Cross My Tigress Face the Wrath (Stella)

No one really knew what kind of mess Xander had stumbled into this time, but for some reason, he was dead set on marrying her.

The thing was, he'd only told her brother and their mom about it never bothered to clue her in at all.

Was she just not important enough to know?

Yvonne cleared her throat awkwardly. "Hey, what's going on—?”

"Yvonne, listen to me," Xander suddenly snapped through the phone. "You're getting married to me. End of story. No arguments."

He sounded pissed-really pissed.

Stella had run off with Ronald, now he was knee-deep in trouble, and all he wanted was for Yvonne to play along. But instead, he'd just gotten punched in the face for his trouble.

Where was the justice in that?

Dan, that absolute lunatic-if Xander didn't make him pay big time for this, he'd stop calling himself Xander.

Yvonne started to protest, "Hey, what do you mean, 'end of story'? What's with the attitude?"

Wasn't a wedding supposed to be a happy thing? Why was he so angry? She honestly didn't get it.

Xander gritted out, "Didn't Dan just get divorced? Fine. Let's both have our second weddings together. Let's see how much that jerk can take."

Yvonne's jaw dropped. Was he really just doing this because he couldn't stand being outdone by Dan?

Listening to Xander now, he sounded so mad he was barely making sense.

Yvonne had been furious at Dan herself, but now she found herself trying to calm Xander down instead.

"Come on, don't be like this. Didn't you get a hit in, too?"

Was this really just about one-upping Dan?

Was her marriage really just a tool for someone else's revenge? Wait, wasn't that exactly how she'd tried to get back at Xander before?

Maybe this was karma.

"Xander, do you actually want this marriage, or are you just using me to get even with Dan?" she asked, exasperated.

This was a mess.

"Let's just get it done. I'm coming to pick you up now," Xander said, and hung up before she could reply.

Yvonne stared at her phone, lips twitching in disbelief, then glanced at Ronald in the backseat.

"Xander again?" Ronald asked, though the speakerphone had made it obvious.

"You heard him, right?" Yvonne replied, rolling her eyes. "Who gets that worked up about getting married? He sounded like he was about to fight someone, not propose."

Ronald and Stella exchanged glances, both a little shell-shocked from Xander's outburst.

Yvonne shook her head, feeling a headache coming on. Stella looked equally frazzled the whole thing was spiraling out of control.

"Oh my God, is that what getting married sounds like to him?" Yvonne groaned. "I swear, he sounds more like he wants to deck me than marry me."

Yeah, Xander's tone was more "bar fight" than "wedding vows." It was enough to make her want to hide under a table.

...

Back at the Quinn family home.

Xander had already arrived. The look he shot Yvonne was downright murderous. Stella instinctively edged closer to Ronald, pulling Yvonne with her for backup. Xander glared daggers at Yvonne, and under that stare, she felt her confidence drain away.

She nervously fidgeted with her hands. "Could you not look at me like that? You're honestly terrifying right now."

She'd never noticed before, but when Xander got that look in his eyes, he was genuinely scary.

Suddenly, Yvonne wasn't so sure about marrying him. Heck, even if Xander was still hung up on Stella, there were a hundred ways to distract him-marriage didn't have to be one of them.

A guy who looked at her like that? He practically had "domestic abuser" written on his forehead.

Xander noticed her hesitation and let out a cold laugh. "So you do get scared? I thought nothing rattled you."

Ever since he'd come back, she'd been picking fights with him every day. She'd even gone after Dan. He'd honestly started to believe she was afraid of nothing.

He dragged out the word "scared" just to needle her. Yvonne bristled, even though she was a little intimidated.

But her irritation quickly drowned out her nerves. She stepped out from behind Stella, arms folded. "Don't flatter yourself. Like I'd ever be afraid of you."noveldrama

"Then let's go get married."

"In your dreams. There's not a chance I'm marrying you after all this."

"Oh, so you'd rather marry Dan? Over my dead body, Yvonne," Xander snapped. "Let's get one thing straight-Dan's never getting you. Not after he jumped me at Ferrowland. He can spend the rest of his life pining away, for all I care.”