Chapter 24
Duke
I lean against the wall, my forearms on my knees.
I had to leave the hotel room for some fresh air, but I didn’t stray too far.
Kinsey and her pack flew out the moment they heard Brielle was attacked, and now for our spontaneous wedding.
I wanted to give the girls some privacy to talk and needed a moment to gather myself with so many alphas surrounding the tiny room.
“You okay?” Dallas asks, sliding down to sit next to me.
No, I’m not okay. I don’t have to speak for him to know that, it’s all over my face. I failed at protecting my omega. Someone who abused her got to her again. He touched her, put bruises on her.
Shaking my head, I flex my fingers; the ache is starting to dull even if they don’t look any better. My knuckles are split in some places, the skin red and caked with dirt and blood.
“Want me to get some ice and help clean it up?” he asks, breaking the tense silence when I don’t answer his first question.
I blow out a long breath as I squeeze my eyes shut briefly before I face him.
“I can still feel it. The rut, alpha haze, whatever they call it. I would have killed him. Fuck, I might have.” I want to, even now.
I’ve spent the least amount of time with Brielle, but I feel the protectiveness of her deep in my soul.
She’s mine, we both know it. It's why her distress set me off so much. It hurt me to see her like that.
Dallas’s stare lacks any judgment and makes me take another breath. I hadn’t realized I’d been scared to see any type of disappointment on his face, but the relief felt is palpable.
My brother nods. “She’s your omega. I would have done the same.”
I swallow down the emotion growing in my throat. “We haven’t even kissed.” And god, I wish we had. That night under the tree and stars, I wanted to kiss her more than anything.
Dallas snorts, nudging my shoulder with his. “She’s your omega, and you’re her alpha. You both know it.”
“I can’t be her alpha if I end up in jail. We don’t know if he’s even alive.”
“I’ll call the hospital and find out? I don’t have to know the story to know that guy probably deserved it. Half of the rodeo was ready to jump him themselves.”
A laugh bubbles out of my throat. “I don’t even remember half of it, not even when they pulled me off him.”
Dallas chuckles under his breath. “A blind rage… That’s not unique to alphas.”
“I know, but it does make it easier to charge me for assault.”
He shrugs. “If the police look to charge, we have ten times the amount of people to back up that he started it. And we all know the cameras don’t work, they’re all for show.”
Tears prick my eyes, feeling the support of not only our ranch family but the rodeo family we’ve made over the years.
I clear the knot in my throat. “I might be getting married.” I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.
I love her. All I know about love is how I feel about her.
The first time in the gas station, the way her initial rejection hurt worse than anything I’ve ever gone through, I knew she was different.
His eyebrows shoot up. “Are you planning your first kiss at the altar?”
A choked laugh escapes me, and I push at his shoulder.
“Nah. Just logistics wise. It makes sense to help protect her.” It’s not how I wanted to progress our relationship, but if it’s what’s needed from me in this pack, I’ll do it over and over again in heartbeat.
It’s not a burden to marry Brielle. It’s where I eventually would have liked our future to lead.
It sucks that her parents may overshadow the discussion, but at the end of the day, it’s only us and our choice.
Dallas frowns. “She in trouble?”
“Not yet, but she thinks it’s coming. A storm we all gotta prepare for.”
My brother nods slowly. “It’s only fair you have a surprise wedding since I knocked up my omega during her heat.”
I nudge him with my shoulder, then blow out another deep breath. “Would you have thought this would be our life in a few short months?”
Dallas grins. “Never, but I wouldn’t change a damn thing.”
Neither would I, and I don’t need to confirm that. He can already tell.
“I don’t want to disappoint her,” I admit. It’s hard to say over the lump in my throat, but Dallas hears me.
His eyebrows dip as he frowns. “You won’t. Why would you think that?”
A hollow laugh escapes me. “Because I’ve always disappointed everyone, especially our parents.”
Dallas sits up straighter. “No you haven’t. They love you.”
I snort. “Yeah, they love me, but I’m still the failure son.”
My brother shakes his head. “I’m not sure where you’re getting this from—”
“My life, Dallas. I get it from experiencing it. They never bothered to ask why I dropped out of football. Why would they when their other son was a star quarterback? They never stopped to ask why I barely passed to get my diploma while you had coasted by with minimal effort. It was like they just expected it from me or something.”
He stares intensely at me, a pained expression cracking in his eyes. His mouth parts and opens, and then he frowns harder.
I give him a broken smile. “You’re realizing that you thought the same, huh?”
His throat bobs up and down, and he casts his attention to the floor. “I’m trying to remember, but all I can think about is Mom saying you quit because you didn’t like that I was better than you. At the time, I believed it, but now that I sit with it, that never sounded like you.”
“I couldn’t keep my grades up to stay on the roster, so I quit before the coach kicked me from the team. Somehow that seemed less embarrassing.”
Dallas shakes his head. “I don’t understand. We went everywhere together outside of practice and games. You weren’t…into drugs or anything. How’d I miss that?”
I flex out my fingers, ignoring the ache in them. “I wasn’t. I was… I have a learning disability. I didn’t catch it until after graduation.” And I thank the woman who caught it, instead of brushing me off as if I was dumb or something.
His head snaps up, catching my gaze. “A learning disability?”
Nodding, I let out a sigh and rest my head against the wall. “Yeah. I struggled to read letters and numbers, got them all mixed up a lot. Made it hard to do all the work and tests.”
“Shit. That’s—fuck. It could have changed your whole life if we caught that early.”
It stings a little, not that I haven’t thought that myself over the years, but his words poke at an old wound. I shrug. “It’s whatever. I’m used to it, but that—the way people look at me, like they’re waiting for me to fail. I can't shake it.”
“Brielle does not look at you like that. You’re not a failure, Duke. I’m sure Cooper and Maverick feel the same way.”
Panic claws inside me, and I grab onto his arm. “Don’t tell anyone. I don’t…”
He nods. “I’d never, but you should voice your concerns to your omega. Just like your instincts ride you to protect her, there’s an omega inside her that wants to nurture you.”
My tongue sweeps across my drying lips. “I told her—she knows.”
His eyebrows raise, and his mouth twitches in the corner. “She knew before me? We’re twin brothers, and you told the omega before me. I think it’s safe to say that you two are inevitable.”
Something burns inside me, recognition that he’s right, and I shrug. “We didn’t have the best first impression. I just… I’ve never wanted something to work out as much as I want this to.”
My brother’s face softens. “It will. She’s had plenty of time to tell you she’s not interested, and she hasn’t.
It’s going to be hard, but I think it’s time to let go of these kinds of doubts you’ve been holding on to.
If there’s any failure here, it’s mine. I failed you as a brother.
I should have realized there was something wrong. ”
I shake my head, but he grabs my arm, squeezing it.
“There's nothing you can say that will ease that pain. I only wish that you’d shared this sooner. It would make some of your decisions easier to understand. It would also explain why you hate to drive sometimes,” he says, chuckling under his breath, and I laugh.
“Yeah, something like that.”
Brooks jogs up to us, nodding toward the crowd of rodeo goers gathering behind the stands. “Come on. Kinsey got all the girls together, and we’re being dished out assignments to get your wedding rolling.”
Dallas pushes off the ground, and then holds out his hand to help me up. “Let’s get those hands cleaned first and then see where they want ya.”