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)
“Well, well, well, now they are not human,” Franny said.
Harper turned her head, but she already knew who it was. Her wolf had sensed him the moment he stepped into the bar, and now, as she looked across the room, she tried to keep control of her wolf.
Anyone who’d been away from their mate for seven years would be ecstatic at the thought of seeing them again. Not her. Her wolf wanted to hurt him. The betrayal she felt was bone-deep, but she stayed perfectly still and turned away. She couldn’t look at him.
“Harper, girl, are you okay?” Franny asked.
Before she responded, she finished her beer and turned to look at her friend. “Can we go?”
“Okay, you’re starting to worry me. You’ve gone all pale.”
“That big guy that just walked in. Black hair, looks mean?”
“Yeah, what about him?”
“He’s the guy that banished me from the pack seven years ago.”
“Wait? What?” Franny asked.
“Yeah, that man is my mate, and now he is here, and I’m trying not to lose it, but I feel close to losing it. Can we please go?” she asked.
She sensed him still in the bar and she gripped onto the edge of the counter tightly.
“You know what? No,” Franny said.
Harper looked at her, feeling the upset rush through her body. She didn’t know if she would be able to control herself. Franny grabbed her wrist. “You’re not going anywhere, and no one is going to force you to leave. We came here to have fun, and that is exactly what we’re going to do.”
Before she could protest, Franny had dragged her onto the dance floor, and then gave a little whistle, and before she knew what was happening, several of the gang had surrounded her. At first, she didn’t dance. She couldn’t do anything.
“He’s not going to hurt you,” Franny said. “We’re here. We’re all here for you.”
Franny took hold of her hand and spun her in a circle so she could see the small gang was there, and they offered her a smile.
She appreciated all of them. Harper had always struggled to make friends, but these were her friends, and they had her back.
****
As part of his agreement with the pack who’d accepted his mate, Mateo had to do annual visits where he met with the alpha, they talked, and he found out exactly how Harper was doing. No one knew about the visits, not even Harper’s parents.
When he’d banished her, he knew it had been the right thing to do. Slowly, he had felt his wolf start to go crazy, and not only that, he had felt different about abandoning her. He’d talked with the alpha, and it was time for his annual visit when he got an update, and got to even inhale some of Harper’s clothing, to help the beast within him from breaking loose.
He’d gotten her scent on the way over.
The two men at his side, his closest allies, knew what he had to do and why he had to do it. Peter and Damon came to keep him from doing anything stupid. Harper was too damn young to be an alpha’s mate. He couldn’t put her at that kind of risk. Not now, not ever.
She wasn’t old enough or strong enough to deal with pack politics, and some of the females would hurt her. He had no choice but to protect her because she couldn’t look weak. He knew it had been a long time since a pack female was replaced by another stronger female, but he couldn’t allow anyone to go through with that.
Staring across the bar, he saw her, well, he saw the back of her head. She was standing with another woman, blonde, who within seconds led her onto the dance floor, and all too soon she was surrounded by other men and women.
There were a couple of men who’d gotten close to her. He felt the wolf within him start to rise, and it was Peter who grabbed his arm.
“We’re in human territory. You don’t want to run the risk of starting up some horrible rumors, Alpha,” Peter said.
“And we’re already gaining too much attention. We must leave.”
He couldn’t leave the bar, not without talking to Harper. Damn it, even though the scent of alcohol, sweat, sex, and plenty of other human aromas filled his senses, he could still smell Harper.
She was there, and it smelled warm, like cinnamon and apple, but stronger, with a touch of vanilla thrown into the mix. The only problem was, he smelled other men, and his wolf couldn’t handle it.
Breaking out of Peter’s hold, he moved through the crowd. The humans, clearly seeing a man on a mission, stepped out of his way. He broke through the crowd and finally got to look at Harper. The last seven years had aged her well. She no longer looked like a schoolgirl, and he wasn’t happy.