Page 35 of The Forbidden Wolf

“Oh.” She nervously licked her lips. “He’s with his family having breakfast brunch. It’s a bit of a tradition—”

“Cute,” I said, untangling two pairs of jeans that had wound around each other like mating snakes. “Take me to him.”

“Miss?” Ruby’s voice pitched a little too high. “I’m so sorry. I will do anything else you need, but the Alpha’s family time is not to be interrupted for any reason. And I’m afraid the Heir gave me strict orders—”

“Last night the Heir gave me an ultimatum,” I said over my shoulder as I took my clothes into the bedroom to change. “I can be his prisoner, or I can be his mate. But he never said I couldn’t change my mind once I’d decided, so for right now, I’m going with mate, which makes me family, which means I’m free.”

Ruby followed me as far as the doorway, wringing her freckled hands. “Miss, please, the Alphas take this time together very seriously, so unless there’s an emergency—”

I thrust the note under her nose.

Her eyes slowly widened as they scanned my sister’s crazed handwriting, and then she whispered ever-so-faintly, “Shit.”

Chapter Fourteen

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but the Palm Court does have a dress code, even for brunch.” The human hostess guarding the restaurant door eyed my ripped jeans and novelty T-shirt with trepidation bordering on fear.

I leaned one elbow on her polished podium and slipped easily into the most obnoxiously shrill Bronx accent anyone in the hotel had probably ever heard. “Look, honey, I feel you, I do, but my client is brunching his dumb ass off while his wife is headed our way. If you don’t let me warn him, this scene’s gonna be a helluva lot uglier than me.”

“Your client?” The hostess smiled nervously. “You’re his divorce lawyer?”

I shook my head and lifted one eyebrow like, ‘Are you kidding me?’

She cleared her throat. “Right. Well, if you could just point him out…”

“Nah.” I twirled a strand of oily hair around my finger. “I need to handle this one personally, dontcha think?”

The hostess glanced around and then sighed. “In and out. Don’t sit down.”

“Ha!” I slapped the podium as I darted past. “That’s what I said.”

Sunlight filtered into the impossibly ritzy restaurant through a gorgeous, rectangular, stained-glass dome, gilding everything from the bottles of alcohol at the circular central bar to the silverware set out on the small square tables in a warm and welcoming glow. The eponymous palms scattered through the dining areas offered guests some semblance of privacy in the jam-packed space. Too much privacy. My mate might as well have been hiding in a jungle.

“Over there,” Ruby panted, tugging on my T-shirt sleeve. “If you had only waited a moment, I could have had us escorted straight to their table without any colorful fabrications.”

“Well, that wouldn’t have been any fun. Did you see her face?” I said, hurrying toward the secluded table she was pointing at. Now that I knew where to look, Sebastian’s unmistakable glossy waves bobbed above all the silver heads of hair that could afford to eat here on vacation.

After bumping into three highly offended servers and two easygoing palm fronds, I reached the table where Sebastian was sitting with his parents and two other males—one his father’s age and one his own. As I reached out to tap him on the shoulder—grudgingly noticing the exquisite strokability of the feathery curls resting atop his shirt collar—his mother looked up from her plate and locked eyes with me.

A broad smile swept across her beautiful face, crinkling the corners of the golden-brown eyes she’d passed on to her son. Warmth spread through my chest, calming the frantic hammering of my heart. No one but Charlie had ever looked at me quite like that.

“Bastian.” Yara spoke with a soft accent and used only her eyes to gesture up at me.

Sebastian glanced casually over his shoulder as if expecting a waiter and then startled when he made eye contact with the growling beast on my T-shirt. His gaze raked up my chest—pausing only to read the words ‘Hangry Like the Wolf’ that were emblazoned there, I’m sure—and then we were glaring at each other. He jumped up so quickly he had to grab the back of his chair to stop it from toppling over.

“What are you doing here?” He shot a vicious look past me at Ruby. “Why would you bring her here? You know my family is not to be disturbed during—”

I stepped in front of my assistant, who might be the closest thing I ever had to a friend again. “I’m sorry, did I just dream that thing where you announced in front of several hundred people, including the person you were supposed to be pledging your life to, that I was going to be the mother of your pups whether I liked it or not? Because let me know if I did, and I’ll show myself out right this instant.”

Sebastian sucked in his unshaven cheeks as if trying to slurp the blush off of them. His eyes darted toward his mother as if I’d said something obscene. But given his penchant for delusion, he probably thought he’d arrived here without the help of carnal pleasure.

The young male sitting next to Sebastian clapped his hands together and emitted a sharp, whooping bark. “You got yourself a firecracker, Seb!”

“Yeah, well, unfortunately, he rejected a nuclear reactor,” I snapped.

The male scrunched his nose and squinted one eye. “Mmmmm, that sounds pretty damn fortunate if you ask me.”

“Quiet, Kenzo.” Sebastian made a cutting motion with the hand closest to his friend, who I now knew was the same guy who’d interrupted Maximo’s speech last night. His exaggerated confidence reminded me of Rufio from Hook—minus the leather crop top and wild, red-striped mane. This guy looked like he was late for work on Wall Street.

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