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I climbed in the car and told the driver to take me home.
My blood still boiled under my skin. Who did they think they were, trying to stake a claim on Rory?
She wasn’t a member of my pack. She wasn’t a part of the negotiation. She wasn’t a pawn that could be used like that.
She was…
Mine.
The severity of the thought hit me like a ton of bricks. Why was I so possessive of her? I’d been ready to maul Turk for suggesting he mate Rory, not because of her not being a part of the pack or him breaking the rules of dealing with an alpha, but because he’d wanted a woman that I saw asmywoman.
What the hell was wrong with me?
I didn’t get involved with women. I didn’t fall in love. I didn’t build relationships, and I sure as shit didn’t get upset when someone else took a woman off my hands. Most of the time, I was glad someone else would entertain them, so that I didn’t have to be the dick and tell them it had only ever been about getting off for me. I had never given any female false hope that hooking up would lead to something more.
Everything about Rory was different, though. What I felt for her reminded me of what it had been like when I’d had Aster.
That was dangerous in itself. If I got as serious about someone as I’d been about Aster and I lost them again, I wouldn’t survive it a second time.
It was better not to get involved at all than to risk that.
Except I couldn’t stop thinking about Rory. She was different than anyone I’d ever been with, anyone I’d ever met. For the longest time, Aster had been on my mind, but Rory was a force of nature, and she wasn’t like Aster at all. She was different. She was…mine.The word kept echoing in my mind. It was the reason I didn’t want her to go, the reason I wanted her in my life. She wasn’t just a female; she was a mate.Mymate. Fuck, I shouldn’t have thought about her that way, but I did. The thought of her belonging to someone else made me sick to my stomach.
12
RORY
My phone rang while I tried to unlock my door.
“Just a sec,” I muttered before I managed to open the door, put my handbag on the table, and find my phone. “Yeah?”
“Are you busy?” Colter asked.
“I just got in after work,” I said.
“Oh, good. How are things going?”
“The clinic is getting better, but it’s a long way away from the one we have,” I said. “I think there’s potential.”
“That sounds good,” Colter said. “I meant to ask about your progress, though. Not work.”
“Oh. Right. I can’t tell you I have much I can report, sadly. No one around here can give me straight answers about Turk, and when I ask, Bishop gets suspicious.” I flashed on what had happened when Bishop had come to confront me about it, and warmth rushed through my body. Confusion followed right on its heels.
“Tell me about Bishop.”
“What’s there to tell?” I replied. “You know what there is to know. He’s the alpha. He gets shit done. He’s serious about ruling with an iron fist. He’s not as merciless as people like to say he is, though.”
“No?”
I shook my head and kicked off my shoes, padded across the plush carpeted floors to the couch before I dropped myself into it.
“He’s different once you get to know him. He can be kind and caring, but he doesn’t want anyone to know that about him. I guess he sees it as a weakness.”
Colter hummed.
“What?”
“Mykel mentioned that you were asking about Bishop in a way that doesn’t seem all about business.”
