Mine to Protect Chapter 32: NUISANCE

*Derek*

I run after her and catch her by her arm just as she reaches the exit.

“Stop! We need to talk!” I half plead; half command her.

“Now you want to talk?! A little too late for that. And I have nothing to say to you anyway.”

Her voice is all raspy for crying, but not even that takes the edge off the poison in her tone.

She tries to wrench her arm free, but I don’t let her. The hell I am letting her leave me like this.

“Let go of me!” she all but yells at me, with all the power she can muster.

I lose my patience; I bend down and place her on my shoulder like a sack of potatoes and start walking towards the packhouse. She doesn’t go willingly, kicking, screaming, and punching all the way to and through the packhouse, until I reach my bedroom and lock us inside.

I place her back on her feet, and she immediately tries to unlock the door to flee from the room.

“You’ll need my thumbprint to unlock it, so unless you are planning on cutting my thumb off, I suggest you sit down, and we talk things out like adults.”

She eyes my thumb for a second, then huffs and sits down on one armchair, her hand massaging her wrist.

I crouch down in front of her and take her thin wrist in my hand, checking it for injuries, “Did you get hurt?” I ask her concerned.

She hurriedly takes her wrist back, pressing it tight to her body, like she is afraid I am going to do something to it.

“What are you going to do to me?” she asks, her eyes full of fear, her chest heaving.

It hurts that she is so afraid of me. When have I ever hurt her to make her fear me so much?

I take a step back, giving her some space.

“I just want to talk to you,” I say calmly, “Why would you think I want to harm you? I am not a brute.”

She gives me a pointed look, “You just brought me cavemen style all the way here, against my will; and you did threaten me to punish me more than once. How is that not being a brute?”

“You wouldn’t stop or listen to me; you left me no choice. About the punishment, I haven’t gone through with that, have I? And it wouldn’t be something that actually hurts you.”

“How would spanking my ass not hurt me?” she yells, jumping up from her seat.

“Sit down!” I command. I have no more patience for her tantrums. “Some would find spanking quite arousing; pleasure and pain go hand in hand,” I say trying to let her understand that I am not planning on hurting her, quite the contrary, if she’d let me.

She looks at me appalled, like I am some kind of psycho. It’s better if I change this topic immediately, before I dig myself a deeper grave.

“I am sorry I misunderstood you just now; I jumped right to the wrong conclusion, and it wasn’t fair to you. I should have let you explain first.”

She does not seem relieved by my words in the least, she still looks majorly pissed, and I don’t know what else I can say to change it.

“I think you misunderstood, Alpha,” she says in an icy tone, calling me Alpha on purpose again; it is an act of defiance that annoys me to no end, but I let her continue without interrupting her.

“I am not angry because you thought I am a whore; I find nothing wrong with that profession. I wouldn’t sign up for it myself, but that does not mean that I look down on people who earn their money that way, as long as they do it willingly, not coerced by others. I am angry because you werewolves go on and on about this mate bond, which is supposed to be this kind of deep unwavering limitless love, instead, just now, you looked at me with disgust and left me there like you didn’t want to have anything to do with me. In front of Cindy, of all people, who has been forced by her father into prostitution.”

I bow my head down in shame, she is right, I haven’t thought about things in this perspective.

“I am sorry if my reaction hurt you, and probably Macy’s feelings, but try to understand, at that moment, imagining you working as a prostitute in that pub, letting other men touch you that way, it really crushed me.”

“Wouldn’t you want me anymore if I were to be a prostitute?” she asks me, looking me straight in the eyes.

“I would probably still want you, but I would need time to come to terms with that, and, obviously, I would pretend that you stop selling yourself.”

“And what about you? How many women have you slept with? Including the blonde we met at dinner downstairs, what was her name…Grace, right?”

Goddammit, how did she pick up on that? And why is she suddenly asking about my sex life? This is not going to bode well for me.

“Grace is just a friend. We did have sex a couple of times, but that’s it, there is nothing between us. Honestly, I am twenty-six, you can’t expect me not to have sex, I am a male and an Alpha, I have my urges, there is nothing wrong with that.”

I defend myself, hoping she can understand that there is nothing going on between Grace and me, it was just a few hook ups for fun.

“So, it is ok for you to have sex with an indefinite number of women, because you are an Alpha male with a healthy sex appetite, but it is not ok for a woman to have sex with numerous men. Interesting double standards you have,” she states disdainfully, her voice filled with sarcasm.

“Will you tell me that you have never been with a prostitute? That you have never been to a strip club?” she inquires with raised eyebrows.

I don’t know what to say to that. Of course, I have been there a couple of times, mainly to Damon’s request, I have been with some hookers, but that is stuff you do when you are single and hungry for sex, I wouldn’t definitely do it now!

“I thought so. So, how is it ok for you to be with random prostitutes, but not ok for those prostitutes to have sex with random man?” she continues her inquisition.

We are getting off topic, and I don’t like the direction this argument is taking.

“Look, Hazel, I think we are digressing here, and it is not helping fixing things between us,” I say, seriously, crouching before her seated figure.

“I like you, more than anything else; I want you, and you only, no matter what you did or did not do in your past. I like the Hazel that I see now, the one that I am just starting to know. Can’t we just look at our future, instead of trying to dig up dirt in each other’s past? I have done many things I am not proud of, but I hope you can get to know me by the man I am now. Can you give me a chance?”

I pour my heart out to her, hoping she can see that my feelings are sincere.

She stares at me for a while, her face emotionless, I would kill to know what she’s thinking right now.

“I’ll try,” she says finally, her face still expressionless.

“Thank you.”

I take her hands in mind, kissing them gently. She’s gazing at me, there’s some vulnerability in her eyes, like she’s trying to decide if she should trust me or not.

I reach out with one hand, cupping her face, stroking my thumb on her soft cheek. She leans in my touch; her small reaction of approval is all that I need to get the courage to close the gap between us and kiss her gently on her delicate lips.

She does not shy away, and it makes my heart soar with happiness. It is short lived though, as someone knocks on the door. Why the fuck now?

Hazel moves back, peering at the door. I was planning on ignoring the disruptor, but since the magic of the moment has sizzled away, I better go and see who it is.

In my frustration, I wrench the door open without checking who’s on the other side first, and I am immediately attacked by Grace, who jumps on me like a monkey, securing her arms around my neck, and her legs around my hips.

“Naughty Derek!” she says in a cute voice, with a pout on her lips. “You left me alone two whole weeks and now you are acting so distant. Don’t you know how much I’ve missed you? I am going to show you right now!”

She leans in trying to kiss me, so I hurriedly place my palm on her lips and utter, “Wait!”

She looks puzzled, then her eyes narrow when she sees Hazel rising from her seat and making her way towards the door.

“I’ll leave you two to it,” Hazel says in a tone as cold as the winter, before leaving, without even sparing me a glance. She shuts the door with a loud thud behind her.