“Bothering me? Really? You clearly don’t know her very well.”
His face reddened. “She’s part of my pack I know her well enough!”
“You ignorant mutt!” She stamped her foot in annoyance.
He inhaled and exhaled loudly, balling his hands into fists.
“What? You gonna huff and puff and blow my house down?” With that Rosalee slammed the door in his face. She leaned against it and heard him grumble as his loud footsteps retreated.
“You didn’t need to do that.” Rosalee jumped, Carly was as quiet as a mouse.
Rosalee sighed. “Yes I did, he was being rude and no one treats my friends that way.”
Carly smiled with pleasure. “Thank you.”
“But I think I’m just going to give the hardware store a ring, I hate to think who else might be lurking in this town...”
Chapter Four
Adam paced the Sheriff’s office, his movements irritable and jerky. Alec leaned back in his chair watching him with a maddeningly wry smile on his lips. Why had Adam told him that Rosalee was his mate? Alec had become insufferably smug since finding his own mate.
“You told them to come back here straight away after speaking to her?”
Alec nodded.
He stopped pacing, “you think it was wise to send Jake in there? He can be a bit brutal sometimes... you don’t think he’d go overboard with this do you?”
Alec leaned forward and put his elbows onto his desk. “He’s one of my Deputies, he can be subtle when he needs to be, and a sledgehammer when he doesn’t need to be.” Calm. Wise. Reassuring, as always. “Besides I sent Gabe with him, Gabe’s will temper him if need be.”
Adam nodded and threw himself into one of the chairs raking his hands through his hair. He was exhausted. He had spent the night tossing and turning over how to handle his mate. He knew he hadn’t exactly made a good impression. He had growled at her, made sexual innuendos, flirted with another woman and then sent another wolf over to press her for information. Not great.
After trying to sleep for two hours he had finally given in, shifted and ran all the way to her house. He had prowled the outside of her house all night. The thought of her sleeping safely inside giving him some degree of comfort.
His wolf had wanted him to march right in there and demand she recognise him as her mate. The human part of him however was more restrained. He was fairly confident she would be his. He assured himself that it was only a matter of time. So what if he had to wait a few days? They could make up for lost time later.
First, he just had to figure out a way to woo her. He wasn’t exactly sure how he would do that. Usually all he had to do was smile and wink and women practically flocked to him. His mate however was sarcastic and disparaging. His wolf relished the challenge, his human half on the other hand wanted to skip it and get to the sex.
He had to know first though, whether she would be up to the challenges of the female Alpha role. It wasn’t just him she would be taking on, it was the entire pack and the responsibilities that went with that.
They heard loud voices outside the door and a loud knock on the office door was followed by the two Deputies barging in.
“Well?” Demanded Adam without preamble.
Gabe carefully shut the door and cleared his throat. “We spoke to her, told her to amp up her security. She was probably already on the phone to Jase as we were leaving.”
The Alpha growled his impatience at the Deputy, “and the other thing?”
Jake snorted, “the moment I started in on Carly she was all over it calling me a mutt and telling me to get my hairy butt out of her house.” He growled remembering the insults.
Gabe chuckled. ”Yeah, he’d barely even worked his way up to acting like a dick and she was fitting his balls for earrings!”
Jake grumbled whilst the other wolves stifled their laughter. Alec nodded at Adam. It was clear that Rosalee had an affinity to the she-wolf, something that the female Alpha would have. She protected the she-wolf from what she perceived as a threat. Rosalee probably didn’t understand why she did it, but the point is that she did. She was a born female Alpha. The thought made his wolf giddy.
Alec looked to his Alpha. “You want Acksel to set up a patrol to cover the Bennett house?”
Adam’s commanding voice cut through the silence. “No, leave it for now.” Adam would patrol the house himself, he wanted to be near her and didn’t like the idea of another wolf watching his mate.
Gabe coughed and looked at Adam nervously. “Can we ask, what’s the significance of Rosalee Bennett?”
Adam gazed at Gabe for a couple of minutes and the young wolf fidgeted uncomfortably.