Page 67 of The Enforcer’s Rejected Mate (Red River Rejected Mates #1)

My mouth falls open at his words. I’m shocked again by him when he grabs my hand and leads me back to the couch.

“Stay there. I’m going to check the perimeter.

Don’t move until I come back,” he orders.

Normally, I’d push back at Thorne but this time I do what he says and don’t stop him, even though I’ve been keeping watch for hours.

He vanishes down the hallway and a second later I hear the back door open and close.

“Holy shit,” I whisper and lean forward over my clasped hands. “He’s here.” Thorne, not Keiran. Fuck Keiran. If I saw him I’d try to throw my very first punch. My wolf snaps her teeth in agreement. She’s upset she hasn’t tasted his blood yet, which, no thanks but I do appreciate her sentiment.

A few minutes pass before Thorne enters my cottage again. He locks the back door from the faint snick that I hear. “He’s long gone,” he says when he walks back into the living room and goes to the front door. For a wild second, I think he’s going to leave me now that he’s sure Keiran is gone.

I leap up to my feet. “Where are you going?” I sound desperate. Oh, how I’d hate sounding that way if it was anyone else but him. Thorne locks the door and I realize he’s not going where.

“Nowhere.”

“Oh.”

“You thought I was leaving?”

I wrap an arm around myself and shrug. “Maybe.”

“Why would I do that? You know how long I ran to get to you?”

I blush at his words. “You ran to get here?”

“Had to. We were well on our way.”

Oh no. The patrol.

“You came off patrol for me?”

He nods. “I did.”

“Why?”

He opens his mouth to answer me but stops himself. A dark look passes over his face, it’s just a flash before it’s gone again. “I just did,” he says and his voice is gruff. No sign of the alpha that told me he missed me now.

Interesting.

“You’re real hot and cold,” I tell him. It’s probably not the smartest thing I’ve ever said to him or any alpha for the matter but I don’t really care.

I don’t understand him, or us, or any of this.

Why do I want him so bad it hurts? Right now, if this man were to walk out of this room I don’t think I’d be able to breathe right.

I lift my chin and keep talking. “I’m not smart enough to know what’s going on between us, but I do know there’s something going on.”

Thorne sucks in a sharp breath when I say that. I’m right. We both know I am. I wait for him to say something. Anything.

“You’re right.”

I wait for him to say something else but the alpha doesn’t look like he’s going to. Instead, I walk past him to my stove where my tea kettle is still half-filled with water. “You want some tea?”

“If you make it, I want it.”

“Good answer.” I turn on the stove and get out another mug for his tea.

He’s getting chamomile. Something to mellow us both out will be good, I think.

I refresh my own cup, too. I left my mug on the counter earlier when I was looking through the kitchen window.

Behind me, I hear Thorne leave the front door and take a seat on my couch.

It creaks when he sits on it. It’s not the biggest couch, more a loveseat than anything and no doubt he’s made it look like doll furniture.

I peek over my shoulder at him, yup. Freaking doll furniture.

Thorne sits in the middle of the couch and looks uncomfortable.

I hide my smile when I turn back to the now whistling kettle. “Comfy?” I ask him.

“Not really. Feel like I’m about to snap this thing in half,” he says and then I hear him move off the couch and onto the floor.

“The floor?” I ask him, bringing our mugs of tea into the living room.

Thorne shrugs and leans back against the couch. It creaks in protest just from him leaning on it but he ignores it to look up at me. “It’s either this or I embarrass myself by breaking your sofa in two. You pick but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

I laugh. I can’t help it. This whole scenario is silly, even more so when I think about how half an hour ago I was pacing my house with my frying pan in hand. Speaking of…I turn to look for it. It’s over by the door. Shoot.

“Get up off the floor, we can sit on my bed,” I tell him and walk over to give the frying pan a little kick to get it out of the way.

Thorne gets up and follows me into my bedroom. “You were going to take him out with the pan?” he asks. He sounds surprised but I hear pleasure there too. He’s glad I was going to do it.

“I was. Don’t really have a lot of options around here to defend myself.”

“Could have used your wolf on him. She’s strong.”

He’s right. I could have.

I sigh and take a seat on my bed. “I don’t really know how to do that,” I confess and hold out his mug to him. Thorne takes the mug and my heart rate spikes when his fingers brush against mine.

“What do you mean, don’t know how?” He takes a seat at the foot of the bed. There’s a respectful amount of distance between us with me at the head of my bed and him at the foot. I hate it.

“I’ve only shifted once.”

“But when I saw you in the Meadows…”

I raise my mug in cheers. “Yeah, that was the one time.”

“Hells,” he mutters and takes a sip of his tea. “I didn’t know. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Wasn’t time to explain. Everything happened so fast,” I remind him.

He winces. “Yeah, it did…”

“You never mention that night. Why?” In for a penny, in for a pound on the questions I’ve always wanted to ask but never thought I’d have the nerve to ask apparently.

“Didn’t think you’d want me to. Ronan ordered me to keep watch over you.

