Chapter 15 Ch 15

Gone. As I stood on the edge of the modest property owned by my mate, I knew he was gone. I had walked around his house after knocking on the door, but his scent was faint. If he had come home earlier, he was no longer here. It hurt me to think that he was acting like this, as it was a wolf's responsibility to balance out their mate. We were clearly terrible at this.

Even so, it didn't take me long to come back to my senses. What was I doing here? Coming to Tandan's rescue was not my job. He left me. After we mated. Who does that to someone? Who crushes someone in such a horrendous, selfish way? By the time I was back in the car, tears were streaking my face. I turned the ignition over with a heavy heart.

The buzz of my cell drew my attention. Sighing, I grabbed my purse from the passenger seat and fished it out. Matt was calling. I didn't want to talk to him. My heart was in pieces again, and I was afraid he would hear it in my voice right away. Time was what I needed.

Rather than go back to the office to see if Lorrie had overcome her terror, I drove myself to my apartment. I felt inexplicably heavy—like somehow even my soul was so heavy I could feel it. After parking and trudging my way up to my apartment, my mate's fresh scent stung my nose. My eyes widened as I lifted my head. The door to my apartment was clawed and had been kicked in, though was still mostly intact.

I moved faster now, pushing open the broken door and stepping inside. The sound of a slow pulse and steady breathing reached my ears. Gulping, I moved deeper into my apartment. Nothing else was torn up or out of place. I followed the noises to my bedroom, where I found Tandan passed out on my bed. Naked.

"Tandan?" I asked, still in disbelief.

A sleepy moan sounded before he turned over, exposing himself to me, and sat up. "Hey," he greeted.

"Uh." I opened my arms as if begging for an explanation. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Then he suddenly seemed to realize what was happening. All traces of fatigue vanished. His posture became rigid as his now alert eyes locked with mine. I could smell him so strongly, and, though I refused to surrender, I wanted to touch him, to let our bodies press together. So much stupid longing.

"I can't do this anymore," he told me.

When he didn't add to that, I said, "I heard you tried to kill your girlfriend."

"Lorrie . . ." Whining like a wolf, he put his head between his hands. "She deserves better. I knew from the start it was a bad idea to get involved with her."

"Why'd you try to kill her?"

"She . . . we were in an argument. I couldn't take it anymore. She wanted to know why I can't stand the idea of having sex with her anymore. Why I'm repulsed by her. I just...I-I couldn't tell her about you," he whimpered. "So I started getting angry and got in her face—I'd never hurt her, though. I couldn't."

Even though I still felt so hurt and angry that he abandoned me after possessing my body, I couldn't keep myself from being moved by him. He was torn between his rational, domestic thoughts and his irrational, animalistic impulses. I wanted to punish him for loving her, but it was too late. Punishment would never change love.

"I've been thinking," I started quietly, unsure as to why I decided to go through with this now. He lifted his head to look at me again. "You love her, not me. So why keep putting ourselves through this? I think we should consider rejection. It might help end our attachment. You could finally be free to love Lorrie. It could be a win—"

"Rejection?" he roared.

His abrupt harshness took me off guard. Blinking, I met his gaze. It stole my breath and paralyzed me.

"No one is getting rejected," he growled while rising from the bed. He began to approach me. "Is that understood?"

My legs became my own again, and I tried to back away from him, to escape him. I was petrified by the threat in his eyes and voice but also turned on. Everything in me both hated and wanted him. He managed to pin me against the wall without much resistance from me.

"Lee." He pulled my limp wrists above my head. "Is that understood?"

Grinding my teeth together, I fought for some control. "No. I don't understand—" I paused to breathe when he tightened his grip before forcing myself onwards. "I don't understand why you want to hold on."

"Because you are mine," he snapped, lowering his head to mine.

"But you belong to her," I reminded him, though it hurt terribly.

"It's different. I've been with her, I know her, I even love her. But she is not my mate." A low growl vibrated his body. "She isn't you."

I bit my lip to stifle a moan. Was I dreaming? Those were the words I had been aching to hear for so long. He realized that we were mates, that our bond was special and unique.

Our lips met shyly at first before his tongue swept out. I opened my mouth without hesitation and allowed nature to guide us. He devoured my lips, leaving them wet. Like some kind of dance, his tongue explored into my mouth and aroused my own. They touched and pulled, moving in tune with our breaths. I flicked his tongue playfully before closing the kiss. Groaning, he pushed his body against mine.

"You," he panted, nuzzling my nose, "belong to me."

Then I let out another moan as he trailed his lips down to my neck. I knew what was coming. My body warmed at the thought of his teeth sinking into me. Arching my back, I tried to free my wrists from his grip. He only snarled in warning and nipped at my soft skin. I playfully growled back, which seemed to challenge him. The next nip was larger, more painful.

"Just do it," I begged. "Claim me, Tandan."

After sucking on the space, I felt the scrape of his testing canines. My body tensed to brace for the pain. Before he could do it, my phone rang. It shouldn't have been enough to distract us, but the device was loud and vibrating in my pocket.

Hissing, he reached to grab it. I seized the opportunity of free hands to retrieve it first. Braden was calling. I rejected it and was about to throw my phone across the room when I noticed he had sent me several consecutive messages. Even in my haze, I could tell something was wrong.

Tandan moved to snatch up my phone, but I dodged him and stepped away from his arms. His thunderous growl wasn't enough to stop me from calling my brother back. I feared something had happened to him in the few weeks we had spent apart. He rarely ever called, so I figured something was up.

"Braden?" I spoke when the ringing ended.

"Big sis!" he fired back jubilantly.

Didn't sound like bad news to me. "I'm sorry, this isn't really a good time—"

"Oh, you are home, aren't you? I see your car parked out front."

I stopped hearing her words. After a garbled cough, I choked out, "You're here? At my apartment complex?"

Another warning growl came from Tandan, who started pacing the room. I ignored him so I could concentrate. The fact that my brother was here made me nervous. If he saw Tandan here, he'd tell our parents. He said he wouldn't but I had a hard time believing Braden, a big time momma's boy, would keep this from our mother.

"Rylee?" he said. "You still there?"

"Damn," I muttered under my breath. "I'll come down and walk you up, Brady. Just give me a minute to put myself together."

"I can just come up—"

"Just two minutes and I'll be down!" I promised before hanging up.

Tandan's pacing halted and his head snapped towards me. "Who were you talking to? Who's here?"

"My brother." I began ushering him towards the broken door. "You have to go. He can't know you're here."

"Why the hell is your brother here?" he demanded, grabbing the door frame before I could fully shove him out. "I'm naked!"

Realizing he wasn't wrong, I stopped and pushed my face into my hands. Oh, God. This was going to be my end. Tandan pulled my hands from my face and cradled my cheeks.

"Tell me what's going on," he said with shocking calmness.

I sighed. "My brother is here. I don't know why or how he even knows where I live. But anyway," I added with an annoyed sigh, "if he sees you here, he'll freak out and tell my parents I found my mate."

A low growl of protest clobbered from his throat, which I was quick to shoot down with a glare. "I'm not getting into the whole family thing with you right now. You need to go."

"Well, I can't leave." Tandan gestured to his naked body, which instantly made my cheeks heat up. Oh, how much I wanted to devour him again.

"Okay, fine. Stay in here and lock the door. He can still smell you, though. But maybe he won't be focused on that if he's here for another reason."

Puffing out a disgruntled sigh, Tandan turned and marched back to the bed. I bit back a smile and left to deal with Braden. The sooner I got him out of here, the sooner I could be alone with my mate.