Marked

Chapter 41: A Fight

Kane and I had a long talk after he opened up to me about Krystal and some of the things his dad used to do to him. I realized there were so many things I'd inadvertently set off with him and I was determined for us to do better than that. I told him instead of getting pissed, he needed to tell me if I hit a nerve somehow so I could avoid it in the future or at the very least be sensitive about it. The conversation left me feeling like we'd made so much progress in just one night, I was so unbelievably happy.

That was why I was very confused when he came storming out of the house when we got back, so angry he was about to shift. He promised me he wouldn't get that way, but it didn't take me long to figure out the problem. Those dark eyes were glowing gold and fixed on one person. Dean.

Fair warning, Ben told Kane that Dean was being disrespectful to you and he is not happy, Kaden linked as he followed Kane out of the house, giving me a sympathetic smile.

Shit.

"Why the fuck am I hearing you're disrespecting your Luna?" He growled, stalking towards Dean.

This would not be pretty. Dean tensed but that's not all it was. He was hurting. He was hurting so bad I felt it and I wondered how fucking naïve Kane was that he didn't notice. I stepped between them right around the same time someone else showed up. A woman stepped in front of Dean in a defensive stance and while I was very curious who that was, I had my mate to calm down. I turned towards him and set my hands on Kane's shoulders, giving Ben a side-glance.

"Really, tattle tale?" I sighed, looking at Ben before addressing Kane. "Honey, breathe for me," I said, squeezing his shoulders. "He's fine. It's fine. We worked it out. There was a minor miscommunication but we're good now. Let it go."

"He can't disrespect you," he growled. "He's our fucking Beta, he above anyone else should know how important you are as a Luna. I won't just let that go, Tess."

"He's not disrespecting me," I assured. It certainly looked that way on the surface but it really wasn't even sort of about me. "What did we say?" I said, leaning closer to him and dropping my voice to keep the conversation between us as much as we could with all this damn werewolf hearing. "We said we would listen to each other, right? Listen to me," I said, setting my hand on his face. I'd be lying if I said I didn't immensely enjoy the way he relaxed under my touch, the way his eyes softened. "We had a miscommunication and we solved it. No one was at fault. Not even him. He and I worked it out, we're all good. There's no problem unless you count him being incredibly loyal to you as a problem. You said you would trust me to handle things without you when I had to, didn't you?"

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little worried about his response. He wasn't exactly good at flexibility but I knew he was trying. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath then turned his head towards my hand, pressing a kiss against it. When he opened his eyes they were so much calmer. Goddess, our little talk last night did give us so much more progress.

"Yes," he answered. "I did say that and I meant it. I just don't want anyone giving you trouble. I want your time here to be good."

He didn't have to explain further. I knew he was scared if this visit didn't go completely smooth, he would lose me. I promised him I'd be more understanding and patient and I wasn't going to break that promise.

"My time here has been just fine, honey," I assured him. "I get to burn a house down. How could it possibly be better?"

That actually managed to almost get a smile out of him. I decided if I could get a smile out of both him and Dean, I could get a smile out of anyone.

He relaxed and wrapped his arms around me. I hugged him tightly and turned us, wanting to make sure Dean was okay. When I turned us enough to see Dean over Kane's shoulder, I saw the woman was still there. She was still standing in front of him in a defensive stance and I couldn't help but notice the resemblance between them. They had the same nearly black eyes, a lot of the same features. Her hair was black like his but unlike Dean's hair, who was cut very short, hers was longer with tight ringlets. Mia. That must be Mia. Kane said they were twins and I could definitely see the relation. I was impressed with how she was willing to step in to defend her brother despite Kane's aggression. That took guts.