Faithfully Yours (Book 2, Dominantly Yours Series)

One

It really was her fault, though. Her little brother Charlie had wanted to go the second he'd heard Claire planned on going out. Then, because he and Wyatt were the best of friends and had been ever since Wyatt and his aunt came to join the pack, that meant the two were inseparable and had to go absolutely everywhere together. Marie and Wyatt's aunt had tagged along because they obviously couldn't let their kids go out on their own. Marcus jumped aboard by the time Theresa had finished with part of the pantry. He'd finished with training and had told Nate that he should at least get paid in food for all of his hard work.

The only one who really had a reason to tag along was Gabe. He'd been her designated bodyguard for quite some time now. After last year, when Claire and her brother Shane had ditched their bodyguards at the park, he'd decided the only good bodyguard was himself.

So, lucky for her, she got to spend a nice amount of time with her witty half-uncle.

Though Nate had been put out by all of them joining in for lunch, he seemed to take it pretty well. He laughed throughout lunch at Marcus and Gabe and glanced fondly over at his mother as she enjoyed a discussion with Marie and Wyatt's aunt.

Claire could see him having a good time. She didn't feel that bad at having let them all join in.

She'd been giving Theresa a smile when a paper straw wrapper hit her in the cheek.

Her head turned in the missile's direction. "Gabe, what the heck?"

Gabe blinked at her with his blue eyes and sipped innocently at a soda. "Aaricia, really, I cannot believe that you would just assume that I would purposefully aim a little straw—"

"Marcus, did he launch the wrapper at me?" she asked.

Marcus, in the middle of a huge bite of his meatball marinara sandwich, flicked his gaze between her and the leader of the Royal Guard. He swallowed his bite and licked at the corner of his mouth before responding. "Yeah."

Gabe leaned back to look at Marcus like he'd grown another head. "I'm offended."

"You're offended?" Claire piped back. "I'm the one being attacked here." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Which I find ironic. You being my guard and all."

"'Protection' is such a loose term."

She rolled her eyes, and unfortunately for her, cracked a smile. She thought by now she'd have gotten used to Gabe's antics. She loved some of his comments. Gabe was 75% goofball and 25% shit-starter. It definitely made life fun.

Speaking of protection... Claire bumped her shoulder against Nate, who glanced over at her mid-sentence.

"Sorry," Claire threw his way. "It can wait until you're done."

"It's fine. What's up?" He glanced down at her.

Claire's heart warmed as she regarded him. From the angle she sat at, the light from the window blanketed over him. A bit of stubble lined his jaw in such a teasing way that it planted butterflies in her stomach. His hazel eyes, framed by dark eyelashes, pierced straight through her. The beauty that was Nate plowed her right in the stomach. But it wasn't a bad feeling. In fact, the warmth that came from knowing he was hers bubbled up inside her. She couldn't help but grin up at him.

He blinked at her, a bemused expression slowly seeping onto his face. "What? Did I miss something?"

She shook her head, biting her lip to reel herself in. "Not at all. I...wanted to ask if you wanted to patrol tonight."

Over the recent months, Claire had decided it was high time for her to do something more for the pack. She wanted to give back in the same ways the others did.