Chapter 9

REID POV

Monday arrives all too soon, and I find myself pacing the training grounds after the elite warrior training, nausea bubbling in my stomach and sweat pooling in my palms and dotting my forehead. My wolf is ecstatic because he knows Taryn is on her way, but I am markedly less enthusiastic about seeing her again.

What if she can feel the bond now? How will I explain myself? Will she think I was just trying to use her, to get a night of sex out of her before I reject her?

And why do I care so damn much about what she thinks when I am just going to reject her, anyway?

“Focus, Reid,” I mutter, rubbing my temples and forcing myself to stop my incessant pacing. “It’s just training, and if she didn’t feel the bond on Friday, it’s highly unlikely she will suddenly feel it today.”

The hairs on the back of my neck prickle and stand up, goosebumps forming over my whole body, even though the cold rarely affects me. The scent of peonies, strawberries, and peaches floats towards me, stronger with each passing second.

I swear, time stands still as I turn my attention to the gorgeous she-wolf walking across the field towards me. Everything quiets and the world fades away until she is the singular focus of my attention, until nothing else matters.

Her rich, smooth, coffee-colored skin stands out against the white of the snow that is beginning to stick to the ground in heavy layers. She has piled her bouncy raven spirals on the top of her head in a high, messy bun, exposing her long, thin, unmarked neck to every male in the area.

My wolf growls in my head and I grit my teeth to hold the sound in. It doesn’t matter. She’s not ours. Not really. Not for long, anyway. Just until the full moon. Then I will sever our bond.

She has her arms crossed, hugging herself and protecting against the chill of the breeze, but she lifts one hand in a tiny wave when she sees me, a hesitant smile lifting the corners of her mouth. Her hot pink long-sleeved top ends in those cuffs you can put your thumbs through, and as she lifts her arm, I can see the sliver of skin exposed between the high waist of her black leggings and the hem of her slightly cropped top, and I have to suppress another growl.

Doesn’t she realize every male in the vicinity is staring at her? Ogling her?

Myself included?

She’s almost to me. The distance between her body and mine is measurable by a yardstick. Little invisible sparks of electricity ignite and flash within that ever diminishing space, and with each step she takes to close that distance, their intensity grows until I can feel them fizzling and popping just above the surface of my skin.

But the magic fades with an abrupt scratching of a vinyl record.

Or I guess some asshole werewolf’s voice.

“Taryn Campbell?” Holden Tyler asks, jogging up to her. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, my goddess! Holden?” Taryn says, her smile widening and her arms unwrapping from her body to wrap around his neck instead as they hug.

His arms are around her waist, his hands grazing that sliver of bare skin, and he squeezes her with all his strength, both of them laughing.

I stand corrected. He’s not an asshole werewolf. He’s a dead asshole werewolf.

My hackles raise but I hold everything in, my body so tense and frozen I’m sure I look like a cobra about to strike. Or a deer in the headlights. Or some weird hybrid of the two.

And yet again I find I am reminding myself and my wolf — We. Are. Rejecting. Her.

“Beta Reid offered to give me some pointers and be a fresh set of eyes for me so I can move up in ranks and be an official warrior in my pack,” Taryn says as they break their embrace.

“So you came all the way to Northern California for that?”

“No, I live in Silver Ridge now.”

“Since when?”

“I moved up here a little over a year ago. My parents were originally from there.”

“I had no idea!” Holden says, setting his hands on his hips.

I stalk the last handful of steps until I’m right next to Taryn, my eyes boring into Holden’s skull, my arms crossing over my chest as I raise a brow at him, my body and jaw still as tight as they were when Taryn and Holden hugged. “Holden. Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

Holden glances at me and flinches under my ire and my heavy stare. “Well, we’ll have to get coffee or something and catch up some more another time, Taryn. I have to go patrol the grounds right now.”

He waves at her and gives me a nod before he scurries away. I can visualize his brown wolf, ears flat against his head and tail between his legs after angering his beta. My lips twitch with a silent, smug laugh at the image and the preening of my wolf in my head from protecting our mate from another male.

