Fated

by R. L. Mathewson

  Like try to take the last slice of cold pizza, again.

  “It’s all yours,” he said, gesturing to the slice of pizza that he’d managed to take a bite out of before his mate had gone fucking psycho and shifted on him.

  Literally.

  He was going to have claw marks on his ass for days, he thought, trying not to wince as the reminder of what just happened sent a slight sting through his ass. He was definitely going to kill Ryan for this one, because when he’d only shrugged yesterday and told him that he’d have to watch out for mood swings when Drew asked him about the first mating heat.

  The little bastard had seriously downplayed it.

  He wouldn’t call this a fucking mood swing, but a fucking raging case of rabies. He’d be lucky to get out of this room with his balls intact. He could shift and overpower her, but something told him that she probably wouldn’t appreciate that and would probably convey that with a swipe of her razor sharp claws to his balls.

  “I can order more pizza if you’d like?” he offered, deciding that perhaps a coward’s retreat was in order here, but when he went to take a step towards the bedroom door, Kara, who had apparently lost her fucking mind, decided that wasn’t going to work for her and growled her displeasure, making him sigh and keep his ass right where it was.

  Sighing heavily, because he really didn’t have time for this shit, he asked, a bit insensitively he supposed, “Then what the hell do you want?”

  And oh, fuck…

  He would never in a million years forget that moment, the moment that he made a seven-foot Alpha female in all her glory cry. With a pathetic whimper and a sad cast of her eyes, she sniffled as she turned her large body around and headed towards the bathroom, somehow making him feel like an asshole.

  Rubbing the back of his neck, he stood there, realizing that he’d never felt so fucking useless in his life before. For a moment he considered going after her and trying to comfort her, but there was one major problem with that.

  He had absolutely no fucking clue how to go about comforting a pissed off woman. Normally if a woman gave him attitude, he’d simply show her the door, but he couldn’t do that with Kara…

  Or could he?

  He sighed heavily as he rubbed his hands down his face, because he knew that he couldn’t kick her out, not if he wanted to live. He also couldn’t give her the comfort that she so desperately needed, so saying the fuck with it, he grabbed his clothes, headed for the door and hoped like hell that she was in a better mood when he returned.

  *-*-*-*

  “Whoa, can’t we talk about this?” Ryan asked even as he jumped out of her way.

  “No,” she snapped, going over that night’s schedule.

  “Drew’s not going to be happy about this,” Ryan mumbled in defeat as he finally gave up on trying to stop Kara and simply dropped his ass on the bench next to her at Drew’s private table.

  “How many have already called out tonight?” she asked with an expression on her face that told him that she meant business.

  “Nine of them,” he finally admitted after a pause, already realizing that he was a fucking dead man anyway once Drew realized that he’d allowed Kara to escape the confines of the upstairs apartment.

  She’d still be up there if it wasn’t for those goddamn nails of hers and her uncanny ability to hit all the right spots on his face at once, leaving him horribly disfigured for a day or two. He’d thought that the mate he’d been given was a bitch, but Kara-

  “I wouldn’t even finish that thought if I were you,” the psychotic woman in question said calmly, freaking him the fuck out even more.

  “How many out of the nine have called out already this week?” she asked, spreading the time sheets out in front of her as she scrutinized hours, call outs, no shows and tardy slips.

  “All nine,” he answered, wondering why he was even playing along with her on this one.

  They all knew that they had a seriously fucked up staffing problem going on right now, but they were handling it. Well, at least he was. Drew was always either keeping an eye on the little demon that he was mated to or apparently leaving the club without a fucking word. If this kept happening, they were going to be forced to shut down soon and there was never a guarantee that they’d be able to bounce back after that.

  “How many employees in total have been calling out?’ she asked, organizing the cards into a system that only made sense to her as he sat there, mentally counting how many employees had fucked them over during the last two months.

  “Sixteen,” he said, feeling a headache coming on as he realized just how big his problem really was.

  They were good and fucked if this continued.

  “What areas are being hit with the most call outs?” she asked as though it was her business and since Drew wasn’t here to tell him otherwise, Ryan decided to go with it.

  “The waiting staff, bartending staff and kitchen staff,” he admitted, somehow hearing the words spoken out loud making it so much worse, because those were the crucial areas that they needed coverage for if they wanted to stay in business.

  “Security?” she asked, glancing up at him with a cocked brow as she waited for him to confirm something.

  “Perfect attendance,” he said, which he thanked God for every fucking night.

  She nodded her head at something, mumbled the word Mick and turned her attention to the stack of employee files that she’d requested. Sitting there, feeling sick to his stomach he signaled for one of the few waitresses that had actually shown up to come over to the table, but she simply ignored him and continued bitching and whining with the other two waitresses.

  Sighing heavily, Kara looked up and simply stared in the direction of the trio until they became nervous and finally looked back, acknowledging her, but by then it was too late. Kara’s eyes were flashing silver and she was giving them a look that told them exactly what would happen if they didn’t move their asses.

