Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 38003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 190(@200wpm)___ 152(@250wpm)___ 127(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 190(@200wpm)___ 152(@250wpm)___ 127(@300wpm)
Klaus paused halfway across town and turned back to look at Anna’s shop. Was Poppy masturbating? Did she have needs? Was she wet for him? Thinking about him?
Crap, he hadn’t even considered that, and now, he felt himself getting aroused again. There was no way he was heading into the forest to take care of his needs. Not when he was needed elsewhere.
His dad had him on mechanic duty. Cars were second nature to him, almost as much as alpha duty was. It probably had something to do with the fact his father owned the only mechanic shop in town.
When he wasn’t busy dealing with pack business, he was fixing cars.
“You’re late,” his father, George, said.
“I’m sorry. I was dealing with something.”
“Mate-related something?”
Klaus tensed up. “Huh?”
“Son, don’t think I haven’t noticed your little problem.” George nodded toward his groin area.
“Dad, it’s nothing.”
“You’re in the bathroom all the time. Your sisters are complaining constantly.”
“It’s nothing, Dad. You ever thought that it was something else?”
“You know I’ve got impeccable hearing, right?”
“Ew, that’s just … gross.” Klaus scrunched up his face.
“So, have you found your mate? Who is she?”
He hated lying to his father as well as his alpha. Poppy was a pain in the ass, and she didn’t like him. He also knew that if his father got involved, then shit was going to hit the fan.
Poppy had never told anyone about … what he did or said. The fact he would trip her in high school, sometimes pull her hair, and say nasty names.
The hair-pulling wasn’t as bad as it sounded, in his head. The band she wore to keep those gorgeous blonde locks up pissed him off. He always tried to take her hair down, pulling the band from her hair, which of course, never went quite as smoothly as he would have liked.
He wasn’t a bad guy.
No, scratch that.
He was awful.
Some of the things he’d said to Poppy over the years were not good.
This was a nightmare. His dad would be pissed at him.
That was why he hadn’t said anything. Poppy’s begging aside, he couldn’t let his dad know that his mate was in the pack, and well, refusing to mate with him because he was a fucking bully.
His mom would be disappointed. Not to mention the pack wouldn’t be pleased because they were a friendly pack.
The bullying had occurred between him and Poppy, and no one had witnessed it. He’d made sure of that.
You’re a fucking dick!
“No. It’s no one, Dad. You know, I’m still a teenage guy. I have needs and all of that.” He wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole. This sucked. Like big time. A whole lot of sucky. Even bigger than he thought possible.
“Well, don’t worry. I know we’ve got some guests arriving in a few days.”
“Guests?”
“Yes, Lionel’s pack. You remember him?”
“The tall guy, lots of hair?” Klaus asked.
“Yeah. You like him, remember?”
He did like Lionel, but he was also aware of the fact that a lot of Lionel’s pack men were unmated. They hadn’t been quite as lucky as the Demon pack.
This wasn’t good. There was no way he was going to be able to cope with all of those unmated men sniffing around Poppy. Shit was going to get complicated, real fast.
Chapter Two
“So, after you work here for a month, you’ll go to Nicole’s,” Anna said.
“Right, Nicole’s.” The alpha’s mate’s beauty shop.
Poppy couldn’t think of anything worse. She didn’t say anything and smiled at her mother.
Anna pulled off her glasses, ones with sharp lenses for her to make the jewelry she made perfect. Her mother was talented and built this business up from the ground up while also raising her.
“What’s on your mind, honey?” Anna asked.
“Nothing is on my mind. I am fine. Totally fine.” She felt her mother’s gaze on her and glanced down at her clipboard, feeling the sickness spiraling in her stomach.
Poppy hadn’t told her mother about the mating. She never told her mother about the bullying from him either.
She knew her mother would be pissed off. It would have caused a whole scene, and the truth was, she didn’t want her mother to go through with it. Poppy didn’t understand her mother’s enjoyment of being with the men, but she kind of got it.
Over the years, she had heard other pack members talk about the loneliness. How empty it was.
“Are you excited?” Anna asked.
“About what?”
“Lionel’s pack arriving soon?”
“Oh, yeah, I guess.”
“Sweetheart, that might be your chance to actually, you know, find your true mate.”
“I don’t think that is possible,” Poppy said.
“Why not? You haven’t found your mate here. It is always possible.”
“Maybe you will find … someone.” She hated lying to her mother. It didn’t sit well with her at all. This was awful.
“It’s not possible for me to find a mate, sweetheart. I have been mated once. It never happens again.”