Page 86 of His True Mate

“Did you tell Winnie to come home and force me to claim her?”

“I wouldn’t exactly say forced. I believe take what you want and don’t take no for an answer may have been used, so I can see why you might think that.”

“Ruby!”

“What?”

“She stumbled home drunk as a skunk. I almost attacked Brady in the process. What were you thinking?”

“So she didn’t talk with you?”

“Talk? I wouldn’t exactly call it that.”

I remembered how she’d pinned me up against the door as I had once done to her. And I’d liked it.

“Man. She left so fired up and ready to take control of the situation.”

“Oh, she did try that,” I muttered.

“And you said no! Are you a complete moron?”

“Did you really have to get her that drunk first?”

“She wasn’t that bad, was she?”

“Yeah, she was. Did you even stop to ask if she’d ever had alcohol before? Because I know the answer was no.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Yeah, shit. I’m not an asshole and I’m not going to take advantage of her like that. I already told you she has to decide for herself if she wants to stay.”

“She’s staying, Clay.”

“That’s a decision I don’t want her making under the influence of a lot of wine, judging by the smell of her.”

“You are so infuriating sometimes.”

“And you need to stay out of it and stop sticking your nose into things it doesn’t belong. My mate, my business.”

“We were only trying to help. She really doesn’t understand why you haven’t claimed her already, and quite frankly neither do I.”

“It’s not as simple as you make it out to be.”

“Or maybe it really is. Stop being a chicken.”

I hung up the phone and went to the kitchen to make some food. There were a few pieces of leftover pizza in the fridge. If the wolf thing didn’t work for some reason at least I knew cold pizza would.

After breakfast, I straightened through the house before sitting down and catching up on my shows.

Just before lunch Winnie was still asleep.

Ruby called me back.

“Hey, is she okay?”

“Still sleeping.”

“Oh, okay.”