Chapter 5: Messy Family

Kaiser’s POV

“D o I look like a fool? Some weakling? You disrespected my mate last night, Kaiser. It’s like all this international travel has turned you into a spoiled little brat.”

My skin pickled, and my wolf bristled. I could feel his hackles rise as he pressed against the surface again. It was all I could do not to let him jump forward — and Brock was making it harder and harder to remember why I wasn’t just letting him take control so that he could end this intolerable situation once and for all.

I couldn’t, though. I couldn’t. If Uncle Gage had invited Brock to become a council member because he was going to support him, then the last thing I needed to do was lose control right in front of him, my stepfather. Then again, that was entirely too strong a word for what the man was. There was nothing paternal about him. He was just my mother’s shitty mate.

But it didn’t matter how I saw him. All Brock cared about was what he saw and, to a lesser extent, what my mother saw in him. If he really was working with my uncle, then they’d point to my shifting now as a sign of weakness. “Nic can’t teach his son right,” they’d say, or “See, this one is so unstable, that’s why he’s got Remus,” or “It’s a sign of weak lineage,” even though Gage and Nic themselves were full brothers.

Anything they could use to undermine my father, they’d use it — even if that meant using me. Whatever excuse they could find, they’d find it. That was just the kind of snake Brock was, and if Gage was associating with Brock, well, then I wouldn’t be able to trust my uncle as far as I could throw him. I always knew he’d been hard on Myles and Gordon, but —

“Do you hear me, Kaiser?”

Ancestors, is he still talking? My eyes flashed, and I peeled back my upper lip in a snarl.

“Yes, I hear you,” I growled. I knew that was dangerous, but…I simply didn’t care. Brock was an asshole, but compared to the Raven Brothers or that Dr. Brenner, who Claire and Agent Foxrun had told us about, he was just a run-of-the-mill dick. He might have been the monster that haunted my nightmares as a little boy, but I wasn’t a child anymore — I’d met real monsters now.

You aren’t shit, Brock.

I took a deep breath and dug up every ounce of outrage and aggravation currently festering in my wolf’s body. “I just do not give a fuck about what you think I did or didn’t say to my mother last night. I have bigger problems right now.”

Brock’s expression pinched. The flash of bewilderment across his face was one of the most satisfying things I’d seen in ages. “Excuse me?” he asked as if he couldn’t bKaisereve I would ever find my spine and finally tell him off.

That thought just stoked the flames of rage higher and higher. I tensed and felt the trickle of red at the edges of my vision. “You heard me,” I snarled. “I don’t answer to you or Viola. I don’t care what you want and what you think I did or didn’t do. You’ve made up some delusion anyway.”

A low growl rumbled from the older man’s chest. He stood up a little straighter. I could sense his wolf pressing closer to the surface too. It was the same sort of tension you might notice between two dogs snapping at the edges of the leashes. Barely restrained. One false move, and…

“You will not disrespect me or my mate like that.”

I rolled my eyes. “You keep saying that,” I retorted, “and yet here I am.” It was like I’d totally lost control of my mouth. I was an entirely different person — and I didn’t care. On some level, it felt good. I knew this was dangerous — I knew Brock would be righteously pissed, and I had plenty of experience of what happened when Brock hit that level of anger — but I couldn’t stop myself.

It was as if I had been waiting to do this since the very moment I’d met Brock Beckett. All the pressure was finally beginning to release, but now that I’d popped the valve and started the process, I felt like I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to stop.

“You aren’t a pack alpha if not for my father, boy,” Brock sneered, taking a menacing step toward me. He probably meant it to be, at least. All I could see was a man scrambling for control of a situation that he never held in the first place.

“You aren’t shit. You’re just a sad boy with a sad father, and the only reason I put up with you is because Viola asked me so nicely all those years ago.” I snorted, baring my teeth.

“You aren’t shit, either,” I snapped back. “Just a sad man who makes himself feel big by pushing around those smaller than him. You better enjoy your time on the council while you can, you shifty little weasel. I won’t stand for bullies or liars on my council when my father transfers leadership of the Longbow Pack to me.”

I should have stopped there. I knew I should have — I could feel it in the air. It was as if I was standing next to myself, watching the entire situation unfold in slow motion as I braced my shoulders and told this asshole off. “You aren’t just going to be kicked off the council,” I rambled on. Even my better senses were starting to raise the alarm. Kaiser, stop it! My best senses screamed at the rest of me.

But I didn’t want to. I couldn’t. I’d ripped this floodgate wide open, and there was no putting the river back now that the dam had been broken. “I’m going to banish you from the fucking pack, you monster.” Red began to spill into my vision again.

Brock roared and lunged forward with two massive steps, closing the distance between us in the time it took me to blink. Before I could inhale or fully summon up my alpha powers, he had his fingers around my neck. He threw me back against the wall, my skull hitting the thick oak with a heavy thud. I briefly felt dizzy from the impact, and some part of me insisted I should be terrified — but I wasn’t. Even if I wanted to be, I couldn’t conjure up that sensation. I felt a void, even as the man squeezed his fingers and pressed his face merely inches from mine, baring his teeth. He was only moments away from shifting to his wolf form. I could sense it.

My own beast snarled back.

“You don’t get to threaten me, boy,” he hissed.

Little drops of spittle coated my face.

“You don’t own me, Brock.” I clenched my fingers into fists and grinned at him, wearing my wolf’s smile. “Fuck off and eat glass.”