
Does he have his claws in her for good? Or is she just yanking his tail?

Elena Demos's life has been turned upside down. Her mother has passed away, leaving Elena and her two half-sisters to deal with their mother's will and the crazy stipulations it contains. For the three sisters to inherit the substantial amount of money left behind, they have to go to work with two aunts they've never met, in the family business they've known nothing about, Amazons Inc. If that isn't bad enough, she runs into the man who once broke her heart, and it's only their first day on the job.

Gage Ivanov is a stupid beast. He let the woman who should be his mate go because she couldn't be told of his Other identity. Now, Elena's back, but she refuses to give in to his demands for her to be his mate. The timing for all of this couldn't be worse, either, because Gage and his circle of friends are trying to subdue a rogue pack of wolf shifters in Germany who threaten to out the Others to the world of humans. Will he be able to juggle the oncoming conflict and win back his mate?

Claws, love bites and handcuffs - OH MY!
Raves for the novels by

JESSIE LANE

Big Bad Bite

"If you like funny paranormal romance with crazy but endearing characters, Big Bad Bite will be for you."

\- Swept Away By Romance

"I enjoyed the crisp, fast paced writing style that flows smoothly through the story. Within the pages, humor, action, suspense, and romance all mix together for a laugh out loud story that keeps you hooked to the very end. It's not completely lighthearted though. Some intriguing subplots balance well against the humorous situations to reveal a serious side to the story... All in all, Big Bad Bite is steady and action packed with plenty of twists and turns that delighted me. I enjoyed the light and dark aspect that is brought into play-they blend well together... Jessie Lane is definitely an author to watch for those who love zany, adventures, romantic PNR."

\- Smexy Books

"Big Bad Bite was one of those books that was hard to put down. There was action, mystery and plenty of heat. There were also more than a couple of tense moments along with even a few tears. I love a book that keeps me on the edge of my seat and this one definitely did that. The world building was also great. Just the way I like it... familiar enough to make 'sense' yet unique enough to make it the authors' own."

\- Creative Deeds Reads

Walk On The Striped Side

"...this series is building to be a go to for PNR fans!"

\- Little Read Riding Hood

"Seriously y'all if you're looking for a fun and sexy paranormal romance you need to pick up Walk On The Striped Side, I'll never look at cat toys the same way... Fans of Shelly Laurenston and Jessica Sims will fall in love with Jessie Lane's Big Bad Bite series."

\- The Book Nympho

"Not only did Gage fulfill my alpha male, hot guy requirement, but this book had so many times when I was reading it that I was literally laughing out loud or giggling... This book is so good, the writing is flawless, it's seriously highly, highly recommended."

\- Book Boyfriend Reviews

"Fans of outrageous, snark filled, sexy paranormal will enjoy Jessie Lane's latest release-Walk on the Striped Side-book two in her Big Bad Bite series. A lightweight paranormal filled with lots of action, sarcasm, threats of bodily harm, and that's just in the first few pages. Heavily character driven, our hero and heroine go balls to the wall as they fight their way through love, loss, reconnection, and annoying siblings. Per usual, Lane offers the reader a crisp, fast paced writing style that flows smoothly through the story. Humor, action, and romance all mix together for a laugh out loud story that keeps you hooked to the very end."

\- Smexy Books

Lone Wolf Wanted

"Jessie Lane writes fun, sexy characters with a bit of sass."

\- Patricia A. Rasey, national bestselling author

Bears Do It Better

"This is my first book by Jessie Lane and most definitely will not be my last. I have not laughed this hard at a book in a while. The quirky humor was great."

\- Reading in Sarah's Corner

Sassy and a little Bad-Assy

"Absolutely hysterical! Really enjoyed the playfulness of the characters and their word play. While not completely comedic it had just the right amount of emotion to make both H/h feel real. I do love my HEA's. Thank you Ms. Lane for bringing a little laughter to my day."

\- Amazon Reviewer
Walk On The Striped Side

Big Bad Bite Series #2

By Jessie Lane

Copyright © 2014 by Jessie Lane

Published by Whiskey Girls Publishing

All rights reserved.

Edited by C&D Editing, Asli Fratarcangeli & Shannon Webb

Cover Design by Mina Carter

Photographer: Randy Sewell | RLS Images

Cover Model: Jason "Hammer" Estes

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http://jessielanebooks.com/

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Copyright © 2014 by Jessie Lane

SMASHWORDS EDITION

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Jessie Lane, except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. If you no longer want this book, you may not give your copy to someone else.

The purchase of this e-book allows you one legal copy for your own personal reading enjoyment on your personal computer or device. You do not have the rights to resell, distribute, print, or transfer this book, in whole or in part, to anyone, in any format, via methods either currently known or yet to be invented, or upload to a file sharing peer to peer program. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. If you no longer want this book, you may not give your copy to someone else. Delete it from your computer. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Trademarks: This book identifies product names and services known to be trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of their respective holders. The authors acknowledge the trademarked status in this work of fiction. The publication and use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

This book contains mature content not suitable for readers under the age of 18. This book contains content with strong language, violence, and sexual situations. All parties portrayed in sexual situations are over the age of 18.
Other Titles from Jessie Lane

Ex Ops Series

Secret Maneuvers

Stripping Her Defenses

Mission Delivery

Sweet Agony

Sweet Recovery

Sweet Eternity

Bullets and Bluebonnets

Regulators MC Series

(co-written with Chelsea Camaron)

Ice

Hammer

Coal

Big Bad Bite Series

Big Bad Bite

Walk On The Striped Side

Big Bad Bite Returned

The Demon Who Loved Me

Star Series

(co-written with M.L. Pahl)

The Burning Star

The Frozen Star

Standalone Stories

Close Encounters of the Sexy Kind

(co-written with Abbie Zanders)

Purrfect Santa

(co-written with Chasity Bowlin)

The Alpha's Secret Family

Lone Wolf Wanted

Sassy and a little Bad-Assy

Bears Do It Better
Dedication

To my author wives: Chelsea Camaron, Amelia Hutchins and Milly Taiden:

Thank you for all of your love and support. I consider myself a blessed woman to have met all three of you and have you in my life. Here's hoping we have many years of friendship to look forward to!
Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I'd like to thank my readers. It's because of you that I'm able to write my crazy stories and live my dream. So THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.

