Should have Put a Leash On It (17 page)

“Oh my God.” He didn’t know who said it, didn’t care. If anyone made a single comment to Rylan about his lack of fur, Micah would rip their throat out and watch them bleed over the floor.

When the trembling finally stopped and Rylan appeared to slip into an exhausted sleep, Micah crept forward and lay down next to his mate, warming him with his own dark fur. Rylan whined and snuggled nearer, still asleep.

Asher joined him, as did Zeke and Sage in wolf form. Liam, Alex and Gabriel kept their distance, but took up defensive guard positions. As non-wolf predators, it might cause Rylan’s instincts to go on the offensive if he scented them too close to him in his weakened state.

Hunter, Ryder and Mars remained stationed around the room, standing between Rylan and Skylar. Protecting the Alpha Mate was as ingrained in them as shifting. The three also looked ready to run interference if Rylan were to suddenly leap up and try for Remy.

As an inner circle it was normal to have some disagreement. It made the pack stronger if the ones defending it didn’t simply take orders but had minds of their own. Sheep didn’t survive. Having said that, a true inner circle stood as one against a threat and were willing to die for one another.

Micah watched as Remy turned to stare at Skylar for a long couple of minutes. He could imagine what Remy was thinking. What would he do if this was Skylar lying here?

After sharing some telepathic communication with Skylar, Remy nodded, looking ghostly pale and sickened. The visible emotions vanished behind a calm mask and Micah felt sad that his little brother had gotten so good at that.

Remy cleared his throat and stood strong.

“Take him back to his room to rest. We’ll know soon enough what Trevor’s intentions were when he wakes up. Until then I don’t want anyone going anywhere alone. Everyone will bunk up with someone else tonight.” No one argued. After what they’d witnessed he didn’t think anyone wanted to be alone.

They filed out, Liam and Alex, Gabriel and Mars, Ryder and Hunter, Asher and Sage. Zeke left as well, probably heading home to the Coven House to be with his own mate. Micah waited until they had all gone before he shifted back and got to his feet. The second he broke contact with Rylan, the bald wolf began to shiver.

Remy stopped him from taking Rylan and leaving, motioning for him to step to the side with him. “I’m sorry, Micah. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been.”

Haunted by what he’d forced Rylan to endure, Micah stared blankly at his brother and alpha. “I hope you never know how hard.”

Without waiting for any other reply, he picked up his mate and walked out of the room. Rylan’s wolf head hung limply over his arm, unconscious.

Micah sat in the dark corner of Rylan’s room on one of the boxes of books that still hadn’t been unpacked. Rylan had been asleep for ten hours straight. The others had decided to take shifts on watch duty, but Micah had yet to look away from his mate.

Every moment Rylan stayed unconscious felt like a year Micah was in purgatory. It had been so much worse than he feared. He kept replaying the scene over and over, berating himself for not doing more, for not preventing it from happening altogether.

He’d dug out another pair of baggy sweats from Rylan’s clothes and put them on, but he hadn’t bothered with a t-shirt or anything for his feet. He wanted to be unobstructed if Rylan needed him to shift and warm him again.

At the moment Rylan was still sleeping soundly.

Micah was on his feet and running to the bed when Rylan made a whimpering sound. He’d used the thick faux fur comforter he’d found in one of the cupboards in the bathroom to drape over Rylan because the wolf kept shivering. He wanted to warm Rylan himself, but every time he got close in his wolf form, Rylan would whimper as if in pain.

He didn’t know whether it was a conditioned response because Rylan, in his unconscious state, expected pain or whether Trevor had somehow messed with Rylan’s instincts so the wolf couldn’t accept comfort. It was torture to watch Rylan need him but to not be able to touch him without causing him more pain.

Before he got to the bed, Rylan’s body seemed to vibrate. And as he watched, the wolf slipped away and Rylan returned to human.

It was seamless and didn’t even wake Rylan up. Rage filled him as he became certain Trevor had made the shift to wolf as excruciating as he could. It was another message to Rylan that he owned him. When Micah got his hands on the former alpha he was going to take great pleasure in ripping the wolf limb from limb.

“Rylan, are you okay?”

No response.

