Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
He has some cheerleader’s hand in his, and the way she stares up at him with total adoration makes me want to puke. He’s not looking at her, though. He’s looking at–
Our gazes lock. Gaze is the wrong word, though. More like glare.
The fog starts to lift from me. Heat starts in my core, building there. Tingles race up my arms.
“Let’s get out of here.” Luke loops an arm around my back and leads me toward the door.
I have to resist the instinct to look over my shoulder at Abe. I already know he’s watching.
No part of me wants to leave the dance. It’s pathetic and awful and full of strangers and people I hate, but leaving with Luke would signify a choice.
Rejecting this town and my new life in favor of the old one.
The one that doesn’t exist or work anymore.
“Luke–” We’re at the door. I slow down, making him turn.
Impatience flickers on his face. “Lauren, seriously. Why are we even here?”
I step back, out of his grasp. We’re blocking the doorway, but I ignore the people trying to get through. “I didn’t want to come to this dance—you did, Luke.”
“Well, I didn’t know it was going to be so lame.” He searches my face with exasperation. “What’s happened to you?”
Guilt sits like a weight on my chest. My shoulders sag. I can’t put it off any longer. I walk through the doorway.
Luke follows. “What’s going on with you, babe?”
The babe grates on me like biting into tin foil. I keep walking until we get to the Tesla, then I stop and turn. This shouldn’t be so hard.
We’re not even close anymore.
It’s just that Luke was there for me when my mom died. Granted, he sort of fed on the drama of the thing. I think I was more the society princess to him rather than a real person. With some time and distance, I now see that my pain was currency he used to prop up his own importance. He did a lot of bragging to the other kids that he was at the hospital with us when she passed, and that he was one of the pallbearers at the funeral.
“You wanted us to break up in person,” I say. “I guess this is it.”
“I didn’t want us to break up at all.” He shoves a hand through his highlighted blond hair. “I don’t understand what’s happened to you.”
“I’m sorry, Luke. I’m just in a weird–”
“I don’t even know who you are right now,” he interrupts. “You’re wearing the same dress you wore to last year’s Homecoming. You took me to a dance at a fucking brewery. You didn’t even get your hair and makeup done professionally. What has happened to you?”
I blink. Those are his takeaways? Not that we’ve grown apart. Not that I seem lifeless and flat. Not that I’ve been a terrible girlfriend–which I have–but that I didn’t buy a new dress and go to a salon to prepare for the dance?
“Sorry I didn’t go all out for our break-up date,” I spit with sarcasm and start marching away.
“Where in the hell are you going?” He catches my arm, yanking me back.
I stumble in my Jimmy Choo heels, falling into Luke with my hands out, ready to push him away.
As it turns out, it’s not necessary.
A strong arm loops around my waist, and I’m lifted from the ground. “Let go of her.”
Abe
It takes everything I have in me not to shift and sink my teeth into this asshole’s flesh.
Instead of releasing Lauren, the guy tightens his grip. “Ow.” She tries to yank her arm away.
The sound of her distress sends my wolf into a frenzy. I don’t quite manage to stop the unearthly growl in my throat. When I speak, my voice is deadly. “Don’t make me kill you, bro.”
Lauren’s now ex-boyfriend must hear the murder in my voice because he lets go.
I pivot her body away, putting my bulk between her and the threat.
“Whoa, okay,” Lincoln calls out, jogging toward us. “Looks like it’s time to leave the party.”
“Who the fuck is this?” The guy demands, looking down his nose as he gives me an up and down sweep. Rich boy looks like he spends his days calling to the butler to pat his ass.
I’m her fucking mate. My wolf thrashes below the surface, furious that he can’t stake a claim on her right here, right now. Furious some other guy is here questioning my right to protect her. I don’t touch him–roughing up humans is forbidden–but I shove my chest right into his personal space, getting so close I make him look up into my nostrils.
“Nobody.” Lauren tries to insert herself between us.
I shoot an arm out to tuck her safely behind me.
“Leave it, Oakley.” Lincoln packs more authority in his tone than I would have thought possible for a human. My body doesn’t respond like it would to an actual alpha command, but he wins a grudging respect from me. Especially considering I have at least seventy-five pounds on his tall but lanky form. “My sister doesn’t need you to play bodyguard.”