Page 22 of Beautiful Butterfly

“Call him an ambulance, Deputy Tenshi,” Wyatt said. “He’s still being charged with assault, but he needs his jaw looked at.”

“Don’t charge him,” Alister said in a low voice to his mate. “He’s probably got a broken jaw. That’s enough punishment.” He wrung his hands, worried he’d really hurt the human.

“His jaw isn’t broken if he can demand a hospital,” Wyatt said. “Plus, he touched my mate. He should consider himself lucky I pulled you away instead of letting you unleash on him.”

As Alister looked around, he noticed that Sam and Paris had also settled down, though Sam was glaring at the twink. The crowd was watching them, some recording the drama on their phones. There wasn’t any doubt in his mind the fiasco would be all over the internet in no time.

An entire hour had gone by before Alister could finally leave. During that time, he’d watched the blond being loaded into an ambulance and had given Deputy Tenshi his detailed statement.

After the day he’d just had, all Alister wanted was to go home. It seemed like there was no limit to the madness today, and he was over it.

Chapter Seven

Wyatt pulled to the far left inside his garage, leaving enough room for Alister to park his Mercedes on the right. Hell if this hadn’t been the longest day of his life. Wyatt still couldn’t believe the chaos at the ice cream hut.

For the last couple of years, Lowell Wagner had gone out of his way to flirt with Wyatt whenever they crossed paths. While he found the blond attractive, he wasn’t interested in hooking up with him. In fact, Wyatt had been in the middle of letting Lowell know he was in a relationship when all hell had broken loose.

Alister pulled in next to him and turned off his car. Wyatt just sat there in his Charger, rubbing his chin, knowing damn well that Sheriff Harper was going to call him about the incident. Wyatt would defend his mate vehemently. All Alister had done was let Lowell know the men at the table were taken. It had been the human who’d popped off at the mouth and struck first.

Not once had Wyatt ever raised a hand to anyone smaller than him, but his cheetah wanted to rip Lowell apart for assaulting Alister.

The passenger door opened, and his mate slipped inside the car. He closed the door and turned to face Wyatt. “I’m sorry I lost it,” he said. “I swear I’m not usually like this. It’s as if this town is bringing out the crazy in me.”

“I think you have that backward,” Wyatt replied. “People in this town keep fucking with you. Negan was a piece of shit, and you had every right to go off on him. Sloane wasn’t your fault, either. Paris chasing you around that desk at the station this morning was comical, but that wasn’t on you. And Lowell was the one who threatened and assaulted you, butterfly. Swear to god I wanted to let you go so you could beat his ass.”

“Then why do I feel like you’re seeing the worst side of me?” Alister asked. “Don’t forget I acted like clown in the driveway earlier.”

“Because you were afraid.” Wyatt still didn’t want to think about Sloane selling his mate. Not only was he disgusted and livid but he was also terrified that Mr. Mysterious would get his hands on Alister.

“You might think I’m innocent in all of this, but that doesn’t stop me from worrying that I’m too much of a burden on you.” Alister settled back and stared at the workbench in front of the car.

“There’s a reason I act the way I do when it comes to your safety.” It wasn’t something Wyatt wanted to ever talk about, but he needed his mate to understand why he felt absolute panic at the thought of Alister not at his side.

“Because we’re mates,” Alister said with a grin.

“True, but it goes deeper than that.” Wyatt stroked his beard, his mind already in the past. “I told you that men like Sloane are master manipulators, and they lavish their victims with attention and tell them what they want to hear. It’s all a ploy to make them seem trustworthy so you’ll let down your guard.”

“I remember.” Alister nodded. “I told you that you described him perfectly, and you said you’ve met his kind before.” His mate looked uneasy. “Why are you bringing that up?”

“I had a sister. Her name was Andrea.” The loss still weighed heavy in Wyatt’s chest. This was the first time he’d said her name out loud since… “She loved me deeply but resented the fact that I was so overprotective of her. It was my job as her older brother to keep her safe.”

Alister gave Wyatt his undivided attention.

“It drove me nuts that Andrea had a bad habit of dating the wrong guy. Maybe I should have backed off and let her live her life, but I was determined to keep her safe.”

“Like the way my parents were with me,” Alister said. “They refused to let me out of their sight, even when I reached maturity.”

Wyatt took Alister’s hand, focusing on how small they were compared to his. “I don’t ever want you to think I’m clipping your wings, sweetheart. I want you to spend time with your friends and have fun.”

“I think that’s part of the reason I tried to walk to town. Although I understood that you wanted to protect me, I felt like I was back in my childhood home again.”

“I’m sorry I made you feel that way.” Wyatt ground his teeth. He was well aware his mate’s parents had stunted their son by keeping him on lockdown. Alister was naïve in so many ways because of their tight hold. He hadn’t experience life, hadn’t had the chance to make mistakes so he could learn from them. When they’d died, his mate had been thrust into a world he knew nothing about.

“If you want to, you can finish telling me about Andrea.” His mate curled his fingers around Wyatt’s hand. “Since you said you had a sister, that tells me something happened to her. But if it’s too painful, we can drop the subject.”

“It is painful, but I want to share that part of my life with you. I want you to understand why I am the way I am.”

“Okay,” Alister said softly.

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