AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mason, on the other hand, met Mav on the heels of a horrible breakup. His old pack was all alphas whom he was with for a few years before they met an omega they wanted to mate with. The omega wasn't their fated mate, but his old pack still dropped him faster than the blink of an eye. They said they didn't need a beta anymore now that they'd found their omega. So Mason packed his bags and left behind the future he thought he had. He found Mav a few months later, and Mav helped him crawl out of a deep depression. Along the way, the two fell in love.
As Mason walks past Mav on his way to drop the box of bakery items on the kitchen counter, though, I can't help but think that finding Summer has put a strain on their relationship. Sadness flickers in Mav's eyes as he watches Mason's retreating back, but it's there and gone before I have a chance to read too much into it. We both follow Mason to the kitchen island. I hear the pitter-patter of bare feet and turn in time to see Brooke skipping down the stairs to join us.
"So?" Brooke asks, skidding to a stop at the island and lunging for the bakery box. She pulls out the first chocolate-drenched item she can find, which happens to be a donut, and then snags one of the two remaining full cups of coffee. We watch as she eats the entire donut in three bites and then rummages around in the box again until she finds the chocolate croissant. I shake my head and chuckle. The girl has the biggest sweet tooth of anyone I know.
She snaps her fingers at me, impatiently waiting for an answer. Brooke wants to know how our 'accidental' run-in with Summer went. We knew she was at the cafe. We'd put security on her the second I found out she walks home alone at midnight. There wasn't a chance in hell we were letting our mate put herself in unnecessary danger. So we put one of our security guards on her—discreetly—to make sure she was safe. He also lets us know when she's out and about. Which may be a little bit unethical, slightly stalker-ish, but I couldn't care less. I'm desperate to know her. To be in her space.
"We ran into Amanda," Mason says, hissing her name like it burns on his tongue.
"What? Where?" Mav asks.
"Where was Summer?" Brooke tacks on, darting glances between me and Mason and looking more and more nervous at what our answer will be.
Mason opens his mouth to speak, but I cut him off because somehowI'mthe more even tempered of us currently. Despite it being my ex that accosted us. "Mason went into the café to order alone. Summer came out a few minutes later and ran into me on the sidewalk. She seemed upset," I frown at that, thinking about how distraught she was, but also how she melted into me when I purred for her, "and then as I was comforting her, Amanda showed up."
"Acting psycho," Mason mutters under his breath.
"She walked up to you when Summer was there?" Brooke confirms, looking distraught.
"It's fine," I rush to add, "I think she made Summer jealous when she touched me. Summergrowled at her." I'm almost giddy.
"Why are you so happy? Your mate just saw your ex rub all over you, and you're smiling?" Mav growls at me, anger lining his eyes.
"Don't you get it? I think she got so jealous she could feel the mate bond!" In my excitement, I wave my arms and knock over my coffee, spilling the remaining over the white marble countertops. Mason reaches behind him as I curse and hands me the hand towel hanging from the oven door. I mop up the mess and look up to see Mav and Brooke looking at me with their mouths hanging open slightly and their eyes unfocused. It appears I've shocked them into a temporary state of confusion.
Brooke shakes her head a little, and her eyes focus back to me. "How sure are you? Whenexactlydo you think she felt it?"
I think back for a second. "Well, she definitely responded to my purr, but I think it was when Amanda came up and touched my arm. When she stopped touching me, Summer seemed to settle down."
Brooke contemplates that for a second, and Mav jumps back in. "So maybe we use that. Test it out a little. We all have exes. I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard to accidentally bump into them when we're with Summer. Maybe we could see if that triggers the mate bond for her." I'm nodding my head along with Brooke. It could work.
"No!" Mason shouts, slamming his hand down on the countertop. "Do you guys hear yourselves? You're talking aboutmanipulating our mate.You're talking about tricking her into a mate bond, and I won't stand around and watch it happen. Over. My. Dead. Body," he growls, passion heating his words. He may be a beta, but he's definitely got an alpha's presence. Even I feel like submitting to him right now.
"Mason..." Mav starts.
"No, Maverick, if we're going to start a relationship with her, it will be done the right way. In good faith. What happens down the road when she finds out you deliberately paraded your exes around to trick her into being with you? You think that'll go over well?" Goddess, that would be a nightmare. Shame washes through me at Mason's words, but he continues. "Look, I don't know why she can't feel we're her mates, but maybe she will. With time and the right way. Because I can tell you one thing for sure, I won't stand by and let you treat her like less than she deserves." Like he's just dropped a mic, Mason shakes his head at us and walks away. Mav looks distraught watching him go, and I feel like the world's biggest asshole as his words linger in the now tense atmosphere.
"He's right," Brooke whispers, leaning her head down and resting her forehead against the cool marble.
"Of course he's right. We'll just have to keep doing what we're doing," Mav says and walks away, too. Only he doesn't follow Mason, he walks the opposite way, back to the gym.
I hope Summer starts to feel our mate bond soon, otherwise I fear it may just tear those two apart.
Ten
Summer
"Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit."I stumble in my haste to put my foot in my small kitten heel while hustling around the apartment to grab the rest of my work things. The manuscript is still on the small coffee table in front of the couch where I left it. Right before I started in on the tequila again.
Just as I was finishing the last of my edits, their emotions started filtering through again. Nothing so distracting at first. It started out with Jade’s boredom, and Connor and Brody's adrenaline. I imagined they were working out together. But, at some point, they must have felt me feeling them, and the torment started again. Every strong emotion they could conjure hit me through the rest of the evening. Rage. Disgust.Grief.That gave me pause. Even though they hurt me first, it still didn't sit right that I was causing them pain, too. If I was even the cause of their grief. It could be anything I suppose. But the emotion that really gave me pause was the lust they were throwing at me.
I tried not to imagine what they were doing that would invoke a lustful reaction, but my mind wouldn't listen to my head. First, I thought they were fooling around with each other. But it was hard to conjure that image since they were all soalphathat none of them had ever been willing to relinquish control in the bedroom long enough to be together that way. Then I thought maybe they were watching porn long enough to feel turned on to torment me. When those thoughts started feeling too benign, my brain switched tomaybe they found a new omega.Then the horror really set in. Not horror that maybe they've moved on. But because there could be an omega entering into the same situation right now that I was in two years ago. Lost and looking for a pack, only to be drugged and basically forced into a bond. It was at that point in the evening, when I had just finished editing and the bond became too much, that I started drinking.
Halfway through the bottle, it was easy to not feel them anymore. I wasn't feeling much of anything at that point, though. I'd passed out at some point and just woke up to my alarm blaring. When I glanced at the time on the alarm, I noticed it had been going off for twenty minutes before it woke me up from my drunken slumber. I was already cutting it close on time, but I had to shower away the smell of booze leaking from my pores. So now here I am, frantically racing around my apartment to, if I'm lucky, make it to work only five minutes late.
Manuscript, phone, and keys shoved into my purse, I'm out the door only fifteen minutes after the alarm woke me up. With my head pounding, I can’t help but think at the rate I'm going, by the time these three months are up and I'm able to take the bond suppressant again, I'll have to attend AA meetings.
Out on the sidewalk, I'm doing a fast walk slash slow run the entire way to Pen2Paper Press, weaving in and out of everyone else leisurely walking to work. The wind is whipping my wet hair this way and that. It slaps against my face every few steps, and I huff, pushing it back aggressively each time. My fingers get tangled at one point, and I'm dreading looking in a mirror when I get to work. I'm such a mess.
