Chapter Three

Catherine’s head was still spinning as she parked her truck behind the bar. She noticed two of the bar’s security men were posted at the back door. She stepped out and walked up to them.

“Toma? What’s going on?” she asked the smaller of the two. She knew better than to try to get any information out of Timone, his older, much larger brother.

Toma smiled wide and gripped her in a hug. “Hey short stuff! Big meeting going on inside so… Ow!”

Timone glared down at his brother. “What part of shut up and do your job did you not understand? The rogue doesn’t need to know so shut the fuck up,” Timone hissed.

Toma rubbed the back of his head where his brother had just backhanded him. “Rude. All I said was there was a meeting. And don’t call her an effing rogue, Shit Brains.”

The two men squared up with each other but Catherine cleared her throat and stepped up to touch Toma’s forearm. “Now, now, boys. I don’t want to cause any trouble. I’m just here to start the food for tonight. I need to get in the kitchen. It’s on the other side of the building from the private rooms. Paul said I could come in early.”

Timone glared down at her before taking a step back and whipping out his phone.

Toma rolled his eyes. “What are you cooking today? I’m expecting to be starving by about 6.”

Catherine smirked. “I got a bunch of different radishes plus some pork butts from Mindy. So I’m thinking of slow cooking…”

“Okay, you can go in. Straight to the kitchen and you are not to leave. Understood?” Timone interrupted, evidently having gotten the go-ahead from Paul.

Catherine sent him an appreciative look before heading back to the truck to grab her things. The two were still bickering by the time she got back to the door with the first box.

“... it will take five minutes for me to help her,” Toma argued.

“Paul said not to move, Dick.”

“Pussy.”

“Asshat.”

Catherine rolled her eyes and continued to the kitchen. Before long her entire haul was scattered around the floor and she was out of breath. Without wasting a second, as doing such would allow her mind to wander to what happened this morning, she pulled her hair up into a ponytail, shucked off her jacket and tied an apron around her waist. She put some earbuds in her ears and turned the volume as high as it would go to keep the voices from forcing her to wonder how her mate could have walked away from her without a word.

The minutes ticked by as she put a dry rub on the pork butts and chopped vegetables. Catherine sang along to the alternative music blaring in her ears. Her hips swayed and she bounced on the balls of her feet as she added seasoning to the simmering carrots. When she was satisfied with the progress she’d made and the butts were in the wood-fire oven roasting, she stretched her arms above her head and cracked her neck. She used her apron to wipe her forehead and glanced at her watch. Only an hour had gone by while she prepped and it would be another four or five before the pork was ready. She opened the oven and inhaled the sweet aroma of the pork but then frowned when she smelled something that should not be there: a sweet mixture of cloves and apples. She closed the oven and stepped back. That’s when she felt it… she was not alone.

Catherine turned slowly and she saw him: her mate, leaning against the doorframe with his arms folded, watching her intently. This was the first time she’d seen him up close and she was left with her heart hammering in her chest. He had chocolate brown hair that fell just below his ears and had a slight wave to it as if he combed his fingers through it often. He had a well groomed beard that did nothing to hide his sharp jawline. His brown eyes nearly matched his hair apart from the red tint when the light reached them. He was tall, taller even than Timone with wide shoulders and a lean waist. Though he wore a black suit she could tell he had well-developed lean muscle all over his body. She followed that muscle down his torso and balked at the bulge in his pants.

Her eyes shot up to his and she fought to ignore the heat enveloping her body. His lip tilted up slightly in amusement. She dropped her phone which yanked the earbuds from her ears. His eyes landed on the phone and traveled slowly up her body, leaving a scorching heat on her skin as if he was touching her. She gulped.

“Wha-what are you doing here?” Catherine asked, finally finding her voice.

He didn’t answer. Instead his eyes tracked over her face, along her cheek bones, over her chestnut hair and down her exposed throat to her collarbone. He pushed off the wall and stalked toward her. As he moved she felt her heart rate climb higher and higher. His scent grew stronger with his approach and she gulped it in with every haggard breath she took. By the time he was standing in front of her, she was nearly panting.

She stared at his chest, obscured by his suit jacket. She looked up slowly, her nails digging into her palms as she tried to keep herself from reaching out to touch him. Her eyes caught on his exposed throat and the pulse point she saw there before she jerked them up the rest of the way to meet his eyes. She gulped at the intensity she saw there. He reached his hands up and clasped them around her neck. She gasped at the scorching heat of his touch and he groaned. He closed his eyes and when they reopened she saw they were completely black. The blackness faded quickly as he gained control of himself. He licked his lips and she was entranced as she watched the slow trace of his tongue.

“What is in your eye?” he whispered. Her lids fluttered closed at the sound of his baritone voice tickling the flesh of her cheeks.

“What?” Unable to help herself any longer, her fingers itched out and gripped his suit jacket. His eyes jerked down to her hands and then back. He took a step closer, pushing her back against the counter.

“Your eye. There is something in it. Take it out.”

Catherine hesitated before she snaked her hands between them. She leaned her head back and used her fingers to take out the brown contact she used to hide her singular blue iris. She blinked a few times before daring to look back at her mate. His jaw ticked and his eyes blackened again. She watched his eyes shift back and forth between her own.

“You’re a rogue,” he whispered.

She prickled a bit at what most people coined an insult. “Yeah, and? You have a problem with that?” She crossed her arms, trying to ignore the electricity she felt as her arms brushed his chest. His hands tightened around her neck and he applied pressure to his thumbs under her jaw, forcing her head up.

“You’re half lycan,” he said, stating another fact.

“I am.”

His eyes roamed her face, looking to piece the puzzle together himself. She sighed and pushed him slightly back, needing room to think. He growled low but took a step back and removed his hands from her skin. He shoved them in his pockets and she wondered if it was to keep himself from reaching out to her.

She leaned back against the counter.

“Look. To save you time and brain power I don’t know much about my past. I was abandoned at an orphanage as a baby. I have no knowledge of who my parents are. I only learned I was part lycan a couple years ago when…” she looked away, refusing to dredge up that memory. “It doesn’t matter. I chose to become rogue not long after. I came to Sterling City to be safe. That’s it. That’s all there is to know.”

He gave her a dubious look. “What pack were you raised in?”

“I’ll not answer that. It isn’t important.”

“I disagree.”

“I severed my connection with the pack and their alpha. I will not discuss it,” she stated firmly.

Her mate smirked and looked around as if seeing the room he was in for the first time. He glanced back at her and his eyes roamed her apron and the stains there. His smirk turned into a satisfied smile. “What’s your name, Chef?”

She laughed slightly. How funny one could meet their soulmate and know absolutely nothing else about them other than they were meant to be their other half. She tucked her arms closer to herself, raising her breasts and catching his eye.

“Catherine.”

He purred slightly and the heat she’d felt earlier came back with a vengeance. He stepped toward her again and placed his arms on the counter on either side of her, caging her in. He dipped his head and ran his nose from her shoulder up to her neck. He inhaled deeply causing her eyelids to flutter shut.

“Catherine,” he breathed against her ear in a breathy voice. He nibbled her earlobe. “Seems I should have been more adamant on meeting you… mate.”