6 - I'm going to put so much hurt on you

Liam

‘Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,’ my wolf chanted, pacing back and forth in my mind.

I ran my hand through my hair, frustrated. ‘We fucked up,’ I told him, realizing that somehow we’d freaked Emma out. I hadn’t meant for any of that to happen, but she was damn near impossible to resist. The way her body responded to my presence and touch so easily, and her scent. Goddess, her scent was like a fucking drug, intoxicating me, overtaking my thoughts, so the only thing I could think of was burying myself deep inside her until she screamed my name over and over again.

‘She’s ours,’ my wolf demanded, still pissed about this Kevin guy. He didn’t like our mate thinking of anyone that wasn’t us.

‘But she’s scared of us,’ I thought, blowing out a frustrated breath, and left the kitchen.

‘Then we make her not afraid of us,’ my wolf said, as if it was just that easy. ‘Go talk to her. Now. We need to claim her!’

Yeah, maybe I could apologize. Admit we took things too far. My wolf huffed, frustrated we couldn’t claim her just now. ‘Not yet,’ I told him.

I started up the stairs when I saw the alpha’s mother. “Don’t,” she said, holding up her hand.

“What? I-” I said, a little surprised.

“Give her some time,” Charlotte said, giving me a sharp look. “She needs to adjust to things and your pursuing her will only make that harder. If men could learn a little patience, things would be so much easier, I swear.”

I stared at her in surprise. “I didn’t mean…” I said, but didn’t finish, realizing how stupid that sounded.

“Patience,” she snapped at me. “Unlike us, Emma didn’t grow up with all of this. It’s all new and terrifying. Wait for the right time,” she explained and started walking down the stairs again. I glanced up the stairs to where Emma’s room would be. I couldn’t shake the need to fix this. “Stay away from her room,” the alpha’s mother called up to me. “That is an order!”

A low growl vibrated in my chest. My wolf didn’t like being ordered around and he most certainly didn’t want to leave our mate’s side, but the alpha’s mother was right.

I turned and walked down the stairs. ‘We have to give Emma time.’ My wolf growled, not agreeing, but not going to insist either. So instead, I went to take a long, cold shower. When I left, it was time for lunch and Emma was already at the table. However, she sat between her brother and Kelly.

My wolf growled, wanting to knock one of them out of their chairs. Instead, I’d settle for sitting across from her. I noticed neither the alpha, his mate, nor his mother were here. It was just the five of us. During the meal, Tyler was keeping up most of the conversation. Emma, however, was silent, keeping her eyes on her plate.

I kept my head down too, so I could watch her with no one noticing. She didn’t smell afraid anymore, but she didn’t look happy either. Nor did she look at me once during the entire meal. Guilt crushed me.

When everyone finished and got up, I took a breath to talk to her, but she handed her plate to her brother and rushed out of the room. I followed her, but Tyler stepped in front of me. “Hey man, cool session today,” he said, grinning at me. “Hey, do you think you could give me some pointers?” he asked, but as soon as Alex and Kelly left the room, the grin fell from his face. “Stay away from my sister.”

I knew he was being serious, but there was nothing intimidating about him. “Look, I’m not-”

“No. No. No,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t want to hear whatever it is that’s going to come out of that mouth of yours. I have had it with guys treating Emma like she’s some toy they can play with and break whenever they feel like it.”

“It’s not like that,” I told him.

“Right. I saw you at training, getting all handsy with her. That’s not going to happen again, you hear me? I see you doing that again and I’m going to put so much hurt on you, you’ll be eating the rest of your meals with a straw.”

My wolf’s growl echoed through my mind. Tyler was challenging me, whether or not he realized it. There was no way in hell he could take me. Alpha or not, Tyler’s wolf was still young and their connection was fresh. They were as weak as omegas right now.

‘We should teach this pup a lesson,’ my wolf demanded.

‘Oh yeah, we should do that…if we want Emma to hate us,’ I told him. ‘Tyler doesn’t know any better. Also, he’s Emma’s brother, so no matter what challenge he throws out, we’re going to ignore it for her sake.’ My wolf growled, but receded into the depths of my mind, not happy. “Okay, Tyler. Message received. Nothing like that will happen again,” I told him, until Emma wants me to, of course.

“Good,” he said and walked away from me.

I blew out a breath, trying to relieve some of the tension coursing through me.

“It’s not easy, is it?” Kelly said, surprising me.

“What?”

She looked out the door, then softly said, “Being mated to them.”

“You and Tyler?” I asked, and she nodded. That explained why she wanted to help with the training this morning.

“What happened?” She asked. I hesitated. I knew I couldn’t trust the Luna or Alex, but Kelly… she was unknown. Seeing my hesitation, she said, “You can trust me, because I’m trusting you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know how my aunt is. If she knew Tyler was my mate, she’d push me to hurry the claim so I could manipulate him to either: one-” She held up a finger. “Do all I say so she can use me to control the future alpha or two-” Kelly lifted a second finger. “…make him more submissive than he is, so Alex will remain the alpha’s heir. I don’t want her tainting the one thing that’s mine and only mine, so I’m trusting you to keep this a secret, as I assume you want to keep Emma a secret.”

She had a point, and I got where she was coming from. “You said it’s not easy. Why do you say that?”

“They know nothing,” Kelly said with a shrug. “I know he feels the bond, because we flirt, but he seems oblivious to the claiming instincts. He’s been a perfect gentleman.” her tone sounded more than a little frustrated.

“Ah,” I said with a laugh.

“Don’t laugh. It’s so…ugh,” she said, frowning at me. “What about you? What happened between you guys?”

“Sort of the same, except she isn’t oblivious to the effects of being my mate. I kind of cornered her in the kitchen,” I said, feeling a little embarrassed. “Things got a little intense, and it scared her. She told me to leave her alone before running out of the room.”

“I thought as much,” Kelly said, smiling. “You know what? I can try to talk to her. Help her understand what’s happening.”

“Really? I’d appreciate that,” I said, feeling a hint of hope spring up in my chest. “I’d say I’d return the favor with Tyler, but I’m on his shit list right now.”

She laughed. “I saw. It was kinda hot.”