Chapter 30 - A hard lesson learned

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---Max' POV---

The swelling of my bruised jaw and pain of my broken nose was nothing compared to the pain in my heart and soul. By the time that I had picked myself off of the floor of the store, Kyle had already dipped out the doors.

My wolf let out a pained cry in my mind as my heart clenched painfully. Fingers reaching up, the felt around on the swelling of my face and I hissed when I nudged my broken, bloodied nose.

"Fuck, that hurts." I hissed, feeling around and being forced to reset my nose before the fracture settled. And as I did, my stomach sank even more.

Because I remembered grabbing onto Kyle's wrist in a desperate attempt to halt him, to explain myself before he ran away.

It was very clear from the surgical scars and multitude of stitches that he had multiple surgeries done on his wrist and fingers. And even then, his wrist still looked crooked and abnormal at best.

"You did that..."

I swallowed thickly at my wolf's venomous snarl, without a means to defend myself because he was so right. I had let my emotions get the best of me, let rage cloud my senses as I had attacked my own mate.

"Don't. Fucking. Touch. Me." His voice echoed in my mind, the pure hatred and disgust clearly portrayed with his entire body language.

Feet approached and I looked up, surprised by the hostile aura of the wolf standing there. "Get out." Sneered the man, pointing at the doors. "I don't need anyone picking fights and harassing my employees here."

I wanted to point out that I hadn't meant to seek any fights, that I hadn't thrown the first blow... but, realized I had. Kyle's scarred wrist was the proof of that.

Wordlessly, I nodded and made my way past the wolf, who huffed and growled something about unwanted outsiders. I paused in the doorway, taking a whiff of the female behind the register and realizing she was human.

"I had to permission to come here from your boss." I stated before backing up in surprise when the man's eyes flared with annoyance.

"My boss is a nitwit not worthy his title. I'd advice against dropping Curtis' name around here, thinking you'll get favors. He only has a few loyal lackeys slinking around but even they know better than to go against the Council's orders."

The door slammed in my face as I paled, wondering what exactly Alpha Curtis had done to warrant a Council's inspection. Everyone had at least heard of the Council and respected them greatly.

To have one of Curtis' own pack members imply that their pack was under Council scrutiny was not a good thing. The Council wasn't known to just meddle in a pack's affair, but they would step in if they needed to.

As I wandered down the street, I stuffed my hands in my pocket, wondering what to do. I had already found it odd when I had been at Alpha Travis' pack, trying to find out where Kyle had gone off to.

Alpha Travis had been anything but forthcoming with information, stalling and crossing his arms at every moment. He had allowed me on his property at least but had also questioned me as to why on earth I was trying to find Kyle.

Why wouldn't I? He's my mate.

"Was. He used to be. Not anymore." My wolf whined pitifully, creating a frown on my face. As I tried to press further on the matter, my wolf refused to respond, huffing simply in annoyance.

That was, until I tried to reach for Kyle, to try and find that pure, primal energy in the back of my mind, where I knew the Mating link laid.

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