“I did. How did you make the beams visible?” I asked.
“Easy, smoke,” he said, casually leaning his arm on James’ shoulder.
“Right. Better to suffocate than being cold,” I told him. We looked at each other and laughed.
“We need to get back to our pack, Becky has sandwiches ready. Take care, little sister,” Elder said.
“You too, big brother. Give Becky a hug from me.”
“Oh that is something I’m more than willing to do,” he told me, wiggled his eyebrows and turned to walk away.
“Gross,” I called after him and I heard him chuckle as he more or less towed his Alpha away.
“Nicely handled,” Matilda told me and gave me a cookie.
“Thank you,” I said and happily munched it down.
“What about me? I should get a cookie for not killing the Alpha,” Finlay whined. Sometimes I could swear he was five years old.
“Yes, you should. It was very nice of you,” Matilda agreed and gave him a cookie as well. When he wasn’t looking, she rolled her eyes at me, making me giggle.
‘What’s funny?’ Finlay asked in our mindlink.
‘Nothing,’ I told him. He looked down at me and smiled, but didn’t ask me for more details.
Chapter 56
Finlay
Fuck, I was nervous. I am an Alpha, I shouldn’t be nervous. But I could feel the clear signs as I walked next to Amie to have dinner with her brother and his mate. I had known Amie and her brother were close, she had told me stories, but after seeing the two of them together. I got it. They had this bond between them. I needed to get along with this wolf, it was important to Amie. She hadn’t told me as much, but I just knew it. I liked Beta Elder, I had done from when I met him for the first time at the Alpha summits. If nothing else, we both had an interest in protecting Amie. But his best friend was her true mate. That had to make him standoffish to me. I didn’t pretend he would see me as just Amie’s Alpha and friend. He had to see the truth, if nothing else his mate should have told him. I didn’t fool myself to think he was okay with us just because he seemed to keep his Alpha away from Amie. That would be more for Amie’s sake than anything. So, I needed this evening to go well.
‘Are you okay? You are acting weird,’ Amie mindlinked me.
‘What do you mean? I’m just walking,’ I told her.
‘Yeah. In this weird kind of way. If you feel uncomfortable with having dinner, you can just drop me off,’ she offered.
‘No. No! I can do this,’ I insisted. Amie stopped and looked at me.
‘You sound like you are heading into battle. It’s just my brother and Becky. You have met them before.’
‘I know. I’m blowing this out of proportion. I just really want them to like me.’ She smiled at me.
‘Of course they will like you. And if my brother gives you any trouble, you tell me and I will tell mom,’ Amie told me and took the hand I didn’t have the food basket in and gave it a light squeeze.
‘Deal,’ I told her. I relaxed a little and looked up to head towards the communal building where we would have dinner in one of the rooms. I froze and my hand went to Amie’s shoulder to keep her from turning. ‘Don’t look,’ I said. Of course she turned her head and looked at what I was looking at. I should have known she was too stubborn to do what I told her. James stood at the entrance to the communal building. He was in the middle of a make out session with a woman. They were as close to having sex in public as you could get without being naked. I looked down at Amie, worried what the mate bond would do to her. She scrunched her nose at the scene.
‘I would have thought he would go for someone better than Cindy. But to each their own, I guess,’ she said.
‘Are you okay?’ I asked. She looked back at me and I searched her face for hidden pain, I didn’t find any. She smiled.
‘Don’t worry. The mate bond is too frail to cause any issues. If anything, it just got weaker.’ She took my arm and made us move forward. ‘When he first rejected me, I would lie in bed and torture myself with images like that one. I always knew Cindy had her eyes on James, and on my brother, too. She likes power. Back then I spent countless nights crying over the idea of himaccepting her into his bed. That was until I figured out I was just hurting myself. I accepted that what he did was on him and I stopped torturing myself,’ Amie told me. I had to fight against the need to punch James in the face. He had caused her so much pain and even after all of it, he refused to accept she would reject him. He even tried to play dirty and get her jealous. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that was what he was doing. We walked past them without looking at them. I saw James stop kissing the woman and looked after us. He was waiting for a reaction. Amie didn’t give him what he wanted. We got to the room her brother had booked, knocked and stepped inside. Beta Elder and his mate were setting the table. Becky smiled at us and walked over to give Amie a hug.
“We brought mini pizzas, watermelon salad and blueberry pie,” Amie said, reaching for the basket I was holding. I placed it on a side table.
“Sounds amazing. I have made sliders, pasta with red sauce and meatballs, and cucumber salad. Thank you for coming, both of you,” Becky said.
“We were happy to come,” Amie said. She gave me a look, saying I needed to talk as well and I saw Becky give her mate the same one.
