Chapter Four

~EDWARD

“Honestly, man, I don't understand how you can be OK with her going off with him like that. Whoever that guy was. For a second there, I thought you hit it off with her.”

We’d walked back into the club, me leading the way to our former seats up in the VIP section, Hayes still nagging. All I could manage was a growl as I slumped back into the booth.

“Please tell me what you said to make her so mad at you, and have you found out if she's the one? I mean, your mate.” Hayes said as he also sat down.

“I don't know.” I said, averting my eyes from him to the skinny blonde in the leather bodysuit walking towards us with two bottles of beer in each hand.

“Hey. Can I have one of those?” Hayes said, getting her attention.

“Sure,” the blonde said and leaned over to hand him a beer, her breasts brushing against me slightly. I knew she'd done it on purpose.

“And what about you, darling?” she looked at me, not moving from her awkward position on top of me. “Would you like a beer too?”

“How about you get off me.”

My eyes darkened and she hurried over, looking apologetic.

“I'm sorry. I'm so sorry,” she said. “I really had no idea.”

She sounded quite sincere, but my wolf wasn't having any of it. It was fighting inside of me to make her pay for being so careless, which was strange because I hadn't officially found my mate yet.

“Excuse him, will you? You see, my buddy here is in a bit of a mood. So, yeah. Another beer to cheer him up.” Hayes said, laughing.

The blonde did as he said and quickly disappeared into the crowd.

I felt kind of bad that I'd lashed out at her like that. To make matters worse, Hayes' next words really put me on the spot.

“She was only trying to be nice. You know that. You should have cut her some slack,” he said.

I said nothing, just watched him swallow his beer. As soon as he put the bottle down, I asked him what was bothering me the most.

“What do you know about where Emmett's gone?”

~ STORMI

The tiny patch of grass outside my caravan welcomed Jacob's scooter. The night was freezing, so I leaned against his back even after he'd turned off the engine.

When I pulled my arms away, he turned slowly and looked at me with sad eyes.

“I'm sorry, really sorry. Nobody's going to hurt you now, I'm here to make sure of that, and if it's any consolation, I feel like such a fool for dragging you out in the first place,” Jacob said.

“It’s not your fault. Besides, you couldn't have known.” I sighed, then got off the bike and hugged myself.

“Still...”

“Look, I had a great time. The outing? I needed it. I'm just sorry I fell asleep in between and didn't pay enough attention to half the things you said. Other than that, it was great.”

“Are you sure?” Jacob asked.

“Mm-hm.” I managed a small smile. It was obvious from the way he held my gaze for a long, long time that he was very worried about me.

“You should hurry up and get inside,” he said eventually.

“No. You go first. I'll be fine, and I can take care of myself.” I said.

I think I saw him scowl. “I am not leaving until you're safe inside,” he said.

He would not leave?

Something inside me almost snapped at him for treating me like a child after only one experience, but I suppressed it.

I quickly turned away from him, my eyes catching the small yellow light illuminating the front yard of my caravan. It began to flicker for no reason.

“Should I take it out?” Jacob said observantly.

I shook my head without looking at him. “No need. It needs to be replaced anyway and I haven't got the money for it yet.”

I'd slipped away from him until I was standing on my doorstep. I was about to turn the handle when Jacob's voice suddenly reached my ears.

“Sleep well,” he called.

I turned to see him smiling and waving at me. I'd gone into the house and locked the door when I heard his scooter driving off into the darkness. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing he had school the next day.

I threw off my clothes and dropped lazily onto the sofa in my pyjamas. The chill of the evening had begun to eat away at my bones, so I got up and went to the stove. I turned it on and helped myself to a cup of coffee.

I had a hard time getting to sleep tonight. The image of that man's face kept popping into my mind until I didn't know what else to do. I picked up a book, the most boring book in my collection, and started to read.

~ EMMETT

She arrived home safely. Lucky for him, otherwise he would have had a nasty score to settle tonight if he had taken her elsewhere.

“I'm sorry, really sorry. Nobody's going to hurt you now, I'm here to make sure of that, and if it's any consolation, I feel like such a fool for dragging you out in the first place,” I heard the loser say.

Funny how he could be so full of promises when he wasn't going to stay back and look after her. There was not much around here to protect her from a wolf attack, for example.

Well, what do I care?

I've had enough spying on them for one day.

I dropped back into the ferns and followed the path I'd come on, the one that meandered towards a tiny river. My Aston Martin was parked by the bush south of the river.

I hurried towards it and sank my ass behind the wheel. Picking up my phone, I saw that I had missed over a dozen calls from Maya.

Shit.

I started my car and drove out of the woods and onto the main road.

In about half an hour I pulled up at the Imperial Luxe Hotel's magnetic car park. Arriving at my suite, I stepped into my room and turned on the light, only to find someone waiting for me under the sheets.

My blood boiled when I realised who it was.

Maya.

“What are you doing here?” I muttered with a growl.

“Alpha Emmett, I doubt this is any way to greet your proposed Luna. Or have you already found her? Your fated Luna.”

I rolled my tongue back, not willing to say anything.