Chapter 2
1514 Words
I didn't wait for Sophie to come back. I turned and found my way back to the kitchen, my heart thudding dangerously.
I heard footsteps behind me, but I didn't stop to look back. I wanted to run as far away from Alex as I could, keep as much of a distance between us as humanly possible.
Because I didn't trust him. And I trusted my fickle heart even less.
Soon I reached the kitchen and opened the wooden door, then slammed it behind me, pressing my back against it, trying to keep Alex away. I knew he was a werewolf, and a wooden door wouldn't stop him from getting to me. But I hoped that he would have the simple decency to at least leave me alone for now.
I was wrong.
When I was sure that my heart wouldn't hammer itself to death, my eyes fluttered open. I walked further into the kitchen and moved towards the large sink. Then I impatiently pushed aside the dirty dishes and turned the faucet on. I positioned my hands under the tap, then splashed the water over my face repeatedly.
"f*****g get yourself together!" I snapped at myself. "f**k, Maisie!"
I didn't need this. Goddess, I didn't need a new mate right now!
When I thought I was feeling more at control, I raised my head from the tap and wiped my wet face with my waitress' apron. When I opened my eyes, I caught my reflection in the mirror above the sink. Short, tightly-curled blonde locks, pale blue eyes, paler pink lips, two heavy eyebags from tending to a job and three kids.
What game was the Moon Goddess trying to play by pairing me with such a man? Even worse was the fact that he was my best friend's boyfriend!
My eyes darted from my reflection to a pair of brown eyes staring at me from the corner of the mirror. I screamed with fright.
"f**k!" I swore and swivelled around, pressing my back against the sink. My heart jumped to my throat as I registered those intoxicating brown eyes, the cornrows, the man himself.
"What the f**k are you doing here?" I snapped. "This is all your fault!"
"My fault? f**k, I didn't want this, either!"
Alex walked forward, and I pressed myself even harder against the sink. "Stay back!" I screamed. "f*****g stay back!"
His jaw tightened as he halted in his steps. "My apologies for startling you." He murmured. "But we need to talk. This...this thing that happened—"
"There is absolutely nothing I wish to talk to you about!" I snapped. Several emotions were coursing through my veins: rage, hopelessness—and the unbelievable desire to wrap my arms around his neck and sink my fangs into his skin, Marking him as my mate forever.
He raised his impressive, dark eyebrows, a look of certainty in his eyes. "Oh, but we have to. It is clear that you don't want me as your mate—"
"You think?" I snarled, my chest heaving with every breath I took. "Sophie is my best friend, and you are her boyfriend! Do you know what this could cause between us? Knowing that the Moon Goddess had paired us together, knowing that I betrayed her?"
Alex said nothing, only stared at me with an injured look in his eyes. His face was blank for a moment, and then a low "f**k!" slipped out of his lips. He ran a hand through his cornrows, his eyes closed.
Then he spoke. "What do you want us to do, then?"
I took a shaky breath. "Reject me."
His hands fell from his head and he opened his eyes. "No." He murmured simply.
I detached myself from the sink and moved forward. "Alex, you have to reject me!"
I watched as black flashed in his eyes. A low growl rumbled in his chest, and I knew I was testing his wolf spirit.
But I had to do this. He was the male, which meant he was the one to do the rejection.
I had to do this for Sophie. For our friendship and my sanity.
"Alex!" I bellowed, taking another step forward. I could see the Mark on his neck more clearly now, the sign that he had once been mated to someone else. But the Mark was faded, which meant that he was no longer mated to whomever it was.
"Alex!" I yelled again, tears pooling in my eyes. "f*****g reject me, please!"
"No!" He bellowed in reply, his eyes growing darker by the second. "I don't want to reject you, Maisie!"
"What?" I breathed, then scoffed at the absurdity of his words. "Sophie is my best friend!"
"Sophie will get over this," Alex replied, taking another step towards me.
"Alex, I have three kids—"
"I don't f*****g care!" Suddenly he walked forward, covering the distance between us. Only inches stood between us as he slipped a hand up and grabbed my neck.
"I want you, Maisie. Not her." He breathed into my face, and I felt my heart plummet. "f**k, it's driving me crazy. I didn't even know you existed until I stepped through that diner door, and now it feels like I've known you my entire life."
"We can't do this to Sophie," I whispered, as the first tear slipped from my eyes.
"I know," Alex huffed back. "I know."
And suddenly, before I had time to think or reply, his lips were on mine.
He tasted even better than he smelled. His lips were like soft clouds on mine, as his tongue slipped forward, sliding over my lower lip.
A low, feral moan slipped from the back of my throat, and Alex gripped my neck even tighter. He gently guided me backwards until my bottom hit the sink. His tongue kept up its assault on my lip, as his teeth began to graze my mouth, urging me to open up to him.
And open up I did.
His tongue slid into my mouth and interlocked with mine. A sigh escaped his mouth, mirroring mine. Nothing had ever felt this complete to me: nothing at all. It was as though I had carried half a soul around until he walked into the diner and completed my soul with his.
My hands slipped up his taut chest and came to rest at the back of his neck, gently tugging on his cornrows. Alex leaned down and cupped the back of my thighs, then lifted me up and placed me on the counter beside the sink.
My stomach jumped as he parted my thighs with his hands, then settled himself between my legs.
He broke away from my mouth and traced a line along the nape of my neck with his lips, then forward to the hollow of my collarbone. I felt my pulse leap beneath his mouth, mimicking the throb of desire in my lower belly.
He pulled away again, then whispered, his breath warming my face. "I want you, Maisie. Right here, right now."
I took in a sharp breath. "That's crazy. The customers....Alex—"
"f**k them!" He growled, low and hot.
A feral growl escaped my lips as his hands went around my waist and grabbed my bottom. He squeezed gently, his mouth plunging into mine and taking what I was offering.
He drove his tongue through my eager, parted lips, and my lower body jumped in response. Heat coursed through me, the burning lava-hot need to bury myself in him and claim him as mine forever, but I held myself back. I could feel him holding back too, restricting his desires to grinding against my pelvis with his. My wolf almost went crazy as he moaned in response, as his hands slipped forward and cupped my breasts through the cotton material of my waitress' uniform.
I could feel the hard ridge of his d**k between my legs, could feel desire pool in my lower belly as he kissed me hard. And what I heard next was so startling that Alex pulled back from me with a loud "s**t!"
It took me a while to register the source of the intrusion. I turned around, my eyes catching Sophie's figure standing at the door of the kitchen. A tray of empty plates was in her hands, and a shocked look was on her face.
The entire kitchen was filled with a stunned silence as we regarded each other for long moments. "Sophie," I started, slipping down from the counter. "Sophie, it is not what you think."
My best friend's eyes darted to me, then to Alex, and back. And before I could say any more words, the tray of plates slipped from her hands, hitting the ground with an ear-splitting crash. Bits and pieces of glass flew everywhere, but I surged forward to meet Sophie.
"Hold on," I said, my heart thudding with fear. "This was all a big misunderstanding, I swear—"
"f*****g go to hell!" Sophie s
narled. Then she turned and dashed out of the kitchen.
- Writer
