True Wolf (Bennett Pack #3)

3. Zion

CHAPTER THREE

ZION

I sensed my brother as soon as he walked through the door. Xander was the last person I wanted to see at the moment. Which was why I came out here to our property in the woods where my brothers and I owned two hundred acres.

The cabins we kept out here were custom and lavish. Mine was the most exclusive while Xander’s was the largest. He wanted space for me and Lazar even though we had our own and Lazar’s was the smallest, always the minimalist amongst the three of us.

Coming out here instead of our building in the city was intentional. I wanted privacy from my brothers, especially Xander.

Fuck him and his scrutiny!

Get out of my house -Me

No - Xander

And while you’re at it, get the fuck out of my head -Me

Before my brother could respond, I blocked the link so he couldn’t communicate with me. But that did little to prevent him from stepping out of the back of my house onto the deck where I had been since returning home hours ago.

“I warned you.” Xander’s tone was empathetic when I expected sarcasm. Regardless, I didn’t want to fucking talk to him.

“Why are you here, Xan? I’m not in the mood for your shit.”

“I’m here because you need me.”

I snorted, lifting the bottle of cognac to my mouth, swallowing several large gulps before I slammed the bottle down on the wood railing. “Go home to your wife and your son. They need you, I do not.”

Anger. That was what I felt. I wasn’t angry with Xander. None of what happened over the past three months was his fault. Well aside from his role in starting the domino effect of bullshit that was currently my life. He brought Keerah to our pack. I mistakenly believed she belonged to me. I now knew better.

Hours had passed since she rejected me and I felt nothing. I kissed her and felt nothing. Even now, hundreds of miles separated me from my so-called fated mate and I felt nothing. I didn’t want her, desire her, or miss her. I was wrong.

That much I could accept but how the fuck had I been so wrong? The confusion was what I couldn’t wrap my brain around. There was a science to these things. The moon gods were intentional. They were never wrong.

How the fuck could I have been so wrong?

“It makes no sense but we will figure it out.”

He stepped beside me and I swung my head in his direction, anger laced in my expression because he obviously tapped into my thoughts.

Xander only smiled. “I’m not in your head. You blocked me but…” He grabbed the bottle from my hand, turned it up, and extended it back to me when he was done. “You’re my baby brother. I know you better than you know yourself. I don’t have to have access to your thoughts to know what they are.”

Xander turned his back to the railing to balance his weight against it while he faced me. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you were wrong.”

“Why? Don’t like sharing, brother?” I growled.

He smirked. “I’ve shared women before. With both you and Laz. I have no feelings one way or another about you being with Keerah.”

“Yet you’re glad I’m not.”

“I don’t give a damn about you fucking her. I did and I enjoyed the time we spent together. She’s talented in a lot of ways.” My brother grinned arrogantly. I glared and his smile expanded before he stated irrefutably, “She was not meant to be your mate, Zion.”

“You were with her. You thought enough of Keerah to bring her into our pack.”

“She’s a good person and so am I. She needed a home. People she could trust. Our parents vowed to be that for lone wolves, rogues, and outcasts. We took over in their absence, so yes, I brought her to our pack. However, not with the intention of either of us mating with her. I never would have. That’s not how things were between us nor would they ever have been. Being a good person doesn’t qualify her as the role of your mate, Zion. Trust me, I know more than anyone.”

“Such a good person but you made her leave.”

“That’s not what happened. She left of her own free will. Keerah is smart. She understands the natural order of things. After how things went down between all of us, there was no way for her to truly fit in here.”

He was right.

“But she’s not the problem, Zion. You’re not angry with me because you think I made her leave, you’re not upset because I fucked her and you didn’t…” He smirked before his expression turned serious. “You’re angry because of who you thought she was and who you know she isn’t.”

Again, he was right.

“I didn’t want a mate.”

“No, you didn’t, not before you assumed you had one. That feeling is indescribable. The way it consumes you, makes you feel whole when you hadn’t realized you were empty, is hard to ignore. I know what it’s like to experience that pull and I also know what it’s like to not have it anymore.”

“I’m fine,” I gritted, lifting the bottle and turning it up but before the liquor bypassed my lips, Xander yanked it from my hand and hurled it out into the woods beyond my porch.

“What the fuck, Xan? That was a hundred-dollar bottle.”

“I’ll pay for it. You’re done with this shit. You want to get lost in something? Find a replacement. A very soft and sexy replacement. Not that.” He pointed to the bottle. “Maybe it will help you erase the memories of what you thought you lost.”

I smirked. “You haven’t tried to push me toward getting laid since I was a kid.”

“You were sixteen. You weren’t a kid.”

“Young enough.”

“And I didn’t push you. I made it possible for you to have access because I was sick of you crying about that damned woman.”

I glared at him. “I wasn’t crying.”

He arched his brow and my eyes narrowed more. “The fuck, Xan, I wasn’t crying.”

“Close, she broke your tender little heart, Zi.”

“And you offered me several very eager women who were determined to piece it back together for me. Much like you’re doing now. I suppose your answer to all things is pussy.”

“Not all things, but with this, yes. Now go get dressed. Jo planned something to welcome you home and if I don’t have you there by seven both Jo and Toyin are going to be on my ass. Jo’s been worried sick about you. If you don’t show, she’s going to be crushed and Laz is going to be pissed.”

“I don’t give a damn about Laz being pissed but I do care about getting on Jo’s bad side. That’s a scary place to be.” I grinned and he laughed.

“Insinuating our Luna is scarier than the Alpha is a scary place to be.”

“Yeah, don’t tell your brother I said that or he will be the one crying.”

“I’ll keep that one to myself.” Xander smiled smugly.

I turned to walk away but Xander caught my arm to stop me. After a long pause he grabbed me into a hug. “I’m glad you’re home, Zion, and I apologize for leaving the way I did.”

I hugged him back and pulled away. “You already apologized.”

“I did but now I truly understand what that was like for you.” His eyes met mine, communicating how me shutting him out the past three months made him feel. I nodded and walked inside with the knowledge that my brother and I had a new understanding. No more leaving for any of us.