Page 10 of Possessive Mate

Why it bothered her that Eddie and Hanson weren’t the best of friends, she didn’t know. She had always hated it whenever her brother was in any kind of trouble. Whether he was the older sibling or not, she had always been as protective of him as he was of her. Maybe that was all it was. It couldn’t possibly be anything else.

Elena expected Bonnie to ask what exactly she was talking about, but instead, she shrugged and said, “Things have been a little tense here for a while, but it's nothing we can’t handle. Borders are tested sometimes when it comes to pack territory, but this is our home, and we aren’t about to change that.”

Elena raised a brow at that. Jack and Eddie had warned her that things weren’t quite so peaceful as they appeared, but Bonnie’s tone was a little more serious than theirs had been.

“What’s been happening?” Elena asked, her thoughts on Eddie and Hanson squashed for a minute.

“The newly turned wolves we’ve taken in are having a hard time settling in, that’s all,” Bonnie said, shrugging again before reiterating, “It’s nothing we can’t handle.”

“Newly turned wolves?” Elena asked, her heart hammering. What was going on here? Were Jack and the others up to something illegal? That would certainly explain the tension in her brother. He had never been good with anything illegal. In fact, he had been such a goody two-shoes when they were kids, the other children had often joked about how he would make the perfect human police officer.

“I thought Jack and Eddie explained everything?” Bonnie growled, looking as if she had already guessed they hadn’t.

“You know men,” Elena scowled, and Bonnie huffed angrily.

“We’ve been having some trouble with a few old members of the pack that took it upon themselves to leave and start up their own,” Bonnie explained. “Their newest alpha has taken it upon himself to start an illegal turning ring to try and build some kind of army to take Nightstar back.”

Elena’s eyes widened. “That’s awful.”

Bonnie nodded. “We’re handling it, and those we can help, we will, but I assure you, Nightstar is safer now than it's ever been, and you’ll be comfortable and welcome here always.”

Elena gulped. She wanted to believe so, but suddenly she wasn’t so sure. She’d had enough drama in her life. The last thing she wanted right now was to get caught up in something like that.

As if she sensed Elena’s sudden apprehension, Bonnie leaned over and laid a hand on her forearm. “Honestly, things are a little fraught right now, but you shouldn’t allow it to affect your stay.”

“If Eddie had told me, I never would have brought my troubles to your door,” Elena admitted. Bonnie gave her forearm a squeeze.

“Any sibling of a pack member is always welcome here, no matter what’s going on,” Bonnie assured her. “So long as they don’t bring trouble our way with them.”

“I don’t plan to,” Elena reassured her, but still, her stomach twisted. Trouble and death seem to be following me wherever I go lately, she thought silently, tears pricking her eyes once more. Certain that this time they weren’t going to ease back off again, she shrugged off Bonnie’s hand from her arm and swung her feet back down into her sandals. “Would you excuse me? I think I need to use the little she-wolves room.”

“Of course!” Bonnie said, her smile warm and friendly as ever. As Elena hurried to stand and walk away, she called after her, “Don’t forget. I’m here if you need anything at all!”

“Sure!” Elena called back over her shoulder, hating the way her voice cracked with emotion.

With bile rising in her throat, she hurried for the back door of the manor. Ditching her now-empty glass in the kitchen sink, she raced for the hallway. She had to get up to the guest room before these tears started to fall. Even her sunglasses weren’t going to hide the sob-fest when it started.

No sooner had she turned into the hallway than she was practically flung backwards, feeling as if she had walked right into a brick wall.

“Shit!” she gasped.

“Fuck!”

The oddly familiar voice made her heart flutter. At almost the same moment, it sank into her gut. She stumbled to a halt only a few footsteps from the large, bulky form of Hanson, who looked just as surprised as she did to have bumped right into him.

“Would you watch where the hell you are going?” she snapped at him before she even had a chance to think. It was fiery, instinctual, and her hands tightened into fists at her sides, her fangs elongating from her gums.

“Whoa, hey! You ran into me, love,” Hanson growled back at her, his eyes widening.

And, oh, damn those eyes. They were like deep pools of melted chocolate, drawing her in and making it impossible for her to blink. Instead, she glowered at him, trying to pull her fangs back in.

“Maybe if you weren’t creeping about, I wouldn’t have run into you,” she grumbled when she managed it successfully, barely able to keep them retracted.

Hanson threw back his head then, laughing so hard it made her skin crawl.

“This is my home, why would I be creeping around?” he asked, and the way he took a step toward her made Elena’s skin crawl even more. In fact, it was worse than that; her skin tingled. It was a burning sensation that she had felt only once before, a need to be touched.

No! she snapped at herself. That wasn’t what this was. Hanson was a frustrating, great big lunk of a man, and there was no way in hell she was going to feel anything like that for him—not for anyone, ever again.

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