Page 15

Mack

“Where’s Harper?” Tor’s eyes raked the interior of the kitchen, as if he’d find her hiding in a cupboard or something. I just took a long sip of my coffee. “Is she in the shower? Did she?—?”

“What happened?”

For a moment, Kieran looked completely smug. He ambled in wearing just a pair of shorts, stretching and scratching at his head.

“Harper—” Tor started to say.

“Left.” I finished that for him with a shake of my head. “Snuck out in the middle of the night.”

Yeah, I remembered that really well. The messy hair, the puffy lips, I could see them clearly in my mind, and if I took a deep breath, I could still smell the sweetness of her scent. I barely suppressed a smirk as I recalled her parting jab.

Fur Face…

“What?” Kieran’s face fell. “Why? What happened?”

You two rushed things, I wanted to say. You just assumed she’d fall into your laps and ask to be mate marked, after falling on their dicks. But I didn’t, and my restraint now won me favours.

“What’re you asking me for?” I stared each of my packmates down. “I just came out when I heard a noise in the hallway. Harper was obviously making a break for it.”

I spared them the details of what else Harper had said. She’d made clear that she just saw this as a one time thing. Trouble was, my wolf had a completely different idea of how this would go. We’d do this right, make clear we were serious, and?—

“She just left?” Tor looked like someone had taken his favourite toy away, sinking down into a chair. “Like… did we do something wrong?” He glanced at Kieran. “Harper seemed into it. Wasn’t she?”

For fuck’s sake, Tor was thirty years old. Too damn old to be acting like a five year old.

“I think…” Kieran shook his head. “I mean… Her scent…” He frowned. “You didn’t hurt her, did you? Go too fast with that spiky dick of yours.”

“So she would’ve been better off with the one big spike in yours?” Tor shot back.

“No, we?—”

“Need to get to that job,” I said, staring each one of them down. “The one we blew off to go and clean the floor at Harper’s work yesterday?”

“We could go by the cafe.” Tor perked up almost immediately. “Grab some breakfast and then see if we can talk to Harper. We?—”

“Can come across as crazy stalkers?” How the hell were they not getting this? “First of all you worked out where she worked, then you rocked up there uninvited, then you dumped the whole fated mate thing on her. Ever thought maybe you were rushing her?”

I was met by a wall of stony silence.

“Look, let’s get our arses to work, and I’ll…” I shook my head. “I’ll do a bit of recon and see if the situation can be saved.”

Picking up after them and fixing their mistakes, it’s what I did, so they moved now, grabbing breakfast and getting ready, even if without the usual rowdy bullshit. But if things were tense before we started work, they got so much worse when we got to work.

“Here he is.” Jim was one of Kieran’s dads, and he looked up as we walked onto the site. He set down his coffee cup and then looked us over. “Heard you found your girl, son?”

“Um, yeah…” Kieran said, raking his hair out of his eyes.

“That doesn’t sound too promising.” Jim looked at Fred and Kieran’s other dad, Brenton. The three of them stepped closer. “What happened?”

This was the point where I frantically signalled for Kieran to shut his yap, right? I didn’t get a chance. Kieran’s dads were like all the other bear dads: fiercely protective.

“It’s fine,” he said. “So we need?—”

“To tell us what’s going on.” Fred came to stand in front of Kieran, arms crossed. They were about the same height, but Fred carried the weight of parental concern and frustration with him.

At least that’s what I think it was. Didn’t exactly have a caring and interested father figure in my life, so I had no idea how to navigate this.

“Son, you know you can talk to us.” We had a case of good dad, bad dad going on, and Brenton was playing good dad. “If you’re having trouble with your mate?—”

“We told her she was our fated mate,” Tor blurted out and that had me moving. Kitty Cat’s mouth engaged before his brain did, and so I needed to hit the brakes for him. “Then we took her home and…”

“And what?” Fred snapped at Kieran. “Cooked her a nice meal? Explained what a sleuth…” He glanced at us. “Whatever you call yourselves is.”

“You didn’t rush things, did you?” Brad seemed very concerned right now. “Just because people know shifters exist doesn’t mean a girl is ready to jump into a mate bond straight away. You still need to do the work.”

“Make her feel safe,” Jim said. “Be clear about your intentions.”

“How do we do that when she left in the middle of the night?”

