Their Mate And Luna

CHAPTER 80

A POSSIBLE RIVAL

VINCE

“You don’t have to walk me inside,” she protests, as we walk towards the shop.

"You should start getting used to one of us accompanying you," I reply, pushing a stray hair away from her face. "Either me or my brother, or both."

She rolls her eyes, huffing. “I am not your sweetheart.”

“My baby then?” I suggest teasingly.

She throws me a hard sideways glare.

“Or sweet pie, sweetie?” I continue, enjoying her reaction.

She huffs louder and keeps walking.

“Or just be like Vance and call you brown eyes. We should have the same pet name for you,” Teasing her. “What do you think?”

She shakes her head as we enter the place.

“Nikki!” her aunt calls out, and they hug, then smiling at me, “Vince.”

“Aunt Mabel,” I greet her, rocking on my heels.

“Thank you for bringing her from school.”

Ignoring the big scowl on my mate’s face, I assert. “Something that will be regular from now on,” I nod at her.

After the meeting, both families decided that Nicole can’t be left unguarded in the pack.

“Can we get two of the afternoon special?” I request eagerly, anticipating how I’ll feed Nicole.

“Coming right up, Alpha,” Mabel smiles at her niece before walking away.

“Come on,” I offer my hand to Nicole.

“I will go help her prepare…” Nicole starts to leave.

“No you’re not. We’re having lunch together,” I insist.

“Look, I don’t want to have lunch with you.”

“But I do,” I insist again, relishing this rebellious streak of hers. “I want to have lunch with my mate.

She scoffs, rolling her eyes.

“Don’t do that, sweetheart,” I warn her, raising a brow. “It makes you look so eatable.”

Her face flushes deep red, and she quickly turns away, clutching her bag to her chest.

“Too late, sweetheart. I saw your face and heard your heart beating thunderously,” I whisper behind her, holding her arms.

Her skin is so smooth and soft. Feels like butter.

“I wonder where else is smooth too,” Ares chimes in.

“You’re not helping, dude.”

“I am helping. Just go with the flow,” he advises.

“Flow?”

“Can’t you see what we are doing?”

“What are we doing?”

Ares chuckles. “Really?” he scoffs. “We are seducing her, idiot.”

“What?” That wasn’t my intention.

“Blame it on the bond if you want to, but I like it,” he insists.

Nicole shrugs my hands off, facing me. “Nothing is wrong with my face and heart.”

Ares chuckles loudly in my head. “She’s so adorable when she’s lying like this.”

“Indeed,” I agree with him, then saying to Nicole. “If you say so. Let’s find a table. Come on.” I place my hand on the curve of her back as I guide her to an empty table, private enough for me.

“How was school?” I ask once we’re seated.

“Fine.”

“Did anyone trouble you?” I know there nothing happened.

She meets my eyes briefly before looking away. “You mean your brother’s girlfriend’s twin sister?”

I release a quiet laugh, biting my lips. “She’s no longer his girlfriend. You know that.”

“She was once.” She reminds me, and I see the pain that flashes through her eyes, causing a constriction in my chest.

A heavy, melancholic silence hangs between us as we await our food. This gives me a good opportunity to study her closely.

“Where is he?” she asks softly, a hint of longing in her voice.

“He’s busy,” I reply, sensing a shift in her emotions.

She nods, wrapping her hands around her, releasing an aura of sadness. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Go on.”

“Why does he smell like that?” her eyes meet mine with a coldness that can only be her wolf’s. The amber color of her eyes blazing with raw fire.

She’s indeed the Firewolf.

“We don’t know yet,” I lie. How do I tell her the truth? “We are working on it. He’s concerned too,” I add, gauging her reaction. “Your mate…”

“Stop calling him my mate,” she interjects sharply, her gaze fierce. She breaks our gaze to look out of the window.

“That’s what we are to you, Nicole,” I stubbornly retort. No way am I letting her think for once that she can get away from us. Has she found another mate? I make a mental note to speak to Tim about it, to find out if Savvy has any insights.

