Page 47 of Crossed Fates

“The next time I catch you checking out my mate, I’ll castrate you with my teeth.” This time my smile was genuine. “You feel me?” I didn’t wait to hear his reply, just shut the door and turned around to find Makayla standing behind me with an arched brow.

Alaric

Makayla placedher hands on her hips, the sweatpants a near-perfect fit. However, now that we were alone, I sort of preferred the towel. “Your mate?”

I lifted a shoulder. “Doesn’t mean I’m going to do anything about it, but yeah, Makayla,you’re my mate.” Something we’d already established.

“And that means I can’t be with another guy in your pack?”

“His interest in you has nothing to do with you and everything to do with pissing me off.” I didn’t mean for that to sound like a hit to her ego, so I quickly clarified with, “It’s a direct insult to ogle you the way that he did, and he knows it. And he’s done it twice now.”

She frowned. “Twice?”

“First at Tyler’s house, and again inmyhouse.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” I ran a hand over my face and shook my head. “Sorry. I’m not trying to take this all out on you. It’s just…”

“A lot?” she suggested, leaning against my foyer wall.

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s a lot.” I glanced around her at my kitchen. “And I’m starving.”

“Me, too,” she admitted, her eyes running over me.

I arched a brow.

She swallowed. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Sure you didn’t.” I prowled toward her and nipped the air in front of her lips. “But I wasn’t kidding. I need food.” Then I could think about sex. Maybe. Actually, probably not. Definitely not.

Shit. Just… focus on one thing at a time.

Makayla followed me into the kitchen, a question lurking in her pretty eyes.

“What do you want to ask me?” I wondered out loud as I started going through my fridge.

“I’m just…” She trailed off as she took over one of the stools beside my counter bar. There were two, but seated on the dining room side, allowing the chef in the kitchen to see the dining and living area beyond.An open floor plan,my mother would call it.For entertaining.

Because I liked entertaining people.I nearly rolled my eyes at the thought.

“Do you think someone like Hardt would be a good alpha to your pack?” Makayla finally asked, the words coming out in a rush almost as though she’d had to talk herself into voicing them.

I snorted. “Absolutely fucking not.” I didn’t even need to think about the answer. It was the most obvious one to voice. “Why, do you?”

“I… actually, no.”

I looked over the door of the fridge to find her frowning. My brow furrowed in response. “Did he say something to you?” I’d only left them alone for a minute, but he’d clearly followed her into the living area. And the jackass had been grinning when I’d returned.

“Not exactly. Well, yes. I mean, no. I mean…” She shook her head, a growl leaving her mouth that had me fighting the urge to grin.

It was the first time I’d seen her at a loss for words, and I found the reveal a bit charming. It made her more human. Or just, more accurately, relatable.

“He wanted to know if the two of us would be staying. I figured he meant the two of us”—she pointed a finger back and forth between us—“so I told him no and that I will be going home.”

And that killed my amusement.

I will be going home.