ACCEPT REJECT

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

¿ACCEPT? ¿REJECT?

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CARMINE POV

“GABRIEL! LET HER GO! PUT HER DOWN NOW!” I yelled at my brother. Now I am going to have to see if there is a way to calm him down, with our father not here to manage him. I guess maybe I will be set for a fight.

“GABE! Gabe, you need to calm down. I need to check on her. Do you want to go to your bedroom or your office? And I will come see you soon.

Suddenly, his breathing picks up again, but this time I have his attention on me. I watched his jaw continue ticking.

Through his gritted teeth he begins. “That’s what started this! There is freeking lock on my bedroom door!” His posture doesn’t reflect his tone, so I’m thankful for that. None-the-less, he is still huffing, still angry.

"The lock was put on there to keep any male staff members from needing to be on the floor. I have been staying in the guest house. Missy was being treated by Daphne, and she suggested we keep the floor for her while she was in heat," I explained.

“Why is she here?” Gabe asked. Now his tone was not quite so aggressive. “Well, I found her near the border, when I was on my way home from visiting the pack from the far north, dealing with their Alpha issues,” I said, taking notice of his body language. It seems he has calmed quite a bit.

So, I continued, “She was beaten and broken, dumped. I’m not even sure how long she had been there when I picked her up.” His face changed, now his anger was based around his disdain for her treatment.

“She has been here for a couple of weeks now. She also has amnesia. We call her Missy, but that is only because no pack seems to know her. She didn’t present herself with a rogue scent, but who knows. Then we find the poor thing has a mate, and he has left her with an incomplete acceptance, so she feels every time the jackass gets with another, she-wolf.” I finished, making sure he realised just how much she has had to endure, and his behaviour won’t help the situation.

Just then he grunted, then huffed, before he started stomping around. “Okay, go see if she is okay, then have her have lunch with us, then I can apologise, I will help you find where she is from, and I would happily beat the ever-living s**t out of the asshole who could do that to her!” Gabe looked almost calm, if it wasn’t for the fact we are twins, I wouldn’t know how much he is simmering right now.

That is something we both got from our father. He does not approve of treating women badly.

“Honestly, man, if she didn’t have a mate, I would have said that she was definitely a rogue, but she was well looked after, it seemed.” I told him as I left the room.

I found Missy in the den, with a book in her lap, looking minorly disturbed. “I am sorry about Gabe, Missy. I didn’t think he was going to be home until next weekend, but he got home early. His behaviour is not excusable, and he is very regretful,” I say to her.

Her face rose towards me, taking me in, and nodding at my words. “I…. I…. I’m s… s…. sorr….sorry, I didn’t m…. m…. mean to u….up…. up… upset him.” Her words said with sniffles and small sobs.

“Hey, don’t worry about him, he can be the scary one out of the two of us,” I started, with a chuckle in my voice. “Besides, I am the good-looking one, he can’t have that role.” I finished, her smile making me feel better, and she even managed a chuckle.

“I didn’t know you had a twin. In all our conversations you didn’t say you were twins, just that you had a brother. I wondered what was wrong with you?” she said, the worry etched across her face.

“I didn’t?” I asked, sure that I had, but thinking back, I don’t think I actually did. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to cause him to be upset.” Her words said with such honesty.

“Like I said, don’t worry, now it’s almost lunchtime, Gabriel would like us to join him so that he can apologise to you,” I said, feeling happy that she was more settled.

Then I noticed her seeming to withdraw back into herself. I don’t want her to feel insecure around Gabe, he is not usually so quick to jump and attack, especially when there is a woman involved.

“Can I go shower and change before lunch?” she asked, almost as if she needed permission.

“Of course, go, I will see you in the dining room at noon.” I said to her, smiling and giving her hand a squeeze as I left her in her room and made my way back to my brother, to see if he knows why the hell, he behaved like he did.

* * * * * * *

I found Gabe in his office, his hair a mess, like he had been running his hands through it. When I entered the room, I closed the door behind me.

"Hey man, nice to have you home. Didn’t expect you till next week. Did you finish your mission early, or are you on a shift change?" I needed to see if I could work out what was up with him without triggering him. Not such an easy task, my brother got the short temper out of the two of us.

He looked me over with an unusual expression on his face. “Where did she come from? I mean where? Tell me?” He was now becoming a little agitated, so I looked at him. With a calm tone I began, “Okay, Gabe, I told you before where I found her. I don’t know where she came from, just that she was in a bad way, and I bought her back to the hospital for Daphne to help her.” Watching his face he almost looked lost.

“Gabe, what’s up? Why did you react to her the way you did? You’re never like that with a she-wolf!” I said, being honest with him.

“I don’t know, she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I can’t believe that some wolf could do that to a she-wolf, so I behave like a complete neanderthal as I did. I feel awful. I need to apologise to her. Even Grunt isn’t talking to me, I have to fix this,” he pleaded.

Gabe and his wolf have always been close, so this would be hurting him deeply. The last time Grunt gave him the silent treatment was when we lost our mate. I don’t want to see that pain in him anymore, he was in a very dark place.

“She will be down in the dining room at noon for lunch, so I guess we should get your door sorted, then you can shower and change in time for lunch.” He nodded and followed me to his room.

The situation now all sorted, I made my way down to the guest house to gather my things and move back to my room.

I had just pulled the door shut behind me and started walking up the path to the house when I heard Gabriel roar, his Lycan taking over, I can feel it through our bond, he is definitely a little unstable at the moment. Then it came. *SCREAMMMMMMMMMMM* That made me run.