“Aren’t you going to help me?” Junior choked out, desperately staring at Brian. “I’m your—”
“You’re not his mate,” Keith said, his voice even and calm. That tone on this man was more disconcerting than the chokehold he had on the big Alpha.
Rupert Junior must have felt the same way because his voice trembled when he said, “How do you know that?”
“Because I’m his mate.”
“She said you seduced him with sex. She didn’t say you’re—"
“Your friend Claire wasn’t here long enough to get all the details,” Keith said.
That made two of them. “Keith, what’s happening?” Brian had asked that question so many times since he had met his mate that he was considering getting it printed on a T-shirt.
“His spy told him she failed in her mission to seduce you because you like fucking male Alphas, so his always intelligent and level-headed father sent him over to do the job.” He pulled Rupert Junior forward and knocked him back again. “Isn’t that right, gumdrop?”
“I…I…I…”
“Your father’s a weak coward, but even I didn’t think he’d stoop low enough to whore out his own son,” Keith said.
“I’m not a whore!” Junior shouted.
If Brian hadn’t spent every day for over a month gazing at Keith’s face, he may have missed the slight upward tilt of his lips or the flash of satisfaction in his eyes. He was intentionallybaiting Rupert Junior and it was working. Brian was still terrified that he’d be hurt, but he was also impressed enough to give him space so he could keep working.
“You came into an Alpha’s house and offered him your ass. What would you call that?” Keith goaded.
“That’s disgusting,” Rupert Junior said. “I wasn’t going to let him do that to me.”
“Your mouth then?” Keith said. “Daddy sent you to suck dick?”
“You’re sick! I’d never have sex with him, just like that stupid Omega never had sex with you.”
Keith’s posture relaxed and he nodded. “So you did it to me too. It was an oil or a cream of some kind that you made with my hair. You put it on Timothy Tillers. That’s how you got me to think he was my mate.”
“How…” Junior’s voice broke. “How do you know?”
“Well, whatever the fuck you rubbed on yourself isn’t affecting me so I can smell it and think clearly. Being a grown adult helps too. You fucked with us when we were teenagers.” He pulled and then pushed Rupert Junior again, causing his head to hit the wall again. “Timothy and the Golden Valley Alpha family died, and I blamed myself for years. You and your father are sick monsters who need to be put down.”
“Keith?” Brian moved forward and put his palm on his mate’s back, horrified at the truth being uncovered. “Are you okay?”
“Yep.” He looked over his shoulder at Brian. “Leave the room.”
“Like hell,” he protested. “I’m not leaving you alone with him.” Even though his mate seemed to have the situation under control, Brian didn’t understand how he was overpowering Rupert Junior so easily and completely and he didn’t know how long it’d last.
“Brian, whatever he rubbed on himself affects him and you, but not me. When they did it to me, I lost my mind. I was exposed to it when I was younger, for longer, and more frequently, but we don’t know how it works so it could harm you even in small doses. Step away.”
He considered his swimming brain and the implications of what his mate said and moved back.
“We’re going outside where we have fresh air. I don’t want you in the house with my mate,” Keith said. One hand still firmly wrapped around Rupert Junior’s throat, he dragged him toward the door, yanked it open, and walked onto the porch. “Jennifer,” he said to the pack member who had been waiting outside, “leave.”
“Alpha Berger said—”
“Go ahead and go,” Brian shouted from inside the house. He waited until he heard the car drive away and then he hurried out front and gave wide berth to Keith and Rupert as he stepped off the porch and into the driveway. From that distance, he could no longer smell whatever it was that had been invading his brain.
“Do you have a hose?” Keith asked.
“At the side of the house,” Brian answered.
“What are you doing?” Rupert Junior shouted. “Let go of me.”
