Addie (Pack of Misfits #1) - Raven Kennedy Page 0,54
right now.
The other option is that our bonds are solid because they’re my perfect mates, but I can’t go there. I can’t think about that. It’ll just make their rejection even worse.
I force myself to walk back to the warehouse without scratching at the spot on my chest. Maybe if I don’t acknowledge the pain, it won’t be so bad. I’m a big fan of ignoring problems. I’m also a big fan of living. So if severing these mate bonds starts to kill me, I’m gonna sever something of theirs that they’re big fans of.
Their dicks. I’m gonna sever their dicks.
13
Lafe
We are such dicks.
We just let her leave, and none of us even tried to stop her.
It’s been a week since Addie walked out, and the bad feeling in my chest has only gotten worse. Herrick insisted that the bond would crack open easier than an egg because it isn’t real, but so far, he’s been dead fucking wrong. For only having been together for a short amount of time, our bond has proved to be shockingly strong, and my animal isn’t giving her up easily. If anything, he’s digging in even harder with his teeth and his claws.
The second Addie walked out the door, my coyote started whining at me, pacing under my skin like a juvenile pup. And I’m not the only one who’s been affected. Penn and Herrick have been growling, grumpy sons of bitches too. Well, more than usual, I mean.
I hear the front door open and slam shut, and I look up from my spot on the couch to see Herrick stalk inside. He has a tank and board shorts on, which are noticeably wet. I cock a brown brow at him. “You went to the lake again?”
He ignores my question and continues past me to go to the kitchen where he grabs a bottled water and starts chugging it.
“You’re such a fucking asshole,” I mutter under my breath.
Of course, he catches my words because of his shifter hearing, and he spins around to glower at me. “We got a problem?” he challenges.
Anger and frustration ripple over me, but I give him a smart ass smirk because I know it’ll irritate the shit out of him. “A problem?” I ask, with mock nonchalance. “Why would we have a problem? You just made our mate feel like shit as soon as she revealed her animal, and then you’ve spent the last week trying to convincing us that our bond with her isn’t real, but we both know that’s bullshit by now, don’t we? Yet you still won’t admit it, because like I said, you’re a fucking asshole. So yeah, I guess we do have a problem.”
He opens his mouth to argue, but then closes it again and curses under his breath. He brings a hand up and rubs it over his scalp in frustration. He tosses his empty water bottle in the trash can, and I sigh and lean my head back on the couch cushion, my eyes locked on the ceiling.
We don’t talk for a few minutes, and the only sound is the game playing on the TV. Tension has been high, particularly between Herrick and me. I want him to admit that he’s wrong, but he keeps waiting to be right. I know him, though. Herrick isn’t a bad dude, but he is a stubborn son of a bitch. But even he knows by now that he was wrong about our bond. And every day that he continues to fight it makes me even more pissed at him.
We’ve been best friends since we were pups, and the three of us were put into training to become pack enforcers when we were ten. We’ve watched each other’s back and fought side by side ever since, so this strain between us isn’t familiar. He’s always been a grumpy asshole, but I’ve never resented him before, and I don’t want this anger to be the beginning of the end of our friendship.
“This isn’t gonna let up,” I point out.
He knows I’m right, because the mate-call hounds us constantly. It pushes us to go to Addie every second of every day. And nights? Nights are even fucking worse. It feels wholly unnatural to be apart from her.
Usually, when shifters bond, they sequester themselves away for a few weeks until that bond is solidified. Being separated from her so soon is like being constantly starved and edgy, with a pain in the chest that won’t go away.