With me being that close to you, I figured if you wanted us to talk about it you’d find an opening when you were comfortable enough to do it.

It’s not easy to join a new pack, at least I’d imagine it wouldn’t be.

Seemed like you had enough to deal with without having to worry about me. ”

Well shit.

I didn’t think about it like that. I thought he was avoiding what happened between us, burying it and pretending it didn’t happen like Keiran did but he never was. He was waiting for me to bring it up when I was ready. Am I ready now? I guess so, since I brought it up.

“I thought you were trying to pretend it didn’t happen…I didn’t realize…”

Thorne makes a face. “I’d never do that to a female, especially not an omega.”

“Is that what’s going on here? You’re an alpha and I’m an omega so things just happened?”

“As neat of a story as that would make for, no it's not. I don’t make a habit of fooling around with anyone, let alone an unidentified omega that appears in front of me like she’s been conjured by the fae.”

Thorne’s face tells me what he’s saying is very serious and my brain tells me the same but my heart is repeating the phrase, “I don’t make a habit of fooling around with anyone.” That pleases me more than it should.

“I felt drawn to you. I don’t know why. I thought you were going to kill me when you attacked me but it was like a switch. I wanted you and I didn’t care what happened to me if I couldn’t have you.”

He looks me over, gaze on me heavy enough that it feels like his hands. I shiver under his attention and tighten my grip on my tea mug to make sure I keep my hands to myself. I’ve thrown myself at him twice since I’ve met him, so it’s not entirely out of the question now that we’re in my bedroom.

“I felt the same way about you. That's why I’m here now.”

Thorne’s words are exactly what I’ve been starving for.

I eat them up with my bare hands, eager for more.

I could listen to him say things like that all night.

I want to press the issue and get to the bottom of what we’re feeling but a yawn reminds me I’m exhausted and that I spent the night dancing with my friends after I cried my eyes out during the pack meeting.

That all feels like it happened a hundred years ago, not hours.

Maybe right now, when I’m feeling half drunk from exhaustion isn’t the moment to try and solve this.

“I’m tired,” I tell him and put my mug down on the floor.

Thorne rises from my bed. “You need your rest. It’s already too late.”

This time I’m sure he’s going to leave. He won’t go far, at least he won’t if all the times I know he’s slept nearby hold true. I don’t want him to do that, though. I need him here, not outside my door or on my porch.

I hold out a hand to him. “Stay with me? I mean here. Not outside.”

He looks surprised at my question. “Are you sure?”

I nod and give him what I hope is a convincing smile, an enticing one that makes him want to stay with me.

“Yes. Stay with me, please. I’ll sleep better.

” It’s true. The sleep I’ve gotten lately has been the best I’ve ever had.

I never dared to hope I’d have it this good.

Not with the bondrot that I should be carrying from Keiran’s rejection.

I’m lucky I haven’t felt it. I pull back the covers and get in bed.

My bed has more than enough space for me but with Thorne there won’t be much room to move.

“It’ll be a tight fit though…sorry.”

He comes to my bed with a shrug. “I’ll take the chance to have you close.”

I stare in shock at the alpha while he makes himself comfortable in my bed. He doesn’t make an effort to make himself smaller to make room for me. Instead, he settles in and takes up as much space as a body possibly can in a bed this size.

Just because Thorne is insanely sexy doesn’t mean he can just hog the bed.

I cross my arms and glare at him. “Excuse me, and where am I supposed to lay down?”

Thorne puts an arm over his eyes with a sigh. “Right here,” he says, tapping his chest. “Can you turn the light off or do you want me to do it?”

Maud used to say a fly would fly in your mouth if you didn’t shut it. Now is definitely one of those times for me. “I, ah, what?”

“The light. I can get it.” Thorne moves his arm off his eyes and looks up at me. “Is it by the door?”

I’m too stunned by what’s happening to do anything else but answer him.

“Yeah,” I tell him. Thorne’s up and out of my bed and across the room to flip the light off and back again in record time.

I’m only now processing what’s just happened when he settles back down and motions for me to come closer with a “C’mere, lay down with me. ”

I don’t even think twice. I lay down with Thorne and let him tuck me into his side.

“Do you have enough room?” he asks. I’m half laying on him, our bodies pressed flush up against the other. There’s no me without him. Not with the way we’re laying together. I turn to look up at him, the moonlight slanting through the window lets me see him clear as day.

He’s so pretty. I wonder if anyone has ever told him that.

“You’re pretty,” I say. “Has anyone ever told you that?”

“No. You’re the first.” The corner of his mouth lifts in a smile. Pleasure warms my chest at knowing I’m the first to say it. “You’re delirious if you’re saying that. Get some rest for me. Please.”

His voice gentles on the ‘please’ and I smile when I lay my head down on his chest. It doesn’t feel weird to be in bed with Thorne, laying in his arms with my cheek on his chest and just having told him he’s pretty.

It feels right. The ache that’s confused me for days lessens until it falls quiet and so do I as I fall asleep in the Enforcer’s arms with the afterglow of having a first with him.