Page 4 of Stolen Oath
“There was an unexpected development recently in regards to our arrangement. I was hoping to speak with you,”—the shifter looked around the store for the first time and appeared surprised to see it was almost packed. Little did he know, it had nothing to do with the merchandise I was selling and everything to do with the handsome male in front of me—“privately. Let me take you to lunch.”
“You could’ve just called if you wanted to ask me to lunch,” I grumbled petulantly, glancing pointedly at the phone perched close to the register in a not so subtle way of telling himdon’t you dare call my cell phone. That’d be a little too familiar for my peace of mind. “Sorry, but it’s too early for lunch, plus I’m alone this morning. I can’t go anywhere until Char comes to work.”
There. That was a good excuse to avoid temptation.
“Speaking of which…” Dimitri smiled as he watched the front door suddenly and expectantly.
The bell above the door rattled a second later, filling the space with the annoyingly cheery chime. Damn shifters and their supernatural hearing. I bet he heard my best friend walking this way from a mile away. The widening of his grin when he looked back at me confirmed it while I glared daggers at his smug face.
“Brunch then.” He had the gall to wink, again.
“You can bow now, peasant, your goddess is here.” Char swooped in with a grace of a falcon, zeroing in on me from across the store, and saved Dimitri from a nasty curse. I had a couple of them circling in my mind that would’ve made him regret being all cocky.
Not that I would’ve cursed him for real. It was just a better alternative to think about that than imagining all the ways I would’ve loved to climb him like a tree.
A few chuckles met Char’s theatrical entrance, the regulars being familiar with our typical antics, and they either waved at her or simply sent her kisses. Everyone loved Char. The moment my bestie locked eyes with me though, I knew something was wrong and my back stiffened.
“I hold your life in my hand.” To hide her emotions, she made a show of lifting the paper tray full of coffee cups like it was the holy grail, but I could read the uneasiness she felt in every muscle of her body.
Unsure of what was going on I played along, grabbing at the air in the direction of the coffee she bought for us. “Gimme. I could kiss you right now for bringing a couple of extra cups.”
“Pfft, who in their right mind would be happy with just one cup? I can tease men by batting my eyelashes without giving them my phone number. I don’t have a death wish to tease a woman with just one cup of coffee.” Char proceeded to bat her lashes at Dimitri who in turn, snickered.
“Miss Marietti, it is a pleasure to see you again.” Dimitri took hold of Char’s shoulders in his hands and kissed her once on each cheek.
“Dimitri!” You’d think the two of them were best friends since birth with how my best friend beamed at him. I was biting the inside of my cheek so I that couldn’t tell them where to shove it. They’d been acting like this the last week or so. “Kak tvoy osel?” she spoke slowly and deliberately in his mother tongue, vibrating from excitement.
Char can speak Russian? Say what now?
Dimitri threw his had back and laughed heartedly.
“Oh, dear goddess.” Char slapped her free hand over her mouth and giggled. “Please tell me I didn’t insult your mother?”
I gawked at them.
“You did not.” Shoulders still shaking from laughter, he took the tray of coffee cups from her hand and placed it on the counter. “And to answer your question, if I had a donkey, I assure you it would be doing amazingly well. I, on the other hand, am very hungry, but Miss McCullough here refuses to take me to lunch.”
“I asked how your donkey is doing?” Char shook her head, laughing along with him. “This will teach me to blindly trust the internet.” Curls bouncing, she turned to me, with a raised brow and a smirk on her beautiful face. “And you, Missy? Why are you keeping the wolf hungry? You hoping he will give up on food and gobble you up?”
I felt the heat on my face bloom like a cloud around my head. Dimitri was snickering along with her but his smoldering gaze added a few extra degrees to the temperature of my reddening cheeks. It was up to me to put a stop to their nonsense.
“What’s wrong?” I searched Char’s face, ignoring the alpha who was watching me as if he was trying to memorize my features. A maddening hum was thudding in my ears as my heart sped up from his attention.
Glancing left and right to assure no one was near, my best friend leaned in toward me. “I think someone has been following me all morning. That’s why it took me so long to get here. I tried to lose whoever it was.”
All humor forgotten, Dimitri and I sobered up immediately. My skin prickled from the power that the alpha unleashed, warning anything supernatural within a ten-mile radius that this was his territory and that he will protect it at all costs.
I’ve heard stories about alphas of his caliber, I’d just never experienced it at that level. He was terrifying in that moment as much as he was exuberant. Primal.
“Mages?” Keeping my tone low, I reached under the counter and pulled out the two kukri knives I stashed there for emergency situations after the vampire attack in our apartment not long ago. Their weight in my palms grounded me to the present more than anything else could’ve.
“I’m not sure.” Char’s dark eyes sparkled with anger as she leaned in even closer. “Humans were everywhere this morning so I couldn’t do anything about it, but if the stalkers step foot in here, it’s game on.” Pulling away from me with a wicked and humorless smile, she patted her purse. “I’m going to split them up.”
A shiver worked its way up my spine. I loved her to pieces but she scared the crap out of me sometimes.
Suddenly, the bell above the door rattled, filling the store with a jolly peal. All three of our heads snapped toward the entrance, our bodies tensed up and ready to go.
“It’s them,” Char breathed out.
