Julian’s POV

    I thought I arrived promptly at the restaurant, but perhaps I was early, since I didn’t see anyone else there yet. Well, anyone other than Chase.

    He was looking at me like the devil himself just walked through the door, and I knew it didn’t have anything to do with the fact of my timing.

    It meant Ca hadn’t told him that she invited me.

    Good.

    Concealing my inner joy at his being unprepared and bbergasted under a stone–face, I walked toward

    him. “Thanks for the invite, Chase.”

    Chase frowned even harder. “What the hell are you talking about?”

    “Ca told me you were taking the entire clinic out to celebrate your recent good news,” I told him.

    “Cab…/bb?/b”

    “I’m sure everyone is on their way and will be here in a minute,” I added.

    “Everyone…?” Chase echoed again, looking utterly lost.

    The hostess cleared her throat. “Table for two, Sir?”

    ncing back at her, he returned back to him himself, if only a little. He cleared himself and told her, “No. Uh… I suppose there will be considerably more of us than I thought.”

    He only requested a table for two? Did Ca mishear the invitation, or was Chase hoping that only Amber

    would actually arrive?

    I did a quick count in my mind. “The number will be closer to twelve,” I told the hostess. “Oh, well, thirteen

    with Chase.”

    “Thirteen is an unlucky number,i” /iChase grumbled.

    “Did you want to sit this out?” I asked him. “I could pick up the tab instead if you just want to leave.”

    “No,” he said quickly, fullyposing himself now. His eyes were sharp again as he red at me. To the hostess, he said, “Thirteen, please.”

    The hostess nodded. She remained professional, but not quite as friendly, her brow twitching ever so slightly. “That will take a few minutes to prepare. Typically patrons call ahead when they are dining with sorge a number…”

    “Yes, well, it’s a bit of a surprise to me as well,” Chase said smoothly. He grinned at the hostess, and that seemed to smooth things over because she blushed. “Take all the time you need, love.”

    “O–okay…” she said and hurried off.

    Chase turned back around toward me. “It helps to have a pretty face, not that you would know.”

    I glowered. This insult was entirely adolescent, very much Chase. He might have been young, but he was still in his early twenties. Instead, he cast insults like a middle–schooler.

    When I didn’t engage with this nonsense, instead just ring steadily back at him, his smile wavered slightly but he continued.

    “This isn’t going to work, you know,i” /ihe said. “This morning Amber couldn’t get away from you fast enough. Now you believe by showing up here, she will somehow be impressed?”

    I continued ring, but didn’t say a word.

    “Your presence here isn’t going to change anything,” Chase said. “I am the one who is going to win

    Amber’s heart.”

    His persistence despite my staring confirmed for me that he was simply baiting me again. Maybe he wanted me to take another swing at him, so that he could go crying to Amber about his bruises.

    I didn’t regret the punch fromst time. Chase had certainly deserved it after the way he’d been talking about Amber, and his face was so… punchable.

    But I was an Alpha. This was a restaurant, and Amber and all of her co–workers were about to arrive.

    He likely wanted me to cause a scene for them all to witness, to see how much of an Alpha brute I was.

    That wasn’t going to work a second time.

    It wasn’t that I was emotionless. My jealousy still swelled up inside of me fiercely, and my wolf still growled in my mind. But this time, to cool myself, I thought of Amber herself. If she was here, if she could hear the way he talked about her… What would she say?