“Please.”
Chay suddenly realized that he still had his fingers wrapped around Gabriel’s throat. He loosened his grip, but didn’t let go of Gabriel. “How do you know that Dominic’s life is in danger?”
“I just do.”
Chay curled his lip up into a small snarl. “Tell me.”
Blue eyes filled with agony looked up at Chay. “I can’t. What I have to say to Dominic is for his ears only.”
Chay frowned. He was really starting to not like this game. Besides the fact that it sucked, it confused the shit out of him. “Do you really think I am going to let you anywhere near Dominic when you’re threatening his life?”
“I am not threatening Dominic’s life,” Gabriel snapped right back, his blue eyes blazing. “I am trying to save him.”
Okay, Chay had not been expecting that response. His grip on Gabriel’s throat loosened even more, but he still didn’t let the man go. He didn’t want to lose contact with Gabriel’s warm skin.
“If you’ve never met Dominic, then why are you trying to save him? Why do you even care what happens to him?”
“He’s my brother.”
“I don’t have a brother!”
Chay’s eyes snapped to the doorway. Dom stood just inside the door, his helmet hanging from his fingers. The thunderous expression on his face told Chay that his friend was not a happy man at the moment.
Chay didn’t see this situation going down any way except badly. He released Gabriel and quickly walked around the counter, putting himself between Gabriel and Dom.
“Maybe you should just hear the guy out, Dom.” Chay raised his hand to ward Dom off. Damn, he couldn’t believe he had gone from not believing Gabriel to defending him in a matter of seconds.
But he knew Dominic. The man had a temper that was legendary. He didn’t take shit off of anyone, and he wouldn’t be happy to learn some stranger was passing himself off as a sibling, especially since Dominic had grown up as an only child and his mother had passed away years ago. Dominic had spent the early part of his life in hell with a drunk mother. He barely knew his father as the man had left when Dom was just an infant.
After the upbringing he had experienced, Dominic wasn’t a family type of guy. He had to learn to rely on himself from an early age, and that had never stopped. Someone pretending to be his brother was going to cut into Dominic like a surgeon’s scalpel.
“You’re Dominic?”
Chay closed his eyes briefly as he wondered if the man behind him was as dumb as a box of rocks. Couldn’t he see how upset Dominic was? The veins on the sides of his neck were pulsing, and his face was starting to turn red. Chay knew Dominic was going to go ballistic at any moment.
“My name is Gabriel Pantarius,” the man said as he walked out from behind Chay before Chay could stop him and went toward Dominic, holding out his hand. “I know this is going to sound really strange. I barely believe it myself, but I really am your brother. We were separated when we were just infants and put up for adoption—you, me, and our two other brothers.”
Dominic roared, as Chay knew he would. When the man’s hands fisted, Chay jumped forward and grabbed Gabriel around the waist, swinging him away from Dominic’s anger.
It was only as he curved himself around Gabriel in a bid to keep him safe, and buried his face in Gabriel’s neck, that Chay got a truly good whiff of the man’s natural scent.
Chay groaned, realizing that his life had just changed as much as Dominic’s might have. He didn’t know if Gabriel was telling the truth about being Dominic’s brother, but that no longer mattered.
Chay was compelled to protect Gabriel from Dominic, and anyone else who might hurt the gorgeous man. He wouldn’t be able to stop himself. From this very second in time, Gabriel had just become the most important person in his life—his mate.
“I am Chayton Garon,” he whispered into Gabriel’s ear. “You should remember that name.”
He was going to be screaming it the moment Chay could get him alone and on a flat surface.
