Page 27 of Tail, Dark and Handsome: Celestial Mates
“Mother, no.”
“But you need to be open—”
A harsh glare silenced Valerian. The planets had to be aligned because that was the first time that actually worked.
The noise level of the restaurant diminished enough for Mari to notice the music. She knew that song. Older, she hadn’t heard it in years, but it had been burned into her memory. While in the hospital, the girl in the bed next to hers played it constantly on her little radio.
Mari hated it. The peppy, happy beat and bubbly lyrics reminded her of the constant headaches and delirium of the sickness. If she never heard it again, it’d be too soon.
Judging from the look on Winter’s face, he felt the same.
Winter
That song.
That damned song.
Recognition gleamed in the older female’s eyes.
No.
“I knew you looked familiar,” she said, and then stood, the chair scraping against the floor. She lifted her glass. “A toast to Rebel, the voice of her generation.”
Then she started singing loudly. The table next to them joined. And another. Winter felt eyes on him. Perhaps they recognized him, judged him, and blamed him. Many did.
Zero squirmed uneasily in his seat, his ears flat.
Enough. This was not about Winter. He needed to shield Zero.
Winter stood abruptly, knocking back the chair. The watchful crowd focused on him instead of his kit. His jaw worked as accusations and bitter reports burned at the tip of this tongue, but he said nothing. No doubt someone in the restaurant would record this, and his tantrum would be on a media network within hours.
Marigold watched him, her dark eyes large with surprise. The older female frowned, as if confused.
This was a mistake. His tail lashed behind him. He should not have let Zero drag him to this hotel for a meal, and he should not have let his kit invite themselves to the females’ table.
“Come,” he snapped and left. Zero followed.
“Well,someoneneeds to cleanse their aura,” the older female said with a sniff.
Winter flexed his fingers, claws out, but he walked away.
At the front desk, he paid the bill. Zero stuck to his side but did not speak until they exited the building. Pressing a command on his comm unit, he called a vehicle to take them back up the mountain, though he was furious enough to march the entire way.
“Winter, wait!” Marigold dashed out of the front entrance to them. “I don’t know what happened, but I apologize. My mother comes on too strong, but her heart is in the right place.”
“That female is intolerable. She makes a spectacle of herself for acclaim.” He knew her type, always seeking attention and affirmation. Nothing would ever be enough. They were endless black holes, sucking the air out of those around them.
The female jerked her chin up. “If we’re so intolerable, you should have left us alone. We were having dinner when you showed up at our table. No one invited you.”
“False. Your mother invited us to join you.”
She huffed, telling Winter he was correct and had won the argument. Her tiny little human nostrils flared, and she nearly vibrated with anger.
“Fine. You wanna be a jerk? Be a jerk.” She glanced at Zero, standing off to the side, and her expression softened. Instinctively, he moved to block Zero from her view. Her eyes narrowed before she tossed her hands in the air, then left.
Winter definitely did not watch her ass as she stomped away, and if he did, it was because her lack of a tail was unnatural, not because he liked the jiggle of it under her dress. Or wanted to know what it would be like to hold a cheek in either hand and squeeze. Or that he remembered how it felt to carry her in his arms yesterday.
Winter knew that female’s type: trouble waiting to happen.
