The Alpha - Joel Abernathy Page 0,113

and closing the door behind him.

Ronnie wouldn’t meet his eyes, but Colt could see the trepidation in them. “I knew you’d try to change my mind.”

“That’s an understatement,” Colt snorted. “At the moment, I’m trying to decide whether to lock you up in the basement or the attic.”

“We don’t even have a basement,” Ronnie muttered.

“That’s beside the point. Come on, what is this?”

“It’s not safe for me to be here,” Ronnie said quietly, looking down at his hands in his lap. “After what happened in the forest, you should know that better than anyone.”

“You mean after you saved my life?” Colt challenged.

“You saw what I did to Peter. A changeling,” he said pointedly. “And I have no idea how I did it. It just happened, like it did with that other ghoul who attacked me in the woods. Like it did the night we…” He trailed off, an incriminating blush in his cheeks.

“You can’t seriously blame yourself for self-defense, or for saving me,” Colt said, walking over to the bed. “As for that night, you didn’t do anything.”

“I could have!” Ronnie protested. “I could have killed you. And if I stay here, it’s just a matter of time before I hurt you or my parents.”

“I think you’re looking at the glass as half-empty.” When he saw Ronnie’s confusion, he added, “You could also kill Evelyn.”

Ronnie shot him a filthy glare, but his lips quivered, proving the joke hadn’t fallen entirely flat. “I’m serious.”

“So am I,” Colt said, taking Ronnie’s hands to pull him into his arms. “I meant what I said before. You’re mine, and you’re not going anywhere ever again. I’m not letting you take so much as a fucking trip to the store without me.”

“Sounds healthy,” Ronnie said in a dry tone.

“Boundaries in relationships have never really been my forte,” Colt admitted, wrapping his arms around Ronnie’s waist to pull him closer.

Ronnie rolled his eyes. It had been too long since Colt had earned one of those. He’d actually kind of missed it. “You’re the Kinship Alpha. You’re responsible for everyone, and right now, I’m probably the biggest threat alive.”

“Maybe,” Colt said with a shrug. “Even if that’s true, it doesn’t change anything.”

“It should,” Ronnie said, pushing against his chest. Colt let him go despite the possessive instincts that had only grown since he’d awakened. He didn’t yet know where the lines between reassurance and panic were for Ronnie, and he wasn’t going to risk it. “It should change everything. I know you never wanted to be part of this world, but it’s the only one I’ve ever known, and if I hurt...”

His voice broke, but Colt knew where he was going. He had felt the same way enough times about the human world that he knew he couldn’t talk. “You won’t,” he said firmly. “You’re one of what, fifty other Plague Doctors out there at any given time? A hundred? If they could control it, so can you.”

“I’m not like them,” Ronnie protested. “You know that. You saw that ghoul in the woods. He didn’t turn to dust, and I’m pretty fucking sure this thing inside me has a mind of its own.”

“You’re not possessed, Ronnie.”

“You don’t understand,” the boy said, shaking his head in frustration. “You of all people should, but you don’t. You know what it’s like to be afraid of hurting the people you love, so you should understand why I have to do this--and instead, you’re being a hypocrite.”

Colt wanted to reason with him, but he could tell from Ronnie’s tone this wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation, even if all the others had only taken place in his head. “So I am,” he conceded. “I can live with that. What I can’t live without is you.”

Ronnie stared at him as if those words had just shaken everything loose in his head. Even Colt wasn’t sure what to do now that he’d said them. It was the truth, but their relationship was a minefield of taboos and mixed-up emotions, and he had just run through them all.

“We screwed around once, Colt,” Ronnie said, his tone newly wary. “You just lost your only living relative and you’re fresh off a breakup with your childhood sweetheart.”

“What does any of that have to do with us?”

“Everything!” Ronnie cried, throwing his hands up. “For fuck’s sake, Colt, this is a textbook rebound. If it was a question on a test, it would be one of those obvious two-pointers meant to boost your confidence.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

Ronnie gave