Protecting The Heiress: Frenemies to Lovers (Billionaire Shifters Book 3) by Viola King

Author:Viola King [King, Viola]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Patrick

I worked out my frustrations in my home gym, although the sight of my empty pool when I’d first arrived home had added to my sadness. People were slipping away.

My parents were. They no longer needed me as much now that Dad was recovering. That was good, right? But my wolf wanted to grip onto them, dig his claws in… Stop them from slipping like that. And Jackson was slipping away. If someone Jo liked better came along, even she could slip away.

I needed to keep everyone close and safe and well. It was all too much, and my wolf struggled against it.

Each lift of my weights was part feat of strength, part punishment, though.

Jo hadn’t wanted me close today, and I’d felt as stupid as I’d felt entitled for most of the afternoon. But I didn’t get it. She was my fiancée, my mate. Why didn’t she want to tell every man at the luncheon that she was already taken? There was no reason she’d had to entertain any of them leering at her or flirting with her or behaving like they might have a chance with her.

That was why I’d stayed close. So, they knew what she wouldn’t tell them. She was mine and under my protection. Both my personal protection and that of the whole of the Silver Claw pack. No one should ever mess with Jo.

My muscles tensed again just thinking of the way some of the men had looked at her. But then I also remembered Jo’s face as she looked at me.

She hadn’t been comfortable. But I kept forgetting that she hadn’t been in a pack before. This was all so new to her. She didn’t have experience of a pack alpha…of being a mate. She didn’t know my instincts were to claim and protect her or that those instincts sometimes overrode my good sense.

Perhaps that was what happened today. I’d stopped using my sense. I’d simply relied on my wolf to guide me, and with the best will in the world, he wasn’t always intelligent. I sighed. Perhaps it wasn’t too late to make amends. Jo hadn’t come up to the condo, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t go down to see her if she was home from visiting with her mom.

I stood in the elevator, anxiety a hum through my insides, and that hum increased as I knocked on her door and waited like a schoolboy who’d been summoned to the principal. I wasn’t used to this type of nervousness, but I was unsure of my reception.

Jo opened the door, and for a moment, she just looked at me, her expression neutral. “Hello,” she said finally, but the word was strangely flat.

“I’m so sorry.” I hadn’t planned to apologize like that, but I just blurted the words out.

She nodded. “Okay.”

“And if you haven’t eaten with your mom, I came to see if you’d let me take you to Clover’s. I think I owe you that much after spoiling your evening at the mansion.

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