“There you go,” he gritted out, taking another lengthy drink of the cold beer before breathing out heavily.
The reaction might be a little too weird to suit him, but at least the beast seemed willing to sit back rather than aggravate the shit out of him.
Hell, he shouldn’t be here drinking. He should be with his mate. Touching her. Loving her. Doing as he’d intended and whispering his love to her, giving her the chance to realize that was what she felt for him as well.
He knew she did. He’d felt it on the way back to the hotel earlier that night. Like a pulse of heat she’d lost control of, burning through his heart, his soul, for the slightest second.
Just enough to make him hungry, greedy for more.
His chest clenched, and the animal jumped forward again as though to take complete advantage of the slight weakness.
Back the fuck off!
Nostrils flaring, tensing, he restrained the inner animal forcibly as he wondered if he should attempt to learn the cause of the genetics suddenly rising inside him.
But doing that would require scheduling a session with Dr. Morrey, the Lion Breed physiological specialist and Jonas’s little medical spy. And he didn’t trust her so well after she’d attempted to destroy Mercury.
Admittedly, she’d been drugged and not exactly working with a fully operational hamster wheel there, but still. It had happened. Rule was pretty sure he didn’t want to have to experience it himself.
As he finished off the beer and placed the bottle to the side with the other four empty bottles, his gaze was drawn to the Breed entering the establishment.
Lawe didn’t join him for a drink anymore, as he used to.
That mating bullshit, Rule thought angrily, as he had the vaguest impression of the Lion inside him snapping back at him angrily.
Go to sleep, prick.
Lawe’s blue eyes were narrowed on him, his expression thoughtful.
Catching the bartender’s eye, Rule gave a short little nod to indicate another order of the whiskey shots and beer he’d been drinking. Lawe pulled out a chair, sitting down before catching the bartender’s gaze as well and pointing to the four empty bottles Rule had set behind the shot glasses to indicate the beer he wanted.
Turning back to him, Lawe propped his arms on the table, leaning forward intently as Rule remained slouched back with all apparent laziness.
The laziness was an illusion. The animal inside him was growling, snarling, snapping furiously because he refused to seek out his mate. Refused to demand, to beg, whatever it took to ensure she didn’t walk away.
She’s mated to us, he reminded the creature absently. She can’t walk away.
As stubborn as she was . . .
Fuck. Another growl sounded, this one more dangerous than the one before.
Lawe lifted a brow mockingly. “Rule, have you considered the fact that there’s a high probability, as far as I’m concerned, considering your penchant for these little games you play, that you could be related to Jonas?”
Was he serious?
Rule glared back at his brother resentfully.
“Go to hell,” he grumbled, wondering seriously if Mercury had any of those instinct sedatives he’d once taken left in his possession.
Just that quickly his instincts settled back, making him wonder seriously if the animal genes weren’t somehow trying to detach into a separate personality.
...
Lawe scratched the side of his jaw, still watching his brother closely.
“What’s going on, Rule?” he asked quietly. “Why are you here rather than with your mate?”
Rule shook his head slowly before running his fingers through his hair in a gesture of irritation. “I needed a drink.”
Had he? Lawe watched him closely, still sensing that closed door to his brother’s thoughts.
“I can’t even sense when you’re lying to me anymore,” Lawe stated, pausing as the waiter brought their drinks.
Rule went for the whiskey first, tossing it back with a grimace and clench of his teeth as the fiery burn seared his insides.
Lawe’s gaze narrowed, following his hand as he placed the shot glass next to the four others sitting in front of the four bottles of beer he’d already consumed.
“What the hell makes you think I’m lying?” Rule snorted as though the statement were nowhere close to the truth.
“Gut instinct?” Lawe suggested. “I know you, Rule. You shut me out of your mind the minute you realized I’d found my mate. I appreciate the time it gave me to build boundaries around Diane, but I’d done that within weeks. You still won’t let me in, though. Why have you shut yourself off from me, Rule?” He finally asked the question Rule had to have known was coming.
Picking up the beer, Rule took several long, hard drinks before letting the bottle thump heavily back to the table.
Lawe’s gaze moved from the bottle, then back to Rule as he eased forward slowly, his tall, broad body moving in until his position was the same as Lawe’s. Arms folded on the table, leaning forward intently.
“Do you know why I closed that bond, Lawe?” Rule growled, the sound so animalistic, so filled with some unnamed emotion that Lawe nearly flinched.
“I’ve asked,” Lawe reminded him. “You’ve refused to tell me.”
“Would you enjoy knowing I sense your lust and hunger for your mate? Or that I sense your pleasure in her when you take her?”
Lawe straightened, barely holding back the shock and instinctive snarl of rejection that rose to his lips.
The chuckle that came from Rule was deep, dark, a mocking reminder that sometimes Lawe had suspected the link they’d established could possibly go deeper than he had thought where Rule was concerned.
“Don’t worry, brother,” Rule leaned back, a mocking curl to his lips that Lawe had never known his brother to turn on him. “That prick-assed Lion inside me made sure we didn’t spy on you. Besides, he was too busy pestering me with excuses to make trips out here to check up on my own mate.”
Lawe blinked back at Rule as he picked up his beer and finished it in one long drink.
Rule hadn’t been with him on that mission to track down the sister of Jonas’s mate. Lawe had gone in with Mercury, Dog and several other Bureau Enforcers to find Diane.
The second he’d caught the scent of the lone prisoner shackled in a dark, damp cell, he had known she was his mate. He’d known she was hurt, he had scented her tears. A second before his instincts, enraged by the affront of his mate’s tears, her pain, had been overcome with rage, he remembered that link snapping in place.
They rarely fought separately. He and Rule had always known that fighting together made them stronger. Lawe hadn’t known their link could reach across such distance until that moment, though. His brother’s strength had been his in that second. His control, his ability to restrain all emotion, to push back any weakness, had infused Lawe.
He’d felt Rule’s animal then as well. It had centered his own, holding it back with steely purpose as Lawe managed to lead his team in to rescue the woman whose scent wrapped around his soul and opened his heart.
The second, the very moment he’d had Diane in the heli-jet and the danger to her significantly decreased, the bond he hadn’t known was in effect the entirety of their lives was suddenly gone.
He’d known it was there when they faced danger, when their instincts reached out and combined, creating the fearsome warriors they had become. But until that moment, he hadn’t realized that he and Rule had never been completely separate entities.