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)
“It’s nice to see you too. I’ve missed you,” Harper said, brushing past her to go to the sitting room now, and collapsing onto the sofa.
Franny stepped into her room and glared. “I don’t like this picture. Did Mateo fuck up again?”
“What? No. I’m just not in the mood to open the shop today.” She pressed her thumb against her teeth, and began to nibble at the flesh of the corner.
Her friend sighed and stepped into the room.
“If Mateo didn’t fuck up again, then why are you not opening the shop? Was last night … not good?”
Harper opened her mouth and then closed it.
“You know, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Franny said.
“I know, it’s just … I honestly don’t know what is going on with me. I feel so strange.”
“How?” Franny asked. “You’re not opening the shop, and everyone has got that just-fucked look. You do as well, only on everyone else, they look happier about it. Did Mateo not do the job properly?”
Harper laughed. “No, he … it was amazing.” She turned to look at her friend, who offered her up the mug of coffee and the cinnamon bun. “Thank you.”
“Think nothing of it. Now, tell me,” Franny said, taking a sip of her own coffee.
“You were right.”
“Of course, that does not come as a shock to me anymore. I think I should get a plaque or something put on the walls reminding everyone that I’m right about everything. What exactly am I right about?”
“The full moon and the power it has over mates. Last night was intense.” Even after Mateo apologized, they had made love and fucked for hours beneath the power of the full moon, and Harper wasn’t going to deny that it was one of the best nights of her life.
“Intense?” Franny asked.
“It was the best night of my life,” Harper said. “Does that about sum it up?”
Franny giggled. “Okay, now I am confused. If it was one of the best nights of your life—and that tends to be a good thing, trust me, it does—why do you look sad about it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yeah, you do.”
“He apologized,” Harper said.
“Here is that confusion all over again for me.”
“Mateo told me he made a big mistake last night.”
“What? In being with you?”
Harper laughed. “No, in rejecting me and sending me away. He told me last night that he loved me.”
Franny turned toward her. “And you’re sitting at home, biting your thumb, because?”
“I don’t know what to do.”
“There’s that confusion again.”
She took a sip of her coffee and tore open the package of her cinnamon bun. “What if he was just saying all those things because it was the full moon? What if he regrets what he did today?”
“Why don’t you go and ask him this yourself?” Franny asked.
“I don’t think I can do that.”
“If my powers of observation have taught me anything, it is that most of the time, people assume the worst, and that is not the case. Why isn’t he here?”
“He was helping your dad with something.”
“Huh?”
“Your dad, Silver called him. He had no choice but to go. I told him I wasn’t opening the shop.”
Franny glanced down at her cell phone. “I’ve got no notice of it.”
“Does your dad call you for all emergencies?” Harper asked.
“Fine, no, he doesn’t, but I am his daughter, I should have gotten a text. Why would he need Mateo for anything?”
“I figured it was pack alpha stuff. Mateo being the alpha, Silver being the alpha. You know, it made sense to me.”
“Yeah, you’re right, but I still don’t have to like it,” Franny tutted. “So, is this what has caused you to have doubts?”
“No, I accept that the pack needs their alpha. I think my head is just messing with me, you know. Seven years of this rejection.”
Franny groaned.
“What?” Harper asked.
“If you think about it, technically, Mateo only actually rejected you once, and he did so for seven years. But it is just one long … you know, rejection.”
Harper laughed.
“Is this supposed to make me feel better?”
“I have no idea. It sounded a little better in my head, whereas now it sounds a whole lot worse.”
Harper chuckled and dropped her head onto Franny’s shoulder. “What do I do?”
“You’re wanting me to tell you what to do?”
“Yep.”
Franny snorted. “Nice try. I’m not going to be the one to tell you what to do. However, what I am going to do is advise you a little better.”
Harper didn’t want advice.
“What do you want to do?”
“That’s not advising me.”
“Yeah, it is. Forget about all the crap connected to knowing who Mateo is. Ignore it all. None of it matters anyway. All that matters is you, and what you feel for him. Once you forget all that bad negative shit, and you think about Mateo, what do you feel?” Franny asked.