Adopted By My Step Brothers

Chapter 32: Act Of Love

I look over at Kingsley again who's now staring at Ariel. He and I both hated how she took to this guy the way that she did. She deeply cared for him and this fact alone could give Kingsley a reason to throw him out of the pack to go back to wherever he came from. Even though we both knew Ariel wanted him to stay with us. "You can go now." I told Theodore since Kingsley was having a silent battle in his head. He was upset with Ariel but she didn't even notice. She glanced over him as a mother would do a child, inspecting him to make sure he didn't have any cuts or bruises. Theodore nodded his head as in farewell to us and turned away. Ariel watched him walk for a moment with her arms folded, before looking at Kingsley.

"You didn't have to hit him" she sounded as if she was defeated. Like she had no energy to get angry at him. "He's going through a lot right now and he has no one. He's alone, just like I was at one point." She tried to reason with Kingsley. I folded my arms behind my back and glanced at my brother. He was going to react one or two ways. He was going to get angry at her and throw his dominance around, or he was going to completely shut down.

"He shouldn't have touched you." Kingsley stated simply. He wasn't angry. "Make sure it doesn't happen again." He demanded while giving her a hard look. When she nodded he turned and walked away from us both. I knew it. He was going to shut down now. On all of us.

Ariel let out a deep breath and hugged herself. "So what now? He's angry with me for this? For caring about someone who basically saved my life?" She huffed. She was immediately affected by Kingsley's emotions. This alone made me want to turn around and go make Kingsley see things my way so this wouldn't hurt Ariel. A few more punches in his jaw would do him some good because he clearly was still thinking for himself. The sooner he realized how we react to things will always affect our mate the better things will be. My brother can be very selfish sometimes because of his Alpha position, he felt he should and will get everything he wants. If things didn't go his way, then they weren't going to go, at all.

"I understand you care for your friend." I kept my voice calm while speaking to my beautiful mate. The last thing I wanted to do was make her angry at me. She needed me and I needed her. We waisted too much time fighting with her for me ever intentionally do it again. "But Theodore is a man and so are we. How can you expect us to like seeing another mans hands on you?" I stood closer to my mate and placed my hand on her cheek. I pressed down on her chin with my thumb and her lips slowly parted. "You are mine, aren't you?" I asked her while dipping my head down and placing a kiss on her pink lips. She closed her eyes for a second and kissed me back. The low moan I heard from the back of her throat was just enough to make me want to take her home and have my way with her. "I'm yours." She smiled when I ended the kiss. "Alright then, come on." I took her hand and lead her away from village. "Where are we going?" Her curious eyes looked up at me. I told her nothing and gave her hand a squeeze.

I led her past the pack house and I felt Kingsley watching. I looked toward the house and saw him standing at Eleanor's favorite window.
'Get your shit together, for her.' I mind linked him. Kingsley nodded at me from the window and I continued with Ariel. As I said before, we hurt her enough. These petty arguments were not needed. I was not asking my brother to be a pussy and let Ariel do what she wanted, but he needed to learn how to
be reasonably vocal about how he felt. You can't get through to Ariel by being controlling and hard on her. She understood things quite alright when I took the time to actually explain things to her. Kingsley didn't fully grasp that fact about our mate just yet. That all you have to do is talk to her, explain how you feel and she will get it. She always did.

My guilt hit me as I thought about my brother. I wasn't a hypocritical man but right now I was doing the opposite of what I was trying to teach Kingsley. Our mate was an understanding one yet I was keeping what happened to me when I was held captive a secret from her right now and I didn't want her to know. She was so innocent, I didn't want the images of what I saw to be in her mind but she wanted to know. If I believed my mate to be the strong, understanding woman that she was then I should be okay with telling her why I am actually terrified to give in to my instincts and drink her blood.