Page 60 of Plus-Size Mate

Closing his eyes, he reminded himself,a human in town is a threat to us all, the witches included.

He was distracted by the sound of knocking on his door.

For a second, he thought about ignoring it. But when it came again, he gritted his teeth and marched across the room.

He would have recognized that flirtatious knock anywhere. Why she had come to him this time, he didn't know, but it couldn't be good.

Almost the second he opened the door, Carly threw herself at him, jamming her finger into his chest as she snarled, “I've got a bone to pick with you, Eddie.”

Eddie bit back the urge to tell her to get out. Instead, he asked, “What do you want, Carly?”

“How could you do this?” Carly demanded, tightening her hands into fists in his shirt.

The smell of alcohol on her breath almost made Eddie gag.

“Take your hands off me, Carly.”

When she didn't, Eddie gripped her wrists and pulled her free of his shirt. Holding her still, he tried to keep her at a distance.

“How could I do what?” he asked, only half curious but mainly wishing she would just leave him alone.

“How could you do this tous? Why would you pick her over me? A damnwitchover a werewolf!” Her words were scathing. The way she said ‘witch’ made it sound like the biggest insult in the world.

Eddie grimaced. Barely able to control himself, he shoved Carly away, shaking his head. “Don't go there, Carly. There never was an ‘us.’ You made that quite clear.”

“There could have been if you hadn't picked her!” Carly insisted, inching towards him again.

Bile rose in the back of Eddie's throat as she reached up a hand and stroked her fingers down the length of his torso.

When her hand gripped hold of the belt buckle holding his suit trousers up, he grimaced even harder.

“Don't, Carly.”

He shoved her hand away again, and this time, she whimpered as if he'd hurt her.

Ordinarily, he might have felt guilty, he might have even apologized, but he had had quite enough of her bullshit lately.

“Why? Eddie, why did you do it?” She looked at him with huge, round brown eyes, almost like a puppy. And for just a moment, Eddie actually felt sorry for her.

Was this all her life was, pawing at men for attention, for what?

He shook his head. It didn't matter why she did it. All that mattered was that he had figured out her game a long time ago, and he wasn't about to fall for it again. Especially not now he had something else to live for.

“I didn't exactly have a choice in the matter,” Eddie pointed out, hoping to let her down easy. “Jack asked me to volunteer for the good of the pack. What was I supposed to do? Say no to the alpha?”

Carly scowled, but it wasn't her reaction that set Eddie's teeth on edge.

It was the woman standing in the doorway, face like thunder, that made his skin crawl.

“So that's all I am to you?” Winter demanded angrily. “A means to an end?”

“Oh my!” Carly gasped, looking between Winter and Eddie with a barely concealed smirk of amusement. “Have I caused a problem?”

Eddie barely heard her. He stepped around Carly and reached for Winter. “It's not like that.”

Winter practically bared her teeth at him, looking more like a werewolf than she ever had before as she snarled, “Save it for someone who cares.”

With that, she whipped around on her heel, and stormed away.

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