Fated

by R. L. Mathewson

  If she left the club, Mick was by her side, glaring at anyone that invaded their personal space and making it a tad awkward when the librarian had to come within her ten feet of personal space that Mick insisted upon to get her library card with a seven foot shifter sending the poor old woman a warning growl.

  Since she was now banned from the library, she’d expanded her search of the city and had found some really lovely bookstores to Mick’s dismay. The man didn’t like bookstores, didn’t trust the small humans skirting around him nervously, panicking when they caught his scowl aimed in their direction, which of course meant that she was going to have to start sneaking out of the club without him or risk getting banned from every bookstore in Boston.

  A roar shook the club, making her sigh and shake her head in annoyance as she turned the page of the book that she was reading and wondered how much longer they were all going to have put up with the big bastard’s tantrums. She glanced up at the clock on the break room wall and decided that she’d start her shift an hour early since Drew had most likely just sent most of the wait staff running for their lives.

  She couldn’t do much, but at least she could keep the most aggressive customers calm and relaxed by making sure that they didn’t have to wait long for their drinks. It wasn’t much, but it should help keep the fights tonight at a bare minimum tonight.

  Reluctantly, she pulled on the fitted Luna Moon black tee shirt that security and the bartenders had to wear and her jeans, because she absolutely refused to wear the degrading mandatory uniform that the waitresses had to wear. If Drew wanted to fire her over that, then that was more than fine with her, because she refused to give some asshole an opportunity to reach beneath her skirt and try to get better acquainted with her, again.

  She’d done a hundred mediocre jobs in her lifetime to know the ins and outs of the trade and she knew exactly how to stop some asshole from turning her shift into a nightmare. She knew how to handle the drunks, the flirts, the cheap tippers, and those looking to take their bad day out on someone who they believed would have to suck it up just so they could keep a low paying job that was barely paying the bills.

  Kara was beyond taking any more bullshit. She refused to allow customers or the staff to push her around. Not that they tried anymore, not since they’d realized that she bore Drew’s mark. Now they just simply stayed away from her, glared at her from a distance and never turned their backs on her, afraid of what she would do to them.

  She was their female Alpha now, whether they wanted her to be or not, and judging by the expressions on their faces whenever she came within thirty feet of any of them, they were less than pleased with their new circumstances.

  That was fine with her, because as far as she was concerned, they weren’t her Pack, her responsibility or anything to her, but a group of shifters waiting for the right moment to turn on her.

  When that moment came…

  She already planned on being long gone from here.

  Chapter 17

  “Drew, I’ve missed you!” some blonde bombshell that he couldn’t remember said with an excited squeal as she came rushing over to his private table, but with barely a grunt, Mick shifted to the side to block her.

  “Drew? Baby, it’s me, Angel!” she said, giving him a huge smile as she arched her back ever so slightly to show off her barely-there cleavage that did absolutely nothing for him.

  “Don’t fucking care,” he said, not bothering to look away from the curvy little thing in jeans carrying a tray full of drinks towards a table full of humans.

  When the horny bastards greeted her with appreciative male smiles, his eyes narrowed as he watched each and every one of them take in her breasts and ass. His glare moved to the oblivious woman smiling warmly to the humans as she carefully and efficiently placed their drinks on the table. His eyes narrowed even further when his mate continued to speak with the humans instead of moving on to the next table.

  “Mick,” was all that he needed to say to have the three hundred pound shifter gesture with a slight nod towards Kara.

  Within seconds, Jennie, a low member of his Pack, who’d always resented Kara and had gone out of her way to make Kara’s life a living hell when she was a girl, was there, ready to take over. She stepped up to the table with a shy smile and a wonder bra to help bring some attention to her assets as she told Kara that she was needed elsewhere.

  Her smile becoming forced, Kara bid the humans goodnight, but not before they all started pulling out their wallets and handing her insanely large tips and-

  Their fucking phone numbers, he realized with a growl.

  “I want her out of here,” he bit out, keeping his eyes locked on the woman that had too much fucking control over his life.

  With another slight nod of his head, two male members of Drew’s Pack walked towards her and started to gesture towards his table until he ended their mistake by letting his eyes flash silver. After what she’d put him through the other night, he wanted nothing to do with the little bitch.

  He’d planned on throwing her out of Boston, telling his Pack to go fuck off and see how far they’d get without him, but every time he allowed the anger to build up from that night, he would remember that feeling that slammed into him when he realized that she was going to live. He remembered the overpowering amount of relief that hit him, nearly dropping him to his knees and making it damn near impossible for him to take his next breath.

  He’d realized that he loved her, fucking adored her and it had felt like his fucking soul had betrayed him. He didn’t like knowing that he loved her, that he wanted her, that he’d probably always wanted her since she’d hit her maturity. She’d certainly always intrigued him, especially the first time that he saw her. He’d never met a more terrified little girl in his life, but she’d refused to let anyone know just how fucking scared she was. Instead, she’d given off enough attitude to ensure that everyone within twenty feet of her would want to put the little brat over their knees and spank the attitude out of her.

  At least, that’s what he’d wanted to do when he’d first met her, but now she was his, wearing his mark and it didn’t mean a fucking thing to her.

