Chapter 3

ZAVIER CROSS

The obese woman’s hand trembled from its lock in my iron grip as I hesitated, before shaking her loose and watching the broad jowls of her face puff and redden in embarrassment as she stumbled away.

“M-my apologies Mr. Cross, I didn't realize...Dear God,” The woman wheezed, whipping her head back and forth between me and the lady before she trailed off, spasming as the estate wives rushed to catch her.

I turned to see that the curly-haired girl with the razor tongue was watching me curiously, her green eyes meeting mine boldly.

“You didn't have to do that,” The girl muttered blithely, much to my surprise as I stifled a derisive snort.

Well, riddle me color blind! If I hadn't stepped in when I did, I had no doubt the round woman would have leveled her.

I opened my mouth to respond to Raini’s less-than-enthusiastic greeting before a bright-eyed blonde woman cut me off.

She was the leggy one I had seen prowling the grounds like a hungry lion looking to devour young, robust chicks.

“Mr. Cross! Oh, I can't believe that you're here! If you would-” She started in a high-pitched squeal that made my wolf itch to backhand her into the counter, until I controlled it, settling instead for a polite nod and sidestepping her to hand the embossed gold of my calling card to the baleful-looking woman.

“Congratulations, you won the raffle draw, call me on this. Today.” I pressed, letting my eyes drag over the supple skin of her slender legs and full hips as a pang of desire stirred in my loins.

No, not yet, not now.

The search for my mate had taken a healthy chunk of my sanity, and I hadn't intended on blowing my cover so soon and announcing the strange girl as my mate.

Ingrid would have a hard time with the PR, but I found that I didn't care much, something about the way she looked at me, like she hated that I breathed the very same air as she did but didn't intend on telling me. It made me WANT to mate her faster than she had advised.

I’d broken the no-contact rule as it were.

Dammit Zavier, if that wasn't sad I couldn't tell what was. I was aware of the eyes watching us. Of the mask of indifference I had placed carefully over my face slipping.

My heart pounded dully in my chest as the woman’s cold fingers laced through my own to carry the card, and I watched her head snap back up to me with a tight-lipped smile before I nodded dutifully, bowing low to the crowd of onlookers who let out gasps of surprise and storming out of the building, their searching eyes burning holes in my back.

Raini Laverne was different, the thought made heat bloom in my chest as I uncurled my fists from their deadlock beside me, raking a frustrated hand through my hair.

The sleek silver coffin of my Lamborghini hummed to life in my hands as I fishtailed out of the lot, weaving between the bullets of cars that shot past and around the stretch of asphalt.

“Fucking hell,” I groaned, feeling the sharp points of my fangs press into the line of my lips almost painfully as the well of pain opened up in my head again, and I dug my fingers into the throb in my temples.

“Shit, shit, shit on my goddamn soul,” I cursed bitterly, catching the luminous bulbs of my gray eyes in the rearview mirror just as they turned yellow, the color of my werewolf.

This was it, I couldn't hold out until I reached the brass-gold gates of the manor!

I shuddered the car into the line of trees, feeling my stomach bounce and shift under me as I ambled the car to a stop, leaping out to glance about the quiet forest.

My heart knocked against my ribs anxiously as I jogged deeper into the trees, far enough in the pines to have broken sight with whoever happened to be following.

“Gahh!” I roared, feeling the iron muscles of my back weave around my spine as it tore through the skin of my back making me let out an ear-splitting roar, gritting my teeth as my bones stretched and snapped back into frame.

“Saints,” I groaned, bracing myself against the harsh bark of trees as the writhing of the shift ebbed and I took a deep, shuddering breath, glancing around to see that the sky had darkened in the time it took me to recover from the transformation.

I was running out of time. The shifts were getting more erratic, my thoughts were a messy blur of rage and desire, I was losing it!

“Dammit Zavier, what are you gonna do?” I wheezed breathlessly, circling the clearing to make my way back to the car, feeling significantly weaker than I was before.

The moon goddess had mated my woman to my half-brother as well, the thought made me bark a bitter laugh.

I couldn't trust fate to bring the olive-skinned woman to me, not when destiny had fucked me over my entire life.

I needed to make sure Raini Laverne did mot get away, i needed to make her fall so in love with me Toph would be nothing but an unpleasant dream, but somehow, i doubted my brother would let me do that. He would fight it, that much was certain.

I only prayed the fragile-looking woman with angry eyes was strong enough to withstand being torn for possession between two brutal princes.

“God-fucking-dammit, when will this nightmare end?” I growled under my breath, snapping the seeking wood of a tree branch out of my way and stilling in hesitation to listen to the sound of my own breathing.

Was it just me? Or had the forest gotten quieter? I could have sworn I hadn't so much as heard a single cricket song in the time I had been wading through the trees.

I shook my head after peering curiously into the shifting shadows in the grooves of the bent trees, unable to puzzle out what I was looking at.

“Well, If it isn’t Zavier Cross, Alpha King of the chipmunks,” The throaty baritone of the man’s drawl came behind me so that I jerked to a stop, the hairs on the back of my neck rising as I turned slowly and snapped my gaze up to the large, minotaur-like man that had been sitting, half-hidden in the leafy umbrella of the trees.