Page 5 of Her Shifter Pack
I groaned and ran a frazzled hand through my hair. “Ollie... shit...” I turned back the way I’d come. I’d been at the bar, about to buy a drink for a woman dripping with lust, but I’d had an urge to leave her and go find my brother.
Stupid move. Stupid, stupid move.
But even now, with the knowledge that if I bolted back to the bar, the same woman would be there waiting for me with a hot smile and an even hotter body, I couldn’t do it.
I had to stay with Ollie. Every instinct in my gut told me not to abandon my brother at this moment.
I took off at a run, catching up with him a block down. “Wait up!”
Ollie didn’t slow down, but I could tell he heard me. He was sniffing the air, following a scent.
“Can you sense her?” I asked, getting ready to shift and run despite the city environment. We would hunt her down and demand to know who she was. Surely, she’d be a shifter too. Maybe a woman from a pack outside the city?
I’d never seen her before. Not at a city pack gathering, nor any of the full moon parties we’d attended. We would have definitely noticed her. She was seriously hot.
Ollie dropped his chin and stared straight at me. “No. I think she’s gone.”
“Gone?” I repeated. “She can’t just disappear.”
My brother’s eyebrows drew together. “She was running away from that guy at the diner. She was scared.”
“So, she’s hiding?” I scoffed. “Not likely. That chick was tough! And probably a shifter too, if you think she’s your mate. What human would punch a guy that big?”
Ollie stared at me like I’d gone crazy, his eyes as round as the moon.
“What?” I demanded, unable to ignore the way his expression flared with anger.
“She’s not a shifter, Mark. She’s a human, and she’s afraid. And she’s our mate, not just mine. How many times can you be fucking wrong in the same sentence?”
The fury I kept a lid on most of the time began to boil inside me. “Hey. Back off. I followed you because I felt bad you left and wanted to keep you company. I could be on my way home with some woman, but instead I’m here listening to you bitch and moan.”
Ollie stepped closer until we were practically nose to nose. He was a few inches shorter than me, but it didn’t stop him from glaring straight into my eyes.
“Fuck off, Markus. I mean it. Go! You wanna be balls deep in some stranger’s pussy every night of the week, then do it. I don’t give a shit anymore.”
Then he walked away.
I gaped as I watched him go, then yelled out, “You say that like it’s a bad thing!”
Dickhead.
I turned in the opposite direction to Ollie and marched back toward the bar. Who the hell was he to judge me? Men didn’t do that to each other.
My friends honestly didn’t give a shit if I was married or single. Fucking my way through the entire town or celibate. That wasn’t what we judged each other on.
But Ollie and this stupid fucking perfect pairs bullshit...
A growl rolled through my chest and my hands clenched into tight fists. “Damn it... grr...” I forced my legs to walk faster.
I didn’t want to settle down. I didn’t want a mate. Hell, I wasn’t sure I even wanted kids. Every time I heard one of them cry or saw a pregnant woman, I shuddered.
That just wasn’t the life for me. I was sure of it.
I froze mid-stride, the sweetest scent I’d ever smelled filling my nose and teasing my senses. “What the...”
I looked around, searching for the source of the deliciousness. A couple walked by, and I sniffed loudly.
The guy shot me a look, and I shook my head and moved in the opposite direction. It wasn’t them.