Chapter 21 - Eddie

The night of the supposed celebration of their mating, Eddie still felt unsettled about the whole plan. What if something went wrong? What if Winter ended up in harm's way?

He would give anything to protect the pack, but not her. In the last few days, she had taken on an entirely different role in his life, one that meant even more to him than all of his packmates combined.

He never in a million years could have guessed that would happen, but it had, and now, though the plan wasn't entirely a dangerous one, he was terrified.

Anything could go wrong.

You're being ridiculous, he told himself as he checked himself over in the mirror in his bedroom at the manor.

He hadn't liked the thought of leaving Winter alone at the shop to prepare, but she had insisted she was fine, that she needed isolation to go about her witchy business. And besides, she had the shop to take care of, too.

She has so much responsibility, he thought, wishing he could take it all away from her. He couldn't help but feel as though it was all his fault. He was the reason all of this was being put on her. If she wasn't his mate, she never would have been dragged into pack business.

Closing his eyes, he reminded himself, a human in town is a threat to us all, the witches included.

He was distracted by the sound of knocking on his door.

For a second, he thought about ignoring it. But when it came again, he gritted his teeth and marched across the room.

He would have recognized that flirtatious knock anywhere. Why she had come to him this time, he didn't know, but it couldn't be good.

Almost the second he opened the door, Carly threw herself at him, jamming her finger into his chest as she snarled, “I've got a bone to pick with you, Eddie.”

Eddie bit back the urge to tell her to get out. Instead, he asked, “What do you want, Carly?”

“How could you do this?” Carly demanded, tightening her hands into fists in his shirt.

The smell of alcohol on her breath almost made Eddie gag.

“Take your hands off me, Carly.”

When she didn't, Eddie gripped her wrists and pulled her free of his shirt. Holding her still, he tried to keep her at a distance.

“How could I do what?” he asked, only half curious but mainly wishing she would just leave him alone.

“How could you do this to us ? Why would you pick her over me? A damn witch over a werewolf!” Her words were scathing. The way she said ‘witch’ made it sound like the biggest insult in the world.

Eddie grimaced. Barely able to control himself, he shoved Carly away, shaking his head. “Don't go there, Carly. There never was an ‘us.’ You made that quite clear.”

“There could have been if you hadn't picked her!” Carly insisted, inching towards him again.

Bile rose in the back of Eddie's throat as she reached up a hand and stroked her fingers down the length of his torso.

When her hand gripped hold of the belt buckle holding his suit trousers up, he grimaced even harder.

“Don't, Carly.”

He shoved her hand away again, and this time, she whimpered as if he'd hurt her.

Ordinarily, he might have felt guilty, he might have even apologized, but he had had quite enough of her bullshit lately.

“Why? Eddie, why did you do it?” She looked at him with huge, round brown eyes, almost like a puppy. And for just a moment, Eddie actually felt sorry for her.

Was this all her life was, pawing at men for attention, for what?

He shook his head. It didn't matter why she did it. All that mattered was that he had figured out her game a long time ago, and he wasn't about to fall for it again. Especially not now he had something else to live for.

“I didn't exactly have a choice in the matter,” Eddie pointed out, hoping to let her down easy. “Jack asked me to volunteer for the good of the pack. What was I supposed to do? Say no to the alpha?”

Carly scowled, but it wasn't her reaction that set Eddie's teeth on edge.

It was the woman standing in the doorway, face like thunder, that made his skin crawl.

“So that's all I am to you?” Winter demanded angrily. “A means to an end?”

“Oh my!” Carly gasped, looking between Winter and Eddie with a barely concealed smirk of amusement. “Have I caused a problem?”

Eddie barely heard her. He stepped around Carly and reached for Winter. “It's not like that.”

Winter practically bared her teeth at him, looking more like a werewolf than she ever had before as she snarled, “Save it for someone who cares.”

With that, she whipped around on her heel, and stormed away.

“Winter, stop!”

Eddie was about to follow her when he felt fingers wrap around his wrist.

“Let her go, Eddie. She doesn't understand you like I do,” Carly insisted, pulling him back to her. “She'll never understand the loyalty a werewolf feels to their pack. I understand you better than anyone.”

Eddie felt as if he might actually be sick when she reached up and cupped his cheek.

“The spell has been cast. The town is safe. You can forget about her now.”

Lashing out, Eddie slapped Carly's hand away from his face. The look of surprise on hers might have amused him if he wasn’t so damn angry.

“I should never have even laid eyes on you,” he growled, looming over Carly in a way that made her shrink back from him. “You're nothing but a manipulative, conniving, arrogant little bitch, and Winter is twice the woman you will ever be.”

Carly's eyes widened further, and Eddie actually thought he saw tears glinting at the corners. If they were there, they were crocodile tears. Carly had a heart of cold stone. There was no way she would actually feel anything close to bringing her to tears for him.

“You…you don't mean that,” Carly stammered, inching back just a little more. “You can't mean that. We had so much fun together.”

“Yeah, and that's all it was for you, fun. Because you are a heartless bitch, Carly, and you'll never be able to have anything meaningful, because all you do is throw yourself at any guy who takes your fancy.”

Carly’s face grew pale. “That's not true.”

“Me, Hanson, Will? Need I go on?” Eddie demanded. He was sure he had seen her sniffing around several other men in the pack even before all of them. “I have no doubt you'd have tried it with Jack, Zander and Kane too, if you'd gotten the chance.”

His rage was upon him now. There was no stopping the torrent of it that was about to fall on Carly.

“Don't think we don't all see you for what you are, Carly,” Eddie insisted, crossing his arms over his chest. “And if your aim was to somehow get between me and Winter, you've failed, because the truth is, she is my mate.”

The truth of his own words stunned even him, but Carly looked absolutely horrified.

“You can't actually believe your fated mate is a witch!”

“That's just it,” Eddie snapped back at her. Straightening further, looming over her like a giant, he declared, “She is. And besides that, she isn't just witch. She is part wolf. And that part of her, along with all her other parts, belongs to me as much as I belong to her, for the rest of our lives.”

Eddie strained his ears, wishing he heard Winter returning to the door. Wishing she had overheard the words he had just said.

“You don't mean that. Surely you can't mean that.”

But he did, and to illustrate his point, Eddie grabbed Carly's upper arm and yanked her close. His nose barely an inch from hers, he glowered into her eyes and snarled, “Stay away from me and stay away from Winter, or I will not be held responsible for my actions.”

With that, he shoved her away and growled, “Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and find my mate.”

He turned swiftly and strode through the door, ignoring whatever Carly called after him. Whatever it was, he didn't want to hear it.

His senses were entirely focused on Winter now. Picking up her scent easily, he headed down the hall in the direction of the patio doors that led out to the back garden.

All he could do was hope she had gone out for some fresh air instead of running away entirely.

After all that had happened, after finally wiping Carly from his heart, was he really going to lose his mate because she wouldn't take her claws out of him?