Chapter 10 Lina
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Lina
I woke up to find the bed beside me empty, sheets cold. No note on the pillow, no number scrawled on my nightstand, nothing. Just the lingering scent of pine and rain and the deep satisfaction in my body that proved last night wasn’t a dream.
I sat up slowly, muscles protesting in the best way. Every movement reminded me of how thoroughly I’d been fucked. Claimed. Whatever that whole “mate” thing had been about.
The apartment was quiet. Too quiet. I wrapped the sheet around myself and padded to the bathroom, half expecting to find him in there. Empty. Kitchen? Empty. Living room where I’d found him bleeding? Empty except for the bloodstained towels I’d have to throw out.
Okay. So he left. People did this all the time, right? One-night stands? Granted, most one-night stands didn’t start with breaking and entering and end with the guy insisting you call him “mate” while he fucked you into oblivion, but still. Normal-ish.
I tried to convince myself it was fine as I stared at my reflection.
Tried to ignore the hurt creeping in around the edges.
But nothing about last night made sense.
Why break into MY apartment when injured?
There were two other apartments in this building, not to mention dozens of other places he could have gone.
He’d said he needed to know I was safe, but that was probably bullshit.
Just a line to get into my pants. And it had worked, hadn’t it?
And the way he’d held me afterward, traced every inch of my skin with his fingers, looked at me with those gray eyes full of... I didn’t even know what. Possession? Adoration? Hunger that went beyond physical?
“Stop it,” I told my reflection. “You’re overthinking a one-night stand with a hot weirdo who has an Australian fetish or whatever.”
But I couldn’t stop. The questions kept piling up. How had he gotten those wounds that looked exactly made by the beasts? How had they healed so fast? Why had touching him felt electric in a way that defied explanation?
Screw this. I needed answers.
I grabbed my phone and called Vivi before I could talk myself out of it.
“Please tell me you’re calling to explain the insurance paperwork,” she answered on the second ring. “The repair guys need estimates for the window and door, and I have no idea what to put for ‘cause of damage.’ Giant wolf attack?”
Right. The shop. My destroyed shop that I’d have to somehow put back together.
“Sorry, I... had a rough night. Listen, I need Poppy’s gossip network.” I didn’t bother with small talk. “The guy from the coffee shop. Matthias. I need to know who he is.”
Silence on the other end. Then, carefully: “Lina, what happened?”
“Just... please? Can you ask her if she knows anything about a really hot guy, about six-four, gray eyes, leather jacket? Staying somewhere in town?”
Vivi didn’t push, bless her. “I’ll call her now. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I lied. “Just need some information.”
“I’ll call you back.”
I showered while waiting, cataloguing every mark he’d left on my body.
Bruises on my hips from his grip. Love bites on my throat, my breasts, my inner thighs.
Scratch marks on my back from when I’d ridden him.
My body was a map of our night together, and each mark made the hollow feeling in my chest grow.
By the time I was dressed, my phone was ringing.
“Okay,” Vivi said without preamble. “According to Poppy, there are four men at the hotel. Total smoke show convention, her words. They checked in about three weeks ago. One matches your description perfectly. Gray eyes, tall enough to make her reconsider her stance on climbing trees, looks dangerous. Room 303.”
My heart pounded. “Did she get a name?”
“The booking’s under Noah Reed, but there are four of them. Poppy’s been trying to get the hot redhead’s number for days apparently.”
Room 303. I had a location.
“Lina, whatever you’re thinking-”
“Thanks, Viv. I’ll explain later.”
I hung up before she could talk sense into me.
Because the logical part of my brain was screaming that this was insane.
He’d left. Clearly he didn’t want to see me again.
Showing up at his hotel was textbook crazy ex behavior, except I wasn’t even his ex.
I was just some girl he’d fucked and abandoned.
But the angry, hurt, confused part of me won. I needed to know why he’d come to me specifically. Why he’d made me feel things I’d never felt before and then just... left. Without even a “thanks for the mind-blowing sex” or “sorry for the breaking and entering.”
