"Uh, he's not in this pack. Nope, no." I laughed nervously and winced when Ariella trod on my foot. "What the hell was that for?" I hissed at her. She glared at me and elbowed me in the ribs, nodding at me and then at Seth. I got her drift and shook my head firmly. "NO WAY." I mouthed at her. Why on earth would I tell Seth that I was his mate? I'd get chopped and thrown into a fire before my bones would be fed to some dogs. I think I'd rather keep this bit of information to myself, thank you very much.

"Uh, guys. Who is he then?"

Both of our heads snapped up to Seth who looked at us impatiently. I faked a smile, "Oh, you really don't want to know. He isn't somebody you've met before," Behind my back, I crossed my fingers. Seth shrugged and crossed his arms against his chest, leaning against the wall. "Well, you can still tell me."

"Uh, no. Besides, it's none of your business." I said defensively, also leaning against the wall.

"But I'm your-" He stopped suddenly and glared at me. "But I really want to know!" He whined.

I raised an eyebrow at him, "I don't need to tell you because of the fact that you aren't my Alpha. So there." We glared at each other, wanting the other to back down. Well, at least I know that we're back to hating to each other. Not that we ever stopped. Hating each other, that is.

Ariella cleared her throat awkwardly and gestured towards the direction of the front door. "Guys, I'm just gonna go. I can feel the tension and I'm not gonna intrude. I can tell that this conversation is mostly between A and B so I'm gonna C myself outta here." She laughed at her lame joke and quickly dashed out of the room. Oh, I was gonna murder that girl for leaving me here with him.

I turned back to Seth and shrugged. "Well, I don't want to be stuck in here with you for the rest of the day and I have things to do, people to see and a best friend to kill. So, adios." I smiled sarcastically at him and he rolled his eyes at me.

"Whatever."

*************************************************

"Ow! Ow. Lori! OUCH. THAT FREAKING HURTS, YOU KNOW."

I payed no attention to her squeals and complaints, whacking my bag at her with more force. "You-" WHACK. "Left-" WHACK. "Me-" WHACK. "With that idiot!!" WHACK WHACK. I stopped hitting her and dropped my bag onto the store's floor. Wiping some sweat of my face, I placed my hands on my hips and narrowed my eyes at her crossly.

She rubbed her shoulder and smiled sheepishly, "Well, I could tell that you weren't gonna let him in on your big bad secret so I thought that I'd leave you in there to talk/shout it through."

"We didn't have anything to say to each other!"

She snorted, "Yeah, you try telling me that when you're both in a room together again. I could practically feel the sexual tension rolling off of you guys in big fat waves." She waved her hands in the air, trying to demonstrate the 'waves'. Behind her, Maggie looked up from where she was sifting through a clothes rack and nodded at me in a agreement, "I really think that you should tell him, Lori."

"WE DO NOT HAVE FREAKING SEXUAL TENSION." I screeched, throwing my hands up in the air, frustrated. All the customers in the store looked up from what they were doing to stare at me weirdly. I glared at them and turned back to face my friends. Soon to be ex-friends if they don't stop going on about mine and Seth's 'sexual tension'.

Maggie and Ariella just shook their heads at me and they both mouthed: "Tension. It will blow up soon." I stomped my foot childishly. Ungh.

*******************************************

"So how's the fake-boyfriend search going?" I asked Ari as we exited the store, starting to walk around the mall aimlessly.

"It's funny you should mention his name. You have a date with Adrian now. At Starbucks."

"Whoa, hang on. What?! Now, as in now?" I asked disbelievingly.

"Yup." she replied, popping the 'p'. I gave her an 'are you serious look' and she just tapped her foot impatiently, eyeing her multicoloured nails.

Maggie whistled through her teeth, "Damn girl. You work fast. How did you get this Adrian guy to even agree to fake-date Lori? She's impossible to deal with." She joked, looking at Ari in amazement and wonder. I huffed at the insult and turned my back to Maggie.

"I have my ways.." She trailed off as she looked at something in the distance. "Look there," she pointed at a blonde guy sitting at a table near the window. So that was Adrian. Hmm, he's not bad, from what I can see. My friends noticed me scrutinising him and they both have me disbelievingly looks.

"What? I'm a girl, okay? Girls always check things out. Be it clothes, hair, makeup, houses or boys." I stated matter-of-factly.

Ari pushed me towards the entrance of Starbucks and I hesitantly walked inside, but not before looking back. They both have me a thumbs up sign. Well, here goes nothing.

Twenty minutes later and Adrian had me laughing so hard that tears were coming out of my eyes. He's such a great guy and it's too bad that he's gay. Yup, you heard me right. Ladies and gentlemen, Adrian Asher is gay. And he's proud of it. In fact, that's the first thing he said to me. No joke.

"So why do you need me to pose as your boyfriend? Why not just go up and tell Seth that you're his mate?" he asked me curiously.

"Are you kidding me? That would be the worst news he's ever received and he would probably send me to the depths of Tartarus if he could." I shook my head, "Nah, I'm doing just fine without him."

"So you wouldn't care if he went out with another girl?" He asked me slyly.

Ignoring the annoyed feeling that I got at the idea, I shook my head. "Nope, I couldn't care less."

"Okay! Well, at least you aren't going to kill her." He nodded towards a table behind me. I turned around in my seat and found Seth laughing and talking with Alpha Cayden's sister, Tiffany. Oh no she didn't. Yup, she did. She just went right up and kissed my mate. Smack dab on the lips. That bitch.