CHRIS
Page 16
She never raised her voice and yet knew that each and every word traveled around the room as though she’d spoken into a microphone.
“You think you can boss the MC around because you’re one of the only girls here. You think if you pout long enough, scream hard enough, and make enough tantrums that everyone will just roll over and obey.
“But it doesn’t work like that with me, Jessie. Haven’t you realized that yet? I don’t like you. I’ve never liked you. And I’m well aware the feeling is mutual.
“I’m helping your mate’s brother because the injustice served upon him is terrible. He’s being punished for being related to a dick. And yeah, that dick is your mate. Who should be perfectly suited to you, because you’re a spoilt brat. You should do really well together.”
Jessie gasped, her hand slamming out and slicing through the air to slap her, but Ava’s own hand whipped out and she grabbed the younger girl’s wrist. Twisting it down and up, she managed to pin it behind Jessie’s back, making her whimper.
“You’re really trying to make friends tonight, aren’t you? The one person in this fucking MC who has the brains to play a Senator and manipulate the Goddess-damned Department of Justice into releasing a man unknown to this MC... Keep on making enemies, Jessie. You should do just fine.”
She felt Chris at her back. “Let her go, Ava,” he told her softly. “You’re hurting her.”
“You mean like she’s hurt me? The spoilt little bitch is always getting what she wants. Doesn’t matter what anybody else wants, if Jessie doesn’t get her own way, then nobody else can.
“And instead of coming here, thanking me for helping, she tries to make me look bad in front of our people,” she spat, jerking her arm up so that Jessie’s hand was twisted harder behind her back before releasing it as suddenly as she’d grabbed it.
Jessie let out a whimper, her bottom lip started quivering. “Don’t,” Ava snarled. “Your tears don’t work on me. If you’re lucky they won’t work on Spyder either, otherwise neither of you will get very far in this world.”
With a sneer, she plopped down onto the sofa where she’d been sitting before. The dead silence around her finally penetrated her awareness but she refused to feel embarrassed. Jessie shouldn’t have come in here and decided to slam her in front of her a crowd.
She wasn’t a punch bag, dammit.
Mundo appeared in her peripheral vision, and he walked over to Jessie who hadn’t moved from her spot directly in front of Ava.
“Jessie, give Ava some space.”
“You’re standing up for her?” Jessie squeaked. “After what she’s just done?”
“You came in here and attacked her in front of everyone, sweetheart. What more could she do?”
He groaned when she started the waterworks, and spying that, Ava grumbled, “Go on, Jessie. Be a cliché why don’t you?”
“Ava, that isn’t helping,” Mundo retorted.
“I’m not trying to help. I’m trying to get her to grow a pair,” she immediately snapped, eyes flaring. “For someone who needs help, she doesn’t look all that grateful, does she?” She folded her arms across her chest.
“What do you want me to do? Get down on my knees and kiss your feet?” Jessie snarled.
“And there we have the real Jessie,” Ava retorted, content at last. “Behind the big eyelashes and the tantrums, the bitch is out. Bitches we both have.” She smirked at Mundo’s surprise at his daughter’s tone. “I expect nothing from you. Not a damn thing. What I’d prefer is for you not to come and attack me in front of everyone. Does that sound unreasonable to you?”
“How can you just sit there and mess around?” came the gritted out retort.
“How can you stand by and do nothing, leaving all of your mate’s troubles in another She Bear’s hands,” Ava demanded, stabbing Jessie with a verbal knife and feeling no regret in twisting it. “If you’d asked me nicely, I could have told you that I got some intel today that I needed to figure out how to use to our own gain. I don’t respond to threats or attacks.”
Jessie pouted. “Why not just tell me that from the first?”
To Chris, Ava asked, “Mate, did you know I’d received intel today that I was using to strategize?”
Chris frowned. “No.”
“No, Jessie. If my mate doesn’t know then why the fuck should you know?”
“Because it’s about my mate.”
“I don’t give a fuck about your mate,” Ava told her truthfully. “I’ll accept him because he’s your mate and unfortunately you’re Mundo and Christie’s brat, but he’s still the SOB who tried to kidnap me. He’s still the bastard who put me in a situation where I had to shift. And trust me, Jessie, when I tell you I hope you never have to shift. Because once you do, you’re never the same.”
Jessie firmed her jaw. “At least we know where we both stand.”
“Yeah.” Ava huffed. “We do. We’ve always known. But I’m big enough to look past the fact you’re a bitch, and I’ll keep on helping for Sammy’s sake. Now, toddle away and go and piss someone else off.”
Jessie’s back straightened in outrage, but she stormed away, leaving a cloud of tension hovering in the common room.
“Was that really necessary, Ava?” Mundo chided, his tone tired.
“If you knew how much your daughter has pissed me off over the years, Mundo, you wouldn’t ask that question.” She raised her voice then, lifted it so it would carry to all four corners of the room. “I’m tired of everyone thinking I’m some fucking robot. Like I can work and work and work, and when I have some downtime, it’s me being lazy. Nobody, not even my parents, not even my mate, has the right to question what I do with my time. So long as my work gets done, that’s all that matters, and you’ll know I’m behind if one day there’s no food in the fridge, no lights working, and the town hall comes and knocks on our door for failure to pay local taxes.”
“She’s emotional,” Mundo retorted, ignoring Ava’s statement.
“And I’m not?”
“Not like her.”
“Because I’m a robot?” She quirked a brow, smiling a little when Mundo flushed. “Your daughter manipulates you, Mundo. She manipulates everyone apart from my dad and I.”
