Loosing his temper
802 Words
*Chase*
I lean against the veranda beam and watch as Wade tucks Maggie into the back of the wagon. Briony was kind enough to help me clean up my office. I wish she had the power to wipe away my doubts as easily as she wiped away the kitten’s puddle.
Is a son such a terrible thing for a man to wish for?
“Have a safe journey home,” I say.
Wade looks up from his task. “We will.”
“If you need anything…”
“We will be fine,” Briony says. “Get back to your wife.”
I walk into the house and close the door behind me. After a day filled with guests, the house seems unbearably empty. My footsteps echo down the hallway. I begin climbing the stairs.
My mate is waiting for me. My mat, my Luna, my wife. I had planned to dance with her, toast her happiness, and charm her.
Instead, She has seen my temper flare up more than once, and I had frightened her. Her scream had been one of pure terror.
I stop outside the door to my room. A pale light slips into the hallway. She is inside waiting on me.
Tonight I have someone beside me, and with any luck, nine months from now, I have someone in my heart.
I have vowed for better or worse. I will do all I can to make everything better for her, but I live with worse if I have to.
I put my hand on the knob, turn it, and discover she has locked me out.
By the Goddess, I have been challenged at every turn today, and I am damn tired of it. With a burst of rage that sends the blood rushing through my temples, I kick in the door.
She screams and flies out of the chair by the fire I had built earlier in the hearth, clutching her brush to her breast.
“Never lock the door against me,” I say in a low menacing voice. “Not in my house.”
She shakes her head and takes a step back. “No, no, I wouldn’t. I know my duty. I... I was just preparing myself for you.”
Her duty. The words sound incredibly harsh, but then what had I expected? She knows less about me than I know of her because all she knows of me has come from her brothers, and it is obvious after the confrontation in my office and conversations held throughout the day that they have few kind words to say about me.
Her eyes are as large as a harvest moon, and I can see now that her brush is tangled in her hair. Tangled in her thick black hair that cascades down to her narrow hips like a still waterfall.
She wears a white cotton shift with lace at the throat and tiny pearl buttons running down the front. Something a she-wolf might sleep in.
As I take a step forward, I see her bare toes curl. For some inexplicable reason, that small action touches me as nothing has all day. I glance over at the door, hanging at an awkward angle, torn from the top hinges. I look back at Callista. “I’ll send someone up to repair the door.”
She gives me a jerky nod. I walk from the room, rush down the stairs, and storm into the night. I see Wade, standing by the wagon, kissing Briony as though he hasn’t spent the whole day with her, isn’t sharing the rest of his life with her. “Wade!”
Wade lifts his head and draws Briony closer to him.
I feel like a fool. A damn fool. “I need you to... to fix the door to my bedroom.”
“Fix it? What happened to it?” he asks.
“A little misunderstanding. I might have kicked it in, and now it’s hanging off the hinges. I thought it might be better if someone else repaired it,” I admit.
I grunt when Briony hits me in the stomach.
“Watch our daughter,” she orders.
Briony and Wade hurry into the house. I walk to the back of the wagon and glance inside. Maggie lies on a bundle of blankets, the kitten I had given her curled within the curve of her stomach. “Wouldn’t you like to have a little boy to play with?” I ask quietly.
I catch sight of a movement out of the corner of my eye. Blaise is weaving toward the wagon. “Blaise?”
Blaise stumbles to a stop. “What?”
“Watch Maggie. I need a drink,” I say.
I ignore Blaise’s groan as I head into the house.
- Writer