  Within seconds, all three waitresses were standing in front of their table, seeming more than happy to do as they were told.

  Kara simply looked up at them before returning her attention back down at the files spread out in front of her for a long moment, which made all three women go pale and begin trembling. By the time that she looked back up, the three women had their eyes downcast in an act of submission.

  “Who’s going to tell me what’s going on?” Kara asked calmly, and when none of them rushed to explain, she added a simple, “Now,” that seemed to really frighten the women.

  Linsy, the leader of the trio, swallowed nervously before she found the courage to look up and meet Kara’s furious expression. “P-Pack takeover,” she admitted, making a chill go down Ryan’s spine as Kara sat there, chuckling.

  “Really?” she asked, looking highly amused.

  When the three women slowly nodded that only seemed to amuse her even more. “So, your plan was to force the Club into a shutdown and what? Drive Drew away or use the empty club and lack of witnesses as an opportunity to try to steal his blood and his position?”

  When they went even paler, Ryan realized how seriously fucked up this situation was, but that didn’t seem to bother Kara. No, she seemed seriously amused by the whole thing as she stood up and calmly walked over to Linsy.

  “And who were you going to set up as Alpha?” Kara asked, clearly not understanding the concept of personal space as she got into the much larger woman’s face and stood there, looking amused and a little dangerous as she waited for her answer.

  “N-no one,” Linsy admitted, glancing to the side at one of her friends for support, but she didn’t find any there as both women flanking her were now trembling with fear and refusing to look up from the floor.

  “So, the Pack was planning on what? Sharing the Club? Running it together?” Kara surmised, making Ryan realize just how stupid and fucking dangerous this game of theirs really was.

  A leaderless Pack running things in a small town up in nowhere-fucking-Maine would be
left alone, but a Pack without an Alpha in Boston wouldn’t have been tolerated. They would have made themselves targets for every Alpha and Master within a hundred miles. There wasn’t an Alpha or Master alive that would have tolerated such a betrayal even if that betrayal had ended up giving them what they wanted. They would have killed each and every member of the Pack before taking over the Club.

  “And whose idea was this?” Kara asked, forcing Linsy to meet her silver gaze head on.

  When the two women flanking her stepped away from Linsy, trembling even harder, Kara had her answer. With a nod of understanding, she grabbed Linsy by the back of neck, yanked her down and in less than a second had torn the other woman’s throat out before her body dropped lifelessly to the floor.

  “Holy shit!” Ryan said, coming to his feet as he took in the scene before him.

  Linsy lying on the floor, dead in a puddle of her own blood, Kara standing there glaring at the other two woman who were too terrified to do anything more than sob and stare at the ground and then back at Kara, covered in blood and not looking as though she cared.

  “This little coup is over. Do I make myself understood?” Kara asked as she allowed her voice to deepen to the point that they all knew that she was seconds away from shifting and killing every last one of them.

  “Y-yes,” the frightened women said in unison.

  “Good,” Kara said with a firm nod. “Then I suggest that you relay that message to the rest of your Pack and tell them what will happen if they don’t show up for work tonight.”

  One of the girls paused, risking a glance up at Kara, she asked, “A-are you going to tell Drew?”

  “Tell Drew that you were fucking with his business so that you could kill him and take over his club?” she asked with a mocking smile. “There’s no need to tell him anything.”

  “W-why?” the frightened woman asked, looking terrified as she stood there, wondering what they were going to do to her.

  “Because he already knows,” Ryan said, gesturing behind the woman, who at that point chose to pass out and land in a heap on the floor beside her dead friend.

  As Ryan stood there, he watched as Kara met Drew’s furious gaze head on, and realized that whatever had passed between them in that moment seemed to change everything.

  Drew had finally found a female worthy of him and Kara simply wouldn’t tolerate anyone threatening her protector.

  It was in that moment that Ryan realized that he was looking at the most dangerous mated couple on the planet.

  Chapter 22

  When Drew kept his eyes locked on her, she didn’t move and she sure as hell didn’t look away. Keeping her eyes locked with his was one of the hardest things that she’d ever done, but she knew that if she looked away now after what she’d just done he would never be able to see her as anything but a weak mate and that wasn’t something that she would ever allow.

  So, when he stepped over the dead woman on the floor between them without a second glance, she knew that she had to stand her ground. When he reached up and cupped her face in his much larger hand, she stood there, waiting to see what he would do next. By rights he could snap her neck in two without worrying about any repercussions because she’d harmed one of his Pack mates.

  He was in charge of protecting his Pack and it was his right to punish those who hurt one of his own. So, she stood there waiting, knowing that he had the right to rip her throat out and if that’s what he needed to do, she understood. She wouldn’t go down without a fight, but she would definitely understand. It was the way that their world worked.

  Pack first, everyone else second.

  So, when he leaned down, she told herself that she was ready for anything, but that had been a lie. She wasn’t ready for the tender smile that he bestowed upon her or the way that he brushed