“I’m going to wash that shit off you, you absolute fucking idiot.” Keith yanked Junior off the porch. He planted his feet, trying to stop him, but that just resulted in him losing his balance. Keith kept his hold on Junior’s neck and yanked him across the yard, his feet scraping the ground behind them. “After you put this concoction on Timothy Tillers, he became completely psychotic and blew up the Golden Valley Alpha house with himself in it, and you thought it was a good idea to put it on yourself?”
“My father said it’d be different because I’m only using it one time and I’m an Alpha not a weak Omega.”
“And that’s a chance you were willing to take?” Keith shook his head. “You’re dumber than I realized and I already thought you were a colossal idiot.”
Brian followed them across the yard, keeping his distance but watching the chaos unfold. “Who made the oil?” he asked. Now that they were outside and he could no longer smell Rupert Junior, he was thinking more clearly. Alpha Jackson and his son couldn’t have done this on their own. They didn’t possess that kind of skill.
Rupert Junior didn’t respond.
“Answer him,” Keith said, and when Junior didn’t, he threw him against the house. He flew through the air and hit it with a bang before landing in a heap on the ground. “Junior, another mistake in your parade of stupid was coming here with no backup. Do you really want to mess withme?” He glared at the larger man, who was quaking at his feet. “Remember what I did to you the last time you tried to fight me directly, RuRu? How old were you?” He paused. “Twenty, twenty-one, maybe? Which means I was eight. How do you think you’d do now?”
“Some witch chemist my father knows,” Rupert Junior hastily replied. “Are you going to kill me?”
“Probably.” Keith picked up the hose. “It’ll be upgraded to definitely if you don’t do what I say. Strip.”
“I’m not going to have sex with you!”
“Nobody wants that. Absofuckinglutely nobody. Now take off your clothes so I can wash that concoction off you.” He looked to the side at Brian. “Do you have any cleaner we can spray on him?”
“Spray?”
“I’d rather not touch him.”
Brian bristled at the thought of his mate touching anyone else. “Yes, but it’s inside. I’m not going to leave you alone with him. He could hurt you.” Though Brian had to admit, Keith looked to have the situation well in hand. His competence and control were sexy as hell, and if Brian weren’t reeling from the situation, he’d probably be extremely turned on.
“Seriously?” Keith rolled his eyes at Brian and then turned back to Rupert. “Hey, Junior, hurry up.”
He yanked his shirt off. “Do you want me to take my pants off too?”
“Were you actually dumb enough to rub that stuff on your dick?”
He shook his head. “Only on my neck and underarms.”
“You voluntarily coated your lymph nodes in an unnatural, dangerous substance. You do realize it’s penetrating your body, right?” Keith shook his head. “You haven’t done a single decent thing in your life and you’re too stupid to live, but you didn’t stand a chance with the father you have so an infinitesimal part of me pities you.” He dropped the hose and then punched the side of Rupert Junior’s head. He instantly crumpled to the ground, unconscious, and Keith looked over at Brian. “There. I paused him. He can’t hurt me. Can you please go get some cleaner now? I need to get that stuff off him before it does more damage.”
“You paused him?” Brian had never seen anyone knock out an Alpha with one punch. Chaotic situation or not, he was now hard as a rock. Brute strength had never been a turn-on for him, but apparently, he had developed a new kink. All his life, he had thought he wanted a weaker, submissive mate but looking at his Alpha mate take charge made him realize that this was better.
Keith tipped his head toward the unconscious man on the ground. “Yeah, he’s paused, see?”
Though his cock was throbbing, his heart was racing, and his brain was crashing, Brian chuckled. “Only you can make me laugh and turn me on in the middle of complete mayhem.”
“You’re turned on?” Keith asked. “Show me.”
Brian gazed at his beautiful, unhinged, unexpectedly perfect mate and he was overcome with affection and desire. “I love you, Keith.”
Lips slowly curling up at the sides, Keith looked into his eyes. “I love you too, mate.”
“I can’t believe I let you come with me,” Brian grumbled as they drove onto Green Field territory. “You belong at home where you’re safe. I’m supposed to protect you. I don’t know why I agreed to this.”
Beside him, Keith looked out the window. “This place is in ruins. I shouldn’t have left it in Rupert Jackson’s hands. I should have protected my pack.”
The melancholy and regret in his mate’s voice stole his attention away from his own worries. “Hey, don’t say that. You were a kid, and they messed with your mind. You couldn’t have known what they’d done to you or what they’d do to this pack.”
“I should have figured it out.”
Brian took a few minutes to think that over. He reflected on what he had experienced that morning when Rupert Junior walked up to his door. Though he was loathe to admit to his own weakness, he would do it to help his mate.
“I wouldn’t have,” he confessed. “I didn’t endure any of the struggles you went through as a kid and I’m a full-grown Alpha leading my own pack, and I wouldn’t have realized Rupert Junior wasn’t my mate.”
