Page 56 of Tolerated By the Sigma (Mate Hunt 7)

Me: Yep. Be there in a minute.

Quick, not very friendly, and totally to the point. Perfect.

Ryder returned a moment later, and I lifted an eyebrow at him as I pulled on the loose hoodie and ultra-loose sweats of his that he’d brought me. There was a bra that he must’ve snagged from my room, too, but no panties.

The no panties thing was probably for my mate’s sake, and that was kind of sexy.

He gave me a tight smile, wrapping his arm around me as we headed for the door. Ryder pulled my back flush against his front, his hand lifting to the waistband of my sweats and sliding against my lower abdomen, dipping down toward my core a bit as I opened the door.

Seeing the six guys on my doorstep felt like a blast from the past. Four of them held hands with women—who weren’t a blast from the past—but they were all easily recognizable.

And they all stared at me and the man behind me.

I supposed that Ryder was kind of a legend around town; the guy who had survived being rejected. Now, the guy who had survived being rejected by some bitchy human chick, and mated with the girl who grew up in town but wasn’t mates with a werewolf. Add in everything that had happened with Lisa… the stomach-clenching, nausea-inducing memories and all…

Well, maybe we were both kind of legends around town now.

“We brought food,” the girl holding Zack’s hand exclaimed, her voice bright and her smile cheerful. “Is it okay if we come in? Or we could have a little get-together in the backyard, if that works better for you?”

Damn, did she have to be nice? I wanted to continue hating these people.

“Uhh…” I started.

“We’re in the climax,” Ryder told them, surprisingly not growling or snarling or even snapping. “You can’t stay long.”

“That’s totally fine; I have to work in an hour anyway,” another one of the girls offered. She sort of shoved her mate toward me, and Ryder easily lifted me backward, giving them space to come in.

I hated the idea of having them in our place while we were horny, especially when my eyes drifted back to the countertop I’d been naked on a few minutes earlier. But I couldn’t exactly say that.

“It’s been too long Char,” one of the mated guys said, offering me a grin and a nod. “I’d hug you, but…”

“Better not,” I agreed, patting the sexy, inked arm around my abdomen. His hand slid a bit lower, his fingers curling over more of my pelvis, and making my body clench.

“Your house is so cute,” one of the girls gushed at me. We’ve been trying to talk our guys into moving out of the townhouses for months, but they like the pack life too much.” She rolled her eyes toward me, like I’d understand.

I didn’t, but I nodded anyway.

“We should all introduce ourselves,” another one of the girls suggested. Everyone sat down, and Ryder pulled me onto his lap on a chair that he dragged in from the kitchen.

We went around the room. Obviously, I knew each of the guys’ names, and I knew a few of the girls’ too thanks to the town’s gossip. But Ryder didn’t, and I’d act like I hadn’t internet-stalked my old pack dozens of times over the years since we’d been close.

Honestly, I had missed them. A lot. Only when Lizzy and Sabrina had moved in with me, had I finally started to feel like I had a pack of my own again. And that had ended quickly, when Lizzy found her mate and Sabrina moved out to her own place—then found her mate too.

For so long, it had seemed like I was the only person doomed to be alone in a town full of werewolves who were born with fated soulmates.

And now… well, now I had one. And that was surreal. Especially given that he was a solid couple of years older than me, and had already been rejected, and had a life in the forest for a while, and… well, yeah, there had been a lot of factors.

But I knew that he had been adopted into Elliot and Ford’s pack, so I would have a pack family for the rest of my life. As much as I had loved my old pack, and maybe still would, they had already proven that their familial feelings for me had been dependent on me mating with one of them.

And I would never completely forget that. I could probably move on, but never forget.

And they could never be my family like they had been back then.

But Lizzy, and Sab, and Del, and even Teagan, and June, and Ebony, and all of their mates… they were all going to be that pack family for us. I could feel it. It didn’t make sense, but it was still the truth. And that was important to me.

The pack played nice and asked questions, and we all ate and traded stories slightly-awkwardly about the years we’d been apart. The conversation grew easier as more time passed, but I also grew hornier, which was uncomfortable.

When Ryder’s erection was finally digging into me to intensely to ignore any longer, I spoke up as soon as there was a break between stories so I didn’t have to interrupt anyone. “Alright, I think we’re going to clean up and chill for a bit. Thanks for bringing lunch by.”

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