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The bell over the door chimed. Byron walked in with Dawnecia in tow. She was attractive he wouldn’t deny that, but she wasn’t his mate, and he didn’t need time alone with her to figure that out.
She was tall and sleek. All dressed in black she flung her power out around her announcing to everyone that she was a badass. It was loud and rubbed several of the Lycans she passed the wrong way. It was even irritating to Ryan, and he was a full-fledged alpha comfortable with his power and status.
He stood when they approached the table and offered Dawnecia his hand in greeting. She took it and Ryan used that opportunity to push her power back.
When her eyes flared with an intensified interest, he realized that the display might have been a bad idea. She took a seat across from him and the waitress brought them menus.
“You might consider toning down the theatrics.” He cautioned, knowing that he sounded more like a parental figure than a potential lover.
“Theatrics?” the word rolled off her tongue with a slightly gruff cadence and she arched a brow in question.
“Fortsford isn’t just our home.” He warned and was pleased when she pulled back a bit. There were very few humans who were privy to their existence and although the town was small, and the pack was friendly with the locals Ryan didn’t want their secrets spilled everywhere.
She lowered her gaze slightly, deferring to him. It satisfied his wolf, but he was still leery of the desire that she barely held in check.
“I think you know we aren’t well matched.” He said it politely, but his tone was still firm.
“You can’t know for sure just from a public meeting. I think we should test our compatibility the old-fashioned way.” She suggested in a throaty, almost sexual purr – if wolves could be accused of such a thing. As she said it, she slid her fingers up his forearm in a move designed to be enticing.
Before he could pull back or say anything there was a blade sticking in the tabletop less than an inch from Dawnecia’s hand. Shocked, Ryan turned at the low menacing growl.
“Kelly, what the hell?” He was glad he’d selected a booth in the back and that the restaurant was nearly empty. No one seemed to have noticed Kelly’s outburst. “Byron, get her out of here!” He issued the harsh command trying to keep the two women from coming to blows as he felt Dawnecia’s anger flare.
Byron grabbed Kelly by the upper arms essentially wrapping her in a bear hug from behind to pull her away from the booth. She cringed and hissed as if his touch was painful. Ryan bit back on the growl that rumbled in his throat, nearly ordering the other man to let her go, but when Dawnecia moved as if to stand and challenge Kelly he yelled again.
“Now, Byron! Get her out of here now!” Judging by the way she was behaving Ryan expected that Byron would have to physically remove Kelly from the restaurant. He was surprised when she cast him a sad pain-filled look before it was quickly masked, she shrugged off Byron’s hold before she turned and left.
His wolf protested, and Ryan had to exert control over that part of him that warned he’d backed the wrong woman. His wolf wanted to follow Kelly out of the building. He watched her leave through the big plate glass window. She huddled in on herself when the wind battered her but he forced himself to stay to make sure that Dawnecia was alright.
“What kind of pack are you running here?” she growled, and Ryan could see the gleam of Dawnecia’s wolf in her eyes straining at the surface of her flesh insistent upon freedom.
“You will maintain control here.” He practically barked the order at her, using his influence as an alpha he pushed at her, forcing her to swallow the energy that would bring her wolf forward, preventing her from being able to change.
“I demand that bitch is punished.”
“You demand? Let’s not forget you’re in my territory. You don’t get to make demands. I decide who is punished.”
She stared back at him like an insolent child, and Ryan was glad they weren’t mates because Dawnecia had a lot of growing up to do.
KELLY MOVED TO the lake, once again seeking solace. Her body felt heavy and weak. Pain and sorrow overwhelmed her system. The cold wind chilled the tears she had shed so that they crystalized on her cheeks.
The way that Ryan had scolded her had sent pain searing deep into her soul, wounding her in a way she hadn’t even realized was possible. He’d dismissed her into Byron’s care, allowing the other man to put his hands on her while he tended to that woman.
It was stupid of her to challenge the other woman, but Kelly had overheard her suggest that she and Ryan test their mating compatibility and fury had blinded her.
She hadn’t meant to attack the other woman, but she hadn’t been able to fight her instincts to defend her claim as Ryan’s mate. Kelly had moved the blade, so the knife lodged in the table and not flesh, but seeing the woman’s hands on Ryan, knowing that he was still there with her consoling her made Kelly wish she hadn’t changed her aim.
What was the point though?Ryan looked right through her. It was as if he didn’t see her. He refused to acknowledge her as more than a minor member of his pack and it was tearing at her insides.
Ignoring the cold bite in the air she pulled her clothes off and called her wolf forward. The image of her shifter side came to her mind's-eye sluggish, almost lethargic, her sides heaving as she took a deep breath. The change moved through Kelly at a slow agonizing pace, her muscles popping and bones snapping as they shifted to assume the form of her lycan counterpart.
What should have taken only moments felt like it went on forever. When it was over she wanted to run, to have the scents of the night in her nose, but the change was too tiring and she was too sad.
She laid her head on her paws. In her wolf form, the feeling of rejection was more acute. It was harder to process as an animal than it was to understand when she was in human form. Even though the two were the same, the wolf didn’t understand why their mate didn’t want them.
Shutting her eyes, she let sleep claim and allowed the darkness that greeted her to wash away the feelings of sadness and hopelessness that plagued her while she was awake.
Kelly didn’t go home that night, unable to be anywhere near town. If Ryan was going to sleep with that woman, she didn’t want to be within a hundred miles of it happening.
