Page 24 of His Runaway Mate

It’s been a few days. I’ve been waiting for my full sanity to return. So far, it doesn’t feel like that is going to happen. I am unsettled all the time. I feel restless. I find myself pacing for no reason. My mind drifts off into nowhere whenever I’m not actively focused on something.

My virginity is gone, and so is my peace of mind, but I’m not going to freak out about it. I tell myself that sleeping with a guy who kidnapped me is a mistake that a lot of women make. I read about it in books all the time.

I just have to get back to work. I mean, I already did that, but I have to get even more back to work. I have to get back to work so hard that maybe I never stop working ever again. That seems like a fix for all of my problems.

So that’s what I do. The Runaways are a little unsettled, but that’s to be expected. Having someone like Rex Regent trying to acquire us and bring us into his pack is stressful. Some of the pack members are intrigued. The concept of being part of something more legitimate is interesting to them. But they’ve been burned by those same kinds of pack before, so nobody is running directly for the Regent pack. We all know what would become of us there; we’d be bottom of the hierarchy. Probably be bullied. I don’t let that shit happen in the Runaways. I make sure everyone is treated well by their pack mates, no matter how weird they might be. Nobody is better than anyone else. After all, we’re all outcasts for a reason.

“Are you okay, boss?” Laura checks in on me in the afternoon. She looks a little worried.

“Yeah. I’m fine. Rex Regent isn’t going to ruin everything we’re working for just because he showed up.”

“But you slept with him?”

Oh, god. She’s bringing this up again. She knows what happened. We’ve been over it a thousand times. I don’t know why she won’t leave this alone when she can clearly tell I do not want to talk about it.

“Yeah. And?”

“Doesn’t that make you the alpha’s mate?”

“You think I’m the first woman he’s ever fucked?”

She grins and shakes her head with a slightly embarrassed giggle. “I guess not.”

“Right, so there’s probably dozens of women out there who have as much or more claim to being his mate,” I remind her.

“What if you’re his fated mate, though?”

“I’m not,” I say flatly. “Where are we at on the Williams account?”

* * *

More days pass. I throw myself into work even harder. Suffice to say, we don’t sign the deal with Regent. That was always bait anyway. The most transparent effort to try to gain control of us. I let the gambit happen because I wanted to know my enemy. I just didn’t know how well I’d end up knowing him.

I stay up late. I get up early. I feel wired in a very specific way that seems to be growing over time, though I try to push it to the side and forget because the very last thing I want is to let Rex take over my mind while he’s trying to take over my business.

But I’m human. Mostly. And I don’t know how to forget what happened to me, how it felt to have Rex Regent knot inside me, fill me with his cum and leave me dripping. The man dominated me so entirely I don’t think I’ll ever be able to erase the feeling of him inside me.

“Boss?” Cal interrupts me. I’d be irritated, but I find I don’t mind because I know he’s at least not going to talk about anybody being someone’s fated mate.

“Yeah?”

“A couple of the delivery guys went missing.”

I turn to look at him. “What do you mean, missing?”

“They went out to do some, uh, deliveries, and their phones are dead and they haven’t been back to see anyone for like, two days.”

“Do we usually not notice when Runaways go missing for two days?”

He shrugs. “Everyone here does what they want. We don’t keep tabs outside the obvious.”

I don’t know why I’m asking him. He’s not the one who set the policy. I am. I feel a stab of guilt at the idea I could be missing two people and not even know.

“Send the boys to go find them,” I say. “We can’t lose pack members.”

“I’ll let them know. Tech boy can probably trace where they were from their phones.”

“Let me know,” I tell him. I have paperwork to do. There are brand deals coming in left and right at the moment. The Runaways are on the verge of becoming a real force in the market.