After the meeting with Drey, Sky had asked to take the spare room in Alexi’s guest house. When Trevor had gently explained that that room was needed for Lee until Alexi healed more, he’d accepted the offer of a bed in one of the Omega dormitories instead of the offer to stay with me.
When Doc had finally pronounced Alexi recovered enough to be questioned about his kidnapping, Sky was nowhere to be seen during the interview. When I tried to find him during meals, Sky had either just left the hall or skipped the meal entirely. After the first few days, there was no way to deny that he was avoiding me.
Exacerbating my increasing level of frustration was Chloe’s suddenly renewed interest in mending our mating relationship. Despite my repeated explanations that I wasn’t interested, everywhere I looked for Sky, I found her instead.
It was enough to make me crazy.
Unlike a Blood Vengeance battle, a mating rights challenge rarely results in the death of one of the participants, but by the time I entered the Ring of Combat to face down Darren, I had so much pent-up anger that I was afraid I might kill the bastard.
When he ended up tapping out the first time I knocked him down, my anger just increased.
Clint had someone at the Council of Packs records office waiting to file the contract that gave Chloe full pack membership as well as our signed mating dissolution paperwork the minute that the bout was declared over, so I tried to tell myself that, if nothing else, I was free to declare myself to Sky. When I looked for him, I saw Darren holding an ice pack to his cheek with one hand, stroking Sky’s smiling face with the other, and my tenuous grip on my temper slipped.
I was across the ring and had Darren pinned to the ground by his throat without knowing how I got there. By the time Clint and several members of our security force dragged me away, Darren was whimpering and pleading for mercy.
I broke free and charged him again, but my brother flattened me, and, to my utter humiliation, Rafe snapped warded silver restraints onto my wrists and ankles before I was dragged away to a holding cell.
I sat on the stone bench and stared at the floor for hours.
I hadn’t been processed and even though Drey had been at the ring, my attorney hadn’t been in to see me, so I hadn’t actually been arrested.
I knew damned well that I was in time out while that asshole Darren was doing fuck-knew-what withmy Omegaand that just pissed me off more.
By the time Clint strolled in and stopped on the other side of the silver-laced bars, I was seething.
“Feeling better, bro?”
I snarled, not even bothering to try and control my partial shift as another wave of anger washed over me. Instead, I welcomed the familiar pain as my fangs and claws erupted.
“Guess not.” Clint lowered himself to a bench against the wall across from my cell. “What the fuck is with you?”
I ignored him, instead watching blood droplets splatter as they landed on the stone floor.
“You need to calm down, Colt.” Clint’s Alpha voice got my attention.
It couldn’t control me, but I did recognize it as a symbol of his leadership authority. The authority I had voluntarily relinquished to him when our father had retired. For the first time, I was starting to think that had been a mistake.
I snarled again, louder.
Clint gave a frustrated huff. “Rafe can’t let you out of here until you calm down. You know that.”
I knew it was childish, but I continued to ignore him.
Clint sighed. “I guess this is as good of a time as any to warn you that Sky left with Darren.”
I roared, my anger screaming out of me and shaking the very building. My beast clawed the rest of the way out and I began to tear at the bars, ignoring the burns the silver was scorching into my skin.
Clint was on his feet, talking to me through the bars, but I couldn’t hear anything over the blood pounding in my ears. In my rage, I barely noticed Colby approach. He raised his hand and I felt a sudden pinch in my neck as his dart found its mark.
My head began to swimand I stumbled back toward the bench, going down to my knees before I reached it.
The last thing I saw before I passed out was the pity on their faces.
