Page 6 of True Wolf

ZION

Isensed my brother as soon as he walked through the door. Xander was the last person I wanted to see at the moment. Which was why I came out here to our property in the woods where my brothers and I owned two hundred acres.

The cabins we kept out here were custom and lavish. Mine was the most exclusive while Xander’s was the largest. He wanted space for me and Lazar even though we had our own and Lazar’s was the smallest, always the minimalist amongst the three of us.

Coming out here instead of our building in the city was intentional. I wanted privacy from my brothers, especially Xander.

Fuck him and his scrutiny!

Get out of my house -Me

No - Xander

And while you’re at it, get the fuck out of my head -Me

Before my brother could respond, I blocked the link so he couldn’t communicate with me. But that did little to prevent him from stepping out of the back of my house onto the deck where I had been since returning home hours ago.

“I warned you.” Xander’s tone was empathetic when I expected sarcasm. Regardless, I didn’t want to fucking talk to him.

“Why are you here, Xan? I’m not in the mood for your shit.”

“I’m here because you need me.”

I snorted, lifting the bottle of cognac to my mouth, swallowing several large gulps before I slammed the bottle down on the wood railing. “Go home to your wife and your son. They need you, I do not.”

Anger. That was what I felt. I wasn’t angry with Xander. None of what happened over the past three months was his fault. Well aside from his role in starting the domino effect of bullshit that was currently my life. He brought Keerah to our pack. I mistakenly believed she belonged to me. I now knew better.

Hours had passed since sherejectedme and I felt nothing. I kissed her and felt nothing. Even now, hundreds of miles separated me from my so-called fated mate and I felt nothing. I didn’t want her, desire her, or miss her. I was wrong.

That much I could accept but how the fuck had I been so wrong? The confusion was what I couldn’t wrap my brain around. There was a science to these things. The moon gods were intentional. They were never wrong.

How the fuck could I have been so wrong?

“It makes no sense but we will figure it out.”

He stepped beside me and I swung my head in his direction, anger laced in my expression because he obviously tapped into my thoughts.

Xander only smiled. “I’m not in your head. You blocked me but…” He grabbed the bottle from my hand, turned it up, and extended it back to me when he was done. “You’re my baby brother. I know you better than you know yourself. I don’t have to have access to your thoughts to know what they are.”

Xander turned his back to the railing to balance his weight against it while he faced me. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you were wrong.”

“Why? Don’t like sharing, brother?” I growled.

He smirked. “I’ve shared women before. With both you and Laz. I have no feelings one way or another about you being with Keerah.”

“Yet you’re glad I’m not.”

“I don’t give a damn about you fucking her. I did and I enjoyed the time we spent together. She’s talented in a lot of ways.” My brother grinned arrogantly. I glared and his smile expanded before he stated irrefutably, “She was not meant to be your mate, Zion.”

“You were with her. You thought enough of Keerah to bring her into our pack.”

“She’s a good person and so am I. She needed a home. People she could trust. Our parents vowed to be that for lone wolves, rogues, and outcasts. We took over in their absence, so yes, I brought her to our pack. However, not with the intention of either of us mating with her. I never would have. That’s not how things were between us nor would they ever have been. Being a good person doesn’t qualify her as the role of your mate, Zion. Trust me, I know more than anyone.”

“Such a good person but you made her leave.”

“That’s not what happened. She left of her own free will. Keerah is smart. She understands the natural order of things. After how things went down between all of us, there was no way for her to truly fit in here.”

He was right.

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