This book was a lot of ups and downs and my beta readers were the absolute back bone of getting it done. Thank you Laura at Little Read Riding Hood, Chelsea Camaron and Iris at Paranormal Cravings for all of your hard work! I'd offer you my first born as a token of my appreciation, but you all would just ship her back to me anyways.

And, as always, thank you to the ladies of C&D Editing who polish my literary babies until they shine. Readers everywhere (and myself) appreciate you kicking my grammatical ass so to speak.
Walk On The Striped Side

Big Bad Bite Series Book 2

Jessie Lane

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Three

Chapter Twenty Four

Chapter Twenty Five

Chapter Twenty Six

Chapter Twenty Seven

Chapter Twenty Eight

Chapter Twenty Nine

Chapter Thirty

Epilogue

Note From The Author

About The Author

Connected Books

Other Paranormal Titles from Jessie Lane

You May Also Like
Chapter One

Gage

March 2010 - Fort Bragg Army Base, North Carolina

"What do you mean I can't pick up my weapon?"

Gage Ivanov was in no mood to be fucked with by the woman looking blankly back at him from the other side of the desk that separated them. One would think he'd be in a better mood. He'd finally caught up on some desperately needed sleep after being awake forty-eight hours for a mission. Sleep usually meant he felt refreshed. This was not the case. If anything, he felt as if he was approximately three point two seconds from flipping his shit, which would involve tearing the door off the Fort Bragg Military Police's inner sanctum, stalking past the annoying female with a tantalizing scent that was starting to drive him insane and then collecting his Heckler & Koch MK 23 his damn self from the evidence room. Screw the harpy for saying he couldn't have his issued side arm back.

Taking a deep breath to try to battle his building anger, he blew it out slowly and decided to give the feeble human another chance before he did something drastic, like pin her to a wall and kiss the ever living shit out of her.

Whoa.

Gage rubbed his forehead and wondered where the hell that crazy thought had come from. That idea was flat out ridiculous. He must be loopy still from lack of sleep. He'd probably meant he'd pin her to the wall and scare the shit out of her, not kiss her. Yeah, that sounded better.

Shaking his head to clear the crazy thoughts, he looked back to the female. Through his frustration he had to admit she was unconventionally pretty. Most humans were short to his six-foot-five frame, but she seemed tall for her race. When she'd led him past the front counter, shielded by bulletproof glass, to her desk to question him, he'd sized her up to be somewhere around five-feet-nine. She would be close to the perfect fit to rest his chin on the top of her head if he was holding her. However she looked a bit on the thin side, and he usually liked women with ample curves. Some body parts should jiggle, dammit. At least she wasn't anorexic skinny; more athletically built. Next to his broad, brawny build she'd look downright tiny in size. She was dressed in her fatigues with her brown hair, which was so dark it almost looked black, pulled back in a tight bun on the back of her head. Between the dark hair, the slightly olive-tinged complexion and her narrow, almost aquiline nose, she more than likely had a Mediterranean background. Perhaps Italian or Greek.

He quickly noted she had quite possibly the prettiest blue-green eyes he'd seen in all of his two hundred sixty-two years. Amazing eyes or no, nothing would stop him from giving her a dressing down that could go down in this Army's history books if she didn't hurry the hell up and give him back his weapon. He had better things to do with his time right then, like sleep some more, or make the short drive home so he could hunt down a deer on his property. Shifting into his tiger and using his claws and teeth to eat dinner sounded kind of perfect to assuage his bad mood.

The last time he'd been this mad at another soldier had been during the Russo-Persian War of 1804-1813. Back then, he'd damn near torn apart a Commanding Officer of the Infantry with his claws for a tactical error that could have cost them the battle and too many men to count. Usually Tigers were either too lazy or just didn't care enough to get involved or get mad about something, but this female, with her clenched jaw and stubborn lines set around that mouth he couldn't seem to stop looking at, was testing him.

He looked down to her name tag stitched onto the front of her uniform to see who the hell he was dealing with.

DEMOS.

The three stripes on her uniform also gave him her rank.

"Look, Sergeant Demos, I'm sure it was a simple mistake. My team just came in from a mission, we were all dog tired, and I probably left it on the Black Hawk, right? Although, I don't remember taking it out of my holster. I know it's not acceptable to leave one's weapon lying around, but let's see how well you function after not catching some shut eye for two days. Let's say I've learned my lesson. It'll never happen again. Now, give me whatever paperwork I need to sign saying you're relinquishing the weapon back into my possession and then hand it over."

He flicked his fingers, palm side up and open in a hand-it-over gesture as he stared across the desk, trying to look as if he was patiently waiting. If he had been hunting for his dinner, then patiently waiting would be fine. Otherwise, it was something he didn't care to bother with. Why wait patiently for something when you could flash a little fang and scare your opponent into giving you whatever it was you wanted? Except he couldn't flash his canines here, and that only pissed him off more.

