Unbreakable Bond (Fated Mates Duet Book 1)

by Jess Bryant

  Rafe had left town after the attack on his family. He’d been injured, weak and damaged. He should have been dead. He’d wished he were dead. He’d known he was in no shape to take his rightful place at the head of the pack and he’d known what would happen if he stayed.

  Somebody would have insisted Michael challenge him. The pack would have demanded it. He’d been weak and a Pack Alpha couldn’t be weak. His little brother would have been next in line and he’d always been strong. He was the logical choice.

  So Rafe had left. He’d refused to fight the only member of his family that was still alive for something he’d never wanted in the first place. Gabe was the one that had wanted to follow in their father’s footsteps and lead. Not him.

  Looking back, he could have simply stepped down. They probably would have let him. Nobody had wanted him as their leader then. A barely twenty-year-old Pack Alpha that was physically wounded and mentally unstable? No. They would have let him step down and stay but he hadn’t wanted to stay.

  He’d needed to get away. Get away from the people that stared at him, wondering how he’d survived when the other, stronger wolves hadn’t. Get away from the little brother that kept telling him that it wasn’t his fault, when Rafe knew that he was wrong. He’d just needed to get away from all the reminders of what he’d lost.

  All he’d wanted was to live his life in peace, to mourn the loss of his family and find his mate, to have the chance to make a new family for himself, one he swore he would protect with his last breath if only fate would give him another chance.

  He’d never have suspected that by giving up his life here he would be forfeiting years with the one woman that could make him whole again. He hadn’t fought his brother to become Pack Alpha, to lead the pack or even for the right to the only home he’d ever known. But he would fight for this, for her.

  She was his.

  He growled again, or was still growling. He couldn’t seem to control it. Every time he thought about her and Michael, he wanted to rip his brother apart with his teeth and his claws. He was barely holding his skin, his wolf scratching at the surface, willing Rafe to set him loose on anyone that dared keep his mate from him, even the brother they loved.

  He hated that she was even standing next to his brother and seeing Michael touch her had ripped at the last shreds of humanity he’d been holding onto tonight. Maybe it had been stupid, definitely crazy, because the Sherriff was right. He could arrest him for the unprovoked attack. Worse, he could be subjected to pack punishment for attacking the Pack Alpha. But he hadn’t cared then and he didn’t care now.

  If Michael touched her again, Rafe was going to launch himself across the small space and take his brother’s throat.

  His little brother. The only member of his family that was still alive. He should want to protect him, and he did, but that thought got all jumbled up with the anger and jealousy that had overtaken him when he realized that his mate was Michael’s Zoey.

  No. Not Michael’s. She wasn’t Michael’s. She couldn’t be. She was his and if he had to beat that truth into his little brother, then he would.

  Zoey wouldn’t like that, the little voice in the back of his head warned. He growled at the sliver of reason. She’d already stopped him once. She would try to do it again and he couldn’t risk her jumping between them. His pride would be hurt if she tried to protect Michael over him but worse than that she could be physically hurt if she stepped between them.

  She was human. Damn it, had he ever considered his mate being human? It felt like another cruel twist of fate. She wasn’t supernatural which meant she was weak, frail, mortal. She could be hurt far too easily. She could die far too easily.

  And he’d already lost too many people that were important to him.

  A low moan filled the night air and it took him a moment to realize it was coming from him. It was a wolf’s lament, his pain escaping the only way it could. And every wolf in the vicinity heard it and responded in kind.

  A dozen people or more had piled through the back door of the lodge to see what was going on. The Sherriff was still standing between him and Michael, his head on a swivel, trying to keep an eye on both sides. His brother winced at the sound, his head tilting in recognition though his muscles remained tense and ready for the next attack.

  He’d give Michael that. The boy had always been smart. Because Rafe might not have intended to let his grief emerge but now that it had, for just a split second there, he’d thought about using it to his advantage. If he moved quickly enough, he could drop Michael while he was distracted, grab his mate and run.

  The thing that stopped him, again, was Zoey. She turned back to him at the sound of his moan. His mate’s eyes met his and his heart pounded in his chest when she softened, worry filling her every feature, worry for him.

  Automatically, she took a step in his direction and he started towards her. Magnets, that’s what they were now that he’d scented her, and the need to be near her, to be with her, would only grow until he mated her. The need to claim her rode him hard and he knew that she was feeling the effects of the bond too.

  She might be human but she’d been made for him. Her soul and his were two halves of the same and needed to be rejoined. She was itching to get to him too by now, the need to touch him, to put her scent on him as real as his need to have his on her. She might not know what it was, might think it was a simple spark of instant attraction, but it would grow into an all-consuming need as real and deep as his own.

  It had already started.

  He could see it in the way her eyes dilated when she looked him over. He could hear it in the increasing tempo of her heart rate. Her breaths were coming faster just from being near him and he needed to get them out of here, get them somewhere private, soon. Because he had a feeling if he scented her arousal here, in the open, he’d take her to the ground and seal their fate with his brother and half the pack watching them and damn the consequences.

