CHAPTER 2 - BLAST IT!

One year and some months later………………

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-VALEN’S POV-

"Enough, Vaheed!"

We tumbled out of the back door of the bar into the drenched, cold, drab alley and landed in a pool of water. Rolling around in a tussle on the hard urban street, we aimed to score a blow once one of us took the top position in the struggle. Unbothered by the chilly night’s drubbing rain, our wrestling prolonged through the commotion of our wrath.

Quickly, I flicked upwards to land on my two feet, while Vaheed was on his back. My soaked abalone button-front shirt clung to my sinewy body, missing a few buttons. My hands automatically cleared the curtain of dripping black strands from my face, tossing the long hair slick back. The steady shower that doused the two of us could not extinguish the enmity between us.

“I don’t want to fight you!” I hated raising my fist against him and I watched him rise to his feet, glaring at me with contemptuous harlequin green pair of eyes.

He wasn’t drunk, but he was not thinking straight either. I never thought I’d live to see the day that my younger brother of two years would look at me venomously. Though his medium-length black hair covered past his eyes, my eyesight pierced through to see the reflection in his orbs. The green in them disappeared, leaving only flames.

“Will you calm down?” I encouraged because I truly desired to end this fight.

“Go and fuck yourself!” He snarled. The anger in him built like deep water currents.

Drawing his arm back, Vaheed drove his fist into my nose. My head flew as my eyes locked on the sky. I stumbled back. My left foot slid on the pavement and I braced the heel of my sneakers against the rough ground. Raising my hands to cover my nose, my eyes squeezed shut. As my head jerked forwards, my nose throbbed and I scowled at Vaheed over my fingers. He was progressively pushing for a hardcore ass-whooping.

"Reject her!" He shouted with heavy breaths.

"Never!" I wrestled to keep my wrath at bay, so I took a step back to show that I was giving him the emotional space that he ought to take. Once I shifted, it would be over for him, since my Alpha wolf would tear him apart for his disrespect to his superiority.

Enraged, he bared his teeth and lunged at me. "How could you take her away from me? You of all people!"

Defensively, I covered with my arms and forearms up and in front of me. “She wasn’t yours to begin with. Let's talk instead of fighting!”

Lowering my hands. Before his next move, I took a stride forward, pulled my left leg back, and struck out. With a solid crunch, my instep slammed into Vaheed’s shin. He yelped, lifting his right knee off the ground and lowering his head as he leaned forward. Seizing the back of Vaheed’s head with my fingers, I forced his skull down and rammed my knee upwards into his face.

The blood that oozed was washed from his face by the cascading rain. He staggered and lost his balance, and when his body rotated he fell on his tummy into another puddle of dirty water that splashed into his face. “Pfft.” He spat both blood and water from his mouth. For only two seconds, he lay there before getting off his stomach and standing again.

Vaheed whistled and charged at me once more. A low growl escaped me. His eyes were two cold black abysses with faint lines of dark veins popping up vines around his eyes.

I dodged each blow successfully. Rabidly, he tackled me. Trying not to do any real damage, I shove him off every time. He swung a powerful right, I met him halfway and struck out with my own right. My punch was faster and connected with his mouth. He spat blood and wiped his lips with the back of his hand as we stared at each other. We were at it for a while.

Though he chose to unleash his pent-up anger on me. The alcohol in his system and the strumming emotions beat him into rapid exhaustion. He rarely drank, but I supposed he felt the need to numb his sentiments into several bottles of bourbon. With half of his energy depleted, he was before me in a half-kneeling position before he sprang at me with tireless determination.

The cloudless tar-black sky wept as lightning ripped across its gloomy disc. While our combat prolonged, the downpour became heavier, splattering on us, and puddles plinked in the dark abandoned alley. The mighty patter of water on our shoulder blades soused our attire, entirely. He was the main reason I had to stand in this pelting waterfall.

Although, I prefer we settle the altercation out here instead of the centralized area of our pack where we lived. Since Mom and Dad would have gotten involved to break up this dispute. They would be incredibly dissatisfied with our actions and would chastise us severely. However, Vaheed needed this to get the anger and hurt from his system and move on to prepare himself for his own mate. The outcome was predetermined by fate. All wolves had mates.

