Free Web NovelChapter 9: A MAN CALLED ORIN
KEISHA’S POV
"You’re coming to the sparring event." Nadia announced as she strolled into my apartment on a Friday morning while playing with her car keys.
I looked up from my breakfast. "Good morning to you too." I said.
"Good morning. You’re coming to the sparring event." She repeated.
"I have things to do."
"It’s Saturday tomorrow, Keisha."
"I have Saturday things to do."
She walked over and plucked the fork right out of my hand. "It’s like once in a blue moon. You’re coming. Final. It’ll be fun. When have I ever taken you to something that wasn’t fun?"
" Last year when you made me sit through five hours of—"
She placed a hand to my lips. "That doesn’t count."
Of course it didn’t.
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The sparring ground was packed.
I hadn’t expected that. The entire pack had turned out like it was some kind of festival, wolves crowded along the edges of the clearing, noise levels entirely unreasonable for a Saturday morning. Children were perched on shoulders so they could see. Nadia dragged me to a good spot near the front and immediately launched into explaining who fought who and why certain matchups mattered.
The match started.
It was fine. Genuinely entertaining even. The first few bouts were fast and rough and the crowd was loud and I found myself actually watching, caught up in it despite myself.
Then Dane stepped into the ring next.
Diane sat straight up inside me like someone had pulled a cord.
Oh no. I thought.
"Oh yes," she said back, practically vibrating.
He pulled his shirt off before stepping fully into the ring and I became briefly and completely useless as a functioning person. The bond lit up without my permission.
I mean I knew how he looked shirtless. Fuck it, I knew how he felt shirtless. Not like I was paying attention.
Wrong. I was paying attention.
"He’s so pretty," Diane said dreamily.
"Stop it," I chided her.
"You stop it. You’re the one staring."
I was not staring. I was watching. There was a difference. This was a public event and I was a member of the public and I was simply watching it like everyone else.
His opponent came at him fast and Dane sidestepped without urgency, almost lazy about it and redirected the force with his forearm like it mildly inconvenienced him. The crowd reacted with a roar. I felt something tighten low in my stomach that I refused to acknowledge.
"Acknowledge it," Diane practically bounced around.
Absolutely not.
"You literally slept with him three days ago."
That is not the point.
"What is the point then?"
I didn’t have an answer for that. She knew I didn’t have an answer for that and she settled back smugly and let me suffer in silence.
"He’s good, right?" Nadia said brightly beside me. "He never really tries in these things and he still wins every time. It’s honestly so annoying."
"Mm." I said non-comittally.
"Are you okay? You’ve gone quiet." Nadia turned to me.
"I’m watching."
"You look weird." She raised a brow.
"Thank you, Nadia." I rolled my eyes with a huff before returning my attention to the match.
Dane caught his opponent’s arm mid-swing and turned it, bringing him down in one clean motion that drew a loud reaction from the crowd. He straightened and pushed his hair back and the bond made me shift uneasily in my seat. I couldn’t get turned on by watching him do this.
Too late.
When I looked back up, he was looking directly at me.
The corner of his mouth did something small and I found the ground again very quickly and kept my eyes there for the next thirty seconds while my face did things I had no control over.
"He saw you," Diane said cheerfully.
"I know."
"He liked it."
That, I also knew. But could she just shut up?
She laughed but went silent.
Traitor.
Nadia ran a hand through her hair. "Are you still mad at Dane?"
"Huh?"
She looked at me. "Because you’re staring at him and I can’t tell if you want to throttle him or because you think he’s hot."
Well, I wanted to fuck him. How about that? But the words didn’t make it out of my throat. Instead— "Yeah, throttle him obviously. I don’t think Lyra will ever recover from the breakup." I tried to keep my voice level.
She let out a relieved laugh. "Because the latter would be weird, right?"
I didn’t laugh with her.
Because that was one too many lies I had made the last few weeks. "Yeah..."
Nadia sensed my mood and cleared her throat. "I’m going to the bathroom. The match is almost over though and we’ll have dinner with everyone."
I nodded solemnly.
Dinner. I could definitely do dinner.
The communal hall after was warm but crowded and smelled like food and I ended up at the long table beside Orin who greeted me cheerfully.
"Keisha." He nudged a bowl of something warm in my direction. "Try this. It’s better than it looks."
I looked at it skeptically. "That’s not a high bar."
"Fair. Try it anyway." He urged.
I tried it and it was actually good and I told him so and he looked unreasonably satisfied about it.
At the far end of the table Callum arrived late, took one look at the seating situation and sat at the opposite end. Just great.
Focusing on my food, I tried not to look at either of them.
Orin leaned slightly toward me. "The eastern trail is worth doing on a weekend if you haven’t yet. The ridge view is something else."
Oh.
I looked at him. He was so nice that it was beginning to hurt. "Maybe." I said.
He smiled. "I’ll take a maybe."
I smiled back softly and somewhere across the table, I felt Alpha Callum’s hot gaze on me.
Why did it matter?
We weren’t exclusive. Sure, we fucked in secret. But that was it. I could have fun to take the edge off.
Maybe I would be able to play this off. Just maybe.
And goddess help me, I was getting very good at maybe.
