“You need me, Kara.”
“No, you’re in this situation alone. I can still have sex with whomever I want.”
“No, you can't!” he practically growled.
“Why do you care? We don’t like each other and you certainly don’t love me so why would you care if I slept with someone else?”
“Because you’re mine,” he snarled before he could stop himself.
She snorted. “I’m not yours.” She held up her hand, showing him the matching mark that he suddenly wanted to lick. “This just means that you can only get it up with me and I can only have your pups. Nothing more.”
“We’ll see about that, but for right now you and I need to come to an arrangement of sorts.”
She made an impatient gesture for him to get to the point before she lost any more precious seconds of her life having this pointless conversation.
“I’m going to set you up somewhere,” he said while he looked around her rather small apartment and almost sneered. If he was going to have to spend time with her then it was going to have to be somewhere a lot nicer than this, somewhere where he could catch a game on a huge flat screen television instead of a twenty-four inch black and white was definitely preferable. “I have an extra penthouse a few blocks away from here. You can stay there.”
“Oh, and why would I do that?”
“To be my mistress of course.”
Chapter 3
Kara could only stare. He hadn’t just said what she thought he did, had he? Judging by that self-satisfied smile, he actually had.
The little insulting bastard!
“So, my main job will be, what? Go to work, keep the penthouse clean and spread every time you feel like swinging by?”
Looking thoughtful, he shook his head. “No, you’re going to have to quit your job.”
When her only response was to stare at him, telling herself that he couldn’t really expect her to follow through with that outrageous demand, he continued. “I like nooners,” he said with a sheepish smile and a shrug. “If you’re working then I’ll have to wait. So, you’ll quit your job and you don’t have to worry about cleaning. You only have to worry about cooking me the occasional meal and servicing me every couple of hours. If you can do that, then I’ll make sure that you want for nothing and when our pups come along they’ll of course stay with me-”
She held up a hand to stop him, definitely needing him to clarify that last statement. “Whoa, buddy! What’s this now?”
He looked at her like she was slow. “I’m an Alpha. It’s my duty to raise my children to take care of the Pack. I can’t take the chance that you’ll fuck with the future of my Pack.”
Wow, seriously wow…
“And you think that I would raise my children wrong?” she demanded, daring him to say it so that she had an excuse to bitch slap him while she kicked his ass out of her apartment that suddenly felt dirty because of his presence.
He shrugged. “Not wrong. Just not right.”
Kara choked out a laugh.
She really couldn’t help it.
“So, let me get this straight. In this little scenario of yours, I would be a whore for you to use at your leisure as well as a broodmare to provide you with pups to fill your Pack and nothing more? Would I even be allowed to see my children? Or would that be too risky for the future of your Pack?” she asked, laying it thick with sarcasm.
He pursed his lips up thoughtfully as he actually had the balls to think it over, until finally he consented with, “Yeah, I guess. Under supervision of course,” he said with a heavy sigh as he rubbed the back of his neck, sounding as though he wasn’t really happy with allowing her even that much.
“Let me guess, under your supervision?” she asked dryly.
“Of course,” he snorted as though that should have been more than obvious.
“I see…,” she said, making sure to sound thoughtful while she licked her lips, taking in everything that he’d said and doing her best to process this whole new level of bullshit. “Well, I guess we should get it over with then,” she said with a heavy sigh as though she really didn’t see any other way around this.
He grinned triumphantly. Obviously he thought that money was going to get him what he wanted from her like it did everything else in life. “But do you mind if we go to a hotel or something instead? My bed’s kind of small,” she explained with a sheepish shrug.
“Not a problem,” he said, sounding almost giddy as he jumped to his feet and headed for the door.
“Oh, by the way, how did you get in here?” she asked offhandedly as she picked up her purse.
He gestured towards her living room window. “You forgot to lock your window. Not smart considering that it’s located right above a fire escape and any asshole can get in.”
“Indeed,” she mumbled, completely agreeing with him.
He stepped out into the hall and turned around to wait for her.
“Oh, damn it I forgot something,” she said with an annoyed sigh.
