Reuben POV
She was pissed at me, I get it. But now wasn’t the time to be irrational. As soon as I saw her drive off I knew I needed to follow her, just me. She couldn’t command me, not the way she can Noah. I was the only one stronger than her.
I followed my gut instinct, trying to listen to the pull of the mate bond to find her. I let it guide me, putting my trust in it as I reached road junctions.
Soon enough, and surprised it actually worked, I found her two cars ahead of me at a set of traffic lights.
As the lights turned green I kept my distance at first until I overtook the car ahead and cut in front of it. Only leaving one car in-between us. Her driving was less erratic as last time yet still too fast for my liking.
She was definitely pushing over the speed limit and I wanted to shout at her for being so reckless. But then she was a werewolf and could heal better than humans so the likelihood of her being injured in a car crash was low. But still, just the thought of her getting hurt made me step down harder on the gas pedal.
I was too close to the dickhead in front as he slammed on his breaks, causing me to do the same. Only just missing out in a car crash. I hear a car horn and I realise Evelyn stopped, she put her emergency breaks on almost causing a mass car pile up. She drives the car slowly onto the pavement, letting the incensed driver move around her.
I pull up on the pavement behind her just as she steps out of her car and walks over with a small pocket knife in her hand.
What the actual fuck? She slices the knife through my front driver tyre forcing me to get out of the car to confront her.
“What the hell?” I growl, my hands on my head looking at my poor car sink lower with each slash she delivers to each tyre. “You aren’t following me Reuben.” She folds her pocket knife and walks back to her car.
Not so fast. I grab her elbow and push her against her own car door.
“What’s your plan huh?”
“Fuck off Reuben.”
“Don’t talk to me like that.” I growl at her, getting in her face. “Are you alright love?” A human man winds down his window giving me a look of disdain before only having eyes for Evelyn.
“Do you need some help love?” He asks Evelyn, his eyes looking through me completely.
“She’s fine but if you call her love one more time, you’ll be the one needing help!” I release my aura onto him, which should make his survivor instinct kick in. Drive the fuck along.
“Reuben…” She gasps and I look back at her. She places a hand on my cheek to reduce my aura.
“Thank you, I’m quite fine.” She manages to smile at the human, who is eyeing her too intently for my liking.
Thankfully for him he takes the hint and drives away. I really didn’t want to get into a fight with a big built human driving a pick up truck, thinking he was the fucking king of men.
“Looks like I’m with you sweetheart.” I smirk opening the drivers door and taking the keys out of the ignition. I intend to drive from now on.
“Looks like I’m walking then!”
Remind me never to cross her again. She can sure hold a grudge against me.
“Evelyn, please…get in the car.” I try to plead with her but she starts to walk on the pavement. I loved the way she didn’t fall at my feet, that she wasn’t afraid to stand up against me. She refused to back down when I challenged her. Everyone has always agreed with me, but not her.
“Evelyn, get in the car!” Like now, she needed to get in the car and I was losing my temper, but I found it hard to be annoyed with her for too long.
“You think I’d go anywhere with you after that photo?”
“For goddess sake woman! It is fake, clearly sent to stir up trouble between us. Use your fucking head….think strategically rather than running off into danger.” My tone showing just how exasperated she was making me.
It seems to work, she glares at me until she is first to break eye contact. She doesn’t even try to get into the driver’s seat. She opens the front passenger side and takes a seat. At first I pause. Do I really want to be in the car with a cross female and a pocket knife?
“I’ve got somewhere to be!” Her sarcastic tone reaches me and I have to bite down on my tongue not to come back with a smart reply.
As soon as I step into the car I unhook her phone out of the car’s media system and replace it with mine.
“What are you doing?” She asks as I unlock her phone by placing it to her face. Damn it. She really wasn’t as well protected as she thought. I didn’t use Face ID just in case I was knocked unconscious and someone made off with my phone having unlocked it.
As soon as I had access to her phone I found her text from Donnie and placed his location into my phone which also showed up on the Sat Nav system.
“Do you know this is definitely Donnie?” I glance sideways at her.
“Yes of course….”
“So you’ve spoken to him?”
