Alex missed the low growl of warning that came from his mate as he gave his old friend a hug. Sam didn’t. “How long has it been?”
“Too long,” she said. “You seemed to have disappeared.” Her green eyes shifted to the small party seated behind Alex. She’d been watching them throughout dinner. It wasn’t hard to see that they were a close, almost intimate, group. The little blond in particular seemed to have a hold on Alex’s interest. Alex had always been one of Caro’s favorite lovers and she’d been disappointed when he’d stopped calling. It was rare that a man passed on the opportunity to be with her and she found she didn’t care for it. To see Alex snuggled up with some… mouse… had driven Caro to interrupt their dinner.
Alex missed the calculating glint in Caro’s eyes as he turned to introduce her. “These are my friends – Nafarius, Sam and Maddie, this is Caro. We used to work together.”
Caro slipped her arm through Alex’s and laughed lightly, “Oh, come now Alex, we used to do more then just work together.”
Maddie felt her hackles rise at the insult both from Caro and her mate. Alex may not have realized it, but his introduction of her as a ‘friend’ was tantamount to disavowing her as his mate. To add insult, he hadn’t bothered to remove the offending woman’s hand from his arm.
Sam was torn between wanting to restrain Maddie, who was about three seconds from ripping the woman’s throat out, and doing it herself. Maddie had a right to be upset but they were in public and if things got out of hand someone could get hurt.
Nafarius was also aware of the situation and was trying to give Alex a clue. He’d come to understand the young man as Sam’s friend and Maddie’s mate. He also knew that Alex didn’t have a vicious bone in his body, which was why the young man was completely oblivious to the true nature of the shrew hanging on his arm. Realizing, that in the end the man had to learn for himself, Nafarius decided to sit back and watch events unfold. He was confident that, between him and Sam, they could keep things from getting out of hand.
Caro turned, careful to brush her breast against Alex’s arm, and started to address the group at the table.
“That’s it,” Maddie said and slipped from the booth. Before anyone could so much as blink, Maddie had Caro by the throat and was slamming her into the wall. “Stay away from him, you bitch!”
“Maddie!” Alex shouted and went to grab his mate. Already he could see that she risked strangling Caro with her grip. “Let her go.”
“Stay out of this!” Maddie snarled, without bothering to look at him. “Get this through your head; he’s mine and if you ever come near him again I will kill you.” Maddie punctuated her statement by banging Caro’s head against the wall – hard.
Caro, her air supply not completely cut off, nevertheless struggled to breathe. The little bitch holding her was a hell of a lot stronger then she looked and there was something about her eyes that sent chills down Caro’s spine. In that moment, she had no doubts that this young woman would make good on her threat. Quickly, Caro nodded. An instant later she felt her feet hit the floor and collapse under her.
As Nafarius watched, Maddie turned and stormed out of the restaurant. Alex stood for a split second in indecision before going after his mate and abandoning Caro to fend for herself. “Smart man,” he muttered and heard Sam chuckle quietly beside him.
Quickly, they surveyed the room. Luckily, they had been seated off to one side and surrounded by other tall-backed booths so there weren’t many witness to the attack. It would seem that not even the friends that Caro had been dining with wanted to stick around and help the young lady. Reluctantly, Sam slid out of the booth and helped the woman to her feet. Quietly, under her breath so that not even Nafarius could hear, she said, “next time, if Maddie doesn’t kill you, I will.” Caro fled.
“Maddie! Maddie, wait!” Alex rushed to catch up to his mate.
“How could you do that to me?”
“Do what? Caro is just a friend…”
“Right, that’s why you introduced me as your ‘friend’?”
The hurt and anger in her voice caught him off guard. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know how to explain ‘mate’.”
“How about wife?” Maddie asked. “Is that one she would have understood? Or partner? Soul mate? Girlfriend? Anything but ‘friend’.” Furious, Maddie turned towards home, Alex following beside her. She wanted to shift and run, to feel the earth beneath her paws. “Are you ashamed of me, Alex? Of what you’ve become?”
“What? No! Why would you even think that?” Alex reached out and grabbed Maddie; ignoring her snarl he forced her to look at him. “I love you. I’ve loved you from the moment we first met. You are everything that is wonderful in this world. I am proud to be your mate.”
“Then why didn’t you say that tonight?” Maddie didn’t know what she would do if she couldn’t make Alex understand the ramifications of his actions tonight. It hurt her to think that he could be so thoughtless about her feelings and their relationship.
Alex knew he was missing something. “Look, I’m sorry. I never thought about how I would handle it if we ran into someone from my past. The moment caught me off guard and I was worried about doing or saying something that could hurt Sam or Nafarius or the pack. Then there was Caro who was a friend and yes, for a short time a lover, and I didn’t want to make her feel bad by rubbing our relationship in her face.”
Maddie gave a small whimper of pain. “You thought of everyone else but me.” Shaking her head, she stepped back when he reached for her. “I never want you to be rude or thoughtless or uncaring with anyone, either from your past or within the pack. But Alex, you let her touch you and mark you with her scent all while standing right in front of me and our pack leaders. It was hurtful, not to mention humiliating. You could have easily removed her hand and then made a point of introducing me. Anyone conscientious enough would have understood the implication and backed off. Your friend,” Maddie hissed, “acted like a total bitch and you did nothing to stop her.”