Unclaimed

Chapter Thirty-Two

Mark, Max, Grady and I were in the office while Lucas went to get Peter. Grady was sitting at his desk. Mark stood behind him, while Max and I sat on the couch. When Lucas and Peter entered, Max's hand gripped my elbow and he stripped the anxiety away from me before I had a chance to feel it.

Shades of purple and yellow covered Peter's swollen face. His bottom lip was swollen and split, poking out further than normal. He shook Lucas's hand off his shoulder and took a seat in front of Grady's desk. "Did you find me a new home?" he asked as he sat. It was impossible to tell by his face, but his voice sounded angry and defeated.

"We're working on it," Grady said tersely, "but we might have another option for you, something that could keep you here."

"You don't want me here." He let out a dry laugh, and then clutched his side with a groan. "You want to get rid of me. I touched what's yours, right?"

I watched Mark move a little closer to Grady and I wished that I could send Max to pull the stress from the Alpha who was doing his best to keep cool. "You did touch what's mine, but I'm willing to overlook it, provided you do a few things for me." Grady's eyes turned to me and I stiffened. "Come here. Talk to him. It's your plan," he said, smiling proudly at me. That's all he'd done for hours. Every time he looked at me, he grinned like I'd just cured cancer in front of his eyes.

I stood from the couch, motioning for Max to stay behind. Grady lifted himself from his chair, and pointed to it. It was strange to sit in the Alpha's chair, and felt wrong, but I scooted up to the desk and leaned closer to Peter. "I think you should talk to someone. There are therapists for wolves. There are some nearby, actually. I think you need help. You were so nice and funny when we met, and now you're spiraling out of control-"

"You-"

"No, I'm not done," I said, keeping my soft tone. "Grady- err... Alpha Grady wasn't going to make you leave, and he's not been able to find a pack that would take you in."

"I thought he was sending me to the pack you came from," he spewed with venom on his tongue.

"That's no longer an option."

His eyes appeared pained, but he smirked. "Because of you?"

"Exactly. I'm trying to save your life. Now do you want to be an asshole or not?"

"How are you going to save me, Charli? Look at my face!"

"Peter, I already saved you once this week. You might want to watch being so aggressive in the current environment." I looked around the room at the four men who were fiercely ready to protect me. All on edge, ready for Peter to make the slightest wrong move. "So, why don't we talk about how you're going to save yourself this time?"

"What does he have that I don't?" he whispered as he leaned nearer to me.

I sighed. "We're Fated. Do you know what that means?"

"No."

"It means we're meant to be mates. I don't really understand it either, but basically Grady and I would never have been able to resist each other. You didn't do anything wrong. It's just that from the second I met him, I couldn't possibly be attracted to you anymore, or anyone else."

His expression brightened slightly. "So you're the Luna now?"

"Not quite. Not yet, at least. How can we help you, Peter? How can we make the world more bearable for you? Are you struggling in some way?"

He gulped and looked up at Grady and Mark behind me, and then hung his head.

"Hey, why don't you guys give us a minute?" I whispered to the men standing behind me.