Lucas straightened, appearing more interested in this conversation. I gritted my teeth. This wasn’t something I wanted to discuss with them, but they would find out anyway. I just wished I could talk to Winifred about it before I told them about her. She wouldn’t understand what it meant to find our mate. The weight of it. Not if she grew up around humans.
“A couple of nights ago, at your club, one of your waitresses was attacked. A bartender and your manager have been working with slave traders. Shifter slave traders. They have been collecting rare paranormals and selling them. I didn’t get the whole story while listening through the door.”
“Wait, why were you listening through the door?”
“Better yet, why the fuck were you following Winnie the waitress?”
Eden had been quiet the entire time, but she gave me a small smile. She understood without me having to spell it out for them. I would have said they both played stupid so I would have to say it out loud, but their dumbfounded faces told me they hadn’t figured it out yet.
I rubbed the back of my neck, refusing to make eye contact with either one of them for a moment.
“Winifred is my mate.”
“I’m your what?”
Chapter 7
Winifred
“Winifred is my mate.” He made it sound like a death sentence. Quentin shouldn’t be able to stand wrapped in my sheet and look so freaking good. His tanned skin stretched over tight muscles, his arms bulged too thick, and his hair, while it wasn’t slicked back in the stylish way that he wore the last time I saw him, still appeared so put together. The man had turned into a huge tiger, and he still came out looking like he was ready for the cover of GQ.
“I’m your what?”
Dominic and Lucas had joined him in my apartment. Along with a short, beautiful blonde woman with glasses. She was nestled up next to Dominic who wasn’t about to let her go. Quentin’s icy-blue eyes landed on me and his scowl deepened.
“You’re awake.”
“Yes, and now would you like to explain what you just said.” I put my hands on my hips. I knew I should be more freaked out, but his words spread a warmth through me and my insides purred. I desperately tried to shake the feeling before I started to freak out that my boss’s boss was standing in my destroyed apartment. And my boss was currently locked up in my bathroom because a man I had met once knocked him unconscious and put him in there. And my one friend was passed out on the couch while Lucas, a complete flirt, stood guard over her.
Yeah, my head spun, but all I could latch onto right then was the fact that Quentin had called me his mate. The animal that Mazy had told me was inside me really liked that idea. After acknowledging there was something else inside me, it felt like she became braver. I could feel her presence all around me. It was the only reason I could start to accept what they were saying.
“This is neither the time nor the place, Winifred. You need to tell us everything about the men who tried to abduct you.”
“You can’t just make an announcement like that then ignore it, Quinn.” I hated that he kept calling me by my full name when he had to know I preferred Winnie. I had refused to tell him my full name. I think that was hint enough.
His lips twitched in annoyance.
“I can do as I please, Winifred.” He emphasized my name.
“Ugh!” I threw my hands up, infuriated by him. He rubbed me the wrong way. My insides itched to continue to fight with him. I turned around and headed back into my room. A restlessness built that was unnatural for me. I hated that my body heated up when he argued with me. I never used to be like this. I had always been easygoing, but he pushed all the wrong buttons and made me want to fight him. Inside, my animal rubbed against me and purred. She enjoyed this. Crazy.
“Winifred.” Quentin shut the door behind him, locking us in my room. Oh no, no, no, no. It was way too small in here with just me, but add him crowding the room … I shook my head, making a move to go around him and leave. He blocked my way, an immoveable force.
“Female, you will listen to me.”
I released a slow breath through my nose. There might have been cartoon steam coming out of my ears. He had not just said that to me. I lifted my head to meet his gaze. The darkening desire in his eyes flooded my gut and farther below. I was mad, not turned on.
Mad.
Then he ducked his head and pressed his lips to mine. He grabbed my hips, thrusting them forward until my belly pressed against him. He was already hard and tight. I could feel the small twitches in movement. His tongue swept across my lips and my knees buckled.
“You’re mine,” he whispered against my lips. One hand crept into the waistband of my pants, brushing against the soft flesh. Goose bumps rose where his fingers trailed. When his hand dipped a little lower, I moaned.
Oh … God.
I held onto his hair a little tighter, afraid to let go. I released my grip of one hand and leisurely made a trail down his chest. The muscles quivered under my touch as if his body was aware of where I was headed. His cock twitched again. Oh, he was big.
His tongue did an absolutely sinful move distracting me from any other thoughts.
“My mate.”
“Mate,” I responded.
He took a reluctant step backward, his lips refusing to leave mine until he backed away far enough. I would have to follow or lose the contact. I let him go because I needed answers. I think. My head had gone foggy and I desperately tried to clear it. I had never felt something so strong for someone I had just met.
Quentin’s spicy timber scent drew me forward, pulled me closer and closer. My eyelids went half-mast, and my mouth parted with anticipation. If that is what he could do with a kiss? Oh, I was in trouble. I couldn’t even think straight at the moment, and all I wanted to do was pull him back to me.
“Right now, mate, we need to get a move on.” Quentin pulled me back into the room with the others. Dominic’s smirk made my cheeks flush. I didn’t know enough about shifters, but from their expressions, I guessed they’d heard us. It wasn’t like we did much, but it was still a rude awakening.
