He was gone, and I could stand it for a few minutes, until one of the Wildwood wolves got up and headed in the same direction. A cold chill gripped my chest and—okay. Respecting Dakota’s space and privacy came up second to the need to make sure he was all right.
Immediately.
I leaned over and squeezed my sister’s hand. She gave a little jump—my twin. Someone who’d shared a womb with me.
She’d never jumped at my touch before, and when she realized it was just me, she caught herself. Forced a smile. Pressed into my hand in apology.
All that made me want to do was toss the fucking table over and start throwing fists and claws at every damned interloper who’d made her feel this way.
“I’m okay,” she insisted before I could even ask, taking another sip of her drink.
My nose flared.
She was lying, but it didn’t serve anybody to call her on it. She wastryingto be okay, at the very least, and I shouldn’t upend that just because I was mad at everyone else in the room.
With a huff and a clench of my jaw, I glanced around the room. More than one of our pack mates had their eyes on me, and I caught Kent’s eye and jerked my head.
Kent wasn’t pack muscle. Seth would keep everyone safe, but I needed someone to be there for Jillian.
“I need to go check on Dakota—” I said to Jill quietly.
She shook her head, her smile still false and frozen in place. “I’m fine. Go. Seriously. I’m fine.”
My stomach twisted. Even if I wanted to believe her, I wasn’t fucking fine.
It wasn’t until Kent rounded to our side of the table that I got up.
“Our pitcher’s empty,” Kent said, as if that were his excuse for coming over. I was grateful he didn’t make a big show. He reached across Dakota’s abandoned seat to snatch the one nearest Jillian off the table. Once he refilled his glass, he offered to pour her another serving as he dropped into the chair beside her.
Good. I’d always thought?—
Well, I didn’t think Jill would pick Kent, but I’d always thought he liked her. If a crush kept her safe for a few minutes while I went after my mate, good. Didn’t have to mean anything.
Even walking through the restaurant made me nervous. Dakota was nowhere to be found, but there was no way a wolf—especially one from such an insular pack as we’d come from—would risk making a scene and exposing us to humans.
On the off chance I was wrong, it wouldn’t matter. Dakota could protect himself. He wasn’t just a wolf. He was a mage. He could split any other wolf in two, no matter how big he was.
And this one was, well, rather big.
When I got to the hallway tucked out of the way toward the back, where the restrooms were, the blond wolf who’d followed Dakota came out. Truth told, if I’d had to fight him, I’d have been a good deal more concerned about the outcome than I was about fighting Grant.
The wolf was big. Young, but there was something in him I recognized—the kind of hardness you had to wear to survive a pack like we had come from. Of course, for me, that’d been a mask.
I wasn’t so sure about this kid.
He stepped out into the narrow hallway that led to the restrooms and when he saw me, his lips tilted, spreading into a tight smirk. Even his dimples seemed sharp and threatening.
I wanted to growl at him. It took every fucking ounce of my self-control not to.
And that motherfucker’s smirk went from predatory to smug as hell. He knew I was pissed, and all he did was nod at me. He walked by, and his meaty shoulder bumped into mine.
Fuck, was he enormous. Was he bigger than me?
Why the fuck was I standing there worrying about how big he was?
I shoved into the bathroom to find Dakota there, leaning over the sink with his hands braced on the countertop to either side. At the opening door, he glanced into the mirror and caught my eye.
The smile he gave me was drawn and tired. I locked the door and slid up behind him, running my hands down his arms.
