Bonded To The Dysfunctional Alpha

Chapter 15: The Cell

Tyler’s POV

“Lock him up,” I said.

The words came out quiet and even and I meant every syllable of them.

Dylan struggled against the grip of my guards, his jaw tight, his eyes cutting to me over their shoulders with something in them that was past frustration now, past strategy, just raw and furious and slightly disbelieving, like he genuinely had not expected me to go this far, “you cannot do this, you have no right….”

“You lunged at my mate,” I said, “on my land, in front of my elders, so I think you’ll find I have every right.”

They moved him toward the door and Ryan stepped forward immediately, his voice loud and slightly frantic, “you can’t lock him up, he’s an Alpha, you can’t just, this is illegal, this is a violation of inter-pack law, you cannot…..”

I looked at Ryan slowly, “say one more word and you’ll be sharing the same cell with him, your choice.”

Ryan’s mouth opened then closed again.

The guards took Dylan out and the door shut behind them and the room exhaled, the elders already rising from their seats, exchanging looks heavy with everything they weren’t saying out loud yet, filing out one by one with the particular careful dignity of people who had witnessed something significant and needed time to decide what they thought about it.

Brandon was at my elbow before the last elder had cleared the doorway.

“A minute with you Alpha,” he said quietly beside me.

I followed him to the side of the room and he turned to face me, “Alpha, that was not a smart move.”

“He lunged at Sophie.”

“I know what he did, I was standing right here, but locking up another pack’s Alpha is not a small thing, the elders are already unsettled, and when the news gets out of here, both packs are going to read this as a war declaration, you could be pushing us toward a war we are not prepared for right now.”

“He came onto my land twice,” I said, and I kept my voice even because Brandon deserved that much, he was my Beta and he was doing his job and I understood what he was saying, “twice Brandon, and the second time he did it in front of the elders and lunged at my mate, if I let that go unanswered then every Alpha within a hundred miles reads it as weakness and the next person who wants something from this pack will walk through that door and take it.”

Brandon held my gaze for a moment, “I understand that Alpha, I do, I’m just telling you the cost.”

“I know the cost,” I said, “I’m paying it anyway.”

He exhaled slowly and nodded once, the nod of a man who disagreed but knew when the decision had already been made, and stepped back.

I turned around.

Sophie was standing near the window, her arms wrapped around herself, her back slightly toward the room, and she had been quiet since the guards took Dylan out.

She didn’t look at me immediately, just kept her eyes on the window, on whatever was outside it, and then she said quietly, “release him Tyler.”

“No.”

“Please,” she turned to look at me now and her eyes were steady but something behind them was not, “I know what he did, I was standing right there, I know he lunged at me and I know he has been impossible since this started, but he is still my brother, he is the only brother I have, and I cannot just stand here and leave him sitting in a cell like a criminal.”

“He acted like one.”

“Tyler….”

“Sophie,” I said, and I kept my voice gentle because this wasn’t about punishing her, none of it was about her, “Dylan walked onto my land twice, he threatened you, he threatened me, he stood in front of the elders and tried to dissolve a mate bond, and then he lunged at you, in front of witnesses, in front of every elder in this pack, and if I open that cell right now and send him home like nothing happened then he will come back a third time and a fourth time and it will never stop because he will have learned that there is no consequence for any of it.”

“I understand that,” she said, and her voice was strained at the edges now, “I understand all of it, but he’s my brother Tyler, whatever he has done he’s still my brother and I love him and I need you to hear me when I say I cannot just leave him there.”

I looked at her face and saw everything sitting in it, the loyalty and the frustration and the torn feeling of someone standing between two things they couldn’t fully choose between, and I understood it, I did, but understanding it didn’t change my answer.

“He stays,” I said quietly, “he needs to learn that this pack has an Alpha and that Alpha has a mate and both of those things come with consequences for anyone who doesn’t respect them, even if that person is your brother, Dylan needs to learn his place Sophie, and right now a cell is exactly where that lesson happens.”

She pressed her lips together and looked away, back to the window, her jaw working slightly, and I could see her wrestling with it, the loyalty pulling one way and everything else pulling the other, and I stayed beside her and didn’t try to fill the silence because there was nothing else to say right now that would make it easier.

She was frustrated and torn and I knew it, and I was sorry for the part of this that hurt her, genuinely sorry, but I was not releasing Dylan, not today, not until he understood what it meant to stand on my land and threaten what was mine.

Brandon caught my eye from across the room and gave me a look that said we would be talking about all of this again later, and I gave him a look back that said I already knew.