Chapter 16

I couldn’t see anything past all of my blinding rage. My mind was only clear enough to sense that she was thrashing below me and that was all I really needed to know. I easily pinned her arms against her body with my knees as I straddled her waist.

I raised my fist to punch her; but she was surprisingly strong for a-used-to-be blonde bimbo. She managed to push me off and away from her. I smacked into a rack of panties and before I could jump out of the way; lacy thongs were raining down onto me. I grabbed a nearby hanger and threw it at Kat’s face. It hit its mark and I heard her let out an annoyed growl as it smashed against her forehead; leaving a nasty gash that stretched across her forehead from her hairline all the way down to one of her eyebrows.

She stomped over the plastic fragments of the hanger; that had flown all over the floor on impact, as she stalked towards me. I was on my feet in a moment. My human side wanted to stop fighting and talk this over but I wasn’t in control of my body right then; my wolf was, and she was out for blood.

Even though I hadn’t had a mate for very long; it was a known fact that all wolves; no matter male or female, are all very possessive of their mates and little miss crimson in front of me had just openly admitted that my mate belonged to her. There was no way my wolf would let that go. Not only was this girl a complete skank; but she was also a low-class, common she-wolf. I’m not trying to sound stuck up, but that was the truth.

An Alpha shouldn’t have any connection with a female like the piece of trash in front of me; he deserved better. He deserved a woman of higher rank; someone that could love him no matter his faults and would stick by him through thick and thin, this slut in front of me obviously wouldn’t. Even though he was mean to me all the time; he should be with someone who suited him; his mate, his other half, his Luna, or in other words, me.

 I was distracted as these thoughts ran through my head. Even though it was for only a second; it gave Kat an opening to throw a punch at my head. Her fist connected with my right cheek and pushed me back into a shelf covered in various bottles of lotion. I was upright again before she could take a step.

I was in front of her in a second and wrapped one of my hands’ around her neck; raising her as high as I could before throwing her down onto the hardwood floor. The air rushed out of her lungs as she landed hard. She opened her mouth to say something; but I didn’t give her the chance as I swung at her; the satisfying crunch I heard as my fist connected with her face, informing me of the fact that I had broken her nose. I threw punch after punch; blindingly swinging until I began to feel the blood.

The moisture on my hands immediately snapped me back into reality; shocking my human side enough to push through my wolf’s influence. When I looked down; I found myself still straddling Kat’s waist. I was kneeling on the insides of her elbows; effectively pinning her arms to the ground. Her top was slightly torn in the corner; showing off more of her already way too exposed skin. The sight of it truly had me nauseous. 

Her face was a bloodied mess. I could see that her nose was broken in several places; the bridge looking misshapen and incredibly crooked. I also noted a few cuts on her lips and the thick layer of concealer on her face was smeared and was covered in crimson to match her fake hair. She was still glaring at me; even while in what I imagined was a lot of pain from my knees still on her arms and the wounds I’d inflicted during my attack.

I knew that I should’ve let it go; but I had to make my point clear. I wanted to say that the attack was entirely the work of my wolf; but I had to admit that my human side didn’t really regret it. I grabbed her hair and pulled on it; tipping her head up. “Listen here; and listen well or that will be the last mistake you’ll ever make. Logan is mine; and he always will be. Stay away from my mate or next time; I won’t hesitate to break every bone in your body!” I snapped; before getting up and retrieving my paper bag with my purchase in it from Jen; who had found the time during my fight to pay for everything.

All the humans in the store stared at me wide-eyed as I brushed myself off. The shifters didn’t seem to be affected by what I’d done though; the smug look some of them had on their faces enough to tell me that they approved of what I’d done and that Kat was not very liked in our community. I flashed the human lady behind the counter a smile. “Thank you.” I said sweetly. She gave me a small, terrified grin in response; her lips shaking as she mumbled a soft, ‘you’re welcome’. I turned and strutted out of the shop; grabbing one of the nightgowns’ that had been torn during the fight from the floor on my way to the exit, to wipe the blood from my knuckles.

I tossed the rag onto the ground before I walked out; Jen trailing quietly behind me. When we were about three shops away; she finally spoke. “Are you okay?” She asked softly.

“Yeah; I guess.” I grumbled.

She linked her arm with mine again. “C’mon; let’s go get some food. That’ll make you feel better.” She said, way too enthusiastically.

I just sighed and nodded in response; letting her lead me to a pizza place. We managed to get a table at the corner of the store. We ordered a giant pepperoni pizza and two iced waters; the grumpy waiter just grunting in response before ripping the menus away and dragging his feet to the kitchen; obviously unhappy with his current occupation. Jen tried to make some small talk but I wasn’t in the mood. I felt a little bad for doing it; but most of the time; I just blocked her rambling out.

