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For an hour, she listened to Keoni fill Travis in while he combed through her footage. Their running commentary about her life irked her. They had no say in it, and if she didn’t want to tell anyone, she didn’t have to. She was thinking of ways to ditch them after the holidays when Keoni paused the footage and flipped it around for her and Travis to see.
“Green hoodie. I keep seeing him. Big dude, walks like a predator, like he’s stalking people.”
“That’s not a thing. You’re being dramatic.” She tried to keep her voice light, to keep him from noticing that her heart jumped when she saw the stalker. His face was always shadowed, but Keoni had found the same man she had seen dropping the note at the bar. He was creeping in corners, standing by pillars, just in range or just out of it. And yes, when pulling up different feeds, he was always watching her.
“Not just stalking. He walks like… he moves like an alpha. Fast and like a panther.” She eyed Travis. He saw what she had seen. Fucking alphas all had a swagger that pack members could see from anywhere. “What the fuck does an alpha want with you, Bailey?”
“You think I know, Travis?” She snapped at him, unable to keep her cool any longer. “Clearly, I didn’t notice him, or I would have walked up and gutted him like a fish. I don’t want to live my life looking over my shoulder. You three already drive me crazy enough. I’ll be fine. I’ll watch for him this time, and we will catch him.”
“You need to tell Ava.”
“No, and don’t you fucking snitch, Travis Eugene Martin.”
“He’s right. She needs to know, and if she finds out we knew and didn’t tell her…” Keoni was gentle, but insistent, and she didn’t like the logic or maturity he was exuding all the sudden.
“She already likes to light me on fire. Now, she will have us doing shit duty in the cow pastures for a month. No, thank you. I like my life on the mating tours.”
“Then we can’t tell her. She will make us all come home.”
“No, she’ll make you come home, and then I will get a hotel room to myself.”
With a jerk, she reached back and slapped Travis in the chest, then attempted to launch her whole body at him as he squealed, but Keoni pulled her back. “Shit, Bai. You have to report to your Alpha, and with everything going on and us all going back in a week anyway, she might just say to be careful. But we have to say something.”
“With all the things she has going on, a fucking psycho stalker will only add to her plate. He’s my problem, and there’s no way he will act on anything in such a public place. One more weekend, and we head home. I’ll tell her then, and I won’t tell her you guys knew.”
There was dead silence in the car as she leaned back into her seat. She grabbed her work laptop and began clicking away, ready to be done with the conversation, but they stared at her uncomfortably.
“Seriously. Drop it or I will pull the recording from earlier up and post it. Matter of fact, Travis, move your ass to the front. I don’t want you breathing down my neck, and I need a nap. Move.”
He scrambled to the front silently, and she moved between the two chairs towards the back bench, grabbing a blanket and scrunching it up under her head for a pillow. “You guys still wanted to see Atlanta, right? You’ve been talking about it for weeks. If you tell Ava, she’s making you bring me home. Period. Let’s get through this weekend, and I swear I will tell her. You can be there when I do.” She turned on her side, her back to them. “Wake me when we get close to Atlanta.”
She didn’t know how long it had been before she was once again pulled from a fitful sleep. She had been dreaming of him again, his scent clouding her brain when she opened her eyes. Large hands brushed over her hair and down her arm, a thumb moving in soothing circles on her ribs. The blanket was tossed over her, and her head rested on Keoni’s leg.
“Dreaming of me? You know I’m here for anything you need.” Keoni’s smug voice annoyed her, even as his comforting presence pulled her from her dreams. It had been so life-like—her mate’s body pressed into hers, his lips against her neck…and now her heart raced, desire still coursing through her as she woke completely.
“Ah yes, I’m always excited to wake up to your dick in my face. Oh, baby, oh baby, give me more.” The sarcasm dripped from her voice, but she didn’t move, only snuggled closer to him and closed her eyes. Since they met over three months ago, he had been charming, funny, and flirtatious, but never pushy. It’s how he was with everyone. She watched him do the same thing with Ava, despite his own brother beating the shit out of him for it more than once. So, his advances never bothered her becausethey didn’t mean anything. He was a good friend, someone fun to party with.
But with the remnants of her dream still clinging to her thoughts, and lust still running through her veins, she weakened when his hand slid lower teasingly, then back over her ribcage to rest nonchalantly over her breast.
She froze, like every time someone touched her since finding her mate. Something inside her, more than her wolf’s insistence, stopped her brain, but her body never got that memo. She had never denied her body its wants and needs before, not since she was sixteen. Sex was a beautiful thing, and she had planned on enjoying it until the day she met her mate, getting the most out of the single life. But now, it was… complicated.
Despite her brain telling her to resist, her body was betraying her.
“I can smell your lust, Bai. Let me make you feel good for a second. Let me help you forget everything.”
His fingers slid under the blanket, easing under her crop top to her bare breast. Her breasts weren’t small, but not so large she had to wear a bra, so she almost never did. When his hand closed over her, his finger circling her nipple enticingly before pinching, she gasped, arching into him instinctually. Fuck, he knew just the right moves to leave her speechless and wanting more, especially when his hand skimmed down her stomach, then down brushed her thigh teasingly. W he traced the edges of her underwear, her stomach clenched in anticipation. Her body wanted more so badly, and her brain just wanted to forget.
But there she was, her beast howling in her mind, reminding her why she shouldn’t, why she couldn’t. Keoni wasn’t just anyone. Her mate was one of his best friends. She just didn’t know which one.
“Stop. I don’t want this, Keoni. Please.” She grabbed his wrist, pausing his movement, and he allowed it, not resisting.Hurriedly, she sat up instead, putting distance between them. Taking several steadying breaths, she stared out the window, trying to focus on the blur of trees and nothingness of the Georgia landscape.
It was a long moment of silence before the casualness of his tone belied his words. “There’s more to it, isn’t there? What else are you hiding?”
She glanced at the front seats, but Gio and Travis were singing along loudly to a song on the radio, not paying any attention to them. “Nothing.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Annoyance rose in her once again, and not just with him. She hated being this way, hated being pissy all the time. This wasn’t her. She was the life of the party, the bright spot in people’s day, and she missed that. She was losing herself.
