“Yeah, I’ve had that pleasure,” said Dominic, grinning. “Hello again, Harley.”
“Hello,” said Harley. The blond wolf was seriously good-looking, long and lean with a wicked grin that spelled “trouble.” And Jesse was glaring at him.
“You’re a lucky guy, Jess,” Dominic told him.
Jesse narrowed his eyes. “I know.”
“I was surprised to hear her dad was Clive Vincent,” continued Dominic. “I actually thought her father might be a lumberjack.”
Confused, Harley repeated, “A lumberjack?”
“Yeah, because whenever I look at you, I get wood in my pants.”
Before Jesse could make a grab for the little fucker, Trey fisted his hand in the back of Dominic’s shirt and yanked him aside, almost making the blond drop his beer.
Jesse pinned the pervert’s gaze. “Fuck off, asshole.”
Dominic looked at him with mock hurt. “What’s with the hostility, dude?”
“You’re breathing my mate’s air,” said Jesse. “That’s enough.”
The blond just chuckled. Jesse wasn’t exactly surprised by Dominic’s behavior. The Phoenix enforcer always annoyed mated males by dishing out cheesy lines to their mates. No one quite understood why Dominic did it, though the general consensus was that he just wasn’t right in the head. Why else would he flirt with mated females?
Hearing her cell phone ring, Harley fished it out of her pocket. “It’s Tess,” she told Jesse. “I’ll be back in a sec.” On answering, she said, “City Morgue, you kill ’em, we chill ’em.”
Jesse watched his mate walk away to take the call in private, purely because he loved that ass. It was an ass that fit perfectly in his hands, an ass that turned a gorgeous shade of red when he spanked her. His cock twitched as he remembered doing just that the previous night when he took her hard from behind, his teeth biting into her nape as he kept one hand bunched in her hair. He’d left yet more marks of possession over her body, had learned and tasted and worshipped every inch of it until—
“Here, peace offering.”
Jesse looked up to see Kim holding out a plate of food . . . which might have been a nice thing to do if it weren’t the kind of thing a mate would do. His wolf snarled at the offering. “No.” Before she could try to take Harley’s seat, he put his hand there.
Kim perched herself on the arm of the bench, as if he wasn’t emitting an unwelcoming vibe. “I’m sorry.”
Reminding himself that this was Bracken’s baby sister and he could, at the very least, hear her out, Jesse sighed. “For what?”
“Judging you so harshly for taking Harley as your mate.” She bit her lip. “It was a shock and . . . I guess I’ll just always feel that you should have been Torrie’s.”
“Is that right?”
“I shouldn’t have jumped down Harley’s throat like that and said the things I said,” added Kim, looking sincerely regretful. “I’ll bet she hates me now.”
“She doesn’t hate you. Or like you. Or dislike you. Or anything else.” The female wasn’t a ping on his mate’s radar. And that seemed to piss Kim off.
“You may not think of me as a friend, but I’ve always thought of you as one. We both loved Torrie, and I saw how devastated you were by . . . I just want you to be happy.” She looked at him from beneath her lashes. “You’re sure imprinting will work?”
He bristled. “My relationship with Harley is not your fucking business.”
She swallowed. “Let me just say one last thing. I have a feeling that imprinting will be hard for you. If you ever need to talk, need someone to listen without judgment—”
“He’ll talk to Harley,” finished Ally, making Kim’s head snap up.
“I’m just saying he could find imprinting hard,” Kim told her. “But that doesn’t mean he can’t still have a strong mating bond with a female who isn’t his true mate. I want that for him.”
Ally stepped forward. “No. I think you want it with him.”
Kim flushed. “Torrie was my friend—”
“Great, but you can stop dragging her into conversations. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you kept mentioning her in the hope of making Jesse feel guilty for mating with Harley.”
“Look,” began Kim, standing upright, “it seems like you and I got off on the wrong foot, Ally. Or maybe I offended you somehow. If so, I’m sorry; it wasn’t intentional.”
A slow smile surfaced on Ally’s face, but it wasn’t pleasant. “As I’ve already explained to you, it offends me that I take time out of my life to train you and you don’t even take it seriously. But that’s not the issue here.”
“Isn’t it?” challenged Kim, eyes flaring.
“No. And you know it.”
“I just came over to apologize. I don’t want to cause trouble. I’m trying really hard to fit in here and—”
“There’s no reason for you to fit in; you’re not one of us. Harsh, yeah, but it needs to be said. Now I suggest you scamper before I shove this chicken wing up your ass for making me mad at a kids’ party.” Ally exhaled heavily when the female finally stomped off. “Just two more weeks and she’ll be gone,” the Seer reminded Jesse.
Taryn, who’d been listening intently, leaned forward. “Ten bucks says Harley will have clawed her before then.”