Behave. I understood comments like these weren’t fun for Griffin, but we’d both known this would happen. “Killian and I were more friends than anything.”
“With friends like that–”
Griffin snarled. I never have liked him anyway. I may kill him.
I laughed, not able to conceal my happiness.
“Stop,” I warned Carter. “He’s my fated mate. He’s not enjoying your commentary.”
“What?” he said loudly, causing the entire coffee shop to go silent. “Griffin completed the mate bond with you?”
“Yes.” Griffin stepped in front of me and glanced at each person in line. “She is my mate, officially, in all ways. No hitting on her, and no hitting on me.”
Well, that was pretty much equivalent to him peeing on me, but at least he’d included himself in that equation.
A few girls pouted, riling my wolf, but I pushed her down. There was no reason to let her get too worked up. If anyone tried something stupid, we’d kill them. Easy-peasy.
I hate to do this, but I’ve got to go to Political History and then International Relations. He kissed me a little longer than necessary. I’ll be back when classes are over.
I’ll be counting the seconds. I pulled away and gave him a smile.
He licked his lips and winked before walking out of the cafe while I enjoyed the view.
“Uh… Earth to Dove.” Carter pulled me back into the present. “That cash register won’t work
itself.”
I turned around and got to work.
A COUPLE of hours later when the line finally calmed down, Carter tapped my shoulder. “Hey, do you mind going into the back and getting more Italian roast beans? We’re running low.”
“Oh, yeah, sure.” Usually, another co-worker got the beans because I was always so busy at the register, but Susan was on break. I remembered seeing the Italian roast when Carter showed me around the first day I started working here.
I walked past the kitchen to the small hallway closet next to the exterior door that led to the alley where they kept that smelly dumpster. I opened the storage door and started glancing through the inventory.
“That’s weird,” I whispered to myself. “It was on this shelf the last time I saw it.” The third shelf held some of the dark roasts but not the Italian.
I had just squatted to check the bottom shelf when I heard footsteps coming my way. Carter must have needed something else or wondered what was taking me so long.
“Hey, Carter. Did you move the Italian roast? It’s not on the top shelf,” I asked, searching the labels near the floor.
I felt the hairs raise on the back of my neck as he stepped behind me, and then something sharp stuck into my neck, right above my collarbone. A familiar voice I couldn’t quite place whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
I tried to turn around, but the world began to spin.
My vision turned hazy, and all I managed to do was link to Griffin. Help.