Page 15 of Undone
Fuck.Think.
Michael looked around the room. “It was just a bit awkward, man,” he said with a chuckle. “Your rut was unnaturally intense. I think... I think your rut pheromones might have messed with me, making me uncomfortable around you.” He shrugged. “I don’t know, I’d never been around a rutting Torryn alphabefore. You know we Vos alphas have much milder ruts, we barely even notice them.”
He could feel Anthony’s heavy gaze on his face.
“Why aren’t you looking me in the eye?” he said. “Are you that uncomfortable around me now?”
Michael forced himself to meet his gaze. He smiled ruefully. “I guess so. I’m sorry, I can’t seem to help it.”
Anthony’s frown was deeper now. “I’ve been around a Vos alpha during the war, and he didn’t react like you after smelling my pre-rut pheromones.”
Michael shrugged. “I doubt he was around you at the peak of your rut.”
“He wasn’t,” Anthony conceded, and Michael relaxed a little.
Silence stretched between them.
“You’re holding your breath,” Anthony stated suddenly.
Michael grimaced. “Yeah.” There was no point denying it. “As I said, your scent makes me feel weird.”
“Weird how?” Anthony said, taking a step closer.
Michael stiffened, his heart hammering as Anthony’s scent filled his lungs. He clenched his jaw against the urge to bare his teeth, even as another instinct pushed him to tilt his throat, to appease the alpha his body still remembered submitting to—however unwillingly.
“Too aggressive,” Michael ground out. “I guess some wires got crossed after I was forced to be around you during your rut.”
Anthony studied him for a moment. “All right,” he said, starting to unbutton his suit jacket.
“What are you doing?” Michael said, his eyes going wide.
Anthony smiled crookedly. “What do you think? Looks like you needto let off some of that aggression. Let’s spar. Come on, take your jacket off.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Michael said, licking his dry lips. “Anyone might enter the room.”
“We can lock the door,” Anthony said, shrugging out of his jacket and starting to unbutton his white shirt.
Michael swallowed. “I’m not sparring with you,” he said with a laugh. “I’m not an idiot, Ant.”
“I promise I’ll go easy on you,” Anthony said with a slight smirk. “Don’t be scared.”
“Fuck you,” Michael said with an eye roll, but he locked the door and reached for the buttons of his jacket. Maybe itwasa good idea. Submitting to another alpha physically had likely just confused his biology. Beating Anthony up would help him restore his equilibrium.
Throwing his shirt and jacket on the sofa, he turned back to Anthony and nearly swallowed his tongue when he saw him bare chested.
Over the past few weeks, Michael had worked hard to forget that he knew exactly what his best friend looked like beneath his clothes—how broad those shoulders were, how that chest had felt pressed against his back when—
He cut the thought off, forcing his gaze up to Anthony’s face.
Anthony’s lips curved in a small, almost playful smirk as he beckoned, blue eyes locking on his. “Come on, show me what you’ve got,” he said, the challenge in his expression unmistakable. Alpha to alpha. “If you can, of course.”
Michael saw red.
A growl ripped from his throat as he drove his fist into Anthony’s hard stomach, again and again, until Anthony blocked and countered. The blows hurt like hell, but Michaelhardly felt them; his blood was surging with adrenaline, instincts screaming to fight, to dominate, to kill.
Within a minute, his body ached all over, but to his grim satisfaction, Anthony looked just as battered—his dark hair a mess, bruises already blooming across his chest and stomach. Michael grunted when Anthony caught him in a headlock and wrenched his arm back hard enough to nearly tear it from the socket.
“You done?” Anthony ground outagainst his ear.
