“Upset me?” Roni snorted. “You’re on solid food, aren’t you?” The female simply wasn’t important enough to affect her that deeply.
“Look, I’m sorry if I’ve offended you or something, but—”
“You can’t eyeball someone’s male and expect her to eat with you. It’s really that simple.” Kerrie looked to Marcus for some backup, but he wisely said nothing. “You can go now.”
Wearing a wounded look that was totally fake, Kerrie walked to the counter and began talking to Deana.
Only then did Roni turn to Marcus, who was surprisingly quiet. “You’re not going to lecture me about being rude to your friend?”
“Sweetheart, you really have no idea how hard it makes me to see you get all possessive like that.” It made him want to fuck her within an inch of her life.
Typical male. “I’m not dumb, I know you’ve got a past. But that doesn’t mean I have to be okay with it being flaunted in my face.”
“You’re right, she was being a bitch. You handled it well.” Just then, Teagan brought out their orders, and Kerrie was forgotten. Roni really enjoyed the food, which pleased Marcus and his sisters. He wasn’t impressed that she wanted to share with him again—or that she snatched some of his fries.
Unsurprisingly, his sisters dragged him into the kitchen for a “chat” before he left, which was basically an interrogation about how he felt about Roni and what he intended to do about those feelings. He managed to artfully blow off most of the questions.
When he exited the kitchen, he saw that Kerrie was talking to Roni, who looked ready to slap her. Protectiveness made him want to barge over there and bare his teeth at Kerrie, but he knew Roni would be pissed by that, so he stood back to allow her to take care of the matter herself.
“He must like you a lot to bring you to meet his sisters,” said Kerrie. “I’m sure you know what I told him, that he’s spoken of me.”
“Nope. Never heard about you before.” It was clear to Marcus that Roni meant it as an insult, and it clearly hit home.
“I’m a Seer. I had a vision of Marcus with his mate; I saw her. You’re not her.” Kerrie seemed to take delight in saying that. “She’s bruised deep inside, and she needs him. Don’t get in the way of that.”
Shit. Marcus hadn’t wanted to bring this up to Roni, worried she’d do something stupid like make the way clear for this female he didn’t even want.
“She needs him,” continued Kerrie. “His path is to find her, to save her—only he can.”
Roni’s expression was deadpan. “Well then, she’d better come fight for him.” Her unexpected words made him smile.
Kerrie gaped. “You’d really stay with him? You’d really get in the way of that?”
“I spoke to a Seer once. She told me my father would be Alpha of the pack one day. He was already dead at the time.”
“My vision was—”
“Just a vision. I don’t place much faith in them. But if Marcus’s path truly is so set in stone, he’ll find her without trying, won’t he? So don’t worry your bitter little head.”
Marcus chose that moment to approach. “Ready, gorgeous?”
Roni nodded. “Definitely. There’s a weird smell in here.” She then cast Kerrie a withering look and strolled out of the diner, knowing Marcus would follow. She’d sensed him behind her and Kerrie, knew he’d been listening, and she appreciated that he let her deal with the bitch herself. It wasn’t until they were both in the car and leaving the parking lot that she spoke again. “So . . . Kerrie’s a Seer.”
He smoothed his hand along her thigh. “I didn’t tell you about the vision for three reasons: One, I was worried it would make you walk away. Two, I don’t want the vision to come true—the future she described isn’t one I’d want. Three, I’m not sure I believe the vision means anything anymore. In any case, I couldn’t make the female the Seer described happy, and she couldn’t make me happy either.”
That made Roni frown. “Mates make each other happy.”
“That’s the theory.”
“Your parents weren’t happy at all, were they?” she guessed.
“No, they weren’t,” he admitted.
So maybe Nick’s suppositions were right after all. “Were they true mates, or had they imprinted?”
“They were true mates. And yet, they were never happy. In fact, they were miserable. But you don’t look very surprised by that.”
She thought about denying it, but not only would it be unfair, he’d most likely know she was lying. “It’s just that Nick . . . he had his friend do a check on you, on your past.”
“Did he now?” he drawled, his tone deadly.
“He had no right to do that; it was an invasion of your privacy, and I’m sorry.”
“Well, what did he find out?” But Marcus was afraid he already knew.
“You once told me your dad was hard. Did he ever . . . ?” It was difficult to ask, felt wrong when she could sense his pain.
“Was he abusive? No, he wasn’t.”
“But your mom . . .”
“He never laid a single finger on her.”
Roni’s brows drew together in confusion. “Nick’s friend said she was always badly bruised.”
“She was.”
“Marcus, I don’t understand.”
Pulling up at the side of the road, he killed the engine—resigned to the fact that he’d need to tell Roni this twisted tale. “She used to disappear for days at a time. When she’d come back, she’d be battered and bruised. Not because she’d been attacked, but because she’d wanted it.” Seeing Roni’s perplexed look, he smiled weakly. “I don’t really understand it myself. I’ve heard about sexual masochism, but most people involved in that lifestyle are totally normal people with a kink that others might not understand. But my mother . . . it’s not sexual for her, she just likes to suffer. And in being the way she is, she makes everyone around her suffer.”