HIS FORBIDDEN LITTLE WOLF

chapter ten

second I walked with Samantha hanging onto my arm, and caught Annie’s scent in the air.

Wild honey and rain.

There were a dozen other pubs scattered around the pack. Balor just had to f*****g pick the one Samantha had practically forced me to drink at with her.

There was something different in the air now. It hit my wolf immediately, and I felt him stir inside of me. I paused for a second, my eyes searching the dimly lit room. I knew she was here.

It was now beyond her scent. I could feel it. I could taste it on my lips.

Mine.

I crushed the thought before it could fully form.

Annie sat across the room with Balor, in the obvious and noticeable part of the pub. But that wasn’t Annie. She hated being the center of attention. There was no way on earth Balor could know that. She was in a blue dress – the one I’d gotten for her on her last birthday.

It slipped off one shoulder, her ginger curls falling down her back and framing her face. She looked like a wild flower. The only problem was that I didn’t think she knew that. Annie looked too young to be here, too beautiful to be let out.

And the sight of Balor sitting next to her made something dark crawl up my spine.

I hated it.

I hated the way he looked at her, the way he leaned close into her to hear her over the sound of the music. I hated the way his hand rested too close to hers on the table.

My hands folded into fists by my side.

“Are you even listening to me?” Samantha breathed beside me, pulling my attention away.

“Not particularly.”

I didn’t try with her. There was no need to.

Samantha rolled her eyes dramatically before pulling me with her to a table adjacent to theirs. They had yet to notice us.

“What should we get?”

“Anything.”

A small pout landed on her face before she waved the bartender over. Samantha was pretty. Most women in the pack would kill to sit where she was sitting now, to be on a date with me and have me laugh at their jokes, and perhaps, warm my bed at night.

Usually, I enjoyed it because the alternative was too hard to imagine.

Yet, tonight, I couldn’t stand to be here. I couldn’t stand to have her touching me. Because every time I looked to my side, Annie was there, with f*****g Balor. That guy was a kid. Scrap the nonsense I told her in the garden hours ago.

“Isn’t that Annie?” Samantha muttered excitedly when she finally noticed them. I waited for the accusation like the last time, but it never came. Perhaps Samantha saw how mad I’d become and decided it was probably best not to bring it up again.

Fuck, I’d almost lost it.

It had nothing to do with Samantha. It just had never come to a point where someone had uttered the most depraved parts of my thoughts out loud.

Annie heard, because she angled her head in our direction. A ginger curl danced precariously close to her eyes, and she reached out with dainty fingers to push it behind her ear. The curl refused to stay put, dancing into the way again.

I rubbed two fingers against each other, suddenly wanting to do that for her, to feel her soft strands sliding off my fingers just like last night.

I’d had to run away before she got up. It had taken every ounce of self-restraint not to have pulled her tighter to me.

Samantha waved, but Annie didn’t.

“Is she fine?” Samantha turned to me.

“Teenage drama,” I muttered, brushing it away. But my eyes met hers in another second. Her lips were moist with the Coke she was having. She seemed out of the conversation Balor was having with his friends. They were loud. Annie didn’t like it.

I could tell, and that fucker would be able to if he bothered to take one look at her.

Samantha climbed onto my lap suddenly, touching my hair. She did it intentionally because Annie’s face changed instantly across the room. Her shoulders stiffened, and something flashed in her eyes.

That girl would be the end of me.

In another second, Annie stood abruptly and walked out of the pub. Balor didn’t notice that either. I wanted to go after her. My wolf wanted me to. But I gritted my teeth and stayed put.

“I have a theory,” Samantha muttered against my ear, noticing who I was looking at. “You’re not the one with the crush. Annie is the one obsessed with you.”

“She’s sixteen,” I said flatly.

Samantha scoffed. “That doesn’t mean she doesn’t look at you like she wants to climb…”

“That’s enough!”

The stillness and chill in my tone startled her. I shoved her gently off my lap as the bartender arrived with our drinks.”

“Put it in my tab,” I said as I got on my feet.

“Daemon?” Samantha called.

“I’ll be back.”

I told myself that this was just me checking up on my cousin because her date didn’t seem bothered to. That was it. Nothing more.

The cold night air hit my skin the second I stepped outside. I found her instantly, standing by the wall, her arms wrapped around her frame. Her breathing sounded uneven from where I stood, just like earlier.

Something was wrong again.

“Today is just a ball of emotions for you, kiddo,” I sighed, covering the distance between us, but not getting too close.

Annie turned to me, her green eyes sad.

And mad.

“It’s bad manners to leave your guest unattended. Samantha would miss you. You should return inside.”

There it was. The jealousy that had never waned, right from when Annie was a kid. And the moon goddess help me, because I liked hearing it in her voice way more than I should have.