Chapter 1 #2
Ricky grabbed my waist and hauled me bodily off the counter.
The crowd howled with laughter.
I shrieked, more in delight than surprise, as my boots hit the floor. “Hey! I was making a toast!”
“You were incriminating us,” he growled, setting me firmly behind the bar like an overprotective bouncer returning a gremlin to her enclosure.
Felix laughed so hard he nearly fell out of his chair. “Geez, Thornicle, did you have to bring up the cult?”
“I technically said it wasn’t a cult!” I replied.
Ricky leaned down, his voice low with brotherly menace. “You’re done talking now.”
I bared my teeth at him. “You’re no fun.”
“I’m keeping us out of prison.”
“Debatable.”
He snorted and straightened, already walking away.
Already feeling steadier, I slipped back into work mode without missing a beat.
The night rolled on, bright and loud and strangely familiar.
I poured drinks, traded banter, and let the easy rhythm of the bar wrap around me.
For the first time since the attack, everything felt normal again. Simple. Good.
So, naturally, that was when the universe decided to cock-slap me in the face.
Because that was when a new scent hit me and stopped me cold.
No, new wasn’t right. This particular scent was old and familiar in a way that made my blood boil. But it was certainly unexpected, and it had my wolf snapping to attention so hard it felt like she’d slammed against every bone in my body.
Pine. Leather. Wolf.
My hands stalled mid-pour and my head lifted on reflex. I drew in a deeper breath and sifted through the alcohol, magic, and bodies until I found it.
No, not it.
Him.
I scanned the room, searching for the source. But I saw nothing different. Same crowd, same laughter, same faces I’d been staring at all night.
Except the scent didn’t fade.
In fact, the deeper I breathed, the stronger it grew.
No. This wasn’t possible.
Five years.
Five fucking years he’d been gone. He’d left me. Our home. Our life. Just abandoned ship without so much as a note, letter, or message. He couldn’t be here. I refused to believe it, even though my nose—and every instinct I had—told me otherwise.
I tried to make sense of it, tried telling myself it was just memory playing tricks, just the universe testing whether I’d actually put myself back together.
Five years was a long time. Long enough for someone to forget, to misremember their mate’s scent. Long enough to be forgotten in return.
But then the crowd near the entrance shifted—just a fraction. Barely any space at all.
And there he was.
My wolf surged forward, demanding to take control. Heat flooded my veins so fast it made me dizzy, and once again, my pulse thudded in my ears.
I blinked.
I blinked again.
To my dismay, he didn’t disappear.
And of course, he was as fucking handsome as ever. Still tall. Still broad. Still infuriatingly sexy in those damn faded jeans and leather jacket.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” I shouted. “What the hell are you doing here?”
My grip tightened on the bar hard enough to make the wood creak, but it didn’t help.
Something inside me snapped, and without a word, I shoved away from the bar, heart hammering as I stalked across the room.
Each step physically hurt as all the years of pain and misery and abandonment rose to the surface.
As I plowed through the crowd, conversations faltered. Laughter died mid-breath as people made the connection. Even Bernard stilled, as though sensing the oncoming storm.
“You aren’t welcome here,” I snarled before coming to a stop in front of Calder—my estranged husband, mate, and the man who had broken my heart—and lifted a finger, every inch of me shaking with rage.
He lifted a single brow and his expression was infuriatingly calm, as though my reaction was merely an amusing inconvenience.
“Hello, Theodora,” he drawled.
Oh, no. He did not just use my full name, here, in front of everyone.
I didn’t think. I just handed my drink to the person next to me, then slapped him across the face, hard enough to snap his head to the side.
“Holy crap!” Isadora gasped behind me, her voice easily heard over the silence in the bar.
I stood there, chest heaving, palm stinging as the burn bloomed up my arm. Worth it. Entirely worth it.
A red imprint bloomed across his cheek, stark and undeniable. The sight of it brought another grin out of me.
Calder slowly turned his head back toward me, jaw working as he rubbed at the mark. His eyes were bright now—sharper than before, something wild flickering beneath the calm. Almost like… had he enjoyed that?
Without warning, his arms snaked around my waist, and he lifted me clean off the floor like I weighed nothing at all.
“Hey—!” I started.
His mouth crashed down on mine, silencing my complaint.
Heat exploded within me. I wanted to shove him away, smack him again. Instead, my body reacted before my mind caught up and my traitorous hands fisted in his hair, and I kissed him back with all the rage and pain I’d carried for half a decade.
He growled low in his chest, the sound shooting straight through me, then hauled me closer like he never wanted to let me go.
When we finally broke apart, breathless and furious and utterly unhinged, the noise in the bar was deafening.
Calder rested his forehead against mine, voice low enough that only I could hear. “Still got a hell of a right hook, Theodora.”
I bared my teeth. “Call me that again and I’ll break something vital.”
His smile only widened.
Guess Love Bites wasn’t the only thing we’d opened for business here tonight. Thanks to Calder, my personal life had just gone public.
Yay me.