Page 40 of A Broody Mate for the Human

“Matthew,” I say with insistence, using my other arm to clasp one of his hands, trying to peel his fingers off my shoulders. “Let go of me! Do you want to kill me or what!? That’s not you! Snap out of it!”

“What do you know?” Matthew suddenly yells. He has clearly lost it. I don’t know what exactly triggered him like that. I wish I had known so I could have avoided his triggers. “You don’t know anything at all. I can’t be your mate; I can’t want you.”

Through my fuzzy mind I notice how he says he can’t want me… instead of he doesn’t me. I always had the feeling he was conflicted as fuck. He hates me because he hates being gay, and I know being my mate triggered him even more.

Part of me feels sorry for him; the other part of me however wants to make sure I get out of this shit unscathed! His grip tightens even further, and he slams me against the wall, making it difficult for me to breathe. I can feel my ears ring slightly, the blood rushing through my veins as the adrenaline rush kicks in. I use my fingernails to scratch his arms and hands to make him let go of him before I finally use my knee, hitting it against his groin.

Matthew groans and, for a moment, loosens his grip. I try to slip out of it, but he grabs me again, shaking me. “I can’t love you,” he yells.

“You don’t need to love me!” I yell back. “You just need to let me go.”

I can see his hand ball into a fist. Oh fuck. Closing my eyes, I just hope he won’t hit any vital parts of my face because he is definitely going to break something with his strength. But the punch never comes; instead I can finally feel his grasp loosening.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Jun yells.

I blink my eyes open again, my gaze falling on Jun and Luca, the latter staying back while he looks at the scene in horror.

Matthew lunges at Jun. “You again,” he shouts. “Why are you not going away? He isn’t your mate!”

“Just because we aren’t mates doesn’t mean I don’t care for him as a friend,” Jun spits out and punches Matthew.

I watch the scene completely dumbfounded, like I can’t even grasp what’s going on. Like it’s a movie or a scene from someone else’s life. But not mine. I’m used to drama, the Sex and the City kind of drama, but not this here. I move my good hand over my shoulder, carefully touching my aching muscles.

Matthew is strong but not as strong as Jun, and soon Jun has him in a headlock. “Calm down,” he hisses.

I can see the darkness in Matthew’s eyes pass, and his eyes get clearer again. When our eyes meet, I instinctively scoot further away, but to my surprise Matthew looks even more horrified than I probably do. “I…” he mutters, his eyes glued to mine. And for the first time ever I can see how truly miserable he has to be. “Dave.”

Jun turns his head a bit towards the door. “Luna?” he asks. “What now?”

To my surprise, Annie walks through the door, the look in her eyes clearly conflicted. She looks at me in worry and sadness before she shifts her gaze towards Jun and Matthew. “Take him back to his pack,” she tells Jun. “I will call Alpha Jace and tell him what happened.”

Jun nods. “What about Luca?"

Annie smiles warmly at the shy young man. “Luca, if you want you can stay with us here in Dave’s apartment. It’s safe, I promise.”

“Don’t you need help, Jun?” Luca stutters, obviously feeling guilty for having his mate deal with the situation alone.

Jun smiles at him. “I’d feel relieved if you stayed here and cheered up Dave.”

Luca nods with a smile. “Okay.”

Jun turns his gaze towards Matthew, nodding at him grimly. “Let’s go.”

I almost expect Matthew to fight him, but he doesn’t. When Jun pulls him out of my apartment, he just lets him drag him along. He turns his head to look at me again, suddenly looking really broken. Had he been able to show me how broken he is, had he shared his issues with me, I would have willingly helped him, but I don’t think our relationship will be able to recover from this here.

When Jun and Matthew have left, we all let out a sigh of relief. I feel how the adrenaline rush subsides, how the shock passes. When Matthew assaulted me, it was like my body and mind went on autopilot, trying to do everything to survive.

Now that the threat is gone, I feel my legs going weak and my body starting to tremble. I slide down the wall, sitting down on the floor. “Dave,” Annie exclaims, hurrying towards me and hugging me.

I hug her tightly. “Thank you,” I breathe out, tears filling my eyes. “I don’t know why you came… but…”

“We said we would meet, remember?”

No, I don’t remember. But now that she mentioned it, I remember my phone call with her before Matthew broke my phone and how she said she’d try to drop by today.

“Ella is with me too,” she says softly. “She is just searching for a parking space.”

“And Jun and Luca?”