AllFreeNovel
Share Us
To me, this is the day when the girl that got away almost disappeared forever.
“He snapped,” I say, moving away from Reece so that Wilson can take my place. Reece is free to move whenever he chooses to, but he doesn’t. He just stays where he is on the floor. Wise choice. I don’t know what he’s thinking right now. I probably don’t want to know.
“Nicole came to me,” Wilson says. His eyes roam Reece, silently checking for injuries or weapons. He quickly takes in the appearance of the building before turning back to Reece. Wilson is calm and calculating even in the midst of crisis. It’s one of the things that makes him a great leader, but right now, I just want him to focus on my girl. He hasn’t told me where she is or whether she’s okay. Was she crying when she found him? Was she hurt?
Wilson doesn’t seem to feel like offering up the information freely. Fine. He’s going to make me ask for it. I will. I’m not above begging at this point if it means I get
to find out whether she’s okay. I was scared shitless when she was in danger. I’m still not quite over it.
“Is she okay?” I ask quietly, still watching Reece. The tiger shifter is still, which is good. I know he’s been through a rough time, but it’s literally taking all of my self-control not to beat the ever-loving snot out of him.
“She seemed fine. Sent her to get Cameron,” Wilson says. “He should be on his way by now. I assume Nicole will stay with Peggy until we finish up...with him.”
Reece tenses, which is good. He needs to feel tense. He needs to be worried. What the fuck was he thinking? What made him suddenly decide to snap in the middle of Fablestone? Did he really think he’d get away with it? Surely he’s not that stupid.
“What brought on the attack?” Wilson asks. He’s looking at Reece, but the question is posed to me, and I assume that pisses Reece off because he suddenly looks sharply at Wilson.
“She’s a bitch,” Reece says angrily. He spits the words out as if he can’t hold them back any longer. Venom drips from his voice. He hates her. It’s obvious. Reece is in his human form now, and when he looks up to meet our gazes, anger flashes in his eyes.
“She didn’t do anything to you,” Wilson points out calmly. I’m a little surprised to see him taking her side, but that’s fine. Maybe she needs a little help. We could all use someone on our side. Wilson has never really been a Team Nicole kind of person, but as far as I can tell, he hasn’t been cruel to her, either. He has a lot of shifters and humans to take care of, after all. He doesn’t have time to play favorites, especially with someone who has a known history of violence and poor decisions like Nicole does.
“She worked for the people who did,” Reece snaps. “Lucky hurt me. She worked for them. That makes it her fault. She was complicit.”
“Since when are we all responsible for the mistakes of our supervisors?” I ask, rolling my eyes. I get what he’s saying, but the argument is beyond ridiculous. I’ve had plenty of shitty bosses, albeit not on the scale of Lucky. If I was responsible for every crappy thing they did, I’d never leave my house because the shame of the world would rest on my shoulders.
“Look,” Wilson says, looking around. He seems to be evaluating the situation again. I can already see him calculating what it’s going to cost to fix the bakery and how many angry dragon seniors he’s going to have on his doorstep tomorrow when they can’t get their bagel fix. “Let me see if I understand this correctly. Nicole was at work. You came to her place of business. You were not invited here, nor did you come to make a purchase. You tried to attack her. Lee stopped you. Nicole left. Did I miss anything?”
“Yeah, you missed the park where she’s an evil bitch,” Reece says, and I groan. I rub my temples to keep my hands busy. My inner dragon is silently roaring to break free and right now, I want to let him out so I can fucking end Reece. It’s not appropriate, and I’m better than that, but for fuck’s sake, he’s sure not making this easy on me.
“I swear,” I grit out. “If you say another damn word about her, I’m going to punch you in the fucking face.” I’m practically shaking. I need to get myself under control, but since when does Reece have the right to talk about anyone that way? Much less my mate.
She’s not my mate anymore.
I need to stop thinking like that. I need to push the thought out of my head. Dragons are supposed to mate for life, but Nicole turned me down. I must have gotten it wrong on this one. There’s someone out there for me, sure. It’s just not her.
“Are we punching people? I’m next in line,” Cameron says, strutting casually into the bakery, or at least, what’s left of it. He lets out a long, low whistle when he sees the damage.
“Good. She found you,” Wilson nods to his friend and second-in-command. Wilson might be the bronze of the clan, but Cameron is definitely the heart of it. That man can bring anyone over to his side, no matter what their opinion might be when he starts talking to them.
“She did. What happened?” He frowns at Reece. “Why are you on the floor? What did you do?”
“A nightmare happened,” I say. I don’t really feel like reliving the story yet again, but I quickly fill Cameron in on what went down. “Where’s Nicole?”
“She was at my place when I left. Not sure where she is now.”
“You didn’t check on her before you left?” I ask, shocked and a little pissed. What is with these guys? I feel like everyone is dropping the ball today. Just because no one likes her doesn’t mean she needs to be treated like crap. There’s no reason we can’t be gentlemen.
Besides, isn’t that part of being a good leader?
A good man?
Taking care of the people around us?
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Cameron says, glaring at me. “But checking on the outcast of the clan wasn’t exactly my top priority. Coming to care for a victim who was tortured at the hands of Lucky is.”
“You got your victims mixed up, I’m afraid,” Wilson says. “Reece attacked Nicole. It was unprovoked. She was just cleaning up the bakery when he decided to go after her.”
Reece can’t sit this one out. He has to interject.
