Chapter 17

Lachlan

I loved spending time with my family and watching Tilly relax and integrate with them. It was so easy to have her there and it felt so right. I wanted this to be my life more than I was willing to admit.

That night she slept in my bed, in my arms. We didn't do anything. No matter how much I wanted to, it didn't feel right in my childhood home with my little siblings and my parents just down the hall. It wasn't like I had a dampener or anything to shield the others from hearing us.

Still, we'd laid awake late into the night, talking and just being together. My dingo was more at peace than I imagined possible. Though I was sure to say our goodbyes before we drifted off to sleep.

Tilly was still fast asleep when my alarm went off much too early the next morning.

I had to appease myself with reminders of why I was doing this and why she had to stay behind. It had to be enough.

Forcing myself to get up, I kissed her without disturbing her and then quietly left the room.

"Lachlan, I fixed you some brekkie. Have a bite before you leave."

"Mom, you didn't have to."

"I know. I wanted to. You're still my baby."

"And don't worry about Tilly, son. Your mother and I will protect her as if she were one of our own," Dad assured me.

"As far as I'm concerned, she is one of our own," Mom insisted.

"Thank you."

"Take care of yourself and come back to us," she said.

"That's the plan, yeah."

I hugged them both and thanked them again before leaving the house with nothing but the backpack I'd brought with me. That had always been enough, but this time, it felt as if everything that mattered to me was being left behind in that house.

Walking away from her was the hardest thing I'd ever done in my entire life, but I was focused and determined. I knew my mission and the sooner I completed it, the sooner I could come home to my mate and family.

There was no way I was calling a cab and leading a trail straight home. So I spent the first hour wandering through the city until I was confident there was no chance someone could retrace my steps. Then I hopped the light rail to take me even further away. It was only then that I finally got a cab and took it back to the airfield where the plane was waiting. Only when I arrived, the pilots were not alone.

"Everything sorted?" Michael asked.

"Yeah."

I wasn't ready to talk to him or any of them. They had broken a trust between us and I wasn't sure how to repair it or if I wanted to.

"Load up. We're out of here," he announced.

I hated the thought of being stuck on that plane with them. I was pretty sure they all knew it too.

No one spoke until we were in the air. I wasn't even sure where we were going, but I also didn't want to ask.

"The tension in here could be cut with a knife," Michael finally said. "This is a team, a family. We need to start acting like it."

I snorted before I could stop it.

"Lachlan, do you have something to say?"

"No, sir," I said. I gritted my teeth to keep from saying anything more.

"Are you sure? Because I think you do."

I tried hard not to let him goad me into exploding with all the frustrations I'd been carrying around since our trip to Campbell. But he kept pushing. They all did.

"Lachlan, we know you're pissed. Let's talk about it," Colin said.

"Yeah, that's what you'd tell us," Walker said.

"Shut the hell up!" I finally exploded.

"Walker tranq'd you," Colin said.

"Don't put that on him. We all agreed it was for the best," Linc said.

"Enough," Michael said. "Look, we know you're pissed about what happened. It wasn't personal."

"Not personal? Are you kidding me right now? I told you I'd found my true mate, and you tranquilized me like a wild beast." I knew I was shouting, but I didn't care.

"You may not realize it, but you were starting to shift, Lachlan. You were growling, and we could all feel your aggression levels rising. I'm sorry, but we had to do something," Michael explained.

"What you should have done was support me like I've supported every single one of you during your matings. You all know what it's like."

The pain I felt was as real, as if they'd cut off my leg.

"Did you ever stop to think that we did it because we know exactly how it feels and how crazy the bond makes you?" Walker said. "We were in another Alpha's territory. We couldn't risk having you running around half-cocked and if you were able to think rationally, you'd know exactly why."

"Walker may have pulled the trigger, but it was on my order," Michael said. "If you need to be mad at someone, be mad at me."

"I'm not just mad, Michael. I'm pissed at all of you. I'm hurt and I'm not sure I can trust any of you to have my back."

"But we fixed it," Colin said.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"We met Tilly and put it all together," Linc explained.

