Chapter 5
five
NIALL
"You are not being sly about how much you want her," Larson said, munching on potato chips he'd stolen from Liv's pantry. It took a lot of calories to keep her fueled, which meant her house was basically a grocery store as far as things that didn't expire quickly.
Rob was really into health food, so it was a rare occasion that Larson had this much access to snacks that didn't include vegetables. He tried to be supportive by sticking to his mate's diet. Apparently, he'd missed junk food.
"I was never trying to be sly about it." I stole a chip from his hand, and he set a pile of them on my thigh. They spilled off my sweats, getting crumbs all over the couch. "What are you doing? She hates me enough right now without making a mess on her couch."
"I'm pretty sure this is your couch."
"I bought it for her. Not for myself."
She had been obsessed with the massive blue sectional since the day I gave it to her, and apparently, didn't hate me enough to part with it after she threw me out two years earlier.
She hadn't changed any of the furniture, actually.
I took that as a good sign.
"Did you see your studio?" Larson asked me.
I grimaced.
It was full of plants. The woman had gotten angry, let her magic loose, and shut the door afterward. My paintings seemed to have escaped the destruction, tucked in a pile in the corner, underneath some leafy, sprawling bush.
The places they'd used to hang around the house were empty. She had never replaced them with any other art.
The duvet on the bed was different, of course. The one we'd shared sat on the bed in my apartment.
"Her mate will probably clean it out when he moves in here," Larson said, clearly trying to piss me off.
It worked.
I had to breathe through the rage that accompanied the mere mention of him.
Whoever the fuck he was, running with her morning and night on blistered fucking feet. Not checking on her when she didn't show up, either. They must've been texting or something, but how could he not realize she was in so much pain?
On the plus side, it meant they hadn't been fucking. Or he just didn't care that she was in pain when they did.
If it was the latter, I'd have to kill him. Obviously.
Then again, I might have to kill him just for being her mate. Assuming he really was. We could keep her magic under reasonable control by swimming and fucking, assuming she ever forgave me for the murder.
Which was a big assumption, because we'd been at her place for a full twenty-four hours now, and I hadn't had the chance to so much as have a conversation with her since Darius showed up.
I liked the bastard, but he was annoyingly skilled at distancing her from me.
She'd even ignored me when she spent half an hour catching up with Rob while he and Larson snuggled on the couch the night before. They needed to make things official already, but Lars was still being a pain about it.
He wanted to fix the rain first.
I'd tried to convince him how stupid that was at least a few dozen times over the years, but he ignored me even more effectively than Liv.
Larson flashed me a grin. "For her sake, I hope he's powerful enough to take on a shapeshifter."
I picked up the chips he'd dumped on my leg and shoved them back in the bag, brushing the crumbs onto the rug. I'd vacuum later. When she was asleep or something.
Not that she ever slept more than three or four hours at a time. I'd heard her and Darius in the pool again in the middle of the night.
My mind went back to the 1 AM wakeup we had every day of the five years we were together.
I got her off with my fingers or mouth during that wakeup. There were times we fucked, too, but usually I just got to watch her come.
Repeatedly.
Until she fell asleep in my arms.
God, I missed her. The loss was a never-ending ache.
"You're doing the thing where you rub your chest like you're sad again," Lars pointed out.
I glanced down at my chest and realized I was pressing my knuckles to the center of it. "I need to talk to her."
"What are you going to say?"
That was the problem.
I'd already said what I had to say, and she didn't want to hear it.
Down the hallway, I heard the loud, annoying ding that was specific to an incoming video call. It was coming from the gym. Where Liv and Darius were riding stationary bikes she and I had spent an assload of time on.
My forehead wrinkled until it occurred to me who would be video calling her in the middle of the day, and I bolted.
Larson ran down the hall with me, skidding between me and the door. He blocked me with his body, his expression a clear warning.
He wouldn't have been able to take me down. Luckily for him, I hadn't been planning on going inside the gym anyway.
I needed to listen in. Hear how this fucker talked to her. Figure out the dynamic of the situation, so I could decide how to kill him and how she would cope with it.
This woman was mine.
Whether she was ready to accept it or not.
"Hey Jonah," Liv said breathlessly.
I clenched my jaw.
She was breathless from the bike she was riding. Not because of Jonah. I needed to remember that.
