No Passing Zone: Chosen Book 24
Page 6
"Nothing can happen to you, okay?" Rowe whispered after a few moments, and I levered up to cross my arms over his massive chest and rest my chin on them, so I could look down into his face.
I cringed slightly when he slipped out of me… along with a little extra.
"You're going to be there every step of the way," I said softly. "We both know you aren't going to let me out of your sight."
"I know that." He reached up, running his fingers through my hair, on either side of my head, and it never even occurred to me to be self-conscious of my missing ear. "But it still scares the shit out of me. Do you know how bad it is for a shifter to lose their mate?"
My body spasmed when it felt like someone reached inside of me and started pinching my organs. I swallowed hard, taking a second to hold my breath and compose myself.
"I know that when I think about losing you, there is this gnawing pain in my chest that tells me I probably wouldn't survive if something happened to you," I whispered around the lump in my throat. "I wouldn't want to."
"I love you, Malik," he said simply, scanning my face like he was scared to look away.
I smiled, my heart feeling full and happy. "You keep surprising me."
"Really? How?"
"First the kiss. Then you came to my room." I smirked as his face started to get redder and redder. "You blurted out that I was your mate in the middle of a grocery store. You're supposed to be the shy one."
He smiled as his face flamed, and I rocked up, choosing to ignore the squish between us and kissed him, feeling the slight sting of tears in my eyes. His arms wrapped around me tight, squeezing me hard.
When the kiss slowly came to an end, I smiled against his mouth, humming softly.
"I love you too."
Chapter Six
It took two days from when we put the new information into the computer for the guy to act. It was the most stressful two days of my entire life.
The information was the location of his new home and then his eight to five job at the diner in town. Both locations were picked so that between Meyers, Recker, Grayson, Cowan, Hollyster, Asher and myself, they could easily be secured.
I only knew Meyers and Recker well, but since the others all had chosen mates, or in Hollyster's case was chosen, I had to believe that they would be as determined as me not to let anything happen to my precious mate.
Every morning at seven thirty, Malik would walk out to the car we'd assigned him, which was outfitted with a pretty nice panic system, and then he would drive to work. It was Cowan and Hollyster's job to follow him from a safe distance in different cars, while Recker and Meyers checked the perimeter around the house, so I could leave safely without anyone knowing I was there.
Grayson would watch the diner, waiting for Malik to get there, then watch the parking lot while he went in. When I finally got there, I had to stay in one of the buildings across the street, watching from a distance.
I had no doubt the man would be sneaky. He already knew that Malik had been with me that day in the grocery store, which is why I'd been called away for a case, so I had to stay completely out of sight.
I hated it. And I hated not being able to walk up and kiss my mate when I wanted to, which is why I practically smothered him when we got back to the cabin all safe and sound each evening.
After work, Malik would walk out to the car in the quiet parking lot at the back of the diner and get in to drive home. That was the worst part of the day for me, because it put him at his most vulnerable, and I couldn't be there, because I needed to be tucked away inside the cabin by the time he got back, so if the man followed him, he wouldn't see me.
On the second day of the same routine, I was almost back to the cabin when I got the call.
Hollyster had been completely calm as he informed me that Malik was on his way back to the cabin, but he had a tail. I'd hung up, barely telling the man thanks or bye and called my mate.
"Calm down, Rowe. This is what we were hoping for. I'll lead him to the cabin. You, Meyers and Recker will be there to make sure nothing bad happens, and Hollyster, Cowan and Grayson will be right behind us. It's going to be fine."
My chest tightened. I was so fucking proud of him, but at the same time, I wanted to yell at him. This wasn't just any normal person we were talking about. This was my mate. Didn't he realize how important he was to me? I couldn't live without him. He had to be alright.
"Just stay on the phone with me the whole time. When you pull in, I don't want you to get out right away."
"Okay, big guy."
I made it home in record time, running directly to my bag upstairs and getting my gun ready. We needed the guy alive to question him, but if it was him or my mate, I wasn't going to let anything happen to Malik.
"I'm pulling in now," Malik said in my ear, just as I made it to the window in the living room that overlooked the driveway.
"Okay. Just stay put for a second. Pretend to be looking for something, but keep your finger close to the panic button."
"Okay." I could see him start to hunt through his console convincingly, and I scanned the trees around the driveway.
Meyers and Recker would be watching around the other side of the house, including entries. I just had to sit and wait.
What seemed like hours later, but was actually probably closer to three minutes, a shifted wolf came creeping out of the woods, body low to the ground.
"Hit the button," I said into the phone, watching as the wolf's ear twitched and his head moved in my direction before moving back toward the car when the distinct sound of locks engaged, right before the thing started making a disturbing racket.
I ran for the door, watching as the wolf cringed away from all the noise before turning to run. A blur of black flew out of the bushes, and the wolf was quickly tackled to the ground by a very human Hollyster. There was a rumbling growl, and an angry mountain lion emerged from the same bushes, wrapping his jaws around the wolf's throat as his chosen mate put the beast in a fucking full nelson, wrapping his legs around the hindquarters to control those sharp back claws.
I ran to get between the car and the subdued wolf, blinking down at the smiling human, still holding the powerful beast. "Hey, Rowe. Any chance you could take in a stray human whose mate is probably going to try to lock him up for the rest of his life later?" he asked, looking more relaxed than he should be.
I groaned, letting my head fall forward on my shoulders. "This is what I'm going to have to look forward to for the rest of my life, isn't it?" I grumbled, glancing over my shoulder to find my mate with his head in his hand, smirking at me through the window.
