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“I never said I owned you,” Colt replied, clenching his jaw to stop from yelling at the stubborn man, but it didn’t work. “It’s like you don’t give a shit that you frightened me!”
Colt pressed his lips together when a police cruiser rolled to a stop next to them. Deputy Cannon Lowery put on his red-and-blue lights as he slid the passenger window down. “Everything okay, fellas?”
Milo walked over to the passenger side. “Would it be a problem to drive me into town?”
“Are you fucking serious right now?” Colt shouted.
Cannon got out and walked around the hood of his car, his hand resting on the butt of his gun like he meant to intimidate Colt. “What’s going on here?”
“My mate and I were having a discussion.” Why in the hell couldn’t he chill? Why was his anger riding him so hard? Just because Milo was being unreasonable didn’t mean Colt had to be the same way.
“Maybe you need to calm down instead of scaring him, Colt,” Cannon snarled. “Is this how you treat your mate?”
“Can you please just take me into town?” Milo asked from behind the lion shifter. “I’m going to be late for work.”
Cannon narrowed his eyes at Colt. “I normally wouldn’t interfere with mates, but I think you need some time to cool off.” He opened the passenger door for Milo to slip inside. The deputy glared at Colt then got in his cruiser and drove away.
Colt stood there stunned. Couples argued all the time, but he hadn’t said anything to scare Milo. He’d just told his mate how he felt...in a loud voice.
Storming back to his truck, Colt jumped in and called Kellen as he pulled onto the road, following behind the cruiser.
“Did you find him?” Kellen asked when he answered.
He told his brother what happened. When Kellen didn’t reply, Colt asked, “Did you hear me?”
“Go back to the house,” Kellen said in a tight voice. “I’ll stay in the parking lot of the grocery store and talk to Milo when he gets here.”
“What in the hell did I do wrong?” Colt demanded, his head starting to throb. His tone might have been loud, but he hadn’t said anything out of line to Milo.
“He was scared and lashing out, dumbass. Instead of deescalating the situation, you jumped down his throat.”
“I apologized to him for yelling,” Colt argued.
“And then you tried to force him to see your point.” Kellen sighed. “You’re twice his size and intimidating as fuck, Colt. If Milo gets pissed, he’s not very frightening. If you get pissed, it’s like staring up at a tsunami baring down on him.”
“You think I’d hurt him?” Colt was taken aback. He was the one who’d wanted to knock Kellen’s block off when he thought his brother had hurt Atlas. The thought of touching Milo while he was upset had never crossed Colt’s mind. The human was his mate, and although Colt was pissed, he would rather shoot himself with Cannon’s gun than raise a hand to Milo.
“I know you wouldn’t hurt him, Colt. But Milo hasn’t known you for long, so he isn’t as confident that you won’t physically lash out,” Kellen replied. “Still, it is strange that his reaction was so strong. What aren’t you telling me?”
Colt pulled over right before he entered the town limits, watching as the cruiser turned a corner and was gone. Every instinct in him wanted to follow and demand his mate come home with him. His wolf was going apeshit to get to the guy.
He told Kellen about Milo’s attack.
His brother cursed. “That’s why he stopped texting you. It had to have happened sometime Monday. You said he worked that day. I doubt he walked home in that condition. Does he live with anyone, or maybe someone came by to see him once he was home?”
“I don’t have a clue,” Colt replied. “When I asked who hurt him, he wouldn’t answer me.” He closed his eyes. “You have no idea how badly I want to kill the person, Kellen.”
“You were taken back to our childhood,” Kellen surmised, his voice low, as if he was back there, too.
“Yes.” Colt struggled to breathe. “We know that fear and pain, lived through it for nearly a century and half. Just the thought of someone beating him, of someone making my mate live through that kind of fear kills me.”
“The cruiser just pulled up.” Kellen cleared his throat, as if pulling himself out of the past. “Let me speak to Milo. We’ll talk when I get home.”
After Kellen hung up, Colt rested his forehead on the steering wheel, missing Milo so badly that he wanted to cry. His mate hadn’t been the only one lashing out in fear, but Colt was the protector, the one Milo looked to for safety, and Colt hadn’t given his mate the one thing he’d needed in that moment.
I’m fucking worthless.
* * * *
