I laughed and let him take my bags.
He slowed his steps to match mine. “Give it to me straight. What’s going on with you? Last time we talked, you and your mate were having difficulties.” He sniffed the air and raised his brows. “Congratulations! I take it things have worked themselves out?”
“No, actually it’s even worse than before.” I couldn’t find the words to tell Mac that it turned out the shifter I’d thought was my mate really wasn’t.
Mac frowned sympathetically. “He’s got to be a special kind of stupid if he isn’t on his knees trying to make things right with a woman like you.”
I groaned. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
We walked a few minutes, and I slipped into a broody silence.
“Hey, did I ever tell you about the time I took a weekend trip to Vegas with the guys and ended up married to my best friend, Dan?”
“No, tell me that’s not a true story.”
He laughed. “It’s true, sadly enough.”
I giggled and buried my face in my hands. “Is Dan gay?”
“Neither of us are gay. We just figured that when you’re in Vegas, you gotta check out Vegas wedding chapels. Stupidly, we waited until we were hammered to do it.”
I barked a laugh picturing Mac waking up and realizing he’d married his best buddy.
Mac shrugged. “Neither of us have found mates and he’s a decent enough guy.”
“That’s hilarious.”
“Fastest annulment in the state of Nevada, but we have a good story to tell at parties.”
Before I knew it, we’d arrived back at the place I was renting. Leave it to Mac to take my mind off my worries. He’d be a great mate to some lucky woman.
“Thanks for walking me, Mac. And thanks for the laugh. I needed that.”
He gave me a hug before saying goodbye.
It was then that a deafening roar bellowed through the night. It was so loud it shook the earth, and Mac was suddenly flying backwards as Dylan tackled him to the ground.
Oh, crap!
13
Dylan
I roared, charged, and tackled the shit stain to the ground, throwing a hard jab to his side, then to his face. I wanted to shift and fight him, beast to beast, but despite my blind rage at seeing him touch my mate, I had sense enough to know we were too out in the open to shift.
He grunted from the blow, then did a quick roll, getting out from under me and hopping to his feet.
Blood dripped from his split lip. His eyes flashed a glowing silver—wolf shifter. “I scented you coming, but you were faster than I thought.”
In response, I swung my fist, connecting with the side of his jaw. The blow stunned him, but he shook it off and came at me.
I heard Elin screaming, shouting for us to stop, but I couldn’t. The dickhead put his hands on her—on my mate. He needed to be taught a lesson, and I intended to teach it—me and the business end of my fist.
The asshole gave as good as he got, landing punch after punch as I did the same. “Look, I don’t want to do this with you, man. I was just giving the lady a hand.”
Giving her a hand? He touched her. They fucking hugged! Without restraint, I threw another right hook followed by an immediate gut punch.
The asshole kept trying to talk. “If there was anything between Elin and me, I promise you I would fight you full on, because that woman is worth fighting for.”
I had him by the front of his shirt. I’d lifted him off the ground when Elin appeared at my side clutching my arm with both hands, pulling it with all her might. “Stop! Oh my god, Dylan. What the hell are you doing?”
It was then that I realized two things. One, the asshole and I were pretty evenly matched, and two, despite our matched abilities, he wasn’t trying very hard to fight back. In fact, he didn’t seem to be doing anything but the minimum to defend himself.
I reluctantly dropped him and turned to her. She scowled at me, and looked consolingly at him.
“I am so sorry, Mac.”
The asshole, Mac, wiped his bloody nose on his shirt. “Don’t be. It’s what I wanted to see. Wolves have the best sense of smell of all shifters. I knew he was watching when I hugged you. I did it purposely. I wanted to see if he’d attack.”
Elin seemed taken aback. “What?”
Mac shrugged and grinned. His teeth were stained red with his blood. “He wouldn’t be much of a mate if he didn’t. I wanted to make sure he was worthy of you. Now that I know how he feels about you, I can rest easy. He’ll take care of you.”
Slimy, handsy bastard. Okay, he did kind of help me out by doing that and making a point to Elin, but why the hell did he have to touch her to do it?
Mac held up his hands in surrender as he addressed me. “I promise you. I’m no threat, and in the future I’ll show more respect.”
I hissed, and watched as he turned and walked off. Elin didn’t stick around. She marched inside in a huff, mumbling to herself. I wanted to follow her in, but my lion wouldn’t allow it. I remained outside until I was sure Mac was really gone.
By the time I calmed down enough to go in, the house was quiet and Elin was already in her bedroom.
I stretched out on my own bed staring up at the ceiling fan. It had been a hell of day, but I knew three things for sure.
One, call it divine destiny, serendipity, or fate, Elin was definitely my mate.
Two, it wouldn’t be easy, but I’d do whatever I had to do for as long as I had to do it to make amends and win her over.
And three, once I did win her over, I was never letting her go.
