Page 21 of Warlander Beast Cat

He’d been doing good lately.

Fuckin’ black widow could feel something wasn’t right on one of the threads of her web, and now Sasha was back to get him back in line again.

Sometimes he’d thought she could read his mind somehow. She’d been able to tell when he was losing interest, and she would always get him back at just the right time.

Only lately he had started realizing the bad in his past. The space away from her had been good for him.

His phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out, felt dead inside as he read another text from the unknown number.

I know this is your number, Krueger. Can’t ignore me forever. You’re my mate. I miss you. When can we meet?

You’re my mate. Ha. He’d always called her that. She’d stayed cold and had explained why she couldn’t bring herself to say those words about him. She wasn’t ready. Wasn’t ready. She wasn’t ready. She was never fuckin’ ready. Until now, apparently.

Until now, when he was in a Crew and paying attention to someone new. Hell, Cadence probably hadn’t even realized he was working hard to ready himself to open up to someone new. Sasha was cutting them off before he could get there.

Anger flashed through his blood, and before he could change his mind, he texted her back. I already have a mate. It ain’t you. Send.

He didn’t know why he had done that. He didn’t really have a mate, he just wanted her to leave him alone and move on.

Heart pounding, he blocked the number and closed his eyes tightly against the guilty feeling inside of him.

He could imagine how disappointed his parents—and hers—would be. He could imagine the disappointed looks on all of their old friends’ faces.

He was the problem. Always the problem.

“You okay?” Cadence’s soft voice interrupted the destruction.

He eased his eyes open and forced a smile. “Always.”

Her head angled to the side as she searched his eyes with such sympathy in hers. Without a word, she stepped into him and wrapped her arms around his waist, rested her cheek against his chest.

Shocked, Kru just stood there with his arms out, staring at the part of her hair. He could feel her heartbeat drumming against his stomach—they were that close.

Slowly, he slid his hands to her back and then wrapped his arms around her. God, this felt so good. He rolled his eyes closed and lowered his cheek to the top of her head.

“Everything is going to be okay,” she promised him. The truth in her voice was so important, though she would never understand what she was doing for him.

“We still going out tomorrow night?” he asked low. He wished there wasn’t a snarl in his voice, but it couldn’t be helped. Sasha had always had a talent for dredging up his animal.

“Absolutely. I’ll wear something slutty, and you’ll wear that white T-shirt and dark jeans and that cologne you wear sometimes, and we’ll both lose ourselves in a fun night. Who knows?” she asked softly as she eased back and looked up at him, her hands gripping his shirt at his waist. “Maybe we will meet the people of our dreams.”

There was a teasing glint in her eyes, which was about the only reason he could swallow his growl back down. He didn’t like the idea of her finding another.

“You like that cologne I wear?” he asked.

She shrugged her shoulders to her ears and released his shirt. “Better than how you usually smell.” Lie.

She snickered and sauntered back to where she’d been boxing up troughs of earth to be moved.

“You shouldn’t wear that perfume you wear sometimes,” he called after her.

“Why not? That’s my man-getting scent.”

Kru shook his head slowly. “Your real scent is better.”

The smile slipped a little, and a pretty pink hue tinted her cheeks. It was the first time he’d ever seen her blush. Oh, he’d seen her cheeks go red with anger before, at Lucas, at Gunner…at himself. But this was the first time he’d seen her blush with pleasure, or shock, or perhaps a little of both. He liked her reactions to him. Fun girl. Gorgeous girl.

“Quit messing with me,” she murmured softly.

---