by Eva Chase
“I tell myself all that,” Marco said. “But I still feel like I’ve been punched in the gut every time I hear the words of a challenge.”
I drank in the smell of his skin, like spiced coffee. The stutter of his breath. The tension still wound through his muscles. He hadn’t wanted to tell me that story. He’d avoided it for weeks. But he had, finally, so that I’d understand.
“That’s why you were impatient to consummate,” I said. “Why it was so important to you to secure your position any way you could.”
“I shouldn’t have seen you that way,” Marco said quickly. “I didn’t want to think about you that way. But the thought was there. I let it get to me. You know how sorry I am for that.”
“But now—” I started, moving my body against his.
Marco groaned, but he gripped my thigh to hold me still. “Ren, tell me the truth. Would you be offering right now if Julius hadn’t challenged me?”
I wanted to say yes. The word caught in my throat. I couldn’t know exactly what I’d have done if the luncheon had played out differently... but I could make a reasonable guess.
“That’s what I thought,” Marco said at my hesitation.
“Marco...”
He cupped my face, gazing into my eyes. “Princess, it’s okay. The first time we go there, I want it to be only because you want it, not even slightly because circumstances are forcing your hand. I can beat Julius without breaking a sweat, and I can wait. It’s the least I can do.”
I choked up again, but for a completely different reason. The fact that he was saying no had dissolved the last of my doubts. I could have given myself over happily now, looming challenge or not.
But I’d already burned that bridge for the moment. I settled for kissing him, soft and sweet, as his hand stroked over the side of my face.
My body was still tingling with longing. Maybe Marco could feel that too. He drew back a couple of inches with a sly smile. “I would, however, be happy to enjoy you in another way.”
Before I had to ask what he meant, he was easing down my body. His fingers hooked the hem of my panties as he brushed his lips over my breasts and belly. I gasped when his mouth closed over the bundle of nerves at my core. Every part of my brain that had been cycling through worries short-circuited, and for a brief moment in time, I was made of nothing but bliss.
Chapter 15
West
I never felt really comfortable around feline shifters. Marco I could put up with, because at least he was dedicated to something. The rest of his kin—you never knew what was going on behind those shifty eyes.
At least, most of them read as shifty. The tiger shifter who’d challenged Marco a couple hours ago came across as a pretty straight-forward asshole. Or that’s what I’d determined while I’d been keeping an eye on him. Right now he was playing pool with a couple of his kin in the estate’s big entertainment room, bellowing victory whenever he hit a ball into a pocket. The sound made me wince inwardly even from across the room. I adjusted my position against the wall near the door.
I had my phone out, pretending I was mostly paying attention to that. I had actually checked in with a few of my lieutenants while Julius the Tiger had swaggered and blustered. Now I was playing a very half-hearted game of Candy Crush while keeping my ears perked to the conversations around me.
I’d just cleared a level when Ren strode past me into the room. A whiff of her scent reached my nose: the usual sweetness mingled with a musk that got me half-hard in two seconds flat. I straightened up, resisting the urge to lick my lips. And ignoring the twist of jealousy in my chest. She’d just been with at least one of the other alphas—I knew that much. And that alpha had gotten her off, well.
One hint of the smell of arousal on her, and I was right back to the other night in her bed. My mouth on her skin, her hand around my cock—
Yeah, thinking about that right now wasn’t going to take me anywhere useful. I dragged in a breath to steady the thump of my pulse.
Our dragon shifter wasn’t here to see me. She marched right across the room and came to a stop by the pool table, her gaze fixed on Julius. Shit. What the hell was she up to now?
I shoved my phone into my pocket and ambled a little closer, trying to look casual, which wasn’t easy when every feline shifter nearby glanced over at the scent of wolf. Julius turned and spotted Ren. He set his pool stick against the floor, grinning.
“Dragon shifter. Come to get an early start with your new mate?”
Ren’s chin rose higher, her eyes flashing. She looked fucking gorgeous like that, but it also meant she was about to throw herself right in over her head. So damned determined to right every wrong even when she barely understood the threat she was facing. It wrenched at my heart, but that sense of justice wasn’t going to do anyone any good if she got torn to pieces in the process. I tensed, ready to shift.
“No,” Ren said, clear and loud enough that the whole room had to hear. “I came to give you an out. Marco is going to win tonight. And even if he wasn’t going to, I’d never accept you as my mate. I thought it was only fair to mention that ahead of time.”
The tiger shifter’s face darkened. His lips curled into more of a sneer. “Is that what our alpha is reduced to now? Sending you to protect him while he hides in his rooms?”
Ren rolled her eyes. “No. He’s happy to put you in your place the regular way. But I’d rather not see any kin banished when they don’t need to be. Consider it a courtesy. There’s no point in pursuing a lost cause.”
Julius rapped the end of his pool cue against the floor. His eyes had narrowed. “I don’t think it’s lost at all. And I think you’ll find it a lot harder to say no when the bond passes to me.”
Ren looked him up and down, letting every hint of her disdain show in her expression. Oh, Lord, she was aiming to get herself eviscerated, wasn’t she?
“Believe me,” she said flippantly. “I can’t imagine even being tempted.”
