“Sorry.” I held my free hand up in front of me.
Her face, which had gone pale, now flushed with color as her gaze took the long trip up and down my huge body. Surprising the hell out of me, she didn’t panic. Or run away screaming.
Thank fuck, to that.
She stood and looked her fill and… did she like what she saw? Fuck, I hoped so. I’d never had so much self doubt as I did in this moment.
She cocked a hip, pretending to be a badass, but her finger trembled when she pointed it at the tray of beer in my hand. Fire. I loved it. She might be tiny, but she wasn’t weak. “Give it back.”
My mind raced to think of an excuse. Something to explain why I’d just grabbed her and took her tray. It was so fucking obvious. I had zero fucking finesse. I’d fucked things up from the first second I found her.
“I’m sorry, I uh, thought you were someone else.” I tried to keep the growl from my voice because that was the biggest fucking lie. I knew, for the first time and with absolute certainty, she was exactly the person I’d been looking for my entire life.
No–dammit! That was an idiotic thing to say. Now she’d think I was a player. Or had a girlfriend. Or grabbed only specific women to manhandle.
I shook my head and remembered flirting and finesse. I sighed. “That’s not what I meant. I just, ah…honestly?” –I shoved my fingers through my hair which gave away my anxiety– “I took one look at you and had to have you.”
There. That was better. Romantic, even. Human females were all about romance.
Her head tipped back to meet my gaze–I was that much taller, not because she was small but because I was fucking huge. Her brows drew together, and her gorgeous blue eyes narrowed at me.
Okay, flirting didn’t seem to work.
Fate, I wanted to touch her again. I needed to get her out of this crowded bar and alone.
Her bowtie lips drew together in a tight line. “Get used to disappointment,” she snapped and set her hand on her hip. She had sass, too. Fuck, yes. “The tray?”
The tray. What tray? I followed her gaze to my hand where her cocktail tray was still balanced. Oh–fuck! Well, at least I hadn’t dumped the drinks in my frenzy to get her scent into my nostrils.
“I’ll carry it for you,” I said over a whoop in the crowd when a popular song started. I leaned down, so she could hear me since she wasn’t a fucking shifter with wolf ears and amazing hearing. “Where were you headed?”
When she realized I was serious, she looked over her shoulder to Cody behind the bar.
Fuck. She thought she needed help. To get away from me.
Her mate.
How much more could I fuck up?
I racked my brain for something to say to fix this. Dealing with people–shifter or human–wasn’t my speciality. I wasn’t a people person. I was a tree person. A nature person. A mountain man.
I could never have been an alpha of the Wolf pack like my cousin, Rob, no matter what my father had wanted. I lived up on the mountain high above Cooper Valley and the rest of the pack for a reason. Far from people and embarrassing situations like this. It also kept people safe from my recklessness. I could be dangerous.
I gave my best attempt at charming, even tried to smile. “I’ll trade you the tray for your name.”
She rolled her eyes like this was the third time tonight she’d heard something similar. While I didn’t want to have to prove myself to her because she was fucking mine, I liked knowing she didn’t let any guy mess with her.
Cody came down the length of the bar toward us. Set his hands on the hard, glossy surface, and said, “Thanks for bringing down that cut wood. My pile for the stove is getting low. I– what’s going on, Boone?”
Thank fuck, I found my mate here in a bar owned by a fellow shifter and pack member than the grocery store where she might fling canned goods at me.
“I…” I had to concede I needed help. Maybe Cody could throw me a lifeline.
“You workin’ here now?” he asked, when I stumbled with my words. “If not, hand the tray off. I’ve got thirsty customers,” he instructed with a smirk. I was glad of it because I needed to be told what to do here. I offered the tray to my mate, relishing the way our fingers brushed when she took it.
As she turned and sped off into the crowd without even a backward glance–which was fucking shitty because she didn’t have any qualms about walking away from her mate–I worried about her. I couldn’t protect her if I couldn’t see her in this zoo. But Cody wouldn’t let her–or any woman–work here if he thought she was in any kind of danger.
So I focused on Cody instead of going after her. It took some effort to make my mouth work properly as I set my forearms on the bar and admitted, “She’s….my…”
