Should have Put a Leash On It (8 page)

Asher’s mouth dropped open before the wolf tried to smack him across the head. Micah saw it coming and dodged the blow. “Remy isn’t going to exile you!”

Micah shook his head and looked at Asher. “You know as well as I do that he may not have a choice. No matter how much Remy might want to brush it away, the alpha wolf inside him won’t let him.”

Not even Asher could come up with an answer to that.

If Remy exiled him, Micah would have nothing.

He wouldn’t be allowed back on pack grounds and he had nowhere else to go. No pack or alpha wanted a beta who had been exiled, especially one who had been exiled by his own little brother. Micah would become a lone wolf. Betas weren’t made to function on their own, they needed someone to protect.

“Micah...”

Flying at him, Asher wrapped hard arms around him, almost crushing him. Micah tried to struggle, but Asher only hugged him tighter.

“It’s going to be okay,” Asher whispered in his ear.

He wanted so much to sink into the hold and let someone else be strong for a while, but he couldn’t afford to yet. Rylan still wasn’t safe, the shifter was perilously close to losing himself to the wolf and, if he were totally honest, Micah knew he wasn’t much better himself. He’d pushed himself too far for too long.

No wonder Asher had become his shadow. If one of the others had been acting like this, he’d have been on them twenty-four-seven.

God, he needed to sleep.

Pushing Asher away, Micah coughed to clear the tightness in his throat and reached around his brother to grasp the door handle, pulling it open.

Asher caught him by the shoulder. “Are you sure this isn’t because of what happened to you before you left your old pack?”

“I’m sure. I admit I was in a bad place before I came back home, but I came to terms with it. The dreams aren’t any kind of delayed trauma. I’m certain, because they aren’t about me,” Micah answered truthfully.

Asher just wouldn’t give up. “Then you know what those dreams sound like, don’t you?”

Mates sometimes dreamed of their mates. Zeke had told him that before he’d accepted Ashlock and pulled his head out of his ass that he had had shared dreams. However, Micah’s nightmares were sure as hell not sex dreams.

“Rylan isn’t my mate,” he replied in a final tone.

Back in the hospital room, everyone had suddenly found something they desperately needed to do. Subtle they were not.

Only Rylan was left in the room. Micah took up sentry positon by the door just in case pesky Dr. Riley came a-calling again.

The air was thick with tension. The things he’d said before had served their purpose and pulled Rylan back from the brink. He didn’t have to subject Rylan to any more attempts to anger him. He’d keep quiet until the others came back.

He could feel Rylan looking at him and hear the wolf pulling in deep breaths of air. Probably scenting him to see how he was feeling, so Micah pushed out feelings of calm. It was one of the things a beta could do if they concentrated. If they were calm, pack-mates around them calmed.

“Stop trying to mojo me, Micah.” Rylan knew every trick in the book.

Micah grunted, but stopped emanating calm.

Forcing Rylan to feel wasn’t an option. Silence descended and Micah stared at the tiny scratch on the window on the other side of the room. The machines monitoring Rylan’s heartbeat beeped reassuringly in the background.

He heard Rylan fidget, the hospital sheets crinkling and rustling with the movement. They’d need to be replaced. Rylan shouldn’t have to lie on those while he was recovering. He knew from Remy that Rylan had very sensitive skin.

Hopefully once they were sure the internal bleeding repaired by the surgeons wasn’t going to bleed again, they could take Rylan home.

He wasn’t sure where they were going to put him though. The contractors Remy had hired were finished with the additional wing and the newer members of the pack that had been staying with Remy had moved out into their own places. Only the inner circle still lived there and Remy had decided it would be a good idea to keep it that way.

The new betas and enforcers didn’t seem to mind living together in one place. All of them had their own space.

But he didn’t know what care Rylan would need. Would it be better to put Rylan on one of the upper floors for more security or the lower floors so Rylan wouldn’t feel so cooped up? The betas and enforcers were currently spread out over two floors, with Remy and Skylar being on the top floor. There was another room on Remy and Skylar’s floor where they’d moved Rylan’s things.

Most nights when Micah didn’t want to sleep, he ran for hours in the forests, desperate to pick up some kind of scent or sign of Rylan. But he always ended up sneaking into Rylan’s room and curling up in his wolf form, breathing in Rylan’s fading scent from his possessions. Liam had caught him once, but hadn’t ratted him out.

