Page 57 of Hers to Call
Rumbling sounds vibrated in the car as they pulled up home, his temper still roused. She reached for the door. Simon had said before that he liked taking care of her, so she paused with her hand on the knob. When David was in a mood like the one Simon was in, it was best to do everything as right as possible. She dropped her hand into her lap and waited on him. He came around the truck and opened the door. He reached for her and she barely, by a hair, kept from flinching. His eyes went flinty, hard, and she knew she was making him madder.
He lifted her from the truck, his touch gentle, careful with her as he gripped her waist. He gently set her feet on the ground, holding on until she got her footing.
He nodded towards the house. “Go on ahead, I need to put the truck away and take care of a few things.”
He was pissed and she wavered between her instinct to run as fast as she could up the porch, or to turn and soothe him, hoping to lessen his anger. She tensed, unsure what to do.
He closed his eyes, his body visibly trembling. He took a shuddering breath. “Please, Calita, go on inside the house, I can’t leave until I’m sure you’re safe inside.”
She gave him a jerky nod and quickly rushed into the house. Conflicted. He was upset, with her especially it seemed, but he wasn’t treating her any different than he would normally. She grabbed her purse from the kitchen counter and went upstairs. She wanted her phone near her just in case.Just in case…what?That thought stopped her. She paused at the top of the stairs and stared at his bedroom door. Did she wait for him in his room or hide in her own? Hiding had never helped her before. She turned to Simon’s room and paused at the door. She took several panicked breaths, until Simon’s scent filled her and for some reason calmed her slightly. It slid through the panic and she remembered that Simon had at no point given her a reason to fear for her safety with him. She promised herself when she’d moved to Bear Ridge she would be a different person here. She sighed and with still some trepidation, went into his room.
***
Simon was pissed. He should’ve smelled whoever touched his mate and he hadn’t, which meant the bastard, whoever it was, was using some type of scent blocker. How the fuck was the bear getting near his land without his enforcers knowing? Tourists brought strange smells with them all the time, and there was a lot of land to cover, but, even knowing it was hard to cover every corner, he was pissed.
He had to admit, a good portion of his anger stemmed from his mate’s reaction to him. Calita had flinched from him. FLINCHED! Her first instinct to prepare her body for a blow. He wanted to tear shit up just thinking about it. The thought of her being hurt on his property, of another male adding to her trauma, he leaned back and bellowed his frustration. Praying for strength and calm, he paced in front of the truck.
He looked down as his phone beeped. It was a text message.
No trace of them. Cabin deserted. No scent.
Damn it. He wanted to sling his phone into the wall. Instead he called Nate.
“Yes, Alpha?”
“Calita was attacked tonight.”
“Charles?”
Simon cursed. “I can’t prove it. There was no scent. I’ll get a description from Calita once I’ve calmed down. Find him anyway. His time in this town is up.”
“What about his contacts?”
“We’ll deal with it when the time comes.”
He ended the call and stood next to the running truck, his mind full with thoughts of what could’ve happened to Calita. There was no space for anything else. Not consequence, not logistics for finding the person who attacked her…just her. Would they have killed her, or just hurt her? Hell, from his conversation with the elder, they didn’t have to do anything other than menace his mate to accomplish their goal.
If destabilizing his clan was the goal.
The talk of it would get around town. Talk like that could easily cause chaos in their little town. Faith in the Alpha was what kept their clan so tight. Keeping the bears together was a struggle, especially since, by nature they were solitary creatures.
Not knowing who had hurt her was really messing with his head. It left him without a motive. Either way, he needed to calm his bear before he did anything else. It was riled, pissed, more so than he. He got back in the truck and pulled it around to the barn and parked it. He flexed his hands, his adrenaline still up from his fear. He’d thought having a mate would be easy, would be…simple. Calita was anything but. He wanted her implicit trust and it was hard being patient for it. He rubbed his forehead as his bear once again slammed against his mental shields. It wanted out, and it wanted their mate. It took everything in Simon not to rush inside and assert his dominance over his wary mate. He wanted, no needed, to feel her under him, submissive, knowing she belonged to him.
He’d never explicitly said she couldn’t leave the house without him. But her carelessness in not having a phone irritated him. Especially in light of all her recent accidents. What had she been thinking? He sighed and opened the door. He could prolong going in by going to the cabin with Zeke, but his bear would tear through his control and he would be in his skin racing towards Calita. He walked to the main house with quick steps. He opened the door and set the alarm. Her scent led him to his bedroom and he was shocked. He expected to find her in the guest room, the walls in the house and in her heart once again blocking him from her.
He opened the door and she sat on the edge of the bed. Her head lifted, her fear and vulnerability there for anyone to see.
“I’m sorry,” She whispered.
“For what, Cali?”
“Whatever you’re mad at, I—”
He held up his hand to stop her. “I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at myself. You were nearly harmed, twice on my land. I’m mad because at every turn I’ve gone against my nature and asked you to do things my bear would rather demand. You walked almost three miles from this house, by yourself, with no one knowing where you’d gone. You weren’t even on my land, Calita. I’ve asked you nicely to take it easy, you don’t understand how hard it is for an alpha to ask.”
Her face showed her surprise. “You’re mad because I left the ranch alone?”
“Alone, and you were nearly taken from me in the process!”
