“I’m not kidding you right now, Alaric.I’m not happy with you and the circumstances that you’ve put me in.”He asked how he’d done anything and pointed out again how he’d just shown up on his date.“You’ll not be hanging around her, and that’s final.I’m not in the mood for you to be fucking with me.”
Standing up, he wasn’t the least bit surprised to see the anger on his brother’s face.He really had barged in on his date, and that was what he’d done.After they left him sitting there with no one to talk to, he decided to head home and try to figure out what to do.He could feel the vein pulsing at his forehead; he was so angry.
He wasn’t in a better mood when he got home and decided that he needed something to do, or he was going to explode.After pulling out all the food from his pantry, he started looking at the dates on things.Some of the things had expired years ago, and that pissed him off more that he’d wasted good money on things that he could no longer eat.
Sitting on his couch, Zeno tried to do some breathing exercises so that he could calm his head.It felt like it was going to come up off his head.He was too tense, and that bothered him as well.He had told his family that he didn’t want a mate, and now that she was going to be hanging around with Alaric, he’d have to see her every day.Damn it to hell and back, this wasn’t fair.He’d made it perfectly clear that he didn’t want anything to do with finding a mate, and here they were flaunting her around like she was…well, he didn’t know what his brother was doing, but he wasn’t going to allow it to happen like this.He didn’t want a mate.
He must have dozed off because when he woke, it was nearly ten in the evening.As soon as he got up, he knew that he wasn’t going to sleep well when he went to bed, so he decided that he was going to finish what he’d done to the pantry and then try to get some sleep.He had to work tomorrow, and this wasn’t helping.
Zeno ended up tossing most of what was in his pantry.He’d started on the fridge too and found that there were things in there that had been worse than his cabinets.He was going to have to make a list of things that he was going to need and go to the grocery store.He didn’t have to avoid going now because he knew right where his mate was.Hanging out with his stupid brother.
After making himself a list, it was nearly two in the morning.Going to bed, he was exhausted enough that he didn’t have any trouble falling asleep.When his mind went back to his mate, he nearly got up again.But since he had to work, he willed himself to sleep.He knew he was going to have a shitty day tomorrow and was going to blame the woman and her child.
Arriving at work twenty minutes late, his mood was in no better place than it had been last night.Trying his best not to snip at anyone, he was ready to call it a day when Aaron pulled him into his office.He didn’t need his big brother busting his chops right now and said that almost as soon as the door was shut.
“Alaric said you were going to be in a mood.I guess she found you last night.I don’t know what to say about that, but you’d better be taking it down a notch or two before Earl sets your ass on fire.You know better than to take your mood out on the others.”He said that Alaric had set him up.“That’s not the way it happened, and you know it.”
“All right, he didn’t set me up, but why is he dating anyway?It’s not like he has time for dates.He should be looking for a house or something, not fucking around with my mate.”Aaron asked him if he was listening to what he was saying.“I know what the fuck I’m saying.I don’t want a mate, and there he is, thinking that he can date her or something.That’s not going to happen.”
“What do you care?You said you didn’t want her.Why can’t he have a little bit of fun with her while you’re around?”He growled low, and Aaron laughed.“You just proved my point that I was trying to make earlier when you said you didn’t want a mate.That when she comes around, you’re going to be in trouble.”
“What kind of trouble am I in?None, that I can see.I’m just pissed off at Alaric for flaunting her in my face.Like he has a right to do that.”He told him that he has every right to do what he wants, and he was to back off.“What are you going to do if I don’t?Nothing.This is between me and Alaric.”
“I’m going to tell mom and dad that you found your mate and that you’re pissed off about it.”That shut him up.He knew that if they knew what he was doing, they’d be very disappointed in him.Zeno didn’t even know why he was so angry.Shaking his body to disperse some of his anger, he looked at Aaron.“What?”
“You are loving this, aren’t you?”He said that he was actually.“I knew it.You and the rest of you are laughing it up at my expense just because someone came into my life that I want nothing to do with.”
