“Black, get in here.” Rhea called out and Ava jumped startled out of her reverie.
She ran into the ER and took the pulses of patients, bandaged up others, and checked on those who’d come in for a redressing before heading into the wards where she usually spent most of her time.
“Hey, I was looking for you Carino.” Javier stood at the door in his scrubs, his hands tucked into his pockets. “Vamos a almorzar.” Let’s get lunch.
Ava fought a smile as she fixed the IV. “I have work to do.”
“And work can wait until you have eaten.” Javier entered the room and checked Maria’s stats.
“She’s fine and lunch will take at most fifteen minutes.”
“I’m fine.” Ava reasserted. It was at this moment her stomach rumbled. Loudly.
Javier laughed and placed his hands on her shoulders escorting her out by force. She grumbled all the way to the cafeteria but groaned in pleasure when the first taco entered her mouth.
Javier was the only reason she was still alive and kicking because she forgot to eat all the time.
Her plate was clean in seconds and she got a second one. The spoon was halfway to her mouth when she noticed Javier was watching her with barely concealed amusement.
“What?”
He smiled and it was a dazzling thing. “You have great metabolism even for…” He stage-whispered “a werewolf.”
Ava laughed and wagged a finger at him.
“Careful or you’ll have to defend me when next Alex is weight-shaming me.”
Javier caught her finger and held her gaze, his molten gold hazel eyes paired with his dark blond hair making him look like a demigod.
“I’ll defend you anytime. Just have me.” Javier joked but his eyes were dead serious.
With his ridiculously good looks, physique and attitude, Ava couldn’t deny his appeal.
The only problem was that since Adrian she couldn’t, hadn’t been able to get attracted to anyone else. Adrian. She’d been able to keep him out of her head so far today but now he’d come up in her thoughts, and she couldn’t stop.
The mate bond was so dormant that sometimes she even forgot it was there, she felt no pull to call him or even find out how he was.
Ava had thought she was free until she tried dating again.
Manuel had been sweet, handsome and gentle. Her ideal kind of man. She hadn’t felt attracted to him but she thought that would come later. When they’d kissed for the first time, she knew that she was in trouble. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero.
She’d tried again. This time with a stranger at a bar. It had yielded the same results. Ava knew then that she would have to wait until Adrian was mated for the bond to break and finally leave her in peace to choose a man to love. Because that was the only possible reason she couldn’t connect with someone else.
Ava pulled her hand out of Javier’s grip avoiding his earnest gaze. Maybe later after Adrian… no she couldn’t ask Javier to wait for her. He belonged with someone who could match his energy. “Yeah. I care for my life too much for that. The nurses would lynch me.” She smiled tightly.
Javier hesitated and Ava begged silently in her head for him to drop it. Shar was silent as she often was these days unless they were running or hunting. He gave a devil-may-care smile.
“Well, it’s not that bad. There’s enough of me to go around.”
Ava rolled her eyes before laughing ruefully.
***********
California
The bedsprings groaned and squeaked as he pounded into her powerfully, his thighs and ass flexing with every movement as he gripped her hips. She moaned, gasped and implored on her hands and knees. “Please. Yes. Oh, goddess.”
“You are late for your meeting. Again.”
Adrian ignored the voice, he was so close. Beneath him, the girl went rigid. Adrian pulled out. There was no fun fucking someone so scared. Not that he blamed her. He would probably have been scared too if he was caught in bed with someone by their fiance.
“Out.” He ordered. She grabbed a dress from the floor before walking out of the room very quickly. Adrian grabbed a robe and tied it on before grabbing a bottle of scotch. He couldn’t find a glass. Fuck it. He drank from the bottle directly before turning to look at Gabrielle who stood by the door watching him with thinly veiled disgust.
“You couldn’t wait two extra minutes until I came? Seriously Gabby, where is your common sense?”
“The same place your moral compass is seeing as I am still engaged to you.”
Adrian walked towards Gabrielle. She startled. This was the part in their song and dance movement where he ignored her to dress up and come for whatever meeting he was missing or event he was supposed to open. He did none of that now, however. Just moved in on her.
He could hear her breathing catch as he pressed her against the walls. Adrian ran his nose from her nape to her jawline to her ear where he blew air into. Gabby shivered, a tiny moan escaping her. Adrian smirked.
“I still make you wet, don’t I? You want me to push you against this wall and take you, don’t you? Tell me. If you beg me enough, I just might.*
“Adrian.” Her voice was tight and breathy. Adrian pressed harder against her and she gasped, her hands clutching the robe at the chest area.
“Sometimes I don’t know what you want more; me or the Luna position.” It was like he’d doused her in cold water. Her hands dropped from his chest.
Adrian pulled back to see the rage and tears in Gabby’s eyes. She raised a hand to hit him, he caught it.
“It hurts, doesn’t it? The fact that I can see through you so easily.”
Gabby fumed. “Of course, I want the Luna position. I want to take care of this pack. My people. You obviously don’t care a whit about them. Just about the next thing you are going to fuck. And yes I want you. I always have. I made one misstep. Just one and I was naive and stupid then but you never forgot about it. How many other girls have you cheated on me with since then? Twenty? Thirty?”
“Oh, I didn’t know you wanted to keep count. Be my guest. No one asked you to stay loyal. I wouldn’t mind. Maybe if you got laid more often, you wouldn’t be so stuck up and irritating.”
“Adrian.”
Adrian ignored the wounded tone in her voice and walked towards the shower. He had to get to the meeting soon after all. He didn’t have the time for Gabby’s theatrics. He had seen enough in the past two years to last a lifetime.
“Will you continue even after we get mated?” Her vulnerable voice stopped him in his tracks.
“Gabby, what do you think? You know me so well after all.”
“Not in a while. At this point, I don’t think even you know you. You’ve changed so much.”
Adrian shrugged off what she said, turned around and looked Gabby dead in the eye. “When I get mated, it will be for life. I have until…” He counted off the days. “Next week to enjoy my life to my heart’s content. So bugger off and go disturb someone else.”
Adrian watched Gabby place her armour on until she became the Gabby of recent times. “Go fuck yourself, Adrian. Just make sure you are out in ten minutes.” She slammed the door as she left.
Adrian stood underneath the showerhead, his mind drifting to Ava. He envisioned her loose dark curls beneath his fingers as he’d held her that last day. How he had fought his instinct to keep her. Every day, he woke up reaching for something that wasn’t there. Something that would never be.
He wanted to… no he couldn’t have anything to do with her. Not until he’d fulfilled his own side of his promise to her so she could come back home.
Until he mated with her sister.