Recker, Meyers and Grayson all came out of the woods from different directions, Meyers looking as surprised to see what the human was doing as I had been, while Grayson and Recker both sighed, telling the cougar to release him, and then they all had to go about the very elegant dance of trying to get the guy away from Hollyster with an irritated cougar growling and snapping at them, and Hollyster laughing like an idiot the entire time.
When the wolf had been swept away, and was well on his way to be handled with the utmost care by Meyers, I finally felt comfortable letting my mate out of the car, doing my best to keep him away from Hollyster, because the last thing my mate needed was to be influenced by a crazy man.
I didn't let Malik get more than a few feet from me at a time, even after everyone left. I knew I was probably being a giant pain in the ass, but all my mate did was smile at me, and lean up and kiss me every once in a while.
I knew I'd get over the need to always make sure my mate was safe eventually, and hopefully I wouldn't completely irritate the hell out of him before that happened.
He turned from putting Spritz back in his carrier and ran directly into my chest, hitting me hard enough to knock the breath out of him. I thought for sure he was going to murder me right then, but he simply smiled, reaching up to grip the back of my head and pull me down to press a kiss against my lips.
"I love you, b
ug guy," he whispered against my mouth.
"I love you too. I'm sorry about this." I felt the heat crawl on my face, and his smile got bigger. He really seemed to love when I blushed, which was good because I did it all the time. "I swear I won't always be this way."
"I know. Now why don't you take me upstairs and claim me all over again? I think that'll make us both feel better."
I jerked my head back to look down into his face, my dick filling immediately at the thought of having him under me again… or over me.
He let out another of those piggy squeals as I scooped him up quickly and ran up the steps.
"Damn it, Rowe. You're supposed to warn me before you do that!"
***
"You probably need to know what's going on," I told River as I handed him the list I'd gotten from Grayson of all the chosen Agent Burris had been actively watching when he'd been caught, pointing to one name in particular that had just been added within the last couple of days. "That man who was in here the other day did get a picture of Logan. In fact, he sent it in, and he was added to the list of people they are taking turns hunting. He must have remembered him from the bunker."
"Fuck," River growled, glancing up at Logan and then back down at the list. "I really thought we were in the clear. If he was hunting, why was he taking pictures?"
"He wasn't actually getting paid to hunt," I told him. "His job was information. He sent in pictures of the chosen he found as proof that he actually knew what he was doing, since they'd been searching for Logan for quite a while with no luck. Thankfully, someone had dropped the ball pretty hard when it came to reporting his whereabouts.
"Yeah, purposely," he grumbled.
"There are several of those bounty hunters who know where he is now, and we still can't find Darrin Clay."
River nodded, sighing, and then turned to yell at the cashier. "Hey, Loge."
The young man turned a big, bright smile on him, practically beaming. "What's up, bud?"
"Oh, ow," I heard Malik mumble while I cringed slightly, taking a deep breath, and I couldn't help but wonder how the man held it together in those circumstances. I sure couldn't have.
"You're going to have to come stay with me for a little bit. You think you can handle that?"
Logan swallowed hard, looking nervous, and I shot my mate a look. He too seemed to be taking the whole thing in with suspicious eyes.
Logan Fisher might call the man bud and laugh at him when he tells him he's his mate, but complete disinterest definitely wasn't what I saw when I watched the way he looked at River.
"Sure," he squeaked, stopping to clear his throat. "Shouldn't be a problem."
NEXT UP IN THE SERIES:
Going Down on the River: Chosen Book 25
releases July 23, 2019!
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Chosen Series
Just Ridley: Chosen Book 1
Grumpy Old Bear: Chosen Book 2
Sweet Sutton: Chosen Book 3
Call Me Baby: Chosen Book 4
Pretty Angel: Chosen Book 5
Hot Stuff: Chosen Book 6
Blondie's 1998 with a Goat: Chosen Book 7
Precious Boy: Chosen Book 8
Little Sh*t: Chosen Book 9
Parker's Silver Lineman: Chosen Book 10
Awkward Smile: Chosen Book 11
Blood, Paint and Pumpkin Guts: Chosen Book 12
Richypoo, That's Not a Bong: Chosen Book 13
Give Me S'more: Chosen Book 14
Not All Rednecks: Chosen Book 15
King Donkey Dong: Chosen Book 16
Kiss Your Lion Mouth: Chosen Book 17
Stealing the Cowboy's Hat: Chosen Book 18
My Hero, Lincoln: Chosen Book 19
This Grown Up You Speak Of: Chosen Book 20
Not That Kind of Private Investigator: Chosen Book 21
Getting Over the Bully-Sh*t: Chosen Book 22
Dance in the Rain: Chosen Book 23
No Passing Zone: Chosen Book 24
Terra Mortis
Corrupting Kross: Terra Mortis Book 1
Forever Young's: Terra Mortis Book 2
Mating Martigan: Terra Mortis Book 3
Hearting Cast: Terra Mortis Book 4
Possessing Ragyn: Terra Mortis Book 5
Hounding Camp: Terra Mortis Book 6
Having Ripley: Terra Mortis Book 7
Tempting Blalock: Terra Mortis Book 8
Riling Cagney: Terra Mortis Book 9
Trolling Seeley: Terra Mortis Book 10
Bending Ridge: Terra Mortis Book 11
Harassing Mitch: Terra Mortis Book 12
Frustrating Leighton: Terra Mortis Book 13
Convincing Jensen: Terra Mortis Book 14
Training Days
Chandler: Training Days Book 1
Brighton: Training Days Book 2
Jordan: Training Days Book 3
Farris: Training Days Book 4