Micah moved closer, keeping his movements slow and easy in case he spooked Rylan. Something was wrong here. His wolf was certain of it. Rylan smelled...off.

Rylan’s eyes snapped open and the shifter sat up in the bed like a horror movie vampire, back straight and eyes glazed over. Then, rolling off the bed in one smooth motion, Rylan stood and started for the door. But the way he moved was strange. There was no hint of swagger or the little sway of his hips that made Micah stare at the tight, pert ass.

He intercepted Rylan’s path to the door. “Rylan?”

Rylan stopped, eyes blank.

“Ry?”

There wasn’t even a flicker of recognition. As he saw it, he had two options. He could tie Rylan down until he came back to himself—if he did. Or he could let this play out and see what Trevor had planned to have Rylan do. The bastard wouldn’t have gone to this much trouble for it to be anything small.

Making a decision, he swallowed his far and doubt and stepped aside. Rylan immediately started walking again with no indication he even saw Micah.

Once they were in the hall, Micah whistled for the others to come out of where they were hiding. Sage and Asher popped out from behind a large set of towel and blanket cupboards that their mother insisted they needed on every floor. Rylan had paused and seemed to be trying to get his bearings, as if he didn’t know where he was supposed to go.

Further away, Micah heard some of the others head up the stairs. They must have been guarding the lower floor in case Rylan made it down there. Liam and Alex would be protecting Liam’s cubs since Liam didn’t want them out of his sight while Rylan was compromised.

Compromised. That was such an inadequate word to describe something that may well have taken Micah’s mate away forever. The bitch of it was that the sex was mind-blowingly great and Rylan had a body made for sin. But it was when they’d slept—just slept—together that he’d had the best night’s sleep he’d ever had and he woken up for the first time in his whole life feeling...at peace

But that wasn’t the only thing either. Rylan still drove him crazy and he was sure it was mutual. He wanted to wake up with Rylan, argue with him, make up with him and drive each other to distraction. He wanted all of that.

However, as he looked at Rylan and the way the shifter stood devoid of emotion and personality, the sickening feeling of grief settled in his stomach. What if Rylan didn’t come back from this?

“Micah?”

The urgent whisper knocked him out of his own thoughts and he realized Rylan was moving again. Rylan didn’t even appear to see Asher and Sage as they trailed behind. Micah caught up to them and he figured out that they were heading for Remy and Skylar’s room.

He exchanged a nervous glance with Asher and motioned for Sage to let Rylan pass when his brother ran in front. They could stop him, but then they wouldn’t have learned anything.

Sage made a face that made it evident that he disagreed. Rylan paused at the closed door and Remy made a phone gesture with his hand to tell Sage to call Remy to say that they were outside. It had been hours since they all split up so Remy and Skylar might have managed to get some rest while they could.

He heard Remy’s phone beep on the other side of the door and relaxed a little. Remy must be up and aware, waiting to see what Rylan would do like the rest of them.

After another moment of Rylan staring unseeingly at the closed door, Sage’s phone rang. Sage answered the call after a quick look at the caller ID. “Hey, Rem. No he’s just standing there. He doesn’t seem to hear any of us—wait he’s changed direction and I think he’s heading for the rear stairs.”

Micah and Asher jumped out of the way as Rylan strode their way. Rylan passed them as if they weren’t even there.

“Follow him, but don’t let him leave. I’ll stay in here. If his first move was to go to my room, then whatever Trevor wants him to do revolves around me. Keep the line open, but don’t be too overt about watching him in case it triggers a violent response. Keep the phone on, so I can talk to you.” Micah didn’t have to be the one with the phone to his ear to hear Remy’s side of the conversation.

They had followed Rylan through the house, keeping enough distance between them. Rylan seemed to skip the other floor and the corridor leading to the original part of the house in favor of the kitchen. Micah wasn’t sure what the hell was going on. Was Rylan going to try and get out through the kitchen?

Micah motioned to Sage to go and casually block the potential exit. To get out, Rylan would still have to go through the closet turned pantry and a reception room. While the inner circle was aware of Rylan’s...issues, it was decided that the rest of the pack didn’t need to know. Remy reasoned that it would help flush out the traitor if they controlled the information and who knew what.