She took a sip of water from her glass and narrowed her eyes as she did; her irritation towards my sulking, clear. She slammed the glass down onto the table top and let out a low, irritated growl; successfully pulling me out of my current daze. “Will you please stop doing that?! Don’t listen to anything that Kat has to say; she was lying.” The moment the sentence slipped out; I could see on her face that she deeply regretted voicing it.

I raised a brow. “How are you so sure of that? I thought you said that Ethan never told you anything about Logan.” I knew she was hiding something when she refused to meet my eyes; her own blue ones looking everywhere but at me. Unless she found the grease stains on the table cloth more interesting than my face; I was pretty sure that avoiding my gaze was what she was doing. I grabbed her wrist; feeling more alert than ever since the fight. “What is it, Jen? Are you saying that they were never together?”

When she finally met my eyes; hers were filled with pity. “No, they weren’t but they also were at the same time. It kind of depends on your definition of together.” She mumbled. Before I could say anything the waiter came by with our pizza; plopping it down in the centre of the table. She grabbed a giant piece and stuffed half of it in her mouth; using food as an excuse not to talk to me, as usual.

When she’d swallowed her mouthful; I batted the pizza out of her hand. I hadn’t realised how much strength I’d used until I saw the piece fly through the air and smack onto one of the walls across the room; right above the head of an overwhelmed mother with four kids. She assumed one of her kids had done it and began to scold them. I didn’t bother to correct her; not keen on the idea of getting pissed off and beating up anybody else at the moment; especially someone who looked like they were suffering enough already.

“You’re not going to avoid this, Jen. Spit it out already, what do you mean they were together but not together?” I asked; watching her intently.

She took a sip of water and sighed. “He did sleep with her, Chels.” The moment those words fell on my ears; all the blood drained from my face. The world began to shift; as dizziness took over me, my body unstable from the news. I couldn’t breathe as I took in Jen’s words. “Chels, are you feeling alright?”

I instantly lashed out at her; my wolf feeling incredibly vulnerable and defensive from finding out that our mate had cheated on us. “Well, you were keeping the fact that my mate was fucking somebody else from me; so no, I’m not okay!” I snapped. I immediately felt bad the moment I uttered the sentence. I began to apologise but she stopped me.

“Don’t bother; I already figured you’d be pissed.” She muttered. “But you have to know that it wasn’t happening while you were here; in fact, I think it happened about a year ago. There’s really nothing to worry about Chels, he didn’t love her; he honestly didn’t even give a fuck about her. It was just sex, never anything more. She started getting clingy so the Alpha just dropped her on her liposuctioned ass like the trash that she is and never looked back. None of them ever meant anything to him.” She blurted out.

 I nodded; taking in the information until something Jen had said; caught my attention. I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean ‘them’?” I growled.

“Um, well.” She stuttered; reaching for another piece.

“Tell me; Jen.” I demanded; giving her a ‘you-better-not-try-that’ look as I watched her hand.

Jen looked resigned as she dropped her hand onto her lap. “Well, she wasn’t the only one.”

“She wasn’t the only what?”

“She wasn’t the only girl the Alpha had used.”

I had been silently praying that it had been anything else but that, but I guess I wasn’t very lucky. The moment she said it, my wolf howled in pain; curling up into a ball and tucking herself away, not willing to do anything. I could feel my chest tightening; but I had to know. “How many were there?”

“How many years do you want to know about?”

“Start from the past year.” I whispered; bracing my battered heart for what would come next.

Jen looked distracted for a moment; her slender fingers rising one by one as she counted. A piece of my heart chipped off with every finger that appeared. “There were about fourteen.” She finally said.

“Fourteen.” I repeated; my stomach dropping. I pushed my plate away from me and downed my glass of water. I was now crushed; realising that Logan wouldn’t hesitate to sleep with fourteen different girls a year but was repulsed by the idea of even sharing a bed with his own mate. Everything got blurry as tears filled my eyes from the pain lancing through my chest.

Jen requested the bill and paid for the meal; helping me to stand up and led me out of the restaurant afterwards. “Come on; when pizza doesn’t work, there’s only one thing that can.” She said softly. I didn’t resist as she led me; not paying attention to my surroundings as we walked. I let the hot tears trail down my face as I kept taking step after step; my overwhelmed brain only able to keep me moving, upright and breathing. 

