“Anincidentwhere you were attacked,” Gray said. “Which is why you should stay with me instead of running towards unknown alphas.”
“She knows me,” Bear bit out before turning his gaze back on me. “Are you okay, babydoll?” He looked me over more closely, rage filling his eyes as his thumb ran over my slightly swollen lip.
I blinked, his concern causing a lump to form in my throat. “You’re really sweet. I’m okay.” Bear looked like he was going to ask more questions, so I quickly changed the subject. I’d had nightmares about the attack every night and didn’t want to spend any waking hours thinking about it. “Do you live here?”
“Nah, only pretentious assholes live here,” he said, eyeing Gray judgementally.
I turned back to Gray. “Wait,youlive here?”
Gray huffed, which I took as confirmation.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Wasn’t relevant.”
I bit my lip, trying not to feel hurt. We weren’t friends. He was just doing a job.
“I live across the street,” Bear said, gesturing at a much grungier-looking apartment building. “But I park here because they’ve got cameras in the lot. How are the skates treating you?”
“So good,” I said with a grin. “I’m learning how to skate backward. Will you tell Spider thank you again?”
Bear muttered something under his breath.
“We need to get you back home,” Gray said abruptly.
I turned to face him. He glared at Bear before turning his hard gaze on me.
“Oh, do you have to be somewhere?” I asked.
“Yes.”
My face fell, but I quickly schooled it into a neutral expression. Of course Gray didn’t want to stand around watching me skate. Shit, he was on the clock for this. I was costing Pack Ashwood money.
“Of course.” I plastered a smile on my face. I could tolerate being home alone. I just needed to suck it up.
“It was nice to see you again,” I said, turning back to Bear. “Maybe I’ll stop by the shop sometime.”
“Anytime, babydoll,” he said, his eyes fixed on my swollen lip and fading bruise.
I blushed at the affirmation and turned to skate back to Gray’s car.
26
GRAY
Iclosed the front door to Westin’s house, waiting until I heard her flip the lock before turning away.
I felt bad cutting her skating time short, but she really was a menace on skates. I was worried she would fall and hurt herself.
And I wanted to get her away from that alpha. What the fuck kind of name was Bear, anyway?
I left the porch and started on my rounds outside the house, checking to make sure nothing was disturbed and the security cameras were functioning as they should. I was sure some people would call the house nice, even extravagant, but it was dark and empty. I hated thinking about Westin alone in there, unprotected. But I wasn’t a live-in bodyguard, and it was safer for me to stay away, anyway. The longer I was with Westin, the more I got sucked into her orbit. When I was with her, it was hard to remember why I needed to keep my distance.
Every day when I drove her home, Westin invited me in for dinner or tried to get me to watch a movie with her. And every day, I turned her down. I was afraid if I was alone with her, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from pulling her into my lap andkissing her pouty lips. She was a ray of light in my otherwise dark life, and I found myself more and more unwilling to say goodbye. I’d sworn off ever being with an omega again after everything that happened with my first pack, but Westin made me question my decision. Of course, I was too old for her—forty-one to heralmosttwenty-five. But with the way she flirted with me, I wondered if maybe she didn’t mind the difference.
I glanced down at my phone and couldn’t stop myself from smiling when I saw my screensaver—a selfie of Westin and me. This morning when I picked her up, she had insisted we take one. She grabbed my phone and snapped the picture, setting it as my background before I could stop her. In the photo, she was beaming at the camera, her hair swirling around her in the breeze, and I was looking down at her with a slight scowl.
I kept finding excuses to pull my phone out during the day so I could look at the photo again.
