Page 17 of Haze

“Finn.” I hold up a finger, hoping to spell out my point. “You said you were taking me to dinner. Not when, not where, and I didn’t agree to anything.” I step toward him, attempting to walk past him.

Not interested in moving, Finn keeps me barricaded in.

With a sigh, I chastise him. “Be nice to Brayden.” Tossing my head toward the lab door, I choose an insult that hyper-inflates his age to move us along. “Besides, it’s not his fault that you’ve what? Twenty? Twenty-five years on him?”

That would make him almost fifty, which I know he isn’t. I keep a straight face, but my eyes rake down his body.

It’s every bit what I remember. Wide and muscular. The way he worked me with his hand.

Five feet separates me from the wall he could have fucked me against earlier. The orgasm I enjoyed at his hands was an ethereal experience.

No matter how good that orgasm was, it doesn’t change the facts of the matter. But fuck, it was so good. No. He thinks we’re his mate, and he’s trying to lay claim. Hot and heavy in the office can’t happen again.

Sex with Finn is completely off the table. The mouthwatering idea of sex with him had no business being on the table to start with. Fuck, what is wrong with me.

I have to move past this moment before everything goes off the rails.

“Generally, it’s implied if it’s around the dinner hour, and a man says he’s taking his mate for dinner, his intent is now.” The spaces between Finn’s words are filled with a soft growl.

He called us his mate. My wolf swoons, and I stuff her down. There won’t be any of those thoughts today. Well, not any more.

Taking a step closer, I watch him draw the corner of his lips into a smile through the low light. I’ve been caught checking him out. And I’m positive he can smell how badly I want him again. My face heats, and I’m thankful for the darkness.

The thick, growly Irish accent continues. “With age comes experience. And, Kathleen, I promise you all my experience has led me to be exactly what you and your wolf crave.”

This time when I take a quick step around him, Finn lets me pass. His hand squeezes my bicep as he catches my arm.

Denying how it affects me, I turn my head to talk to him, keeping my voice low. “You will call me Lena. Like everyone else because, as you’ll see, you and me? We’ll never work. Start looking into other packs to live with.”

I push my eyes from his face toward the lab door. Finn quickly notes our audience and releases me.

Brayden stands in the hallway, watching us through the window of the lab door. I know that judgmental look. Brayden would have no qualms about getting between Finn and me. Because he has no sense of danger.

Finn growls a reminding threat. “This conversation will continue later.”

Part of me is thrilled by the prospect of Finn trying to correct the ‘errors’ of my ways. And the other part is completely pissed off that he has assumed the authority to set meetings with me.

The coward pushes the idea of ‘meetings’ being held in bed.

I can’t say she’s alone in liking that idea. But those kinds of meetings will not be happening. Even if I want them to. Really. Want. Them. To.

* * *

Mike’s Bar isn’t super busy. It’s early on a Wednesday, and the dart league doesn’t start for another two hours. While I would have preferred one of the booths off to the side of the restaurant where my wolf could feel more sheltered, Brayden insists on a table out more toward the middle of the establishment, where everyone can see us, no doubt.

The server takes my order without question: cheese curds and a soda. Brayden, however, refuses to be simple. He orders a local brewery’s beer but in the strangest way by asking about the hoppiness of it like we’re in some sort of tasting room. Brayden scoffs when she cards him for the beer. And I can practically hear the ‘do you know who I am’ running through his head.

Everyone knows who Brayden is and what he is: a monster waiting to be unleashed. Before wolves were out to the public, Brayden’s attention to myself and the other lab techs was simple flirting. After wolves were outed, Brayden changed rapidly. He continually tries to mimic wolf behaviors. It’s one thing if you’re imitating people from another culture and say a word incorrectly or accidentally tell someone to fuck off. It’s another to corner people, posture over them, and make them feel unsafe.

Lucky isn’t a word one would use to describe an insane person taking a liking to them, but the lab is very lucky that Brayden is stuck on me. It’s evident Brayden has high hopes he’s my mate. Since I’ll never take a mate, it’s well-known that I don’t date and ‘no’ is my favorite word. Brayden can hang his hopes on me forever. Or at least until he fails out of the program.

I assumed after he barely got a C in organic chemistry, he would have given some thought to what we discussed at the end of last year, and he would look at other majors. But here we are, yet again, books out on the table in the middle of the restaurant. I don’t know why he’s chosen a subject completely above his capabilities. His lack of knowledge and tangible skills prove he doesn’t belong in the lab.

However, his parents are on the board of directors for the university. Wherever Brayden wants to go, Brayden gets to go. This tutoring session will give Brayden false hopes that he can handle the program, but I’m hungry, Mike’s Bar has cheese curds, and it gets me out of dinner with Finn.

It’s no surprise ten minutes into helping Brayden, warmth runs down my back.

Our mate has come for us. We can leave this now. My wolf gives Brayden a disgusted look. Frustrated, she pushes against me, urging me to let Finn wrap his arms around us. She growls at me. Why are you being so stubborn? You feel what he can do to us.

---