Julius bristled, baring his teeth. “We’ll see if you change your tune after tonight, won’t we? Or maybe you need to learn your place now.”
“I know my place,” Ren said. “And it happens to be very far over yours. But if that’s how you’re going to act, I’ll enjoy watching you get your ass handed to you tonight.”
She swiveled and headed back toward the doorway. Julius’s arm jerked as if he meant to lunge after her, and I braced myself to leap between them. But he caught himself with a harsh inhale. His gaze tracked Ren to the door with an angry, predatory gleam.
I waited just long enough to make sure he was staying put, and then I strode after my mate.
* * *
Ren
My pulse was thudding as I walked out of the games room, but the second I crossed the threshold into the hall, my lips stretched into a smile. The look on Julius’s face when I’d told him what was what—I was going to treasure that for a good long time.
I didn’t get to savor my victory very long in the moment. I’d hardly made it two more steps when a hand closed around my forearm. A hint of pine laced the air. I knew my confronter was West before he spun me around to face him.
“What the hell were you trying to pull in there?” he snapped, his gaze in full glower mode. “That tiger shifter just about bit your head off.”
I guffawed. “I’d have liked to see him try. He’d have been fried cat before he even got his teeth in.”
“You’re still learning control over your shifts. And you don’t know these kin at all. You can’t take risks like that.”
“I don’t know. Seems like I just did, and the world didn’t end.”
West let out a strangled sound. Suddenly his hand was on the side of my neck, his thumb tracing my jaw as he yanked me closer to him. His head bowed close to mine. His body was just inches away, so close it was almost an embrace. Every nerve in my body woke up in response. I breathed in his pine-forest scent and held myself back from turning my face that slight distance to kiss him. Let him make th
e first move here, when he figured out what he wanted.
His breath spilled hot and harsh over my cheek. His grip on my arm loosened. For a second, I thought he was going to grasp my waist and pull me flush against him. And whatever happened after that, I was pretty sure I’d be on board for.
Instead, his shoulders tensed. “Listen to me. Don’t ever do anything that stupid again.”
The rush of attraction faded. I gritted my teeth and shoved West back a step with my free hand. “I wasn’t being stupid,” I bit out, keeping my voice low. “But it’s nice to know you still see me as an idiot. I was provoking Julius on purpose. I wanted to get a better sense of his emotions, and those of the other kin in the room, to figure out who might be allied with the rogues.”
West’s expression blanked. “What?”
“I can read people better when their emotions are on the surface,” I said. “So I wanted to stir things up. He wasn’t even close to trying to actually hurt me. I’d have felt it if he was.”
“Oh.” West deflated slightly. His fingers flexed around my arm. He looked down at them, into the space between us still narrow enough that I could feel the heat emanating from his body. “Are you so sure your senses work as well on shifters as the human beings you’re used to, Sparks? Because you haven’t really had much chance for practice.”
“I can read you just fine,” I muttered. “And right now you should be feeling a lot more embarrassed than you actually are, just FYI. Although I appreciate the not-wanting-me-to-get-hurt side of this whole outburst.”
West grimaced. He raised his eyes again. There might have been a shadow of an apology in them, but he didn’t bother to voice it. “Did you find out anything useful with all your ‘stirring up’?”
“That depends on how you define useful. Julius has something motivating him other than just wanting the alpha position. I didn’t get the sense he even considered backing down. Whether he wins or not, whether I accept him as a mate or not if he does win, the challenge is about more than that. Enough more that the rest doesn’t matter.”
“More as in he expects it to work into his plans with the rogues?”
“That would be my best guess.” I frowned, thinking about the vibes I’d felt around me in the room. “I don’t think anyone else who was in the room is involved. His kin were curious about what was going on, but none of them gave the impression of feeling at all threatened by me telling him off. Or angry. They just found it entertaining. Anyone who was in on a plot, I think they’d have cared more.”
West nodded. “That reasoning seems sound.” He raised an eyebrow. “Maybe your gambit gave us some results after all.”
“Maybe next time you should ask me what I’m doing before assuming I’m being an idiot.”
“Maybe you should stop coming up with plans that look idiotic.”
I bit my lip, swallowing my frustration, and West’s gaze dropped to my mouth. The heat between us flared in an instant. God almighty, why did he have to act like a jerk when I knew there was so much compassion—not to mention plain old passion—underneath that front?
Every muscle was urging me to just grab him and plant one on him. To draw out the desire I knew he was keeping locked down inside.
But we’d gone down that road already, and that blazing physical encounter hadn’t made things any better. Actually, the moment we’d shared in the avian estate garden had only made me more on edge when I was with him, now that I knew how good the two of us could be together.
This game of snarking at each other and dancing around our attraction was getting old. I was ready to be done with it, one way or the other.
I turned my hand, sliding it against his arm until my fingers could curl around his. “West,” I said, “I think we should talk. Really talk. We’re not getting anywhere like this. Whatever doubts you still have about me, you can just tell me about them. We’ll hash them out. I know I’m still learning here. But I need to know what the problem is before I can fix it.”
