Page 33 of Chosen Beta

Pete snorts. “That’s not going to matter soon enough.”

Shadow sighs. “Come on, Pete. We should let Ms. Cole get back to work.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Pete says. “I’m coming.”

He leans in as he passes, and whispers, “You’ll be coming soon enough, too.”

My skin burns as he moves past me, that smirk back on his lips.

Shadow gives me an appalled look.

“Sorry,” he tells me as he follows Pete inside. “I’m just … sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Just keep him in the suite, okay?”

He nods as he turns, hand on the door. “You know where we are if you need anything.”

I press my lips together. Because it’s Shadow, I don’t blurt that I won’t need anything from them.

Somehow, I manage to smile. “I know.”

I turn away, hearing the door close as I go and breathing out a massive sigh of relief.

This is turning out to be one hell of a day.

I only hope the hard parts are over.

Chapter Ten

Pete

Frustration builds up inside me as I walk around the room. I crack my knuckles, and my neck, and I still feel tense and agitated. It’s not the only thing I feel, but sating other urges right now wouldn’t sit right.

We have another mate, and something shady is going on right under her.

“I need to get into her room,” I blurt, heading toward the suite’s door and finding Shadow blocking my path.

My soft-centred mate is giving me one of his looks.

He’s disappointed with me, and it only makes me more irritable to see that.

“We have time,” Shadow says. “So, let me calm you down, and we can talk things through logically, before you break a lock and get caught with your hands in our new mate’s underwear drawer.”

“She’s in trouble.”

“Pete, it’s not even noon. Whoever messed with the lights was clearly planning on doing whatever he’s going to do when it’s dark out. We have time,” Shadow repeats, helping those words sink in.

It’s starting to get through.

“I don’t like this,” I admit, letting him get close enough to touch.

“I know,” he says, as he reaches up to stroke the side of my face with his cool fingers.

The bands of the silver rings he wears are even colder than his tips and that physical sensation helps to push my agitation down and ground me in the moment.

“But if we push too hard before she understands who we are to her, it’ll take so much longer to connect as mates, and I know that’s not what you want.”

“God, no,” I mutter.

---