Elliot had no idea what Isabella was talking about, and frankly, he didn’t care. Right now, he only had eyes for one girl.
Jasmine.
He had a direct view of Jasmine’s beautiful, curly hair. At first, it seed like her date with Axel wasn’t going well. Elliot watched with poorly suppressed glee as Axel flirted with the busty redhead serving them right in front of Jasmine.
But Axel had sohow smoothed that over. Now, Jasmine seed to be getting along with her date just fine. Better than fine, actually.
Elliot’s hands clenched into tight fists as he watched Jasmine throw her head back as she laughed at a joke Axel made. While Jasmine’s cleavage was on display, Axel took this opportunity to study her round breasts.
Elliot’s body tensed. Jasmine belonged to him. She was his mate.
And how could Jasmine not feel Elliot’s stare? How could she not care about his presence in the slightest?
During her date, she hadn’t turned around to look at him. Not even once.
Sothing that made Elliot’s teeth gnash together in anger.
Isabella kept droning on about sothing to do with their upcoming wedding. But he couldn’t control how his every sense seed to be honed into Jasmine. Elliot was overly aware of her flowery scent, her every giggle, of his mate’s near presence.
His wolf was wreaking havoc in his mind, demanding that he go over there and claim her. His wolf was even more pissed that she was with another man than Elliot was. At one point, Elliot had to grip the edge of the table so he wouldn’t jump up and mark her as his.
He couldn’t help but look past Isabella for any glimpse of Jasmine he could get.
How could she look so relaxed and carefree? If Jasmine were threatened by his ultimatum, would she be out on a date enjoying herself like she didn’t have a care in the world?
His heart began to race, and a small part of him began to worry that he might just lose his mate for good. Axel was a well-connected future Alpha. He could give her all she needed to survive Elliot’s sches.
Why did Isabella’s pompous cousin have to co for a visit? Axel was ruining his ticulously crafted plans.
And why wasn’t Jasmine chasing after him? They were mates! They were destined to be together. Why did she have to be so difficult? Didn’t she understand that Elliot would take care of her? Jasmine wouldn’t have to worry about a thing if she agreed to be his mistress.
As Elliot continued to sit there and silently dwell in his anger, his wolf beca even angrier with each passing mont, furious that Elliot was choosing to go after power and an Alpha position by picking Isabella over Jasmine.
“What do you think?” Isabella asked as she lifted a forkful of sea bass to her mouth.
But she paused and looked up when Elliot didn’t respond.
Currently, Elliot was arguing with his wolf inside his head, telling his inner animal that he couldn’t mark Jasmine in front of this whole restaurant.
“Hello? Are you even listening to ?” Isabella tried to get her fiancé’s attention again.
But Elliot continued to stare at Jasmine.
“I’m asking you about our wedding,” Isabella snapped, growing increasingly frustrated. “I thought that our wedding was important to you, but you aren’t even listening to .”
Finally, Elliot pulled his gaze away from Jasmine and looked at his fiancée. “I’m listening, love,” he said, trying to get back on her good side.
But she wasn’t having any of that. Isabella glared at Elliot.
“If you were listening, what question did I just ask you?”
“Um...whether I wanted a band to play or a DJ?” Elliot guessed with a shrug.
From Isabella’s angry expression, he knew he had guessed wrong. Her rage made his own anger spike. Isabella was supposed to be the easy one. Why was she being difficult like Jasmine now?
Isabella threw her white-cloth napkin on the table and growled in frustration. “This date is over! You haven’t paid any attention to all night. You’re ignoring when I’m sitting right in front of you, trying to talk about our wedding, and that’s just plain rude!”
Elliot’s heart raced, and he truly started to panic. He needed to fix things between them. Now. He reached for Isabella’s hand, but she pulled it away.
“I’m so sorry, love,” he murmured, trying his best to sound sincere. “I don’t know what’s wrong with tonight. My head is just sowhere else when I should be focusing on you. Please, forgive my rudeness.”
But Isabella crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him.
“It’s not just tonight that you’ve been acting weird. Ever since our engagent party, you’ve been taking a lot of random calls, missing dates, and ignoring . You always buy flowers and apologize, but I’m sick of forgiving you.”
Isabella turned in her chair and gasped when she saw that Jasmine was directly in Elliot’s line of sight.
Sweat beaded down his forehead.
“So, Jasmine is the one you’ve been gazing at all night,” Isabella noted coldly when she turned back to face Elliot. “You’ve been staring at her a lot. I’ve tried to look past it and make excuses for you, but I’m done.” Isabella leaned forward, and her stare was piercing Elliot like a knife. “Did sothing happen between you two? Are you having second thoughts about our wedding?”
All Elliot could do was imagine his Alpha title slipping through his fingers.
“What? No! Of course not,” he lied. “Why would I have any interest in her when I have you?”
Isabella leaned back in her chair. “I don’t believe you,” she hissed. “I’ve seen the way you look at her. You’ve never looked at with such longing.”
Then, her face crumpled. It seed like she had tried her best to hold her tears at bay, but once she started crying, it was like she couldn’t stop. Isabella put her face in her hands and let out quiet sobs.
Elliot sat frozen, unsure of what to do. When he raised his hand to try to comfort her, she batted it away.
“Babe, I swear to you that nothing—”
But Isabella interrupted him. Tears were still pouring down her face, but there was also a spark of anger in her eyes. “Save your lies for soone who wants to hear them.”
His fiancée stood from the table, glared at him one last ti, and then ran out of the restaurant.
This was not a problem Elliot had thought he would need to deal with. Why did won have to be so emotional?
He threw a couple of bills down on the table, hoping that would cover the check, and stood to run after her.
Their fight attracted a lot of attention from other patrons in the restaurant. Elliot felt a familiar stare and turned to see Jasmine gaping at him with wide eyes.
With one last cold look at her, he tried to convey the promise that he would see her again soon.
Then, he sprinted out of the restaurant to try and smooth things over with his future wife.
***
“I hope everything is alright with those two,” Jasmine muttered as she watched Elliot run after a crying Isabella.
“I’m sure it’s just your average lover’s quarrel,” Axel said, waving it off.
But as Jasmine took another sip of her wine, Axel noticed that a small smile was playing on the corners of his date’s lips. Was Jasmine happy that Isabella and Elliot’s date had ended badly?
As he took another bite of his steak, doubt flooded through him.
Throughout dinner, Axel had noticed Elliot gazing at Jasmine with longing in his eyes. Even though Jasmine had denied it yesterday, Axel was convinced that there was a history between those two. He was going to find out what happened between them for his sake and his cousins.
While Jasmine was telling him a story about one of Michelle’s tutoring sessions where his younger cousin had accidentally ripped her shirt with a sword, Axel made sure that he seed engaged.
But he was really mind-linking with his Beta.
‘Max, I need you to do an in-depth investigation on Isabella’s fiancé, Elliot,’ he said telepathically. ‘Focus on his background and his relationship with Jasmine Lowett.’
‘Sure thing, boss,’ Max replied inside his head. ‘I’ll get right on that.’
Axel smiled and sipped his wine as he listened to Jasmine’s amusing story. Soon, he would uncover what she was hiding.
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