Chapter Four

Reese’s POV

Reese groaned and stretched her arms over her head. She was deliciously sore and her eyes snapped open as her phone rang again. That’s what had woken her from the most amazing dream she’d ever had. She groaned again, the man even had a dimple. Damn phone!

“Hello,” Reese grumbled into the phone when she finally located it under her pillow. How had that happened?

“Girl, where are you?” Cleo sounded exasperated and Reese felt guilty for all of five seconds.

“Where were you last night? One moment you were on the dance floor and then poof, gone, nothing,” Reese said.

“Oh, right, I kind of ended up at this dorm house,” Cleo said and laughed.

Reese looked around at the unfamiliar room and gasped loudly. “I … uhm … I had way too much to drink last night so I came to a motel. Where are you?” Fuck, that was no dream, was it?

“Out looking for you. Your dad even phoned me because apparently some little hussy has to get home for a very important meeting!”

“I didn’t forget.” Reese looked at her phone and groaned again. “It’s ten thirty am, Cleo. I’ll talk to you later.”

“So you just went to a motel by yourself?”

Reese took a breath and felt her cheeks heat as a certain memory popped into her head. “Yeah, of course. We’ll talk later okay?”

Reese ended the call and let her phone fall to the bed. She closed her eyes and then winced as she pulled the covers back. There was a bitemark on her hip! What the fuck! More images slammed into her mind and her face flushed as she remembered exactly what she did the previous night.

Oh, goddess. She rode his face last night! Reese closed her eyes and turned onto her stomach as she remembered herself getting off while he tongue fucked her. He never did tell her his name and she realized suddenly that he was gone, he’d left at some point.

She’d gotten exactly what she’d wanted, sex with a hot stranger. So why did she feel slightly jilted that he had left? Wasn’t that what one night stands did? Would this qualify as the walk of shame when she left the motel room?

Reese finally got up and took a quick shower. She felt naked as she pulled the ruffled skirt back on and found her bra and shirt. Her panties were nowhere in sight. She remembered him ripping them off but she’d searched everywhere. Did he fucking steal her panties? There was probably worse things that he could’ve stolen than her underwear.

She’d set out to have a one night stand and she had. It had been a great one night stand but nevertheless still a one night stand. She’d file it away in her file of ‘Why Reese shouldn’t drink’.

Thirty minutes later Reese opened the front door to find her fuming father standing in the foyer with his arms crossed over his chest. Reese swallowed nervously, glad she’d showered the scent of Mr Knight off her body.

“Where the hell have you been?”

“At a motel,” Reese answered and crossed her own arms over her chest.

“You went to a motel. You know how important today is! You look like you slept in your clothes and I can still smell the booze coming out of your pores!”

“Perhaps Troy Madden will realize I’m not Luna material and run away as far as possible,” Reese countered.

Her father, the former Beta, sighed and his stance relaxed. “Reese. Go get changed please.”

Reese stalked up the stairs to her bedroom and slammed her door closed. She had half an hour before the Madden family would arrive. She scrubbed her body with her favourite body wash and brushed her teeth twice after her shower.

She stood in her bathroom and looked at herself. The bite mark on her hip had started to heal and she wondered why Mr Knight would bite her like that. Sure, he was a werewolf just like she was, but that didn’t mean you could just go around biting people’s hips. It was an extreme love bite that werewolves gave each other in the throes of passion, usually between mated couples! The jerk!

She snapped back to reality and focused on herself. Her green eyes had always sparkled, they were wide and slightly tilted upwards at the edges giving her an almost exotic look. Her brown hair was a mass of unruly curls coming to the middle of her back.

She had an athlete’s body that she kept in shape by jogging, doing yoga and more jogging. She loved to run. She trained with her age group three times a week for pack training and no matter what she did to her hair, she could never control it.

She touched her full, pouty lips and suddenly she remembered his lips crashing against hers. She closed her eyes and willed the memory away. There was no point in even thinking about Mr Knight, she was sure she’d never see him again.

When she was dressed again, smelling like a little flower and her wild curls were somewhat under control, she headed back downstairs, by no means finished with her earlier conversation with her father.

“I don’t get why I have to marry someone I don’t know. I’m not doing it and you can’t force me!”

Her father took her hand and led her to the living room where he pulled her down onto the couch and sat facing her. “I sat with you for three days as you struggled through your rejection. I saw the heartbreak on your face every time you opened your eyes and remembered that pain. You’re twenty years old, Reese, and this will benefit the pack as well as yourself. There is no such thing as second chance mates, but this marriage to an Alpha’s son will happen.”

“He has a reputation, Daddy. I really don’t see the point of this marriage,” Reese complained.

“Tell me the name of the man that rejected you and I can speak to Alpha Victor.”

Reese shook her head. “It doesn’t matter who it was, it’s over and he’s moved on.”

“Exactly. Now you’ll be moving on too and this marriage will make you a Luna of a strong pack and with a strong Alpha for a husband,” her father said.

Reese threw her hands up in the air and stomped her foot on the carpeted floor. It only made a dull thud and her father pursed his lips. Okay, that was a bit childish but she really didn’t understand why her father was pushing this.

“Is that an order, Daddy?”

“From Alpha Victor, yes. You will marry this man and you will behave. Being rejected is shameful but with this marriage to a prominent young Alpha will quell any and all rumours that you’re not good enough,” he said.

The doorbell rang and Reese’s head snapped towards the living room doorway. Oh shit. It was go time. This was really happening. Her heart rate increased dramatically and her palms felt sweaty. Why did Troy Madden want to marry some rejected Beta daughter? Surely he could do better than her. With that thought in mind, she felt a little better and stood up when her father did.

Reese stood slightly behind her father as her mother appeared as if from nowhere, smiled at her and opened the door. She could feel the Alpha power from the man that stood next to a beautiful woman that also radiated her Luna aura.

“Alpha Madden, Luna Madden, welcome to our home,” Lucy, her mother said with a bright smile on her face.

“Thank you for inviting us.” Alpha Madden then walked into the house and turned as Reese tried to swallow but felt her throat closing up. “This is my son, Troy Madden.”

“Welcome, Alpha Troy, please come inside and make yourselves at home. Lunch will be served shortly.”

‘Fuck me!’ Reese thought. Mr Shining knight with no armour was Troy Madden! How the fuck did that happen? He stood on her porch and grinned at her. That damn dimple was in full display and she blinked and masked the shock evident on her face.