Unmarked Mates

Chapter 32: "Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst."

"Whatever," I say. "Keeping Danny away from Brandon is now important."

But both Alyssa and Aunty Mae seem to be worried.

"It won't be that easy," Aunty Mae says. "Danny is marked, so rejection now is impossible. Of course, we could try to burn his mark and serve the bond, but we don't know how it will affect both Danny and Brandon. I know you don't care about Brandon, but he will never just agree to risk like that. And the bond is beyond Alphas' power. Alpha can't order the rejection and force someone to burn his mark, and Danny doesn't have a wolf, so the decision will be up to Brandon." Aunty Mae says.

I stand up, clenching my fists; the fucking bastard will not get away with this; I won't allow it.

"And the official trial period for Alpha's candidates has started, so Natasha has no right to keep Brandon any longer detained because during the trial period, the candidates have sort of immunity, and this is the law. The trial started and also can't be postponed." Alyssa finishes.

"No fucking way!" I scream. Brandon can't walk free; he can't be so close to Danny.

"The same Julius said, but don't worry, Natasha has found a solution, at least temporarily, and that's why I'm here. We would like to move Danny to your house for the trial period. That way, he can get better and be away from his mate. During the trial, candidates are forbidden to leave the territory, so Brandon won't be able to come here. But we also can't send Danny far away also because of the trial period. Preston made an official complaint that depraving his son of his mate will weaken his wolf, and this can be seen as temperance with the results of Alpha selection."

"He for sure is trying everything he can to secure his son's position," I spit with hate, and none of them deny.

"Danny, stay here, Danny can stay with us," Pearl says suddenly, standing by the door. Ivory is next to her. I look at her, and she nods in agreement.

"Here is close enough that Brandon's wolf shouldn't get weakened too quickly, and we can provide him with Danny's scent, so Preston lost his leverage. Elders of the pack actually agreed with Natasha that trial or not, there is no law that states that mate has to see his other half if he doesn't want to." Alyssa finishes.

So the next couple of hours we spend preparing the house for Danny, it will be crowded, but that's not a problem. He will get the Jewels' room, which was originally my room, the Jewels will get my couch in the living room, and I can sleep on the floor in the kitchen.

I'm actually scared to see Danny, and I feel guilty. I got the hunch that something wasn't right, and I wasn't persistent enough to get to the bottom of this.

Danny looks tired and sad when Chen carries him inside the bar and later the apartment, Julius is with him, and he crawls all the way up the stairs, not giving me a single look. Chen puts Danny on the bed, and the boy hisses. His throat looks awful and is dark with bruising, but I clearly see the prints of fingers.

Julius gets himself sat in front of Danny and glances in my direction:

"I'm staying till the evening. You will not get me thrown away."

I don't try to argue with him as I walk after Chen into the kitchen when he speaks with Aunty Mae.

"Since it's a human territory, I can't dispatch here the warriors to protect you additionally," he says." But Julius for sure will stay here till late and if you don't mind maybe till morning. We will talk with Danny at the end of the week. We need to know all the details; Preston has already made a scene in Natasha's office."

"What the son of the bitch wants at this point!"

"Well, Brandon claims it's an accident, that he didn't mean to lose control, and the problem is, for now, we can only suspect that it wasn't the first time. He is trying to push the blame on Danny as much as possible. Well, I'll go now; if anything happens, I'm your first contact, okay?"