Silence.
“No then…” I growl, squeezing my hands firming around the steering wheel.
“Evelyn, it could be a trap. You need to think more clearly.”
We had been driving for around thirty minutes in completed silence. She even refused to look my way, keeping her face turned to the passenger window looking out at the human homes that seemed to be more interesting than looking at me. If I couldn’t hear her heartbeat I would of thought she had lost interest in me but I could tell she was fighting every urge in her body to not glance this way.
An incoming call from Nate finally makes her look my way.
“Nate?” I answer immediately.
“Alpha, the photo is a fake for sure…”
Of course it fucking was.
“…our IT can confirm the image has been photoshopped.”
“It’s sender?” I press for the vital bit of information. “They are still working on it but they’ve traced it to a financial firm in the capital. I’ll keep you posted!”
“Thanks Nate.”
“Are the kids okay?” Evelyn finally talks, asking Nate before I cut the call. “They are absolutely fine Alpha. Cassandra and I are keeping an eye on them.”
“Okay thanks Nate.”
“Of course.”
He cuts the call and I find myself jealous of my own beta. For the friendly way she spoke to him, yet she refuses to speak to me.
I’ve had enough of this. I pull off the road and pull the car up a side road, before finally stopping.
“What are you doing?” She looks at me with an uncertainty in her expression.
“I preferred the sarcasm and the shouting rather than this silence.” I boldly place my hand on her thigh. She was still wearing those tight yoga pants from earlier which left nothing to the imagination.
“We haven’t got time for this!”
“If you are right and it is Donnie, and he has been able to keep this guy sweet overnight then adding another ten minutes onto our journey isn’t going to make a difference. Talk to me.”
She lets out a big sigh and I realise she hadn’t been breathing properly.
As soon as she places her hand on top of mine I use the opportunity to pull her towards me so that she is sitting on top of me in the driver’s seat.
“Reuben!” She gasps at my sudden movement.
“That’s better. I told you it was a fake. I wouldn’t do that to you, you drive me insane. It takes all my effort not to mark you.”
“It does?” She looks at me, those bright green eyes of her suddenly brighter and wider.
“Why do you think I took a shower…”
She was so close to me all I had to do was grab her throat with my hand, pull her neck towards me and mark her. That’s all it would take for her to be mine. But I knew she’d never forgive me for taking that choice away from her.
She had already rejected the Luna position even when I didn’t know she was the destined Luna. Knowing now, that’s how I felt it. Felt the rejection. She wasn’t marked but the mate bond was twisted enough to know that’s what she was meant to be. I wouldn’t admit it to her, but if she rejected me I’d be lost. I couldn’t cope with another female leaving me too soon.
“I’m sorry Reuben, I just assumed…”
“That I was a pig.”
“That you were a pig.” She chuckles, her face starting to bring out that warmth in her again.
My heart sprung to life to see her smiling again and to know that I had caused it. I glance at her trying to decipher that strong barrier of hers. Her earlier silence and the screaming at me in her office was part of her barrier, a barrier that I was only starting to tear down.
A barrier that was easy for her to keep up than keep down. I used to think Vicky was strong but I could see now that Evelyn is the strongest person I know. I’ve betrayed her in the past, her parents were killed because of who I am and yet she was still willing to let me in. That took a strength I don’t think anyone could possess.
“What are you doing?” She whispers as I place my fingers to her face. She involuntarily closes her eyes as a soft moan sounds from the back of her throat. I could feel the sparks on my finger tips which were no doubt leaving tingles in their wake.
My fingers continue until they are on her neck. I pull her face close to me and place a sensual slow kiss on her lips, imprinting my lip’s mark into her memory. I let her feel my feelings towards her through the kiss, her own lips trying to speed it up, but I refuse. I wanted her to show I could be more than just desire, I could be the man she relies on most.
The one that would never let her down again. Her phone starts to ring forcing us to break apart.
“Donnie?” She answers it, placing it on speakerphone.
“Alpha, I’m going to have to knock him out.” His voice a hushed tone. “We are coming. Ask him what he wants, I’ll pay it.” I demand down the phone.
