Chapter 7 Bullying classs room
When his skin touched mine, fire exploded up my arm and burrowed deep into my chest. Another reminder of the idiot who was no longer in my life controlling every step I took. I kept my face neutral, but I was certain he realized the pain I was in, based on the way he jerked his hand away.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
“I’m used to it.” I gritted my teeth. I couldn’t get a hug from my best friend without it stabbing me. Nothing new.
He sniffed at the air as he sat on the other side of the table. So I was right, he was a beast. A creature with the ability to shift into a humanoid form but was actually another creature altogether. I could hide my outward reaction, but I couldn’t hide my scent.
“You are as lovely as Cassia promised.” He smiled and looked like a boy on a poster. Sweet and kind. Ooey gooey center in that one. I was certain of it. “I’ve heard stories of both human and beast being lured into the depths by you, and I can see why. Any beast would gladly follow you.”
“You speak with pretty words.” As if I could be so easily swayed. “What are you?”
“I’m a wolf.”
He was probably a real family man who contributed to the team and could always be relied on. An apex predator that was pack oriented and did what was best for the group. Message heard Cassia. Message fucking heard.
“Would you like to hear about my pack?”
Called it. “Sure.”
As soon as we put in our lunch order, he prattled on about how his community lived. And yada yada yada. He was so sweet. I’d ruin him before he could blink. It would take me exactly two seconds to make him bow at my feet. I wondered how his little community would feel about that. Did I even want that? What the fuck did I want? Someone not like my mate. Someone who would stand by my side instead of leaving me alone for decades. Bastard.
I picked at my nails, trying to keep my feral emotions at bay. If I let this wolf see the real me, he’d be gone in seconds, and maybe I wanted a dependable team player. I hadn’t decided yet.
Metal scraping the ground made me look up to find a tight black t-shirt stretched to its limits over defined muscle. My eyes continued their journey up to angry black eyes. My mate sat beside the wolf. His dark gray hair was pulled into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He’d gained more muscle weight while he was gone. I swallowed down the urge to lick those muscles to see how much they changed. Stupid dead bond.
Although I’d just taken a dose of that potion, desire flooded me. My thighs snapped tightly together, hoping to keep my scent smothered from the both of them.
“What do you think you are doing?” Kam lifted an eyebrow at me. Every muscle that was barely hidden under that thin shirt tensed. His lip curled on one side, showing a row of incisors in his mouth, like he knew what I was thinking. The serrated teeth warned that his human form was close to falling away.
I hissed at my mate, and the wolf jumped out of his skin at my sudden aggression. If my mate thought he could come back after all this time, he was sorely mistaken.
The two beasts locked eyes and the energy in the room changed. Even I could feel the warring dominance in the air. Wolf vs. Megalodon. There was no question of who would win.
“Who are you?” the wolf asked.
“Her mate.” A growl rumbled deep in his chest. The wolf’s eyes grew wide in alarm.
“I’m out of here.” I couldn’t blame him.
The wolf scrambled to stand, but Kam slammed a heavy hand down on the back of his neck, holding him in place.
“Did you touch her?” “No.”
“Kam!” I jumped to my feet. “You don’t get to come in here and–” “Answer my question.” Kam didn’t acknowledge me. “Be honest this
time.”
“I shook her hand.” The wolf whimpered, quivering under Kam’s hold. He knew the law of beasts. You don’t touch another’s mate, but this poor bastard was under the impression my mate was long gone.
Hell, so was I.
“That’s what I thought.” Kam clamped his jaws around the front of the wolf’s neck and ripped his throat out. Blood flooded the table, ruining what was left of my lobster. The wolf panicked, grabbing his neck. He gargled at me for help.
“What do you want me to do about it? Do I look like I can fix your trachea?” I scoffed in disbelief.
Kam’s smile continued to twist in his demented way as he spat the blood and skin onto the table. “All you’d do is give me the pleasure of doing it again.”
He was challenging me. Scales tickled my legs again and my hair billowed out. I grabbed my soup spoon and launched myself over the table,
aiming for his eye. I jabbed it into his face as many times as I could before he tossed me back over the table. With a loud shriek, I jumped up, letting the full force of the sea’s wrath throw him back into the opposite wall.
Ocio’s rage specifically fueled my power, and I had plenty of that.
This asshole was going to pay for leaving me alone for twenty-two years. I ran at him, but the room turned into a steaming hot oven. The temperature became an oppressive weight that made me collapse to the ground. I savored the cool cement floor as I watched the glass windows fog from the change in temperature. Kam joined me on the ground, growling and snarling like the animal he was.
“Let’s all calm down,” a familiar voice commanded.
“Ref 74?” I looked up as best I could without lifting my head. Sure enough, it was the moon witch that saved me over and over again every time she sent me a new batch of that potion of hers.
“Mal.” Disapproval laced her voice; and she was one of the few people in the world where that meant something to me. “This is a human restaurant. What were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t,” I admitted, glancing around. But everyone was sleeping in their booths and chairs. She prevented the exposure we should have caused. “Thank you, Ref.”
She rubbed the mark and blushed. “It’s not a mating mark. Just an old scar.”