Sighing, she headed for her own room.
Fang didn't breathe until Aimee was back in her room. He stripped his clothes off, grimacing at the soreness he still had from his fight with Fury. That little SOB could punch like a sledgehammer.
He fell into bed, exhausted, but still couldn't sleep for thoughts of Aimee.
In his heart, he knew he couldn't stay here forever. And if she did start mating with other men, he'd have to leave or kill someone. The thought of anyone touching her spun him into the galactic outer rims of pissed off.
I'm going to have to leave. Because every day he stayed here and didn't have her, he died a little more inside.
Weeks later, Fang still hadn't left.
I am a total head case.
No, he was a moron and he couldn't bring himself to leave Aimee. He would rather stay here and be miserable where he could at least hold her when no one was around than leave and be completely miserable without her.
But every day he stayed, it was worse.
Thorn had been right. There was all kinds of shit brewing at Sanctuary. Wren had been thrown out after he'd taken up with some politician's daughter and now the Peltiers and the entire Omegrion were hot after the tigard to kill him over something his own cousin had said at the last council meeting.
Nicolette was convinced the kid was a threat to her precious family and Aimee was hell-bent that it was all a misunderstanding. Mother and daughter had been fighting over it constantly and there had been a time or two when Fang had almost gone for Nicolette's throat over the way she talked to her daughter.
"Please, Fang. Let it go. She's my mother and I love her." That was all Aimee ever said, but it was hard to do nothing while her mother treated her like shit.
As far as Wren was concerned, Fang agreed with Aimee that it smacked of Wren's distant relations trying to lay hands on his inheritance. But there was no way to prove it. Right now there was a blood hunt out for the tigard and a pack of tigers were stalking him.
Fang felt for him and hoped for the best where Wren was concerned.
Tonight he was on bar duty with Sasha, Etienne, Colt, and Cherif. Out of all the Peltier brothers, Dev was his favorite, but Cherif was a close second. Cherif lacked Remi's nasty attitude. Instead he had a badass aura that said he didn't have to pick or bully to reign supreme.
He simply was, and death to anyone who wanted to knock him off that throne.
Sasha was another Katagari Lykos who stayed here off and on depending on his mood. The last survivor of his pack, he was technically the bodyguard for a goddess. But since his goddess had married, his duties had been light, which meant that whenever he was bored, he'd come hang out with the rest of the animals at Sanctuary.
Tall and blond, Sasha had a nasty temper and a biting sarcasm he could definitely appreciate. All in all, Fang liked the other wolf, but the nature of their species made it hard for them to be around each other too much. Since they weren't in the same pack, they were extremely territorial here.
Kyle's twin, Cody, was sitting at the bar beside Sasha, drinking a Coke. He choked on his drink.
Frowning, Fang turned to see what had set him off. His gaze focused on Aimee who was wearing a tight string tank top and a pair of cutoff shorts that were way too short.
"Oh, hell no," he said before he could even think not to. "You're not working in that."
Cherif agreed. "Hear, hear! Get your ass back upstairs and change before Maman or Papa sees you."
She gave them all a go-to-hell glower. "Were you people born on the sun? It's stifling hot in here and unlike you losers, I'm the one who has to run orders back and forth."
Fang scoffed. "Then be glad we're not putting you in a parka."
She narrowed her gaze at him. "You got no authority over me, wolf." She raked her brother with a curled lip. "You even less so."
Cherif pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I'm calling Maman. Right now."
She hissed at him. "I hate you. I swear one day, I'm going to poison your food." Then she turned her fury to Fang. "And I'm not talking to you for the rest of the night."
That was fine by him so long as she covered herself up. He wasn't about to have her walk around like that with the body she had. They already had enough trouble keeping men and animal hands off her.
Cherif held his beer bottle up toward Fang. "Here's to you, my brother."
Laughing, Fang held his up to tap the bottom of the bottles together in a salute of solidarity against public female fashions that only looked good on a woman you didn't have a relationship with.