When the female continued to sit stiff-backed in her chair and stare at him as though he was a moron, he felt his claws prick the insides of his skin, begging to be released to do something that would relieve his agitation. He had to hurry up and get the hell out of here.

Snarling a little, he snapped at her, "If that simple task is in some way, shape, or form too complicated for you to perform, Sergeant, then perhaps your CO should send you back to your AIT school to re-take your training courses. Maybe, while you're there, you can learn how to do something more complicated than annoying the shit out of your superiors."

The scent of extreme anger rolled off the brunette. He really could care less that he'd made her mad. No, what was really starting to bother him was that the smell of her pissed off was even more appealing to him than the way she'd smelled before. Since he was currently battling the overwhelming urge to either go furry or sex her up as if he was hopped up on Viagra, it irked him this little human could do anything that would make him want her more than he already did.

The sound of her teeth grinding drew his attention back to those plump lips that were currently flattened into a thin line of irritation.

"Sir, I cannot return your pistol to you because it has been formally confiscated pending an investigation. Your issued Heckler & Koch MK 23 was found in Major General Fetherman's daughter's bedroom." The irritated woman held three fingers up and practically shoved them into his face. "Which means one of three possibilities. Either Ms. Fetherman managed to get into a secure area so she could have access to the Black Hawk and found your gun there. Number two, you didn't head straight to your premises for that shut eye you claimed to have been so desperate for. Instead, you met Ms. Fetherman somewhere and she took your weapon from you while you were otherwise pre-occupied since you don't remember taking it out of your holster. One can only imagine what the two of you were doing that you would be too distracted for her to be able to procure your weapon without you having noticed." She cocked an eyebrow at him in disgust. "Or, the third possibility is that perhaps you went to Major General Fetherman's residence to meet with his daughter in her room where you accidentally left your weapon. Would you care to clarify which of these three scenarios is correct?" That dainty eyebrow came back down so she could shoot him a condescending look before she grudgingly added "Sir" onto the end of her rant. It was clear as day she'd loathed giving him even that little bit of respect and had done it only to keep her ass out of trouble.

Never mind how good she looked, or that she smelled like sex on a stick, he was going to bend this arrogant young woman over his lap and paddle her ass for talking to a higher ranking soldier like that. For talking to him like that. His tiger was going nuts underneath his skin. The need to exert his dominance over her, to show her who the fuck was in charge here, was riding him hard—harder than ever before—which bothered him. Combine that with the insane urge to show her who the bigger predator was and it caused a niggling suspicion there was more going on here than good, old fashioned annoyance or the need to lose himself in a warm, willing body.

Sucking on his teeth in extreme agitation, he opted for denial. There was absolutely no way this woman could be a possible mate. Surely fate wouldn't be so cruel as to try and pair him off with a fragile human that could be easily killed. He wasn't entirely sure, but the signs of compatibility were there—the natural pheromones to attract one mate to the other. His Tiger was going wild inside of him.

He was going to choose to think those pesky coincidences didn't mean shit. Even better, he was going to ignore those signals in the name of self-preservation. He'd never wanted a human for a mate in the past, and that wasn't changing over an intoxicating scent, a pair of unusually pretty eyes, and the need to fuck a better attitude into her. Nope, he'd rather be mate-less, or settle for a mate that both his human and beast's side didn't crave with a dangerous intensity. He would rather find a mate they could grow to care for, and who would be something much sturdier than this very breakable human.

Since he wasn't paying attention to her at the moment, he only distantly heard her say, "Helllllloo... Master Sergeant Ivanov? Are you sure you want to stick to that story about getting some sleep because you don't seem to be all there upstairs to me?" Delicate fingers snapped in front of his face a couple of times, bringing his attention back to the object of his thoughts.

As he looked at her impatient face he made a silent vow to himself; whether there was a possibility or not of her being his mate, if the disagreeable woman didn't stop antagonizing him, he was going to break every unspoken rule in the supernatural Other community and unleash his claws on her backside.

As his eyes zeroed in on the unconscious, nervous movement of the tip of her pink tongue swiping over her bottom lip, Gage thought, Claws and a good pop on the ass ought to scare some respect into her.

Elena

Was this what a gazelle felt like when it knew it was being watched by the lion?

Master Sergeant Ivanov had insanely gorgeous green eyes with an inner ring of gold around the pupil. They were in equal parts entrancing and frightening, and Elena could make that statement with absolute certainty because those eyes were focused on her. The eerie intensity from his gaze damn near had her looking for a different desk to hide under. Normally, she wouldn't even think about backing down from a confrontation. In her line of work as an Army MP, you had to have giant, brass balls to boss around men who were twice your body mass with the trained ability to kill someone with their bare hands. Additionally—according to everyone in her unit, her sisters, and even her mother—Elena had some of the biggest, shiniest brass balls known to mankind.

Although he wasn't technically that much taller than her, only half a foot or so, his breadth and intensity were overwhelming. Frankly, he looked like a linebacker on steroids. Knowing he worked for one of the Special Forces Teams also meant that he could kill her with scarier things than his bare hands. He could probably kill her with a Kleenex, which was wrong and a tad scary; maybe a little cool, too. She didn't have a choice here, though. She had to stand firm with him. It wasn't her fault he was displaying his suicidal tendencies by messing around with the Major General's daughter. If he was dumb enough to leave his duty weapon in her room after getting him some, then he should deal with the consequences.

