Kiss With A Fist

I couldn’t put words to what came over me when Cody attacked Rose - verbally or otherwise. Especially for something that wasn’t her fault.

I couldn’t begin to explain what caused me to take the blame. 

I couldn’t stand that I proclaimed that I made a bad call. I don’t make bad calls - Cody got that part right - but sending her away had been an excellent call. My focus wouldn’t have left her if she had been there, and there was no predicting what damage that would have caused. Quite literally, a life hung in the balance. And that life was one that was very important to my Alpha, meaning I was obligated to protect the girl. 

My mate would come first, though. At least until I rejected her. So she couldn’t be around me when I needed to do my job. My job, my being, was not safe, and I needed to keep her safe. 

I was rejecting her to keep her safe, I decided. It was selfless. Maybe that would placate my wolf. 

It had surprised me when she showed her face in the impromptu meeting. I watched her closely out of the corner of my eye - watched her pretend she wasn’t watching me. 

Alo pushed me to follow her when she left with Lya. I could already tell my wolf and I were in for quite a battle of wills. Instead, I stayed seated in front of Cody’s desk, not trusting where my feet would lead me if I got up. 

“Stay away from Rose,” Cody muttered, keeping his eyes on the paperwork in front of him.

I cocked an eyebrow at him, suppressing a growl. Who was he to tell me to stay away from what was mine? 

“I know you,” he said, finally glancing up. “A girl like her, I know what your interests would be.”

I blinked a few times. “Oh? And what makes you so certain I have any interest in her? Last I checked, meek little viking princesses aren’t exactly my type.”

“She’s not your mate,” Cody scoffed. “That’s exactly your type.”

I rolled my eyes, allowing the unspoken affirmation that Cody’s assessment was correct. She had to have been far enough away by this point. “She seems like the type that would get clingy.”

“A bit of stability isn’t a bad thing,” he called after me as I made my exit. 

I breathed out a sigh once outside, deciding to go for a run to clear my mind. Once in the treeline behind the training field, I shifted quickly, unfortunately picking up on the scent I was trying to stay away from.

‘Great minds think alike.’

I shut out my wolf, selfishly taking up the time to enjoy primal instinct as just me. It was a gross mistake, though. The primal points could only think of her. I was drawn to her like a magnet, and I found myself staying just out of sight, just out of scenting range, but close enough. I couldn’t dare get closer. 

She kept looking over her shoulder. I could only imagine her wolf realized they were being followed - and probably knew it was me, too - but wasn’t alerting the human counterpart. I smirked. My little bunny didn’t even realize she was being hunted. 

I shook my head, trying to rid my brain of all the thoughts of what I could do to her once caught, starting with stripping away every ounce of innocence she exuded. 

She led us to where she initially shifted. I urged my bones to rearrange, quickly finding some clothes. I didn’t even feel bad for my voyeurism as I watched her do the same. Just steps before exiting the treeline was when I finally made my presence known. 

“Bunny,” I growled. A bit of smugness bubbled up when I noticed how quickly my presence could affect her. She didn’t move, even though I could tell all her senses were telling her to run. “Look at me.”

She turned quickly. I stood so close she nearly hit me with her hair. 

“What do you want?” she snapped, her attitude catching me off guard. 

“I just want to talk,” I said, imploring her for just a bit of grace. Instead, she just crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one foot. “You know we won’t work.”

“No, actually, I don’t know that,” she hissed. “Last I checked, your mate was the one who was the perfect balance for you, not someone to push away and ignore.”

“I never wanted a mate,” I bit back. “You’d get more out of a chosen mate than with me.” 

The hurt flashed across her face, wanting me to take back the words. I swallowed down my wolf’s attempts to soothe the pain she felt. “Rose, I reject you as my mate.” 

I felt the stinging sensation of the mate bond coming alive, preparing to sever. All she needed to do was accept, and we would be free and clear. This chapter of my story would be over, just a blip on the radar. The silence extended, though, and her response did not come. 

Instead, her eyes hardened. She took a step closer, eyes locked with mine. “No.”

“Wh-what?” I laughed dryly. “You can’t just say no.”

“Well, I did,” Rose snarled. “No, Liam, I do not accept your rejection. You are my mate, and I refuse to let you out of something so important so easily.”

I looked at her, dumbfounded. This wasn’t a side of my bunny I was prepared for. “You would seriously like to have a mate who doesn’t want you rather than move on and find a semblance of love with someone else.”

“No, not at all!” she laughed. It was never good when girls laughed when angry. “But there are a lot of things I don’t want that I have lived with. We’ll add this to the list.”

Rose turned to walk away, but I grabbed her arm, pulling her back. She wasn’t going to get off that easily if she was going to make this hell for the both of us. 

“Why?”

“Why?” she asked, as if it were a dubious question. “Why not?”

And then the little vixen truly did the last thing I expected. 

Rose grabbed the shirt I had found, fisting it tightly and yanking me forward by it. She was tall for a she-wolf, but she could still barely reach, even standing on her toes. Her lips crashed into mine, sending a wrecking ball through all of my mental reserve. The fire was consuming, licking across my skin and causing me to melt into her. It was not of my accord that my arms slipped out, grasping her around the waist to keep her body pressed as close as possible and a hand latched in her hair, keeping her lips from leaving mine. The kiss reached a fever pitch, my lips now moving against hers with a bruising force. 

I wasn’t prepared when Rose shoved me away from her and stepped back, showing more restraint than I had. She didn’t spare me a second glance, nearly running away from me. 

My eyes and feet did not move even a millimeter until she had been gone for longer than I wanted to mention.