Page 22 of The President

Fox.

My mate.

When he goes to move off me, I clutch him close while shaking my head. “I like feeling you on me, Fox,” I admit.

“Too heavy for you, Vivi,” he replies, shifting so he’s now on his back and I’m sprawled directly on top of him. Like two peas sharing a pod. Unsurprisingly, we’re still connected. He peers at my neck and a self-satisfied smirk crosses his face. “No doubt about it now, you’re mine.”

I glance at the mate mark I gave him and grin back. “And you’re mine.”

“So, we have a mutual admiration society going on, huh?” he teases.

“Something like that,” I reply, suddenly feeling sassy.

Over and over that night, we reach for each other until dawn starts coming over the horizon. As I lay there, sated and replete, I reach over and stroke his jaw. “Best thing that ever happened to me was Angie telling me about Zephyr Hills,” I whisper.

“She did?” he asks, his voice just as low as mine. I know I already told him this when we first encountered each other, but with us in a daze after several bouts of sheet romps, we’re pillow talking and it seems to be our confession time. We’re reiterating our blessings when it comes to one another. So, in my mind, it bears repeating.

“Yeah, when we realized stuff was going bad in the pack and I had to leave, she told me about your town. She said that all shifters were welcome who needed a place, so I set my GPS to Texas and here I am.”

He opens his mouth to reply when there’s a pounding on his door which has us both looking at each other. “What the fuck?” he snarls. “I told those fuckers not to bother us unless the clubhouse is on fire, so let’s get dressed really quick just in case, okay?”

Yeah, he doesn’t have to say that twice since there’s no way I want to lose my mate when I’ve finally found him. We’re both quick to throw some clothes on and I follow behind him, worried about what’s on the other side of the door.

“Where is she? Where’s my mate?” Popeye roars. “I know she’s been here, so which one of you fuckers has her hidden from me?”

“What’s going on, Brother?” Fox asks, moving closer to Popeye.

“I can smell my mate,” Popeye growls out, his eyes wild and slightly crazed. “She’s here and y’all are hiding her from me.” His accusation has my head rearing back. Nobody would hide someone’s mate from them, especially when they’ve scented them for the first time. That’s when our beasts are the most volatile.

I look at Fox and he glances at me, both of us completely confused by Popeye’s erratic statement. He wasn’t really around much during the cookout because he got called out by one of their customers. I mentally go through everyone I met last night and when the lightbulb goes off, I murmur, “Angie.” As far as I know, outside of me, she’s the only female that attended that isn’t a regular at the Phantom’s clubhouse.

Because other than the brothers who live at the clubhouse, the club girls themselves, and Nonna, the onlynewpeople who were here were me, Angie, and my father from what Fox explained. Well, hell, looks like life might get interesting around here when these two finally cross paths.

“Brother, no one wouldeverhide another’s mate from them and if you’d take a few deep breaths, you’d realize that the scent you're sniffing has faded and what you’re saying is sheer lunacy,” Fox says. “I suspect I know who you’re scenting and if I’m correct, she was here for the cookout, but she left hours ago.”

“I need to find her,” Popeye insists, his chest expanding as if he’s gearing up for an argument; one he won’t find from anyone standing in this corridor.

“Not at fucking four in the morning. Or is it five?” Fox retorts. “Later today is soon enough, Brother. I promise, none of us are hiding her, and we’ll get her back to the clubhouse so you two can meet.”

Popeye seems to deflate, and I feel bad for him, because he has a dejected look on his face as if he lost out on something magical. What he doesn’t realize is Angie is at most ten to fifteen minutes away, and if they’re truly mates, he’s in for the ride of his life.

“Sorry, Pres, I guess I got carried away,” Popeye mumbles. “Sorry, y’all,” he says to the rest of us now standing in the hallway.

“Get some sleep, Brother,” Fox instructs. “We’ll get it all sorted out later, okay?”

Chapter Twelve

Vivienne

“I can’t believe it’s finally the day,” Angie says as we walk into the suite assigned to us.

“Right? I mean, it’s taken forever,” I reply, heading to one of the bedroom doors. Since Angie and Popeye are still dancing around each other even though they both know they’re mates, she’s sharing with me and Fox, while Popeye and several of the other single brothers bunk together.

“Do we have a plan of attack for the signing?” she asks from the doorway.

“I know the four of us will be together and we have the seating chart color-coded thanks to Nini,” I reply, snickering. “We’ll go in and basically hit every author’s table, pick up any preorders we have, then move on. Once we have all of our books, then we can go back through and meet new-to-us authors.”

“We’ll run out of time,” she laments, wringing her hands.

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