Right then, as he sat on the other side of the desk, watching her much like she imagined Ted Bundy had watched his future victims, she decided to display her own suicidal tendencies and push him a little bit further.

Leaning towards him a bit to give him a false sense of intimacy and confidentiality, she lowered her voice so no one else might hear what she was saying. "Look, I get it. I've seen Major General Fetherman's daughter. She's a hot, little thing. Bottle blonde hair; teeny, tiny, bikini body with fake breasts big enough to make a porn star jealous. I heard she has a reputation for entertaining a few soldiers, too. Just admit it. You came off your mission and needed to release some of that adrenaline you Spec Ops guys seem to carry in mass quantities. After you were done with her, you accidentally forgot your duty weapon. No big deal."

Sliding a blank piece of paper and pen across the desk towards him, she ignored the way his focus on her seemed to intensify and whispered, "Write all that down for me and this can be over with. I'll give you back your duty weapon and you can get the hell out of here. I'm sure you'd rather be planning your next rendezvous with her than sitting here with me."

Ivanov sat there, staring at her as if he was imaging all the ways he could hide her body when he was done torturing her. She didn't flinch under his gaze, or shrink back like some wilting violet. Elena held her ground and waited him out. Soon, he would grow tired of all of this circumstance and give her what she wanted. Of course, she had to wonder if he was really dumb enough to believe her when she said that, if he confessed, all of this would go away. Oh, no. If he confessed, he'd be busted down in rank and pay, stationed in some shithole as far away from the woman in question as possible, like Antarctica, and he'd be lucky if he ever saw the light of day at a civilized base again.

After watching Ivanov sit there and stare at her for what felt like a century, he finally moved. Slowly leaning in towards her, their faces were only inches apart. So close she could feel his short, rapid breathing through his nose as it brushed her face. For the first time since the man walked into her building, all of the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.

That scary focus of his amazing, green-gold eyes lasered right in on her own eyes, when his voice rumbled, "You've got it all wrong."

"I do?" Elena murmured, suddenly shaky. Her inner alarms were blaring. Danger. Danger. Danger. It took everything she had not to slowly slide her hand back and put it on the butt of her own weapon that was holstered on her hip.

"Yes, you do. You see, I'd much rather be here with you."

Did he just purr that?

"And why would you rather be here with me?"

A louder rumble seemed to come from the vicinity of his chest. What the hell was that noise?

"I'd rather be here with you because I don't do spoiled, whiny, superficial, bleached-out teenagers. What I do like are mature brunettes who think they know it all. And I like them," he paused for a second and another loud rumble sounded, "because after I break them in with a well-deserved spanking, make them see they're not as big and bad as they think they are, they end up knowing they'll never meet anyone like me ever again. Because unlike all the men they may have had before me, I do—in fact—know what to do with a woman's body. And anyone they have after me will pale in comparison to what I gave them. I like knowing I took a woman who isn't a naive, little virgin to bed and debauched her to such a ridiculous degree that she'll know she's now just a bit dirty, but in such a delicious way. I like to ruin grown women, you see. They're more of a challenge. Would you like a demonstration?"

Elena was damn near panting now. Man, that voice of his was practically a purr that seemed to resonate all the way through her body until it was buzzing through her girly parts. It was such an amazing feeling that she was considering giving him a new nickname. The Talking Vibrator.

Her own breath was coming in small, rapid pants, and suddenly, she realized she'd not been this turned on for a long, long time.

What in the hell was it about this man that was pushing all her buttons? WAIT. It didn't matter what it was about him that sent her libido into a frenzy. She couldn't have him. He was forbidden fruit for a couple of different reasons.

First of all, she was investigating him on behalf of the Major General. Second of all... well, the first reason was all she needed.

As Elena was about to open her mouth and tell him no, she didn't want a demonstration, she wanted a confession, he did something that shocked the shit out of her.

He took in a long, exaggerated inhale, nostrils flaring much like that lion she likened him to earlier, and then his tongue came out to lick his lips as if he was savoring something extravagantly tasty.

"Damn you smell good all pissed off and turned on."

That. Fried. Her. Brain.

Dozens of images of him using his tongue to actually taste her overloaded her mind. If she'd thought she'd been turned on before, after that she was practically on the edge of an orgasm from just looking, listening and daydreaming about the man. Her mouth went dry, making speech next to impossible. She had to get her act together, though. There was no way she could let this pushy, arrogan—

Her inner rant ended as Ivanov closed the distance between the two of them. Leaning over the desk with his hands braced on either side of hers on the desk top, he placed his nose at the base of her neck. She felt him inhale again as he ran his nose up the length of her neck until she felt a rough, wet swipe of his tongue on the spot below her ear.

Holy shit. Her willpower took a hike along with her common sense.

He pulled back from her and settled back into his chair on his side of the desk with what seemed to be forced constraint. His knuckles were actually white from the force he was using to dig his fingertips into the desk top in front of him. There were small lines around his mouth and eyes as if he were actually strained somehow.

Working up the nerve to tell the sexiest man she'd ever met that she wanted him to use his tongue on every inch of her body, she nervously licked her dry bottom lip. She saw the moment his eyes zeroed in on the tip of her tongue, watching it rapturously as she swiped it slowly over her lip, and then his head shot back up to look in her eyes before he lunged. He didn't moved in smoothly or suavely; he freakin' lunged at her.

Expecting his lips to crash into hers any second, Elena closed her eyes, anticipating what would hopefully be a kiss that rocked her entire world. If she was going to give in to temptation and risk getting herself in trouble fraternizing with another soldier above her rank, this had better be the best kiss of her entire life. She waited.

Nothing.

