Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 113406 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 454(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113406 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 454(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Mason’s brows lifted. “Huh. Well, you took your time acting on it, considering she’s worked here for years. Or did you not know until recently? Hmm. It was the same for my sister. She and her mate had known—and despised—each other for decades before finally realizing they were true mates. They’re inseparable and sickeningly happy now, but it took a while for the mating bond to fully form. Most likely because the reason behind their initial and elemental dislike of each other had been fear of mating.”
“Fascinating. Also irrelevant to me.”
Mason’s mouth curled. “Well, despite that I find myself envying you, I congratulate you on finding your mate, Slater.” Sliding off his stool, he nodded. “Take care of Miss Drake. And be careful of Claudia Brookson. Like I warned the human, she can make a bad enemy.”
As the tiger melted into the crowd, the tension seeped from Bracken’s shoulders. Feeling eyes on him, he saw that both Ally and Gwen were glaring at him like he’d shit in their shoes. He sighed. While he was glad that his pack mates were protective of Madisyn, he didn’t want their interference.
“Leave it,” he told Ally when she opened her mouth—no doubt to give him a bucketful of shit for talking to Claudia. Skirting around her, he headed to Madisyn.
His mate’s eyes clouded with annoyance as she looked at him. “How did I know you’d push instead of backing off?”
“Because you know I can’t ignore it when you’re hurting.” Invading her space so that they were in their own private bubble and his voice wouldn’t carry to the people around them, Bracken lightly traced the shell of her ear. “I’m sorry, baby. But I had to talk to Claudia.”
Just hearing the bitch’s name come out of his mouth made Madisyn want to bare her teeth. “No, you didn’t. You could have walked away. You should have walked away.” God, she wanted to pop him one right in the face. Or maybe burst his ballsac with a fountain pen. It wasn’t just that he’d given a female who coveted him the time of day, it was that he then had the bald-faced nerve to make a possessive display to scare off a flirty patron. The only reason she wasn’t shoving him out of her space was that it would be good for Claudia to see him there.
“She’s no one to me,” said Bracken, his tone sober and reassuring. “She’s never been anyone to me. You, however, are everything.”
Good answer, but it wasn’t enough to mollify her cat. The feline wanted to rake his face with her claws. “Hmm. You both seemed kind of friendly to me.”
“She sponsors the Movement and is very active in discrediting the extremists, so she has my respect. But that’s all. I don’t want her. Never did. The only female I want is right here.”
“You let her touch you.”
Bracken winced as her eyes went cat for a second, showing him the depth of the feline’s anger. “Baby—”
“She wants you, has pretty much offered herself on a plate to you, and you let her touch you. That doesn’t send the right message. Nor does standing around chatting with her. And it made me feel like shit. If our situations were reversed, you’d be going postal right now.”
Just the thought of another male touching her was enough to turn Bracken’s thoughts homicidal, so she had him there. “I’m sorry for making you feel that way. I really am. Believe me when I say that I did not want or welcome her touch any more than I wanted to speak with her. But that conversation needed to be had because she wasn’t backing off. I was damn sick of her coming here watching me, and it was pissing me off that you had to see her doing it.”
“So what exactly did you say to her?”
Relieved that some of the staunch had left her spine, Bracken swept one hand up Madisyn’s back and cupped her nape. “I told her you’re my mate. She knows I’m taken. That tells her she has absolutely no chance of making me her personal bodyguard or anything else. I needed her to get that. That was why I heard her out. It meant that, in turn, she had to hear me out.”
“Do you think she truly listened?”
“She doesn’t strike me as stupid or so stubborn that she’ll ignore the facts simply because they don’t suit her. She needs someone who’ll owe their loyalty to her. I have you, which means my loyalty already belongs to someone else. It means you are and will always be my priority, so no other female could have any hope of entering the picture. I’m of no use to her at all.”
“The latter would be true if all she wanted was a new bodyguard, but she wants more than that. She wants you.”