Chapter Four
Harper loved to feel the warmth of the sun on her body as she sat in the town square, enjoying a bite of her apple, and the pages of a romance book. Not that she was understanding the book right now. She had pretty much read the same page for the last fifteen minutes, and this sucked because she loved reading.
Sunday was her reading day. The day she finally got to relax. Everything was set up at the shop, and she had no reason to be stressed or worried. This was her day away from it all.
She glanced down at the book.
Mateo . Of course, it would be so much easier to blame him for causing her no end of distractions while all she wanted to do was read her damn book. That insufferable man. Why did he have to arrive last night at her shop? Why did he have to fill her space with his masculine scent? Even her wolf, who wasn’t his biggest fan, had enjoyed inhaling the air.
She rubbed at her temple, feeling her annoyance rise.
There were not a lot of people around. She was aware of Silver doing his usual activity trip in the forest. He took several of the young kids into the forest and they’d climb trees. They had a rope tied up quite high, and they’d glide between them. The kids loved it and the parents loved the peace and quiet.
The moment Mateo was close she sensed him, and all she had to do was open her eyes to see him approaching. No one else was around. She wondered if there would be a few curtains twitching, but other than that, nothing. She didn’t want to be alone with him. Franny had already texted to give her the heads-up that Mateo was looking for her.
“Franny said you’d be here,” Mateo said.
“You’re not going to leave me alone, are you?” she asked, moving down on the bench to make room for him to sit.
“I could give you a little more space, if you come back to the pack with me.”
“No,” Harper said. “How about I counter-agree? I agree to considering you as my mate, and you leave me alone. I think that is a pretty good win-win, don’t you?”
“Not happening.”
She sighed. “You’re going to make this difficult.”
“Do you not feel that?” Mateo said. “The pull of our wolves? How hungry they are for one another?”
She stared straight ahead and as he spoke about the need of their wolves, she knew her wolf remembered that day seven years ago that had them banished.
Turning her head toward him, she looked at him, annoyed, irritated, and she laughed. “You don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what?”
“My wolf doesn’t like you. You think she’s desperate to get close to you. Right now, she is wanting off this bench and as far away from you and your wolf as possible. You know what? I’m going to let her have what she wants.” She got to her feet and the moment he reached for her wrist, she reacted, jerking her arm out of his touch. “Get off me. Don’t touch me. Don’t you get it, Mateo? I don’t want you, my wolf doesn’t want you, you broke all of that seven years ago. You don’t just get to come to this pack and think after a few kind words that it’s all going to be okay. Seven years. Seven long years. You didn’t even give me a pack to go to. My father arranged this.” She shook her head. “So if you think I’m going to fall over myself because you’ve deemed yourself ready to have a mate, you’re very much mistaken.”
She reached out and took hold of her book, spinning on her heel and leaving. Harper hadn’t noticed Franny’s arrival, but her friend held her arm out ready for her to take. She linked her arm with Franny’s, and together they left the town square.
“I figured you were going to need a friend right now.”
“Thank you. I think storming off would have been a good message, anyway.”
“Yeah, well, at least you got to do it with a friend by your side,” Franny said.
“Is he looking?” Harper asked.
Franny glanced behind them. “Yep.”
“Let’s keep walking.”
They kept moving, heading in the direction of Harper’s home. She didn’t live too far from the town square, which was how she liked it. She was able to get to work and home in less than ten minutes, which to her was ideal.
Entering her home, she left Franny to close the door, while she went straight to the kettle and then stopped. No, Sundays there was no coffee, but hot chocolate. Rummaging around in her cupboard, she found the best chocolate she always kept for a time of crisis. She opened the bag and breathed in the scent.
“Please tell me you have ice cream as well?” Franny asked.
“Only the best, double chocolate.”
Franny sighed. “You, girl, are after my own heart.”
Harper laughed and got started on making them a hot chocolate. Her mother used to make a decent one, but now, as a grownup living away from her parents, she could add extra chocolate and whipped cream.
“So, do you want to talk about it?” Franny asked.
“Would you take it the wrong way if I said no?”
“Not at all. It’s your life, and I’m just your friend, but I would understand if you want to talk about it.”
Harper sighed. “I don’t know what to say, to be honest. I don’t get him, and I think I don’t want to get him.” She shrugged.
“Have you considered the other problems?”
“What other problems? Do you mean with him being an alpha and your father being an alpha?”