Then I remember Taryn is right next to me. And Taryn doesn’t know we’re mates. And I don’t want a mate.

Goddess, damn it.

Thank everything under the sun and the moon she is oblivious to my whirlwind of emotions, to my sudden about face. She’s just standing there, waving goodbye to Holden as he leaves.

“So what are we going to start with?” she asks, turning to me when Holden is out of sight, her lips in a broad smile that lights up her entire face and puts little stars in her midnight eyes.

But my face is dead serious, my mouth pulled into a tight, thin line. There is no humor in my face, no twinkle in my eyes.

“Run. Now,” I order, pointing towards the perimeter of the field.

I know she’s warmed up because she asked to have this session after her regular warrior training in Silver Ridge, so there’s no need to stretch.

“Out here?” she asks, looking around and down at the snow.

“Where else would we run?”

“The gym?”

“Warriors don’t get to pick the weather when they are called to action. Do you want to be a warrior?” I ask, and she nods. “Then run!”

My voice is tinged with a growl, and her eyes widen. She lets out a little squeal before she takes off towards the edge of the field at a light pace. As soon as she turns her back to me, I follow her, my stoic beta facade cracking and another laugh teasing my lips. Her own laughter filters back towards me as she runs.

“What are you laughing at, cadet? You’re supposed to be running!” My voice is harsh and barking, but my lips are still smiling, a silent, withheld laugh still shaking my shoulders as I catch up to her.

“Sir, yes sir!” she shouts over her shoulder, her lips pressing together as she fights her laughs too.

I let her set the pace, but I stay right on her heels, pushing her to go just a little faster, to work just a little harder. I want to see what she is capable of doing already, take a measure of her abilities and then move on from there to what she needs to work on.

Plus, if I stay behind her, I have an excellent view of her long, muscular legs and her round, toned ass.

Not that I’m looking. Because I’m not. Looking. I have no interest in her like that at all. It’s just the mate bond and my wolf making me do that.

“How do you know Holden?” I ask to keep my mind off her beautiful body and her sweet, summertime scent as it wafts behind her and into my nose as she runs.

“Cross country in high school,” she says. “He was the boys’ state champion the same year I was the girls’ state champion.”

“Oh.”

I am calm and collected on the outside, but on the inside, my wolf is dancing with glee that there aren’t any lingering feelings or a forgotten relationship between them.

Not that I care. Those are just my wolf’s feelings, not mine.

I stay quiet after that. I don’t trust my wolf to keep his jealousy and possessiveness in check. I don’t trust him to not force me to do something idiotic because of that jealousy and possessiveness. Instead, I take advantage of our comfortable silence and assess her speed, gait, and breathing, taking mental notes on the minor constructive feedback I want to give her.

We run several more laps in this same manner until I can tell her body is loose and ready for a more intense workout.

“Water break, cadet!” I yell.

She adjusts her trajectory towards the water jugs, where the current pre-warrior trainees are gathering to get their own drinks. Sebastian looks on with his arms crossed as he gives them their water break.

I stand next to him while I wait for Taryn, my jaw working as our pack members surround her to get their water, some of them shooting her second glances. I don’t know if it’s because she isn’t from our pack, or because she’s the most gorgeous she-wolf ever, but either way, I don’t like it.

They shouldn’t be looking at her that way. Only I should get to look at her that way.

No, that’s not right either. No one should look at her like that. Least of all me. I can’t let myself look at her that way. She may be my mate, but that means nothing. The full moon will come, the bond will break, and then we’ll go our separate ways.

“Who is that?” Sebastian asks, jerking his chin at her.

“Taryn,” I say.

He turns his head and raises his brow at me. “I thought you don’t do repeats?”

I shrug. “That’s not one of my rules. That one is more like a guideline.”

“Okay, Captain Barbossa.”

“I’m not a pirate. And this isn’t a date. And I haven’t slept with her.”

“Yet.”

