Brink Of Passion (Alpine Woods Shifters) (6 page)

After throwing her used washcloth in the corner of the bathroom, she pulled on her clothes. Where was her right shoe? She turned in a circle before realizing she hadn’t grabbed it in her earlier collection. With a grimace, she eased the door of the bathroom open and glanced around the room. No sign of it nearby. Well, crap. She couldn’t exactly leave with one shoe.

No choice. Laurie moved fuarther into the room, finally spotting it under the chair in the corner. One of them must have kicked it at some point. She slid on her stomach and grabbed it, staying on the floor to slip it on and thanking her lucky stars she’d chosen the loafers yesterday. No telling what her shoes would look like if they’d had to deal with laces last night. She glanced at the torn panties across the room. Neither Max nor she had exactly been in a clear frame of mind.

Oh no, what if Max regretted mating her last night once he woke up? No telling what he might think.

Laurie stood and concentrated on her breathing. Now was not the time to flip out. She was going to get some food, think the events of last night through, and come at the problem with a clear frame of mind.

Max’s wallet caught her eyes where it lay on the counter next to the TV. With only a moment’s hesitation, Laurie reached out and grabbed it. They were mates now, so she felt justified borrowing a few dollars. After all, she had no idea where her stuff might be located.

Holy Crap! There had to be at least five hundred dollars in cash. Who carried around that kind of money nowadays? Laurie used a credit card to pay for everything. She glanced at the man softly snoring on the bed behind her. Then again, whoever tried to mug him would get what they had coming to them. Nobody sane would even try.

Laurie reached in and grabbed two twenty-dollar bills. The least he could do was buy her breakfast. Her stomach rumbled in agreement. There’d been a restaurant attached to the hotel downstairs advertising a breakfast buffet. She hoped they had one of those omelet stations where the chef cooked in front of you. And bacon. Everything looked better with bacon, right? Maybe things wouldn’t seem quite so bad with a full stomach.

With one last glance at Max, she crept out the door and quietly shut it behind her. Hopefully she’d have some time to sort out this mess in her head before he came looking for her.

*****

“Where the hell have you been?”

Laurie continued to eat her breakfast, staring at the plate in front of her so she wouldn’t have to look Danny in the eyes. If she did, he’d see the panic within. And she was trying so hard to keep a calm pretense. Her ears had twitched moments ago, picking out his voice at the front of the restaurant, and she’d known her time alone with her thoughts had expired.

Food had helped settle her stomach but not her nerves. She was on her second plate, but more food didn’t seem to be the answer. To top it all off, the kitchen apparently hadn’t prepared for a hotel full of hungry shifters and had run out of bacon.

“Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? I couldn’t find you, and you didn’t come back to the room. I had no idea where...” Danny’s tirade came to a sudden stop. He stood motionless, the small table the only thing between them. She could feel his eyes burning into the top of her head and was surprised her hair didn’t start smoking. Daring a quick glance up, she saw a confused expression on his face as he tilted his nose upward and took a deep sniff. His gaze zeroed back on her face, connecting with hers for a split second before she glanced away.

“Laurie…” Nothing else, just her name.

“Danny,” she replied with a false sense of calm. The thought of disappointing him—again—made her want to cry.

As she reached for her coffee, her hand wobbled. Great, her relaxed facade was starting to fracture. Danny, more observant than her older brothers, would notice something was wrong.

The more she thought about her situation, the less sure of herself she became. When she’d left Max, she’d been nervous certainly, but with a confidence that things would work out for the best. Okay, so she’d been more than nervous. She’d had the start of a whopping panic attack. Still, she’d known the feelings from the night before had been true. But the more time that passed away from Max, the more anxious she grew.

“Why do you smell different? Is that a hickey on your neck?” he whispered the last.

Laurie shrugged, looking around the dining room as if searching for something. Anything to avoid his gaze. Maybe he’d think she’d just shacked up with someone last night. Would that be better or worse? She wasn’t sure how she felt about him thinking that it had been a casual one-night thing. That a shower would turn her back to normal, even though nothing so simple would fix this. Max’s scent was now permanently mixed with hers. Her cup wobbled as she set it down, the multiple clinks of the dishes betraying her anxiety.