“Winnie, you need to tell us precisely what happened.” Quentin led me to the barstool. He herded me into the seat. Lucas stood in front of Mazy who had yet to wake up.
“Is she okay?” I stretched my neck to see past Quentin’s wide torso.
“She got hit with this.”
Lucas had a small dart between his fingers. My mouth went dry. A mixture of relief and anger flooded me—relief it was only a dart gun, but anger he’d hit her. What if he had gotten me, too? What if Quentin hadn’t been here? My hands started to shake and I pressed them against my knees.
“Winifred.”
“Two nights ago, I was taking the trash out at Lucky’s. In the alley, I came across Jimmy the bartender being roughed up by these two men. I tried to be quiet, but I tripped over a bottle. They saw me and …” My stomach hollowed out as I thought of Sammie’s lust-filled gaze and when Mac’s razor-sharp teeth snapped at the air between us. “They talked about rare shifters. Jimmy didn’t hit his quota or something like that. One of them looked at me and told me I was a rare one. Jimmy distracted them while I ran. I didn’t know what else to do.
“The second one shifted into a grizzly bear and chased after me. I lost him in the park. I wandered all night and half of yesterday before I returned here some time. When Mazy and Derek came to check on me, Derek got squirmy. He must be working with the other men. I don’t know if he had planned on coming here alone or what, but he blamed me. Said it was my fault that they were going to take Mazy, too.”
I wanted to explain to them it wasn’t my fault. I hadn’t meant to get Mazy involved. None of them had even batted an eye though. A muscle in Quentin’s temple twitched as he listened to the story.
The men remained silent for a few minutes.
“I have to protect Eden. I don’t trust her clan to keep her safe.” Dominic looked over to Lucas.
“I will get Ma
zy somewhere safe and come straight back here to help. Quentin?”
“I need to keep my mate safe. I will take her to a safe house, then Lucas and I will meet up and take out them out.”
“Take them out?” I asked, breathless. It had become apparent I had no idea who Quentin was. I had no idea who the man, who stood in front of me so protectively, was, but I felt safe with him. How was that even possible?
“Don’t worry, Winnie. They are mercenaries. They do this sort of work for a living,” Eden supplied helpfully. My mouth opened with so many unspoken questions. Fear iced my veins. These men were trained killers. The man I had just been kissing was a trained killer.
“You’re all mercenaries?” I asked softly. Quentin so didn’t seem the type with his expensive clothes and proper attitude.
“Yup! It’s how I met Dominic.” Eden smiled.
My jaw snapped shut, and I looked back to Eden who gazed adoringly at the giant man who held her like fine china. I blinked a couple times, trying to understand the image in front of me.
“You mean to tell me you were a job for him? You were hired to kill her?”
Dominic’s pupil had slit like a reptile’s, the iris color changed to an unearthly hue.
“I wasn’t hired to kill her. I would never fucking do that. I was hired to kidnap her. Dumb fucks didn’t expect me to keep her.” He let out another laugh. Eden rose up and pressed a kiss under his jaw. He smiled down at her with such adoration. I regretted ever questioning their mating.
“Why can’t Mazy and I go together?”
“They will expect you to be in the same place. These aren’t men who are just going to give up because you got away. We will dispose of Derek and then start the hunt for the other men. We need to disband this group.” Lucas’s voice turned serious for the first time since I had met him. He always talked like there was some type of joke no one really got, but now he was all business. I was all about disbanding the group that had been kidnapping other people, but disposing of them? Of Derek?
“Our world works different, Winifred.”
“Do you mean the mercenary world or the shifter world?”
“Both. Derek putting his hands on you was a transgression against me as your mate. The moment he tried to take you, he signed his own death warrant. We live by different laws than humans, and it’s best you start to realize that now, Winifred.”
His tone left no room for argument. I pressed my lips together. He was obviously riled up. Lucas asked me to describe the men who had attacked me. I gave them their names and told them as much as I could remember. Whatever magic they could make happen with my brief descriptions was on them. I didn’t like that I had to be a part of this, but at the same time, I didn’t want anyone else going through what I had almost been part of.
I started to chew on my nail, a bad habit that I had broken a long time ago, but under the stress and nerves, the urge came back in full force.
Quentin wrapped his fingers around my wrist and pulled my hand away from my mouth, his lips pressed in a thin line. The moment he turned away from me, my thumb went straight back to my mouth. Partly out of spite and partly because my nerves started to eat my insides. My eyes kept flicking to the bathroom door. Inside that room was a man whose death was talked about so casually.
Chapter 8
Quentin
“Stop biting your nails.”
“Never,” she muttered, probably thinking I couldn’t hear her. I pulled in a breath. I tried hard to keep my cool with her, but at the moment she was getting on my last nerve.
We finally left her apartment. She was determined to bring her own clothes, and I insisted I would buy her new ones. She had stomped past me with her nose in the air and gone to her room. I desperately wanted to follow her and teach her a lesson, but we didn’t have time. Derek needed to meet his end by my animal’s claws and teeth, and I needed to get her safe.
