I shrugged. “He touched my mate. He shouldn’t have done that, but I suppose I should have controlled my temper better than that.”
“Would you have really killed that guy?” Kevin asked.
I shrugged again. “If he was dumb enough to shift, I would have considered it. But I was mostly in control the whole time.”
“I don’t think he’ll be inappropriately touching another woman again after that,” Remy joked.
The feeling in the room was heavy, and I knew I needed to apologize to my brothers.
“Look, I’m sorry. I took it too far. I wasn’t prepared for how it would feel to have an unmated male proposition and hurt my mate in front of me like that. I just lost it. But I’m not sure any one of you wouldn’t have done the same thing in my situation.”
“I would have,” Pete admitted. “Even now if someone did that to Sadie, I would.”
The room started whispering. Pete was one of the most levelheaded guys I knew. He’d had to put up with Remy during his mating, and I knew that hadn’t been easy for him. Remy was Sadie’s best friend, and he’d tried to intervene and protect her on a few occasions.
Remy was like a brother to me, but if he was dumb enough to come between me and Zoey, I’d have to kill him too.
I took a deep breath. I had to stop thinking that way. I didn’t want to kill anyone, but every instinct of my being screamed to protect my mate at all costs.
“I would have acted the same, too,” Chad confessed. He was an older brother finishing up his PhD at the ARC. He also worked part time at a bio-lab facility run by the Verndari, the human faction that was supposed to look out for us but had gone corrupt somewhere along the way. They hadn’t caused trouble for a while, but I could never trust them. I wasn’t even supposed to know about them, but there were some perks to being a D.O.G.
The whole room was talking now, unable to believe what Chad had just said.
“I’m serious. If someone disrespected Ember that way, I’d have done the same.”
“But you’re a squirrel,” Kevin blurted out.
“And you’re an opossum,” Chad countered.
“Exactly, which is why I can say this with all honesty. How the hell would a squirrel threaten anyone like that? The wolves have us beat in that department.”
Chad had an evil gleam in his eyes as he rubbed his fingers together menacingly. “I have my ways.”
I shuddered. Clearly Kevin hadn’t heard the stories of Chad during his younger days in the doghouse. He’d once took down a bunch of tigers and faced off with a coyote another time to protect his mate. The others might think it’s funny, but I’dheard enough crazy Chad stories to believe him when he said that.
“The point is,” he continued, “I’m well mated now and I don’t have the insanity of an unsealed mating bond influencing me anymore, but I still would not tolerate someone treating Ember like that.”
The younger guys nodded in agreement. We all looked up to Chad. He’d been around longer than any of us and was the ultimate big brother in the doghouse. His words mattered, and I appreciated him having my back.
“Look, I know there might be consequences from this, but that’s okay. I did what I had to do, and I’d do it all over again if needed. I’m not unstable or volatile. I’m not. And I’m not my father either.” I added, making eye contact with Braxton, “But I will always protect Zoey. If you haven’t figure it out yet, she’s my one true mate.”
The pledges all groaned and pulled out another round of twenties to pass to Braxton.
“How did you know he was going to confess that here?” Mark asked.
“Because I know my brother. It’s as simple as that. And someday you’ll know each other that well too.”
Zoey
Chapter 20
I was still shaking over what had happened and didn’t know what to do about it. Monte seemed so laidback and easygoing, but he had snapped. I honestly feared he was going to kill that guy for touching me, and I felt guilty as hell for being a little turned on by it.
Still, I couldn’t help but wonder what that meant for me. Could he snap and turn against me like that? Was he an abuser just playing the nice guy? Or had someone hurt him? Was there something wrong with his wolf? Would he ever snap like that on me?
In my heart I wanted to believe the answer was no, but how could I trust that after what I’d witnessed?
That guy absolutely had no right to put his hands on me, but did he deserve all of that?
