[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
40
Reluctant Mate 2 Eden Cole
You really think that s wise? Mato, I m telling you, he s no different
from his brother. He could snap at any time. What I saw in there earlier
What you saw was a man in pain at having learned a little of what his
brother went through before he died. He s my mate. I will control him.
Not you. I have that right.
Lucas s lips tightened. You have that right for a real mate. Cam is not
your mate.
Say it again, Mato threatened. Please, insult me to my face again.
You ve never had respect for my position.
You can flex your muscle at any time, and you know it. The fact that
Lucas had that ability over him was a point of contention, even if he d
never used it before. Not even in the early days when he was more
rebellious than he was now. He d been wilder, grieving for the loss of his
grandmother. Lucas had taken him in just like he d done with the little
ones, Mato s brothers and sisters who he d never known existed.
That s not how I choose to handle my family, Lucas said.
Mato agreed. And violence isn t how I choose to help my mate.
Nothing else matters except for him. If you can t accept or believe that,
then it s your problem. Give me the recording.
With the recording in hand, Mato returned to Lucas s office and set it
up on the widescreen TV there. He picked up the remote and sat close
beside Cam. Their thighs touched, but Cam didn t move away. He took
that as a sign he wouldn t be rejected if he put an arm around the other
man s shoulders. Love and lust rose inside him, but he contained both and
clicked the button.
* * * *
Cam stared at the screen in shock and disbelief. He wanted to look
away, but the cruelty and pain held his gaze. Unmistakably, his brother
was there in the cell. Big and brawny with muscle to spare, he shouted and
raged in human form. A close up of his face revealed the crazed
expression, the dilated pupils, foaming at the mouth. He growled and
41
Reluctant Mate 2 Eden Cole
shouted, then banged his head over and over on the bars. Cam realized it
was why there had been blood in that spot.
After a short while Lucas walked in with another man that Cam hadn t
seen before. He was older and had a sternness to his mouth. He advised
Lucas to put him down, but Lucas insisted on trying to reach Kyle. On
film, Cam couldn t feel the release of that awesome power that Lucas had
demonstrated earlier. Still, he knew that s what he d used because Kyle
stopped struggling and fell to one knee. He raised his head with apparent
effort and growled again.
I m going in, Lucas told the other man.
That s dangerous. You can see the condition he s in. I say put him
down and get it over with.
But since I m not under your rule or your house, and he was found on
my property, I call the shots here, Lucas countered. He retrieved a key
and turned the lock.
For the next few hours, and over several DVDs, Cam watched Lucas
work with Kyle. His brother shifted maybe a hundred times, mostly out of
his head, violent to the point of wounding Lucas in a way that would leave
an ordinary human dead. Another man came in often, closer to Lucas s
age. The way he interacted with Lucas, Cam guessed he was the mate who
had been out of town since he arrived. The mate, a man by the name of
Gray, didn t try to convince Lucas to let Kyle go. Together, they worked
with him until the end. Through it all, Lucas was able to glean bits and
pieces of Kyle s past and about the scientist, but not his name or where he
was.
At the last, Cam blinked away moisture in his eyes when his brother
muttered in a thick, scratchy tone, Tell Cam I m sorry.
Lucas had been the one to kill him, but Cam had turned away at the
final blow. When the recording ended, he stood up, silent.
Cam, talk to me, Mato encouraged.
I have to go. Cam didn t explain where he was going. He dressed,
gathered his things, and hopped into his car to drive away. He kept going,
no idea which direction he was headed. When he came to a populated area
42
Reluctant Mate 2 Eden Cole
that must be the city, he drove around the cramped streets, around
Bourbon. A sign hanging on a second floor balcony said Apartment for
Rent. He had no reason to stay in New Orleans, but he called the number
anyway. With a wad of cash he d saved and couldn t afford to part with,
he finagled the landlord to let the place to him. A furniture store he
stumbled onto sold him a cheap bed and a tiny kitchen table with two
chairs. He had them delivered. By evening, he lay on a bare mattress with
no sheets or pillow and stared at the ceiling. Somewhere in the near
distance, bluegrass music belted from a nightclub, and a trolley bell
dinged. He rolled over to his side.
Kyle, I m sorry I couldn t be there for you. I m half the man that you
were.
A knock on the door startled him. No one knew he was here. He sat
up, and without thinking about it, breathed deep. He smelled him, even
heard his elevated heartbeat. Mato was both eager to see him and nervous
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]