She knew she’d have to face Danny and the rest of her family eventually. She just needed a little more time to sort things out on her own first. Everything was moving too fast, and last night had gone differently than she’d expected. Mating hadn’t been on the agenda. Laurie had never been one to analyze something to death before jumping in, either. So if she thought things were going too fast, they were going
way
too fast.

“Laurie.” A strong hand gripped her chin and pulled her gaze to his. “What’s going on?”

If she’d seen anger or frustration in his eyes, she might have retorted with some snide remark, but she was powerless against the concern she saw. Concern for her.

“I met my mate last night.”

Danny didn’t say anything for a long moment. Then he pushed her hair behind her ear and lowered the neck of her shirt until the mating mark was revealed. Laurie looked away, unable, or maybe unwilling, to see his expression. He’d already been so disappointed in her yesterday. She’d slipped up in the lobby with Dominic, and then they’d had that awful fight. She couldn’t bear for him to question her judgment any more than he already had. She was condemning herself enough for the both of them.

“Ahh,” he cleared his throat, “I see. You didn’t want to wait and get to know him first?” There was no accusation in his tone. She almost wished there had been. The worry she heard made her eyes burn with tears she desperately tried to hold back.

“It’s not like I had a choice.” She pulled out of his grip, and started to scoot her chair away from the table, but Danny grabbed her elbow, his grip painful in its intensity.

“He forced you?”

She lifted her gaze in time to see murderous fury encase her brother. Uh oh. This wasn’t good.

“Not exactly.”

Danny’s nostrils flared.

“I mean, it wasn’t like that.”

“Where is he?” The words were guttural.

Panic, completely different than before, gripped Laurie. She’d only seen that look on her brother’s face once before, when rogue shifters had attacked his mate. If she hadn’t stopped him then, she had no doubts he would have killed the offenders. Danny was on the verge of something drastic, and she had to stop him. Not only would her family never forgive her if Danny was arrested for murder, but she had a feeling a fight between Max and Danny would end badly for both of them. Without a doubt bad for her.

“Danny.” She framed his face with her hands, used her strength when he tried to pull away, and stared into his eyes. “Do you really think I would let a guy live if he forced himself on me? I would castrate him. And then the real torture would begin.” She waited as the truth of her words seeped in. Until she could see belief in his eyes. The anger remained, but reason was returning. Thank God. She needed to be breaking up a fight between her brother and her mate this morning like she needed a crowbar to her kneecap. And she had no desire to take a tour of a Tucson hospital. Danny lowered into a chair across from her.

“Then why did you say you didn’t have a choice?” Yup, definitely still angry. But at least he no longer had that killing rage aura.

“Let’s just say, I wasn’t expecting things to go so far.”

Danny studied her as she took a long swig of coffee. Keeping cool was harder than she’d thought.

“You’re in my seat,” a voice growled behind her. Laurie cringed at her mate’s angry tone. Could he have chosen a worse moment to appear? Beyond that, was politeness so hard for him to manage? “I’d suggest you’d leave my woman alone unless you want me to mess up that pretty face. She’s taken.”

She was going to kill him.

Silence descended in the restaurant. She didn’t need to look around to know everyone was looking their way. Again. The only sound around them was the slight scrape of chairs against the carpet as diners turned in their direction. Another scene to embarrass her pack. At least this time it was not her fault. She refused to take the blame for this incident. How could she have possibly foreseen this situation? She turned to glare at the person she did blame.

“You sure you don’t want me to kill him?” Danny asked. “We can always find you a new mate.” Laurie might have worried, but despite his words, the anger had dissipated in his tone.

“Go grab a plate and let me think on that for a bit.”

Max, who’d been glaring at her brother until now, turned and scowled at her, but she could tell he wasn’t really upset.

Laurie frowned, examining his features. From the corner of her eye, she saw Danny move toward the buffet, but her focus remained on Max. How could she tell he wasn’t truly upset? They barely knew each other. Had only met last night. And by expression alone, he
appeared
upset. So why did she suspect he wasn’t as upset as he appeared? No, that was wrong. She didn’t suspect anything, she
knew
.