“You don’t even love her.” He accused with an aggressive stance, pushing against me as I reinforced my posture, unmoving.

“Of course, I do. She’s my mate.” I demolished his argument. The hair on the back of my neck bristled. No one could have loved her more. I would remind him a million times if I had to.

“You haven’t told her and you ignored her for years.” Sneering, he supported his previous statement. “You gave her the cold shoulder. How is that love?”

“Shut up, Vaheed,” I warned, and delivered two palm blows on his chest that forced him to retreat. He was oblivious to a lot that I did or endured which was a secret to me.

“Does Dad know?” His gaze challenged me as he cocked an eyebrow. “What about Mom?”

“Apart from Devin, you are the second one to know,” I admitted. I had my reasons for not broadcasting it.

Yesterday was Vaheed’s birthday. He's been crushing on Raina for as long as everyone knew. Mom planned a grand party at the pack house for him. Sadly, he had a bad celebration when he realized there was no mate bond between the two of them. Disappointed and hurt, he shut down and didn't want to talk to anyone.

Depressed, he drove away in his car. My bald eagle guardian, Zuzu, tracked him, which allowed me to follow him to an old bar miles away from town. There he sat on a stool around the pecan wood counter drowning in liquor.

We spent the next day as brothers hanging out. I hated seeing him disheartened. So, I waited until today, to tell him that she was my mate. Now he expected that, for the sake of our sibling bond, I should reject Raina and let him have her.

It was like this, they were around the same age and he had a thing for Raina while she liked me. Her interest was something that I worked on keeping and there was no way in hell that I would break the mate bond with her. For the record, they were not a couple. Hence, we will iron this out here and now.

The rain was incessant. Like bracken pods in a bush fire, it snapped and crackled. There did not appear to be anyone around to stop the floodgates that had been unleashed in the tenebrous sky. Sprouting out thunderous water gouts and thunking bubbles of sopping liquid.

“Why did it have to be you?” He asked stiffly and was evidently still not on terms with the fact that he could not have her.

"It’s destiny,” I replied firmly. “Anyways, the choice will be Raina's to make." My wolf and I refused to deny the mate bond. However, if Raina actually loved him and wanted to reject me, as much as it would kill me, I'd want her to be happy. But it has to be her choice, not mine. Simply because I loved her.

"MINE!" My wolf growled his disagreement. He was adamant about keeping our mate and honoring the bond. I understood his resolve.

We'll just have to wait to see what happens when Raina turns eighteen in a month. Although it was pretty clear that it’s time to get rid of my little brother.

The wind-driven rain poured thunderously, which did not stop Vaheed from taking me into this ridiculous brawl that he could not win.

"I love her." He gritted with tears in his eyes.

"I know, but she's not meant to be yours." I defended in an intimidating tone.

Vaheed won't relent. He swung another fist at me. I caught it. My fists cluttered on his face and I put a hole in his stomach.

We are both Alpha bloodlines from the same parents who are the werewolf king and queen. I'm the crown prince with a bald eagle and a white lion guardian. Therefore, I have exemplary abilities. Because of that, I’ve known she was my mate since I turned thirteen. Most wolves find their mates at age eighteen. It wasn’t easy to stay away from her and that’s the main reason that I kept busy by traveling out and assisting with pack alliances.

"Fuck you, Valen." Even my wolf was getting riled up by Vaheed's disrespect. I sent him flying backwards into the graffiti brick wall behind him.

"Vaheed, please listen to reason.” I pleaded.

I watched him swoon over her for seven years. It was torture for me. Outwardly, I patiently waited for my brother’s eighteenth birthday with the hope that once he acknowledged that Raina was not his mate, he’d do the respectable thing to give up on her. Inwardly, I fizzed with anxiety and anger, even jealousy.

"You're partly to be blamed. You should have told me two years ago that she was your mate. Instead, you let me fall deeper in love with her." He spat, marinating in resentment. Though he was heartbroken, he kept coming at me. "You let me be the fool who was in love with his brother's mate."

Probably, this was why he thought that I did not want her. He couldn’t be more wrong. I craved for her but she’s seventeen, while I’m twenty years old. She does not feel the intensity of the mate bond the way I do. Watching her from a distance wasn’t much of a choice. It was a necessity to minimize the effect that she had on me.

