Page 36 of The Butcher

Huh.

I didn’t realize Rex and Carlisle were scent matches. I didn’t even know that could happen between alphas but what the hell do I know anyway, it’s not like I have much experience with shit outside of the insta-lust with Bramley.

“We managed to exchange numbers quickly, I’m not even sure how anymore, but it happened, and I had no goddamn idea how I was going to tell my pregnant mate that,oops, found my scent match at your mother’s family practice.”

A smile touches my lips as I think about Maeve. “She knew, didn’t she?”

“Sure as fuck, she did.” Rex barks out a laugh and shakes his head. “I should have known better but I was terrified she was going to be pissed, that it would somehow turn into an ugly jealousy thing. My parents were matched, and it was always just the two of them.”

“Mine, too.” I nod, even though my story is a lot more tragic than I imagine Rex’s is.

“So you know what I mean. Having multiple mates, I was really new to the idea, I was new to damn near everything, but Maeve…” He trails off and I swear I see a glimmer of tears in his eyes. “She went into labor that day, almost right after we picked up Nan, and Carlisle was momentarily forgotten.”

I know this part. “Until you backed into his truck leaving the hospital.”

“Yeah, and Maeve saw it on our faces, she knew before that but when she saw us together, she just knew.”

“I didn’t think Carlisle moved in until Bramley was two, though.”

Rex chuckles and swipes at his cheeks before he turns to me. “Exactly. We matched, Maeve knew, and I was so scared of hurting the love of my life—not realizing I could have more than one—I didn’t do shit because of it. Two years of ignoring my scent match because I didn’t know how it was going to play into my current relationship.”

We sit quietly for a while, the two of us watching the light flurries fall in the morning sun, listening to the birds chirping, the sound of the wind moving through the trees.

It’s peaceful, calm.

It’s… “You’re fucking kidding me,” I shout as I get to my feet, knocking the chair over before I point a finger in Rex’s face. “No. No fucking way.”

He shrugs with a smirk. “Makes sense to me. He is my son, the stupid didn’t fall far from the tree.”

“You’ve got to be shitting me. You’re trying to tell me that Bramley is acting like the dumbass he is because that woman in there”—I point as if Rex doesn’t know who the hell I’m talking about—“is his goddamn scent match? And he had the balls big enough to leave her while she’s injured and recovering?”

“See? Stupid.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“No,” Rex says with a puff of his pipe. “No one but you boys will know for sure, I’m just using personal experience and context clues to try and understand Butch.” Then he mumbles as he scratches his chin. “Same way I have his entire life.”

He keeps talking but I’m not listening.

No, I’m fucking livid right now, and the more I think about Rex’s story, the worse it gets because that female is injured. Shealmost fucking died. Bram was compelled to help her, probably on some baser level like I was, but I’d put money on him knowing they matched the first time he split.

Which means that dumbass has no intention of bonding with her.

Well, fuck that.

Ignoring whatever else Rex has to say, I spin toward the door and burst into my house, searching for my phone because if Bram isn’t going to bond with her, I doubt he planned on telling me or Clay about the match in the first place, and that means it’s going to be my job to narc to our beta so we can gang up on him.

If that female is his match, that makes herour match, and neither of us are going to let this shit go without a fight.

Even if that voice in the back of my head is telling me that the one we could end up losing, is the one who brought us together in the first place.

Dumbass.

Chapter Nine

DOOM AND GLOOM

Indy

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