Chapter 3 #3
“That it is. Get yourself straightened out, Remi. The only reason I’m involved is to protect you, and to protect our clan. You know there are reasons we don’t invite just anyone in.”
“I know.”
“Another question,” Brandt said as he pulled up in front of Remi’s house.
Remi looked at Brandt, his short temper obvious in his expression.
“Where’s your debit card. Maybe that’s how all your money disappeared. You seen it lately?”
“‘Livia has it,” Remi grumbled as he threw open Brandt’s door.
“What was that?” Brandt asked innocently.
“You heard me! And you’re wrong! She wouldn’t do me like that!” Remi shouted, slamming the door to Brandt’s truck as he turned his back and walked toward his house.
Brandt sat where he was, watching the male who was once one of the most dependable of his clan. He was going down in flames now, a completely loose cannon, unable to see for himself what he was allowing his life to become.
Remi stopped halfway up the driveway and looked back at Brandt, his mouth moving as he waved his arms and shouted at Brandt.
Brandt heard every single word, but decided to play stupid. He pressed the button on his door, rolling down the window. “I’m sorry, what was that?”
“You fucking heard me,” Remi accused.
“Want to repeat it?” Brandt asked coldly.
“I said, where the fuck is my car?”
“Vince's. Where it’s staying until you can stop drinking long enough to sober up.”
“I’ll call ‘Livia. She’ll come take me to get it.”
“Make sure she picks you up on the highway. She’s not allowed here. Call a locksmith, too. I got your keys,” Brandt said, jingling Remi’s keys for him to see.
“You’re an asshole!”
“When I got to be,” Brandt said, smirking at Remi.
Brandt rolled up the window as he drove away, but Remi wasn’t finished.
He picked up a large rock out of the garden in the front of his house and ran out into the street, throwing it at Brandt’s truck as it drove away.
The rock hit the back window, shattering it on contact. Brandt slammed on the brakes and threw the truck into park, jumping out of the truck while leaving it running and the door wide open in the middle of the street. He advanced on Remi.
Remi stood arrogantly in the street, his chin raised as he watched Brandt coming at him.
At the last moment his Dragon considered surfacing, then felt the Alpha waves pouring off Brandt and thought better of it.
Remi backed up his driveway, planning to go into his house and slam his door.
But instead it was only a split second before Brandt was on him.
Brandt went from striding angrily toward Remi, to full out attacking in the blink of an eye.
He hit Remi with such force that Remi’s feet came up off the ground as Brandt gripped his shirt collar and his throat and slammed him against the brick column of his house.
Brandt was half-shifted, barely maintaining his human self, but having gained size and fur, his face elongated to accommodate the snout and brow of his Bear.
When he opened his mouth to speak, his fangs were on full display.
“You fucking challenging me?!” Brandt roared in his face.
“Do not forget who the fuck you’re dealing with! ” Brandt bellowed.
Remi winced, turning his head just enough to not have to look Brandt in the eye.
“I don’t care how you became a part of this family, born into it, joined it, dreamed it the fuck up in a goddamn nightmare.
You disrespect it, you start tearing it apart, you disrespect me, if you’re alive after I’m finished, I will fucking ban you from the whole fucking thing for the rest of your fucking miserable drunken life. You get me?!”
Remi’s jaw sharpened and it was clear he was struggling with the idea of half-shifting himself.
“Go ahead. Please shift. Please fucking challenge me!” he snarled. “Please fucking give me the reason to stop all the fucking drama that you self-pitying, weak excuse for a male keeps bringing to the rest of us.”
“You don’t understand. You don’t fucking get it!
Nobody has had both their mate and the woman they love walk away!
Nobody fucking cares. Nobody checks on me, knowing what I’m going through.
Nobody fucking asks. So I found someone who does care, who does check on me.
And what do you all do? You shut her out! ”
“Nobody wants to fucking share space with the person you’re trying to force on us!
Oh, poor me, I had a girl love me and then I found my mate, and I had two beautiful women to choose from, but I’m feeling so sorry for myself that I can’t pull my head out of my fucking ass!
” Brandt shouted. “Clean up your fucking life, Remi, or get the fuck out of the clan. This is your last warning. If I see no progress, I’ll remove you myself. ”
Remi tried to square his shoulders to Brandt, but Brandt just increased his hold on Remi, his claws sinking into the muscles at the top of Remi’s shoulders.
“I don’t fucking need you. I don’t want to be here! I don’t need any of you! I’m out! I never fucking belonged here anyway!” Remi screeched.
“Understood. Remember, you made the choice. You got three days. Get the fuck off our property.”
Remi’s mouth fell open in shock, not believing what he’d said, and how quickly Brandt had reacted. But he only had a second to think about it before Brandt’s fist connected with his jaw, knocking him out cold from the impact of Brandt’s fist along with the alcohol still in his system.
Brandt’s impulse was to continue beating him, but instead, he just left him where he fell, went back to his truck and went home. He knew Tempest would calm him, she always did.