Twice Shy

Caleb only laughed. He pulled Liza with him, and they disappeared into the house.

“Should you be talking to him like that?” She regretted it as soon as the words were out of her mouth. “Sorry. None of my business.” His hand slid from the back of her head between her turtleneck and skin to rub over the spot where he'd bitten her the previous night.

“This gives you rights.”

His face remained calm, but his voice was moody, questioning. The skin-to-skin contact, despite the innocuous spot, was beginning to make her toes curl. She tilted her chin up and gave herself a pep talk. Damn it, she could have a conversation that did not devolve into sex or arguing. He'd done something, changed something between them, and she needed to know what. It took all her strength of will, but she managed to free herself from his embrace, ignoring a pang of disappointment when he let her go.

“What rights do I have?” She made her voice firm. She wanted to be clear on this.

His eyes glowed hot, but the moodiness, the edginess remained. “The same as any mate.”

She dug her fingernails dug into her palms while she fought the urge to punch him. She'd never struck another soul in her life, but right now it was damned tempting. “I'm not one of you. I didn't grow up here like Liza. I don't. Know. What.

That. Means. Jonas!”

Okay, so she lost it. Her fist connected to his chest, though it didn't faze him.

He grabbed her elbow and yanked her close, a feral smile on his face.

“I like this side of you,” he growled softly, bending to nuzzle her neck.

It stunned her. First, that a male of her acquaintance hadn't lashed out at her outburst. And second, that he had most definitely liked it. His erection ground against her stomach, and his teeth, nibbling her through her turtleneck, made her eyes roll to the back of her head. She was gasping when he gently set her away from him.

“The explanations will have to wait. I have a meeting with Liza and Caleb, and Mick is waiting for you at the clinic.”

“Why?”

“I think he misses you,” Jonas teased.

“No. Why the meeting?”

Who cared if she was being pushy? He said she had the same rights as any mate. Surely that included questions.

“Pack business. Boring stuff.”

Ouch. Guess having rights didn't equate to being trusted. He leaned over to buss her cheek and turned her toward the stairs.

“Go find Mick, darlin',” he ordered. With a slap on her ass he was gone, leaving her to fume through her wounded pride.

Chapter Eight

Zach waited just inside the door, leaning one shoulder against the wall with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He fell into step beside Jonas as he walked down the hall.

“She's going to make you pay for that.”

“Who? What are you talking about?”

“Your mate. Blowing her off. The „don't worry your pretty little head about it'

response back there.”

He snorted. “Not your business how I deal with my mate, Beta.” Zach grabbed his arm, stopping him before he could open the alpha's office door. “Everything in this pack is my business, up to and including how you treat your mate. Caleb and Liza think you have it under control. I think that's about as far from the truth as you can get.”

Jonas wrenched free, barely restraining a growl. Harper was his. He wasn't going to tolerate any interference, not even from his beta.

“I seem to recall your relationship had some growing pains,” Jonas reminded him, fighting to contain his wolf.

Zach watched him and waited until he was back under control before he nodded. “That it did.”

Zach reached out to open the door but paused a moment first. He continued,

“Harper is fragile, but you shouldn't confuse that with broken. A woman doesn't survive what we suspect she did without an iron will.”

Jonas wasn't sure he agreed, but he nodded anyway and followed Zach inside.

Everyone else was already there. Caleb and Liza—alpha and paladin. Plus Gabby and Ethan, two of the other lieutenants, the highest-ranking soldiers in the pack.

The six of them met at least once a week.

Caleb was behind his desk, and Zach sat in an armchair off to the side. Liza went to take her usual perch on the front corner of the desk, but Zach grabbed her before she could and pulled her into his lap. Everyone pretended not to notice the way she blushed.

There was another chair in front of the desk and a sofa tucked under the window. Normally, the chair was his, but when he signaled Gabby to haul her ass out of it, she gave him a mutinous look. Ethan didn't look much happier on the sofa.

Jonas sighed. He was going to have to do something about that. Like he didn't have enough going on? He sat next to the younger werewolf and let his mind wander as they went over training reports and other mundane tasks involved in running a pack the size of Redhawke.