Page 4

I’m just watching her as she paces back and forth in my room. Caged beast is an accurate assessment of her right now. If I had to guess, her wolf is riding her pretty hard right now.

Hazel nudges my knee with her hand, urging me to continue.

“Anyways, I decided to head to the parking lot, thinking he might have gone there looking for me. That’s when I saw his mop of shaggy brown hair. I thought it was him, but when I called out his name, the person kept walking. I thought, ‘Maybe he didn’t hear me?’ So I followed the person as they ducked under the bleachers.”

Hazel let out a gasp, “Oh no.”

I just nod my head. “Turns out it was, in fact, Warrick, but as I came closer to tell him I was right here, I heard the giggle of another girl. She was telling him they couldn’t do it right there because they could get caught. He ensured her that nobody would catch them, not even realizing they both had been caught already. I heard him pull her zipper down and watched as he put his hands down her pants. She started moaning, and that’s when I realized that I didn’t want to see anymore.”

Hazel has her hand over her mouth, with a look of utter shock written across her face. Willow has stopped pacing and is staring at me with unfiltered hatred flowing off her like tidal waves.

The tears start to fall again as I choke out the next part. “I said to him, ‘I can’t believe I fell for you,’ and turned to run to the parking lot. I heard him call out my name several times as I ran away, but I refused to hear what he had to say.”

“I’m going to kill him. That is the most despicable thing he could do. What was he thinking?” Willow resumes her pacing across the floor. I don’t know what I should be more concerned about right now: her wearing a hole into my floor or her beast ripping free of her skin.

“Willow, will you come hold me?” I ask gently.

Her head whips to the side as she looks at me. Seeing the tears falling down my face and the look of pain I’m sure is there, she sighs while dropping her shoulders. Allowing my body to fall onto the bed, I scoot my way up to the pillows. Hazel scoots in beside me with her back to the wall as she wraps her right arm across my stomach. Willow kicks off her boots and unbuttons her pants, dropping them to the floor.

She pulls back the blanket as she slides in on my left side. As she cuddles up to me, I feel her hand pull my face to hers. We are a breath apart as she stares into my eyes, “Don’t ever let a man make you feel as though you aren’t worth something. Just because he can’t see your worth, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Diamonds only form under intense pressure. I love you, Aspen, and one day, a guy is going to show you what you are worth.”

I nod my head as tears fall from my swollen eyes.

We all lay there in silence as the day washes over me. It may have been the worst day of my life, but at least I’m cocooned in love, with two girls who have never hurt me.

“You know what hurts the most?” I whisper into the silence. “I will never understand why he would do that, knowing I was there and looking for him. What does she have that I don’t?”

“Nothing. She has nothing you don’t.” Willow’s words whisper across the skin of my neck. “Let’s get some sleep and we can plot tomorrow how to make his life miserable.”

With that, we cuddle into each other. Before I finally fall asleep, a thought floats across my mind.Goddess, please give me a mate that appreciates me and loves me for me.

Chapter 1

Warrick

Four years later

Sucking in a breath, I open the door to her bookstore. She calls from the back of the store, saying, “I’ll be right with you.”

Today is going to be the day. I know I fucked up when we were pups, but surely she can’t still hold that against me. I was young, dumb, and horny. Can she really fault me for that?

I hear her gentle footsteps as she walks toward me, the smell of rose and sandalwood with a soft note of vanilla fills my nostrilsas she comes closer. I don’t really have a plan, other than to see if she will talk to me.

My ears pick up on her intake of air and the small, almost too quiet, sigh she lets out.So she is affected by my scent, like I am hers. Good to know.

“Warrick, why are you here?” she asks, as she breezes past me with a stack of books in her arms.

The soft thump of the books as she sets them on the table by the front door is the only sound in the building. “I was hoping for a chance to talk to you about us.”

She lifts her eyebrow at me. “What about us? Last time I checked, there isn’t an us.”

My hand runs down my face as I sigh. “Come on, you know we are mates. I know I made mistakes when we were teenagers, but you can’t tell me you aren’t ready to settle down. It’s been four years since we found out we were mates. Four years of us ignoring fate. You didn’t even wait around when we found out on your eighteenth birthday. Instead, you ran away and right into the arms of these boys who can’t mate you,” I say.

A laugh bursts from her chest, shocking both of us. She holds her hand up. “You, of all people, have no room to discuss who I am seeing or not seeing.” She goes back to stacking the books that she carried in.

“Well, I am done with it, and so are you. It’s time for us to settle down and build the life the goddess wants,” I say, with a stern tone in my voice.

Her eyebrows bunch together, “Let me get this straight. You’re done fucking every woman who spreads her legs for you and now I need to get on board, too? Did I get that right?”