She waited some more. She kept her lips slightly pursed while her entire body was tingling in anticipation of his touch. Where the hell was the touch of those lips anyways?

Opening her eyes back up, she found Master Sergeant Ivanov across the room, at least ten feet from the desk and her, being held back by a man she'd never seen before.

The stranger was largely built, showcased by his olive green, Army t-shirt, which was stretched tight across his broad shoulders, however he was still smaller than Ivanov. It was a miracle the unknown soldier was able to hold back the struggling Master Sergeant at all. With sandy blond hair that was so thick and lush—falling almost to his shoulders—it could be described as a manly mane, and unnerving chocolate brown eyes that seemed out of place in context to the rest of his appearance.

He was both beauty and a beast. Beautiful because Elena had never seen anything like him with his golden tan skin, matching hair, and a body that was clearly built better than any body builder she'd ever seen except for, perhaps, Ivanov's. Beast because of the four ghastly scars, which looked like claw marks, that went from the top of his forehead down to his jaw on the left side of his face.

The man was hissing something in tones too low for Elena to hear at the man he was restraining, trying to settle him down. Her lust fizzled out as she watched the strange show in front of her and curiosity surged instead. She'd almost be willing to hand Ivanov's duty weapon over to him if she could find out whatever it was the stranger said to him that seconds later put a weird look on his face as he still stood staring at her.

What the fuck was going on here?

Gage

"Get your shit together before you expose yourself! Do you want a death sentence for letting the woman see you can be orange, fluffy and cute like a kitten?"

Like a bucket of ice cold water had been dumped over his head, he stopped struggling with his friend and fellow teammate and reason started to return for Gage.

Jesus. Tyson was right. He'd almost flipped his shit in front of Demos and taken her. Granted, she had seemed to be willing, but he'd been so out of it there was no telling what he would have done to the woman. Kissed her? Hell, yes. Flipped her onto her stomach, pulled her up on her knees with her shoulders pinned to the floor, slipped her pants over her ass and shoved inside of her till she could feel him in her tonsils? More than likely, which was bad because who knew if anyone was back there with them in one of those offices with the doors shut. What made it all worse was Gage couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't have really fucked it all up and let some of his beast out in some way. His claws or canines could have made an appearance, and his eyes changed color with strong emotions, like what he was feeling right then. Mind boggling lust. If he'd given into that desire to take her like the animal he really was and someone had seen something, he'd be a dead man walking. Fuck.

Gage leaned his head back against the wall, closed his eyes so he was no longer looking at the woman he wanted to screw seven ways from Sunday and took a deep breath to calm himself.

"You cool now, dipshit?" Tyson asked.

Clearing the lump from his throat, Gage rasped one word, "Yeah."

"This is my fault, so I'll take care of it. You stay right against this wall behind me and don't move until it's time for us to leave."

Gage wanted to ask his friend why he thought the fact he'd officially flipped his shit was somehow his fault, yet he couldn't manage more than deep, slow breaths in and out. The sooner he got out of this building, off base, and on his way home, the better. He'd met a potential mate or two over his lifetime, but no one had caused this kind of reaction. This was ludicrous.

He heard Tyson talking in low tones to Demos, however he was still a little too out of it to understand what was being said. His sensitive hearing picked up the dial tone of a phone before the beeps of buttons being pushed to dial a number resonated as well. He didn't bother to open his eyes and see what was going on, though. Tyson would take care of the situation as he'd said he would. The man had never failed to have his back in the hundred plus years that he'd known him; Gage didn't really expect him to let him down at this moment, either.

With the surge of adrenaline running through his body as well as battling his tiger, who was still fighting to break free of its human shell, Gage damn near felt buzzed in the head. He wasn't sure how much time was passing as he stood there, getting his shit together, but eventually the sound of Demos's raised voice cut through and penetrated his brain.

"Do you have any idea how much trouble you could have gotten him into? You Special Forces guys think you're all special and above everybody else, but I swear to God if you ever pull some shit like this on my base again, I'll throw you in the brig so fast your head will spin, right after I kick you in the nuts for all the trouble you've caused me. Here's Ivanov's gun. Take it and go. I don't ever want to see your faces again."

Gage finally opened his eyes to look at the pretty brunette as she glared at the bigger man in front of her like she wished she could take a frying pan to his head. It would have been hysterical to him if her last words hadn't pissed him off for what should be no reason at all.

She didn't want to see him ever again?

Good, because he didn't need to take a chance with the disaster she could become to him if he ever got her alone. He didn't need to sink balls deep inside some human he couldn't claim as his own without the fear of breaking her in the process. He was better off waiting for the next potential mate that came along.
Chapter Two

Elena

June 2011

She loved her job, but sometimes this shit was ridiculous. It was damn near midnight and here she was driving to the edges of the Fort Bragg Army base to investigate an anonymous call about vandalism. If she got there and found some dumb grunts spray painting, she was going flip out, maybe kick them in the junk after she handcuffed them, and then haul their asses down to the station and call their COs.

To think, she'd come back from deployment in Afghanistan where her unit had patrolled through roads and cities with constant vigilance for terrorists and suicide bombers, only to have to deal with this, was kind of surreal. Dealing with knuckleheads who probably needed a good swat upside their heads and a solid dressing down from their superiors wasn't what she had expected to come home to. The difference between where Elena had been a couple of months ago, and where she was now, almost made her head spin.

