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)
“Poppy, what’s on your mind?” Anna asked.
“Nothing is on my mind. I’m just talking to you about a man who seems to dig you, that’s all.” She hated herself now.
“Lionel is a good man.”
“But?”
“But he is also another alpha, Poppy.”
“If you love him?”
“I will never love anyone but your father.” Anna stood. “I like Lionel. I do. I will never leave my pack though. Is this what this is about?”
No. What Poppy wanted to do was not talk about Klaus. “I guess,” she said.
“Honey, I know your place is here, and I would never do that to you. This is my pack, and … your father’s pack. My life is here. I wouldn’t leave my life for any man. Unless you’re trying to tell me that you and Greg—”
“No,” Poppy said. She had tried to wait for her mother to finish, but she was leaving it wide open. “Not Greg.”
“He’s a good-looking, young man. An alpha. I know you’d make one hell of an alpha’s mate.”
“You think so?” She didn’t have Greg in mind.
“Oh, yes. You’re smart, kind, patient. You’re beautiful. You’d make a perfect alpha’s mate.” Anna moved toward her, smiling and tucking some of her hair behind her ear. “Your father would be proud.”
They rarely talked about her father. Poppy knew it hurt her mother to even speak of him, so she always tried to avoid bringing him up.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“If you like Greg, then you have to go for it.”
“Mom, I don’t like Greg. It’s not like that.”
“Then who do you like?” Anna asked.
“No one. There is no one that I like, at all.” The lies were going to destroy her. She forced a smile to her lips. “I better go run these errands.” She held up the mail that had been delivered to them by accident.
Their postal man was a newly mated male, and well, accepting a mate and enjoying all the warm fuzzy feelings meant certain jobs went by the wayside.
She walked toward the door, wanting out of the conversation.
“Honey, you know you can talk to me about anything, don’t you?” Anna asked.
“Yeah, of course, Mom. I hope you know you can do the same with me. Well, not everything. I don’t need to know every single detail of everything.”
Anna started to laugh. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I won’t embarrass you with my escapades.”
She laughed as she left the shop.
Holding up the mail, she went by each shop, dropping off the letters. Everyone laughed as she held up the stack that had been delivered.
Mating was a beautiful thing.
Poppy stood in the town square and stared at the pack. Tonight was supposed to be when the festivities started, bringing the two packs together. She stared at the florist. The young woman stood with her man. They were hugging. Her mate had a possessive hand over her stomach. Their first child was on the way. They looked so happy.
Everywhere Poppy turned, she saw mates.
Was this punishment?
They all looked so happy, the love shining in their eyes. the way they touched. There was no mistaking the arousal and deep connection the two people shared.
This was love. Pure passion.
Poppy had taken many times to sit on a bench and watch the pack, seeing the mated couples, and had hoped one day that she would know such amazing feelings.
It had never come to pass until her first transition and she’d learned her mate was Klaus.
As if her thoughts had conjured him up, he stood outside of his mother’s shop with Greg.
She’d never taken the time to truly look at Klaus. In high school, she’d done everything she could to avoid him. Outside of school, she’d done exactly the same. Never allowing him an opportunity to bully her. Klaus always found a way to torment her. It was like a sick and twisted game with him. One she didn’t want to play.
Poppy looked at him now, listening to his mother as she pointed up at the building in front of her.
He nodded his head and then nodded at something else, and Nicole looked excited.
Klaus chuckled, and then, as if he felt her gaze on him, he turned, and without anyone seeing, he gave her a wink.
That shouldn’t have made her warm and fuzzy, but it did.
I want him.
Greg suddenly turned to look at her and held his hand up in a wave. Poppy didn’t want to be rude, but she also didn’t want to upset the wolf within Klaus. She had no choice but to acknowledge Greg.
Klaus saw. Of course, he did. She also detected the way his nostrils flared.
It didn’t help that Greg started to move toward her.
She tried to stay perfectly still.
Klaus left his mother and also walked her way.
“Hey,” Greg said.
“Hi.” She kept her gaze on Greg, even though she wanted nothing more than to look at Klaus. To see him. This was so close to being a nightmare.