"No, you’re going to let my mate come between us." Griffin emphasized each word. "Dove is my mate. She will be moving in with me here, and in Shadow City."
Dick took several deep breaths and then nodded slowly. "Fine, I understand." He pulled on his suit jacket. "Do you by chance have that paperwork signed?"
"Oh, yeah." Griffin relaxed. "Let me go grab it. I’ll be right back."You okay staying out here?
Not really. The guy made me very uncomfortable—but if I ran in after Griffin, I’d look weak.Yup. I’m good.
When Griffin entered the house, Dick smirked, "It would be in your best interest to not get involved with certain decisions. Griffin and I have a system that works. I wouldn’t want you trying to interfere more than you already have."
The unveiled threat hung between us. "Or what?" My wolf surged forward, ready to fight.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I inhaled deeplyas I stood, trying to keep my heart from beating too quickly. I didn’t want Dick to think he had some sort of power or influence over me—even if he did. Granted, the emotion he inspired was anger, not fear—but egocentric males like him always tried to make themselves feel more powerful.
Even though it wasn’t fear, he would pretend that it was.
"Look, I don’t know what you’re up to, but Griffin will come around." Dick’s nostrils flared as he marched over, crowding into me.
He wanted to make me feel threatened and to step back, but I refused to budge. Instead, I lifted my chin and looked down my nose. "Yeah, he will. I agree. He’s smarter and stronger than you give him credit for."
A frown peeked from the corners of his mouth, and he inhaled sharply, making his chest touch mine.
Even though he had multiple layers on, and I was wearing a thick shirt, I still felt dirty. An ickiness coated my skin, and my natural inclination to jerk away almost took over.
Almost.
But I used every ounce of self-control I had to prevent that. He was doing anything possible to force me to be the one tocower first, and I couldn’t let the asshole win—even though my desire to jerk away had nothing to do with me actually wanting to submit to him, but rather to get away from the maliciousness that wafted from him and coated me.
Griffin’s footsteps grew louder as he approached the front door once again.
Unfortunately, Dick was smart enough to take a step back, an amicable smile replacing the scowl from moments before. He was going back to his little persona that worked on my mate. But it wouldn't last for long.
I’d make sure of it.
The front door opened, and there was Griffin with a stack of papers in his hands.
I wanted to ask what they were, but it didn’t matter—I could see his signature on the back few pages, so I could only hope that he’d read the documents thoroughly before signing.
"Thank you," Dick said as he swiped them from Griffin’s hand. "I should be getting back to Shadow City now so we can file these with the council."
"Very well," Griffin said as he nodded, and placed an arm around my waist. "And I understand that Luna may be upset, but she’ll be okay. Don’t worry. With time—and when she finds her fated mate—things will get better."
"Not everyone finds their fated mate." Dick cut his eyes over at me. "You know that."
He must have thought that if he kept insinuating we weren’t fated mates, Griffin would believe him. The arrogance behind the strategy was insane. Even if we weren’t fated mates, we’d claimed each other. Our bond was complete, and the only thing that could break it was...
Death.
My heart sank.
Could that be his plan?
"But that was before we began leaving the city and integrating back into the world." Griffin kissed my cheek and continued, "If we hadn’t done that, then I would’ve never found St—Dove."Shit, I’m sorry. It’sjust…Sterlyn fits you so much better.
Dick’s eyebrows rose, but what made me most nervous was that he didn’t comment. That meant he’d noticed Griffin’s near slip and stored the information.
I cringed. The less Dick learned about me, the safer we all were. At least Griffin had caught his slip before my whole name came out.It’sokay. Just got to be more careful.