by Belle Harper
But his index finger traced a line up from my wrist. Across my collarbone and down the middle of my chest, pulling on my top I stumbled slightly, my hands reaching out to stop myself from falling. They landed on his warm... wet, bare chest. I watched his eyes quickly glance down at my cleavage, the red bra I was wearing showing just how affected I was by his personality. My nipples were tight and aching to be touched by him. It felt like forever since he had touched me.
“Hello girls. Miss me?” he chuckled as he let go of my top and it snapped back. I playfully slapped his chest away and cursed at him for messing with me.
I poked my tongue out as I turned on my heel, leaving Ranger behind laughing. I didn’t turn back when he started laughing harder at how worked up I now was.
“Fucker,” I muttered as I walked out of the house, Ada and Maverick turned to me, a surprise look on Ada’s face. Maverick cocked his head and grinned.
“You loved it,” I heard Ranger call out. I slammed the door behind him.
“Trouble in paradise?” Ada asked. I just laughed and took her arm in mine, I noticed she kept looking to the front gate.
I glanced over to the gate that lead into the Lovell’s place. Saint and Elijah were watching us; they were on duty there today.
“I don’t think I’m the one with troubles,” I said, Ada tugged on my arm and told me to “shhh,” under her breath. We strode towards the Range Rover that was parked out the front. I couldn’t wait to ask her what the hell happened to have her practically running away from Saint. He would have had to open the gate to let her drive in here. Maybe he said something. I thought it was best to leave it for when we were on the road before I asked her and he overheard. Incase I now had to hurt him.
“Let’s go, I’m hungry.” Both Ada and Maverick laughed. I stopped and pointed between them both with my finger.
“I am not always hungry. Just now... I am. I had breakfast hours ago, I skipped lunch and I really want a chocolate chip muffin.” Oh, a warm muffin, the chocolate chips soft and gooey with a hot chocolate. Marshmallows... my stomach let out an audible growl. And they started laughing again. But I loved it, even though I didn’t admit it. This moment was pure, how teenagers were supposed to be. My best friend and my boyfriend. Hanging out like regular people do.
Going out shopping, food and girl talk... with a guy.
That wasn’t going to be awkward at all.
Chapter Fifteen
Lexi
Oh wow, Ada had a lot to say about Saint, without saying anything about Saint. I was struggling to keep up with her code names as she kept changing them, but I kinda got the gist. I was pretty sure Maverick clued on to what she was, or rather who she was talking about. But he didn’t say anything if he did. He actually just drove and kept his mouth shut. Probably the safest thing to do.
We were at a café, but the hot cholocate tasted terrible. The muffin on the other hand was good, and I kept eating while listening to Ada as best as I could. She talked really fast.
“Then I was at my locker getting my books and H came up, he like fully came up to me and said hi... and I said hi. Then he gives me his number.” I saw Maverick rub the back of his head and the stupid grin on his face. When his eyes drifted to mine I smiled. Yeah, this was girl talk. I was learning this with you too, buddy. Ada took a deep breath, then dove back in.
“I was so excited after, like you know. Saving H was like epic, like yeah you did most of the saving—” yep H was Huxley. She was not good at this whole code name thing, but I loved it. She made me happy. “But then I go to my car and ass is standing right there. I wasn’t sure what he wanted but like after the whole caveman thing and all I thought maybe he was going to say sorry or like ask me out. He tells me to give my phone to him. Then I get like all butterflies, this is it. Finally, after so long of having this crush, he sees me... like really sees me, Lexi! So, I try and act all cool like I’m not just dying of happiness inside and I give it to him. He is typing something then hands it back and just leaves... yeah, he just walks away. Doesn’t say anything at all.”
Maverick had moved closer, like he was now interested to hear what ass did. To be called ass already he obviously did something bad. Ada took a slip of her coffee and didn’t speak for all of ten seconds, as it turned out that was too long for Maverick.
“What did ass do?” She squeaks and looked over to him, her eyes wide, I think she forgot he was even here. He had been quiet for so long. She put her coffee cup down and just stared at him for a moment. Shit, she figured out he knows ass was clearly his best friend, Saint.