“Again, I’m going to ask you why you care so much if Alaric dates her?After the showing of yourself last night, she more than likely won’t have anything to do with you anyway.Because of the way you acted around her mom, you made the little girl cry.”He flopped down in the chair that was beside the desk in Aaron’s office.“You’re just lucky that Alaric didn’t find you and beat you to shit last night.I had to tell him several times how much it would hurt mom and dad if her two boys were to come to blows over your mate when you’ve made quite clear you want nothing to do with her.”
“I don’t.”Aaron sat down at his desk and said nothing.“I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I don’t want Alaric to date her.He’s handsy.”
He didn’t ask why he cared again but kept his mouth shut.After a few minutes of neither of them talking, he made his way out to the desk again to finish what he’d started on yesterday.There seemed to be an endless supply of paperwork that needed to be done, and he just wanted to go home.Though he didn’t know what he’d do there.All his cabinets were cleaned out and ready for new things.He was going to the grocery store after work if he made it to the end of the day.
Concentrating on the task in front of him, he finally finished up by the time it was his turn to take the cruiser.His mind had drifted a few times while he was working, to where he was trying to come up with reasons to go and see her.Dumping that idea over getting himself killed, he decided that he’d be better off leaving it alone.He didn’t know how that was going to work since he knew nothing about her, but he was going to give it his best shot.
After work, he was in the grocery store when he saw who he thought was the woman.It turned out that it wasn’t her, and that pissed him off as well.What did she even do for a living so that he could avoid her?Where was her little girl when she worked?All these hundreds of questions muddled up his mind over and over until he felt his head about to explode again.Putting his things up on the roller, he decided that he was going to go home and go to bed and shut out the world around him.Just as he was paying, a scent hit him in the face, and he knew that it was her.
Turning to glare at her while they were in line, she lifted her chin up and glared right back.He might well have thought that was funny, but he was still pissed that she was around.
“I was here first.”She didn’t bother saying anything to him, and he was hurting his head was in so much pain.“You’ll have to come back when I’m not here.I don’t like you hanging around with Alaric either.That’s going to stop as well.”
“Where the hell do you get off telling me what I’m going to be doing?You don’t own me.And I make my own decisions as to whom I’m going to see or not.”She put her basket on the roller and looked ready to do battle.“As for you being in here first, I don’t give a good damn.I have things to buy, and I’m not going to allow a bully to tell me where I can shop.”
“You will not talk to me that way.”Her chin, if that was possible, went up a couple of more notches.“I’m your mate, and what I say goes.You’ll do as you’re told or find yourself out on your ass.”
“What do you mean you’re my mate?This is the first that I’ve heard about that.”He told her that he could tell by the way she smelled.“So now I smell, do I?You’re such a charmer, it’s small wonder that every woman in town isn’t jumping into your bed.You’re an ass hole.”
The cashier told him his total, and he was sure that it wasn’t the first time.After giving her all the cash he had in his hand, she told him to wait for his change.Grabbing up his bags of food, he wasout the door before he could tangle with the bitch from hell again.She was going to have to take it down a few notches, or he was going to set fire to her ass.There was no way that he was going to allow her to talk to him that way and get away with it.He was a tiger by God, and she’d better learn her place.
After getting home, he was carrying his things into his condo when the bag split.Cursing up a storm, he found himself blaming her for that, too.Just as he was cleaning things up, his cell phone rang.Without looking to see who it might be, he barked out his name and said that it had better be important.
“I think it’s highly important when I call one of my children.”There was a pause just long enough from his mom that he had to reflect on his choices of life at that moment.“What’s gotten into you now?”
“Nothing.”He knew that wouldn’t fly and told her that he’d found his mate and that she was a bitch.“She actually told me that I wasn’t going to treat her that way because she was a grown woman.”
“What did you say to her?I’m sure that it wasn’t very nice.I’m assuming that it’s the girl that Alaric was telling us about.”He said he had a big mouth.“Perhaps, but he was just as ticked off as you were when I called him.What did you do to that girl to have her talking to you that way?”
“Why are you assuming that I’ve done something wrong?What if it had been all on her?”She asked him if it was.“Yes.No.I don’t know anymore.I don’t want a mate, and Alaric found her for me.He knew better, too.Why is everyone against me right now?I didn’t do anything wrong.”