Fuck. Kieran stared his dads down, but I knew what was coming. I scratched the back of my neck, because shit was going to hit the fan in ten, nine, eight?—

“What was she doing leaving your place in the middle of the night?” Fred snapped.

“Maybe they fell asleep in front of the TV,” Brenton said. “Maybe they?—”

“Were thinking with their little heads, not their big ones.” Jim frowned as he faced us down. “That go for you too, Tor, Mack?”

“Ahh—” Tor started to say.

“Not me.” That should’ve won me some brownie points, right? Um, no. The dads’ eyes narrowed as I said my piece. “I was getting some paperwork done?—”

“While we slept with our mate.” Kieran was such a big guy, it was weird to see his shoulders droop. “It was her idea.”

“Not good enough, son,” Fred said. “We told you.” He glanced at the other dads. “Didn’t we tell him?”

“Of course, we told him.” Jim nodded. “But you’ve always gotta jump in feet first and worry about the consequences later.

That’s why…” He paused for a second as he stared at Tor, then me.

“That’s why you should’ve created a proper sleuth.

The right bears in your pack would’ve tempered that recklessness. ”

Right. Somehow it was my fault, even though I hadn’t done anything other than been the sober driver.

“So, how do you move forward?” Brad shot the others a warning look. “All’s not lost. You didn’t force her or rush her.”

“If anyone was doing the rushing, it was Harper…” Tor muttered.

“So we come up with a plan—” Brad started to say, but I cut him off.

“You do that.” I nodded to the interior of the new house we were working on. “I’ll start on the wiring in the bathroom.”

“Mack…”

I didn’t hang around to hear what they had to say, because none of it mattered. Whatever I suggested, whatever I did, it’d be wrong until one of the bears came to the same conclusion.

Well, I’d show them.

I was gonna get through to Harper, at least get her considering us as an option, because standing around talking shit never made a lick of difference.

Action did.

I opened up my toolbox and then went to work.

I’d taken my own truck this morning, unable to bear the mopey bullshit the guys were wallowing in, and so I headed off at the end of the day towards Harper’s place.

I’d ducked home, had a quick shower and put on some clean clothes.

The bears had it half right. Making a good impression, gaining her trust, that was all important.

I raked my hair back from my face, staring into the rear vision mirror, trying to psych myself up for walking up to Harper’s door, when some shitty piece of crap car pulled up and beeped the horn.

My eyes narrowed as I took him in. Cheap, loud printed shirt, elbow resting on the door of his car, the little prick slouched against his seat like he was some kind of boy racer or something. Who the hell was he beeping for, I wondered, right as Harper’s door opened.

Oh no, she didn’t.

She walked out looking like a fucking wet dream. I knew because she’d featured in mine every night since the moment we met, and this dress would make its debut the moment my eyes closed tonight. Black, slinky, yet flaring out around those fucking gorgeous legs as she walked downstairs.

Towards the dick in the shitbox car.

He didn’t even get out of his car and open the door.

Instead he revved the engine, leering as she got closer.

Even behind those mirrored shades, I knew he was checking her out.

Just because I was doing the exact same thing didn’t mean that was OK.

His one attempt at gallantry was to lean across and pop open the driver’s seat door open.

Don’t get in.

The depth and intensity of that prayer took me by surprise, but whatever capricious god looked after wolf shifters, I hoped they’d see things my way and persuade Harper to stay right where she was.

Nope. Just like every other time, the fates laughed at me as she got into his car.

He said something that I no doubt would’ve hated, then took off at a roar.

The tinny sound of the engine rattling had my fangs grinding together, right as I turned the key in the ignition and then took off after them.

The guy was a dickhead. It wasn’t just his dubious choice in clothing or car, but the way he was weaving through traffic like he was on a raceway or something.

I kept my foot pressed hard on the accelerator, keeping pace with them, even when the idiot was weaving through traffic.

The wolf’s keen sight saw her arm rise, clutching the oh-shit bar for dear life.

I was pissed when she got into the car, but I was damn near ready to tear his head off his shoulders when they finally came to a stop in front of a restaurant.

Aurora. At least the prick had good taste. It was an upmarket place, one where we’d done a bit of work on the interior before they opened for business. Dickhead got out on his side, walking past Harper and towards the door, then stopping when she clambered out.

That’s when I saw his expression shift.