Chapter 22
Joel
My mate’s protectiveness was cute at first. But it stopped being cute real quick.
On Monday morning, working my usual shift at the café, the bell over the door rang, and my head immediately snapped up.
Even before I caught his sweet scent, I could feel my mate’s presence like an incoming storm.
The hair on my arms lifted in goosebumps, and I shivered as I waited for lightning to strike.
“Hey, I didn’t expect to see you this morning,” I said, resting the empty dish bin on my growing belly.
I had just hit the five-month mark, and it was really starting to pop.
“Couldn’t wait to see me?” I teased, but then I clocked the look on his face, chagrined and apologetic, as he leaned in to kiss me on the cheek, rubbing my belly to say hi to the baby.
“It wasn’t me, exactly. It was my…” He paused, looking around to see who was listening. “Friend,” he finished with emphasis on the word, implying his jaguar. “He’s been really pushy this morning with his need to check on you. And I figured I could use a coffee.” He shrugged helplessly.
I laughed. “Sure. Let me just clear these tables, and then I’ll whip something up for you.” I loaded up the bin with the discarded plates and mugs, but when I turned around to head back to the kitchen, there was North.
“Here, let me help you with that.” He didn’t even wait for me to answer before he took the bin from my hands and carried it to the back for me. Brent, who was working the counter, just turned to look at me, eyebrow raised.
“I…” I laughed awkwardly. “Alphas, am I right?”
Brent, who happened to be an alpha, as well as a new father, just nodded in understanding. “You’re not wrong.”
I’d been able to coax North to leave after making him a mocha latte, with extra whipped cream for his “friend,” but if I thought that was the last time he would stop by my work, I would be sorely mistaken.
On Wednesday afternoon, when I was walking the dogs through the park, who should happen to be taking a stroll at the same time? Oh yes, it was North.
I narrowed my eyes at him as he attempted to pull a, “Fancy meeting you here.”
“I know what you’re doing,” I seethed, jabbing a finger at him. “You think now that I’m pregnant, I am incapable of doing anything on my own. You think I’m weak.”
He winced, saying, “I promise I don’t think anything of the sort,” while simultaneously taking the leashes from my hands and looping them over his own wrists.
“Then what the hell are you doing?” I snapped, indicating the leashes.
North looked down, almost surprised to find he was doing it.
“I-I… Sorry. It’s my beast. The second I let my guard down, he’s there, hijacking my body.
I know it sounds like I’m just passing the blame, but I swear, I believe you are capable of doing anything you set your mind to. You are strong, independent…”
“Why are you backing away from me?”
“What? I’m not,” he said, taking another step back. All the dogs were following him, tongues lolling, their excited panting coming out in clouds of steam in the early-winter air.
“North, give me the leashes,” I said in warning.
He nodded, then winced, as if his beast were digging in his claws, before he shook his head instead. “Sorry, no can do,” he muttered. “Maybe if I just take them for a quick run around the park and tire them out a little, then my jaguar will agree to give them back.”
“North…” I shouted, but he was already gone. He did three laps of the park, which was three more laps than I could’ve managed, and the dogs looked like they were having the time of their lives, so I couldn’t even complain.
You know when I could complain, though? When North showed up at Hair of the Dog on Friday night.
He’d stopped apologizing by now, just settled down on the barstool at the end of the counter and nursed his glass of water. Did that mean he and his jaguar had come to some sort of agreement? I didn’t want to ask because I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like the answer.
I didn’t know what exactly he expected to do for me here, what tasks he planned to micromanage like an overprotective alpha, because there was no heavy lifting, no long walks outdoors where I could get hit by a car or something.
I poured drinks, and if he was about to insinuate that I couldn’t lift a bottle of whiskey, we were going to have words.
I kept waiting for things to escalate. But as the evening wore on and my mate didn’t situate himself where he wasn’t wanted, I started to let my guard down.
That was my first mistake. My second mistake was making eye contact with a customer, then leaning closer because his order got lost in the pounding rave music, and I only had weak human hearing at my disposal.
So I held a hand to my ear and said, “Say again?”
When the stranger leaned in to repeat his order, a thick, tattooed hand slapped over his mouth and physically yanked him back.
“No,” North said firmly, eyes glowing gold.
The guy was already nodding frantically behind North’s hand, even before my mate had said, “The bartender over there will serve you.”
“North, for the love of gods,” I said through gritted teeth, just starting to build up a full head of steam. But it was too late. He’d already hoisted himself right over the bar and scooped me up, headed for the exit.
I looked straight at one of the club’s security guards, but his chin was tucked in a submissive posture, and on the way out the door, he said to me, “Sorry, but we have a strict mates-first policy.” Ugh, stupid shifter-run business.
As North hauled me toward the parking lot, I kicked and squirmed, making it nearly impossible to keep hold of me. Finally, he deposited me on my feet, his nostrils flaring. “Are you trying to make me drop you? The baby could get hurt!”
“You would never drop me,” I said with certainty, and he seemed slightly mollified.
That was when I really let him have it. “North, you have to stop showing up at my jobs. Can’t you trust that I’m not taking any unnecessary risks?
I’m not even that pregnant! How bad are things going to get before I hit nine months? ”
He seemed to shrink in on himself, shoulders bowing. “But my beast—”
“I don’t care if it’s you or your cat, the two of you can back right the hell off, or I’ll-I’ll… move back in with Kedi until you’re ready to act like a sane human being.” I regretted the words the second they left my mouth, because I didn’t want to move out. I loved spending time with my mate.
“But I’m not human,” he muttered like it was shameful to admit, looking down at his feet.
Through the bond, I could feel how awful he felt.
The regret felt dark and choking, and I swore I could practically see his cat’s posture, head lowered, tail tucked.
I instantly felt guilty. “Hey, I didn’t mean it,” I said, trying to hug him, but he wouldn’t even look at me.
“I know you’re not human. It’s one of your best qualities,” I teased, rubbing my hands over his belly, a move I knew his jaguar couldn’t resist. And sure enough, within seconds, I could feel a purr starting, like a motor under the hood.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you to take care of our baby,” he said, still sulking a little. “It’s just so hard to resist the instinct to protect you.”
“I know.” I sighed as he brought his arms around me and cautiously pulled me closer, as though worried about pissing me off again, and I hated the strain this was having on our relationship.
We had to find some middle ground, a compromise or a way to encourage him to resist his beast’s urges.
“How about… I give you rewards for when you don’t show up at my work and go all alpha? ”
He stilled, holding his breath. “What kind of rewards?” he asked, interest piqued.
“Hmm… I’m sure we can come up with something, clothing optional.” From being pressed up against him, I could feel his dick begin to thicken at the mere prospect of earning his reward.
“I’ll be good,” he promised, nodding vigorously.
“I know you will.” I took his hand and led the way to Mace’s borrowed car. “Now come on. It’s late, but I’d bet that fish-and-chip place we like is still open. Let’s pick up a late dinner, then I’ll let you give me a bath.”
North perked up. “A tongue bath?”
I laughed. “We’ll see.” The answer would always be yes.