I pulled on boots and my jacket, shoving my knife in my pocket out of habit. The hotel was only a ten-minute walk. Ten minutes to either talk myself out of this or work up the courage to actually knock.
By the time I stood outside the hotel, I’d done neither. Instead, I stood there having an internal debate about levels of crazy. Was confronting a one-night stand at their hotel room a level 5 or level 10 on the unhinged scale?
“Just ask him why,” I muttered to myself, psyching myself up. “That’s all. Get answers and get out. Get closure.”
Right. Closure. That’s what this was about. Not the fact that I could still feel his hands on me. Not the fact that I’d woken up reaching for him. Just closure.
I walked through the lobby with false confidence, took the elevator to the third floor, and followed the signs to room 303. Each step felt surreal, part of me still expecting to wake up and find out the whole thing had been an incredibly vivid dream.
But then I was standing outside the door, and I could hear voices. His voice, angry and defensive. Other male voices I didn’t recognize.
“What the fuck have you been doing?” someone demanded.
Another voice, not Matthias, added with clear disgust: “Fucking with a human girl? What the hell were you thinking, Knox?”
Knox? Who the hell was Knox?
“Shut up,” I heard Matthias grunt. Wait, was Matthias actually Knox? What kind of con was this?
The conversation continued, and each word made my blood run colder.
“You know everyone would have a fucking field day if they knew this. You can’t risk your life and our pack for human pussy, dude!”
Human pussy? HUMAN PUSSY? That’s what I was reduced to?
Someone growled, actually growled, and then Matthias/Knox’s voice: “She was attacked, it was my fault, okay? I couldn’t just leave her!”
I gasped, unable to stop myself. Pack? Human girl? Attacked because of him? They were talking about me. The beast attack had been his fault? And what the fuck was this pack business?
The room went completely silent.
The doorknob turned slowly, and I didn’t have time to run before it opened. A handsome man stood there, maybe mid-twenties, with black hair and green eyes. His bone structure was similar to Matthias’s, almost familiar.
“Um,” he said, looking puzzled, “can we help y-?”
He stopped mid-sentence, his nostrils flaring as he took a deep breath. His eyes went huge as they tracked over me, and I saw the exact moment he recognized... what? My scent? The marks barely hidden by my jacket?
“Fuck,” he cursed and slammed the door in my face.
What the hell?
I heard low, urgent whispers from inside, then the door flew open again. The same man grabbed my arm and yanked me inside before I could protest.
“Hey!” I yelped, trying to pull away. “What the fuck-”
He covered my mouth with his hand from behind, and suddenly I was facing three men while the fourth held me. Two of them were doing that same weird sniffing thing. Matthias or Knox or whoever the hell he was looked furious.
The man holding me was the one who’d answered the door. In front of me stood a man with dark blond hair who looked built for violence, another with red hair covered in tattoos, and Matthias himself. All of them were staring at me with expressions ranging from shock to calculation to amusement.
“Well, hello,” I said once green-eyes released my mouth, trying for bravado despite being severely outnumbered. My hand went to my pocket where my knife was.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Matthias demanded, and yeah, he was definitely furious. “Didn’t you see the note?”
“What note?” I asked, genuinely confused.
His jaw tightened. “The note I left. On the kitchen table.”
“There was no note.” My voice came out flat. “No note, no number, no ‘thanks for the sex,’ nothing. You just left. I came to figure out if you’re a fucking creep or something!”
“That’s why you followed me to my HOTEL ROOM?” His voice rose. “Where I could do anything to you? What the fuck is that logic?!”
“You already kind of did everything to me,” I fired back, anger overriding self-preservation. “Besides, I have a knife. And pepper spray.”
The redhead snorted. “Feisty. I like her.”
“You need to leave,” Matthias said coldly, his face completely different from the man who’d worshipped my body hours ago. “Now.”
“Not before you explain why you were the reason I was attacked. And what did you mean ‘human girl’?”
