Page 21 of Never His Mate

I tap my name tag with the edge of my pencil. “Call me Gem.”

He clenches his teeth so tightly, I can see a vein bulging in the side of his neck. It’s so big, I decide to name it Duke.

Duke doesn’t look happy. Come to think of it, neither does Ryker.

“What?”

His eyes flash. “Don’t do this. Not here. Not now. I’m hanging onto my wolf by a thread, Gemma. A year. A whole fucking year I’ve been looking for you and you ask me what I’ll have. You. I came here for you.”

My heart lodges in my throat. Worse, my hand flexes and the pencil snaps into three distinct pieces.

Oh, hell no.

Batting my eyelashes, I open my hand, letting the pencil pieces drop to the floor. As he so kindly reminded me, it’s been a year since I walked out on him. A year since I’ve had to play the gentle omega princess. To my surprise, I can slip into the old role easier than I thought I could.

“Me?” The sweet voice is so unlike anything I’ve used in so long, some of the regulars at my counter do a double-take. Then they go back to pretending they’re not straining to hear every word over the suddenly raucous din. “Now why would you do that? Considering I’m nothing to you.”

I see Ryker’s mouth move quickly, spitting out a word or two that I can’t hear over the angry thudding of my pulse—but I can guess even so what he’s saying. Too bad I’m more preoccupied by the incredibly loud, cracking sound that seems to cut through the rest of the noise. A piece of the polished wooden curved part of the counter top has smashed and splintered underneath one of Ryker’s big paws. Even though he’s still wearing skin, his hand had flexed, claws slicing out, breaking off a huge chunk of Charlie’s bar.

I raise an eyebrow. “Cash or credit?”

Shaking out his hand, letting the wood shards and plastic pieces flutter to the sticky floor, Ryker’s brow furrows as his heated gaze flies back to me again. “What?”

“I want to know how you plan on paying for the piece of counter you just broke. Cash or credit? I might be able to convince Charlie to take a check, since I know you’re good for it, so I guess that’s an option, too.”

“Stop that. Look, I don’t know what you’re doing here—”

“Working. Isn’t it obvious?”

He thins his lips. “I don’t give a shit. You’re coming with me.”

The pure alpha demand in his voice is hard to ignore—or, it would be, if I wasn’t protected by the charmed fang.

Score another point for Aleks.

So though Ryker expects me to just jump because he says so, I make a big display of pulling my phone out of my back pocket, glancing at the time. “Ooh. Sorry. I’ve got another five hours left to my shift. Looks like I’m not going anywhere ‘til then.”

A whisper of shock dances across his face, as if he can’t believe that I can refuse him. He recovers quickly, though.

“Then take a break.”

Hmm… “No.”

“Take. A. Break.”

There’s something in his snarl. I dare another quick look right into his dark gold eyes, not even a little surprised when all I see is the wolf staring back.

I recognize that wolf. Mine calls to his, hoping against irrational hope that he’s changed his mind.

Yeah. Right.

A year. It’s been a year. If he thinks that he can just storm in here and start giving me orders, he’s got another think coming. If I’m nothing to him, he’s nothing to me. Not my mate. Not my Alpha. He’s just another customer, and since he doesn’t want a drink, he’s not even that.

“So nice to see you, but I’ve gotta get back to work. I’ll make sure to send the bill to Accalia.”

Tossing the empty waitress pad on the counter, I turn away from him.

He’s behind the bar before I can snap at him to get away from me. The message is pretty clear, though, and I refuse to give him the satisfaction of reacting to the way he invades my space.

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