Forged in Fire (Forgotten Series, #2)

Chapter Ten

I tried to focus on the files I had stacked on my desk. I had written a report to give to the Hunters to get them off my back. I was going to give them the files I had made on each of those who had conspired against me. It was more than enough to get them off my back and keep them off it. I ran a hand through my hair. I was tired but that was my own damn fault. Despite that I found a small smile tugging on my mouth. Making a cake for my mate hadn't even crossed my mind until I found I couldn't sleep as her words bounced in my head.

My feelings aren't toys. This is my life and I won't have it played with like it's a joke.

I felt guilty about how harsh I had been to her about keeping her in the house and had remembered Mark telling me she had demanded cake. So I found myself in the kitchen mixing up a chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. A peace offering of sorts. Then Kiel had told me she had pulled a fast on him and took another swim. To be honest I had felt a bit angry that she had tried to run. I was growing attached to her as mates tended to do, so I didn't appreciate her trying to escape.

However she had been returned looking like a drowned rat and berated me in her harsh, mouthy way of speaking. She was really mouthy. I frowned and rubbed at my forehead. It was almost like a minefield of what would come out of her mouth next. Sometimes she called down your intelligence or she would say something so sarcastically that it nearly made your ears burn. My wolf didn't like it but I enjoyed her mouthiness.

And then she cried.

I hadn't been expecting that and it had made the guilt that much worse. I didn't really now what to do with a mate, let alone one who cried because of something I did. It left a sour feeling in my stomach and I honestly didn't know what to with that so I defaulted to humor. To my surprise that actually worked.

She liked the cake though.

Her face twisted with an adorable look of innocent confusion as I had set it in front of her. I could tell she hadn't really had anyone do something like that for her before. The thought of her having no one to make her cake or give into her simple and slightly silly demands hurt my chest. The little cat had been alone for a long time and it didn't sit right with me. Even if I felt alone growing up, I still had people I could rely one. I doubted she even had that.

"She's beautiful." Benji's voice pulled me out of my reverie and I looked at him with slightly wide eyes. I wasn't sure if he been talking to me the entire time or had just came int. He shook his head, offering me the answer to the question I hadn't asked. "Your mate. She is beautiful." He was sitting in the grass stained chair. Ezekiel was laying on the couch I had someone pick up from a secondhand store. He didn't care for it and grumbled in my head as he saw it but he still laid down for a nap.

"She is." I stared at Ezekiel. She had pile drove him into the marble floor before I had stopped her. I didn't approve of that but he hadn't even cared that much about it if the images he sent me were anything to go by. Their entire meaning had been basically 'You win some, you lose some. Best not to dwell.'. I preferred that to him wanting to tear her throat out.

"Why don't you want us to tell the pack?" His voice held a faint reprimand but I ignored it. I knew how it usually was with Alphas when they found their mates. It was an excuse for a large celebration but I could also see Pisică's reaction at facing such a large crowd. Panic, desperation, and stark terror. Emotions I didn't really want her to experience. Current situation aside.

"She's skittish. She obviously doesn't want a mate bond so announcing to the entire pack that she is their future will cause her to run and then where will I be? I want to develop a bond with her first." The longer the bond stayed intact the harder it would be for her to leave. It was a rather archaic and conniving way of keeping her by my side but she was resistant to the bond. Much more so than anyone I had ever heard of. I wasn't sure at what point last night I had gone from being spiteful to actually wanting her to hang around but it was there all the same. I figured it was best not to question it too much, it was simply how the bond worked, or so I believed.