Brock narrows his eyes. “Who?”
“Brooke.” I can’t help but smile as her name leaves my lips. I pick up my beer, chugging the rest while watching Brock’s and Reid’s shocked reactions out of the corner of my eye in amusement as they look to one another, to Jax, and to me again.
Reid shakes his head, chuckling. “Gray’s gonna fucking kill you, man.”
I set my empty bottle down, leaning back and folding my arms across my chest. “He already knows.”
“There’s no way he’s on board with this,” Brock mutters.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Gray asks, approaching our table. I swivel to greet him with a lift of my chin and a fist-bump before he slides into his usual seat beside me.
Now all three of the other guys are staring at Gray, shocked expressions painted on their faces.
“She’s his mate,” he says nonchalantly, like it’s common knowledge.
Jax whips his head around to face me, his blue eyes wide. “Holy shit, seriously?”
My face spreads into a grin as I turn to Jax. “Yeah, man.”
Fuck, it feels good to have the truth out in the open. Especially to these guys, who are like brothers to me.
“Damn, congratulations!” Reid smiles brightly. “That’s crazy, when did you find out? And why the hell are you just telling usnow?!”
I rake a hand through my hair, a shit-eating grin still on my face. “Last full moon. It was kind of a shock, so we’ve been keeping things under wraps, seeing if we could make it work.”
Jax leans back in his seat, blowing out a breath. “Damn, bro. I can’t believe it, this is nuts.”
“Unbelievable,” Brock mutters, his tone laced with bitterness. The guy was burned by love in the past and has been generally bitter about relationships since. “Guess you’re finally gonna have to learn to keep it in your pants, huh?”
“I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” Gray smirks, giving me a sideways glance. He looks back to the others, tossing a thumb in my direction. “This guy’s already whipped.”
“Whatever,” I scoff, rolling my eyes. “Coming from the guy who lets his mate lead him around by the dick.”
“And yours already has you by the balls, admit it,” Gray laughs, shoving me playfully.
Jax whistles, looking past us. “You guys are some lucky sons of bitches, you know that?”
Gray and I both turn to look over our shoulders, following Jax’s gaze, and I swear my heart stops beating for a second when I see my girl entering the bar, looking like a walking felony.
Holy. Fuck.
I practically have to pick my jaw up off of the floor. She’s wearing sky-high heels, her gorgeous, long legs on full display, and a skin-tight black dress with open sides. Her long blonde hair falls down her shoulders and back in soft waves and her makeup somehow makes her incredible doll-like eyes look even bigger. She purses those full lips as she scans the interior of the bar, then they spread into a beautiful smile when our gazes meet.
She’s fuckingperfect, and she’s fuckingmine.
I shoot to my feet, physically unable to endure another moment outside of her proximity. As I cross the room to get to her, I don’t even notice the other people around- all I see is her. My nose fills with her sweet scent, my heart beats fast. I feel like a fucking predator as I stalk in her direction, my wolf pressing closer to the surface the closer I get to Brooke.
As soon as I reach her, I scoop an arm around her waist, yanking her body into mine and claiming her mouth greedily- without a thought to where we are or who may be watching. She lets out a little squeak in surprise, then I feel her relax, melting into me, her hand sliding up to cup my jaw as her lips part to return my kiss.
For a moment, it’s just the two of us. Time stands still. Tongues twine. Hearts race. Hands roam.
It’s Brooke that breaks the kiss, her cheeks immediately flushing as she presses her palms to my chest and gazes up at me.
“Hi,” she whispers.
“Hi.” I tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear, then cup her chin, running my thumb across that pouty lower lip. “You look amazing,” I say, trailing the fingertips of my other hand over the exposed skin of her ribs. “You’d better go change or I’m gonna be pummeling every male in this place for checking you out.”
A laugh escapes her lips-fuck, I love the sound of her laugh- and she shakes her head. “You’re ridiculous.”