That was exactly what Aspen did. She punched, kicked, weaved, dodged, and tossed her opponent around the ring like the sow was a goddamn ragdoll. Done, Aspen left the ring, her face a study in serenity.
“Feel better?” Havana asked her.
The bearcat smiled. “Yeah. Hey, you two up for going to see a movie this weekend?”
“Sure.”
“I’m game,” said Bailey.
“Super. Well, see you later.” Aspen gave them a little wave and walked off.
Havana looked at Bailey. “I envy her ability to literally work off her emotions until she’s right back to cool and composed.”
“It’s like her superpower.” Bailey grinned, adding, “Mine is to cause bloodshed and mayhem.”
“Only you would be so proud of it.”
Bailey’s face suddenly brightened considerably, and she did a little clap. “Ho, ho, ho, Ginny’s back. How exciting.”
Havana threw her a pained look. “Bailey, maybe you could skip tormenting her this one time.”
“I could.” Bailey skipped toward Ginny.
Shaking her head, Havana turned back to the ring.
Walking down the stairs from his father’s apartment to the shop floor, Tate briefly waved at Ingrid, who was deep in conversation with some customers. He was making his way down one of the slim aisles when a familiar female walked through the front door. Tate cursed beneath his breath, and his cat snapped his teeth.
“You really should have refused to allow her to return to our pride,” Luke muttered, standing close behind him with Farrell.
“If I’d known she planned to be a pain in my ass, I would’ve,” said Tate.
Ashlynn made a beeline for him. “I’ve been looking for you.” She did a double-take at the sight of a rather creepy looking doll sitting on a wooden cabinet on their left. The shop sold everything from oil paintings and statues to tribal masks and china cups. Some items were featured on display tables while others hung on walls or were positioned around the store.
She swiftly switched her attention back to Tate. “I was hoping I’d find you here.” She studied his face and bit her lower lip. “You’re still mad.”
“What do you think?” he clipped, keeping his voice low so as not to draw the attention of Ingrid’s customers. They were at the other side of the shop, but there wasn’t much noise to override voices—only the ticking of clocks and the very old song playing low in the background.
“Tate—”
“I’ve made it clear that I want nothing to do with you. Yet, you showed up at my home last night wearing nothing but a coat and a pair of high heels.” She’d seemed sincerely shocked when Tate turned her away, which he absolutely did not get.
She winced, her cheeks heating. “Not my finest moment. I cringe every time I think about it. Look, I’d had a few drinks—”
“I’m not interested in why you did it. The fact is that it never should have happened, and it had better not happen again.”
“I just wanted us to talk.”
“You often show up at people’s homes naked to ‘talk?’”
Her blush deepened. “No. I was fully dressed last time I went to your house, remember? You wouldn’t let me in then either.”
“I can’t understand why that surprises you. I’ve given you no reason whatsoever to think I’d welcome you into my home. Being turned away the first time didn’t make you reluctant to try again?”
“No, because we need to talk.”
“I told you before, I’m not interested in having any such ‘talk.’ It’s not a complicated concept.”
She took a steadying breath. “Look, you have every right to be so furious with me for leaving you—”
“I’m not furious. I was once, but not now. I can see why you chose to go to Koby. It’s not something I’d have done if the situation was reversed, because I’d made a commitment to you. But I do understand why you went to him. There was no sense in holding onto my anger, so I let it go. That said, I have no inclination to ‘talk’ with you, have dinner with you, or anything else.”
“You have no idea how much I regret what I did,” she said, her expression one of distress. “I wasn’t thinking clearly, Tate. I just heard that he was in pain and all alone. Every primal instinct I had pushed me to go to him. It was like a compulsion. It fogged my mind. I acted purely on instinct, not on good sense.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore. It hasn’t mattered for a long time.”
“You loved me. You could love me again.”
“You killed whatever I felt for you. And, in doing so, you killed the possibility of me ever feeling those things for you again.”
Her face fell. “You don’t know that. Not for sure. We could get back what we had.”
His brows snapped together. “Why would I want it back?”
“We were good together.”
“And then we weren’t. You asked me to move out. I gave you what you wanted. I left, I didn’t interfere when you went to Koby. Now it’s your turn to give me what I want—stay out of my face, get on with your life, and leave me to live mine in peace.”
He skirted around her, stalked out of the shop … and almost crashed into his sister, which almost led to his bodyguards crashing into him.
Elle rocked back on her heels. “Whoa, bro, what’s the rush? You okay?”
Tate flexed his fingers. “Yeah.” He heard the doorbell chime behind him. Ashlynn’s scent reached him just as Elle’s face hardened.
His sister’s gaze tracked Ashlynn as the woman hurried away. “Is the bitch bothering you?”
“You could say that,” he replied, ushering his sister to the side so she wouldn’t be jostled by pedestrians. “I don’t remember her having selective hearing, but she seems to have it now.”
“It’s not that she’s hearing only what she wants to hear,” said Luke. “She’s keeping up the pressure because she’s determined to hear what she wants to hear, which is that you’ll take her back.”
“That’ll never happen,” said Tate.
“We know that,” Elle assured him. “Most of the pride knows that. Some are hoping you’ll give her another shot, though heaven knows why. It would be the last thing she deserves.” Elle cocked her head. “You look tired, bro.”
He was tired. Tired of dealing with Ashlynn. Tired of his efforts to find Gideon York getting him nowhere. Tired of being unable to unearth any info about the auctions. More, he was tired of fighting the urge to go see a certain devil shifter. “I’ve got a lot going on right now.”
“You also look sexually frustrated—it’s written all over you. I’d point out that many of the single females in our pride would be more than happen to help you out with that, but I don’t think I’m wrong in sensing that the only female you want to sexually tangle with right now is Havana. You talked to her lately?”
His chest squeezed just hearing her name. He couldn’t go a single day without thinking of her. The seemingly relentless urge to brand her was still his constant companion. Sometimes, it rode him so hard he almost shook with it. And the idea that she was somewhere out there trying to move on from him … yeah, he just hated it, even though he knew this was the way it had to be.