Page 32 of The Last Ultimatum: Part 2

They all agreed that I was the imminent danger in that moment.

These were men I trusted and respected more than just about anyone else on this planet. When Michael went and kidnapped his mate and went AWOL, we all stood by waiting for word on whatever he needed. He’d already made the mistake, but we were there to aid him in any way he needed despite orders to report in if we’d heard from him. None of us had done that.

In my mind they should have been ready to jump in and assist me in the same manner, but if I stopped to think about it, would we have tried to stop him if we’d been there in the moment he actually kidnapped her?

Hell yes we would have. We would have taken extreme measures to stop him for fear of not only the impact it would cause between Westin Pack and one of our closest allies, but also to thwart the trouble he was diving head first into for himself.

Is that what they’d done for me?

Was I too close to the situation and too hurt emotionally to see that and really understand it?

I sighed.

“Please just say something,” Walker begged. “It’s killing me.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know you all weren’t being malicious in stopping me from going after Tilly. Hurt that it came to that? Yes. But I can step back and see it from your viewpoints too. I put you in a tough situation. I think it helps to know that if I’d been there when Michael took Callie and handcuffed her to a truck that I’d have stepped in and tried to intervene in order to keep him out of trouble.”

“Yes, exactly,” Walker said.

I could see the relief all over his face.

“So, are we forgiven?”

“Maybe. I need to digest it all a little more before I’m ready to hug it out and all.”

“Fair enough.”

Walker wasn’t going to push me any further. It was clear that the guilt of that day had been eating him alive. I knew that once things were settled, we were going to have a long session on this. And I was pretty sure we’d both be needing it.

“Hold up. This whole time you were just standing there staring at us uncomfortably as we waited for any sort of reaction from you, were you just standing there psycho-analyzing yourself?” Tucker asked.

For the first time since they arrived a slow smile crossed my lips.

“Do you think I just preach this shit to you blokes?”

“Practice what you preach?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Guess you could call it that.”

“So how much do you charge for an internal self-evaluation like that?” Colin asked.

The others groaned.

And I knew that we were going to be okay. Maybe not immediately, but we were going to get through this and maybe someday, if everything went just right, I’d look back and laugh.

Suddenly I didn’t feel quite so alone in all of this. I was still hesitantly optimistic, but that was going to have to be enough, because I knew that if I was going to survive this and save my mate, I needed my team’s help.

I filled them in on everything I had in the works.

“She’s that close?” Linc asked.

I walked over to the window and pointed. “Right there.”

“How are you maintaining your sanity?” Michael asked. “I’d be losing my shit by now.”

“I’m trying to stay calm and rational. Trust me, I want nothing more than to shift, stalk over there, and rip the throats out of every single person threatening her.”

“We won’t stop you,” Walker said. “In fact, I’ll shift and flank you. It’s the least I can do after, well, everything.”

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