  He couldn’t get over how damn pretty she was. He’d always thought she was pretty. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he’d noted the small, pale human that was always hanging around his brother was pretty and he remembered her clearly. But this woman, the one before him, wasn’t that same girl. She’d grown up since he went away. It was like seeing her for the first time and she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever laid eyes on.

  Her hair was a bright, coppery red. It tumbled down around her shoulders in soft curls and framed a face that promised sin and salvation. Her big green eyes were innocent but her full, red lips were made for seduction. She was a tiny little thing compared to him but he knew for a human she was about average height. There was nothing average about her body however. She had the kind of curves that should have come with warning signs and the red scrap of material she was wearing showed off miles of unblemished, porcelain skin.

  Red. Red. Red. She was human but she’d lived among their kind since childhood. She knew what that color meant. She had to. It was an invitation at best and one he was willing to bet no member of the pack had missed, least of all his brother.

  Chapter 5

  Zoey took another step towards him. Michael reached out. Rafe growled the moment his brother’s hand closed around her arm, jerking her to a stop.

  He shoved the Sherriff and earned a few more feet up onto the bank when the older man stumbled backwards. Irrationally, he was already plotting the best way to take the Sherriff to the ground, the easiest way to rip out his brother’s heart, and then the quickest route of retreat to get his mate out of here.

  “Damn it Rafe. Don’t make me put you down.” The Sherriff put his hand near his weapon but he couldn’t find it in himself to care, not when he heard his mate squeak loudly.

  “Michael! Let go. He’s hurting and I need to help!”

  “What? No.” His brother yelled right back. “You’re not going anywhere near him. It isn’t safe.”

  Rafe snarled at that. Safe? His little brother wanted to talk about safe? He
had warned Michael once already not to touch his mate, not to get in the way.

  Michael knew the rules. Pack Alpha or not, he couldn’t interfere in a mate bond, not if it was uncontested by the two parties involved. He would be foolish to even try. A mated wolf was stronger than an unmated one and there was no reasoning with one in heat.

  He would fight twice as hard. He would be twice as vicious. He wouldn’t stop until he got to her, even if he had to put Michael in the ground to do it. His brother knew that.

  The human part of his brain, the rational part of his brain, told him to think this through. He and Michael weren’t littermates. He’d never been able to read him as well as he had Gabe. They weren’t two pieces of the same puzzle but they were still brothers. They knew each other.

  He knew Michael. Michael was always calm, always rational. He used his head and thought things through before he made a move.

  Michael knew him. Rafe’s strength came from emotion. He was action and gut instinct. He was the one that attacked first and asked questions later.

  Michael knew him so Michael must know that he was tempting his own torture by touching the girl and yet, he’d done it anyway.

  Why?

  “Of course it’s safe.” Zoey scoffed, jerking her arm away from his brother, “You just said I’m his mate. If that’s true, you know he would never hurt me.”

  Such trust in him, in their beliefs and traditions, made something new and warm take up residence in Rafe’s chest. Attacking his own brother hadn’t been the way to introduce her to any of this, to him, and probably hadn’t won him any points. Still, she was fighting to get to him despite the roadblock his brother presented.

  Rafe watched them interact, tried to process what he was seeing. Ever since he’d walked into his brother’s home earlier tonight, he’d been in a haze of lust and magic and rage. He hadn’t stopped to think about much of anything except finding her but now that he had, he knew what it was he’d been missing.

  She wasn’t just a member of Michael’s pack. She wasn’t just a human that Michael liked and protected. She wasn’t just Michael’s friend. His brother loved her.

  Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he’d known that. When he realized the scent of his mate belonged to the same girl that had been palling around with his brother since childhood, he’d known that. But at the same time, he’d thought that Michael was smarter than this.

  Falling for a woman that wasn’t his mate? For a woman that wasn’t his? For a woman that his every instinct would demand he abandon when his true mate walked into his life?

  It was childish and naïve and stupid, not things Michael had ever been. If Michael had fallen in love with her when they were children, before they’d known, that was one thing. But to have continued their relationship, knowing full well that they weren’t fated, was cruel and heartbreaking… for them both.

  Rafe thought about all of the signs he’d ignored earlier in the day. Her scent had been strong in Michael’s home, as if she spent a lot of time there. And as soon as he’d scented her, Michael had known who she was but his brother refused to tell him, refused to help him find her, and so he’d raced out of the house alone, desperate to find her. Her scent had led him to her apartment and even there, in her tiny space, he’d still scented his brother.

  They shared space. Their scents intertwined. He should have put it together before but he’d been so consumed with the need to find her that his brain hadn’t puzzled through the whole picture yet. Now, looking at them, the picture was still grainy and out of focus because it didn’t make sense.

  Their scents were all over each other’s homes but they weren’t all over each other. It was there, a light undercurrent that spoke to familiarity, but they hadn’t been sleeping together. Michael’s scent would have marked her if that were the case. And though his brother’s scent lingered on her skin, that was as deep as it went, familiarity, ease, sporadic and random touches. It wasn’t soul deep and for that, at least, he would let his brother keep his life.

