Talons

Chapter 106: The Bags

Colton's POV

With Jamal gone, I turn to my mate whose scowl has been replaced by an expression of uncertainty. I take a calming breath and take her bags from her, surprised that she even let me.

As I'm arranging them in my hands, my eyes get pulled toward the one from the lingerie store and then the one from the children's clothing store.

"She's ready," Orlin says excitedly, and while my heart is racing, it must be a mistake.

Rhea can barely look at me, in fact, she isn't even looking at me right now. 

"Then how do you explain it?" Orlin asks. "Why would she buy those things if she isn’t planning to use them with me?" I don't have an answer for my wolf, but I don't think Rhea is planning to use anything with us. 

Still, I decide it's best for us to go home. If I'm wrong and he's right, I want to get back to the place where it's likely going to happen.

I link my betas and I tell my mate to follow me out of the mall. She looks slightly disappointed but when I ask her about it, she doesn't say anything. Something tells me that she hasn't finished shopping, so I promise her that we will visit the mall again and I also promise that we can make a quick stop at a big-box store.

I want her to get the food and toiletries that she needs because while having her smell like my soap is okay, it makes me imagine her in the shower, and I don’t need any reminders of how long it's been since I’ve been with a woman.

I can't say that Rhea smiled with my words, but the look of sadness that had been on her face was replaced by a neutral expression. I know she is still wary of me, and truthfully, I can tell she is trying her best right now. 

I think back to the past and she would never have stood anywhere near me. If I walked into a room she would leave, and when my desire to torment her was at its highest point, I remember having to seek her out.

"That is all in the past,"  Orlin says. "She won’t have to hide from us anymore. We will protect our mate."  My wolf is desperate, and I can feel it. 

There were more males following my mate than we had realized, and even now, some of them are still trailing us, likely trying to see if I leave her alone again. This mall is very close to the Four Corners Alliance territory, and there is no way that at least some of the wolves around don’t recognize me. 

Beyond that, they should be able to sense my rank and title. The fact that they are ignoring their natural instinct to stay away from me lets me know that, like Jamal said, my mate is special, and I should watch her closely.

We get to my car and my betas are already waiting for us. Mandy has a bag from a bookstore, and Carter is carrying everything else. Like my mate, they also stopped at the children's clothing store, only they didn’t buy as much as she did.

I open the trunk and start putting my mate’s bags inside. She held onto the ones with baby clothes, which is good since I don’t want to mix anything up. I can see the way Mandy is looking at the things Rhea bought and I'm more than sure her mind is going to the same place my mind went. 

Like me, she knows that I cannot be the reason her cousin bought baby clothes, but just as her mouth opens, we hear a soft voice calling out my mate's name and her head snaps in its direction. 

Just from the accent alone, I know it’s Luna Mavis, and I glare at Mandy, who must have contacted the woman. 

My mate allowed her emotion to take over, and she went to sprint to her mother, but I grabbed her waist to stop her, and she looked up at me with a tearful expression.

“Sh*t,” I say. I swear her puppy dog eyes are breaking my heart, and despite my reservations, I give in. “You have five minutes,” I continue. 

I couldn’t stand to see my mate look at me like that. She looked so desperate, so pleading that it was like she was silently begging me. 

Rhea runs to her mother, and she embraces the woman who kisses her all over her face. Soon I see her father exit his vehicle, and I intuitively know that he stayed in the car to watch the interaction between his daughter and I.

I don’t blame the man, and I genuinely hope he and I can reconcile at some point. He is a little more passive than I would like, but he was always a good alpha. His pack trusted him, he kept them safe and prosperous, and when he handed things over to Lark, early might I add, all his son needed to do was keep the flow going. 

After being squeezed by her father in a vice-like hug, Rhea and her mother start speaking in Spanish and now I wish Holly had come with us. I don't know what my mate is saying, but it doesn’t look like it’s anything bad. 

Luna Mavis takes a step back from her daughter and inspects her from head to toe. She then pulls my mate in for another hug, and something tells me that she was pleased with her daughter's physical appearance. 

I’m so glad that I allowed her to wear that dress because, while I hate how sexy she looks in it, I can’t deny that she looks good, and apparently neither can her parents. 

The five minutes pass, and I call out to my mate, who releases her mother. She starts heading back to me, but instead of getting in the car, she picks up the bag she dropped and starts walking back to her parents, putting me on edge. 

I grab her arm, not understanding what's going on. I’m not being rough, but I’m terrified, so I can’t say that I’m being gentle. I don’t know what my mate and her mother were talking about, and while her parents are under oath not to take her away, there’s nothing preventing them from helping her get away from me.

“I-I have h-have g-gifts for my nephews. I-I want to give them to my mother.” I release my mate. She didn’t say anything wrong but all the excitement I was feeling about her purchases had drained away. 

I don't know why I thought she was going to sleep with me tonight or why I thought that the baby clothes were for our pups, but I was obviously wrong. 

"But there's still the lingerie," Orlin reminds me, and he has a point. 

I watch Rhea hand the gifts over to her mother and give both her parents another long hug. She whispers something to them, and they nod, but it wasn’t a regular nod. It was almost like a soldier acknowledging a command, and I start to feel like she’s planning something.

Rhea’s POV

While following Colton out of the mall my mind was working in overdrive. That man said he used a glamor on me, and it didn’t work, which is confusing. I haven’t received training to ignore a glamor, nor have I trained myself.

"You weren’t compelled because your mind was occupied." I nod at Sylvia’s theory, and when I bring myself back into the present, we are standing in front of Colton's car. 

Mandy is looking from me to my bags, and while I know I went a little overboard, it really wasn’t that much. She must be forgetting that I needed everything from workout clothing to pajamas.

As Colton is putting my things in the trunk, I hear my mother’s voice and without thinking my legs start moving. Colton catches me, and I beg him with my eyes to let me go. 

I’m surprised when he does, and Sylvia tells me that I should use the opportunity to build a little trust between us. 

When it's time for me to leave, I need to be able to do so alone, and at the rate he and I are going, he will follow me everywhere. 

My mother showers me in kisses, and then I see my father, who smothers me in a hug. I miss my parents so much and it has only been a few days. 

In the past, I never really felt the distance between us, but now I feel like I haven’t seen them in years. I’m literally a half hour drive away, but it feels so much more than that.

Switching into Spanish, I tell my mother that I’m fine. I explain what's going on, and after she examines my body, she seems satisfied that I’m physically unharmed. She tells me to be careful with Colton, giving me pointers on how to keep him calm, and I find myself nodding along. 

I don’t feel the bond, but he does; which means his wolf will be pushing for him to mark me, and I will use my mother’s advice to keep that from happening.

When five minutes elapses, Colton calls out to me, and I return to the car. I suddenly remember the gifts I bought and pick up the bags I hadn’t realized I dropped. I start to bring them over to my mother, but I’m stopped.

I explain myself to Colton who looks hurt as he releases me. Could he be angry that I didn’t buy him anything or is he still upset that I didn’t allow him to pay for my things?

Giving my parents another set of hugs, I whisper for them to wait for me. They nod, knowing that like them, I have been replaying the rejection hearing in my mind constantly. Alpha Newt may have been ‘thorough,’ but he left many grey areas, and my parents are exploiting one of them right now.

I walk backward as I head back to the car, flashing a smile at my parents, who look like they don't want to let me go.

This is easier than I thought it would be, and I’m more than sure it has something to do with what my mother said to me at the rejection hearing.

I love my family and I always will, but part of me broke that day, and I’m not sure I can ever get it back.

I turn to see Colton standing at the rear door, and I enter the car.

“Thank you,” I whisper to Mandy.