“Yet you rejected me without giving me a chance,” she accuses, swallowing hard and blinking away the tears I can see settling on her lid. “You were ashamed of me. Thought of me as unworthy of being your mate,” anger and sadness decorate her words as she looks back at me. “How can an omega be our mate? Isn’t that the question you both asked that day?”

This isn’t going as I had hoped. I just wanted to have lunch with her. “Sweetheart…”

“Don’t call me that,” she cuts me off with a glare, the fire in her eyes spreading out.

Sighing deeply, I spread my palms out in surrender. “I am sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t erase the events of that day from my memory. No amount of apologies from you or your brother can erase that part of my life away. Ever,” she declares with a raw honesty that pierces through me.

Her aunt arrives with a waiter in tow, breaking the tension between us and shifting our attention to the food as it is arranged on the table.

“Nikki,” the waiter addresses her cheerfully, a bit too enthusiastically for my liking.

“Ben?” she furrows her brows, noticing his presence. “You work here now?”

“Yeah. Your aunt needs an extra hand,” he chuckles, feasting his eyes on her, his gaze lingering too long for my comfort. Maybe I should let his face feast on my fist when he finishes feasting on her. “And I already love it here.” He adds, his eyes say more than his love for working here.” Eyeing her brazenly.

“Don’t be so sure of that. You just started,” Nicole quips, smiling at him.

Why can’t she smile at me like that? Or laugh that way with me?

“Well, I have you to make it great,” Ben gushes out, punching her shoulder lightly.

That’s enough for me. I clear my throat and fix him a hard glare as all eyes turn to me.

“Al…Alpha,” he stammers when he finally notices me.

Did he truly not see me?

“I am so insignificant that you didn’t notice me, Ben?” I grow lowly at, Ares throwing out his aura to reflect the disrespect a lower-ranked male wolf just showed him.

“I am sorry, Alpha. I got carried away seeing her…” he bows his head in submission. “It won’t happen again.”

“That will be all. You may leave,” I growl lowly at him, my gaze following him till he’s out of sight.

“So sorry about that, Alpha,” Mabel hurriedly apologises.

“It’s okay, Aunt Mabel,” my expression softening at her. “Thanks for the food.”

“Enjoy,” she smiles back before leaving.

“You didn’t have to be so mean,” Nicole scolds me once we’re alone.

I raise a brow as I pick up my burger. “Did you not see how he was looking at you?” Did she not see it?

He may not be her mate, but he was still a male. One that had his eyes on her. My mate. I don’t want to break the bones of a pack member. I say to myself about to bite my burger.

“How? He looked at me the same way he always does,” she retorts defensively.

I pause, my brows breaking into a deep frown as I look at her. “He’s always looked at you that way?”

She shrugs. “Yes. We have been in almost the same classes in school since we were little. Why the question? It’s not any of your business.”

My appetite vanishes as I drop my burger back on the plate a with more force than I intended.

“What? Are you not hungry anymore?” she asks.

How could I have an appetite when another male wolf has been eyeing my mate for years. I rejected her when there was someone already pining for her. How foolish could I be?

“Vince,” I reach out to him in the link.

“What?” he responds boringly.

“We’ve got a problem. A huge one.”

“Bigger than Kaden?” he growls.

“Could be if we don’t act fast,” yeah, if we don’t act fast, she could fall for that Ben. He was already in love with her.

“What is it?”

“She has an admirer in the pack.”

“What?!” his fury reverberates through the walls of our mindlink. “Who is he? Is he someone we know? How close is he to her?”

“A fellow student. They’ve been in almost the same classes for years.”

Vance growls louder.

“Hello? You’re spacing out again like in the car,” Nicole breaks into our conversation.

“I’ll talk to you later. She’s talking to me,” I cut him off and focus on my mate. “Sorry, I was answering a link from a pack member.”

“Is everything alright?” her eyes widen in concern.

“Yes, nothing serious,” I reassure her with a smile.

We sit in silence, neither of us touching our food.