"Where are you?" a male voice asked. "You haven't missed two runs in five months. What's going on?"
"I'm biking with Darius. The situation is... unique."
My eyes narrowed.
He didn't know we were here.
Her mate didn't know that her ex, who she had fucking lived with for five years, was in her house again.
The man was dead. Whether or not he was even really her mate, which was debatable, considering she belonged to me. Long before the moment she'd told me about fated mates, I had known she was mine.
This bastard was just an obstacle.
So was the issue of our past.
"How do you run with her twice a day, Jojo?" Darius panted. "I'm living on caffeine right now."
"You’re always living on caffeine," Liv pointed out.
"Someone else should tap in," Darius said. "I should ask one of the other guys."
Dare wanted Jonah to know we were there.
Interesting.
The fae king's grunt told me Liv had either hit him or thrown something at him. Probably a water bottle, based on the metallic thud it made when it hit the floor. Liv loved those insulated water bottles that kept ice from melting too quickly. She had at least a dozen of them.
"Who?" Jonah asked. "Is someone else with you guys?"
"Liv's working on the wards with a spellcaster, and his brother tagged along. Larson and Niall. They're eating all our snacks."
Larson didn't look even slightly guilty, though he was responsible for the majority of the missing snacks.
"Niall? Isn't that your ex's name?" Jonah asked.
The equivalent of a rock lodged itself in my gut.
I didn't want to know what she had said to him about me.
It was bad enough to know that I'd hurt her, but knowing I'd done enough damage that she actually told the man she thought was her mate about it...
Fuck.
"Yeah, the news made our relationship pretty public. Anyway, I've gotta go," Liv said quickly.
"Send me your address," Jonah put in. "I want to meet him."
"That's not necessary."
Like hell it wasn't.
"You've never been to her place before?" Darius asked. "You fucking suck. Liv spends at least half of her time here. It's basically a sports complex."
Liv grumbled, "You know why he lives at the villa."
"The disgust in your voice when you say that is impressive," Dare remarked.
Wasn't the villa the place where the werewolf leaders lived?
And wait... wasn't Jonah the name of the new Beta werewolf who had taken over sometime in the past year?
Larson must've had the same thought, because he was already on his phone, searching for information about the bastard.
"The villa's great," Jonah said, sounding more amused than annoyed.
"How are you going to get away from Kat's sister long enough to come over here, Jojo? Didn't you swear to be hers or something?"
Liv muttered, "Stop calling him that."
"Yeah, I vowed to protect her. Gwen will come with me. I have something to tell you, anyway. Send the address."
"Fine. Bye." Liv ended the call.
Larson tried to shove me toward the living room, but I didn't take a step yet.
"He's going to bring her with him," Liv hissed at Darius. "I've already done enough damage by accidentally coaching her on how to win his heart back. I don't want to see either of them right now. And he's going to meet Niall, which is just fantastic. What the fuck were you thinking?"
"I was thinking that we need to come up with a way to make that fucker realize he wants you. Introducing him to the sexy shapeshifter who still looks at you like he wants to bend you over the back of the nearest chair at any given moment is a damn good way to make him jealous."
"I told you when we were together how murderous it makes me when you mention finding him attractive," she gritted out.
She was talking about me.
Not Jonah.
Darius swung both ways, and she didn't want him checking me out. Never had. She was as possessive as I was.
"Niall's an attractive man, Olivia. It can't be helped."
She groaned. "How is this my life?"
Larson dragged me back to the couch, and I let him, this time.
Between the internet and everything we'd overheard, it wasn't difficult to put together exactly what was going on.
Liv thought the Beta was her fated mate. He didn't know. They were friends.
And he was in love with his ex-fiancée, who happened to be the Alpha he had pledged to protect with his life.
"I actually feel kind of bad for her," Larson said with a grimace, leaning back against the couch as he scanned a recent article.
"He's not her fated mate," I said. "He can't be. Not a fucking chance."
Lars flashed me a look. "She thinks he is, and she never asked you to make a bargain with her, so..."
I gestured to a picture of the Alpha female. "Look at her. She looks nice. A man doesn't go from engaged to be mated to her to being Liv's soulmate, regardless of whatever happened when their engagement ended. Liv is all fire."