Following them out to the car, I hug them when Angie quickly sniffs me before shaking her head. “What?” She has sniffed me so many times in the last few days she’s making me entirely self-conscious.
“Nothing, I can smell your mates, that’s all,” she confesses before unlocking her car and climbing into the driver’s side. Jasmine honks the horn as she leaves, and Angie follows behind. I wait till they disappear around the bend before heading inside.
Ezra is still sitting at the same table when I enter the kitchen. “You okay?” I ask, walking over to him, he pushes his chair out before pulling me onto his lap.
“Yes, fine, I just have things to do today,” he admits with a heavy sigh.
“Like what?”
“Patrol rosters, so hopefully Andrei isn’t here too long.”
“Already got those done, did it yesterday with Alex,” Mateo adds entering the kitchen. He leans on the counter, staring at Ezra. “How is Maddox?” Mateo asks him.
“Under lock and key,” Ezra growls, his mood instantly changes.
“Sure that’s wise?” Mateo asks with a raised brow.
“For now, it is,” Ezra agrees before tapping my thigh, wanting me to get up. “I’ll be in my office. Call me when Andrei gets here,” he orders before walking off. Mateo sighs, but doesn’t add anything else.
Mateo and I wait around, and once it hits noon, I hear a car’s engine rumbling as it pulls up out front. I rush to greet Andrei.
“I will let Ezra know he is here,” Mateo offers, wandering off down the hall toward his office.
Coming outside, I spot Andrei just getting out of his car. He greets me with a wide smile and an upraised hand. “Hey, Sis”
“Gosh, that sounds so weird,” I confess as I approach him. He grabs me, squishing me against him and hugging me before my body tenses. I try to pull away from him, but his grip tightens as he yanks me back toward him. “Andrei?” I shriek, his grip tightening on my arm.
He jams his face in my neck before pulling back, and the eyes of his wolf peer at me. Andrei shakes his head, his eyes returning to normal, but he still hasn’t let my arm go. Instead, he yanks me back to him as I try to step away.
“Andrei let go, you’re hurting me,” I snap, his claws slip into my arm when he grips the front of my shirt, sniffing me.
“Who were you just with? Tell me now, Kat.”
“What?”
“Whose scent is that?” he demands, his eyes flickering black, and his canines protrude from beneath his upper lip.
Andrei is jerked away from me in an instant. I shriek a second before Ezra punches him full on in the face, making Andrei stumble back. Ezra grabs him by the collar of his shirt and slams him back first on the hood of Andrei’s car. “Keep your fucking hands off her,” Ezra snarls at him while Andrei puts his hands up, not even fighting back. Ezra shoves him before stepping away from him.
“You ok?” he asks, turning to face me while Andrei slides off his hood to his feet.
“You told me every girl was here when I walked through,” Andrei growls at him before spitting blood on the ground.
“What?” Ezra says, spinning around to face him.
“When I did the walk through looking for my mate, and yet I can smell her all over Kat.”
“Kat’s not your fucking mate,” Ezra snarls at him.
Andrei pulls a face at him. “Not my sister, just smell her shirt, I can smell someone else on her, tell me who it is,” Andrei demands.
Ezra growls at him, but pulls me to him before sniffing me. “It’s only Angie and Jasmine’s scents.”
“Then get them here,” Andrei orders.
“Don’t come on my pack and order me around, Andrei. I don’t give a fuck if you’re Kat’s brother,”
Andrei sighs, “I can smell my mate on her, you said I saw all the girls here, clearly, you lied,” Andrei accuses.
“I didn’t lie, I showed you all the girls of age, Angie would have been only 12 when you walked through Andrei, I sure as hell wasn’t taking a 20-year-old Alpha to a school of underage girls, you could have said any of them were your mate and they wouldn’t have been able to tell if you were or not,” Ezra explains.
“Well, she is of age now. I want my mate, bring me her, please, Ezra,” Andrei pleads just as Mateo comes in overhearing the commotion.
“What’s going on?” Mateo asks.
“Andrei thinks Angie is his mate, he can smell her on Kat,” Ezra explains.
“Yeesh, got your hands full there,” Mateo chuckles. Andrei growls at him, and Mateo smirks, folding his arms across his chest.
“I just want my mate, I will give you Derrick back.”
“Angie isn’t going anywhere unless she says she wants to leave with you,” Ezra corrects, making me stare at him. He hates Angie. Why the sudden change of heart?
“I’m not leaving without my mate,” Andrei warns, sitting in his car.
“Mateo, get Angie here,” Ezra orders. “But I mean it, if she doesn’t want to go with you, she stays, Andrei. I may not like the girl, but she is still my pack member.”
“I’m not going to hurt my mate, Ezra,” Andrei snaps at him.
“She is on her way,” Mateo informs us, obviously having mindlinked her.
“I will have one of my men drop our father to you,” Andrei assures me.
“I don’t care about a swap, Andrei, but Angie is one of my friends.”
Andrei holds his hand up. “I won’t hurt my mate,” Andrei repeats before rummaging through his pocket, he pulls a packet of smokes out before lighting one, and then he offers me one.
“She doesn’t smoke, don’t offer that shit to her,” Ezra snaps, and Andrei shrugs, placing the packet back in his pocket.
A few seconds later, I feel the mindlink open up. Angie’s voice flits through my head. “Kat, is everything alright? Mateo told me to come over right now.”
“Everything is fine. Are you running or driving?”
“Running, he said it was urgent.”
“I will grab you a towel, There is someone here I want you to meet.” I tell her.
“Well, I am not far out, probably five minutes, I can meet you out back,” she agrees, and I cut off the link.
“Who was that?” Andrei asks, watching me.
“Angie, I need to get her a towel, she is in wolf form, she should be here any minute,” I tell him, walking toward the house.
“Well, hurry up then, Andrei, I haven’t got all day, come see if it’s her,” Ezra demands, walking around the outside of the house to the backyard while I walk inside to grab her a towel to cover herself with.