Page 50 of Unbelievable Faith
Chapter 22
Michael slammedthe phone down on his desk and tried to take a couple of deep breaths to steady himself. He was shaky and unsteady on his feet. His mate was missing and in danger. She’d been gone for nearly a full day and no matter how many scouts and raiding parties he sent out they’d all come back empty handed. He could still feel her through the bond, feel her fear and her pain, so he knew she was alive, but that was a small comfort when he had no way of finding her and the definitive knowledge that she was being held by apsychopath.
The person he’d talked to on the other end of that phone had zero intention of giving Luna back to him alive. She was crazed and bloodthirsty. Nova had been right. She wanted them all dead. She was on some kind of revenge plot but it hadn’t made any sense until she said those two little words, most likely byaccident.
Mymate.
Maddox had been mated to the female holding Luna hostage. The sick bastard had claimed his fated female and then hidden their bond so he could use Luna to take control of the Crescent pack. He’d intended to perform the mating ceremony with Luna knowing full well the female that bore his bite would go crazy with the knowledge he was bedding another. If she hadn’t been mad to begin with, that psycho had surely driven her to it with his selfishactions.
Michael wished, not for the first time, that he could revive the son of a bitch just to kill him all overagain.
He’d known that the female they called Sasha wanted something. When hours passed and he didn’t feel the link to Luna break, he’d known she was still alive and he’d known there must be a reason for that. So he’d waited and he’d paced, he’d planned and he’d plotted. He’d sent out his Enforcers to scour the woods, hoping they would find some trace of Luna so that he could get her back, but he hadn’t left his office just in case and finally, finally, the call he’d known was coming hadrang.
Only, what Sasha wanted, he hadn’texpected.
From the silence filling the room, he knew that nobody here had. If she’d demanded Leo’s head on a platter they would have been more prepared. Even if she’d wanted to hurt Maya or Nova they’d have seen it coming and if she’d asked him to walk in front of a silver bullet just to cause Luna pain, he’d have been less surprised than he had been when she asked for the wolf that murderedMaddox.
Murder was a stretch of course. Killed was the word they’d been using. But the terminology didn’t reallymatter.
Sasha wantedDarius.
Michael glanced up and easily found the big Enforcer standing across the room near the map. He was in the same position he’d been in before the phone rang. He hadn’t budged an inch. But as Michael looked at him, Darius crossed his big arms across his broad chest and gave a small nod of hischin.
“I’ll go.” Hesaid.
“Like hell you will.” Leo was instantly there, storming across the room and going nose to nose with the man, “You’re not going to go out there to face certain death with no guarantee that bitch will give Luna back either way. Hellno! ”
Darius frowned at the other man, “If it will save yoursister…”
“It won’t!” Leo shoved him in the chest but Darius barely swayed an inch, “Didn’t you hear her? She wants us all dead, D! You giving your life isn’t noble if nobody gets anything out ofit.”
“Leo…” He softened his tone but the younger man was having none ofit.
He shoved Darius again, this time using both hands, and getting all up in his space, “Don’t you dare,Leome like that. You don’t allow me to put myself in danger. I’m not allowing you to put yourself indanger.”
The muscle in his jaw twitched as Darius sighed, “I’m sorry Leo but you’re not myAlpha.”
A growl ripped through the room and a moment later Darius was slammed back against the wall, Leo holding him there as he snarled at him, “I might not be your Alpha but whether you like it or not, I’m your mate and I’m not letting yougo.”
Darius sucked in quick intake of air, as if he was surprised Leo had said those words aloud. But if Leo was going for the shock factor, he was going all in. With a growl he slid his hands into the dark hair Darius kept long and jerked, hard, pulling the bigger man down and stamping their mouths together. There was a split-second of hesitation on Darius’ part and then a low groan of surrender filled the space and he was wrapping Leo in hisarms.
Michael forced himself to look away as the two men ravaged each others mouths. He’d known it was true since that first day here at the lodge. They were opposites in so many ways and alike in so many others. Darius had been holding back. Leo had been fighting it. But it was the full moon tonight and whatever distance they’d managed to maintain, between the hormones, their wolves and the danger at their front door, they’d finally reached their breaking point. Leo had been pushed too far, finally, and he’d pushed back. It must have been what Darius was waiting for because now the two were wrapped around each other as if even air between them would be too muchdistance.
Rafe cleared his throat from his spot nearby and Michael shot his brother a look. The two men didn’t stop kissing or groping each other. Michael shrugged and Rafe chuckled. They were both clearly remembering the first time they’d gotten their mates into their arms and neither of them saw any harm letting these two have a moment. Trying to break them apart now would only be dangerous to the person that attempted to come betweenthem.
It was Nova’s soft, girly laughter that finally broke the moment. Michael glanced over to where she’d curled up on the couch and couldn’t help but smile at her. It was the first time the young girl had shown any sort of happy emotion since she’d come busting into his office yesterday and for reasons he couldn’t explain, it filled some deep pit of emptiness he hadn’t known existed inside ofhim.
He’d lost so many people. His parents had been brutally murdered when he was still, by all rights, a kid himself. Gabe had died in that same attack. Rafe had survived but he’d been so scarred emotionally that his wolf had been feral and he’d been too lost to come back to the pack. He’d left and he’d stayed gone for years and Michael had been allalone.
Alone with his pack but alone nonetheless. He hadn’t had family surrounding him. He’d had Darius who was like a brother to him, but wasn’t blood. He’d had the Enforcers that did as he said but weren’t friends so much as soldiers. He’d had Zoey but their past was so complicated and convoluted that it was hard to name all the things she’d been to him over the years. He hadn’t had a family, not until Rafe camehome.
Rafe had come home and found his mate in Zoey. He’d gotten his brother back and he’d gained a new perspective on his friendship with Zoey. She’d become his sister. Then he’d found Luna and along with his own mate, he’d gained two young sisters and a powerful, Alpha brother as well. Now Leo and Darius would be mated and they would all be family. They were a big, diverse, complicated, powerful family of werewolf shifters that could overcome anything so long as they weretogether.
He was sure ofit.
The newly accepting mates broke apart panting and Michael had to stifle a chuckle of his own when Darius glanced around the room and his cheeks tinted pink. Leo didn’t blush but he buried his face in Darius’ neck and gave a sigh of contentment that would have been recognizable to anyone that had found their truemate.
The sound alone made Michael’s chest ache as he missed Luna and longed to have her back in his arms where shebelonged.
