Page 6 of Delivered to My Beasts
Imogen wanted to come visit us. To our home.
I ran to the main house. We had work to do.
Our mate was on her way.
Chapter Five
Imogen
They lived in the mountains. In his reply, one of them, Crew, had given me their location. The range lay about an hour past the town where I’d shopped the day before, which was about an hour from where we lived. The fact that some other people had heard of the Beasts had me hoping they were closer than that because I didn’t have my own car, and when I borrowed one from the pack, I had to tell someone why. And when I’d be back, meaning, I needed an excuse to be gone long enough to get where I was going before someone looked for me.
At least I wasn’t hungry for once. Before all the females flooded our home to help cook, I’d lived on a very modest diet. My father felt females should be slender, and he made sure my portions kept me that way. Mateo shared his opinion and had mentioned he’d be having me weigh in every Sunday once we were mated. Something else he’d wanted to start sooner, but Father had taken umbrage at the suggestion he couldn’t control his own daughter.
What the hell had I been thinking?
Letting men like them make choices for me? Had my mother been at all aware of how this would go after she passed? Had she been shielding us the whole time?
Standing, I moved deeper into the forest, typing as I went. The Beasts wondered if they could video chat with me, but I didn’t have time to learn how to do that if my pretty-basic phone even had the ability. So I declined on that. Then they suggested a visit to me—yeah, like that would even be possible. But the idea of a visit could work, as long as it went in the other direction. They were only a couple of hours away, but was that far enough to suggest more than just a day trip?
It was going to have to be. If they didn’t like me once we met, maybe they’d let me stay long enough to get my feet under me and decide where to go from there. Maybe I could find a job by applying online. Time was not my friend, but I needed some badly.
How about if I come to see you? I have a week free…if that’s good?
If they said no, I had no plan B.
I kept moving, clutching my phone like a lucky charm, waiting for a reply, my throat tight, breathing harsh in my ears, and Mateo’s voice calling after me. Dammit.
“Say something!” I hissed, clapping my free hand over my mouth to keep from giving myself away. He was following me, but he had not sped up or shifted to catch me. Yet.
We’d love that. When can you come?
Now.I pivoted on a heel, shoved my phone into my pocket, grabbed something else out, and headed back the way I’d come. Sure enough, Mateo met me a few minutes later, his scowl evidence of his displeasure at being ignored.
“Where have you been?” he demanded.
“What?” I looked around, trying to appear innocent and confused.
“Don’t say you didn’t hear me calling you?”
“Hang on.” I reached up and pulled the earbuds from my ears, grateful I’d remembered I had them with me. “What did you say?”
His eyes narrowed. “Think you’re sneaky, don’t you?” he snarled. “Where did you think you were going?”
“I came for a walk on our own lands. Is that not allowed anymore?” Pulling out my phone, I glanced at the screen. “I had an hour free before I needed to get to town, so I thought I’d get in some steps, exercise? Haven’t you suggested I should watch my figure?”You asshole.
Reaching out, he grabbed the earbuds from my palm. “I’ll take those to make sure you don’t get distracted and miss me calling you.”
“Why did you want me, anyway?” Suppressing my anger at his stealing something I’d saved so long to buy and used to keep my sanity when I just needed peace, I reminded myself I’d be out of here in an hour or less, if I kept my wits about me.
“I heard from Rosamund at the bridal shop.” A name she’d taken on when she opened the store. Her name was Phyllis, I’d heard from the pack she belonged to, about twenty miles away. “She said you had a temper tantrum and destroyed your wedding dress. Anything you want to tell me?”
I gasped, looking as horrified as I could manage. “Is that what Phy…Rosamund said? That’s not true at all. She was helping me into it and saying the most awful things. Claiming you were not true to me and didn’t love me at all, then she just shredded it off me and stomped on it. I didn’t know what to do, so I ran crying.”
“What?”
“You do love me, don’t you?” I’d never claimed to believe that before, but it was my only hope, to make him believe it. “I know we’ve had our differences, but…to claim a mate would be, and I quote ‘sniffing around’ other females the day after our mating? I couldn’t…I thought once we mated, we’d be a power couple, supporting and caring for one another.”
Thank the goddess for vanity. Which Mateo had in spades. “You would not lie to me.”