I wrinkle my nose and furrow my brow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what it sounds like,” he says with a snort.

“You know, as shocking as this may be, I don’t sleep with every female I meet.” He just continues to laugh and give me that stupid, smug look he always wears on his face, and the tether on my restraint snaps. “Maybe you should get laid so you can stop paying attention to my sex life and start paying attention to your own, since your hand obviously isn’t cutting it anymore!”

The laughter, triumph, and smugness are immediately gone. His face shutters, his jaw ticking as his teeth grind together.

But the look vanishes in an instant, his smile and laughter back as Taryn walks up to us, her face glowing and dewy from our run, little tendrils of her ebony hair framing her face, seeking the moisture in the air.

“Taryn?” Seb says, holding his hand out to her. She nods as she shakes his hand. “Sebastian,” he says.

“Ah.” She smiles, those twinkling stars appearing again in her eyes. “The gambling man,” she says.

“The one and only,” he says with a grin.

I roll my eyes, but my wolf doesn’t seem to mind Sebastian teasing her. Perhaps because Sebastian has always made it very clear that he’s waiting for his mate, and he won’t take any female before he finds her.

“I guess I should thank you, then,” Taryn says.

He cocks his head to the side as he crosses his arms again. “Why?”

Her smile grows and my heart jumps up into my throat, the nausea and sweat from earlier returning with a vengeance. Oh, goddess. This is it. She’s been tricking me this whole time, and she’s going to tell him we’re mates and say thank you for introducing us because we wouldn’t have ever met otherwise. And then I’m going to be a dead werewolf.

“Because if you hadn’t set us up, then I’d never have discovered how much I enjoy listening to people speak in French,” she says, winking at me.

I grit my teeth to prevent myself from breathing an audible sigh of relief, but the relief is one hundred percent felt. The nausea is gone, and the sweat stops forming, and my heart returns to its normal position within my ribcage.

Sebastian chuckles and jerks his thumb at me. “True, but it did mean you had to put up with this dickhead for an entire evening.”

Taryn shrugs. “He’s not so bad.”

“Trust me, he’s totally a dickhead,” Seb tells her.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” she says.

“All right, enough chatter, cadet,” I bark, and she straightens up, turning her focus back to me.

My eyes scan the gathered training class, searching for someone for Taryn to partner with for our next activity. I need to watch Taryn spar, which will be easier if I’m not the one doing the sparring. And I am not sure I trust my wolf to be on his best behavior right now.

“Maddie!” I yell, summoning Wesley and Sebastian’s younger sister over.

She joins us, breaking away from the group of trainees she’d been chatting with.

“What’s up?” she asks, her blue eyes looking between the three of us, her long, dark brown ponytail swinging with the movement of her head.

“I need you to spar with Taryn,” I say. “I can’t get a good read on her form and skills if I’m fighting her, so I’ll watch the two of you instead.”

“Sounds fun!” she says, smiling. “You ready?” she asks Taryn, who just nods at her. “Sweet!”

Maddie links arms with Taryn, leading her to the sparring ring, the two of them already whispering and giggling about whatever it is girls whisper and giggle about.

“Less laughing, more sparring!” I yell, stalking after them.

“Someone’s grumpy today,” Maddie says with a laugh. “Do you need a cookie?”

Taryn giggles too, her hand flying to her mouth to hide it, but it’s too late. I already heard it.

I narrow my eyes at both of them. “Do you need to do more pushups?” They both shut up, but the laughter is still twinkling in their eyes. “That’s what I thought,” I mutter. “Ready positions. Now!”

I point to the center of the ring, and they both scurry to get into position, crouching and bringing their hands up close to their chests. I examine Taryn’s stance and posture, adding to my list of feedback. Her eyes flick to me as I walk around them, taking my time to check her form. And maybe to check out her form.

She gives me a smile, quick as a wink, but there all the same. I return it without a thought, my smile just as brief as hers, before I return to drill sergeant mode.

“Begin!” I yell, ready to find out if my mate can hold her own against a lycan female.