The sense I got from my wolf shifter then was completely bizarre, as if a rush of tangled emotions had blown open a door inside him—only to be yanked back in and the door slammed shut. And deadbolted for good measure.
West took another step back, his posture rigid. His hand slipped from mine. “I don’t think this is exactly the time for chatting, Sparks,” he said. “We’ve got a full-blown rebellion to stop.”
And for some reason you’re just as important to me as stopping it, you blockhead, I thought but didn’t let myself say. I’d had my fill of verbal sparring for the day.
“Fine,” I said. “When you get your head sorted out, you know where to find me.” I turned and stalked away without a backward glance. Because I did have bigger things to think about up ahead. Like whether one of my other mates was going to come out of tonight’s confrontation with all limbs and vital organs intact.
Chapter 16
Ren
The guest suite Kylie had been given looked a lot like my set of rooms, other than her bed was only a regular king sized one and not wide enough to comfortably fit five. I guessed the shifter kin didn’t expect anyone other than their dragon shifter to be calling multiple mates into their bed. Or else they expected those other people to squish.
“Is everything settled now?” Kylie asked me, bobbing on her feet. She’d only managed to sit on the elegant settee for about ten seconds before she’d bounced back up again with her irresistible energy.
“As settled as it can be,” I said. “Marco still has to fight that guy. But he seems sure he can take him. I just hope he’s prepared for anything. The rogues definitely don’t mind fighting dirty.”
“They haven’t tried anything that big so far, though, right?” Kylie said. “I mean, there were the three that attacked us at West’s people’s village, and then it sounded like you took on that bunch near Nate’s estate no problem.”
My heart sank with the weight of all the things I’d been avoiding telling her. I should have told her everything sooner. Maybe if she’d realized just how dangerous my life had gotten, she wouldn’t have rushed down here on this visit.
On the other hand, maybe she’d just have rushed down sooner.
“There’ve been a couple of other... incidents,” I said slowly. “When we were traveling to Sunridge, a bunch of them ambushed us. That was when I managed a full shift the first time. And the rogues who attacked Nate’s estate—they killed four of the kin before the guards managed to stop them.”
“Oh!” Kylie’s eyes went wide. “The thing at Sunridge—that was weeks ago. Why didn’t you tell me?”
I worried my lower lip with my teeth. My fingers shivered with an itch I hadn’t felt in days—the urge to find some object to pilfer, to take control. I curled them into my palm instead. I wasn’t that street rat thief anymore. I was a freaking dragon shifter now.
“I knew you’d be worried,” I said. “We came out of the ambush fine, and the attack on the estate was over before I even got there.”
Kylie was still looking at me with a hesitant expression. “I’d rather be worried and know what’s really going on with you than be kept in the dark. You should know that, Ren.”
I had. But I’d kept her in the dark anyway. There wasn’t really any way I could justify it.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “There was so much going on... Keeping quiet about it and focusing on the good stuff just felt like the best way of handling it at the time. But you see why I’m worried.”
Kylie nodded. “I guess if those asshole rogues do turn up, you can go full dragon mode on their assess,” she said, more of her usual cheerfulness coming back.
“That’s the plan.” I groped for a change in subject—to a subject that wouldn’t make me want to pocket every valuable in the building. “Marco’s people will be summoning us to dinner soon. I should put on something nicer. If there are rogues around, I want them remembering who’s in charge here.” I managed to grin. “You want to help me pick out a dress?”
&n
bsp; “Want to?” Kylie said, clapping her hands. “I’ve been dying to since you sent me that photo of you at Aaron’s place. All right, let’s do this thing.”
We ducked into the hall and passed a few doors to my rooms.
I opened one wardrobe and then another. Kylie made a squeeing sound as she pawed through the offerings. “Oh, this is amazing. You’re going to look like a boss, all right. Forget princess—you’re going to be the empress of all shifters.”
I laughed and held out my arms to take the first dress she tossed to me. By the time she’d gone through all three wardrobes, my arms were aching and my face buried in silk and satin. I hefted the heap onto the bed. “Um, I think we need to do a little narrowing down here.”
“Yes, yes.” Kylie tapped her lips. She grabbed a couple out of the pile. “I don’t know what I was thinking with this one. And now that I’m looking at them all, black is definitely too dour. The rest you’ll just have to put on so I can ogle you.”
She shot me a bright smile as she went to put back the discards. I shook my head and stripped out of my T-shirt and jeans. As I shimmied into one of the dresses from the top of the heap, a simple pale green silk number, Kylie sat down on the edge of the bed. She glanced across its width, her eyebrows arching in amusement. “Hmm, I can’t imagine what you’d need a bed this big for… No, wait, actually I can.”
My face flushed at her teasing. But when she turned back to me, a shadow had crossed her face.
“Is there anything else you decided not to tell me from the last few weeks?” she asked.
Shit. I looked at myself in the mirror, contemplating the green silk flowing over my body. Did I look like an ingénue or a girl who’d severely fucked up the best friendship she’d ever had? Neither was what I was going for. I reached to pull that one off.
“There might have been a few things,” I admitted without meeting Kylie’s eyes. “Not that I didn’t want you to know. Just that would have been hard to talk about with only texts.”