ChapterFive
Bibi
I didn’t even have time to be furious about the fact my gorgeous Cindy had chosen Logan Mathis of all wolves—after I expressly forbid Marissa from hiring actors—when a bigger problem appeared.
I never forgot a wolf I’d beaten in a fight, and especially not this one. We’d battled more than once when Green Mountain was in the midst of their pissing contest with the Colorado Ranch pack, but this was the first time I’d seen Pedro in his human form. He was more handsome than I expected, but that could simply be to camouflage the fact he’d shown up with his tail between his legs, far too late.
“Get your hands off my mate,” he growled, stalking toward the new couple.
“The lady says she doesn’t belong to you,” Logan stepped toward Pedro. He was half a head taller than him. Bigger. Pedro was lanky with long limbs. He was tricky to fight because he could cover a lot of ground fast.
But Logan was the real wild card here.
Pedro’s eyes were pure fire. He sidestepped Logan, and the crowd gasped as he ripped the dress from Cindy’s shoulder, revealing the slashes that gave credence to his claim. Her eyes darkened, and we were moments away from meeting her she-wolf.
Oh, hell no. She wasn’t fighting tonight, and I wasn’t either.
I stepped between Cindy and Pedro. Pedro might have been all bravado, but he backed up a couple of steps when he saw me coming. I made sure he’d never forget our last fight on Green Mountain. “Keep your hands off her.”
He had the brass balls to scoff. “You need a drag queen to fight your battles?”
It was all for show. The humans in the audience would never see me in my wolf form. But I’d have no problem teaching this wolf a lesson.
“Bibi, I’ve got this.”
Cindy put her hand on my arm. It was a gentle movement, but there was power that radiated from her. Her voice shook, but this woman was a force to be reckoned with, and her she-wolf was tired of being underestimated.
“Pedro. You had me. But you made me feel like a stranger in my own home and an outsider in my pack. That was before you tried to rip the pack apart and ran off on your wife and three kids when you lost your challenge to our alpha. If you were my mate, you would’ve stood by me, like I stood by you for the last ten years.”
“I’m here now.”
“You didn’t listen to a word she said, did you?” Logan growled.
“Your body is here. But your heart and your head have been somewhere else for too long. They still are.”
Cindy shook her head. This wasn’t easy for her, but I was thrilled she got an opportunity to say this to him. As much as I despised that Pedro chose this moment to try to win her back, she needed this closure. That was why I hadn’t run this bastard wolf off the stage yet. Hugo stood on the side of the stage. Watching. Waiting. This had to be hard for him. Pedro was a wolf he used to call brother.
But how the hell did he get by Hugo in the first place?
“That mark is nothing but scar tissue,” Cindy continued. “It’s holding me together when you should’ve been the one to do that. I’m moving on. I’m ready to find my true mate.”
“You think it’s this fucking guy? An actor?” Pedro laughed, turning his attention to Logan. “They hired him. You’ll never know if he’s telling you the truth or reading from a script.”
“Since you don’t know how to listen to Cindy, maybe you’ll listen to me,” Logan said. “Get off this stage. Out of this town. You don’t belong here anymore.”
I had to hand it to him. He was saying all the right things. Ready to protect this woman who’d just chosen him sight unseen to be her potential mate when he was faced with her shit heel ex.
But he was an actor.
Pedro scoffed. “You want my mate? You’ll have to fight me for her. Come on, let’s do this like wolves.” He loosened his tie. Which was probably a good thing because he hadn’t knotted it right in the first place. “Shift, Mathis. Show your mate what kind of wolf you really are.”
“That’s it,” I growled, stalking toward Pedro. “If you leave now the only thing that will be broken is your pride. If you stay, I can’t make any guarantees.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. His eyes darted from me to Logan. He might have liked his chances against the actor, but he knew what they were against me.
Zero.
Behind me, Hugo growled. “Don’t do this, man.”
“Pedro, please. Go,” Cindy whispered. But her microphone still picked it up.
“Go! Go! Go!” the crowd chanted.
There was real pain in Pedro’s eyes. He finally figured out how badly he’d fucked this up. The wolf simply didn’t believe there would ever be consequences for their actions. I spent a second feeling bad for him, but this made what we were doing with The Mating Game even more important.
Cindy deserved so much better than this.
But an actor? We still had to deal with that.
He should’ve never made it this far. I’d been mentally firing Marissa ever since he appeared on stage.
Pedro nodded, but there was pure venom in his glare. He turned to me. “Your pack is waiting for an answer, Bibi.”
With that, he walked off the stage.
Was he behind that note?
Didn’t matter. He’d done exactly what he came to do—throw The Mating Game into chaos. Cindy and Logan both looked bewildered, the audience wanted answers, and I had to take control now, or this show might be over before it even had a chance to begin.
“You never know what will happen on The Mating Game,” I said.
“Did you plan this?” Cindy blinked at me in disbelief. “Bibi, I trusted you.”
She ran off the stage.
Just like that, the show didn’t matter anymore. I handed the microphone to Marissa and followed Cindy back to her trailer. Pedro had gone in the other direction, and I had to trust that Hugo would boot his ass out the door. I couldn’t risk the two of them having a run-in. That wolf had absolutely nothing to lose.
Logan was on my heels.
“Bibi,” he called to me. “Before you go in there, let me explain.”
I had half a mind to keep on going. The actor was trying to redeem himself...or maybe he was willing to fight for the woman who’d just chosen him as her mate.
Or maybe Pedro had put him up to this.
There was a major security leak on this show, and we had to get to the bottom of it now.
“Do you want me to film this?” Bjorn asked. I loved that he knew to come with us. At least someone on the crew shared my vision.
“Please.”
I folded my arms in front of my chest. “This better be good.”
Logan shook his head and huffed out a chuckle. “Whether it’s good or not, it’s the truth. I got hired for this job last week, and just before I went on stage, my agent begged me to back out. Obviously, I didn’t. I told her wolves kept their word. But as I got closer to the stage, I started to feel something.”
“Those answers were good. Maybe too good. If you go through with this, this will be your life. I’m here to make sure the woman who stormed off that stage gets a happily ever after, and I need your word that you’re not reading from a script when she thinks you’re giving her a piece of your heart.”