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)
Harper laughed.
Mateo smiled.
“Wow, I can’t imagine you, a young Mateo, being naughty. Everyone always said that when the time came you were more than ready to take over, to be the main alpha,” Harper said.
“Yeah, because I was a rebellious kid.” He winked at her and she laughed some more. They were getting close to her house and he didn’t want it to end. He’d even started slowing his steps to prolong their time together.
At first, walking her home was spent in silence, but with Franny’s advice, he’d started to recount old memories. Franny had told him to start giving Harper a reason to want to be with him. He didn’t know if this would work or not. None of what he’d told her was lies, it was all the truth.
“I would have loved to have seen you then,” Harper said.
“You weren’t even born when I was a little one.”
Harper stopped and turned toward him. “Does that bother you?”
“It did,” he said.
“Oh.”
“Look, I know it’s different for every person. There are probably guys out there who are happy to be mated to a young woman.”
“You’re not one of them.”
“I … it’s complicated.”
“Right,” Harper said. “Complicated.” She started to walk away from him, and he reached out toward her.
“Don’t go.” He took hold of her arm, not too tightly, but enough to stop her from walking away from him.
“I don’t know what you want from me, Mateo. You don’t want to talk about what happened, and it’s getting late. I should go.”
“I always do this, don’t I? I always find a reason to fuck this up.” He shook his head. “I’ve got no good reason or excuse that even seems valid to me right now, Harper.”
“How about the truth?” Harper asked.
He opened his mouth and then closed it when several of the pack moved past them. Harper smiled and said hello to them, before turning back to him. “I think we should take this into my house.”
She grabbed her keys and then picked up the pace.
Mateo hadn’t been in her home, and this didn’t feel like a good thing. He wanted to be invited into her place, but for a much better reason than because he’d fucked up in the past.
The moment they stepped over the threshold, he smelled her. The mixture of cinnamon and vanilla. It was a scent he had gotten used to with Harper.
“This is my home,” she said, closing the door and flicking the lock into place.
“It’s nice,” he said.
She’d made it hers.
The walls were a nice ivory, and in the main hallway were wooden floors, and he saw the sitting room was carpeted in a deep green. She had made this place her home.
And this could have been yours back at your pack.
He was seeing what his father had been trying to tell him for years. That he could have been starting a family, having a home, wanting to come home at night. Instead, he’d spent most of it working, dealing with the pack, and trying to put out the constant fires, which had seemed never-ending.
Harper put her bag down and turned toward him. “What would you like? Tea? Coffee? Hot chocolate?”
A hot drink meant he was going to be able to stay, and he wasn’t willing to back down.
“Uh, I’ll have a coffee,” he said.
“Mine is not as good as the coffee shop, but I am always learning.” She snapped her fingers and walked into the kitchen. Again, it had a homey vibe. There wasn’t much on the counter besides a kettle, a food processor, and a couple of other pieces of equipment. He took it all in, trying to bide his time before she fired that question at him again.
“You made a home here,” he said.
“Yeah, kind of had no choice but to. Silver wouldn’t let me give up,” Harper said. “I had thought about leaving the pack. After my dad dropped me off and I realized how hard it was going to be, I was tempted to travel.”
“You didn’t travel?”
“Only to the local beauty campus and back. I told Silver what I liked and what my plans were at my old pack, and he made sure it happened. I think my parents also provided me with the funds to do exactly that.”
And the knife kept twisting. Mateo knew that their own pack would love a beauty salon, and to provide the services she did here, back at home.
“How come Franny doesn’t work for you full-time?” he asked.
“Franny likes to jump around from job to job. She likes to go where she is needed, and she’s not been trained like I have. Trust me, it took a long time to get to this stage in the game and it wasn’t easy. I know the pack was nervous with me being out, and venturing among the humans to get my qualifications, but it was all worth it. At least, I think it was.” She offered him a smile.