Page 23 of Grey (Little River Stallions #2)

NORTHERN OHIO SHIFTERS BOOK ONE

Maya lifted her hands and looked at the cloth with a grumble. Putting her hands back, she repeated the words and then looked at the cloth again.

“Is it supposed to do something?” Midas asked.

“Yes, it’s supposed to glow when it’s infused with my power. I…don’t know what’s going on.”

His phone buzzed and he glanced at his watch to see who the call was from.

Romeo’s name flashed on the small screen. He swiped and texted that he’d call him back in a few minutes.

“I should go,” he said. “Would you…like to go out tonight?”

She gave him an incredulous look. “I’m bleeding.”

“You’re going to heal yourself, right?”

“I can’t. At least not right now. Damn it, my power is on the fritz. You must have damaged the part of my brain where my power is. If that’s even a thing.”

“Hey, I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“You still hurt me.” Her voice went high, and he could pick up the scent of her fear.

“I didn’t mean to. I didn’t expect someone to be standing right at the door.”

She let out a slightly hysterical laugh. “So you brain me and then you ask me out? Classy.”

He scowled. Did she not know they were truemates? Or did she know but not want to pursue it because he’d said he was low ranked?

Shit, he needed to get his act together.

“I just wanted to take you out, Maya. I said I was sorry.”

“I know what you want,” she said, rising to her feet slowly. She leaned on the table. “So why don’t you get out of here. You’ve done enough damage.”

He wanted to protest, but he was actually pretty pissed at himself for not only hurting her but apparently making her think he was just trying to get into her pants.

“Fine,” he said. “Hope your magic gets better and your head too.”

She snorted and sat back down with a groan.

He walked from the room, nearly taking Lorene out in the process.

“Here’s the balm, Midas.” She handed him a paper bag. “Are you okay? Your eyes are gold.”

“I’m fine. Thank you for the balm.”

He took a step away and she grabbed his arm. “Something’s wrong, your aura is a mess. What happened?”

He spared a tiny glance toward the room he’d just left. “Nothing. Not a damn thing.”

Gently he extracted his arm from her grip and stalked down the hall. Lulu said goodbye to him, and he grunted in return, then hit the door and headed to his truck.

When he was behind the wheel, he stared through the windshield, at war with himself.

His tiger wanted him to go back inside and apologize to Maya again, to explain that whatever she thought about him, which was clearly something awful, wasn’t accurate. That he was sorry for whatever had pissed her off and wanted to fix it.

And really, he couldn’t figure out why she was so pissed. Because he’d hurt her or because he’d asked her out? That didn’t even make sense.

But despite the war within him, he opted to turn on the truck and leave. If he went back into the store while she was still mad at him, he was liable to make things worse. The better option was to give her a day to cool off and heal, and then he’d reach out through Lorene and make amends.

He still wasn’t going to tell her he was king though.

He’d save that for when he’d won her heart, however long that took.