His eyes turned to slits, and I heard an irritated growl reverberate in his throat. I didn’t back down. He was nowhere near as terrifying or imposing as he thought.
“Just do your job,” he snarled, spinning on his heels and stalking off.
Scowling, I glowered after Jenson as he rounded the corner. “I’m so sick of him,” I grumbled. When I turned to get some sort of agreement from Liv, I blinked, frowning. “What?”
“What the hell has gotten into you?” she asked, her eyes wide as saucers. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you talk back to him like that.”
My lips thinned as I jabbed at the register. “It wasn’t as though he was actually going to fire me. We all know no one else is insane enough to work here. I’m just tired of him pushing me around like that,” I grumbled, softly enough that only she could hear me. “And I’m tired of staying quiet.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” Liv straightened, getting to her feet as a customer approached and adopting her “customer service” smile. “Hi! How can I help you?”
She pointed the man to the next aisle over, toward the pasta and canned sauces he was looking for. She waited until he rounded the corner before she crouched next to me again.
“He’s been pushing you around since you started here,” she pointed out as she grabbed another can and slid it onto the shelf with its twins. “You’ve never acted this way.”
Without looking at her, I said, “Maybe I’m just learning to stand up for myself and stop taking crap from him.”
Snorting, Liv flashed me an amused grin. “I love ya, girl, but that’s complete and utter bull, and you know it,” she teased. “Something’s got you up in arms. I want to know what it is.”
I let out a frustrated sigh as I shot her an annoyed look. “And I’m guessing if I ask you nicely to leave it—”
“I will hound you until your dying breath,” she confirmed with that playful smirk,
Muttering to myself, I ran my fingers through my hair. Part of me wanted to stay quiet. The more people who knew, the more pressure there would be for me to go through with the mating. But this was Liv, my oldest friend. I knew she wouldn’t judge me like the rest of the pack. Moreover, she wouldn’t let it rest until I told her the truth.
“The Oracle said Sam and I are mates and we need to have the mating ceremony,” I said, saying it as casually as if I were commenting on the weather instead of dropping a tremendous bombshell.
Liv’s eyes went wide and round as her hand clamped over her mouth. After a moment, she lowered it.
“Seriously?” she whispered.
“Seriously,” I admitted. Before she could ask her next question, I answered it. “She told me a few days ago.”
“That is insane,” Liv said. “Oh my God, Jenson’s going to have an aneurysm when he finds out who your mate is,” she said, her voice an octave higher with mischievous delight. “Can you imagine the look on his face? He’s going to be mortified. He’s going to think twice.”
I made a face as I turned back to the shelf. “I don’t know if I’m going to go through with it.”
Liv’s beaming smile turned into a confused frown almost instantly. “What? Why?”
I swallowed, trying to figure out how to explain without having to tell her about my embarrassing declaration. I had kept that secret for years, and I intended to take it to the grave.
“I don’t like the idea of having something that big dictated by something as nebulous as fate,” I finally said. “Sam is Elias’s friend, and that’s weird enough. But I always thought I would get the chance to pick who my mate would be, you know? I don’t like not having a say in who I spend the rest of my life with.”
“Sure, but do you think there’s any chance that the Oracle is right? I mean, if fatediddecide this, that should mean something. Besides, there’s something romantic about it, you know? That you’re fated to be together?”
I gave a smirk as I rolled my eyes. “You are a hopeless romantic,” I teased.
“I am,” Liv agreed, then sobered. “That said, I know how hard this has to be for you. It’s easy to say you should go for it as an outsider. I’m not in your shoes.”
I let out a deep breath of relief. “Exactly,” I said. “And I’m getting that sort of heat from every direction: Mom, Elias, the Oracle, anyone who finds out. None of them seems to consider that it’s my decision, one I’m going to have to live with the rest of my life.” I groaned and rubbed my temple as I took another deep breath. “At the same time, if the Oracle is right and this match does somehow help the pack, I don’t know how I can say no.”
Talking to Liv made everything seem easier. I didn’t feel judged or pressured as she listened. I felt like I could really express my frustrations and have them taken seriously.
Liv bobbed her head back and forth as she considered, chewing the inside of her lip as she contemplated. “I think you’re going to have to make that decision yourself,” she said. “And I think that whatever you end up deciding, it’s probably going to be the right call.”
“Thanks,” I said. “That does make me feel a bit better.”
It didn’t quell the anxiety or the dread about what I was going to do, but just knowing I had made a decision seemed to make the entire thing more bearable. As I got out of work, I pulled out my phone. I stared down at Elias’s number, finger hovering over the phone icon as that lingering hesitation forced me to pause. Then, sucking in a breath, I pressed the call button.
