Suddenly Wolf(14)
They traveled the rest of the way in silence, each of the men seeming lost in their own inner reflection as well. She was very grateful for the chance to get her own thought processes under control.
She was almost relaxed by the time they stepped into the neat, tidy, and elegantly decorated restaurant.
But the first thing Andrea saw was a she-bitch hanging off her man.
* * * *
Xavier saw Andrea’s eyes flare brightly with her anger. His first instinct was to extricate himself from Sheila’s annoying claws and move to placate his mate.
But she wasn’t his mate.
How could she be? He’d heard of rare occurrences where a werewolf had two mates, but never in his long life had he heard of someone having three. It simply wasn’t possible.
Yet, something inside warned him to move away from Sheila before Andrea got any closer. He plastered on a smile and stepped toward his woman—no, their woman, his brothers’ mate, not his.
But the woman did exactly the opposite of what he’d been expecting. Despite being in the middle of the crowded restaurant, Andrea marched over to him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and lifted her lips to his own. His wolf yipped happily inside his mind as the rest of him went into sensual meltdown. Hell, he couldn’t wait to mark her, and if he didn’t step away right now, he was liable to bend her over the table and fuck her like his animal demanded.
Andrea’s needy sigh was almost his downfall, but thankfully she had sense enough to pull away. He held her in front of him, hiding his erection from the humans in the vicinity. Werewolves were used to carnal displays of affection, but he doubted the restaurant owners would be impressed.
He shuffled her toward the table to introduce Andrea to his beta and the man’s wife, careful to avoid getting too close to Sheila. The woman may be his beta’s sister, but her ambition to be mated to an alpha was becoming annoying. Ironically, he wouldn’t have said that as recently as yesterday. Yesterday he’d considered the attentions of unattached females of the pack his due as alpha. Now he wasn’t so sure.
Judging by the tension running through Andrea, he knew for certain letting Sheila stay after she’d “accidently” run into them at the restaurant had been a very, very bad idea.
“Andrea, I’d like you to meet Dave Kinsky and his wife, Jessie, and his sister, Sheila. Jess, Dave, Sheila, this is Andrea, my mate.”
He nearly winced at the fierce expression on Sheila’s face. He should have told her as soon as she’d waylaid him at the restaurant, but he hadn’t meant to introduce Andrea as his mate. He’d spent all damn day convincing himself that he’d been mistaken, but one look at Andrea’s beautiful face and he’d known he’d been lying. She was his mate, as pure and as simple as that, and now that he’d found her he had no intention of letting her go.
Unfortunately, Andrea looked at him with such anger in her eyes he had the very real urge to cup his manhood protectively. But Isaac, ever the peacekeeper, wrapped his arm around her waist and helped her into the seat beside Xavier and then took the seat on her other side. Daegan made certain to move his chair closer to Isaac’s so that there was a wide gap between himself and Sheila on the circular table.
Andrea was already acting territorial over her men. The last thing he needed was the newly made werewolf ripping someone’s arms off—and at this stage he couldn’t be certain they would be Sheila’s arms Andrea went for.
Xavier placed his elbow on the back of her chair and softly caressed her shoulder with his fingers. He noticed that Isaac had his hand on her thigh, his touch just as gentle, just as soothing. With one more sharp look at Sheila, Andrea finally took a deep breath and relaxed.
Potential disaster averted…for now.
* * * *
Andrea leaned into Isaac as the two men caressed her. She couldn’t understand where the anger had come from. She’d never been the jealous type, yet the moment she’d seen that over groomed, perfectly polished bottle blonde near her man she’d been ready to attack. Hell, she’d seen the blood-red talons wrapped around Xavier’s bicep, the sycophantic look on the woman’s face, and smelled her obvious arousal and had wanted to rip the bitch’s face off.
The fact that she felt capable of actually doing it scared the living shit out of her. She’d seen Isaac wince when she’d squeezed his hand tight, and his unexpected reaction had been just about the only thing that had made her think twice. Well, that, and Xavier’s enthusiastic response to what probably amounted to her publicly stamping her ownership on him.
The woman obviously didn’t know the score because she glared daggers at all three men, but when she went to say something, the other man, Dave, shook his head, and she shut up. Good thing, too, because Andrea wasn’t the least bit interested in what the woman had to say.