Zack pulled him back beside him. “Be quiet, Gabe. Let me handle this. ” He turned back to face Tim. “Do you have any other evidence to present against him other than those crystals?”
“What crystals? Zack, I have a right to knowwhat’s going on. ”
Zack ignored him and spoke louder. “Well? Is there any other evidence against him or any other accusations?” He glared around the table and tugged Gabe to the door. “That’s what I thought,” he yelled back over his shoulder.
Gabe stopped and jerked his arm away from Zack’s grip. Backing up into the room he held up a hand. “Wait a minute! Just wait one damned minute!If I’m being accused of something, I want to know what it is. Right this damn minute!”
He turned toward Zack as he came back for him. “Zac
k, please. I’m not trying to disrespect you. I’m not! I know you’re only trying to protect me, and I appreciate it. ” He whirled around to face the other wolves. “But I have nothing to be protected from! I didn’t do anything wrong, and I defy each and every one of you to prove I did!”
Tim stepped nearer to him, stopping a few feet away when Zack’s growls warned him away. He glanced over at him and back at Gabe. “We found a bag of cyanide—the same substance that poisoned our alpha—in your closet. In your damned boot! How the fuck did it get there if you didn’t do it?”
Tim’s feet went off the floor. Zack held him around the throat with one hand, his face within inches of Tim’s. “Don’t you ever cuss at him!He’s mine! If you can’t show him the respect he deserves you can get the hell out of my pack!” He threw Tim back down, choking and coughing, as Jamie came around the table and touched his arm, putting himself between the two.
“Please, Alpha. No one means to show disrespect to your mate. Can we all please just sit down for a minute?”
“No! The discussion is over!” He turned on his heel and would have walked out if Gabe hadn’t been standing in his path.
“Zack, honey, please. Let me answer their accusations. I know you believe me, but they need to believe me too. ”
Gabe sat down at the council table. “All right. I’m ready. What do you have to say to me?” Zack went to stand protectively behind him, but Gabe pulled him down in the chair next to him. “I want them to tell me the truth, Zack. They won’t if you intimidate them. ”
Zack glared down the table.
Gabe started the discussion by turning to Jamie. “That’s it? A bag found in my boot? Is this all you got?”
Jamie nodded, his face red. “It’s the only real evidence. There’s circumstantial evidence…”
“Like what?”
Scott spoke up. “I’m sorry, Gabe, but you know yourself how much you two argue, and the whole house can hear you fighting sometimes. And…well, I sort of thought you might be more upset when we thought Zack was dying. I didn’t see you crying any like you did when you left him that time. ”
Gabe looked disgusted. “Seriously? Did it ever occur to any of you dimwits our arguments are just between us?They’re more lovers’ quarrels than anything else if you must know, and some of those times you say the whole house hears us isprobably me screaming when we’re having sex. ”
All the men at the table dropped their gaze in embarrassment, looking shocked, and Zack actually groaned a little. Gabe turned to him. “Don’t be ashamed of it,darlin’. You’re a wonderful lover, and we’re mated. We have every right to enjoy each other. They need to get over it. ”
Gabe looked at Scott menacingly. “As for me not crying or being upset when I thought my mate was dying, you’re full of shit. I was beyond tears! Whose idea was it to put Zack in the car and meet the other alphas halfway when all of you were standing around with your thumbs up your asses? It was my idea. That’s who!” He stood up and stared at each man in turn. “I have no idea who planted the shit in my boot. You should be out looking for him instead of wasting your time in here. ” He slammed his hand down on the table. “And the next motherfucker who implies I don’t love my husband is getting my foot up his wolf ass!”
Zack jumped to his feet and pulled Gabe away. He came reluctantly, still spoiling for a fight. Zack was a little worried he’d jump on one of them, and they might defend themselves and bring about their deaths when Zack had to kill them. He put his arms around Gabe and led him from the council room and into their bedroom down the hall. As he closed the door, Gabe reached the throwing stage. Things were flying around the room as he threw books and kicked shoes and generally wrecked the room. The only way Zack got him to stop was by wrapping his arms around him and sitting down with him in his lap.
“Honey? Please calm down, okay?I’m so proud of you, baby. You stood up to all of them and you were like a tiger in there. ”
“Sons-of-bitches sayingI don’t love you. That burned me up!”
“Uh, baby, you’ve never exactly told me you loved me. ”
He turned on Zack. “Don’t you start! Of course I have! You know I do! How can you even say something like that?”
“No, honey,” Zack replied. “I asked you once, and you said yes. Not exactly the same thing. ” Seeing he was upsetting Gabe again, Zack did the only thing he knew to do. He pushed Gabe’s head back and kissed his mouth, running his tongue inside and teasing Gabe’s tongue until he sighed against his mouth and wiggled his cock onZack’s crotch. “But I’m very glad you do, sweetheart. ” Zack picked him up and carried him over to the bed. “Clothes off,” he ordered. “Now. ”
Gabe scrambled to shed his jeans and shirt, while Zack pulled off his clothes, never taking his eyes from Gabe’s. “You’ve been teasing me with your little ass all night long, and by God, I’m going to tear it up. ”
“Oh, is that right?” Gabe said teasingly, scooting back up on the bed.
“Right. You’re going to scream like I’m killing you, and we’ll probably wake the whole house up. What do you think about that?” Zack crawled onto the foot of the bed and up toward him.
“I…uh…”