Page 38 of Smoke and Mirrors
18
HUNTER
“So,” I glanced at Razvan, hunched over like me in the waiting room while we allowed Mel and Connor to have some time together. “You two have made up, I take it?”
He lifted his gaze to me, smirking. “I guess you could say that.”
“Just like that, huh? When I almost thought I had to fight you the other day?”
“I never would have fought you,” he whispered. “She chose you over me at the time. I respect that. I was being a dick to her.” He shrugged, rubbing his tattooed hands together. “I manned up and apologized. She did the same for her part. Now,” his smirk grew wider. “I guess I’m part of the pack.”
“We are quite the pack, aren’t we?” I huffed out a laugh. “All pawing for attention from our alpha female.”
“Yeah, you’d consider her an alpha?” Razvan’s eyebrows lifted. “I’m not too brushed up on wolf hierarchies.”
“It’s in her, even if she doesn’t know it yet,” I answered. “You see it in the way she steps into her ringmistress role. She thinks of it as an act but that’s really her. People just want to watch her, listen, and follow her lead. I bet the shaman powers have something to do with it, too. She’s like a magnet and we can’t fight the pull of her.”
“Damn right,” he muttered his agreement.
The moment he spoke, the waiting room door burst open. Mel flew through the room, right past us and toward the elevator.
Razvan and I sprung into action. He caught up to her first, grabbing her before the elevator opened.
“Steluta, what is it?” He cradled her head against his chest and rubbed her back. “My little star, what happened in there?” From the muffled sounds, I realized she was sobbing.
I flattened my palm against her lower back and kissed the back of her head, not caring how close my face was to Razvan’s.
“Sweet girl, please tell us,” I murmured behind her ear. “We’re here for you.”
“Her.”
Our eyes followed where she peeked out from Raz’s shirt, following an attractive blonde woman who just left the same waiting room and headed for the elevators. Her lip curled with disgust the moment she saw Mel sandwiched between me and Raz, then she turned her nose up and walked into the first one that opened.
Raz and I looked at each other, a mutual understanding passing between us. Connor either fucked up majorly or this was a perfect storm of misunderstanding.
“You go talk to him,” Raz snarled protectively. “I might say something I regret. Plus, you know him better.”
I nodded, placing a last kiss on Mel’s head and squeezing her shoulder before I turned away. As I walked back toward the waiting room, the low murmurs of Raz speaking soothingly to her followed me.
A chuckle escaped me before I could help it. Could we be any more of a perfect yet fucked up balance? One guy hurt her, another comforted her, and another went to talk sense into the guy that hurt her.
Roo and Rinna, entranced by the toy set in the waiting room, didn’t even notice the commotion around them.
“Guys, I’m going to talk to Mr. Connor real quick,” I told them. “Stay here.” I gave the command with an undertone of wolf growl so they knew I was serious.
“Yes, Dad,” they answered.
I pushed through the door and stopped a nurse to ask for directions to Connor’s room.
“Down the hall and to the left,” she took in my towering frame nervously. “But um, he’s not taking visitors right now. We’re monitoring his blood pressure.”
“It’ll just be a minute,” I gave her a wolfish smile, letting her know as kindly as I could that she did not want to get in my way. “Thank you.”
Connor sat up in a hospital bed, with a blood pressure cuff around his arms and a nurse watching the machine. He looked fine, well even. Just as disgruntled as usual. I pushed through his door without bothering to knock.
“You want to explain why Mel just ran out of here crying her eyes out?”
“Hey, no visitors!” the nurse snapped at me. “You need to leave.”
