Page 134 of Just One Bite
“Me either,” Calix says. He’s got one silver eye and the other red.
“Well, it is for me. Am I the only one trying to find a soul mate here?” Austin asks.
“Yes,” the rest of the table says.
They don’t ask me why Olivia and I are both here because they don’t care. The only thing they care about is how to leverage this for themselves.
“A linked mated with those special eyes at The Hunt makes this the most interesting one yet. Way better than last year.” Garrik is back to looking at Olivia. You’re not guaranteed a mate, and if someone they want gets taken early on—say some billionaire’s daughter—they’ll go home empty-handed. “I can imagine it now. An heir with those violet and golden eyes. A boy and a girl with that pretty brown hair of hers.”
Oh, this dick is testing me, and so is the other one across theroom leaning on the table chatting up my girl. His words have me going places I’ve never let my mind reach. Olivia’s eyes reflected back to me in another man’s kids. I’m not even sure I want kids, but I know for sure I don’t want Olivia to have some other guy’s children. Especially from this asshole who only wants to mate with her for the recognition. Fuck that.
Garrik twirls his fork, setting his elbow on the table and resting his head. “Don’t worry. I’ll let you come over and fuck her in my house.”
My teeth crunch on the bone of my turkey leg, and I spit it on the plate. After grabbing another turkey leg, I drop it with a thud. I focus on the smell rolling off the meat to keep me calm.
“How kind of you,” Calix jests.
“Of course, my mark would be on her neck.”
“You’d be a kind man and let him take her out too.”
“Sure, in the clothes I bought her. With my car. With my money.” Garrik licks his teeth.
The whole table snickers, except for Austin. I chew through flesh and lick the bone clean.
“That’s not going to work for me because I want to be the only one fucking her,” another one says.
I scrape my teeth on the bone, focusing on the taste. The tear. The skin peeling and snapping.Opportunity for greatness. Opportunity for greatness. Fucking opportunity for fucking greatness.
“Such a calm alpha,” Calix says.
“I’m not worried. You’re not gonna catch her,” I say.
“You’re forgetting we’re not all legacy Doxlothia sons. Some of us have been fighting since we were young,” Garrik says.
“He’s right. I’m itching for a challenge,” Calix says.
Fuck these assholes. I drop the clean bone on the table, still crunching on the cartilage.
“Finally some good competition, then,” I say, the edges of my vision blurring.
The guy chatting up Olivia’s table has her hand.
I grip the table to keep myself from imploding. The others next to me go silent. She accepts. She fucking accepts, and I physically have to look away because I’m going to lose my shit. Or I’m going to throw up. Or maybe fucking both.
He leans to kiss her hand, and she blinks. I’m on my feet before I realize, crossing the room. Who does this guy think he is—
“Move,” I say to him. That’s as nice as I’m going to get.
“But—”
I move him by simply walking forward. He wouldn’t stand a chance against me in a fight. I can feel it all. Like my nose was clogged before, and now all these new senses have kicked in. I take his place by grabbing her hand and moving my other hand to her waist. I’m not as modest as he was. Something in her scent leaps at my presence. Relief. Her breathing is easier. Her eyes heavier.
“Was that necessary?”
I grab her hand and rub the remnants of that scent away with my lips.
Garrik and the others watch us from the table. He’s eye-fucking her, and I have a big problem with that, but it can wait.
