Page 66 of Big Bad Bully
Or…is she hoping to tempt me into punishing her? That thought gets my dick hard.
I unzip the carrier and lift the tiny fuzz ball out. “You don’t bark at me.”
He wags his body violently as he tries desperately to lick my face, my hands, any part of me that he can reach.
“I’m your alpha. Don’t forget it.”
More wagging.
He may be young and a mutt, but he’s smart. I can see in his big brown eyes that he understands me perfectly. I give him a scratch behind the ears.
“Do you need to go outside?” I send the mental image of peeing on the grass in Central Park. That’s how shifters communicate when we’re in wolf form. We’re not psychic by any means, but you can get a simple idea across well enough. Usually it’s which direction to run or which animal to hunt.
Pepper’s head whips around to look out the windows that overlook the park.
Yep. Smart pup.
Aubrey left a leash beside the carrier, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to walk a small dog on a leash in public. Walking a small dog in Manhattan is beneath me, regardless. But signaling I can’t control said tiny dog is absurd.
I set Pepper down on his feet. “Come.” I open the door, and he trots out with me and into the elevator, sniffing every corner of it. He picks up one leg to pee, and I growl. He freezes, drops on his back, and rolls to show me his belly in surrender.
I give him an alpha stare. “Outside only.”
When we get to the atrium, I want to ask Grayson if Aubrey left a message for me—like why the fuck she left Pepper here—but I can’t show weakness. I’m our alpha’s right hand man. I look ridiculous enough walking out of the elevator with a tiny dog trotting behind me when I’m the kind of guy who should have an attack Doberman at his heels.
I nod at Grayson and stride out onto the sidewalk. Usually when I walk down the street, people avert their eyes, but Pepper makes them glance at my face with a smile. Of course, it quickly fades when they see my icy don’t fuck with me return glare.
Pepper trots along as fast as his little legs will carry him to keep up with me. We make it around the corner to the grass of the park, and I point and tell him to do his business. He complies. I don’t have a thing for babies, puppies, or kittens, but it’s hard to deny how fucking cute he is. I may be a monster who’s mostly dead inside, but there’s something about the young—shifter, or animal—that brings out the protective alpha in me.
Especially when I see someone approaching with a bigger mutt that looks like it wants to eat Pepper. I make a low growl in my throat, too low for the human walking the dog to hear, but enough that the dog stops in her tracks, and hugs her owner’s leg as she walks by.
My phone rings while Pepper is running from bush to bush marking his territory, and I pull it out to check the screen.
Madi.
She never calls me. While I have tried to prove my loyalty to her as my luna, we’re still not on friendly terms.
I swipe my thumb across the screen. “Yes, Luna?” I don’t need her to like me, but her trust matters. She needs to know I’m her loyal soldier, prepared to take orders. Prepared to lay down his life for hers.
“Billy. Hi. By any chance is Aubrey still at your place?”
I frown. “No. She left a half an hour ago. Why?”
“I was supposed to meet her tonight, but I can’t get away from the office, and she’s not answering her phone.”
Something twists in my gut. It’s not fear for Aubrey’s safety although that is present too. It’s something different. Something less clean than a protective instinct. Muddier. Tainted with jealousy and hurt.
Fuck. It’s empathy.
I somehow know how Aubrey will feel about Madi standing her up.
I know, and I want to draw a sword and slay the dragon that made her feel this way.
“Where were you meeting her?” I try to keep the sharpness out of my voice. She’s still my luna, and my loyalty should be with her over Aubrey.
For some reason, it’s not, but I can’t evaluate that right now.
“All Night. It’s next to La Résistance in Brooklyn.”
