CHAPTER 39
SHANE
I’m laughing with Senora Rosa and Marc when Hassel appears in the living room, his piercing eyes meet mine, and I feel slightly uneasy under his scrutiny. I nod in acknowledgement and look away as Rosa gets up and approaches him, but before she can say a word, Hassel’s voice cuts her off.
“So, you’ll act like you don’t know me, Shane?” he says, shifting from formal to informal. My eyes widen in surprise.
“I didn’t intend to do that.”
“What changed? Is it because you now know I’m a King among my kind?”
“I… I…” He cuts me off.
“The other night…”
“Yes,” I interrupt, embarrassed by how I treated him.
“Could we talk for a moment alone? Liam is talking to his father and it’ll take a few minutes.” He says, I glance at the faces of everyone in the room, Rosa nods in agreement.
“Go to the kitchen. If my son comes, I’ll tell him you’re talking.”
“Let’s go.” Hassel demands. Does he think he can just snap his fingers and everyone will follow? Are all the wolves this arrogant? “Liam is.” A tiny voice whispers in my head. I get up and follow him to the kitchen, the kitchen I remodeled.
“Well?” I ask, when we’re alone and he confronts me. Damn, he looks like a Norse god, and he’s much taller than I remember.
“Relax. Liam won’t interrupt us.”
“Excuse me? Do you think, because he’s your King, he’ll obey you if his mate is in danger?”
“Are you in danger? Do you feel threatened by me?” He takes a few steps away from me, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. “I apologize if that’s the impression I’ve given you. When I said Liam wouldn’t interrupt us, I didn’t mean he’d try to hurt you or anything like that.” He shakes his head. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“I think I do. And no, I don’t feel in danger, in fact, I feel very comfortable, and that’s not pleasant. I don’t know you at all, and yet, I feel very comfortable with you!”
“You feel it too?”
“I thought you might have some gift for controlling emotions.”
“No. I have others, but not that one. I want to apologize to you for the other day.”
“Why? I’m the one who has to apologize to you for the disrespectful way I treated you and am still treating you.”
“Don’t do that! No one had treated me like that since… her.”
“Her? Look, if you haven’t noticed, I’m engaged to an alpha. And I’m not accepting anyone else.” Hassel laughs.
“You’re not understanding me, or I’m not explaining myself well.”
“You’re not explaining yourself well.” I reply.
“I’m not interested in you. In fact, I’m only curious about you because you remind me of someone.”
“Her? Your ex…?”
“My sister.” My cheeks flush. Damn, and I was thinking he was flirting with me.
“Oh, she must be beautiful.”
“She was beautiful, yes. She died many years ago at the hands of the enemy, when she was just a child.” His voice is low and his gaze distant, as if he’s remembering that moment in his head. I take a few steps closer to him and place my hand on his arm in comfort.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
“Don’t apologize, you haven’t done anything. I just wanted to see you again because something about you reminds me of her.”
“It’s an honor that you’ve managed to capture something of hers in me. I hope it’s something good.”
“Undoubtedly it is. I couldn’t help but think of her when you ran straight into my arms that night.”
“That was a mistake.” I tell him.
“Mmm, call it what you want.” I fidget, unsure of what else to say.
“I’m sorry it’s not your sister, Hassel. I’m just a human who reminds you of her.” I feel the need to say it because from his look I see his sister in me.
“I know. I have to go now. I just wanted you to know that I’m very sorry for betraying you that night, but you had to face the male who made you cry. After all, you’re his mate for life.”
“N-no worries. I know you didn’t mean to hurt me.” My voice isn’t steady. I clench my hands to hide their trembling.
“If you ever need me to kick his hairy ass and put him in line, don’t hesitate to call me.” He hands me a business card with his cell phone number. “If you need me at any time, I’m a call away.”
“Thanks, Re…”
“No. Forget that crap, not with you. Hassel and Shanelle. That’s better. I’m tired of people treating me with fear, you broke all that and treated me like a friend.”
“We’ll be friends, Hassel.”
“Thanks.” I can’t help but hug him.
“I have to go now… You can come in, Liam. Your girl is fine.” I turn surprised towards the kitchen entrance to see Liam appear with a furrowed brow.
“I will accompany him outside.” Liam says with unsettling seriousness. Both men leave me alone, before Rosa appears and starts cooking. I offer to help her followed by Marc, who also enters the kitchen.
(####)
After we ate at Rosa’s house, for some strange reason, we all went to Liam’s company. Marc and I exchanged incredulous glances as we all got into our respective cars. It’s been more than 3 hours that Marc and I have been locked up in Liam’s office waiting for their meeting to end.
“Baby, I have to leave. I know I told Gigit I’d spend my day off with him, but this isn’t my idea of fun. I’m going home, tell him I left.”
“No! Wait, I’ll go with you! I’m sitting here stiff. I can’t sit any longer!” I get up quickly, run to Liam’s desk, grab a notepad and pen, and scribble quickly on it. I turn to Marc smiling. “Let’s go.”
He raises an eyebrow in a questioning way.
“Where are you going?”
“To Liam’s attic. I’ll wait for him there, but first I want us to go shopping. He’s been very tense since this morning.” I intertwine my arms with his and we leave the office, walking towards the elevators, which luckily, one of them was available and ready to board. While we go down, I comment, “Is it my imagination, or is something really big happening? And that attitude with Hassel is strange, I thought they got along.”
“Hassel?” Marc repeats in surprise.
“Oh, no, don’t misunderstand me. We’re just friends, and he asked me to use the informal ‘tu’.” I wouldn’t dare tell him that he sees me as similar to his dead sister. I shudder at the thought.
“I see. Just remember that your mate is jealous.”
“Nah, not so much.”
“In that case. Let’s party Friday.” He says as we leave the company.
“Last time, it didn’t go well for me.”
“I’d say it ended much better than well.” He winks at me.
“I hate you. Okay, just for a while.” I remind myself that I’m pregnant, not sick, I can go out and dance a little.
“Great, baby.”
“Come with me to buy something very beautiful and sensual for Liam.”
“Gosh, finally you speak my language!”
Marc grabs me excitedly and drags me to a taxi that stops. He takes me to downtown Chicago to buy lingerie, going in and out of various stores and making me try on several. I see him taking some photos of me with my phone, and grinning like a hyena.
“I hope you’re not uploading that to any social network!” I reprimand him before going back into the fitting room to change into another lingerie set.
“No. I’m just tormenting a certain Alpha. And… it worked! The man is blowing up his phone, he’s calling!”
“What?!” I shriek. “Damn, Marc.”
“Done. I turned it off. Better hurry up. I want to go to another place.”
“I hate it when you do that.”
“What exactly? I usually do many things.” I come out with another set.
“Pulling a prank and then acting like you haven’t done anything.”
“And isn’t that how things are done?”
“Well….”
“It is. You take that one too. Change.”
By the way, Liam never said why he brought us all to his mother’s house.
“I don’t know either. I guess he forgot.” Something told me that something was going on with Liam.
I shake my head and change into my clothes. In the end, I end up buying 10 very sexy lingerie items.
Marc also takes advantage of buying something for him and his special night with Gigit. Then, well into the afternoon, I return to Liam’s attic, which is empty and dark. I turn on the lights, before leaving the shopping bags aside on the stairs, making sure first that my boyfriend isn’t on the ground floor of the attic. Once I’m satisfied, I grab the bags and go upstairs. I go straight to Liam’s room and put the things I bought in the closet, then I take a quick shower excited about what I have in mind.