Chapter 3- What a Jerk

"But don't be concerned, we know it wasn't you," Sage growled.

Sophie's eyes widened, and the pale face that highlighted the freckles on the bridge of her little straight nose deepened.

She had never met a man so obnoxious and shameful in her entire life; she had graduated from a prestigious university with flying colors, become a successful doctor at the age of 25, and was the daughter of an alpha and a luna of Savannah's pack. She was certainly one of the girls no one dared make fun of, but she had never met Sage. His pack may be one of the most powerful, and his father may have been the Master Alpha, but Sage didn't have an ounce of manners.

"What did you say?" she asked irritably, and a wave of fury crashed through her.

"Well, the first thought was that you might have gotten tired of waiting for Landon to pop the question and decided to nudge things along."

Such an ass, she thought.

"Why in the hell would I want to do that?" In the hothouse emotional atmosphere her knee-jerk reaction emerged uncensored. "I mean…" Her eyes fell from his searing stare. No, he couldn't see what was in her head; how in hell could he? 

"I hit a nerve. Interesting."

"I am not an experiment!" Sophie hissed as anger poured through her and her temper sparked. Her skin prickled with animosity as one side of his mouth raised in an amazingly gorgeous half-smile.

"I sense that this is horrible timing?" He drew his lower lip between his teeth and threw his hands in the air dismissively.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about." The wrenching sensation in her gut was unfortunate timing as she swallowed down her frustration.

"There's no need to be cryptic, doctor. I'm guessing you have a lover waiting in the wings to hear the news? Is he aware that you've been designated as a sacrifice to the noble cause of reconciliation for centuries?"

"I am not a sacrifice, you dickhead! Landon loves me, and I love him; he is my mate."

"Oh, sweetly pathetic, but anyway, I'm sorry, a willing victim, then. How many barrels of wolfsbane do you reckon marrying my brother is worth, just an estimate?"

She clenched her teeth. "I am not a pawn—"

"And the liquid nemesis in your rocky little territory has nothing whatsoever to do with the newfound excitement to reunify our magnificent island state?" Sage rolled his eyes. "But, doctor, sorry to say this, but it was not really unexpected." He sighed then said, "When they told you about the idea, how old were you? That the feel-good effect of an aristocratic werewolf marriage would deafen social conservatives on both sides of the border who remember the "good old days" when we despised each other's guts." He pressed his wide, muscular shoulders deeper into the leather headrest and leaned back.

"What the—?" she exclaimed as a wave of fury crashed through her.

"Oh, sweetie, you must feel very special knowing that you make up a full chapter of a formal agreement that took two packs ten years to agree on," he continued.

"Sage, you overlooked one key factor. My pack ran out of werewolf male heirs, and, for the record, some guts are easier to hate than others," she reminded him grimly.

His head raised, and he smiled his unbelievably handsome smile. "Go ahead," he said, tossing her his phone, which she grabbed instinctively. "I'm going to pretend to be deaf."

She hurled it back, her lips pressing hard. "Thank you, but I have my own phone, and I don't have a boyfriend." She'd dated a little at university, but nothing significant, and then her closest friend met, fell for, and got married to a fellow student in the space of a month. And, while Sophie couldn't picture falling in love with someone else, she wondered, what if?

Did she truly want to discover her truemate just to be forced to leave him? Because she was fated to marry Landon. Her wrath, which she hadn't even acknowledged to herself, suddenly found a voice—a loud one.

After all, her fate had been fixed from the start, and she could only marry her mate. The moon goddess only granted them one opportunity to find a mate, and the grief of losing one was thought to be extremely agonizing and lethal to their wolf. It was as though they had lost their soul; some became savage and attempted suicide.

"I don't go on dates. You go on dates hoping to get butterflies and wonder whether he's the one, right? So, what is the point? We only have one mate and one change." She came to a halt, drawing her eyelids down in a covering veil across her eyes, as shocked by the harsh outpouring as she was by the person she had chosen to open herself to. "Besides, I've been way too preoccupied with work to do anything else."

"And now you're going to give it up as well, like a nice little girl eager to please. I can see why it never occurred to anyone that you were the source who gave information to the press. According to the common agreement, you have never violated a law in your life."