She pulled her car off the paved road and onto a level dirt road that led to a large abandoned building. She wasn't sure how old the building was, but she knew it used to be where some of the mechanics worked on the vehicles used on base. It hadn't been used in years except for the occasional training exercise on how to clear a structure in a hostile environment. The Special Forces units also utilized it for training exercises. The building itself butted up against some of the woods; overall, it made for a pretty creepy scene to look at as she parked the car about fifty feet away from the structure.

As Elena quietly exited her vehicle, she heard raised voices followed by a loud crash coming from somewhere inside. Her right hand went to the hood of her holster, snapping it open so she could quickly and easily clear her pistol if she had to. With quick, silent steps, she hurried up to the front door that was cracked open a few inches and braced herself against the wall beside it. With the toe of her boot, she pushed the door open a few more inches and craned her neck around so she could take a peek through the larger opening. What she saw next made her left eye twitch. A sure symbol her patience had been shot to shit.

Kicking the door open in annoyance, Elena stomped forward until she stood less than ten feet from a small group of eight large, burly men covered in muddy BDUs. All of them were in various stages of wrestling with someone else. Four of those men were grappling on the floor; arms and legs tangled around their opponent's bodies as they tried to pin their victims to the cold, hard concrete slab beneath them.

As she watched the mayhem in front of her, one soldier put the man he was tussling with in a knee bar. She grimaced as the man, who had just had his knee hyper-extended, grunted in pain before tapping out.

She took a slower, closer look around the room, and some of Elena's annoyance slipped away as she admired all the delicious, male specimens. She found this was definitely better than discovering some bored punks spray painting the place, but it still wasn't worth leaving her post. Why couldn't she have found them in a mud pit wearing nothing other than their skivvies? Instead, they had to drag her ass out of the station in the middle of the night to break up their testosterone fest without giving her anything that would have made it worth the trip. Given the right circumstances—such as the aforementioned preferred slippery, mud covered naked body parts—this could have easily been fantasy material for a solid decade. Why did men always have to ruin a good thing?

Movement in the peripheral of her vision caught her attention. Another soldier stood a few feet off to the side from the four men tangled on the floor with a sixth man firmly placed in a headlock. His victim punched him in the stomach a couple of times in quick succession before grabbing his captor's wrist, twisting it to break free from the arm that had held him immobile. Elena finally looked over to the last pair fighting in the room and locked her eyes onto the back of the head of the man who seemed to be turning into the bane of her existence.

Master Sergeant Ivanov.

He had his buddy, the one who had damn near put him into a lot of hot water with the gun fiasco last year, pinned up against the wall with a forearm to the throat. Elena watched as Ivanov's friend's lips moved and figured the man was taunting him with something ridiculous. Her guess seemed to be right because, before she could blink, Ivanov had slammed the man's head against the wall. The force with which Ivanov's friend's head hit actually shook the sheetrock and put a nice sized hole in it to boot.

She should have stopped everything then and there, but the hole from Ivanov's victim's head drew her eyes to some rather odd marks on the wall. If she didn't know any better, she'd say they were claw marks from a bear, raking deeply downwards for a section of about three feet. That was impossible, however, because Elena wasn't aware of any bears on base.

Her feet started to move in Ivanov's direction, compelled to take a closer look at those ragged marks on the wall, when the hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stood up in true radar form, as if trying to warn her that something was off about those marks. She never made it to her destination, though.

Three steps in, her legs were swept out from under her, and Elena was unexpectedly covered with not just one man's body, but two of them. Two of those idiots that had been wrestling around on the floor had managed to take her down with them in their brawl.

Not liking being pinned down by the two obliviously fighting men, she did what any woman would do when suddenly pissed off at a man. She kneed the first one she could reach as hard as she could in the nuts. He subsequently roared out in pain and rolled off her.

The loudness and intensity of the injured man's angry sound surprised her. Should a man be able to yell that loudly? Elena had never heard anything like it. Sensing the new danger, his wrestling partner tried to roll off Elena from where he had been lying on his back on top of her, but didn't move quickly enough. Her fist flew out and connected with the vulnerable area of his throat, causing a strangled yelp of pain to escape from him.

As her second victim clutched his throat, gasping and gurgling, she pushed him off her and got back to her feet. When she looked up, it was to the realization all eyes in the room were on her, including the pair of exotically green and gold ones belonging to that annoying bastard, Ivanov. He was watching her in his own subtle version of shock, or at least, she was guessing that was what the cocked left eyebrow and slightly widened eyes meant. From the way one side of his mouth started to slide up, she could guess it also might mean amusement. He was kind of hard to read.

Elena put her hands on her hips and ignored him as he took her in from head to toe, taking a somewhat lengthy, delayed interval to stare at the apex of her thighs and then her chest. When his eyes finally made it back to her face, the slight surprise had yet to melt from his expression, which annoyed her. Had the man never seen a woman kick a guy's ass before?

Only, as she glowered back at him, there seemed to be something more lingering in his eyes. If she didn't know any better, she'd say those golden-yellow rings around his pupils were growing larger, becoming almost molten with some kind of heated promise. What his eyes were smoldering at her with caused Elena to feel torn between wanting him and wanting to punch him in the face for it.

Desire.

Gage

Had he really considered her weak and breakable before?

Gage stood there, practically shaking with lust and violence. Lust because he'd watched the human woman that nature had determined was a potential mate for him temporarily incapacitate two feline shifters from Tyson's pride. Of course, the two had deserved it. They'd taken her down to the floor during their little disagreement. Apparently, that had pissed her off enough to take action against them.

