Page 12 of Possessive Alpha

This guy.

I lean forward slightly so he doesn’t touch me. My wolf would rather claw him, but he’s being friendly and doesn’t deserve to be clawed for it.

Unless he touches me.

All bets are off if he touches me.

“I’m Shawn. So what’s there to do around here?” he asks, showing no interest in his plate of breakfast. He’s turned to face me as if he’s forgotten the reason he wanted to sit down in the first place was to eat his breakfast.

I try to lean away from him without it looking like that’s what I’m doing. He doesn’t smell bad, but he doesn’t smell like Ty either.

I could tell him I’m not interested, but he might ask if I’m with someone. Then what do I say with everyone in the room hanging on my every word?

Then there’s Clara.

I haven’t told her that Ty and I are mates, and already I feel torn in two. My priority has always been Clara because I’m all she has in the world. Ty is making me his priority, and I can’t make him mine. It wouldn’t be fair to Clara. Especially if she wants to leave.

Shawn is still waiting for an answer, and Clara—along with everyone else—is still looking from me to him and back again.

“Um, just help out Regan and Jackson mostly,” I explain.

His eyes are on my mouth. “I didn’t ask you your name, beautiful.”

“Martha,” says a gruff voice distinctly not mine.

It’s male, comes from behind me, and it doesn’t sound happy.

“And she’s mine.”

All conversations—the few still going—stop.

I stare straight ahead, focusing on the empty seat Ty usually sits in, and I hold my breath as I wait to see what will happen next.

In the kitchen a few feet away, I’m almost positive Regan and Jackson are listening too, probably waiting to find out how their new pack resolves conflicts when they’re not in the room.

After a second, Shawn lifts his hand from the back of my chair. “Right. I didn’t know. Sorry about that, man.”

Shawn stands, taking his plate with him.

I’m still staring straight ahead when Ty drops into Shawn’s recently vacated seat, places his plate of breakfast down, and grips my chin before angling my head toward him.

Drawing me closer, he kisses me softly on the lips. “Morning, sweetheart.”

I gape at him like a fish.

Maybe so does everyone else, but I’m too concerned with the fact that Ty just kissed me at the breakfast table in front of everyone as if it was something we do all the time.

As if we’re together.

I’m still processing when he turns to face his breakfast.

He’s eaten three bites before I notice something else.

“You look tired,” I say, then zip my mouth shut because I may have just given away something I hoped to hide.

His lips quirk as he reaches for his juice. “You sound concerned.”

Because I am.

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