“Nope, that is the last thing on my mind, but you do make an interesting point. I was thinking more along the lines of … what are you going to do around the full moon?” Franny asked.
Harper finished with the whipped cream and handed the canister over to Franny. It didn’t matter how much whipped cream she added, Franny always, always, always wanted more. She had no problems with providing.
“What about the full moon? It’s not for a couple of weeks, and I’ll do what I usually do—have a run, come home, eat, and go to sleep.”
Franny clicked her tongue, and it looked like she wanted to say something more.
“Just out with it,” Harper said.
“You’ve clearly not thought about it.”
“Just tell me.”
Franny took a sip of her hot chocolate. “This is good.”
She waited.
“Fine, fine, fine. You’ve seen what other mated couples are like, right? My parents, several of the pack members.”
“Yeah, so?”
“You’ve never been near Mateo when you’ve been in that position. You’re older now, and it’s not like your first transition. What if she, or the two wolves, are drawn together? Like, they just can’t help themselves?”
“My wolf is not a big friend of Mateo right now.”
“Yeah, right now, and she hasn’t been near him during the full moon. It might be something you want to talk to my mom about. She might be able to shed some light on the subject.”
Harper looked at her friend and offered a smile.
This didn’t sound good.
****
Franny was no good at helping him. Silver was always busy. His father hadn’t been able to impose much words of wisdom, which meant the only person he could go to was Lemon.
He didn’t want to be seen as showing the alpha’s wife too much attention, but so far, she was the only person willing to give him the time of day.
“Evening,” he said.
Lemon was elbows-deep in her vegetable garden. He already saw a basketful of tomatoes, garlic, zucchini, and several other herbs and vegetables.
“Mateo,” Lemon said. “I didn’t expect to see you back so soon.”
He forced a smile to his lips. “I’ve come to pick your brain once again.”
“Things didn’t go well with Harper?” she asked.
“I was able to find her, but she didn’t exactly want to be found.”
“Believe it or not, it does make sense. When she came to the pack, poor girl, she barely spoke a word. She was so heartbroken and was in a great deal of pain.”
“Pain?” he asked.
Lemon chuckled, sitting back on her heels and then brushing the excess dirt off her hands. “You know it was her first time going through the transition?”
“Yes, I’m aware.”
The woman in front of him clicked her tongue, and he knew he’d clearly said something to rattle her cage.
“I’m sorry, I … uh, I don’t see the relevance.”
“Well, it’s quite simple. Trust me, it is very rare for it to happen, but on the first night of her transition, when her body goes through that undeniable pain, where her bones break, and let’s face it, all but our souls pretty much shatter. It’s an experience and a half, and not one many want to replicate.”
He couldn’t deny that. It wasn’t fun for anyone. Still, he didn’t say that.
“On top of all that pain, she experienced this one moment of joyous spark, where for a short time, she believed she had found her mate. Now, if you put yourself in your mate’s position, I’m sure you can fill in the blanks.”
Mateo didn’t want to think about it.
“Within twenty-four hours, she was banished from her own pack, from all she had known, and sent to a pack she didn’t know. All the strange senses and the smells—everything—is always a little crazy after that first transition, and to add to that pain, the one person who is meant to love her, be there for her without question, banishes her. He doesn’t want anything to do with her.”
Mateo stared at the other woman in a state of shock.
“Now, after seven years—not a week, or a month, but seven long years, where she finally has made a life for herself—he turns up and expects her to be happy about that. Expects her to want to mate with him, go back to their old life, where all the people witnessed your rejection and her humiliation,” Lemon said. “Does that help you at all to figure out what you’re dealing with?”
Mateo didn’t like it. He felt he needed to sit down. Even though he’d been the one to instigate everything, it still didn’t make it any easier to listen to. In fact, it was hard. He did that to Harper, without a second thought. Not a moment has gone by that he’s not thought about her, but still, it didn’t drive him to go and get her.
“How do I fix this?” Mateo asked.
“I don’t have the answers to that, my friend. All I know is you hurt Harper deeply. Deep enough for Franny to have taken her under her wing, and to make sure she has some semblance of a life here. If you want Harper to start listening to you or even consider your plight, you might want to talk with my daughter first.”
He knew that wasn’t going to be an easy conversation.
Sitting on the bench in the garden, Lemon went about her business, but he wasn’t paying her any attention. He was too busy reeling from his own reality check.
There was nothing and no one who could help him fix this. He was well and truly fucked.