Bonded To The Dysfunctional Alpha

Chapter 17: Threat

Tyler’s POV

I was standing at the window in my office when I heard a loud commotion outside and the door burst opened.

Ryan stood amid three of my guards trying to shove him from not barging into my office.

I stared at him intensely before raising my hand to signal the guard to back off and they did.

Ryan stepped in like he owned the entire place.

He stopped in the middle of the room and straightened himself up, “I want Dylan released, today, right now.”

I looked at him and said nothing.

“He has been in that cell for long enough,” Ryan continued, his expression was cold, “ Tyler, what you have done here crosses a line that cannot just be ignored, Dylan is an Alpha and keeping him locked up on your land is going to cause a war….”

“Are you done,” I said.

Ryan stopped in surprise.

“Dylan will be released when I decide he is ready to be released,” I said, keeping my voice completely even, “not because you came in here and asked, not because you think enough time has passed, when I decide, and not a minute before that.”

Ryan’s expression shifted, something moving behind his eyes that was past frustration now, something colder settling in, and his voice dropped lower, “you need to think very carefully about what you are doing Tyler, keeping him here is going to start something that neither pack can afford right now, the rogues are already pushing at borders, both packs are stretched, and if you turn Dylan’s pack against you on top of everything else then you are going to find yourself fighting on two fronts and I don’t think you want that.”

I looked at him for a moment.

Then I stepped forward, closing the distance between us slowly and deliberately, and when I spoke I kept my voice very quiet because quiet was always more effective than loud when you needed someone to understand that you were not making a suggestion, “I’m going to say this once Ryan, if you value your freedom and your dignity you will lower your voice right now and remember exactly whose land you are standing on, because what just came out of your mouth sounded like a threat, and if the next thing that comes out of your mouth sounds anything like that again, you will be walking down to that cell yourself and joining Dylan, and I promise you will not be nearly as comfortable about it as he is.”

The room was very quiet.

Ryan looked at me and I looked back at him and neither of us moved for a moment, and then Ryan took a small step back, just one, small enough that he could probably tell himself it didn’t count, and looked away toward the window.

He didn’t say anything else.

He turned and walked out and the door closed behind him and I stood there and watched the space he had left blankly.

Brandon came in moment later, his eyes assessing the whole office before settling back to Mr.

“I heard Ryan came by.” He finally said and I nodded, turning my back to him.

“I think you have to listen to him and release Dylan,” Brandon said, and he knew me well enough to be accurate about it, “and I understand why you refused to bail him up but I want to know that , Ryan has always seemed like the smaller problem next to Dylan, but that man is patient and he calculates everything and if he makes any threat in this room, you know he’s not bluffing.”

I nodded slowly because Brandon wasn’t wrong and I knew it. Ryan backing down just now had not felt like someone who had given up, it had felt like someone who had simply decided this was not the right moment, and that was a different thing entirely.

“Keep watching him,” I said, “I want to know every move he makes while he’s on this land.”

“Already on it,” Brandon said, and then after a pause, “and Dylan?”

“Stay,” I said.

Brandon nodded and said nothing more about it.

Sophie found me not long after, coming through the door of my office with that look she had been wearing all day, the torn one, the exhausted one, the one that made something in my chest pull uncomfortably because I understood where it was coming from even if I wasn’t going to change my answer because of it.

“Tyler,” she said, and just the way she said my name told me exactly what she was about to ask.

“Not now Sophie,” I said quietly, “we will talk, I promise you that, but right now I need you to give me some space, just for a little while.”

She looked at me and I could see her deciding whether to push it or not, the moment stretching between us, and then something in her shoulders dropped slightly, not giving up exactly, more like choosing to save it for later, and she nodded once and turned and walked back out and pulled the door closed quietly behind her.