“Well, I get in my car. I get excited, but like I didn’t want to text him too fast. But then I didn’t want H to think I didn’t want to text him at all. Like in case he just saw me with Sai...ass. So I open up my contacts on my phone and I scroll to Huxley... I mean I scroll to H and he isn’t there. The whole contact is wiped from my phone.
“So, I look to see if ass put his number in, and no, he hasn’t. Just being a caveman and trying to sabotage my possible future of a white picket fence and two point five kids. Just because he has some kind of grudge against H. And don’t get me on puppy dog eyes. Ugh... he has been following me around school all day, and we share no classes. He isn’t even a senior.”
Ada took a deep breath, drank the rest of her coffee, huffed out a strange angry sound. Ugh... what was wrong with guys.
I watched Maverick sit back and take out his phone. I could take a pretty good guess who he was texting.
“Is it because you’re with pack Kiba, Lexi? And like ‘cause I know... you know. Am I supposed to not like date people from other packs? Because I don’t live in Kiba. And I know that rule applies if you live in the town. But to be honest, the whole ‘you can't date her because she is from Kiba’ is bullshit. What if your soulmate lived in Rawlins? That’s some bullshit right there, to deny her the chance at love because she happens to live in Kiba.”
I sat back and watched Maverick’s facial expression change from one of humor to horror. His eyes widened as he looked to me, like I would bail him out. I didn’t know all the rules here, and Ada made a good point.
He didn’t know what to say, or maybe he was holding back from saying the wrong thing. I just smiled and took another bite of my muffin. Because yeah, I was pissed off for Ada. I was going to have a word with ass when I got home. Because that was not how you treated my friend. But also, Ada was right, she didn’t live in Kiba. This bullshit rule didn’t apply to her. Her eyes looked to his cell.
“Who are you texting?” she moved forward and reached out to his cell. He had fast reflexes as he pressed his phone to his chest. Yep, caught out buddy. The guilty look on his face made me shake my head. Ada was seeing red, oh fuck.
“Maverick, why would Saint be such an ass to Ada. You’re his friend, and we had fun in the pool all together and he seemed fine then. Happy, even. Why is he being all caveman on poor Ada here? If he is interested, he should just say so. But that’s so not cool what he did deleting a number from her phone.”
He shoved his phone in his pocket and quickly looked around the café before he stood, nervously running his hand down his shorts and looking anywhere but us. He turned in a circle and pointed to the front door.
“I need to check the perimeter.” And that was all he said as he practically ran from our table. Wow... found his weakness. Girl talk. I rolled my eyes.
“Okay, he knows something, you have to get it out of him.” Ada played with her empty coffee cup. I felt so bad for her. She didn’t deserve boys being assholes.
“Trust me, I will get it out of Saint. He is back on my shit list.” She smiled at me, but it didn’t reach her eyes. I needed to cheer her up...
“I have Galen’s credit card, wanna go buy clothes and shoes?” That was right, right? Girls go shoe shopping all the time right in movies, god I wish I had more of a clue when it came to this. I wanted happy Ada back, the one who was getting all dressed up just to check on Huxley. That Ada was so happy a
nd crushing so hard. Maybe if I could get Huxley’s number back for her, then she could text him and he won’t think she was brushing him off.
“Hell Yeah. Thank you, Mr Donovani. Let’s get you a real swimsuit too.”
Yes, the smile was back and Ada had that look on her face. The one she had when she tried to make me try on half her wardrobe.
Chapter Sixteen
Ranger
“Are you sure this isn’t like stalking?” Noah whispered to me as we walked through the Walmart looking for the girls. I paused. Huh, I never thought of it as stalking. Was it stalking if it was your own girlfriend? Well maybe if she didn’t invite you then yes... nah she will love this surprise. She loves me, she told me so. Plus, I’d been a little freaked out that I wasn’t with her. Like my wolf knew that Mav could protect her, and that there was enough of the pack Kiba here. A few of the guys even worked here at Walmart. But I needed to see for myself.
