Page 48 of Brandt's Rule

Brandt shrugged again. “Yes?” he asked.

“No. No, Brandt. Just no. First, why do you think she’s your mate? You know there’s a difference between lust and need, right?”

“I’m not sixteen, Aunt Delilah. I’m well aware.”

“I’ll play the devil’s advocate, yes?”

Brandt nodded.

“Tell me why you think she’s your mate.”

“She is everything,” Brandt said, looking off into nowhere as he thought about Tempest.

Delilah smiled watching Brandt think of the girl who had him tied in a knot.

“She’s just spectacular. She dominates every room she walks in. I’m so defensive of her that I threatened to kill Barron if he attempted to get to know her.”

“He said he’d claim her if you didn’t?” Delilah asked.

“Yep.”

“That boy,” she muttered as she waited for Brandt to go on.

“Not only that, I threatened to kill anybody that goes near her. But then I said that I can’t have her because she breaks my control. I can’t think and I can’t have that if I’m trying to keep us all in check and moving forward.”

“So, you think you aren’t strong enough to be Alpha, and to be a mate.”

“No! No, that’s not it. It’s just that I’m losing control here,” he said, tapping his head. “And that’s not supposed to happen. Mates are supposed to improve who you already are. Make you stronger and better, just like you do them, not reduce you to a sputtering mass of indecision and rash decisions.”

Delilah chuckled.

“And I can’t get her out of here!” he exclaimed, banging his head with the heel of his hand.

“It’s hard not to think of someone who has had such an impact on you,” Delilah said.

“No,” Brandt said, turning to look at his Aunt Delilah, “I can’t get her thoughts, her voice out of my head. And it’s not just the one time. How can she speak to me with her thoughts if I haven’t claimed her, if she’s not clan, and she’s so damn far away? How is that? And how can she hear me?!”

Delilah canted her head as she listened.

“I mean, I gave her my phone to use because she doesn’t have one. I was worried, wanted her to be able to call for help if she needs it, you know, flat tire or whatever. She laughed. Outright laughed at me. Said she didn’t need any help. But I made her keep my phone just in case, at least until I can pick one up for her. Anyway, she waited until I was about to give up on hearing from her,” he looked at Delilah to clarify, “I told her to call Barron’s number and he’d let me know she called and made it home okay. Anyway, suddenly, I hear her voice in my head — again — saying she’s home safe and thinks maybe I should have kept my phone. You know why she did that? To prove that she didn’t need me to help her. Just to prove that she had things already covered. How can I offer her a damn thing she doesn’t already have, or know how to do on her own?”

“You said it’s not just once?” Delilah asked.

“No! The first time I ever saw her, she came to the job site looking for Maverik. When she left, I jumped in the truck and followed her. I kept far back. Waited until she went inside later on that evening and went around the back of her place to try to get an eye on her. She felt me. Knew I was there. She said, ‘I see you’. Just popped it right in my head, almost like a challenge.”

“What did you say?”

“Sent it right back to her, ‘I see you, too’.”

“What’s her name?”

“Tempest. Her name is Tempest.”

“Brandt, sweetheart, Tempest is your mate.”

“But she can’t be!” Brandt exclaimed, spinning around to sit sideways in his chair to look Delilah in the eye.

“Why not?”

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