Page 17 of Dante
“I read it,” Dante said. “You’re not leaving, are you?”
I stared at him in disbelief. Was he seriously that dense? Did he truly think that I wouldn’t actually follow through with what I said I would? “If you read the letter, then you know that yes, I’m moving. There is no reason for me to stay. I hope that one day, I’ll find something somewhere.”
Dante scowled again. “Can we talk?”
I tilted my head and held the box out. “I thought we were talking.”
Dante huffed. “Fine. Can we talk elsewhere? About…things?”
I shrugged. “What is there for us to talk about?” I wasn’t trying to intentionally be a brat, but I knew that’s exactly what I was doing.
Dante looked around and appeared uncomfortable. I looked to my right and saw that Lewis and Beau were both staring at him with their arms crossed. When I turned my gaze back to Dante, I raised an eyebrow at him. If he couldn’t say these things in front of others, then I really didn’t feel the need to give in.
Dante let out another huff. “Us. I would like to talk about us.”
That surprised me, and obviously my coworkers because there was a squeak that I was certain came from Lewis and another noise that came from most likely Beau.
“Us?” I raised my eyebrows. “Is there anything to talk about though? I’m respecting your choice to not pursue anything between us. You’ve made it clear that is what you want. Not me or us.”
“Can we talk? Please?”
“Yes,” Lewis answered for me. “You can talk right now because he’s done for the day.” Lewis pushed me toward the end of the counter, where the walk-through was. I glared back at him over my shoulder. “You are,” he insisted. I sighed and admitted defeat. I wasn’t going to get out of this without going to talk to Dante.
I crossed the bakery and didn’t even bother waiting for Dante before I walked out the door. I knew that Dante would follow if he truly wanted to talk to me. I didn’t expect Felix and Lukan to be just outside the bakery though.
“Hey,” Felix said. “We didn’t get to finalize our plans.” He looked behind me, but I didn’t have a chance to turn before I felt Dante’s hand on my back. I would never admit it, but the need to be near him was too much, and I oh so slightly leaned into his touch. I was certain he wouldn’t be able to pick up on it until he slid his hand around my back and to my side, where he let it rest.
I looked up at Dante, shocked that he was being so forward. “Are you ready?”
“Oh,” Felix said. It took a moment before I could look away from Dante. I met Felix’s shocked expression, and Lukan looked indifferent. “Are you two a thing?” he asked. “I didn’t mean to overstep, Dante. Banner and I are just friends.”
I sighed. “It’s complicated,” I said.
“How?” Felix asked.
I took a deep breath and let it out before looking up at Dante. I’d let him answer that one because he was the one making things difficult at this point. I’d apologized for what I’d said andacknowledged that he was avoiding me because he didn’t want anything to do with me.
“I’m an idiot and have a lot to make up for,” Dante said.
“So you are a thing?” Lukan asked. “Just checking because a thing is different than mates.”
I shook my head. Dante growled. “We’re mates. Banner is allowed to have friends though. As long as they understand what mates are and what it means.”
Felix’s eyebrows rose. “Oh, wow. You didn’t say anything.”
I shrugged. “We’re working things out, I guess. I didn’t know…” I sighed again. “It’s complicated.”
“It’s not complicated,” Dante said. “I was an asshole, according to my packmates. They’re not wrong. I hurt Banner, and now we need to work on how to go forward.” Dante started walking, taking me with him. I was stunned speechless and could only follow along because what else did one do when their hellhound mate said those words?
I thought about it as we continued to walk, and it took way too long for me to realize that Dante was leading me to his house. The last place I wanted to go was his house. I started to push back against his hold on me, which got Dante’s attention.
“I don’t want to go to your place,” I said. I glared up at Dante and pulled from his grasp. “Just because you said nice words doesn’t mean I’m going to give in, and now all of a sudden, I’ll let you claim me.”
Dante looked as if I’d slapped him. “That’s not…” He shook his head. “No, I don’t think that at all. I honestly just want to talk. I know I hurt you more than just those few words will fix. It’s going to take time and effort. But I also wanted you out of the cold. There’s a snowstorm coming later this evening, and the temperature is about to drop significantly.”
“Oh.” It had already started to get dark, and when I looked up at the sky, I could see the clouds out to the west. “All right. Wecan go talk. I don’t know what exactly there is to discuss, but I know I should at least hear you out.” Was I behaving any better than him if I chose not to discuss things with him? No. This was what I had wanted. Dante willing to talk to me.
By the time we were walking up to Dante’s front door, the wind had picked up and the temperature had dropped considerably. The first flakes of snow were swirling in the air, and I wondered how I’d missed the fact that a snowstorm was coming through. Probably because I’d been having my own little pity party and had been focused on anything but the here and now, really. I’d been on autopilot for weeks now.
