Chosen By My Mate's Father-in-law
Chapter 49: The Crack in the Wall

Chapter 49: Chapter 49: The Crack in the Wall

“Why are you in such a rush to get home?” Gareth’s Beta asked him from the driver’s seat of his car. “As soon as you adjourned the pack meeting, you leaped to your feet and demanded that I take you home. Usually, you want to stick around to chat up all the women who crowd around you and invite one for a drink.”

The two men were stopped at a light, and his Beta looked over at him.

Gareth shifted in the passenger seat and avoided the man’s eyes.

“I want to make it home in time to have dinner with Isabella and Michelle,” Gareth responded. “You know that spending time with my daughters is important to me.”

“Sure.” His Beta flashed him a knowing smile. “It’s just coincidental that you had Mr. Dawson pick up that young tutor in your Rolls-Royce today. She definitely isn’t the reason you’re rushing home, right?” he asked sarcastically.

Gareth continued to stare straight ahead, refusing to take his bait.

The stoplight in front of them turned green.

“Step on it,” Gareth growled. “I want to get home before dinner.”

He wasn’t as calm and collected in his head, though. His mind was stuffed full of thoughts of Jasmine. He couldn’t get the image of her beautiful, half-naked body out of his head. Her long, golden hair that he wanted to thread his fingers through. Her wide, blue, seemingly innocent eyes. Jasmine’s plump red lips. Those gorgeous full breasts and hard nipples. Her long, tan legs. That short, tight skirt that he had wanted to rip off her body.

Gareth knew that seeing her topless was both a blessing and a curse. He couldn’t stop thinking about her, and his wolf was going crazy inside his head, demanding that he see her again.

It felt like it took forever to get home. Finally, they pulled into his long driveway. He hurried out of the car as soon as his Beta put it into park. Right when he opened his door, Jasmine’s scent hit him like a wall. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, enjoying her floral scent.

As Gareth walked into his house and toward her scent, he noticed something else that made his hands clench into fists.

Elliot’s scent.

His Lycan senses picked up on something else that made his blood run cold.

The sucking sound of lips being pressed against skin and then the insistent flick of a tongue.

Fury made a growl rip from deep within Gareth, and he tore through his house, flinging open the slider door, almost tearing it off.

He scanned his big backyard and immediately spotted Elliot pinning Jasmine against the cement wall of the patio. She turned toward the noise of the door opening and locked eyes with him. His anger increased tenfold when he saw her red face. Elliot and Jasmine’s scents were swirling around each other, morphing into one.

When Elliot looked up at Gareth, his cocky grin slid off his face. The younger man went as white as a ghost. Elliot immediately let go of Jasmine, backed away from her, and put his hands up.

Before Elliot could give him a lame excuse, Gareth sprinted down the patio steps and jumped ten feet toward Elliot. When he was in the air, he saw Elliot’s eyes go wide with fear.

Good. That little boy should be scared of him.

He grabbed Elliot by his neck and slammed him against the wall, causing him to wince and groan in pain. Gareth knew there would be new cracks on the cement wall, but he was beyond caring about the architecture of his house. He raised Elliot’s body higher in the air, to the point where Elliot could only kick his feet pitifully in an attempt to escape.

“You’re dead, little boy,” Gareth snarled.

Elliot struggled, trying to get out of his grasp, but his Alpha blood was no match for the Lycan King. It was like a baby deer trying to fight a lion. Gareth was the king of this jungle, and he was going to make Elliot pay.

Gareth squeezed his neck even tighter, making Elliot’s eyes pop out of his head.

“How dare you cheat on my daughter? Betraying her trust is the same as betraying me.” A cold smile crossed Gareth’s face. “And you know what happens to those who betray the Lycan family.” He slammed the man against the wall again, and the cracks on the wall widened.

Elliot’s entire body trembled with fear, and his eyes blinked rapidly as he tried to think his way out of this one. Warm sweat beaded down his face, and he shook his head.

The asshole’s panic filled Gareth with a sick sort of satisfaction.

“N-nothing happened,” he gasped out. “I swear.”

Gareth knew that he was lying. He squeezed his neck even more tightly, and Elliot’s mouth opened wide as he frantically tried to suck in air. His face began to turn scarlet, and he clutched at Gareth’s hand, trying to push it off of him, but his attempts had little success.

“It didn’t look like nothing,” Gareth growled, flexing his fingers. “That’s not what it smelled like either. Do you think I’m an idiot? Do you think that the Lycan King can be fooled?” He slammed him into the wall again. “Do you think my daughter’s love is a joke?”

Elliot attempted to shake his head, but Gareth’s hold was too tight.

“N-no. Please, don’t... Nothing happened,” he choked out weakly.

Gareth let out a bark of a laugh that held no humor. “Save your breath. As the Lycan King, I’m sentencing you to death."

Just as he prepared himself to shift into his wolf form and rip out the bastard’s throat, a shaking voice made him stop dead in his tracks.

“It’s not what it looks like,” Jasmine said quietly.

Gareth’s head turned to look at her, but he kept a strong hold on Elliot’s neck. His anger increased tenfold when he saw that her hair was disheveled.

Jasmine cleared her throat and smoothed her shirt.

“Nothing happened.” This time, her voice was louder and held more conviction. “This is all just some big misunderstanding.”

Instead of assuring him, her words made him even madder. His body was trembling with rage. He turned his head away from her, too angry to even look her in the eye.

“Like I would take your word for it,” Gareth said, venom dripping through his words. “You promised not to interfere with my daughter’s happiness, and then I find you pressed up against the wall by Elliot, his hands all over you, and him kissing your neck. Both of you make me sick.”

Gareth didn’t see Jasmine’s face fall, nor her dejected expression. A second later, she straightened her shoulders, and a mask came over her face. She lifted her hand and stroked his strong back.

Gareth’s body instinctively calmed from her touch. His wolf purred, so delighted at the contact that it was distracted from the bloodlust.

Neither of them noticed Elliot, who was silently suffocating behind them, his face turning a dangerous maroon color.

“Nothing happened, Gareth,” she murmured. “I promise. I swear on my family’s life.”

His eyes closed from the simple pleasure of having her hand on him. His hand automatically loosened from Elliot’s neck. This made him nearly drop the younger man, but it allowed him to suck in some much needed air.

Jasmine’s hand made a comforting circle on his back, and he leaned into her touch.

“Isabella would be devastated if anything happened to him,” Jasmine pointed out in a soothing voice.

Gareth’s eyes blinked as he realized that she was right. He recalled how Isabella had threatened to run away and elope when he wouldn’t give her his blessing to marry the boy. One time, she had even threatened to take her own life if he wouldn’t allow her to be with Elliot.

Gareth knew that he couldn’t take a chance with his daughter’s safety.

With a reluctant sigh, he let go of Elliot’s throat, causing him to fall to the ground. He crumpled onto the grass, clutching at his throat and gasping for air.

Gareth only felt dark pleasure as he caught sight of the dark red fingerprints decorating Elliot’s neck, like a noose.