Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33127 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33127 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
Once again, she wore a dress. Rarely was she in pants, but today it was a dress. A summery one, with thin straps, and he saw a hint of the bra beneath. She did have large tits. It was quite low-cut, yet it didn’t even skim her tits. There was no hint of cleavage, but it made him want to try and look deeper.
He took another sip of his coffee and felt his wolf begin to wake up. They both wanted his mate. When he turned so the door removed Pat and Franny from the equation, all he could see was Harper. She was who he wanted.
Mateo hadn’t thought in detail about the moment he banished her, removed her from his life, yet in that moment, he did. He’d been so filled with betrayal at his wolf, at the mating, at the revelation of who his mate was, he’d not even taken a moment to enjoy that he had a mate. There were so many men and women determined to find the right mate. He knew they craved to find their soulmate, and some waited so long, they never found the one.
His woman had been right in front of him the whole time. And he’d sent her away.
In that moment, he realized why his own pack had been so pissed at him. Sending Harper away had been easy, but it had come with far-reaching consequences. There were some of his pack who, to this day, didn’t agree with what he had done, and now as he thought about it, they had good reason.
Chapter Seven
Several days later, Harper was still surprised to see Mateo turn up, ready to report for work. She figured he would have been long gone by now, and wanting to be as far away from her as possible, and yet he was still coming.
At night, he asked to walk her home, and at first she had declined, but two days ago, she figured there was no harm in it. That first day, his crushed face had played on her mind the whole night. She refused to be cruel, but letting him walk her home didn’t mean she forgave him, or wanted a relationship.
To make matters worse, Franny took her time coming to see her, and it would seem a lot more people needed her help now. Of course, her friend would come with the usual coffee and baked treat.
Like today, Franny was there with her favorite coffee, and she’d already started asking Mateo what he liked. The cinnamon bun came without question. Mateo loved them as much as she did.
She was finishing the makeup of a young pre-transition client, for her birthday. Her parents had paid for her to have a beauty session, and to purchase her first makeup kit. The young girl had been so excited, bubbling up with joy. She was able to control it for Harper to do her makeup perfectly.
Franny had already arrived, and now she only had to deal with some orders, and she had another client arriving in less than an hour.
“How are all your jobs going?” she asked, wanting to keep Franny talking as long as possible.
“Oh, you know, same old, same old. They cannot function without Franny there to help them.” Franny collapsed into one of the spare chairs. “Besides, enough about me, let’s talk about the mate not in the room.”
Harper smiled and shook her head. “There is nothing to talk about.”
“Nothing to talk about?” Franny asked, repeating her words.
“Are you done? Or are we going to keep saying the same stuff? Out with it, Franny.”
“I’m just saying, he’s turned up for work to help, and this place looks amazing. Don’t get me wrong, it looked great with only you at the helm, but come on, Harper, you’re not half as tired as you used to be, you’re ready to face the day, and you look positively happy.” Franny stopped to take a drink.
“I’m always happy.”
“Yeah, but have you considered it might be because a certain man is around?” Franny asked.
“No.” She wouldn’t look at her friend and there was no way she was going to admit to suddenly feeling happy at the prospect of Mateo being there every morning, waiting for her. The first day she’d hated it and didn’t want him there. She didn’t know what he’d done to her, but little by little, she had started to feel happy with him being there.
Of course, she also had to deal with the other little problem she had, along with the happiness—the apprehension of what he was going to do next. Is this his way of leading her into a false sense of security, and then pulling the rug out from under her? She had no idea, and she didn’t like it. She could not trust Mateo.
“You’re lying,” Franny said.