Page 27 of Knot Quite Ready

I stand up to head back to my room, no longer in a lounging mood. Looking back on the past two weeks, I don’t think I touched any alcohol. I just haven’t felt the need to attempt to drown out my emotions, not with a drink. I was doing a pretty good damn job with the power of my denial. Subconsciously, Agatha may have been influencing that decision even though it took a lot to get me remotely tipsy--a trip paired with questionable actions while trying to be off the radar from my old pack and Casimir would not be the greatest decision. I open the door to my suite, strip quickly, and jump into the shower. After a thorough rinse, I dry off and open my suitcase to grab an outfit. A pack of tampons falls from the side pocket, and I freeze.

Son of a fucking bitch whore.

Chapter14

Casimir

Casimir

Istride into Aneira’s bookshop and look around, Tristan sharp on my heels. Storm hovers behind the counter with wide eyes. I wasn’t deterred by her fake innocent look or the fucking horse shifters helping her in the shop. I couldn’t care less if they all reported to Calian that a crazed Alpha wolf with an unshaven face and red eyes was terrorizing the town. I am losing my shit.

My wolf will rake his way out of my chest and take over if I didn’t get to my mate soon. It’s officially been three weeks, and my patience was now gone. In all truth, I am impressed I held back this long. However, I was going to resort to bypassing any semblance of privacy and get my wolves to hack everything tech-related that Aneira and Storm owned.

I slam the door behind me and lock it. I nod to Tristan, and he moves to guard it, crossing his arms and staring down the shifters who are not so discreetly texting on their phones in haste. I stomp over to the counter, my eyes glowing.

Leaning over it, I get in Storm’s face and deepen my tone. “Tell me where my mate is, Storm. Before I have to do something, I won’t be proud of,” My lips curl in an ugly sneer as my teeth grind together.

She looks into my eyes and laughs.Fucking Laughs.Waving the horse shifters away from the counter, she giggles, “Well damn, Casimir. It took you long enough to go all Alpha. It is about time.” She chuckles and pulls out a laptop from under the counter before opening it to start typing.

I blink at her and lean back from the counter. My anger bleeds into irritation and I scowl at her, “You’re telling me, if I would have come in here and lost my mind sooner, you would have helped me?”

She blinked, “Well, after adequate time for her to get shit sorted in her head, yeah. Which, admittedly, should have only taken her about a week. But if you weren’t going to fight for her, why the hell would I help you? Texting is good and all, and it’s appreciated, but when you really want something, sometimes you need to go berserk.” She shrugs, “After all your mind-blowing sex and bonding, I am surprised you lasted this long. I would have burned down every house of anyone who got in my way of finding Calian,” she paused and glanced over at the door.

“Uh, I suggest you ask your second to move from that door before he ends up with a hoof print on his meaty forehead,” she smirks before looking down to clack on her keyboard.Is she fucking hacking the Pentagon?

Moments later, Tristan jumps out of the way as the door shatters, and Calian strides in with a…cougar shifter on his heels.Interesting.

I watch as Tristan and the cougar size each other up, but my focus is drawn back to Storm, who looks up and scowls, “You have a fucking key, you damn horse Neanderthal. You’re going to fix that fucking door.”

Calian blinks in surprise at her tone and holds his hands up, “I was just coming to help you.” He looks around and glowers at Tristan and me. I suppress a smile at the great Swiftwater Alpha warring between anger and looking chagrined.

Storm scoffs, “Casimir is a puppy with no fur. He wouldn’t do shit to me knowing Aneira would peg his ass with no lube.”

“Hey!” I say indignantly.

“Hay is for horses,” she replies primly, “which is all Calian is going to be eating, instead of me, if he doesn’t start fixing my damn door.”

Calian sighs, rubbing his head, before going behind the counter and grabbing Storm for a kiss. After a few moments, she pulls away, her cheeks pink and her breathing shallow. “That’s a better way to greet me, Stallion.” Calian smiles down at Storm warmly, wrapping his arms around her, the door now forgotten. I feel a pang of jealousy in my chest. Iwant my mate.

“Now that you’ve come to your senses,thisweek she is on a cruise. It’s supposed to dock back in Barbados in another week.” She glances at the computer screen, and my chest tightens at the thought. I can’t wait another week.

“Luckily, the cruise ship is docked at a small island for a couple of days starting tomorrow,” she adds with glee, clapping her damn hands. “But you’ll have to jump on a plane to get here,” she points at a map, indicating a random island I had never heard of. “Then you’ll need to charter a boat to get here,” she points at another tiny island. Jesus, Aneira did all of this to get away from me? My wolf pouts before he growls,get my mate.

That’s the plan, buddy.

“Now, you would have to leave soon. Calian can help with that,” she looks back at him, and he looks down, startled, confusion marring his face.

“I can?” He asks.

“Absolutely. You are ridiculously rich and my mate. Well, I’m also loaded, but that’s neither here nor there,” she waves her hands in the air. “The point is that money is no object when it comes to my best friend…”

“I can afford it…” I start, and she glares at me cutting me off.

The cougar nudges my shoulder, “Don’t cut her off when she is on a tangent, Bro. Trust me.”

Storm gives him a bright smile, “Thank you, Ralph; you are the cat’s meow.”

Ralph nods sagely and gives me the side eye. Got it. Just go with it.

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