Page 47 of Plus-Size Bullied Mate

I stand in the middle of Hunter’s living room with people I don’t know looking at me with varying degrees of interest, and every square inch of the spotlight he’s put me in since this started feels tenfold.

These are his people, and the world he came from before becoming alpha. They’re the men he worked with, and they’ve come to look at who Hunter has taken as a mate. They’ve come to assess, even if they don’t put it that way.

I don’t have proper context for any of them, no established place, and nothing to anchor me in this room except the bond and the awareness of Hunter slightly behind my left shoulder. They all seem so comfortable around each other, and I don’t know what to do with that.

Lila solves the problem by simply talking, and I’m surprisingly grateful for it.

She moves to the kitchen counter and finds the glassware. She glances at me with an open expression.

“Tessa, do you know if he has decent wine or is this a whiskey-only house?”

The question is so normal, and so cheerfully assuming that I’ve had any say in what drinks have entered the house, and I answer it before I’ve decided to.

“There’s wine… second cabinet, left of the sink.”

“Good,” she says to Hunter, then she aims at me, “he gives the impression of someone who wouldn’t bother with wine.”

“He gave me that impression too,” I say before I can stop myself, realizing just how interpersonal that sounds.

Lila looks at me with the bright pleasure of someone who has found an ally, and something in the room shifts enough for me to loosen my shoulders.

***

An hour later, I’m sitting on the far end of the couch with a glass of wine and a vaguely disoriented feeling. In all honesty, it feels like I’ve arrived at a party I wasn’t meant to stumble upon, but Hunter’s friends aren’t what I prepared for.

They’re loud in the way most people get when they’re comfortable without having anything to prove to each other, and it’s obvious they’ve experienced a lot together.

Dominic and Zane argue about something that happened during an operation neither of them will name, while Hunter seems prepared to set any false records straight. Sera has migrated to my end of the couch with her wine and has been talking to me about her little one back home, and surprisingly, she talks to me like I’ve always been a part of this. It feels odd.

But more importantly, none of them has mentioned my parents.

This is so profoundly different from every social experience I’ve had in this pack that it keeps catching me off guard every time I realize it.

They don’t know the story of what happened that night, or if they do, they haven’t decided it’s the most relevant thing about me. I’m not used to that, but I certainly wouldn’t mind more of this feeling.

I’ve been watching Hunter in the middle of all this without meaning to, keeping track of the way he stands with them, and how the looseness in his shoulders now isn’t there at pack meetings or around the territory.

He laughs easily when Dominic says something to him, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard him laugh like that before. It’s genuine and unguarded, and not at all like the forced mocking kind from when we were young.

Before I can correct myself, Hunter glances over and finds me watching. For a moment, we’re just looking at each other through the noise and the warm light coming in. Without meaning to, the bond shifts in my chest, feeling warmer and almost tender.

Under the pressure of it, I look away.

Across from me, Caleb and Lila sit close in the way that seems like their default, and his hand finds hers without either of them looking down. She leans in slightly, and he adjusts to accommodate it without a word. The whole exchange takes about two seconds, and neither of them seems aware they’ve done it, yet it weighs on me anyway.

The other couples look incredibly comfortable as if they’ve always been this way, and I watch all of it with a subtle yet irritating sinking feeling in my stomach.

I’ve never known what that feels like, and while I’m technically just as claimed as they are, it feels like something that’s still just out of reach.

Throughout the time I’ve been here, Hunter has been trying to at least make sure that I’m comfortable. I can’t discredit him for that. But regardless of us initiating the bond in its most complete form, everything from the past is still in the way. It’s keeping that genuine warmth from creeping in.

Given how stagnant things have been between us, I can’t help but doubt we could ever get to that place, or even remotely look as connected as the others do.

Worse, I wonder if it’s exactly what I want.

Chapter 18 - Hunter

I’ve been watching Tessa all evening without being obvious about it, which is a skill set I happen to have and am not above using, especially when it comes to her.