Chapter 13 #2
“Nobody wants that. Absofuckinglutely nobody. Now take off your clothes so I can wash that concoction off you.” He looked to the side at Brian. “Do you have any cleaner we can spray on him?”
“Spray?”
“I’d rather not touch him.”
Brian bristled at the thought of his mate touching anyone else.
“Yes, but it’s inside. I’m not going to leave you alone with him.
He could hurt you.” Though Brian had to admit, Keith looked to have the situation well in hand.
His competence and control were sexy as hell, and if Brian weren’t reeling from the situation, he’d probably be extremely turned on.
“Seriously?” Keith rolled his eyes at Brian and then turned back to Rupert. “Hey, Junior, hurry up.”
He yanked his shirt off. “Do you want me to take my pants off too?”
“Were you actually dumb enough to rub that stuff on your dick?”
He shook his head. “Only on my neck and underarms.”
“You voluntarily coated your lymph nodes in an unnatural, dangerous substance. You do realize it’s penetrating your body, right?
” Keith shook his head. “You haven’t done a single decent thing in your life and you’re too stupid to live, but you didn’t stand a chance with the father you have so an infinitesimal part of me pities you.
” He dropped the hose and then punched the side of Rupert Junior’s head.
He instantly crumpled to the ground, unconscious, and Keith looked over at Brian.
“There. I paused him. He can’t hurt me. Can you please go get some cleaner now?
I need to get that stuff off him before it does more damage. ”
“You paused him?” Brian had never seen anyone knock out an Alpha with one punch.
Chaotic situation or not, he was now hard as a rock.
Brute strength had never been a turn-on for him, but apparently, he had developed a new kink.
All his life, he had thought he wanted a weaker, submissive mate but looking at his Alpha mate take charge made him realize that this was better.
Keith tipped his head toward the unconscious man on the ground. “Yeah, he’s paused, see?”
Though his cock was throbbing, his heart was racing, and his brain was crashing, Brian chuckled. “Only you can make me laugh and turn me on in the middle of complete mayhem.”
“You’re turned on?” Keith asked. “Show me.”
Brian gazed at his beautiful, unhinged, unexpectedly perfect mate and he was overcome with affection and desire. “I love you, Keith.”
Lips slowly curling up at the sides, Keith looked into his eyes. “I love you too, mate.”
“I can’t believe I let you come with me,” Brian grumbled as they drove onto Green Field territory. “You belong at home where you’re safe. I’m supposed to protect you. I don’t know why I agreed to this.”
Beside him, Keith looked out the window. “This place is in ruins. I shouldn’t have left it in Rupert Jackson’s hands. I should have protected my pack.”
The melancholy and regret in his mate’s voice stole his attention away from his own worries. “Hey, don’t say that. You were a kid, and they messed with your mind. You couldn’t have known what they’d done to you or what they’d do to this pack.”
“I should have figured it out.”
Brian took a few minutes to think that over. He reflected on what he had experienced that morning when Rupert Junior walked up to his door. Though he was loathe to admit to his own weakness, he would do it to help his mate.
“I wouldn’t have,” he confessed. “I didn’t endure any of the struggles you went through as a kid and I’m a full-grown Alpha leading my own pack, and I wouldn’t have realized Rupert Junior wasn’t my mate.”
From his peripheral vision, he saw Keith turn his head and look at him. “What do you mean? You realized right away. You told him he wasn’t your mate.”
“That’s only because of you.” He drew in a deep breath and tried to articulate the confusion that had clouded his mind.
“Whatever it is they made infiltrated my head. Everything was out of focus and hazy, but there was this message that he was my mate invading my brain. With you, it’s different.
I don’t think you’re mine, I know it. Heart to soul, bones to blood, I know.
We’re connected, fated. I want to breathe you in, consume you, make you smile, keep you safe.
I sense you inside every part of me.” He shuddered.
“You’re everything to me, Keith Iredell.
Your essence fills me so completely that there wasn’t space for their trick to take hold.
But if I hadn’t met you…” He shook his head and gulped.
“I’d like to tell you that I’m too strong for it to have worked on me, but that’d be a lie. ”
Keith placed his hand over Brian’s, gently removed it from the steering wheel, and brought it to his mouth.
He pressed his lips to Brian’s palm and then brushed his cheek against it.
“Thank you. For the longest time, I’ve been mentally carrying a list of injustices, mistakes, and failures.
It became an obsession, and I clung to it with everything I had and let it dictate everything I did.
” He clutched Brian’s hand with both of his, rested it on his lap, and looked out the windshield in the direction of the Green Field Alpha house.
“It’s time to clean out the mess so I can burn that list and start fresh.
For my pack, for you…” He drew in a deep breath and whispered, “And for myself.”