“What has you so confused, baby?”

Her frown deepened. “Eww, don’t call me baby.”

Distracted by the condescending endearment, she realized the anxiety crushing her all morning had lessened as well. Not quite vanished, but as soon as she heard his voice, something inside of her had settled. He smelled of sandalwood and soap, and the scent made her wolf want to wag her tail in pleasure. Traitorous bitch.

“Then what should I call you?”

She ignored him, pondering his first question. “How did you know I was confused?” There could have been any number of reasons she’d been frowning. Not least of which being how rude he’d been to her brother. How had he pegged her as confused?

“I can tell,” he said, snatching a sausage link off her plate and taking a bite.

She slapped his hand. “Mine. You get your own.” She took the sausage back and shoved the whole thing in her mouth. Eating or drinking from someone else’s meal had never bothered her, and after last night, she was even less concerned about sharing with him. But she could be territorial about her food.

“Stingy,” he complained with a mock frown.

“When it comes to breakfast, you bet.” After all, it was the most important meal of the day. Everyone who knew her knew not to mess with her in the morning until she’d eaten. “
How
can you tell?”

“Well you slapped my hand when I tried to take one measly little sausage link. That kind of tipped me off.” He reached for her coffee, which so wasn’t going to happen.

Laurie scooted the cup farther away from his hand.

“See, stingy.”

“No, not about that. How could you tell I was confused?” she asked again. Her wolf relaxed inside her, but something about this situation made Laurie clench her teeth.

“The mate bond. The same way you know that I don’t really want your breakfast, but like seeing you get all grumpy when I try to steal it. If you really thought I was after your food, I suspect I’d be missing a digit.”

“More like a limb,” Danny interjected, pulling a chair from the adjacent table to theirs with the hand not holding a plate full of food.

“I thought I told you to get lost.”

“Did you know they ran out of bacon?” Danny asked, ignoring Max entirely.

“These people clearly have no idea how to handle a hotel full of shifters. They ran out before I came down, which was over an hour ago.”

Danny had gone for the sliced ham instead of the sausage Laurie had chosen.

“Sliced ham, sausage, bacon, what’s the difference?” Max asked, staring at their two plates.

“Oh, here we go.” Danny lowered his fork, and covered his face with his hand.

Laurie just stared at Max. Did he really just compare ham to bacon? Yes, they came from the same animal, but that didn’t mean they were the same thing.

“What are you still doing here? Find another woman. I told you, this one’s taken,” Max grumbled, glaring at Danny’s direction.

“What’s…the…difference?” Laurie asked, ignoring his rudeness for more important concerns. How could he ask that? Bacon was the best food in the world. She’d even seen an invention on
Shark Tank
for a bacon alarm clock that cooked bacon so the owner could wake up to the smell of bacon. The Wake’n Bacon. Okay, so they hadn’t gotten any money, but that was only because of the whole fire hazard liability thing. As an invention, it had been brilliant. “Bacon is the greatest food that was ever invented. Everyone loves bacon.” At least, she’d always believed so.

“I’m pretty sure bacon wasn’t invented. Besides, it’s just another breakfast food. There’s meat here.” Max turned his head left and right, gazing at other diners’ plates, before returning to her with a shrug.

“Blaspheme.”

Max laughed. “Blaspheme? About bacon?”

“I think you need to leave.”

She was kidding. Really. Had said it in jest.

So when he stood, frowned in her direction, and walked out of the room, she was not just surprised, but upset. And she would have told him to stay, had opened her mouth to do just that, if he hadn’t moved so damn fast.

As soon as he left, regret surged through her.

“Way to chase away your mate,” Danny said, digging into his eggs.

“Shut up.”

Could he not pretend to be sympathetic? Or at least not rub her face in the fact she’d chased her mate away. Not like he’d been a perfect Romeo when he’d met his mate. All her brothers had screwed up in one way or another.

Her wolf pulled at the bonds containing it which allowed her to be human. Begged her to chase after him. To bring him back. But Laurie chased after no man. When she saw him later, she’d apologize.