Not even looking Marly's way, Trent hunted out his jeans, and shirt and then sat on the bed pulling on his boots, trying hard not to respond to the emotions he could feel coming from his mate. Anger and a ton of hurt emanated off the man and Trent would have known how Marly was feeling even without the mating bond they now shared. As it was, those feelings were not only in the air around them, Trent was feeling them in his gut and in his heart as well.
"So let me get this straight," Marly snapped out, sitting up in bed and tempting Trent with his bare chest. "Not only are you leaving me, after claiming me when I asked you not to, but you are going to meet up with a woman that some bloke has told you to take to bed?"
Running those words through his head, Trent had to admit his mate had nailed the situation on the head. "Yep," he said, and then tried not to flinch when a shaft of pain ran through his gut like wildfire. Damn. He'd really upset his mate and he had no time to explain. He had to get the situation with Clive and the club sorted, and he needed to talk to Stephanie and find out just what her problem was. Promising himself he would explain everything to Marly later, Trent stood up, leaned down and kissed Marly on the cheek and left the room. The sooner he got the human shit sorted, the sooner he could give his mate the loving the man deserved.
/~/~/~/~/
Marly sat stunned, watching Trent, his new fucking mate, walk out of the room. Seconds later he heard his front door slam and knew that the same mate had actually left the apartment. The roar of a bike, moments later confirmed that yes, his mate, the asshole Alpha who had bitten him and claimed him the night before, had indeed gone and left him. And if he had done that, then Marly had to assume that the man planned on going through with the other things he had told the man on the phone. Namely talking, at the very least, with this Stephanie person.
Marly had been angry when Trent claimed him – the bond between shifters could never be broken and Marly didn't want to be attached to a man who had phobic issues, or phobic friends. It was totally unacceptable to him to be hidden from certain aspects of his new mate's life, but … Marly snorted to himself. Yep. Like he had any say in the matter. Trent had taken him, given him the best orgasm of his life, and then discarded him quicker than a used condom – for a woman, no less.
Thinking hard, Marly got up, showered, got dressed and made himself some lunch seeing as he had slept through breakfast. Then he got busy, stripping the bed and remaking it with clean sheets, scrubbing his bathroom and kitchen and then in a fit of energy, he pulled out the vacuum cleaner and gave his small apartment a thorough spring clean. Not that it needed much – Marly hated things out of place and because his apartment was so small, he felt it was important to keep it clean and tidy.
And all the while he thought, and then thought some more. His initial idea had been to just pack up some clothes and leave town, but Marly liked his job, his friends and even his apartment. He decided that running away, after he'd been claimed, was a childish thing to do. Trent would come after him – it's what mates did – and bring him back. Hardly a solution to anything.
As he was vacuuming his carpets he gave serious thought to changing his character, dressing more conservatively and behaving more straight than gay, so that maybe his mate would be able to be seen in public with him sometimes, even if the people around them thought they were just friends. When he realized he would have to get rid of some of his treasured, and definitely colorful pieces of clothing, he decided that wasn't a good idea either. Marly knew he would be miserable if he wasn't true to himself and as shifters mated for life, well, he wasn't going to spend his life being miserable just because Trent had made his body come alive the night before. No sex was worth that. Not even claiming sex.
Looking around his lonely, but sparkling clean apartment, Marly finally let a small smile grace his face. It would seem that Trent didn't take his mating very seriously, or his mate for that matter. Most shifters couldn't stand to be apart from their mates for longer than about an hour or so, and Trent had been gone four or five already. The bite on Marly's shoulder meant that he couldn't get a hard on for anyone else, and anyone else's sexual overtures would make him feel sick. Fates little way of ensuring mates stayed faithful. Trent would feel exactly the same way, even though Marly hadn't bitten him yet.
Sending a snarky prayer to the Fates that his mate would enjoy his encounter with the mysterious Stephanie, Marly hurried to get dressed. A group of his friends had a standing date at Glitter, a dance club Marly loved to go to. If Trent was going to live most of his life without him, well Marly was going to do exactly the same thing. He could ignore the pain in his heart, and his own unsettled gut for as long as he had to. It would be a damn sight easier to do however, if he wasn't sitting at home alone at the time.
Marly's last thought as he went running out of the door and locking it firmly behind him was that it was such a shame that his errant mate couldn't be bothered to hang around long enough to get a key, or Marly's phone number. If he did turn up later that night, and Marly was fairly confident that Trent would, even if it was just for sex, then he would have to wait until Marly decided to come home.
Chapter Seven
When Trent left Marly's apartment he had two clear objectives in mind. Firstly talk to Clive and find out what the hell was going on in the club. Secondly get Stephanie some place private and find out why the hell she was so busy chasing a guy who didn't want her, when she could have anyone else she wanted. Neither Clive nor Stephanie's behavior was making sense and Trent needed a hell of a lot more information before he could protect his mate the way he should be doing.
The further Trent got away from his mate, the more uneasy he felt. By the time he pulled his bike into the Epitaph's car park his skin felt itchy and he had an upset stomach, something he had never had before. His wolf was sulking in his head, refusing to have anything to do with him and when he tried to sense Marly through their bond, it would seem his mate had blocked him out. Any shifter with an ounce of sense knew that wasn't a good sign.
So when Trent went into the club and found that both Clive and Stephanie were missing, with nothing more than a note from Clive instructing him to stick around until he got back, he was understandably pissed. Grabbing a beer from the bar, he wandered through to the kitchen. The burgers and fries he'd had the night before weren't enough for someone like him, and maybe his wolf might buck up a bit, if he fed it some steak.
Ordering a plate of food was the easy part – sitting in the main living area of the club that also served as the bar was harder. Trent had no idea who was spreading rumors about his sexuality, or how far those rumors had spread. He desperately wanted to get in touch with Marly, but his head had been so full of sex the night before he hadn't bother to get the guy's contact details, or anything else. Face it. All he knew about his mate was that he went clubbing, lived alone in an apartment, and had a job and apparently a few friends. Neither one of them had taken the chance to talk about specifics and Trent's feelings, that something was horribly wrong with his mating, were increasing every hour he sat in the club.
Four hours, two steaks and six beers later, Clive walked in, looking around for him. Standing up, Trent followed the man to his office, concerned when Clive instructed him to lock the door. Clive had always had an open door policy at the club, and the lock was stiff under Trent's fingers when he turned it.
Clive went to sit behind his desk and motioned for Trent to sit as well. Trent desperately wished he had taken just ten minutes to reassure Marly before he left the apartment earlier in the day because his gut was churning so badly and he wasn't sure if that had something to do with his mate, or the situation he was facing now. His frigging wolf wasn't helping either as it was still in a snit. Taking a deep breath in an effort to calm himself, Trent nodded at Clive.
"So what's up man? Why the panic and the sudden interest in my sex life?"
Clive's eyes narrowed and then he reached into his drawer and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. Trent arched his eyebrow. Clive had given up smoking two years ago, claiming he was getting to old to mess about with his health. But the easy way he lit and took a long drag on his smoke suggested that it wasn't the first one he'd had since he quit.