"You were already contained by then, but we knew we had to make it right," Tucker added.

"We still didn't know for absolute certain, but we were pretty sure she was your mate based on your horrible description. I had to call it in. Kyle and Patrick would have had my ass in a sling if I hadn't. So I told them what we knew for fact, that you had met your mate and we'd had to sedate you for fear you could cause problems in Campbell territory. I did not tell them my suspicions about her being a King and about to be mated to the Campbell heir because that would have really caused a nightmare."

"You knew she was a King? Or at least suspected as much?"

"Why do you think I asked to switch with Bravo? They were handling King territory. Though I honestly hadn't expected her to go home. I did think, or maybe just hoped, that her scent would be enough to calm you and not send you entirely over the edge. The last thing we expected was for her to be there," Michael said.

"How'd you convince her father to let you take her?" Colin asked.

I shrugged. "I told him the truth, minus the part of being mated to his daughter. He was a logical man and understood the importance of keeping her safe."

"Smart," Linc praised.

"I know you're still upset with us, but we honestly tried to make it better," Tucker insisted.

"It was a shitty situation all around," Walker said.

"I need to know if we can still trust you on this mission," Michael said.

I snorted. "You trust me? Do you really believe for one second that I trust any one of you?"

We were at a standstill. The logical side of me understood where they were coming from, but the irrational mating animal side of me was still pissed.

"What can we do to overcome this?" Michael asked. "Because if we can't trust each other on a mission of this magnitude, we're all as good as dead."

"He's right, so what would Lachlan do?" Linc asked.

"Lachlan would make us go around and confess our feelings," Tucker said.

"Dig deep and be honest with yourself, is what he'd say," Colin added.

"He'd tell us this is a safe space to talk about how we feel about this situation," Walker said.

"No, he's say shut the hell up and stop throwing my words back in my face at a time like this," I replied. "Trust isn't something freely given and every one of you broke that trust with me."

"We know that," Michael said. "And we know that no matter how innocent our motives may seem to us, we do understand how betrayed you feel."

"But we were doing it for your own good and for that of the team," Walker insisted.

"Just like you were thinking of the team when you let Lindsey fly off with you?"

"That was different?"

"How was that different besides the fact that I haven't actually blown our mission?"

"Everyone reacts to mating. We just weren't sure how you were going to react," he tried to explain. "I'm sorry. There, I said it. I'm sorry that I didn't trust you to keep control. You were showing signs of losing it. What were we supposed to do? We all knew what it meant, and we were just trying to do better by you."

I scoffed. "Better? How was that better? How would you have felt if we'd sedated you and then just let Lindsey and the kids fly away?"

He growled at the thought.

"My point exactly."

"We get it. We screwed up no matter our intentions," Michael said. "The question remains, how do we move past this?"

"I don't know if I can," I admitted.

"Do I need to have you reassigned or pulled from this mission?"

"What?"

"I'm serious, Lachlan. If we can't work through this right now, I'm going to have to bench you until we can."

"You're seriously going to punish me for what happened?"

"It's not a punishment."

"Well, it sure as hell feels like one."

He sighed. "So we're at a standstill then?"

"I know how to behave. We aren't entirely okay, but I think we're all grown-up enough to get through this. I have my personal reasons for it now, whether you guys like that or not. I'll do what I have to do to stay on this mission. After that? We'll see."

"I don't like it, but I think it may have to do for now."

He switched gears and briefed us on our next mission.

I was relieved when he explained that we'd rendezvous with Bravo at the auction location. That meant I could actively be seeking out Chelle. She was the key to my future right now, though there was no way I was going to share that with them. I feared Michael was serious and would pull me off the case. It was bad enough that I had to be separated from my mate right now. It would be a hell of a lot worse if I felt like I was letting her down too.

Charlie and Echo teams had been brought in as well. They were going around to the remaining Tribes to warn them of potential trouble. With any luck, each Alpha would step up and secure their Tribe or at the very least warn their dingoes to be on the lookout with a plan for evacuation and survival.

My first job, regardless of what Michael said, was to find Chelle and get her to safety, even if I had to buy her myself.