Chapter 8
It took all of Anders self-control to not punch out that Talon guy. “Honored to be your husband.” What a bunch of horseshit. The guy was a tool, a puppet, willing to do anything his father said to curry favor.
Then again, Misti was a beautiful she-wolf. She would turn the head of any werewolf, hell any man for that matter.
Anders’s hackles would have raised if he was in wolf form. How he wanted to tear into the guy. Talon. What a name.
“Maybe we could talk a little before dinner,” Talon was saying.
“That would be great,” Anders answered quickly before Misti could.
Talon glanced over at him. “And you are…”
Nothing and no one.
“He…” Even Misti didn’t know what to say.
“I’m her bodyguard,” Anders finally said.
Misti started to shake her head.
Kastner clapped his hands. A woman knocked on the door and stood in the opening. “Yes, Dunn?”
“Tia, escort our guests to quarters so they can freshen up some before we eat.”
“Right away.” The woman motioned for them to follow her. “Welcome.” She cast a sideways glance at them. “We don’t get too many visitors around these parts.”
“How many strong are you?” Maybe she’d give them some useful information.
“Oh, you know.” She waved her hand and used opening the door as an excuse to change the subject. “Right this way. Our guest quarters are a little small, just to warn ya.”
The guest quarters were located in the building closest to the one they had just left. So the alpha can keep an eye on them.
Anders didn’t like Golden or Kastner, and he sure didn’t like Talon.
“Here.” Tia opened the first door and nodded to Misti. “You can have this room. The next door over is a community shower you both can use. There are several stalls.”
Anders smirked that she felt the need to mention that detail. He turned back to Misti and winked. She rolled her eyes, but her lips did curl upward slightly.
Tia walked down the hall, ignoring several rooms, and opened the last door on the left. “Here you go. If either of you needs anything, I’ll be right outside.” Whistling, she walked away as she removed a pair of gardening gloves from her jeans’ back pocket.
Once the door shut behind her, Misti left her room and went to his. Tia hadn’t been joking about the rooms’ size. There was a bed. That was it. No dresser, no closet. Nothing else.
He squeezed aside so Misti could enter.
“You aren’t happy,” she commented. She sat on his bed.
Anders sat beside her, not quite close enough to touché her, but close enough to feel the warmth radiating from her. “You’re engaged to everyone but me.”
She scowled. “You have no claim on me.”
“Not for lack of trying.”
“Anders…” She lifted her hand and moved as if to touch his face then lowered it.
“Don’t worry. I know. We don’t owe each other anything. We’re just two werewolves who have?—”
“Anders, stop.”
“Fucked a few times?—”
“Anders!” She slapped his shoulder hard.
“What?” he growled. He wasn’t in the mood.
“I’m doing this because I have no choice. We—both you and I—will die otherwise. We could split up and flee, and it would only give us a few days, if that. Neither of our fathers will allow us to live.”
“If you could do whatever you wanted?—”
“It’s pointless to think?—”
“Say our fathers are dead, that our packs aren’t preoccupied with hunting us, then what? Would you still be willing to marry that Talon guy?”
“‘That Talon guy is my fiancé.”
“Yes, yes.” He jerked to his feet, but there wasn’t enough room to pace in the cramped space, so he just stood there. She wouldn’t even give him a chance in her daydreams. She wouldn’t even give him a second thought. Honestly, why would she? He had been willing to kill her at one point in time.
“You don’t have to stay here. You can go and…”
“You said so yourself. Leave, and we’re as good as dead. You hate me that much you want me killed?”
“Of course not,” she protested. She stood and wrapped her arms around him.
He did not return her embrace. “Your fiancé will not appreciate your touching me.”
Her eyes darkened. “I do what I want.”
“What do you want?” he asked, his voice husky.
She lifted onto her toes, her lips nearing his, and he could swear he saw a fire burning in her eyes, but then she pulled back. “I can’t think about that.”
“Coward.”
“I am not a coward! I… I just have to focus on living. That’s all either of us can do.”
“Yes, yes,” he muttered.
“Hello? Are you two ready?” Tia called.
“Yippee,” Anders muttered.
“Try to curb your tongue during dinner,” Misti pleaded.
“I’d rather curl my tongue around yours.”
The fire in her eyes sputtered and died. “No more,” she whispered. Without a look behind, she entered the hallway. “We’re ready.”
Dinner was basically a feast. So many Wild Shades came up to talk to Misti and Talon, to congratulate them, and Anders scowled at every one of them. It did not escape his notice that Talon hardly spoke to Misti, but the werewolf still touched her hand or her shoulder or even her leg. Anders wanted to jab his fork into the man’s neck. Normally, he could easily curb his violent wolf tendency, but he did not want to, not right now. Being on edge made him feel alive, burning with rage.
If he couldn’t burn with lust, he’d have to settle for a baser emotion.
And if Talon should do anything to betrayal her…
Anders smiled as he cracked his lobster. I’ll kill him.