Page 102 of Awakened
“Can I sit here?”
Using my hand as a shield from the sun, I looked up into Matthew Stewart’s perfect, evil face. My hands itched to tear him limb from limb while my legs tensed, ready to run away. Knowing he helped kill my dad, that he probably killed Grace, and that there was no justice for any of it set me on edge. I had never been around someone that I knew without a shadow of a doubt was a killer.
“I guess, but shouldn’t you be tied to some girl running around those tires?” I gestured toward the inane display taking place across the field. Seriously, who wants to tell their grandkids they met their mate carrying an egg on a spoon?
“Ah, I’ve already met all those women. No mate.”
“So, you want to sit next to another dud because . . .” I waved my hand in the air.
“I would hardly call you a dud, Celeste.”
Hearing him say my name gave me pause. I shook it off.
Of course, he knows my name. I know his.
“Well, I’m not your mate. Isn’t that the definition of a dud to a guy like you?”
Sitting in front of me with his back to the field, he laughed. “You’re funny. I didn’t expect an Amazon Beta to have a sense of humor.”
Keeping my expression neutral, I said, “I’m a fucking riot. Butseriously, don’t you have anything better to do? Some women to oppress, virgins to sacrifice?”
His face remained relaxed and serene, but his eyes darkened, letting me know I had gone too far. “You’ve clearly been listening to the wrong people. We treat our mates like queens. You have nothing to worry about.”
Before I could question his meaning, his gaze shifted to something directly behind me. A pair of legs entered my periphery, and then an enormous body plopped down beside me, crunching the snow under his weight.
“Stewart,” Seth’s deep voice rumbled.
“Collins.”
Seth glared at the young alpha-to-be. “I see you met my old friend, Beta Spencer.”
“Yep. Celeste and I were just discussing our connection.”
My eyes snapped to Matthew. He had to be on drugs. “What are you talking about? We don’t have a connection. We’ve been talking for like two minutes.”
“That’s all the time it takes.” Shifting his sights to Seth, he smiled. “Isn’t that right?” Matthew stood, giving me no time to process what he had said. “Watch this, Celeste.” With a nod to Seth, he added, “Collins.”
And then he was gone, walking across the field like the king of the castle. I wanted to tear his fucking towers down.
“I don’t like the sound of that . . .” Seth’s voice startled me out of my daydreams of the different ways I could remove Matthew’s head. When I turned to look at him, he was glaring at Matthew’s back as he rolled snow balls and placed them in a neat pile.
“Me neither.”
We sat silently, watching the goobers run around in awkward positions. When a break finally came, Zach joined us in the grass.
“Have fun in the wheelbarrow race? Hope only dropped you once.” The pixie-like girl struggling under Zach’s heavy legs was quite a sight.
“Not everyone can be a burly badass like you.”
Seth laughed a little too loud at Zach’s observation, so I included him in the head slaps I doled out.
Rubbing the back of his head, Seth glared at me. “Damn it, Les . . . he isn’t wrong.”
One more palm to the back of the head shut Seth up. My musings over the word burly being used to describe my body were interrupted by a shrill squeal. “You’re my mate! I never thought I’d find you!”
A tall blond woman wrapped herself around an even taller blond man.
Seth and I rolled our eyes, and I pretended to gag. It felt like I was watching a straight-to-streaming romance. I turned to Zach to include him in our mocking and caught him smiling at the couple with his eyes full of unshed tears.
