Page 69 of The Beta's Blind Date

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He shrugs. “It only means something if you make it mean something.”

My face wrinkles, and I turn away from him and his cryptic as fuck comments. My girl is here, and I don’t have the energy to work through the layers of Sebastian’s statements when my wolf is in a tizzy, and I’m utterly focused on Taryn.

She and Blake scan the crowded bar, searching for an open table or booth, but they won’t find one. Not on karaoke night.

“Taryn!” I raise my hand and wave it, catching her attention.

Her eyes light up, and she smiles when she sees me, tapping Blake on the shoulder and pointing at me with her chin. Taryn says something to her, but I can’t make her words out over the Goddess awful rendition of “Love is a Battlefield” someone is cursing the bar with. Blake’s gaze lands on our large group, and she nods at Taryn, then follows her through the crowd to our table.

I keep my eyes glued on Taryn, watching her as she approaches us, and she’s fixated on me, too. A fire burns behind her eyes, twin flames to the fire burning in my soul, the one growing larger with each interaction we have.

I stand as soon as they reach us, my arms reaching around her and wrapping her in a hug on instinct, holding her close and squeezing her. She relaxes into me, all her tension and skittishness from our heated moment earlier in the week finally gone. Her dark brown plaid coat holds a lingering chill from outside, and her voluminous, playful, black spirals tickle my face, leaving trace amounts of her scent on my cheek. The scent that’s faded from my blanket since the night she slept curled up within it and my arms.

“What are you doing here?” I ask as I pull away. “Shit, sorry!” I say, reaching out to shake Blake’s hand. “You must be Blake.”

“And you must be Cookie Monster Beta.”

I drop her hand and rub my hair, shrugging. “Guilty.”

She raises her brow at me, her eyes scanning me, and I swear to Selene I’ve never felt more exposed in my entire life than I do with this five-foot-nothing she-wolf scrutinizing me, staring at me as if she can see straight into my soul.

I shuffle my feet underneath me and turn my attention back to Taryn, placing my hand on the small of her back and guiding her to the table we’ve all camped out at for the evening.

“Everyone, this is Taryn,” I say, my palms sweating as I introduce her to all my friends for the first time. “Taryn, you’ve already met Sebastian and Maddie,” I point at them, “but this is Wesley, Haven, Maya, Imogen, and Nolan.”

“Hey!” she says, reaching over the table to shake their hands. “Nice to meet you all. And thank you, Alpha Wesley, for letting me steal so much of your beta’s time and attention over the last few weeks. I promise I’ll be out of his hair after Tuesday.” She turns and links her arm with Blake’s. “And this is Blake. It’s her twenty-first birthday today, so we’re celebrating with karaoke.”

“But I didn’t realize it would be so crowded,” Blake says, scanning the bar.

“You can join us!” Haven says, standing up. “We can all squish and make room.”

She waves her hands at us, in full luna mode even in the middle of a dim and dank bar, ordering us all to scoot together and give Taryn and Blake somewhere to sit. Haven perches on Wesley’s lap, Blake sits next to them, and Taryn sits next to me, each of them on the edge of the booth’s curved bench.

Our legs touch, and I press mine harder against hers, desperate for any form of contact, of connection. She scoots in closer, and I lean back, my arm slinging across the back of the booth seat behind her.

She glances at me, and I smile as she leans closer, almost but not quite snuggled into my side. Her scent wafts around me, blocking out the potent scents of the bar, until it’s all that fills my nose and my lungs.

“So,” Maya says, leaning over the table to speak to Blake. “Twenty-one! Happy birthday! Have you found your mate yet?”

“Nope. I haven’t found him in our pack, and he’s not here tonight either. But that’s all right. Not everyone finds their mate right away. Or ever. It’s been a while since anyone in our pack found a fated mate.”

“Ours too,” Seb says. “Wes was the last member of our pack to find his mate.”

My jaw ticks, and even though I’m tempted to glance at Taryn, I don’t. And I don’t correct him either. I want to, but Jake’s bar is not the place, and Haven and Wes’s last night out is not the time.

I have a plan, and I am sticking to it. Make her fall for me. Figure out why she doesn’t feel the bond. Get her to feel it and then confess everything. I just have to hope it doesn’t take too long. I’ve already scared her off once, and I’m no closer to finding out anything about our bond than I was two weeks ago after our first date.

“Do either of you want a drink?” Sebastian asks, looking at Blake and then Taryn. “I’m going to go order another round for the table.”

“No, thank you,” Taryn says. “I don’t drink.”

“I’ll take a beer!” Blake says.

Sebastian nods and Taryn and I stand up, letting him out of the booth. Then we slide back in, settling ourselves back into the same position. Like it’s second nature for us. Our eyes meet and her hand moves to my leg, resting on my thigh, warmth spreading through me from that singular point of contact.

This last week I’ve touched her whenever I could, coming up with any and every excuse I could think of to put my hands on her during our trainings. I eased up a bit after she ran out of the weight room the other day, after I massaged her tight, round ass when she got a cramp, after I lost myself in the scent and feel of her, when that little sound she made drove me over the edge, and I almost did something I would have regretted.

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