The leopard had simply brought him a plate of food and told him to get some sleep. Liam was back to a healthy weight now that the leopard didn’t have to struggle to hunt up enough food to feed his cubs and he was sensitive about people skipping meals.

The heartbeat monitor continued to beep, breaking the silence.

“Skylar told me you said what you did to make me angry, so I wouldn’t go wolf. Is that...is that true?” Rylan’s hesitant question broke him out of his musings.

He nodded.

“Look at me,” Rylan said even quieter, in a tone he hadn’t heard Rylan use before.

Micah turned to face Rylan, unable to ignore the man when it was only the two of them here. But he didn’t want to speak.

Everything he could say either made him sound nuts or obsessive. He didn’t even have the excuse of Rylan being his mate, a fact that he and his wolf had been mourning since the second he knew Rylan was gone and might not be coming back. But he couldn’t argue with fate. Rylan wasn’t his and never would be.

Rylan stared at him and Micah couldn’t work out his expression. Was Rylan angry or sad? “Say something.”

Micah swallowed and met Rylan’s gaze. “What do you want me to say?”

“Tell me why you reacted like that before, when I showed you my brand. I admit it’s ugly, but none of the others threw up because of it,” Rylan pointed out with a grimace, avoiding his eyes.

Micah straightened and shot over to the bed before he realized what he was doing, taking Rylan’s hand. He turned it gently until the brand on the top of Rylan’s forearm faced him.

“Scars aren’t ugly, Ry. They mean you survived and that you’re stronger than whatever tried to bring you down.”

Rylan scoffed, dragging himself to a sitting position against the mound of pillows. “Don’t give me that bull—”

“You may outrank me, but don’t think for a minute that you can dismiss what I say.” Micah let go of Rylan’s hand and reached for his t-shirt. He yanked it up to his neck and turned around.

Rylan’s gasp was deafening in the otherwise quiet room.

This wasn’t something he showed to anyone. At pack runs, he usually shifted facing people. He wasn’t ashamed of his scars. He just didn’t want to answer questions about them. Asher knew where and how he’d gotten them, and so did Sage, Zeke, Remy, Rosemary and Saffron, but no one else in this pack did. Only a handful of people in his previous pack knew.

Micah pulled the tight shirt down when he felt Rylan’s hand on his back, fingers stroking the scarred skin. He turned around to see a tear running down Rylan’s bruised check.

Coughing, he tried to hide his discomfort.

“How?”

“A week or so before Mom called me home because of Remy, I was on a routine run, checking pack borders and I heard a scream. I went to investigate and saw a little boy with brown curly hair, like yours when you were younger. He was lying down, not moving, not far from the boundary. I knew something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t just leave him. The second I got within a few yards of the boy I was shot. I woke up in the home of a rival alpha that had been threatening my old alpha’s daughter and...well, let’s just say I was there for a couple of days and it wasn’t a friendly atmosphere,” he explained.

Micah shrugged. “I was healing when I came back here. Shocked the shit out of me to see Remy was alpha of his own pack. I think my old alpha was relieved to see me go so he didn’t have to watch me heal and keep feeling guilty.”

It didn’t bother him to think about it except when he thought about Rylan going through the same thing. From what he knew of Rylan’s injuries Rylan had had it a hell of lot worse.

Rylan’s brow furrowed and the man struggled to sit up more. “Shit.”

Micah immediately went to help as Rylan slipped, hooking his hands under Rylan’s arms to support Rylan’s weight.

“Thanks,” Rylan said as he got settled and Micah realized the new position now left them awkwardly close. Rylan’s soft breath brushed against his lips and Micah’s wolf woke inside him.

This close he could see the little flecks of bottle green in Rylan’s iris. All it would take to kiss Rylan was a slight turn of his head. They both took in a deep breath and even that little movement brought them to within a hairsbreadth of kissing, their noses touching.

He wanted to touch and taste the man in front of him. He wanted it so much he was practically burning up with it.

Rylan’s pupils dilated and Micah’s eyes fluttered closed. He gently pressed his lips to Rylan’s. Time stood still. Everything narrowed down to Rylan. There was no pressure to the kiss, only their lips resting against each other.

