Page 45 of The Enforcer's Rejected Mate

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to.” I fight back a moan and try to jerk away but I don’t go anywhere. I frown and twist but it’s no go on getting space from Thorne. I raise my hands to push myself away but all that does is give me two handfuls of muscle. It’s only then that I realize he’s been holding me…and well, now I’m holding him too, so there’s a lot of holding.

Thorne smirks at me and drops his hands. I take the opening and leap back with my hands up in the air like this is a stick up.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t…you know,” I say and motion towards his chest with my cupped hands. I drop them to my sides and blush beet red when I realize what I look like. “I just-I’m sorry.” He chuckles, the sound is low enough that a rumble of thunder nearly drowns it out but I hear it. I look up at him in surprise.

“It happens. Let’s get you inside.”

It happens? What the hells does that mean? How many times has he had his chest fondled for it to ‘happen’? My wolf stirs, I can already tell she’s got a possessive streak a mile long. She doesn’t much like the idea of anyone else touching Thorne and neither do I but it’s illogical for me to feel this way. I have no proof anyone has ever done that and even if they have…he’s not mine.

Mine, my wolf snarls because she’s a world champion at ignoring me. I shrug her off and follow after Thorne who in the midst of my mental breakdown at grabbing his chest already went inside and left me behind. I hurry forward to follow him but I don’t miss the way curtains shift or the glow of candles move in the windows around us. We’re being watched. I hesitate in the doorway and look back out at the windows. I wonder how I look to them. Soaked from the rain and dirty from the mud and grabbing two handfuls of Thorne’s chest.

Not a great first impression at all.

Dang it all.

I pull my hood lower over my head and keep my eyes on my feet as I duck into the building after Thorne. I’m going to keep it classy. Very respectable. From here on out I’ll be a model pack applicant and omega. I make a face at the omega part. Bowing and scraping to stroke alpha’s egos in hopes of being chosen doesn’t sit well with me but you have to work with the hands you’re dealt. Once I get accepted into the pack maybe I can move myself somewhere like Maud had. At the edge of everything where I can take care of folks but have my own space and not be bothered with alpha’s or what they think an omega should be like. I can see it now, summers spent down in the forest, exploring the river system down there. Maybe I can get that car and drive on into Oak Fast to meet with Jenny and Clara. Summers spent planting and falls foraging enough for winter. I’ll be well prepared by the time the snow falls. I might not even have to deal too much with the pack if I work it right. I smile at my plan for my future in Bloodstone Pack and begin rehearsing exactly how I’ll pitch it to the Alpha because like Maud always said, “If you want an Alpha to do anything, you have to make him think it’s his idea first.”

Thorne is halfway down a hallway by the time I come back from my daydreaming. He stops and gives me an exasperated look that has me jogging after him. “Sorry, sorry.”

“Stay close, Omega.”

Omega.

A thrill runs through my fingers to toes when he says that. The low timbre of his voice, the rough way his lips and tongue form that word. Hells. It’s like I’m kissing him again. Before I can go down memory lane another time, I force myself to stay coherent and follow after Thorne, just a step behind as he walks. I sigh with relief as feeling comes back to my fingers. I wiggle them, grateful for the gift of feeling. My feet still feel like I’m dragging weights but they’ll warm up soon enough. Thornekeeps going down the hallway and we take a right before we stop. Thorne knocks on the door and a second later a slot in the middle of it opens with a snap.

“Who’s it?” A female voice asks. There’s a teasing tone to it that tells me the shifter on the other side of the door knows exactly who they’re talking to.

“Thorne.”

“What’s the password?”

Thorne sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. “Open the door, Clover or I swear by all that-”

“What’s the password? It’s protocol. You know that, Enforcer.”

Enforcer.

My eyes go wide, so wide that I think they’re going to pop out of my head. What the hells? He’s an Enforcer? My mind races and I think of all the Enforcer’s that I knew in Frostclaw. Mean and scary, bullies, nothing but alphas on the prowl to abuse their power.

But that’s not Thorne.

Or is it?

You don’t even know him, the rational side of my brain reminds me.

“Clover-”

“You’re the one that mandated the password and by not saying it you’re just wasting time in front of your pretty friend.”

Pretty.

That stops my spiral and I smile at the door slot. “You think I’m pretty?”

“I’ve got eyes, don’t I?” Clover asks me.

“That’s really nice of you to say.”

“Anytime, doll face.”