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All right—that was enough! Grath’s blood was boiling but unfortunately, he couldn’t rush in and break the stick-thin female over his knee the way he wanted to. As a Kindred, he was sworn never to hurt or abuse a female.
Suddenly, though, he knew what hecoulddo. Squaring his shoulders, he headed for the table.
EIGHTEEN
MATTIE
Mattie felt like she was back in high school all over again.Fatty-Mattie—that horrible old nickname still had the power to cut her to the quick. And Amanda Hutchinson was as skinny as ever—whippet-thin with long, shiny blonde hair. She might have a few wrinkles around her eyes and the corners of her mouth but she was still the head cheerleader with the killer body that all the guys wanted.
How did she end up at the table beside mine?Mattie wondered despairingly.Why couldn’t she have been located literallyanyother place in the room?
For these questions, she had no answers and she didn’t know what to say to the vicious, spiteful jeers the other woman was tossing her way either. In that moment she felt about two inches tall.
And then, from seemingly out of nowhere, Grath came into view.
“Hey, baby—setting up without me?” he rumbled.
“Oh, uh—” Mattie began.
“You know you’ll have to pay the penalty for that, don’t you?” he growled. And then he swept Mattie into his arms for a long, passionate kiss.
Mattie gasped and then found herself kissing him back, winding her arms around his neck, forgetting everything and losing herself in the moment. When he finally sat her back down, she was breathless and flustered, her cheeks hot with a blush.
“What wasthatfor?” she managed to say.
“Just for being beautiful,” Grath rumbled, grinning down at her. “And to punish you for starting without me.”
“I wasn’t starting without you, I was uh, talking to—”
“Amanda Hutchinson. Well, actually AmandaRobertsnow—but I’m going to go back to my maiden name as soon as my divorce gets finalized.”
Amanda thrust herself between Mattie and Grath, holding out a hand to the big Hybrid and fluttering her eyelashes at him just the way she always had with the football stars back in high school.
“Youmust be a Kindred warrior,” she exclaimed. “I can tell by that gorgeous red skin of yours. And those tattoos are sohot!”And she traced one long-nailed fingertip up the curving black tattoos on the big Hybrid’s arm.
Watching her flirt with Grath made Mattie boiling mad, though she refused to show it. It also made her think of all the mean things Amanda had ever done to her—the body shaming…the time she’d squirted ketchup on the back of Mattie’s skirt and then told everyone she had started her period…the time she’d claimed that Mattie had stepped in “doggie-doo” and the smell was making her sick…the way she’d written “Fatty-Mattie” in permanent marker on Mattie’s locker…
The list wasendless. And now she was at it again, trying to push Mattie aside to get to her man!
Mattie didn’t even question the wave of possessive anger that washed over her when she thought of the big Hybrid as “hers”—it just seemed natural, especially after the last twenty-four hours they’d spent together.
“Now what is someone likeyoudoing with littleFatty-Mattie?”Amanda purred, looking up into Grath’s face adoringly. “Did she tell you we used to call her that in high school? She was always such achubbylittle thing! Still is, I see.”
“If you’re referring to my female’s curves, I find them beautiful. And I muchpreferthem to being able to see her skeleton poking through her skin,” Grath growled, his black eyes narrowing.
But Amanda wasn’t giving up.
“Oh, my—temper,temper,”she exclaimed. “You’re a growly one, aren’t you? Did you come all the way down from the Kindred Mother Ship just to help poor little Mattie with the Bake-off?”
“No, I came down to meet her family,” Grath said tersely.
“Oh. Well if you’re not helpingher, thenIcould use an assistant.” Amanda fluttered her long, obviously fake eyelashes at the big Hybrid. “What do you say, big guy?”
“I say you’ll have to find an assistant elsewhere. Madeline is theonlyfemale I want to be with,” Grath said, taking a pointed step back from Amanda, who was very definitely in his personal space.
“Hmph.” Amanda made a pouty face—clearly she wasn’t used to being turned down by men. “Well, ifyou’respoken for, I guess I’ll just have to go up to the Kindred Mother Ship and find a Kindred warrior of myown,”she said, flipping her long blonde hair flirtatiously.
“I wouldn’t bother, if I were you,” Grath said flatly. “Most Kindred like a female with at leastsomeflesh on her bones. Even in the Unmated Males section, I don’t think you’d stir any interest.”
