“Mate,” Cody finished for me flatly. He pointed to one of his eyes then mine. “Holy shit, yeah, your wolf is showing.”
He grinned, and I dropped my head between my shoulders, blinked a couple of times, trying unsuccessfully to get my wolf on a leash. That was going to be an impossible task for the foreseeable future. “I need her,” I rasped when I looked up again.
I was feeling fucking desperate since she walked away. Like I was going to shift and tear this place apart if I didn’t get her back in my arms in the next ten seconds. My heart rate was up, my blood pressure must’ve been through the roof. My fists were clenched. My dick throbbed. My wolf prowled and howled with frustration.
I was losing my shit.
Cody shook his head. He reached across the bar and put his hand firmly on my shoulder. Squeezed. He met my gaze with a serious one of his own. “That’s too fucking bad, Boone. You can’t have her.”
2
SUMMER
* * *
My knees wobbled as I cut through the crowd to deliver the beers. My hands shook, and I tried not to spill and make a mess like it was my first day on the job.
Jeez, that guy was huge. His hands were the size of baseball mitts, and his thickly muscled arm felt like a steel cable wrapped around me. He smelled of pine and mountain air and growled like a bear. He sure was as big as one.
I wouldn’t call myself gorgeous, but guys hit on me all the time, especially working here at Cody’s. Maybe they were hoping to score with someone they thought was easy… a waitress. This guy was different. More. Not just his size, but his presence and his energy was bigger. That made me immediately wonder whether he was bigger everywhere.
I was a mix of turned on and terrified because why on earth was my mind going there?
Lordy, my nipples were hard and chafing against my bra, which made no sense at all.
I couldn’t believe he saw me walking by and grabbed me as if I belonged to him! The nerve. The arrogance of these alpha males.
He was just like Marty–acting like women were a possession that could just be acquired. A collectible that he wasn’t going to share with anyone. Like he had me. Grabbed and kept. Something to put up high on a shelf away from others.
I took one look at you and had to have you.
Not a great pickup line, buddy. It also immediately made my mind stir up thoughts of Marty because he’d said something similar to me when we first met all those years ago. I’d been dumb then, buying it. I was wiser now.
Although in this big guy’s defense, he probably didn’t need to use pickup lines. I’d bet most women looked at the hot, bearded lumberjack and waved their panties in surrender. Before Marty, I might have been tempted because any conscious woman would find him panty-melting.
But now I knew how jealous and possessive guys like that could be. They thought you belonged to them. A possession. They needed to control you. Own you. They were crafty about luring you into their trap, and once you were caught, they made sure you lost all your friends and resources to fight back when they eventually got violent.
Gaslighting was their specialty. Plus, isolating and separating from loved ones and friends. Making me doubt myself with everything I said, everything I did, and God, like now, everything I thought.
Had I done something special to draw his attention? Was it my fault because I wore–
NO! I had to stop thinking that. I hadn’t done anything wrong, and he’d wrapped an arm around me.
A shiver went down my spine imagining if a guy his size got violent. There’d be no walking away from it. I’d be dead, just like I would have been if I hadn’t gotten away from Marty when I did.
I delivered the drinks on my tray and took new orders, all with a shaky, pasted-on smile, my heart still jack-hammering in my chest.
I was safe here. Cody, the owner, knew him. Called him Boone.
Plus, Natalie and Rand were here tonight. I’d spotted them in the crowd and waved although they’d ended up in another waitress’s section. They wouldn’t let anything happen to me either. I knew Rand wouldn’t.
I took a deep breath. Let it out. Then another.
I was safe. Totally safe. Safe.
Marty wasn’t here. This guy? While he wasn’t Marty, I didn’t know him at all.
As I headed back to the bar, my tray stacked with a few empties I found on the way, I couldn’t help but scan for the big man–Boone. Not because I was interested. Not because I was afraid.