“Well, if she doesn’t have a good ear,” the redhead said, lifting his eyebrows with clear amusement. He was the one who’d asked where the fuck Matthias had been.
Knox glared at him with enough venom to drop a lesser man.
“All yours, Knox,” the blond one said. He was the voice that had reduced me to ‘human pussy.’ Asshole. “We’ll be in the hallway.”
They filed out, redhead waggling his eyebrows at me while green-eyes looked conflicted. The door clicked shut, and suddenly the room felt too small.
“Go,” Knox said flatly, not even looking at me. “Last night was just a one-night thing. Nothing more.”
“Are you serious right now?” I stepped closer, anger building. “You broke into my apartment. You were hurt. You said the attack was your fault. I deserve answers!”
His jaw tightened. “There are dangerous creatures in the woods. If you’re smart, you’ll stay away, or you’ll be next.”
“What does that even mean?” I threw my hands up. “What are you? What’s this pack bullshit?”
But he was done playing nice. His gray eyes went cold, cruel, nothing remaining of the man who’d held me with such desperate tenderness.
“It means,” he said slowly, each word designed to cut, “you were just a warm hole, Lina. Easy access. Should have seen how pathetically easy it was to break into your place. Maybe invest in better locks.”
The silence was fucking loud. I didn’t know what to say, what to do. How to feel.
“Now fucking go,” he continued, voice arctic, “before I call security.”
“What?” The word came out as barely a whisper. I was fighting tears, refusing to let them fall. Not here. Not in front of him. “A warm hole?”
He stepped closer, and for one moment I thought I saw pain flash in his eyes. But then it was gone, replaced by cruel indifference.
“I, Matthias Reed, reject you, Lina Winters, as my mate.” The words felt ritualistic, important in a way I didn’t understand. Like some kind of formal way to tell me to fuck off. “Don’t be fucking clingy. It was just one fuck. Get over it.”
The words hit harder than any physical blow. My chest cracked open, pain radiating from my heart outward. This wasn’t the man who’d made love to me with desperate hunger. This was a stranger wearing his face, saying words designed to destroy.
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. The room spun as humiliation and hurt crashed over me in waves.
“I see,” I managed, voice steady despite everything breaking inside me. “Got it. I’ll get over it.”
I turned and walked to the door with as much dignity as I could salvage. My hand shook as I reached for the handle, but I forced myself to move normally. Don’t run. Don’t let him see how much he’d broken.
The three men were indeed waiting in the hallway. They all avoided my eyes, looking deeply uncomfortable. The green-eyed one actually stepped back as I passed, and I heard him whisper urgently, “Knox, what did you-”
But I was already moving, walking faster now, then jogging, then flat-out running for the stairs. I couldn’t wait for the elevator. Couldn’t risk anyone seeing me fall apart.
I made it to the stairwell before my legs gave out. I collapsed on the cold concrete, his words echoing in my head. Just a warm hole. Easy access. One fuck. The formal-sounding rejection that felt like more than just cruel words.
“Just a warm hole,” I whispered to the empty stairwell, tears finally falling. “That’s all I was.”
The worst part was that I’d felt the connection, even if I’d tried to convince myself this had been just a one-night stand, a deep part of me wanted more.
That electricity between us hadn’t been one-sided.
Whatever we’d shared had been real, and he’d thrown it away with words designed to hurt.
My body still ached from him, still bore his marks, and he’d reduced it all to nothing.
I sat there on the stairs, trying to piece together my shattered dignity, when I heard footsteps above. Panic shot through me. I couldn’t face him again. Couldn’t face any of them.
I forced myself to my feet and stumbled down the remaining stairs, burst through the exit into blazing sunlight that felt wrong for how dark everything had become.
But I couldn’t outrun the feeling that I’d just lost far more than a one-night stand. Couldn’t shake the sense that “Matthias Reed” rejecting me as his mate meant more than just cruel words from a cruel man.
I just didn’t understand what.