  Michael was in love with the girl but he hadn’t taken her. He hadn’t crossed that line. It raised a question he hadn’t thought about earlier, one he didn’t want to think about, one with an answer he was in no way prepared to hear.

  Was she in love with Michael too?

  He growled when he remembered the way they’d been looking at each other when he finally tracked her here, to the lodge. He’d been following her scent all over town for hours. Michael must have known that and taken advantage to get to her first. She’d been in his brother’s arms when he arrived and if he hadn’t interrupted…

  He hated to even think it but if he’d been even ten seconds later and he’d found Michael kissing her, knowing full-well that she belonged to him, not even her sweet voice would have stopped him from beating his brother into the ground.

  “Damn it Zoey. He’s not stable. I’m trying to protect you.” Michael got in her way again but saved himself another brutal attack by not touching her.

  “From your brother?”

  “He’s not himself right now and neither are you. The mating heat… you don’t want to do this. You’ll regret it, when the magic wanes and the heat passes, you’ll regret it and I care about you too much to let that happen.”

  Her chin jutted up, “You care about me?”

  “You know I do.” Michael lowered his voice, “I love you Zo.”

  Rafe snarled at the words. No. It was wrong. It was wrong in every way. Michael couldn’t love her. She didn’t belong to him. She was Rafe’s mate. His.

  “Mine!”

  She glanced at him, her brows furrowing, before she looked back to his brother, “Michael, you don’t get to say that now just because you think it will get you your way.”

  “That’s not why I said it.” Michael moved closer to her again, “You know me better than that.”

  Rafe growled. The Sherriff kept his hand on his weapon. The older man was getting jumpy. Even still, Rafe couldn’t look away from his mate when she spoke again.

  “You’re right. I do know you and I know when you’re lying so tell me the truth. Am I really his?”

  “I don’t know.” Michael hedged, shot him a glance and earned another scowl, “Yeah, yeah I think you are.”

  “Jesus…” She sighed, ran a hand down her face, “This is a mess, just like you said.”

  “Zo…”

  She glanced back up quickly, pain clear in her every feature, “Did you know? All this time, did you know?”

  “No. God no.”

  “But you knew before you followed me out of the lodge didn’t you? You knew and that’s why you said all of those things about wanting to run away from your responsibilities and changing fate? You knew and you were keeping me from him? You’re still keeping me from him.”

  Rafe could clearly hear the hurt in his mate’s voice and from the way Michael reacted, so could he. His brother winced, his head lowering in a universal sign of apology. It was more than that though. Michael was Pack Alpha, he lowered his head to no one. But he did it, willingly, for this woman.

  “She’s mine. Let her go Michael.” He snapped, impatient to end the connection his mate had to his brother, wanting to stomp it out now, now, now. “I’m not letting you keep her from me much longer brother.”

  “Don’t let him near her.” Michael didn’t even look at him, only nodded at the Sherriff, “If he gets close to her, you take him down.”

  Rafe growled at the threat but before he could deliver another, or better yet, attack, his mate surprised him by laughing. It wasn’t an amused laugh. It sounded near hysterical. He started to move towards her, noticed the Sherriff reaching for his gun and stopped. Michael started to reach for her as well, thought better of it and dropped his arm back to his side.

  “Zoey?” Michael frowned.

  “It’s a little funny right?” She threw her hands up in the air, “I mean, for years you’ve told me that our connection was different. You told me that you loved me lik
e a sister. A sister! And now it makes sense doesn’t it? Your need to protect me and look after me? It’s not because I’m yours. It’s because I’m his.”

  Confusion circled him again as he tried to piece together the relationship his brother and his mate shared. Had Michael known she was fated to be with Rafe? She’d said their friendship was based on Michael’s need to protect her, that he thought of her as a sister. He loved her, but was it possible that love was platonic? He hadn’t touched her, not sexually, so Rafe had to hope so.

  He might not like his little brother very much right now but he didn’t want to break his heart. He didn’t want to hurt him. Okay, maybe he did want to hurt him, badly, for daring to come between him and his mate, but he didn’t really want to kill him.

  Michael looked just as confused by her words. He also looked annoyed and frustrated. Rafe knew the look. He’d seen it on the face of his little brother only a handful of times. Usually, it had appeared when he realized he had lost. Something that had been rare even when they were pups.

  Michael finally sighed, “Maybe.”

  “Maybe?” Rafe’s little mate scoffed again. “Maybe I’m his. Maybe I’m not. But I’m definitely not yours so get out of my way Michael.”

  His brother winced as if she’d slapped him but kept his head, “No.”

  “You can’t stop this!” She raised her voice, “If this is really happening, if this isn’t some twisted nightmare, then there’s nothing you can do to stop it, no matter how much either of us might wish you could.”

  “Zo…”

  “No.” She snapped when Michael said her name, “Don’t Zo me like I’m the one being crazy here! This entire situation is crazy but I’m the only one acting reasonably. I’m the only one that’s not fighting fate like I could possibly win.”