The violence he was feeling, on the other hand, was what bothered him the most. He'd already been holding onto a tenuous leash of his inner animal after having to subdue Tyson when the man had started to lose control of himself. Not that he blamed Tyson for that. The mission they'd just come off of had been a recon of an old, dilapidated hospital for the criminally insane in Norway where they'd found a big, heaping pile of nothing. Well, nothing except old scents that proved their targets had been there and the smell of some kind of chemical in the air, too. Probably some kind of drug to keep the individuals they were looking for incapacitated.

The knowledge that Gage and Tyson's team had finally been so close to where their targets were being held, and yet, still too late to save them, had ended in nothing other than pain and frustration for the Lion. It was understandable since Tyson was looking for kidnapped members of his pride, including his brother.

What wasn't understandable was the fact that most of the violence Gage was feeling wasn't towards Tyson's inability to keep his Lion leashed. No, it was due to seeing Sergeant Demos pinned under two, much larger, male shifters' bodies. He'd instantly wanted to beat both of the men on top of her senseless. His tiger roaring inside his head, needing to send the message that he was the only man allowed to pin her down—preferably while he was inside of her.

Damn these mating instincts! They were driving him certifiable. It'd been so long since he'd last seen her he'd started to doubt his initial reaction when meeting her before. Right then, however, every raw, animalistic instinct he had was screaming at him that there'd been no mistake the first time. Sergeant Demos was prime mate material. He wouldn't change his mind, though. He absolutely would not take the feeble human as a mate. They died too soon and were way too easy to kill.

That only left him with two options. Either tell his team he had to take a leave of absence so he could stay away from the mouthwatering woman, or fuck this overwhelming need he had for her right out of his system. And since Gage refused to leave a teammate in hard times, like right at that moment when Tyson needed him, his decision had been made for him.

Yup. He was going to lure the little human into bed to use and abuse that tempting little body of hers that still needed to be fattened up a little. Did the woman not eat at all?

Shaking his head to himself, he decided not to concentrate on that. No, all he needed to concentrate on was that he was going to have her as many times and in as many ways as he had to in order to get her out of his system. By the time he was done, she would be a sated, begging, crying mess, screaming out his name better than a high paid porn actress on the set of an orgy. And after he exhausted her ass into a state of sleep that might look more like a coma, he'd walk away from her for good.

Gage pondered the best way to get the difficult woman where he wanted her, which was the nearest flat surface in lieu of a bed. He debated whether he should try the ridiculous human practices of dating her, or if he should just throw her over his shoulder like any other shifter would do. The problem with carrying her off over his shoulder was that she might misconstrue it as an attempt of kidnapping. He barely held in his snort of disgust over the thought. As if he would ever have to kidnap somebody! Women fell all over themselves for the chance to be with him. This woman was unnecessarily difficult.

He really didn't want to have to lower himself to the disgusting practice of a date to get her in bed. It was ridiculous and unnecessary. Not to mention he had better things to do with his spare time; there had to be a way around all of that.

While Gage stood there, trying to figure out how he could get Sergeant Demos out of her BDUs and naked as fast as possible, he watched as the woman in question went from mad to damn near psychotic. The angrier she got, the more the subtle fragrance belonging to her got spicier—richer, like exotic chocolates with red chilies in them—which only turned him on more, causing his cock to lengthen and press rather uncomfortably against the buttons of his pants.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, as he watched her face turn an interesting shade of red, he knew it wasn't quite natural that he kept getting turned on every time she got pissed off. The truth was, at the moment, he could care less about how weird it was. The fact that he didn't care at all, well, that should have been his hint walking away from her wasn't going to be easy after all.

Elena

"Have you idiots lost your damn mind?"

Okay, it was safe to say the tentative leash on her temper had snapped, which wasn't unheard of per se, but she tried really damn hard after the last trip to the anger management counselor not to flip her shit and give in to the urge to beat the snot out of people. These eight morons, though, made her want to start throwing hooks and uppercuts like a desperate boxer fighting for a championship title.

"Problem, Sergeant Demos?" Ivanov's deep baritone was the only one to respond.

Did he really ask her if she had a problem? She felt the muscle underneath her left eye twitch again. The small movement did not go by unnoticed by Master Sergeant Ivanov, who smirked at the small sign of her current mood, something her youngest sister, Delta, lovingly labeled: DEFCON Psycho. Only Ivanov had no idea just how accurate the description of psycho could be for Elena when she well and truly lost it because the last time Elena had gone DEFCON Psycho was when she was seventeen and her oldest sister, Chloe, had come home with a good sized bruise on her cheek from her then boyfriend, Jimmy Butowski. Thank God juvenile records were sealed by the courts, otherwise the Army would have never let her in.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Elena snapped, "You're damn skippy I've got a problem! My problem is that the station received a report of possible vandalism in this building, so I had to drag my ass out here in the middle of the night only to find you all rolling around here like a bunch of morons. Get a life, would ya? And, next time, don't bother mine!"

Turning on her heel, she stormed towards the front door, shoving one of Ivanov's unit members out of her path on the way out. She heard movement seemingly following behind her, but chose to ignore it since she knew none of the men would hurt her.

Making her way back to her vehicle, Elena rounded the front of the car and reached for the driver's side door handle before a large hand extended out to land on her door, stopping her. Even if he hadn't reached that hand out in front of her, she would have known he was too close to her body because she could feel the heat off that extremely large body of his along her back.

Breathing out a frustrated sigh, she asked, "What do you want, Master Sergeant Ivanov?"

Warm breath whispered across her ear lobe, "To make your trip out here worthwhile."

"Yeah? And how do you plan to do that?"

"By offering you the opportunity of a lifetime."

"You mean you're going to let me put you in handcuffs and arrest you?"

