Her hands fisted into the apron he hadn’t noticed until now. Sugary white smeared across the front, and one of her hands seemed to still have some leftovers from whatever she’d been doing.
“Ethan? Look at me.”
He was looking. He saw her, he could see her as the mother of his daughter. The mother of his future cubs. Only, he saw the hand coming at his face a little too late.
“Shit.” He rubbed the burning on his cheek. “I deserved that.”
Olivia glared. Damn if she wasn’t a scary beta.
“You take away my choice to marry someone of my choosing, and the best you’ve said is you screwed up. And then you drift off into God knows where while I'm talking to you.” Her fingers curled in as if they were claws.
“It’s just that I don't know how it all works. I've never been a mate to anyone. But don’t you feel it? The pull? Being away from you has been the absolute worst twelve hours of my life.” Ethan paused at the realization dawned. He had no idea how she knew about any of this. He was still mustering the courage to see her and yet, here she was.
“How did you figure it all out?” He pointed to her shoulder. “You finally noticed the mark? Although, you don’t seem to believe anyone can know their soul-mate. So, I doubt it was the mark then. Unless you know more about wolf-shifters than you let on. What made you come here?”
She rubbed her temples. “I didn’t think anything of a sore shoulder. I assumed it was bruised from our, uhm, well you know.”
Ethan loved the way her breath grew less steady with each word. He couldn’t hide the smirk.
“You mean the quickie in the alley?”
Shit, shit. He tried to remember to think of puppies or fishing, or anything less sexy than Olivia’s body slamming down on his dick in the alley. He definitely remembered.
She cleared her throat. “I could ignore that. What I couldn’t ignore was the pack of men that showed up in my shop claiming I not only smelled of their alpha, but I was mated to him.”
And good feeling gone. “Oh.”
“So what? You're like their king? This isn’t seventeenth-century England. You can’t just go around claiming woman for your own.” She gasped. “Oh, my God. How many of us are there? What, do you have some kind of harem hidden away? I am not going to get sloppy seconds.”
He snorted.
“That’s not funny. If you’re my mate, or husband, master, whatever the hell you wolf shifter guys do, I own your ass,” she said. Her fists pressed down on her hips.
His heart skipped a beat. She was kind of scary. And sexy as hell. His vision clouded as he pictured her face down on his bed, her ass in the air as he drove into her over and over, her screams muffled as he worked her until her body trembled and her voice was hoarse until their bodies pulsed in orgasm together.
He played with the idea that she might be able to hear some of his thoughts by now, willingly mated or not, she had the title. He tried to push the image to her, let the thoughts travel into her.
He focused on her body moving from her baby blues to her breasts rising and falling more rapidly than a second ago. The apron kept him from going any further, but he saw her legs cross at the ankles, and he quirked his brow.
Instinct pulled him to her. She backed away until there was nowhere else to go. He braced his arms on either side of her.
“So, what you are saying is that as long as there’s no harem, no sharing, that you’re open to the idea of us?”
God, he hoped she’d say yes. He’d take her down to one of the rooms right now and lock out the rest of the guys. He’d show her a proper mating.
Warm breath flitted over his cheek as her breathing quickened. He bent his arms a bit and allowed himself to inch closer. A sparkle lit her eyes, the sheer blue now dark midnight. Fuck, he could almost see her wolf coming through, and she was gorgeous. Olivia needed to stop fighting the shift.
“I am not open to forced servitude.”
Cocking his head, he backed off a few steps. “Servitude? You are not my servant, you are my equal. What the hell do you think this is? You’re my other half.”
She scoffed. “I’d be the better half.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Maybe you would be. The point is that you are my second, my other half. You are the emotional balance that runs through the pack where I am the strength and the pivotal force. Do you know anything about wolves at all? We’re a family. There are no servants.”
Standing there, nearly naked, he’d never felt like someone saw him less than she did right now. Pulling in the anger, the hurt, the frustration, he opened the connection between them once more. The thread was weak. It would grow stronger once she allowed her inner wolf to claim her human. Fear, tendrils of anger, confusion, pain. He expected the first two, but the pain was wrong. All wrong. He tried to dig deeper, peel away at the layers hidden in her emotions. He couldn’t find thoughts, not yet. She wouldn’t allow him.
He scanned her, but he couldn’t see a single wound, not beneath all the clothing she wore.
“Did someone hurt you?”
She fronted. “What? No. No one except you.”
What?
How had he hurt her? The whole biting thing was supposed to be pleasing. Everyone said so, not that he’d ever mated anyone before. He had taken care to not slam her into the wall or grip her too hard regardless of the loss of restraint.
He looked at his hands, turning them over. No, he hadn’t hurt her. The shimmer in her eyes took him aback. A glistening of tears