“What?” he asked, not really sounding or looking like he really cared, which she knew he didn’t. He just wanted to get laid and apparently in his mind, she was only put on this earth to service his needs.
She shrugged. “This,” she said as she slammed the door in his stunned face and locked it, laughing all the way to her room as he cursed her out and demanded that she open the door. Quickly, she locked all her windows. The man had made an excellent point after all.
*-*-*-*
“You betraying bastard,” Drew muttered angrily at his crotch.
“What the hell are you doing?” Ryan asked as he strolled into the kitchen, looking cheerful as always. “Are you talking to your dick?”
Drew sighed heavily. “My life is over.”
Ryan laughed.
Asshole.
“What the hell am I supposed to do now?” Drew asked, sounding pathetic and not caring.
Ryan grabbed a box of Lucky Charms, milk and a bowl and sat down at the table. “I don't know why you're bitching. At least your mate is hot. I'd happily fuck her for the rest of my life.”
A surge of anger burst inside him, making him want to rip his Beta's throat out. The realization of what he wanted to do scared the hell out of him. While Ryan sat there oblivious to how close he came to certain death, Drew convinced himself that his anger was over the bastard touching his Lucky Charms. Those were his magically delicious marshmallows damn it!
“Hey!” Ryan snapped as Drew snatched the bowl away.
“Mine!”
Ryan just laughed as he got up and grabbed another bowl. “It's nice to see the angry phase is starting early.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Drew asked around a mouthful of cereal.
“Oh, puhlease, you know exactly what I'm talking about.”
When Drew only stared at him blankly, Ryan continued as he poured himself another bowl. “You're mated.”
“And your point being? You didn't go through any phases other than annoyance when that bitch made you jump to get laid for the first time.”
“Well, that's because Marissa and I don't like each other. Our mating was based on genetics. She can have my pups and that's it.”
Drew looked a little confused. “That's usually what a mating indicates so if you have a point then get to it quickly, because you're interrupting my self-pity time.”
“I cannot believe that I have to explain this to you. You're thirty years older than me. You should have noticed the difference between matings over the years.”
Drew snorted. “The only thing that mattered was making sure that I didn't get tied down to one bitch. Nothing else mattered. So just cut the shit and tell me about this phase bullshit. What else do I get to look forward to besides a limp dick?”
Ryan looked thoughtful as he took a big bite of cereal. “Let's see, if memory serves me correctly, there's anger, jealousy, stupidity, that's the really entertaining one, the one I look forward to,” Ryan said with a
big smile.
Drew scowled.
“Then there's the one where you kick your pride to the curb and beg. That one could prove rather entertaining as well,” Ryan said in an amused tone.
“What in the hell are you talking about? I've seen a lot of matings over the years and I have never seen anything like what you're describing,” Drew bit out, forcing a bite of those magically delicious marshmallows down his throat.
“Oh, really?” Ryan asked sounding thoughtful. “That's probably because it only happens in special cases.”
“Special cases?” Drew repeated slowly with a frown, because he’d never heard anything about this before and as Alpha of the Pack, he should know everything so that he could protect his people.
“Oh yeah, very special,” Ryan agreed around another bite of cereal.
“Well?” Drew demanded when Ryan didn’t answer him fast enough.
Ryan held up a hand while he finished off his cereal. Once that was done he brought the empty bowl over to the sink, rinsed it and loaded it into the dishwasher. The entire time Drew fought for patience.
“Yeah,” Ryan said, walking towards the door. “The mated pairs that go through those phases usually have one thing in common.”
“What's that?” Drew asked, wracking his brain as he tried to figure out what the little shit was talking about.
“They love each other!” Ryan announced in a syrupy sweet voice with a triumphant smile that was definitely going to get his ass kicked.
“You son of a bitch!” Drew roared, throwing the table aside so that he could go after the little bastard. Ryan raced out of the room, laughing. “I hate her!” Drew yelled as he went after his Beta with every intention of bitch slapping the hell out of the man.
“You love her!”
“Hate! I hate her!”
“You love-ah! Not the face! Not the face! I'm too pretty, damn it! Not the face!”
*-*-*-*
Fated Page 4
