Page 61 of The Enforcer’s Rejected Mate (Red River Rejected Mates #1)

I’m glad we’re outside on solid ground. If we’d still been on that staircase I would have gone down head first.

I look between Clover and Piper to see if there’s any hint of their earlier laughter but there’s not. She’s dead serious.

“He what?” I whisper.

“He slept outside your door. Thought I didn’t know, I know everything that happens in the Visitor Quarters.”

I remember that night. How I heard someone outside my door and how irrational I had been not checking who it was because the stranger on the other side made me feel less alone.

Last night, Thorne was on my porch. His wolf hadn’t seemed surprised to see me when I saw him through the window.

He’d laid down, stretched right out like he was comfortable.

Like he’d done it before.

Holy hells, Thorne has been guarding me while I’ve been sleeping.

“I saw him outside of my cottage last night,” I tell them. Neither of them react at first but their moment of stunned silence only lasts for the amount of time it takes for them to suck in a breath deep enough to let out a shriek.

Piper and Clover grab me and shake me.

“He did what?”

“I told you he liked you!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Esme look our way. She’s standing with a few other Elders and they look when she does. Oh hells. I grab Piper and Clover’s arms and pull them with me off to the side.

“Keep your voices down. Making a scene is gonna tip off the whole pack.”

“I mean, they kind of already all do,” Piper tells me but she lowers her voice all the same.

Clover nods with a knowing hum. “Yeah, that’s true.”

Shock rocks through me and I instantly forget my plea for them to keep it down. “ What do you mean ?!” I almost yell and look between them both. “What do you mean they already kind of do?”

Piper claps a hand over my mouth and gives a group that's sidled near us a smile and a wave. “How are you all doing tonight? Great music, huh?” she asks before looking back at me. “We said kind of but you’re about to make sure they definitely do, yelling like that.”

Oh right. Hells. Now I’m the one making a scene.

She removes her hand and I nod. “Oops. Sorry,” I apologize with a grimace.

Clover giggles and pats my shoulder. “Big oops but…Thorne is totally into you.”

I hesitate before I ask, “How do you know that?”

There's a spark of hope in me that’s bubbling up, getting stronger by the second and maybe it’s the pack meeting I was just at or the way Thorne held my hand. Or maybe it’s the summer air and the music that’s now being played that has me feeling like maybe, just this once, anything is possible.

“I’ve known him his whole life. He likes you. If his ma wasn’t on vacation, I’d get her to back me up. Matter of fact, when she does get back I’m going to get her to back me up. She’s going to love you,” Clover tells me with a happy little clap.

I make a strangled panicked sound that has Piper putting out an arm to stop Clover. “Maybe no meeting the parents right now. She looks like she’s going to pass out.”

Clover rolls her eyes. “She’s not going to pass out.”

“I might pass out,” I confess.

“Ugh, fine, I’ll cool it with the mom stuff but trust me.

Thorne has feelings for you. I suspected it but…

tonight, tonight sealed the deal and I wasn’t the only one that saw it.

You’ll have to keep an eye out while he’s gone.

I heard about what happened in the Healer’s Rooms, you know, with Cassidy. ”

“What’d she do?” Piper asks.

“Nothing,” I say quickly because I’m focused on the part where she said Thorne would be gone. “What do you mean Thorne’s gone?” Brushing aside the fact that she said I’ll have to watch my back isn’t the smartest play I’ve ever made but I want to know where Thorne went.

Clover doesn’t answer me, she answers Piper. “She called Cordelia a stray. Was running her mouth because…well, you know.”

Piper shakes her head. “Her mother ruined her. Spoiled her rotten. When I get my hands on that little shit.”

I look around us. The courtyard is bustling.

The band is in full swing now. People are dancing, shifters are running, some have already shifted and a few wolves sprint through the area chasing one another.

Thorne isn’t anywhere to be seen. I do spot Cassidy watching me.

She’s not happy from the sneer on her face.

She’s got a few girls with her but I shrug them off.

If that’s who I need to watch my back from then I’m fine, I’ve dealt with much, much, worse.

Besides, from the way Clover and Piper are talking she’s the one that needs to watch her back.

I put a hand on Piper’s arm and try to distract her from seeing Cassidy. “What were you saying about Thorne? He’s gone?”

I fail in my diversion tactics because Piper scowls in Cassidy’s direction while she answers me. “Yeah, he left on patrol. Took Lucian and a few others Defenders with them,” she says before she steps forward and holds out her hands, “Can I help you?”

“Yeah, why don’t you take a picture!” Clover adds and crosses her arms. “I’m gonna tell my cousin you were giving me the stink eye, Cass.

What do you think he’ll say about that?” I’m stunned at the sight of Piper and Clover right now.

I look at them and then back to Cassidy to see the other shifter roll her eyes at them.

She stomps off a second later with her friends in tow.

Piper waves her hands shooing them away. “That’s right. Keep walking you little beta bitch.”

Clover gasps and smacks Piper’s arm. “Okay, alpha.”

“She deserved it.”

Clover laughs. “Totally.”

Friends defending me? I’ve never had such a precious gift. I throw my arms around both of them and hug them as hard as I can. “You two are the best friends a girl could ever ask for. I’m so lucky.”

They hug me back and we dance the night away.