Page 34 of Those That Don't Exist
“Yep, and they want me back tomorrow.” He starts stripping and dumps his clothes in a chest at the bottom of his bed before heading into our ensuite in his boxers. He doesn't bother closing the door before I hear the shower start.
I can’t see him but we’ve shared a room for long enough we’ve seen each other naked plenty. It doesn’t bother me and the open door makes it easier for us to chat about our days as he cleans himself up. I do take the opportunity to quickly type a final message to Red.
Sorry, I’ve been interrupted and can't talk anymore tonight, see you tomorrow.
I close the text chat and relock the phone.
Mitch emerges from the bathroom, already dry, and grabs some clean jeans and a t-shirt.
“Shall we head to the lounge? I could use a drink,” he says, shoving the t-shirt over his wet blonde hair, leaving wet marks as he pulls it onto his muscled frame.
“Sure,” I sigh as I heave myself up off my bed. I really don’t fancy mingling but I should probably show my face. “Let’s go.”
At least half the pack are lounging in the common room as we walk in. Adicious is thankfully missing. I’m not entirely lucky though, as Ronan sits up the bar with his two biggest fans. Honestly, how they’re allowed to be so close is a mystery, close friendships are not tolerated here.
I follow Mitch across the room, he slides behind the bar and grabs us a couple of blood packets from the mini-fridge, along with some glasses.
“Hey, look who it is, it's been so long I thought those shadows of yours had swallowed you up.” I steel myself with a slow breath before turning to reply to Ronan.
“Evening.” I tip my head in greeting as Ronan leans towards us.
“What have we done to gain the honour of your presence?” he says it like a joke but I hear the undertone. He’s always resented the fact Adicious sends me on the higher stake missions and practically gives me a free rein to come and go as I please - well, more of a free rein than anyone else in the pack. At least in the last few months.
“Just want to have a drink and chill out,” I reply, keeping the annoyance out of my voice. I nod my head to Mitch and he follows me as we head over to the tables on the other side of the space.
“Gods, he’s a prick,” Mitch whispers quietly so only I can hear.
“The best of them,” I say with a smirk.
“So how have you been?” he asks. “You’re either asleep or absent lately.” I fill Mitch in on the last couple of weeks, leaving certain details out of course. He starts telling me about this new club he’s started working at when he’s not at the docks but my attention gets snagged by the idiots across the room.
“I’m telling you it's a matter of time. Aurora will be joining us soon, I can feel it,” Ronan tells his disciples, before taking a swig of his beer.
“So it did work? Adicious has made himself a mate?” one of them asks.
“One hundred percent, they’ll be no stopping us as soon as they’re mated, we’ll finally be the most powerful pack on the continent.”
I keep nodding in the right places, responding to Mitch but my attention remains on the others at the bar. From my reports Adicious believes Red has progressed but I’ve given no indication that I think she will fully turn. Ever. As far as I know Ronan has only been sent to watch her a couple of times, has he seen something I haven’t?
Their conversation momentarily moves onto discussing the other packs we know of in the region. We are the only one in Froan City but across the narrow sea there are a couple of large packs covering the west side of the mainland of the continent. One particularly vicious one resides in West Scotia which I’ve been to spy on a few times.
“It’ll be nice to have a hot piece of ass around here to look at, rather than your ugly faces all the time,” Ronan says, laughing, and swinging the conversation back to Red. The glass in my hand cracks. Thankfully it’s already empty.
“Don’t react.” Mitch cuts across my blind rage, placing a hand on my arm across the table. My eyes meet his and I know he can see how pissed off I am at that comment.
I blink it away.
“You know he’s talking shit. If Adicious were here he wouldn’t have half as much bravado. If he takes one look at her once they’re mated he’ll be out on his ass, probably in pieces.” Mitch has misinterpreted my anger, which is for the best.
“I’d buy front row tickets to see that.” I smirk trying to break the tension in me with a joke but my fangs are extended, to which Mitch gives me a warning look.
Raucous laughter breaks across the room. Ronan cracking up at his own joke. The others are chuckling too. Then he makes a fatal mistake.
“Hopefully, once the bond is in place Adicious won’t mind sharing, I could use a female with our strength to fuck. It's getting boring holding back with the humans.”
I launch. I’m across the room and have Ronan by the throat before anyone can react. I throw my other arm into a punch, landing a hard blow to his eye.
And that’s just the first. I reign blow after blow on him as we topple, my momentum of ploughing into him sending his chair rocking back and tipping over.
