Chapter One
“Why do I get the feeling you really don’t want to be here?” Bryck asked Torem as he sipped his beer. “You really haven’t spoken a word all night.”
Torem rubbed his five o’clock shadow as he thought about the question the soldier asked and how best to answer it. “I’m contemplating life.”
“Yeah, and I’m Gandhi.” Bryck looked over his shoulder and grinned. “There’s your hot foreman.”
Torem’s fingers gripped the beer cap hard. He could feel the ridges around the circular disc biting into his skin. “Why do you call him mine?”
Bryck snorted and shook his head. “Deny it all you want, bro. You got the hots for him.”
It was more than the hots. Dino, foreman of the new house being built for Zeus’s pack, was his mate. Torem had tried to approach him once already, but Dino wasn’t too receptive. Oh, he had been polite when first introduced, but after that the foreman was aloof.
“You’ve been sniffing that model glue of yours again.” Torem nonchalantly looked around Theo’s Bar and Grill. It was the only place for people to kick back in this town. His gaze avoided the foreman as he scanned the place. He knew one look at Dino and his cock would come fully to life. That wasn’t something he wanted when he knew it was one-sided.
“Say what you want, the eyes don’t lie.” Bryck wiggled his fingers in front of his own eyes. “I see what is unseen,” he said in a simulated mad scientist sort of way.
“Vent your room when you put those toy cars together. I think half your brain is dead.”
“They aren’t toys, and besides, it relaxes me.” Bryck turned back around and raised his hand for Theo to bring him another drink.
The Alpha had suggested they all try to find hobbies to help with their issues. Torem didn’t think drag racing was acceptable. Not after borrowing Deputy Craig’s GTO and racing it through the back roads over one hundred miles an hour. Craig’s mate, and town sheriff, Jesse, had given him a heavy fine for it. Wasn’t he supposed to be immune if he lived in the same damn house?
“I wasn’t picking on your choice of relaxation time. I’m just noting the dead cells in your brain from closed windows,” Torem said.
He took a small sip of his beer and noticed Dino was watching him from the pool table. Damn it, why did he have to make eye contact? Torem could feel his cock filling in.
“I think he wants you to play with his pool balls.” Bryck snorted with laughter.
“I think you shouldn’t be watching him.” Torem growled.
Brick grabbed a handful of salty nuts from the bowl and popped a few in his mouth. “Go see, you might get lucky.”
Torem laid the beer cap on the bar and glanced once more at his mate from under his eyelashes, trying his best to be inconspicuous. Dino was still staring at him. The foreman gestured with a nod at the pool table.
“Told ya.” Brick tossed a few more nuts in his mouth.
“Stop watching him,” Torem’s annoyed voice hissed.
“What the fuck else is there to do around here? Either go over to him so I can watch both of you, or sit here and listen to my commentary.”
Torem mulled it over and decided he didn’t want to listen to Bryck’s play-by-play. He grabbed his Corona and slid from the bar stool, pushing through the crowd as he made his way over to his mate. “You wanted something?”
“A round of pool?” Dino asked casually.
Torem studied him for a moment and then a grin pulled at the side of his mouth. “We can do that.”
He set his beer on the small table by the pool table and grabbed two pool sticks, tossing one to Dino. “You break.”
The human snagged it in midair. “Mighty kind of you.” Dino chuckled, and Torem was lost in those straight, pearly white teeth.
The smile was a little crooked, as if Dino wasn’t giving him the full tour of paradise, just yet.
He watched the confident strides of his mate and the self-assured posture as he bent over to take his shot, his ass displayed nicely for Torem’s perusal.
Torem missed the bottle, his hand grabbing air as he looked at Dino’s ass. He tried again and managed to grab his beer this time. Shoving the neck to his mouth, he looked around to see if anyone noticed how inept he was acting.
Dino lined up and took his shot, making the array of pool balls fly across the table. They made a cracking sound as they knocked into one another, with a few dropping into various pockets. That was a sweet-ass move. Was Dino hustling him?
“I guess I have solids.” He grinned, and this time it was paradise. “Don’t look at me like that. It was a lucky shot.”