Even though what he said was depressingly accurate, his criticism hurt. She'd always been the nice girl, and she wasn't about to change her ways.

"But you make that sound like a vice."

"In contrast to what... a virtue?"

"Did you realize you were such a jerk?" Sophie asked, her mouth set in a hard line.

"I know that, sweetie, and you still talk like a good little princess," he replied, a corner of his mouth lifting. "But don't worry, the prime suspect—mea culpa, he is one of ours—has been discovered, and he is, as we speak, being punished terribly," he said after a short static break.

"Punished with?"

It sounded scary, especially coming from Sage.

His grin returned, but it did not reach his big blue eyes.

"Don't worry, despite the negative reputation we receive, we haven't actually executed anyone for a generation or so. As for metal bits, we found them to be ineffective, so we simply dismissed him. Besides, my father is currently involved in boring politics, kissing the dick of the council, and so on."

"Did he lose his job?"

An angry hiss came from between his clamped teeth. "You're concerned about the destiny of a man who threw you to the press wolves back there?"

She raised her brows.

"You're going to need thicker skin if you want to join our family, sweetie!" Sage grumbled.

"Please stop calling me that."

"Sure, sweetheart," he smirked. "However, if it makes you feel better, the guy won't be homeless. His intimate account of what happens behind closed doors is very certain to reach the bestseller list after being serialized in the Wolves' publications."

The color that had crept back into her face had faded. "That's awful!"

"But there's not much news, is there? We all know how politics works," he said, sounding at ease with the situation. "The fact and it's no secret that my stepmother has a plastic surgeon on fast dial, and neither is my father's penchant to chuck the first item that comes to hand when frustrated."

Wow! She did not expect to hear that from him.

However, Sophie reasoned that an outsider's perspective of the place couldn't be more tainted than this jaded insider's.

"So, what happens now?"

"Now you go be fitted for your wedding gown, sweetie" he remarked, his gaze moving down her body.

Sophie battled not to respond to his deliberate insolence with gritted teeth, perspiration breaking out across her upper lip as she suppressed the need to lift a hand to conceal her shamelessly aroused nipples.

"Size seven, am I right? Or maybe a nine up top and an eight in the hips?" His gaze was drawn to her legs, where her ankles were neatly crossed one over the other, causing her to become aware that she was repeatedly rubbing one calf against the other.

Sage's heavy-lidded eyes returned to her face as she abruptly stopped moving. "I'm curious—did you ever consider saying no?"

"No?"

Sophie echoed and wondered whether any lady had ever had to say no to him. It seemed quite ridiculous.

His eyes narrowed on her face, heightening her sensation of bewilderment. "Or are you happy to be a puppet?"

"I'm not sure what you're on about."

"Really? You'll be telling me soon that you love Landon and that he is the one."

"I simply did; I love him; he's my mate for a reason."

"Yes, mate, but love? I don't think so," he grinned.

"What the heck does it even mean?"

Sage hissed, "Let me put it this way, okay? The press thinks you're Little Miss Innocent. They warned any bachelor wolf that you'd be frightened by someone like me. Someone tough and big, but you know what I think, Doctor?"

"What?" She mumbled with the same intensity as he did.

"I think you like it tough and big and as hard as me." Once again, he leaned in closer. Sage couldn't help but flick the tip of his tongue over his lips.

There was another sharp intake of breath coming from the woman, and he felt a tug of achievement.

"I don't think you're innocent," he went on, "and I don't think you're a good girl either, I think that right now you want nothing more than to kiss me harder, rake your nails down my back, and let me fuck you right here."

Her jaw dropped wide, and she shrieked. "You're screwed, Sage! Fuck you!"

"Exactly," Sage smirked, lust rising in him like a flood.

"Did you know you were such an asshole?"

"Of sure, but I know how to fuck like a man," he beamed. "Did Landon—"

"Shut up!" she exclaimed.

The boldness.

The nerve!

Sophie took a deep breath and counted to ten before turning to face the man, who appeared to be smiling from ear to ear.

Her plump lips thinned as she composed a perfectly expressionless response to his mocking query. "I'm not going to tell you anything." Then she ruined the atmosphere by resentfully bursting out, "I wouldn't expect someone like you to understand."