Page 23 of Messy AF
He hit the ground with a pained grunt, but he didn’t stay there. Scrambling to his feet, he took off out of the alley at a dead run and disappeared around the corner. He didn’t look back.
Alone, I turned and pulled Tobi close, stroking his cheek with the back of my hand. “Are you really okay?”
He leaned into my touch with a soft smile. “Yeah, I’m really okay. Just having a minor crisis of identity.”
Frowning, I tilted my head in question. “Meaning?”
“That was really hot, and I feel like, maybe, that doesn’t make me a very good person to think that.”
I laughed, unable to stop myself. Gods, he was too fucking cute for his own good. Or mine, for that matter.
“Would you really have killed him?” he asked, his voice quieter now, more serious.
“Yes.” And I wouldn’t lose a single night of sleep over it. “Does that bother you?”
He shook his head slowly. “Probably not as much as it should.”
We had a lot to unpack in that simple statement, but it was neither the time nor the place. “I’m sorry I didn’t get here faster.”
“You got here about the same time we did,” he countered. “The line was super long in the bathroom, but I didn’t run into Peter until I was leaving. We argued, then he dragged me over here. He said I smelled like shit.” His nose scrunched, clearly offended by that. “Then you showed up and wrecking-balled him into the wall.”
Somehow, that made it worse, knowing I had been that close and still unable to prevent it.
“What do you want to do now, angel? Do you want to go back to the market? Or should we call it a day and head home?”
He had been brave and composed in the moment, but now that the adrenaline had begun to ebb, the color had drained from his face, and tremors vibrated his lean frame.
“I…”
“There’s no wrong answer,” I assured him when he hesitated. “If you want to go home, we can come back next weekend to find your honey.”
He sighed, the breath weak and shaky. “Take me home.”
nine
~ Tobias ~
Seatedattheendof the fishing pier that overlooked Bliss Lake, my feet dangling over the edge, I leaned my head on Warren’s shoulder and sighed in satisfaction. It didn’t seem possible to feel this happy, and sometimes, the depths of my joy frightened me a little.
After all, having everything meant having a lot to lose.
We had returned to the Farmers Market as promised, and I had finally gotten my honey. It tasted a bit like watermelon. Weird, but I kind of loved it.
Peter had disappeared after that day in the alley, and a rental sign had gone up in front of his cottage barely a week later. Clearly, he had taken Warren’s threat seriously.
Smart.
Looking back on it now, I didn’t think I had ever been in any real danger. As my mate had predicted, Peter hadn’t wanted to hurt me. He had wanted to possess me. Like a toy or a piece of furniture.
The shifter had called it love.
I didn’t think he even knew what the word meant.
The confrontation hadn’t scared me, not exactly. It had left me unsettled, though. For a moment in that secluded alley, the ground beneath my feet had shifted, shaking my reality, the uncertainty of what he might do next more worrying than his actions.
But it had also made me stronger, and at the end of the day, I felt proud of how I had handled the situation. Granted, it was a lot easier to be brave with a two-hundred-pound vampire as backup, ready and willing to bodycheck anyone who so much as looked at me wrong.
Still, I had held it together. I hadn’t panicked, and I had been deliberate with my words. Most importantly, I hadn’t apologized. Not once. Not even a little one.