We drove to my penthouse, and I gathered my things while she stood in the middle of my modern apartment staring at the polished details. The couch was sleek black leather. The other furniture complemented it, also black. The walls were pristine white. Much like her, I didn’t have any pictures on the walls or set in frames on the table ends.
I went into my room, which was easily the size of her small apartment, and hurried to my closet. I grabbed my clothes and packed a bag. I replaced the sheet from her apartment with clothing. When I came out, she still hadn’t moved, but the look of awe had passed. Instead, her forehead had creased and her hands twisted in front of her.
She had asked me, as we made our way down the stairs, if I had any family. I had responded that of course I did. She kept quiet after. My tiger knew this woman was for us. She was it, but getting to know her would happen with time. It was different for her. She tried to get to know me, but I wasn’t ready to share that information. She hadn’t been open about her past either, and I knew it had to be interesting. How did a latent not know what she was?
In the car, she had started to chew at her nails again. I managed to ignore it for a little while, but then it started to get on my nerves. I repeatedly told her to stop, and she ignored me.
“It’s a terrible habit. Stop biting your nails, Winifred.”
“Stop telling me what to do,” she muttered.
She pulled her hand away from her mouth and set it in her lap. There was blissful silence between us for a whole five minutes before she started to mess with the radio. When she got to a popular pop station, she turned the music up and sang along. The longer we drove, the louder she got. Normally, it annoyed me to no end when people sang along to the music. And Winifred really couldn’t sing. Her voice was horribly off tune, but she looked happy.
Her eyes lit up and her head bobbed with the song. She smiled until hidden dimples in her cheeks popped. She looked absolutely gorgeous in that moment. I didn’t dare spoil it. I listened to her sing along with the appalling music. It wasn’t as terrible with her singing along though. It had become bearable.
Once outside of the city limits, we headed into the woods. I took back roads and dirt paths that would lead us to one of my most secure safe houses. This one even Dominic and Lucas had no idea about. I preferred it that way. They had a couple of their own. If we were ever pitted against each other, I would have loved a place to disappear for a couple years. I might have preferred the polished life, but I could live in the middle of nowhere.
Winifred had stopped singing a while back and watched the trees pass us by. She would never remember all the twists and turns. I wasn’t worried about her disappearing on me. After all, her animal felt safe around me. She had come with me without much of a fight. I could see she felt unsettled by her animal’s instincts, but she trusted them. That was what mattered.
Once we arrived at the luxurious cabin I had built years before, I started to relax. My shoulders dropped from their tense position. Was this how Dominic had felt when he found Eden and thought he would lose her? His animal pushing him to unbearable limits, his body demanding so much more from her, and all the while him still wanting to treasure her in a way I didn’t, couldn’t understand.
Winifred grabbed her bag from the backseat and waited for me. I took it from her and headed up to the cabin. On the outside it looked simple enough, a small porch on the front with a small coffee table and two chairs. I was glad it came with the set now that I had Winifred. Before, I had only wanted one chair, even tried to get the seller to break the set. This wasn’t a place meant for anything other than keeping a low profile. Now, though, perhaps it would be more.
My tiger believed we were safe now. The way he saw it, she was no longer in danger out here. For now we could enjoy our mate, and my skin tingled with the idea of her lush body. Tramping down my lustful thoughts, I swung the door open. Before Winifred entered, I checked the room over with my night vision. Nothing out of place. Sheets still covered the expensive furniture, and it appeared to have been untouched since I had locked it up all those years ago.
I flicked the light on, glad I still paid the electricity bill under an alias. I angled my body so Winifred could squeeze by me. Her eyes lifted under heavy lids to mine. Something was going through her head that excited my tiger.
“So this is your place?” she asked, nervous.
“Yes.”
My gaze roamed her body hungrily as she moved through the cabin. She touched the sheets and refused to look back at me. I wanted to know what she was thinking, but I didn’t know how to ask her. I was never open with a woman emotionally. I found it tiring, and the women I dated knew what I was. They wanted to try someone rare and exotic.
“Can we remove the sheets?”
“Of course.” We spent the next twenty minutes removing all the sheets from the furniture and folding them then putting them in the storage room. The cabin was tiny compared to the penthouse. The living room held a small couch, a brown leather two-seater, and a wide matching chair. They faced the stone fireplace.
Behind the couch sat a dark-wood table and chairs. We stowed the bag of groceries we’d brought from the penthouse in the kitchenette. On the other side of the cabin was a small hallway leading to the full bathroom and the bedroom.
The wood-paneled walls and dark-hardwood floor offered a rustic feel.
“This feels so much more homey,” she said after we had finished our small chore.
“Than?”
“Your apartment.”
I cocked my head at her.
“You didn’t like the penthouse?”
“Not really. It felt so stiff and boring. This is more like a home. Like a family might live here. A place people would want to return to. You know?”
“No. I don’t.”
“What was your childhood home like?” Winifred asked me, a bright look in her eyes. She seemed interested in learning more about me. I knew it was the human way. Shifters were a little different. We knew what we wanted and went for it. Why wait when we knew we would belong to each other for the rest of our lives?
Hired: Mercenary Shifters (Mercenaries for Hire Book 2) Page 4