself to this marriage, did you?”
“I did,” I admitted with a sigh that vibrated down to my very bones. “I am that much of a fool. He’s my brother, and we’ve been through much together. You’ve only seen him at his worst, but there are times when he…”
The silence stretched out. If I expected mercy from Monte, then he had none to offer.
“He what?” Monte prodded. “What redeeming qualities does your brother have? Why did you imagine that he’d turn into a completely different person after you handed me over to him?”
The nausea was overwhelming. As my head swam, I wondered if I was even hearing Monte’s voice or if the Goddess was speaking directly to me, chastising me for my unforgivable sins.
“I’m sorry.” The words came out as a choking sob, and I could feel my throat closing up. “I’m sorry, Monte.”
His hand settled on my knee. The pressure was gentle, but insistent.
“And what did you mean earlier, Felix, when you said that I deserve better than a bitter, duty-bound Alpha? Have you felt that way from the very beginning? Have you always wanted me?”
I looked up from my torment, but my eyes couldn’t focus on the wolf before me. Were his lips even moving or was I just giving my conscience his voice to make the self-flagellation even more punishing?
And then I realized that it didn’t matter, not really.
“From the very first kiss,” I croaked. Regardless of whether all that had been in my head, Monte should understand those words.
His eyes widened, and his mouth parted in a way that undid me.
He couldn’t possibly fathom how badly I wanted to run my finger along those lips, how much I wanted to slip inside his mouth and force him open.
I wanted to find out just how much of that one night together had been uncontrollable pheromones and how much had been Monte’s conscious desires.
“And yet you still would have handed me over to your brother?” he asked, his tone sounding as bewildered as I felt.
But the spark had already started a cascade, and now his temper was blazing to life.
“You would have given me to Hunter without even asking me what I wanted? You didn’t think to give me the choice of whether I wanted a grumpy, thoughtless, selfish Alpha or his utterly irredeemable brother? ”
He advanced upon me, shoving a finger into my chest and not letting up for a single moment. Soon enough, there was no space whatsoever between us, just a hot cloud of mingled breath and the wounded eyes of a wolf I loved.
“Yes,” I said, for he deserved nothing less than the unvarnished truth. “I would have given you to Hunter without asking your feelings. At first, because it was my duty as Alpha. Later, because I couldn’t bear to hear your answer if you really did prefer him to me.”
That took the wind out of Monte’s sails, but only momentarily. When he reached out and grabbed my head with both hands, his grip was strong and sure.
“You idiot,” he growled. “You would have made both of us unhappy for the rest of our lives! You would have sacrificed any chance at happiness just because you were afraid of hearing that I might choose Hunter? And why did you believe for even a single moment that I would pick him? Did you truly think that you were so successful in pushing me away and acting like the cold, distant Alpha you like to present yourself as?”
I nodded, but the bewilderment was back. His tone was furious and his words harsh, but beneath it all, there was an undercurrent that threatened to pry open a heart that I’d long since sealed away.
And then he wrapped his arms around me in a loose yet insistent embrace, and it was over. I had lost, and Monte had won.