Chapter 134

Julian’s POV

I saw everything. Roman touching Amber’s face. Her reaching up to clasp his wrist. Roman leaning down to kiss her with the fireworks going off behind them.

Inside, something broke. The dam I had built to hold back the flood of possessive and aggressive feelings inside of me cracked straight down the middle.

Unable to stop myself, and mostly unwilling to, after seeing this man put his hands and his mouth on my mate, I surged forward through the crowd. Grabbing Roman by the front of his shirt, I yanked him away from Amber and then punched him square in the face.

Roman cupped his jaw a moment like he couldn’t quite believe what I’d done. But then, very quickly, she straightened, recovering, and seemed ready to fight back.

Good. I could use the exercise, and I’d finally have a decent target for all this pent up anger and frustration.

Yet, before another blow could be landed, Rafael pushed through the crowd.

“Roman!” Rafael said. “There’s no need for this. If you two want to fight, then do it the right way, through a challenge. Sort your differences out in the ring.”

“Julian,” Amber said, sounding like she wanted to say more, but I was beyond listening, even to her. Everything was tinted red and all I could really feel was my rage surging through my veins.

“The winner gets to pursue Amber romantically,” Roman said, increasing the stakes.

“Roman!” Amber said, scolding him now. When he didn’t listen either, not giving her more than a passing glance, she turned her rage on Rafael. “You have to stop this.”

“Why should I stop it?” Rafael asked. “It’s the perfect way for them to sort this out the werewolf way.”

“The loser has to back off of her,” I said to Roman, thinking only of keeping this man away from my family.

Roman’s eyes flashed red like mine. “Agreed.”

“It’s decided then,” Rafael said.

“This is ridiculous!” Amber said. “I get to decide who I accept romantically, and no challenge is going to change that.”

“The rules of the challenge dictate –” Rafael started.

“To hells with the challenge!” Amber shouted. “They might have agreed, but I didn’t. Only I can decide who I want, and right now, with how they are both acting, I don’t want either of them!”

Turning then, she grabbed Alice’s hand and pushed through the crowd, walking back to the ballroom in a sea of aquamarine skirts.

I wanted to follow her. I knew I should have. In my head, I knew the right thing would be to accept her words.

But the call of the challenge was instinctive inside of my werewolf bones. To back down now would be to forfeit my rights to pursue Amber, and make way for Roman to chase her as he wanted.

With that kiss… maybe she wanted that, maybe she didn’t.

But my possessive rage couldn’t allow me to back down and allow another male to come in. Amber was my mate. She and Alice were my family.

For their sake, for the sake of our future, I would fight in this challenge and I would win.

So I stayed, even after Amber and Alice left.

I glared at Roman as I asked Rafael, “As the judge, you decide the time and place.”

“Two days,” Rafael said. “Right here in my backyard. I will prepare the challenge circle. Rest and prepare, both of you. I expect great things from a challenge between two Alphas, as will the audience. As will Amber.”

I didn’t know if that was true. With how upset she seemed, I wasn’t sure she would even show up to the contest, let alone take sides.

Why would she kiss Roman?

The question ran through my mine again and again.

I didn’t have any answers.

I stayed at Rafael’s long enough for the challenge to be official, to learn the specific time and logistics of the fight. Then, with everything agreed, I finally left the house and returned to the hotel.

When I arrived there, Amber had already gotten Alice into her pajamas and tucked into bed. Amber had changed too, into sweatpants and a t-shirt. Her hair was still up though, her makeup still fully on.

She glared at me as I came in through the door, her arms crossed.

I had barely closed the door behind me, barely asked about Alice, when she stormed toward me, asking, “What the hell were you thinking?”

I wasn’t sure which part of the evening she was referring to. Honestly, tonight, I had made a lot of mistakes.

First was probably agreeing to go to this party at all, and everything dissolved from there.

“You are going to have to be more specific,” I said.

Her glare deepened into a full-on glower. “You accepted that challenge. Do you have any idea what this means? If you lose, Julian, Roman could have you leave Alice’s life forever.”

“That’s not going to happen,” I said.

She shook her head. “This is such a mess. How could you be so foolish? How could you punch him at all?”

The way she was digging into me brought my frustration flaring back. How could I punch him? Really?

“How could you kiss him?” I asked, equally as outraged as she was.

Between punching and kissing, punching seemed the less of the two evils committed tonight.

Though perhaps not, at least from her perspective. She was my mate, and I was suffering through possessive mating strain. Meanwhile, she was a more or less free woman. We were still mated, but she hadn’t committed to the mating bond. After sleeping with me, she had sneaked out. Clearly she didn’t feel the same way as I felt about her.

I tried to remember that, as she had no obligation to me, but it was difficult. She was the whole of my future, and to admit that I might lose her…

Especially to someone like Roman…

“I didn’t kiss him,” she said flatly.

Was she going to deny it? New outrage, new anger pumped through me. “I saw you.”

She shook her head. “He kissed me,” she said.

“That’s the same thing.”

“Not if I didn’t want him to!” she replied. “Think back. After seeing him, how did I act? Did I really seem like someone who would want Roman to kiss me? I got it into my head that we could be just friends, but I was just kidding myself. He’s always wanted more from me.”

She went from crossing her arms to wrapping them around herself, like in comfort now, instead of anger.

“I’m such an idiot,” she said quietly, mostly to herself.

“No,” I said. Her soft voice deflated my anger like a pin to a balloon. As my possessive anger dissipated, I could see things more clearly. The kiss, framed differently now, became more obvious an attempt at him to kiss her and her to back off.

“This is all my fault,” she said.

“No, it isn’t,” I said more firmly. “It’s mine.” As the anger cleared, the guilt flooded in. Gods, what had I done? Starting a challenge? Risking it all just over a fight?

She looked up at me, and anger wasn’t housed there as much as concern.

That concern, that focus, gave me the strength to be honest with her.

“Amber, I think there’s something wrong with me,” he said. “Since we were together, I’ve been so possessive… I looked it up. I think I’m feeling a strained mating bond.”

My perfect Healer mate knew right away what that was. A flash of recognition crossed her face and her eyes went a little wide. “Oh…” She shook her head. “This is just one more reason we shouldn’t be together.”