***

We were standing in front of a giant display case. Inside it was every ice-cream flavour imaginable. I almost had my face pressed up to the glass just by how good it looked. I chose to take two scoops of pistachio and one scoop of vanilla. I had to admit that Jen was right; ice-cream could help at a time like this. After I was handed my cone and napkin; I wiped away my tears and the tear stains that streaked down my cheeks; glad that I didn’t have any mascara on to make it even more obvious that I had been bawling silently.

I happily ate my frozen dessert as we walked out of the store; my love of sweets soothing some of my pain. I was too distracted by the cold; gooey goodness to realize someone was in front of me before I smacked right into them; my ice-cream cone dropping to the floor. The guy was friendly looking and about my age. He was a bit of a nerd with his thick glasses; but friendly nonetheless. I could tell from his scent that he was human.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” I muttered.

He shook his head. “No, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t stand in the middle of everyone’s way like that. Let me buy you a new ice-cream cone.” He offered; gesturing to the store I’d just come out of. Usually I’d decline but the dessert that was now slathered on the floor would help me feel better and I really needed that. I ran up to Jen to tell her where I was going and we agreed to meet up at the entrance after I got my new cone of ice-cream.

I returned and nodded as I followed him in; repeating the process of choosing my cone and flavours. When I had a new cone; I turned to him. “Thanks for the ice-cream.” I mumbled; not really bothered by the fact that I didn’t sound very sincere.

He didn’t seem to mind as he beamed at me. “It was no problem.” He replied. We walked side by side out of the store. He seemed nervous as he played with the fraying edge of his green t-shirt; avoiding my eyes. I didn’t mind the silence because it allowed me to wallow in self pity for a while. When we got outside; he stopped abruptly. I turned back to him. Before I could say anything, he spoke. “Do you want to go out sometime?”

I tried not to cough as I began to choke on my ice-cream. I clamped my hand with my napkin over my mouth before any of the melted ice-cream in my mouth could splash onto nerd guy. “What?” I managed to say, between coughs.

The blood rushed to his face but he seemed insistent as he asked again. “Do you want to go out sometime?”

“I have a boyfriend.” It was a lie; because technically, he hated me with a passion.

The guy seemed to be a little livid at my response; which had me a little surprised. “You don’t have to lie if you don’t want to; you could just say no!” He said; raising his voice. Maybe my assumption of this guy being friendly earlier had been a mistake.

“I’m not lying!” I snapped back; my wolf coming to the surface as she felt my agitation. I managed to keep her at bay; remembering that even though there were a few shifters around; there were humans here as well, like this increasingly annoying one in front of me who was demanding a date.

The guy ran a hand through his hair. “I knew it.” He muttered. I just stood there silently fuming as he spoke.

“What?” I demanded; narrowing my eyes at him.

“Someone like you, being so nice to me was just too good to be true.” He replied.

I crossed my arms. “What kind of person am I exactly?”

“Beautiful.” He said; like it was obvious. I was a little surprised at his response; because I honestly  did not expect him to say that, but it didn’t deflate any of my anger because compliments from some human I didn’t even know wouldn’t affect me easily

“What does that have to do with anything?!” I snapped.

“I’ve asked so many girls that were pretty but by far you’re the most gorgeous one I’ve ever seen and every single one of you has rejected me. I’m just sick of it!” He ranted. I seriously did not know what to do as I watched the human take a step towards me. Is this boy crazy? I asked. My wolf growled in response. I don’t care if he is; I want to kill him, now. She responded; her agitated tone making it obvious that she was still pissed off from the earlier bomb that Jen had dropped on us at the pizza place. We can’t, there are other humans around. I was not completely opposed to the idea of killing this guy if we were somewhere isolated; because he was seriously getting on my nerves.

“Don’t take it out on me if you’ve had a crappy love life! I don’t even know you!” I growled; letting the harsh words slip from my lips without any regard for the guy’s feelings. If he thought I was going to stand there and let some stranger yell at me for a lifetime of troubles I had no part in; he was wrong.

His eyes widened as he took in what I’d said. He looked apologetic when his brown eyes met mine. “I know but -” he closed his mouth as he pulled himself together. “Listen, can you please just go out with me?” He pleaded.

I gave him an incredulous look. “I told you, I have a-” I was still looking back at the human when I noticed the scent I would know anywhere. I felt my wolf urging me to go to the source but I kept my feet rooted to the spot; knowing that he would come to me. Even from far away; I could feel his presence. Although I couldn’t see him I could say with absolute certainty that he was there and with impossible speed he was right behind me.

“Boyfriend,” I heard Logan finish; his arms circling my waist from behind me as he crushed my body to his.