Remy had put Saffron’s mate Michael on surveillance duty, tailing the father of the student that had supposedly been coincidently following Rylan and suggested the change in direction on the search for Rylan. Saffron’s husband may have been a shifter council suit for the last few years after finishing his law training, but before that the wolf had been a tracker. A damn good one, too.

They needed to see exactly what the father was doing and who he was talking to, though Micah and Remy had discussed some suspicions. Micah’s money was on the small group of shifters that had entered Remy’s home without permission only hours after Remy had become Alpha.

Micah had been keeping tabs on three of them, but he hadn’t been able to track down a name for the one that had hidden in the background. The three he’d been watching were troublemakers, but seemed to stick to churning the rumor mill and he suspected were the main ones chattering about challenging Rylan.

Sage nonchalantly skirted down the side of the kitchen island and got in front of Rylan, obstructing the path to the pantry while Asher did the same to the large window.

Rylan remained as undeterred as he had the whole time. Micah’s wolf was desperate for some sort of response, something, anything, to show him that his mate was still in there somewhere.

When Micah thought Rylan would try and get past one of his brothers he stepped forward to intervene. He didn’t care what Remy said, he wasn’t letting Rylan leave this house unprotected.

Micah was so worried about Rylan trying to make a run for it that he realized too late that although they’d cleared upstairs, no one had thought to remove any potential weapons down here. On the upper floors, they’d removed the ornamental guns and swords in the office, the stash of weapons hidden in the secret drawer under the towels and blankets in the cupboard.

Looking at his brothers, Micah saw they’d come to the same realization. Rylan hadn’t come down here for a means to escape, he’d come down here to find a weapon.

Micah very slowly backed out of Rylan’s way as his mate inspected the butcher knife he’d selected from the drawer.

Micah eyed the very sharp blade as it reflected a flash of sunlight from the window. It was a blade meant to go through bone. If Rylan was looking for a weapon to brutally murder them all and chop them into little pieces it was a good choice.

Sage thought the same. “You know that violent response you were worried about?”

“Yes,” Remy answered tensely, his voice emanating from Sage’s shirt pocket.

Asher carefully backed out of Rylan’s way when Rylan walked around the kitchen island. “Well it may be inevitable because Rylan just picked up a butcher knife and he’s heading your way.”

“Fuck.” Remy must have hung up because the dial tone sounded.

Making a quick decision, Micah took charge. “Make sure there’s no one on the stairs.” He wasn’t going to risk Rylan hurting anyone. Rylan would never forgive himself.

He stepped back when Rylan stepped forward and so did Sage and Asher. It was like some twisted knife wielding dance. They all held their breath when Rylan lifted his head and looked at Asher, then Sage.

All the way down here, Rylan hadn’t once acknowledge them. Now, armed with a knife Micah didn’t think Rylan paying attention to them was a good sign.

“Micah, we’re not leaving you here alone when he’s got a fucking knife,” Sage hissed through his teeth.

“He won’t hurt me,” he said with far more confidence than he felt. “But don’t take a chance, stay clear of him just in case.”

His brothers clearly didn’t buy it, but they also knew they couldn’t let anyone from the pack see Rylan like this or risk Rylan hurting anyone. Sage backed out of the room and Micah heard him run up the back stairs they had come down while Asher crept around the corner and Micah knew he was heading for the main stairs. His brothers would make sure his and Rylan’s path was clear. If Micah had to lay money on where Rylan was heading, he’d put it all on Remy’s room.

When he was left alone with Rylan, Micah ignored his own advice and stepped right in Rylan’s way, forcing the shifter to either lower the knife or impale him.

It was a calculated risk.

If Rylan stopped, then he would know that Trevor’s control wasn’t foolproof. On the other hand, if Rylan carried on going and actually stabbed him Micah was quick enough to deflect the blow with his left hand to ensure the injury was only a glancing blow. No major damage would be caused.

It was an acceptable risk to him. Even if Rylan did hurt him.

He was more than a little relieved when Rylan stopped a split second before Micah would have been forced to block the knife.

“Rylan, you know me. You know yourself and you don’t want to do this.” He didn’t know if his words were even being heard.