Finally, when his mind registered what his mate was saying, David looked over at Zane quickly, and said, “Sorry, Zane, I was distracted, but that wasn’t the reason I had to leave.”
“Then, why?”
“I can’t join your Blackwood Pack,” David said, softly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring you with me.”
Pain slashed deeply through Zane when he heard his mate reject him. Listening to the mournful howl of his wolf, he knew he had to convince David to give him another chance. “I don’t know what I did wrong, but please give me a chance to make it right, David. If you don’t want to be in the pack, we can leave and go somewhere else and start our own pack…just the two of us. I can get a job writing software, so I can take care of us. If you want to do something else, tell me, I don’t care just as long as we can be together.”
Seeing the truth of Zane’s words reflected in his eyes, David sighed, knowing it was already too late to think of leaving Zane. His feelings for his mate were too strong, so truth was the only answer. “I can’t stay where physical force is used on someone.”
Zane’s brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what his mate meant.Physical force? No one was doing that. I was only looking at Ki and Logan but…Oh shit!“I think I know what you’re referring to, but Logan wasn’t hurting Ki, he was only trying to shut him up.”
“With a hand…a hand connected to a shifter who’s bigger and more powerful than Kieran?” David spat, pissed that his mate thought behavior like that was acceptable. “Is that what you are going to do to me when you don’t like what I’m saying? You and I both know you have more muscles than I do so can I look forward to the same treatment? Oh right, it’s okay because you won’t hurt me just force me to be quiet.”
Stunned at the anger in his mate’s voice, Zane was speechless, not sure how to proceed and, worse yet, asdespair settled into the pit of his soul, the fear he’d somehow screwed up his last chance to make things right with David.
~/~/~/~/~
“What the fuck?”
“Where did they go?”
“Is Zane okay?”
“How are we going to get him back?”
“Quiet,” Logan said. “Was anyone watching them?”
“I was,” Dakota said. “Everything seemed fine until you put your hand over Ki’s mouth; then David became frightened, and…poof…gone, like he did before, but this time Zane went with him.”
“What scared him?” Slate asked, looking around the room. “Nobody came in and nothing else changed.”
“I think it has something to do with Logan and Kieran because he was staring at them,” said Dakota.
After listening to their spirit, Logan growled, “Dammit! David didn’t understand we were only joking around.”
“How do we find them now?” asked Theo, worried.
“Our spirit says they’re both safe and down in the break room,” said Logan. “I better go and straighten this out. Babe, you should come too. I think David needs to hear this from you more than from me.”
“Righto,” Kieran said, jumping up from Logan’s lap. “C’mon, macushla,Zane needs our help pronto.”
“Guys, we’ll be right back…hopefully…so when Morgan comes back, tell him to hold off on dessert for a little while,” Logan said, before leaving the dining room with Kieran.
Steering his mate down the hall to the break room door, Logan suddenly heard a loud muffled voice and knew it belonged to David. Exchanging a glance with Kieran, Logan said, “Babe, go knock. I think you should talk to him without Zane or myself in the room.”
“Good idea,” Kieran said, walking the few steps to the door. Then, knocking loudly, he called out, “David, it’s Kieran, please can I come in?” Angry footsteps could be heard before the door swung open, slamming back against the wall. “Hi guys. Zane, please leave David alone with me, okay? I promise he’ll be quite safe with me.”
Zane looked at his mate, then at Kieran who nodded encouragingly. “Only if it’s all right with David.”
Turning his back on Zane, David said, “It’s fine. Go.”
Touching Zane’s arm, Kieran sent love and reassurance to him before he walked out of the break room, shutting the door behind him.
Standing near the door, Kieran waited until David turned around, then said, “Hey, do you mind if we sit down on the couch?”
“No, I’m sorry, my manners seemed to have left me. Please, have a seat,” David said.
Sitting down, Kieran patted the seat next to him, and when David joined him, he placed a hand on David’s thigh. “Hey, the reason I wanted to speak with you is to correct your impression of what you saw my mate doing to me upstairs.”
