Page 32
He gasped.
“Did you check, even once, after you left that morning?” It shouldn’t have mattered, but the question had been eating me up inside.
“I called every day,” he muttered, glaring at me.
The relief was overwhelming, and I should have told him that. Instead, I crossed my arms, and grinned at him. “Really? Every day?”
Slowly, he turned to Graeme, who groaned under his breath.
“Sir,” Sasha began, “I don’t think––”
“I apologize for him.” Graeme shot me a death glare before turning back to Sasha. “This is not the way we treat guests.”
No, it was not, but I wanted to know what was wrong with my mate, and he needed to tell me, immediately. Even more than that, there had been the question, now answered, that he’d been concerned about me. Amazing the warmth that filled my chest.
“Though I will say, I’m confused about your hesitancy in speaking in front of Deacon, as we all know that he’s your mate and—”
“No.” Avery’s eyes went wide, and he sounded horrified.
Sasha caught his breath, but recovered fast. “I can see now this was a huge mistake,” he mumbled to himself, getting up, then gently pushing his chair back in. “Thank you so much for having me in your home, Mr. Davenport.”
“Wait,” I ordered him, but he darted out of the room anyway.
The second I turned to go after him, Gigi grabbed hold of my bicep.
“Don’t you dare move,” she ordered me, glowering.
“What’d I do?”
“Oh I think you know.”
“What was that?” Graeme was stunned; people didn’t excuse themselves from his table, and he was glancing around at the rest of us wondering, I was certain, where Sasha Norwood got the balls to get up and leave.
“Well, that was terrible,” Gigi huffed out, staring daggers at Graeme before standing quickly to go after Sasha.
“No, why is he going?” Lauren whined, moving faster, pushing herself back from the table before her mother could get out and darting from the room.
“Since when do omegas leave without permission?” Graeme asked the room.
“I’m sorry, omegas?” Avery scowled at him.
“Now wait, you know I didn’t mean—”
“Daddy.” Ellie was glaring at her father. “Why are you mad at Sasha?”
“Darling, I’m not at all angry with—”
“Then why did you make him go away?”
He turned to Avery, who stood up, threw his napkin down on his chair, and ran after his niece and Gigi.
“This is your fault,” Stone assured me.
“How is this my fault?” I asked him as I got up, thinking that I really needed to clear some things up with my mate, the most important being that I’d lied through my teeth when I said I didn’t want him. Because I did, in fact, want him. Very much. Staring at him, I’d realized that he trembled, ever so slightly, whenever I glanced at him. It was intoxicating.
Stone stood up, walked two chairs down to Ellie, put his hands over her ears, and smiled at her when she tipped her head back to look up at him adoringly, then went back to eating. “Because you’re walking around having not claimed your mate, my brother has to be careful of what he says. He’s a cyne, for heaven’s sake. The last thing he should ever have to worry about is curating his words in his own house!”
I was seething. “I didn’t claim my mate because I didn’t want him to get hurt, or did you forget about all that? Must be nice not to have to worry about everyone’s safety since you can leave everything to your alpha.”
