Page 59 of Loched in Love

I’ll truly never understand why humans insist on packing as many of themselves as possibly can on these mobile metal boxes, flying or otherwise.

Here they willingly crush themselves shoulder to shoulder, breathing in each other’s stale air without a second thought.

I try my very best to put on a brave front, keeping my expression bright and cheerful.

I’m just being a nice normal male helping his girl through a crowd, but my inner monster is already sweating from the significant lack of breathing room.

I keep my free hand firmly anchored to the small of her back and let my body act as a wall between her and everyone else.

“There,” she whispers and glances over her shoulder at me with a small and hopeful smile. “Look, there’s two seats open just there.”

Relief washes over me like the tide, but it’s short lived because the booth isn’t vacant. A young human is already sitting on one side, his legs stretched out comfortably along under the fixed table. As we approach, he looks up from his phone, and the millisecond his gaze locks onto Elena, an immediate predatory brightness in his expression has my hair on the nape of my neck standing up.

“Mind if we sit here?” Elena asks, gesturing at the seats and offering a polite and friendly smile to the male.

“Not at all, please,” he says, his voice smoothing into a slow cadence. He quickly slides his legs to the side to make room but doesn’t offer a glance in my direction once. His gaze stays glued to Elena as she slides into the window seat across from him.

I lift our suitcases onto the overhead rack in one easy motion and tuck Maren’s cooler safely under the table before squeezing my big frame into the seat next to her. My knees instantly meet and bang against the underside of the small table and my shoulder is pinned flat against the wall of the carriage.

I’m entirely too big for this space but I keep my affable and gentle smile in place, resting my large hands on my lap.

I’ve a mind to be a good boy for her, and I can be a civilized gentleman.

Unfortunately, my internal monstrous instincts are screaming.

“Heading up north?” the man asks, leaning his elbows onto the table and physically encroaching on Elena’s personal space.

“Yeah, just on a bit of a vacation,” Elena replies. She’s only trying to be nice, but through the noisiness of the train I can sense the subtle tone in her voice. She knows I’m uncomfortable.

“A holiday? How brilliant,” he smiles, flashing a row of perfect and straight human teeth. He tilts his head and his voice drops an octave as he leans a fraction ever closer to her. “Wait you’re an American aren’t you? Your accent is endearing.”

“I’m from the states, yeah,” she says, and offers a single polite nod as if expecting that to be the end of it.

“I’m Callum,” he says, his gaze lighting up with enthusiasm, obviously unaware of the danger he’s putting himself in. “I love Americans, and I’m on a bit of a holiday myself. Let me know if you’d like any recommendations for some good stop off spots along the way. A beautiful girl like you shouldn’t waste time with the tourist traps when you’ve come all this way.”

A sudden sharp spike flares deep in my sternum, and my grand ideas of staying calm cool and collected vanishes.

My gaze darkens as I listen to the rapid and arrogant thud of Callum’s heart. The smell of testosterone and unearned confidence rolls off him in waves as he flirts with my mate.

He’s using her nationality as a cheap excuse to get closer, the bugger, and ignoring my presence completely. The fiend.

And treating me as if I’m a piece of furniture while I sit here quietly.

I could eat him whole.

Under the table, my claws begin to pulse against my palms, wanting to dig right through the denim of my trousers. My pupils dilate and a dark and heavy weight strikes me and settles deep in my gut. The urge to tear this fragile little man away from what belongs to me rears its head.

I don’t growl aloud, as I promised myself to be good, but a low, barely audible, vibration rumbles deep in my chest.

Callum freezes mid-sentence, his smarmy smile faltering as his primate and sluggish human survival instinct finally make an appearance and try to scream at him that he’s sitting across from an apex predator.

But instead of heeding the warning, the idiot blinks and seems to shake off the situation, flashing Elena another cocksure smile.

“So, what brings a stunning girl from the states all the way out here?” he asks, his fingers spreading out open and loose onto the table, dangerously close to brushing Elena’s knuckles. “You must be brave to travel alone like this.”

Under the table, her hand goes to my knee. Her palm is warm and sure as she squeezes with a warning pressure. I gaze down from the corner of my eye at how taut my jeans are pulled from how tense my leg muscles are, and beneath her touch my skin burns hot.

She knows, and her touch begs me to be good.