Page 2 of Wolf's Claimed Mate
“Oh, God, don’t remind me. Last week, she chewed through the rubber bracket thing on Conall’s headphones.”
At the mention of Conall, I stiffened, walked on, tried to keep my composure.
Strong hands sliding into my hair, a tongue sliding against mine. My name was a cut-off groan as hips rolled against mine… Pulling away, walking away, an apology, and a locked-up heart.
Thalia was onto me, of course, she was. We’d been best friends for years. We’d been through heartbreaks, nasty contracts and pack leaders, family breakups, her pregnancy with Reina, and then everything with Dakota and Aidan a few months ago. We didn’t go through all that together just to hide things now.
Outside, the snow fell gently. Christmas was still another month away, but Silverlake Valley always got snow.
When we ventured out into it, it fell in Thalia’s hair, barely visible against the white blonde.
“Where to next?”
“I’m starving,” I told her. “I need, like, the biggest greasiest burger we can find.”
Thalia looked towards one of the few diners in town. “Jack’s?”
“Jack’s.”
***
Jack’s Diner was, for the most part, the college kids’ hotspot joint. But for us, we’d practically grown up in here, too, as had Fenrys. I recognized Jack’s son flipping burgers in the back kitchen, while the old man himself had passed downsignature recipes and managed the books while he vacationed in Florida every summer.
“So,” Thalia said, as I took a huge bite of burger. “Conall.”
I choked on my mouthful, swallowing with a slurp of milkshake. “What about him?”
“Will you be buying him anything for the holidays?” She leaned into her straw, eyeing me mischievously over her milkshake. “You know, seeing as you’ve both agreed to work closely together to discuss Kato’s pack. You have the intel Fenrys wants Conall to build on.” She shrugged. “You never know, you two could be a couple by Christmas.”
I stared at her, lifting a brow. “A couple by Christmas,” I echoed flatly. “What are we, aHallmarkChristmas movie?” I shook my head. “No, there’s nothing between us.Yeah, I flirted with him a little the other month, and he was hot when he was angry with Aidan, but there’s nothing there. Honestly, I don’t even want to work with him.”
“I’m pretty sure you two were cozied up at the first meeting Fenrys and Aidan called together.”
“That was when he was hot,” I muttered.
“And now?”
Now,I was denying any sort of feelings I had towards the pack’s beta ever since the night after the meeting. He was a wolf; I was a leopard. I’d gone down that unfortunate road before. I didn’t need to do it again. Besides, it wasConall.
I ignored her question. “Can’t I just write down what I know and hand it to him in notes? He could make a pretty mind map.” I grinned, imagining Conall tied up in string.
“Well, no, not really. Don’t you think it’d be more beneficial for you two to work directly together to gain doublethe perspective? You have the past information, he has the current, or most recent, and together, that’ll build a future picture of what we can expect. Patterns, plans—”
“I don’twantto work with him, Lia.”
“I know you don’t like accepting help,” Thalia went on gently. “You value your independence. Igetthat. But this is for the pack. For all of our lives. If Kato’s pack, even with their leader dead, comes for Silverlake Valley again, then it’s not just the pack. It’s you, it’s innocent people, it’s people like we once were. Uninvolved but somehow dragged into the mess anyway.”
A stab of guilt went through me at that. I still harbored guilt for even getting Thalia involved in Kato’s messy, twisted contracts the other year. Even if both she and Fenrys had forgiven me, I still was having a hard time forgiving myself.
“I can do this alone,” I said, insistent. “And I work just as hard alone as I could with him. If anything, he’ll be a distraction.”
“Because he’s hot?” she grinned.
“No, because he’s—” The word came through clenched teeth. “Arrogant. Annoying. Talkative.”
“It sounds like you’ll both never run out of things to talk about, then.” Thalia’s smile was smug as she slurped her milkshake noisily. “You’re working with him.”
“But—”
