Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33127 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33127 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
She rubbed at her temple, feeling her annoyance rise.
There were not a lot of people around. She was aware of Silver doing his usual activity trip in the forest. He took several of the young kids into the forest and they’d climb trees. They had a rope tied up quite high, and they’d glide between them. The kids loved it and the parents loved the peace and quiet.
The moment Mateo was close she sensed him, and all she had to do was open her eyes to see him approaching. No one else was around. She wondered if there would be a few curtains twitching, but other than that, nothing. She didn’t want to be alone with him. Franny had already texted to give her the heads-up that Mateo was looking for her.
“Franny said you’d be here,” Mateo said.
“You’re not going to leave me alone, are you?” she asked, moving down on the bench to make room for him to sit.
“I could give you a little more space, if you come back to the pack with me.”
“No,” Harper said. “How about I counter-agree? I agree to considering you as my mate, and you leave me alone. I think that is a pretty good win-win, don’t you?”
“Not happening.”
She sighed. “You’re going to make this difficult.”
“Do you not feel that?” Mateo said. “The pull of our wolves? How hungry they are for one another?”
She stared straight ahead and as he spoke about the need of their wolves, she knew her wolf remembered that day seven years ago that had them banished.
Turning her head toward him, she looked at him, annoyed, irritated, and she laughed. “You don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what?”
“My wolf doesn’t like you. You think she’s desperate to get close to you. Right now, she is wanting off this bench and as far away from you and your wolf as possible. You know what? I’m going to let her have what she wants.” She got to her feet and the moment he reached for her wrist, she reacted, jerking her arm out of his touch. “Get off me. Don’t touch me. Don’t you get it, Mateo? I don’t want you, my wolf doesn’t want you, you broke all of that seven years ago. You don’t just get to come to this pack and think after a few kind words that it’s all going to be okay. Seven years. Seven long years. You didn’t even give me a pack to go to. My father arranged this.” She shook her head. “So if you think I’m going to fall over myself because you’ve deemed yourself ready to have a mate, you’re very much mistaken.”
She reached out and took hold of her book, spinning on her heel and leaving. Harper hadn’t noticed Franny’s arrival, but her friend held her arm out ready for her to take. She linked her arm with Franny’s, and together they left the town square.
“I figured you were going to need a friend right now.”
“Thank you. I think storming off would have been a good message, anyway.”
“Yeah, well, at least you got to do it with a friend by your side,” Franny said.
“Is he looking?” Harper asked.
Franny glanced behind them. “Yep.”
“Let’s keep walking.”
They kept moving, heading in the direction of Harper’s home. She didn’t live too far from the town square, which was how she liked it. She was able to get to work and home in less than ten minutes, which to her was ideal.
Entering her home, she left Franny to close the door, while she went straight to the kettle and then stopped. No, Sundays there was no coffee, but hot chocolate. Rummaging around in her cupboard, she found the best chocolate she always kept for a time of crisis. She opened the bag and breathed in the scent.
“Please tell me you have ice cream as well?” Franny asked.
“Only the best, double chocolate.”
Franny sighed. “You, girl, are after my own heart.”
Harper laughed and got started on making them a hot chocolate. Her mother used to make a decent one, but now, as a grownup living away from her parents, she could add extra chocolate and whipped cream.
“So, do you want to talk about it?” Franny asked.
“Would you take it the wrong way if I said no?”
“Not at all. It’s your life, and I’m just your friend, but I would understand if you want to talk about it.”
Harper sighed. “I don’t know what to say, to be honest. I don’t get him, and I think I don’t want to get him.” She shrugged.
“Have you considered the other problems?”
“What other problems? Do you mean with him being an alpha and your father being an alpha?”
“Nope, that is the last thing on my mind, but you do make an interesting point. I was thinking more along the lines of … what are you going to do around the full moon?” Franny asked.