Page 21 of Bullied Pretend Mate
“Maeve Villareal?”
Soren is on me the moment I walk into the firehouse Monday morning, and I honestly should have known better than to think the news of Maeve and me at that wedding wasn’t going to spread like wildfire through Silverville.
As it has been for the past few weeks, the firehouse is swarming with new recruits, guys learning the ropes and working on getting their certifications. Every day, more trucks full of daemon ash come in, with Xeran insisting it’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to having the extinguisher we need to put out any future wildfires.
“Shut up,” I growl, stalking past him, my bag thumping rhythmically against my thigh.
“Shut up?” Lachlan asks, falling into step with us. He reaches out, pressing the back of his hand to my forehead. “You sick, man?”
“No,” I say, quiet rage simmering inside me. “I’m feeling perfectly fine.”
As much as I played it off to Maeve at the wedding, my parents were actually pissing me off. For the rest of the night, it was nothing but underhanded compliments and my mother shooting me severe looks when Maeve wasn’t present.
It reminded me of what Maeve went through during high school.
And the fact that I was part of that.
“Seriously,” Soren says, trying to keep up as I push through the door to the locker room. “Seriously, dude, didn’t she have like, a huge, embarrassing crush on you or something?”
“Something like that,” I mutter, opening my locker and throwing my bag inside, then dropping down onto the bench to change my shoes.
“But—”
“Can you just leave italone?” I snap, watching Lachlan and Soren’s faces erupt into shock. I swallow down the anger and try to flash them a smile, but it falls short.
“I think we’re all just a little surprised you took a mate so quickly.”
When I look up, Xeran is standing in the locker room, arms crossed, a serious look on his face as he watches me. I hate the weight of his stare, like he’ll be able to figure out what I’m concealing even without me telling him.
I reach for my automatic instinct, which is to make a joke about it, but I find it’s not there. I have to try hard not to glare at Xeran.
I’m not usually a glaring kind of guy. Usually, I’m all smiles, all jokes.
But I’m not going to joke about Maeve.
My mother might claim it’s the effect of her mating mark on my neck influencing these thoughts—if I answered her calls or gave her a chance to talk to me—but it was excruciating watching Maeve hold herself tall when everyone was whispering about us.
I lean down to tie my shoes so I don’t have to keep eye contact with Xeran. “Maeve is back in town, and we just…reconnected.”
“Reconnected?” Lachlan asks, raising his eyebrows. “What is there to reconnect?”
“Felix and Maeve were childhood friends,” Xeran says quietly. Lachlan wouldn’t know—he didn’t grow up with us—but Xeran knows how close she and I were. He knows that when we were all being little shitheads in high school, I was specifically worried that people might think I liked Maeve back.
Soren is staring at me intently, Lachlan looks amused, and Xeran works his jaw like he’s trying to figure me out.
“Well,” he says, turning, “don’t take too long. Workout starts in five.”
When he’s gone, Lachlan says, “Well, congrats, or whatever.”
“Thanks, or whatever,” I mutter, then it’s just Soren and me in the locker room.
He’s staring at me, his locker hanging open. Soren is the kind of guy who likes to know everything, likes to have things figured out. And I have the sense that if he gathers enough details, if he pays close enough attention, he might figure out that this thing between Maeve and me is more of an agreement than a reconnection.
I wait, expecting him to launch into more questions, but he just runs a hand over his copper curls and shakes his head. “Alright,” he says. “Hopefully, Xeran isn’t planning to tear us up today. I’m still sore from Friday.”
“Yeah, right,” I laugh, realizing it’s the first time I’ve done so since getting to the firehouse.
Soren claps me on the back, and we head to the weight room together, knowing there’s no chance in hell Xeran is going to go easy on us.