This fight was preposterous. Earlier, I had permitted him to vent with his fists. But now I was about to arrest both hands. “Let’s go home, Vaheed. Mom is worried.”

He was aware that there was no room for nonsense when it came to Mom. Make her fret and endure my wrath. It was now necessary for him to suppress his feelings and suck it up. Even though I was entrusted to return with him safely.

He exerted an effort to fight me, so I apprehended his wrist with one hand and his upper shoulder with the other hand. I quickly grab his shoulders and wrapped my fingers around his shoulder blades to orient myself. I flipped him around, wrapping my arm around his chest to detain him. Vaheed grunted in resistance.

Giant sprays of forked lightning lanced across the turbulent sky, and three of them speared into the other side's back of an old apartment building's crumbling concrete steps and rusted metal fire escape stairs as if they were upset by our conflict.

Holding him close and tight, my hand went around his neck. As he raised his arms to protect his neck, I used the advantage to put my hand behind his head in a sleeper choke hold. I tucked my forearm under his chin and held it tight. It was time for him to say nightie night and I would teleport us back home.

"She's not yours. I won't let you have her!" He threatened, struggling vigorously with one hand on my forearm, striving to break free and the other trying to inflict some damage on my face in futile.

"Guys."

A sexy woman with burgundy hair and electrifying blue eyes came into my peripheral vision. Bluebell and cherry scents overwhelmed my sense of smell. Water streamed over her beautiful long hair, running over her pale, slender, honeyed skin as her attire clung to her 5’8 height of voluptuous figure.

“Mate.” My wolf purred, wagging his tail in happiness.

The whole sight of her was so seductive that my pulse beat extremely loud in my ears and I feared that she might be hearing it too. Raw hunger coursed through my veins, an unfulfilled hunger that was never unbridled in any woman.Wide-eyed Raina stood in the rain and her sleeveless plain pink sundress clung to her shapely form as the heavy drops saturated her. I growled in both approbation and satisfaction as her perfectly rounded breast imprinted, visibly saying hello to every onlooker.

Concerned eyes on her heart-shaped face jumped from Vaheed to me. "Why are you fighting?"

We froze in surprise to see her here. Our heads snapped to look at her, speechless. Quickly, I shoved my brother away from me. Raina did not need to see us like this. Did she drive in search of Vaheed? The thought irked me.

Soft slapping sounds approached us as she padded over to us. “Please tell me what’s going on with the two of you.” Her eyes stayed mainly on Vaheed. I growled but she acted like she did not notice. “Vaheed, you left the birthday party and had all of us worried about you.” She clasped his face in her palms and I growled again. This time her eyes found my disapproving face. She smiled and added, “Thankfully, Valen took care of you.”

That last part made me smile. My wolf wagged his tail, begging me to embrace her. As expected from a Delta’s daughter, she tracked us. There was no trace of Venus accompanying her. Therefore, Venus must have distracted Mom while Raina snuck out of the area.

Vaheed brushed her hands off him, seething and looking everywhere but her. My wolf wanted to knock his teeth out. Feeling concerned, Raina opened her mouth to address him.

“Vaheed is fine,” I interrupted.

I despised the way she comforted him. I did not hate my brother, but I coveted the way he was always with her. They were best friends along with my younger sister, Venus, who was also Vaheed’s twin.

“I’m taking everyone home now.” After teleporting them, I intended to have a cup of coffee with her, later.

My ineffable obsession with her was a quiet resident that was unknown to her. Since lately, I have been scheming to have time alone with her. Every time we interacted in private, her cheeks would flush. She was always nervous but excited to see me.

Raina did not protest and Vaheed was acting as best as he could in front of her. With two steps forward, I placed a palm on his left shoulder. He shrugged, so I dug my nails past his skin and he winced. Then I put the other palm on Raina’s with the expectation of feeling sparks.

“Ah!” Raina screamed and jerked away from me, clutching her bruised right shoulder. Her beautiful face contorted with agony and shock as she stared at me.

“What did you do to her?” Vaheed yelled and swiftly went over to check on her. Touching my woman. My promising queen.

Blast it!

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