“She’s naturally concerned—”
Chris spoke up, “Let’s just drop this, Mundo. You’re only making it worse.”
“I think if Ava apologized, then things would be okay,” Mundo persevered, making Ava hoot.
Chris scowled, and spying it, knowing he was about to leap to her defense even though she could sense he hadn’t agreed with her handling of the situation made her melt inside.
Jesus, this was what it was like having a mate.
Someone who always had your back.
Someone who would always love you and need you even if you did something they didn’t agree with.
She reached out and curled a hand about his arm. “Don’t, Chris. Thank you, but I can handle it.” She got to her feet and approached Mundo. He stiffened, but she ignored it and without waiting for him to accept it, she hugged him. “I love you like a father. But I won’t and never will like your daughter, and I won’t apologize to her.” She kissed his cheek. “I will help her mate’s brother. And I will argue on her behalf if you start saying she’s too young to be mated again. We’re family, all of us. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
She pulled back at that to look him in the eye. His wariness almost amused her. She winked, then turning to her mate, murmured, “I’ll be up in our room. I don’t think my coming down here was that good an idea.”
Before he could reply, she stalked off, fully aware the Clan was watching her depart.
“Well done, Mundo. Do you know how long I had to work on convincing her to come down here?”
Her mate’s angry words washed over her. His ire, on her behalf, was as soothing as balm on sunburnt shoulders.
He would need to work hard to get her to come downstairs, and she knew that would probably be
the first and last time in a very long while.
Shrugging it off, she headed for their room. Unlocking the two locks she’d insisted upon, she strode in, not locking up behind her because she got the feeling Chris would be up shortly.
Even though it wasn’t necessary.
It was sweet, really. He didn’t like her to be on her own for long, and whenever he could, he’d lay on the bed and read while she worked.
She headed for her workstation and riffled through the notes Jarvis had managed to gather for her.
Within five minutes, her door opened and Chris’s heavy stride struck the floor. He came to a stop behind her, then bent down and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“I’m sorry about that.”
She peered up at him. “Don’t be. It’s not your fault.”
“The Clan didn’t think you knew how to say boo to a goose.”
“They know otherwise now,” she retorted, quite amused by the notion the Clan thought her meek and mild.
“True. You definitely showed them.”
“I know you didn’t approve, but thank you for letting me say my peace.”
In the reflection on her screen, she saw him shrug. “It wasn’t my place to interfere. I knew you could handle it.”
She cupped the hand he’d rested on her shoulder. “That’s why I’m grateful. You know my limits, and you defend them.”
He lowered his head again and bussed her temple. “Always. I’m going to have a shower.”
She smiled, nuzzled his hand with her cheek, then released him. He strode off and within minutes, she heard the sound of the water flowing in the bathroom.
Ten minutes later, it shut off but she didn’t really process the sound, too focused on rereading the file Jarvis had brought her. When he stepped out, approached her again, she carried on reading and only stopped when he pressed something in front of her face.
She blinked at the box, then reared back a little. “I wasn’t hiding it,” she immediately told him.
“No, I know that. It was in the front of the cabinet. Why haven’t you taken it?”
“It says it works better in the morning.”
“You only bought it today?”
He sounded relieved. “Yes. I was going to tell you.’
“I don’t doubt that. You never fail to make me laugh, Ava Founder,” he told her, his tone softening.
“I do?” she questioned, frowning up at him.
“Only you’d have the patience to follow the pregnancy test’s rules.”
She blinked at him. “It undermines it’s efficacy if you don’t follow the instructions.”
He grinned at her. “You really think you’re pregnant?”
She shrugged. “I should have had my period last week.” His eyes flared wide with excitement, and the sight of it affected her like nothing else could. “You’re not scared?” she asked curiously.
“Terrified,” he replied cheerfully. “But you’re supposed to be. Aren’t you?”
She shrugged. “Not really. It takes a village to raise a child and we’ve got more than a village on hand here.”
Chris laughed at that. “You’re right there. Hell, the next generation.”
She snorted. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I might not be pregnant. My cycle could be messed up because of the mate bond.”
His grin widened. “Take the test, Ava.”
“But it will work better in the morning.”
He shook his head. “I don’t care. I want to know now.”
She sighed. “What did I do to deserve such an impulsive mate?”
He snorted at her long suffering sigh. “You’ll learn to live with it. Now, go and pee on the stick,” he commanded, dragging her to her feet.
“What if I don’t need to pee?” she replied, staring bemused lying down at the box in her hand.
“You’re not to leave that bathroom until there’s a single or double blue line showing on that test!”
At his second command, she rolled her eyes and hustled into the bathroom, kind of grateful he wasn’t going to stand there and watch—she wouldn’t put it past him.
As she sat there, trying to pee, she took into account how much her life had changed over the last two weeks.
She’d gone from a quiet hermit, scurrying around to avoid confrontation, to a mated She Bear who embraced her newfound confidence and strength.
It was insane how life worked, but a good kind of insane, she reasoned. The changes that had come into her world were ones the Goddesses had deemed her fit enough to handle. So, five minutes after she managed to pee on the stick, and double lines appeared, she didn’t have it in her to freak out.
After all, the Goddesses would keep on throwing her these challenges because They knew she could handle them. And with Chris at her side, Ava knew she could handle anything.
Jessie, the MC, her parents...
A baby was nothing in comparison. Especially not with Chris as a mate.
She smiled at the thought, opened the bathroom door, and went to tell him the news.
FIN
The action continues in SPYDER, available for pre-order now!
Also by Becca Fanning
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