his wolf was at the surface. Join the crowd, buddy. Her lioness had taken that moment to try and push her way out.
“Ms. Colilla,” he said with that rasp that turned her legs to jelly. “It’s nice to formally meet you.”
“What are you doing here?” she asked point blank.
“Andi!” Naya gasped. “Stop being so rude. This is Mr. Kasen Steel. He was sent here by Gerri Wilder.”
Andi’s stomach did a flip and for a second she thought she might pass out, something she’d never done in her life. What the fuck was going on? “What do you mean?”
“He’s your, um…match.” Naya blinked at Andi, saying all the things with her eyes that she couldn’t with her mouth. Like how damn hot he was and how lucky Andi was to be matched up with him.
“There has to be a mistake.” For fuck’s sakes this had to be a joke. Mrs. Wilder didn’t give her the impression she liked messing with people, but what did Andi know? There could be a first time for everything.
“I assure you, princess, there’s no mistake.” Kasen grinned wider than he had before. A dimple showed on his right cheek and she became angry with her cat when the bitch told her to lick the small indentation.
“You can’t possibly want to be matched up with me,” she growled. “This has to be a joke. And not a funny one at that.”
“Listen, Andi,” Naya gave her a pointed look and motioned for her to sit her ass at the dinner table. “Why don’t you sit down, have some food, and talk to Kasen here.”
Andi cursed under her breath but sat to dinner. Hunger was probably part of her bitchiness, the other part was the unwanted attraction to the wolf.
“Thank you for inviting me to dinner, Naya,” Kasen said with a sly grin.
Asshole. He clearly knew how to work his charm.
Naya placed a green enamel cast iron pot of stew on the table along with a basket of rolls and a smaller pot of rice. “All right, you guys. Dig in.”
Andi filled her bowl with stew and rice and grabbed a roll, too. If she was going to die by carbs then let her at least enjoy them.
“So, Mr. Steel, you’re a wolf,” Naya grinned. “I would not have expected that type of match for my Andi.”
Kasen broke off a piece of bread and chewed it slowly, as if thinking of his words. “I was told Gerri is very unconventional in her matchmaking.”
Andi snorted. “I’ll say. She got us all wrong.”
“Andi!” Naya sighed. She turned back to him. “Are you okay with a lioness as a mate?”
Andi glanced up at him, wanting to know the answer to that question, too. Not that she cared. Nope. She couldn’t care because once she went to see Gerri in the morning, she’d explain she needed to find someone else. Kasen Steel might be gorgeous, strong, and alpha, but he was also incredibly arrogant. Andi would kill him within a week if they were a couple.
He’s already mine . No, he was not, and her lioness needed to get her shit together.
There was a moment of silence and Kasen didn’t take his eyes off her. The look of pure lust he gave her wasn’t one she was used to. Sure, as a Prima, men wanted her for her position. When she went into heat it called the males in her pride to mate. That shit got annoying fast. Human males were a lot tamer. They didn’t get turned on by a woman’s pheromones like shifters did.
“I would be perfectly happy with any female shifter as a mate as long as she were the right one for me.”
Great answer. It also told her nothing. Naya didn’t think the same as Andi by the wide smile on her face.
“That’s such a smart way to look at this, Mr. Steel.”
He picked up his iced tea and winked at Naya. “Please, call me Kasen.”
Andi’s lioness snarled and she had a hell of a time containing the sound in her throat. “So, if you hired Gerri to find you a mate,” Andi began then after thinking about it for a moment, said, “Why do you need a mate?”
He ate a bite of his food before answering, which meant she got to watch his
Learning to Kill: Stories