Lola (Completed)

37 These Boots

Bastian

I stand and flip the desk. It crashes down, papers and pens and books flying. I slam my fist down, cracking wood and driving splinters deep into my own skin. I snarl, my canines fully distended, claws poking through. The pain penetrates through the haze of rage and I focus, realizing that I flipped out with my mate and my Luna in the room.

"Fuck," I rasp out. Carefully, I unfurl my fists. Blood oozes from the deep punctures slivers of the desk have caused. I shake them out, yanking out one particularly deep piece of wood and tossing it onto the floor.

Ryker is standing against the far wall. Lola and Mackenzie are behind him. His arms are crossed over his chest, a bored expression on his face.

"I'll have to have shit ordered and in storage," he mutters, looking at the destruction. "What's another room? Fuck it."

Lola slides out from behind him and hurries to my side, taking my hands in hers to check the wounds.

"Lola," I say hoarsely, "why don't you and our Luna go into the kitchen for a bit?"

Lola steals a glance, her sexy mouth screwing up in a frown. "Bastian. What are you going to say?" She brings my bleeding hands to her mouth and kisses them. "I don't want you two to fight. I can do this, I can," she reassures me, but I feel her fear.

I can't let her do this. I do trust Ryker, but I want to hide Lola away from this mess. "Go to the kitchen, pussy." She reluctantly steps around me. She and Mac join hands and leave together.

Ryker wastes no time, just jumps into his explanation. "You and Lola will be in the center of this, Bastian. We will celebrate the joining of our packs with, and this is Mackenzie's word for it, a 'ball.'"

I snicker despite my anger. Ryker smirks at me. It's fucking ridiculous, but the girls in the packs will love with the idea. It's grandiose and egocentric. It'll make not attending practically impossible.

"Everyone will be watching to see how you interact with each other. Lola... She will try to entice Nicolai to join her alone." I close my eyes and bite back my snarl. "At no point will she be truly alone with him."

"The point of this?"

"He is mated, Bastian."

I was surprised. What a douche that male is. It's supposedly impossible to cheat on your Claimed mate. Ryker senses my confusion and told me, "he didn't officially Mark her or announce her as his mate."

"Bastard," I mutter.

"Yes. That asshole has been mated for eight years, Bastian. He had his mate when he violated Lola." The desk cracked under my hands. Shit, I didn't even know I had a grip on it. Ryker just looks at the damage and shakes his head. "I want it public so he can't deny wrongdoing."

"It'll humiliate Lola, Ryker." Her reputation is battered enough.

"No. She's smart enough to play this game, Bastian. To entice him, not flirt or seduce. To draw him away from the party. He'll attack her. He's trying to kidnap her, for fuck's sake."

"I can't lose her, Ryker," I plead with him. "This is too risky. He's the fucker who features front and center in her worst nightmares, Ry."

"You won't lose her," he promises grimly. "I'll fight a salt-the-fucking-earth war before I let you lose her." He stares at me intensely with a macabre smile that goes a long way in settling my fear.

Not my rage, though. That can't be lessened by assurances. My wolf needs enemy blood to spill before our anger will even start to diminish.

"So, a ball," I mutter.