I'm Sorry, Who's Your Mate?

*Bonus Chapter*

“Desperate are we? I’m not sure if I should be worried that you love to purposefully anger me.” She grinned as I pretended to pout.

“Not my fault that you are unequivocally sexy when you’re mad.” I winked at her and laughed as she blushed.

“Someone really wants to sleep on the couch tonight.” She reprimanded once she’d stopped blushing.

“Alright, alright. I’m sorry.” I apologized immediately. She’d made me sleep on the couch once when I’d commented on how hot I thought she was with Evan and Sutton there. She’d been embarrassed and infuriated and needless to say, that was the worst night’s sleep ever.

“Damn right you are.” She murmured, grinning smugly.

I scowled at her before winking with a playful grin. It’s hard to ever stay mad at her and to be honest, I couldn’t find it in me to want to be mad at her. I never understood how couples could stop talking to each other for days at length simply because one was mad at the other. If you truly loved that person then the just the mere thought of not talking to them for even an hour would be painful. My outlook was shared by Paige which resulted in few arguments that lasted a few seconds before one of us, undoubtedly usually me, caved and apologized.

“I have to go do some work for Evan but I’ll be done around five thirty so be ready by six to be whisked away on the most romantic date ever.” I called over my shoulder as I left the room.

I spent the next few hours going over paperwork and making calls to other packs. While I didn’t normally do office work, I had to spend a day filing everything away every three weeks or so. My job so far had consisted of visiting the members in our pack to ensure everything was well but lately Evan had started encouraging me to build relationships with the neighboring packs. Eventually the idea was for me to be the go between and to ensure that the packs we had treaties with were honoring the terms. I knew to do that I’d have to eventually leave the pack, and Paige, for a few days to go visit these other packs and I most definitely was not looking forward to that.

“Hey James.” Conrad grinned at me as he loped into the office I was designated. “What are you up to?”

“In case the pile of papers in front of me doesn’t hint at it, I’m doing paperwork.” I muttered, not looking up from the paper I was reading.

“That’s boring.” Conrad blew out a deep breath as he spoke. While some of us had grown up a little, he was still the same easy going guy. “Where’s Pepper?”

Even though Paige had already been presented to the pack, or re-presented, Conrad still called her Pepper instead of Paige. It’s never seemed to bother her so I didn’t feel the need to tell him to knock it off. Other than Nora, Conrad is Paige’s closest friend. Normally that would bother me but I could see that the two saw each other strictly as friends and even though we hadn’t officially mated, yet, I knew Paige was forever mine. It was safe to say I wasn’t bothered by the fact that the two were hardly apart because in all honesty, Conrad was the one that really helped Paige loosen up a bit. His relaxed and care free attitude helped Paige learn to let go a little more and for that I would always be grateful.

“She’s upstairs packing.” I moved on to the next paper and began making notes on it.

“I hope you guys know that I call dibs on the extra bedroom.” Conrad reminded me.

“Yeah, something tells me that when we move out you will too. Into our apartment.” I stated dryly, cracking a grin.

“Damn, you figured out my plan!” We both laughed at his sarcastic reply.