Plus, I got this girl talk stuff down. I had been around the girls at school more than Maverick. He was all messed up when he called and told us that girl talk was scary and he never wanted to be invited again. I’d never heard him so freaked out. Made me laugh when he said that the girls ganged up on him and he didn’t know what to do.
I told Raff, and he laughed too. Mav told me he was waiting outside for them to shop alone, and that set my wolf into overdrive. I wanted him to be watching them with his eyes. So when he asked if I was interested in having the rest of tonight with Lex, he didn’t even need to finish his sentence before I screamed, “hell yeah.” I wanted that. But I also wanted to help Noah with Ada. So I called him up to get ready and picked him up on my way. Thought it would be a good time as any to start straight away. You can call me Mr Cupid. Because I will have them in love and the big happily ever after in no time.
“Ranger?” I looked to Noah, his brow was puzzled, as his eyes darted to where we knew the girls were then back to me. Oh... the stalker thing.
“No, no, it’s not stalking if we were going... shopping.” I grabbed a Tee off a rack and kept on walking. Following my nose to find my sexy girl. Noah looked creeped out... okay, scratch that. He looked like the creep that creeped others out. The way he was hunched over, watching everyone. It wasn’t like he was small. He was as big as me. If not bigger. You could see him from a mile away. He was one tall fucker.
“Stop with the face, just grab something... quick, there they are.” I could see Lex wearing those sexy shorts she was earlier. My wolf growling softly at the sight, my cock reacting too. She was laughing at something Ada said, then her face fell when she saw me, then the scary angry Lex face appeared and I wanted to hide. Fuck, okay. I wasn’t expecting that face. Mav was right... this was not happy shopping girls.
She cocked her hip, her hand going to it, and her brows were raised high. I started to shuffle my feet towards her as I waved, giving her a huge cheesy grin hoping that it would distract her enough that she wouldn’t ask why we were here. I distracted her earlier with my... personality. I was sure this would—
“Stalker much?” she deadpanned. Okay, maybe Noah was right. Which was surprising for a guy who has never been with a girl. He seemed to know more than I did about this. I stopped suddenly and put my hands up in defence. My heart was pounding; I could smell her. She really wasn’t happy.
“No, we were just shopping and I could smell you from...ah.” Oh, hell. Back the fuck up, retreat. I took a step backwards. That was obviously the wrong thing to say as well. From the look on her face, I was not in her happy books, shit. “Ah... Noah needed to come shopping to get—” I turned to him and looked at what he had. My brows raised up when I saw he was holding a fluffy pink stuffed pig. I glared at him. What the fuck dude? What the hell did you grab that, I wanted to scream at him. Like this now looked dodgy as fuck. Why the hell did he grab that?
“You came, to buy... a toy pig?” Ada asked, her brow arched high, she knew... Oh yep, we fucked up. Nope, Noah fucked up, if he picked something else it could be believable. I growled lowly just for him to hear. If he put me back in the bad books with Lexi, I was gonna hurt him when I got back. Need to get out of this and not get caught.
“Well, I was getting a tee, and Noah needed some things... for his mom, right?” I looked over to him and nudged his arm when he didn’t say anything.
“Yeah, this is for my mom. She likes pigs.” They both gave each other a look. I was so out of my element here, I had never had a problem with girls chasing after me. So Lexi, being the opposite to all other girls, I had no idea what I was doing or how to make her smile and be happy to see me. Was this a believable story, or did we just fuck up?
“Maverick called you, did he?” I looked around, my hand going to my chest in mock hurt. I promised him I wouldn’t tell her of his freak out.
“Pft, no...” Her eyes narrowed on me. “Yes,” I squeaked out. Oh fuck, can see what Maverick was saying. This was scary. Girls were scary. Lexi freaked me out on a daily basis, more so for the fact that I still can't believe she picked me as a mate. But now... I was not her happy person.
They shook their heads at us and gave each other strange looks. They didn’t say anything to each other as they turned away from us. And kept on shopping as if we were there.
