Page 18 of Healed
The rock hit the back window, shattering it on contact. Brandt slammed on the brakes and threw the truck into park, jumping out of the truck while leaving it running and the door wide open in the middle of the street. He advanced on Remi.
Remi stood arrogantly in the street, his chin raised as he watched Brandt coming at him. At the last moment his Dragon considered surfacing, then felt the Alpha waves pouring off Brandt and thought better of it. Remi backed up his driveway,planning to go into his house and slam his door. But instead it was only a split second before Brandt was on him.
Brandt went from striding angrily toward Remi, to full out attacking in the blink of an eye. He hit Remi with such force that Remi’s feet came up off the ground as Brandt gripped his shirt collar and his throat and slammed him against the brick column of his house. Brandt was half-shifted, barely maintaining his human self, but having gained size and fur, his face elongated to accommodate the snout and brow of his Bear. When he opened his mouth to speak, his fangs were on full display. “You fucking challenging me?!” Brandt roared in his face. “Do not forget who the fuck you’re dealing with!” Brandt bellowed.
Remi winced, turning his head just enough to not have to look Brandt in the eye.
“I don’t care how you became a part of this family, born into it, joined it, dreamed it the fuck up in a goddamn nightmare. You disrespect it, you start tearing it apart, you disrespect me, if you’re alive after I’m finished, I will fucking ban you from the whole fucking thing for the rest of your fucking miserable drunken life. You get me?!”
Remi’s jaw sharpened and it was clear he was struggling with the idea of half-shifting himself.
“Go ahead. Please shift. Please fucking challenge me!” he snarled. “Please fucking give me the reason to stop all the fucking drama that you self-pitying, weak excuse for a male keeps bringing to the rest of us.”
“You don’t understand. You don’t fucking get it! Nobody has had both their mate and the woman they love walk away! Nobody fucking cares. Nobody checks on me, knowing what I’m going through. Nobody fucking asks. So I found someone who does care, who does check on me. And what do you all do? You shut her out!”
“Nobody wants to fucking share space with the person you’re trying to force on us! Oh, poor me, I had a girl love me and then I found my mate, and I had two beautiful women to choose from, but I’m feeling so sorry for myself that I can’t pull my head out of my fucking ass!” Brandt shouted. “Clean up your fucking life, Remi, or get the fuck out of the clan. This is your last warning. If I see no progress, I’ll remove you myself.”
Remi tried to square his shoulders to Brandt, but Brandt just increased his hold on Remi, his claws sinking into the muscles at the top of Remi’s shoulders.
“I don’t fucking need you. I don’t want to be here! I don’t need any of you! I’m out! I never fucking belonged here anyway!” Remi screeched.
“Understood. Remember, you made the choice. You got three days. Get the fuck off our property.”
Remi’s mouth fell open in shock, not believing what he’d said, and how quickly Brandt had reacted. But he only had a second to think about it before Brandt’s fist connected with his jaw, knocking him out cold from the impact of Brandt’s fist along with the alcohol still in his system.
Brandt’s impulse was to continue beating him, but instead, he just left him where he fell, went back to his truck and went home. He knew Tempest would calm him, she always did.
Chapter 4
It was getting dark outside by the time Daisy had finished straightening and cleaning the art studio. She’d just about gotten to the point that she was going to call Charlie to see if he’d forgotten about Carson. It was unlike him to be late picking up the child, but she knew all too well that unexpected issues could sometimes make you be late. “Carson? It’s about time to start packing up for the day.”
“But my dad’s not here yet.”
“No, but I’m sure he will be here soon.” The moment the last words of her sentence left her mouth her phone started ringing. She hurried over to her purse and dug around for it, finally finding it in time for it to stop. She managed to unlock it and scroll past the lock screen and figure out she’d missed a call from Charlie. She glanced over at Carson, Charlie’s son, who was busily cleaning up his work station and all his supplies.
She looked down at the phone again before quickly tapping the number to call him back. The line didn’t even finish ringing once and Charlie was anxiously answering.
“Daisy! Hi!”
“Hey, Charlie. You tried to call?”
“Yeah. Listen, I’m running late. This meeting is running over and I’m having a hard time figuring out how I’m going to get there in time. I’m so sorry. I knew this was going to happen. It’s the only reason I hesitated enrolling him,” he said, his words running together as he rushed to get all his thoughts out at once.
“It’s okay! It’s not a problem.”
“I knew you’d say that, but you have a life and things you need to do, too, and here you’ve still got my kid. I don’t evenknow anybody I trust enough to pick him up for me. I’ll be just a little longer and then I can rush right over…”
“No. Don’t rush anywhere. The only thing I have planned tonight is going home. I’ll just take him with me and you can take your time, finish up whatever it is you need to get finished up, and come get him when you’re ready.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want you to be inconvenienced. I’m so sorry.”
“I’m positive. And Carson is not an inconvenience in the least. I’ll text you my address and you can swing by when you’re done. Don’t give it a second thought.”
“I don’t know how to thank you, Daisy. I promise this won’t become a regular thing.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll see you later.”
Charlie finally breathed easy on the other end of the line. “Thank you, Daisy. I’ll try to be as quick as I can.”