  *-*-*-*

  “You summoned me, my Lord,” she drawled dryly, doing her best not to let him know how much she’d missed him over the past week.

  Not that she’d allowed herself to think about him, because she hadn’t. She’d kept herself busy, telling herself that it didn’t bother her that he’d been avoiding her. It was fine. She was used to being on her own and wouldn’t have it any other way.

  “Go back upstairs,” Drew said coldly as he glanced around the club, looking bored.

  “And do what exactly?” she asked, loving being bossed around as much as she loved being ignored.

  “Don’t fucking care. Just get out of my club,” he said, sighing heavily as he absently gestured for her to get the hell out of his sight.

  “You need the help,” she pointed out, damned if she was going to let him know how much his dismissal hurt.

  “Not from you,” he said, shifting his cold gaze to her and letting her know exactly how much he couldn’t stand her, an expression that she was very familiar with and one that she couldn’t stand seeing on his face.

  So, she did what she always did when someone let her know exactly how little she meant to them, she pretended that it didn’t bother her even as she decided that it was time to show him just how little she cared.

  *-*-*-*

  “Something’s wrong,” Ryan said with a perplexed expression as he sat down next to Drew at his private booth.

  “Don’t fucking care,” Drew said, wondering why his Beta was bothering him when he’d made it perfectly clear over the past week that he would beat the shit out of anyone that so much as looked in his direction.

  He honestly didn’t know how he could have been any clearer. His Pack had gotten the message very quickly once he’d explained in a few simple words what he would do if any of them bothered
him over any bullshit, mentioned Kara’s name or were simply within reach if he was in a bad mood. Since that day his Pack had made sure to keep their drama and bullshit to themselves as well as at least twenty feet between them and him.

  For all other problems, Pack or club related, they’d gone to Ryan, who in his own special way told them to go fuck off and handle their shit like adults. Drew sighed. His Beta did have a special way with words. During the past week, reports had been quietly handed to him, daily schedules were placed in front of him along with a medium rare steak, a shot of whiskey and an Irish lager and not a single word.

  Just the way he liked it.

  Ryan for the most part had been enjoying tormenting him for the past week, innocently bringing up Kara at every fucking opportunity, which had earned him a few new scars and Drew’s undying hatred. He just wanted to be left alone while he figured a few things out, but his Beta didn’t seem to fucking care. He was practically fucking giddy with this new line of torture and couldn’t seem to let it go no matter how much Drew beat the shit out of him.

  “You know what I can’t understand?” Ryan asked, once again trying to piss him off enough to play along, but he refused to be baited by the little bastard that seemed to get so much joy out of fucking with his head.

  “Many things,” Drew drawled, hoping the little bastard would take the hint and shut the fuck up.

  “She started to go into heat last week,” Ryan began, obviously intent on ignoring his wishes as usual.

  “So?” Drew snapped, hoping that the tone in his voice was enough to shut his Beta up, but another part of him, the part that he wished that he could violently beat the shit out of, was hoping that Ryan ignored the warning in his tone and kept talking.

  No matter how much he hated to admit this, he was really fucking curious.

  Thankfully, his Beta ignored the warning as usual and continued so that he wouldn’t be forced to beg the little bastard for information later.

  “Aren’t you curious how it hit and then suddenly stopped?” his Beta asked with a smug little smile that made Drew’s hand twitch with the need to bitch slap his Beta into cutting straight through the bullshit and forcing the little shit to tell him what he wanted to know.

  He was beyond fucking curious, but he would never admit that to Ryan. He knew better than to give Ryan any type of power over him, and this knowledge was definitely power, because he was dying to know how his mate had not only survived the attack, but had also done it without going into heat. It was like everything had stopped along with her heart.

  It didn’t make sense.

  Then again, did any of this really make any sense?

  “I have a theory if you’d like to hear it,” Ryan said offhandedly, apparently deciding that the best way to aggravate the shit out of him was to stretch this out.

  “Don’t. Fucking. Care,” he said, knowing his Beta well enough to know that if he ignored him completely, in five minutes, an hour, two tops, Ryan wouldn’t be able to resist telling him everything that he wanted to-

  “What the fuck?” he muttered with a frown as he slowly stood up, sure that he was mistaken, but after he scented the air for a second time there was absolutely no doubt in his mind that he was scenting shifter blood.

  It wasn’t just shifter blood, he realized with a ferocious growl as his eyes shot silver and his fangs shot down.

  It was Kara’s blood.

  Chapter 18

  Oh, my God, don’t look, she chanted over and over in her head as she stood there, holding her hand over the kitchen sink while she waited for the bleeding to stop and her hand to mend.

  It was just a matter of time, she reminded herself, thankful that she was an Alpha instead of regular Pack since she was able to harness her strength and healing abilities to fix her hand so that she wouldn’t have to endure the sight of her blood or a trip to the hospital for-

  She gagged, biting it back just in time as the thought of a needle and thread being pulled through her skin made her head spin and her stomach flip. Squeezing her eyes shut tightly, she slowly breathed in and out, pushing the images of needles going through her flesh away and tried to focus on pretty much anything else. She was a pathetic shifter. She knew and accepted this as a fact and right now she really just couldn’t give a damn as she felt the cold water pour over her hand while her skin knitted itself back together.