Noah and I stood frozen for a whole minute and watched them walking away and picking up items before we glanced at each other. He shrugged. I had no idea what was going on, or what just happened. Lexi was my first real girlfriend. Like ever. Did we follow them? Do I run away now and get ready for damage control? Would Galen have been better?
“Are you coming stalker? Puppy dog eyes?” Lex called out as they disappeared around a corner.
“Puppy dog eyes?” Noah asked me. He had this funny look on his face. He didn’t get it and neither did I— oh hell, I could see it on his face. He was a puppy dog eyes. I chuckled. Oh, shit, that made me stalker.
“Yeah, that would be you, puppy dog. Ugh, why the fuck did you pick that up?” I pointed to the pink pig. He shrugged, those big blue eyes all sad looking. Oh, Noah man. I didn’t think puppy dog eyes was a good nickname. I was starting to suspect it was going to be much harder than I thought to get Ada to give Noah a chance. I probably had a better chance at setting Elijah up with her.
“I panicked, okay? I didn’t look I just grabbed when you told me to. I was just so nervous to see her again, and with you helping me. I just... I just want her to like me so bad.”
I felt terrible for the guy, I told him I could get him and Ada together. And I think I overestimated my work here. I took a deep breath and stood tall, tapped his chest with the back of my hand. “Come on big guy, not all is lost. Let’s go get your girl.”
That had his smile return a little. I nodded at him and his big smile returned. But man, the puppy dog eyes were still there. I wonder if I ever looked at Lex like that.
Well, if I did, it worked for me, plus they asked us to come with them. This was good, Ada would have to fall for that face... no way she could say no to that big happy grin. We might be back in the game here with a winning chance. I will take my odds on that.
“Hey, Lex. Wait up. We are coming.”
Chapter Seventeen
Lexi
Ranger drove us back home. It was very quiet in the car and I was a little annoyed at Maverick for just ditching us and not saying goodbye. Okay, I get it. Ada can be a little full on, but there were some valid questions there that needed answers. Didn’t think Maverick was the type to run away. I looked out the car window and watched as the houses on Kiba court slowly go by. We stopped, and I turned to Ranger, who was looking over to Noah in the front seat.
We wanted to ride together in the back. Plus, Ada squeezed my hand when Ranger offered me the front seat. I wasn’t going to leave her in the back without me.
“Thanks for the lift,” Noah said to Ranger. He then turned to Ada, his eyes hovering on her for a moment before his face faltered a little. Then his eyes were on me, I smiled and nodded. He gave a flicke
r of a smile to me. But man... Puppy dog eyes was so in love with Ada, she was the only one not to see it. Well, she might, but she had no interest in him. So she says. But it wasn’t my place to meddle, Ada came first to me.
The car door clicked shut and Ranger let out a frustrated sound as he watched Noah run towards his house. It was a huge house, only a couple of houses from the Lovell’s.
Ada didn’t speak at all and when I turned to her she was looking down at her phone. Ranger didn’t move the car, so I had a quick look around. I saw some people outside their house across the street. Something I’d never really noticed before. They were watching us, smiling. Some were waving.
When a familiar looking man came close to the car and waved to me, I didn’t know what to do. I sat back further in my seat. Ranger’s arm appeared in front as he waved back.
“That’s Nolan. One of Noah’s fathers.” I nodded and gave a small smile and waved back to Nolan. His grin was huge, he looked happy to see us. I still felt awkward about the whole Callum thing, and I didn’t think I would get over it anytime soon. But I was glad he wasn’t upset with me. I really was lucky with that family.
When we finally got to the gate of the Lovell’s, Jett and Mekhi came into view, almost in a creepy way. They just appeared out of nowhere. Ada was watching them too; lucky it wasn’t Saint because she had a strong grip on her iPhone. She might have launched it at him. Not that it would hurt him, much. But it sure would make her feel better. I know it would make me feel better, and I wasn’t the one who he messed with.
Ugh... but with the guys swapping shifts, this would make finding Saint and kicking him in the nuts harder. He might already know what was going to happen and won't show his face for a while. He was probably with Maverick.