Micah tilted his head and started to take the kiss deeper, his tongue darting out to tease the crease of Rylan’s lips.

“Ow,” Rylan gasped and flinched back.

Micah came crashing back down to earth as time sped up to normal and he had to face what he’d done.

“Sorry. I’m sorry,” Micah said quickly, giving Rylan his back as he tried to get himself back under control when all he wanted to do was kiss Rylan again.

“It’s okay.” Rylan tried to reassure him.

Rylan was being so nice and understanding about it. Micah couldn’t believe he’d kissed Rylan. The shifter didn’t even like him. Micah just wanted to crawl into a hole in the ground. When it seemed like that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, he settled for focusing on watching Rylan’s heartbeat monitor. The shifter was still definitely bothered by what had happened, his heartbeat was raised. Probably from anger. Micah eyed the door.

Rylan must have known he was ready to make a run for it because the shifter lightly tapped his arm to get his attention. “Why did your old alpha feel guilty?”

“Umm.” Micah struggled to remember what they had been talking about. “Apparently the other alpha had sent him a message saying that anyone caught crossing over the boundary would be punished, but he didn’t pass it on to the betas already on sentry duty. He thought it would be fine to wait until we all got back.”

“No wonder he felt guilty then, it was his fault you got hurt.”

“No it wasn’t.” Micah didn’t blame his old alpha.

Alphas had to make decisions that affected others all the time. Sometimes they were the wrong ones. Now he was as good as new—plus a few scars. Micah was just glad it had been him that was taken and not one of the other shifters running the border patrols that had a mate and pups.

“How can you say that? If you had known—” Rylan sounded upset and angry now. His fault, again. He should really leave before he got Rylan any more worked up and the shifter’s wolf rose again.

Micah turned back to Rylan then. “Even if I had known, I would have still gone to see the boy.”

Rylan’s face “Why?”

“He was just a pup and he might have been hurt. He reminded me of you so there was no way I could leave him there,” Micah argued, not realizing exactly what he had said until Rylan’s eyes widened slightly. “I mean...”

“Micah?” Rylan reached for him.

“I...I have to go.” Micah spun around and walked to the door, opening it and slipping out before he could say anything more. The last thing he wanted was for Rylan to know how pathetic he was.

He spotted Remy and Skylar standing not too far away. They looked his way, Remy appearing confused and angry at the same time. Micah wouldn’t be surprised if Skylar had been relaying the whole conversation for Remy. Skylar had scary good hearing. “I’m heading out. Call me when he can go back to the Alpha House.”

Once Rylan was settled in his new room at the Alpha House, on the same floor as Remy and Skylar, everyone gathered in Remy’s office. Zeke had come over with Ashlock, Jacko and the wolf’s two vampire elder mates. The elders and Jacko were exploring the history hall Remy was trying to build on the lower level of the new wing. It was all part of the new shifter education program Remy was creating.

Micah certainly wasn’t against that. He still remembered the pack teachers shouting at him, telling him he was stupid because he couldn’t read the books about shifter law and history they threw at him.

Of course with Rylan’s disappearance all other projects and plans had been put on hold. Therefore, at the moment, the history hall was just a very big room with a lot of books waiting to be gone through and organized. Jacko didn’t seem to mind though if the wolf’s actions of pulling Elder Van excitedly out of the door were anything to go by.

“So...what are we going to do about Rylan?”

Zeke’s question broke the ice and soon everyone was talking. Alex and Liam were bickering in the corner with Mars, saying that Remy should force Rylan to shift and reinforce the pack hierarchy to settle Rylan’s wolf. Gabriel and Hunter were arguing over whether challenging Rylan would be the best way to get Rylan to reconnect. Ryder, as usual was silently standing away from everyone and glaring.

Cheery guy, that one.

“Come on, this isn’t helping anyone.” Micah rolled his eyes when no one in the room took any notice of him. He looked to Remy and shrugged.

Remy called a halt to the arguing and bickering with a sharp whistle.

His little brother looked at everyone and waited for them to turn his way. “Rylan’s wolf needs to reconnect with the pack. I can feel his wolf, but it’s as if there’s a wall or barrier separating me from him. I don’t know if I shift whether his bond will force him to as well, or if it will be the last straw and his wolf will break.”