He snorted. "You're not arresting me, and you're definitely not putting me in handcuffs. I could return the favor for you, though, and use your own handcuffs on you."

Shaking her head no, Elena laughed. "Sorry, pal, but the last time I checked, I was the one with the power to use them. Not you."

"Only here, on base, and only when you're on duty. I was talking about later. When you get off shift. I could come over to your place and demonstrate who really has the power in this dynamic."

Elena turned slowly until she was facing Gage Ivanov. Those strangely beautiful eyes of his almost seemed to glow in the night as they slowly dragged upwards from where they'd been glued to her ass and then focused on her face.

Cocking her eyebrow at his apparent and shameless ogling of her backside, she gave a short laugh. "I know you special ops guys think you're the best thing around since sliced bread, but don't get too full of yourself."

He slowly leaned forward to run his nose from the base of her throat up to her ear, skimming her skin lightly as he inhaled deeply, before stopping so his lips were touching the shell of her ear. Then he whispered, "I'm not looking to get full of myself. I'd much rather fill you."

Her mouth instantly went as dry as the Sahara Desert. Other parts of her, ones much lower than her mouth, seemed to fire up except there was no dryness involved down there. No, her panties were practically sopping wet right then. Elena had to lock up every muscle in her body so that she wouldn't lean forward an inch and a half to rub all over him like a cat in heat.

That was a bad, bad idea. If she went and did something as stupid as hooking up with him, someone could make some whack ass claim of favoritism on this call she'd responded to. She needed to move herself away from the hottest man to ever push all of her naughty buttons and drive away from here like her career depended on it. If she gave into this insane attraction between them, and there was some claim of favoritism or fraternization lobbed against her, her career would most likely go down the shitter. As good as the man probably was in bed, it wouldn't be worth the career she adored in the Army.

Right?

Elena put her hands on his chest to push him off her because he hadn't moved away at all, but ended up gasping instead when his teeth nipped her ear. Her fingers instantly reversed course and were clenching his shirt instead of shoving him away because those lips of his were on the move, placing a lingering kiss on the skin right under her ear before continuing their journey south where he stopped again to gently bite at the base of her neck. It took Elena a second to realize the sound she heard was her own moaning as she pulled the infuriating man closer until nothing other than clothes separated the fronts of their bodies.

She felt that hand of his come off her car as he used it to grab the back of her neck, seconds before his lower body pinned her to the car. She could feel the hard length of him push into her stomach while his other hand slipped in between her butt and the vehicle so he could grab her ass hard, squeezing his fingers into her soft flesh in a slow, rhythmic pattern that reminded her of a cat kneading.

Dropping his mouth down to hers, she thought he was going to kiss her, yet he didn't. He licked her instead, swiping a deliciously wet, though slightly rough, tongue right over her lips. Her breath caught in her chest from the erotic feel of that tongue and he groaned, his chest vibrating slightly under her hands from the sound. That lick alone was the most understated but sexy thing any man had ever done to her.

That was the moment her common sense went out the window.

Elena stood up on her tiptoes and crushed her mouth to Ivanov's in a desperation she'd never felt before and would probably never feel again.

As he thrust his tongue in her mouth and tangled it with her own, she knew without a doubt he really would make this trip out here worthwhile.

She hoped that giving into her hormones didn't backfire on her later.
Chapter Three

Elena

January 2012

The sensual rumble of a gruff baritone voice from the other room woke her up. Man, she loved his voice. There were times when he was buried deep inside her, making her feel like no one else ever had, he would say something in the moment with a growl—some command, some encouragement—and it felt like a freakin' purr. Of course, she knew the walking wall of muscle that called himself Gage Ivanov wasn't truly purring. That had to be anatomically impossible for a testosterone-laden guy like him. Oh, but to some very sensitive girly parts she owned, probably the only parts of her body that were feminine at all, they quivered at that almost purr. It was sexual nirvana, that purr-tastic voice.

After doing something she'd never done before, which was maintain something that resembled a monogamous relationship for a span of six whole months, she was ready to admit she was definitely in love with that voice. She'd fallen head over heels for the man who owned it.

Not that she'd confessed that little bit of information to Gage. Oh no, she'd kept it under lock and key from the moment she'd figured it out a little over a month ago. It had taken some time to even convince herself it was genetically possible for her to experience the emotion called love for anyone other than her family. After all, she was a Demos. And, as her mother always told her, the Demos women did not marry, nor did they let a man tie them down with such stigmas as a relationship. No, they simply found good specimens to scratch the occasional itch when it was needed. That might sound crude to the rest of the world, however she'd yet to see her mother or two sisters settle down with a man for a long-term run.

So the fact that she, Elena Demos—middle child of the biggest anti-monogamy supporter in the known universe—was lying in these sheets that were twisted around her naked body in her lover's bed and considering becoming a one-man kind of woman, was just craziness. The idea she would ignore every warning her mother had ever lectured her about in regards to men and how they would only break your heart so she could profess her newfound love for the man in the other room, was a big deal.

There was no telling how her mother or sisters would act when she let the cat out of the bag. Hell, her mother—who'd been so sick she was bedridden—wouldn't cut her any slack at all. More than likely, Momma Demos would chew her up and spit her out with a lecture to end all lectures. That might not scare other grown adults, but anyone who knew her mother would be shaking in their flippin' shoes. It didn't matter Momma was a petite package who only looked to weigh one hundred and thirty pounds soaking wet. Elena had watched that small, powerhouse of a woman put a grown man two times her size on his knees, cupping his junk with both hands and crying a river for giving her mother a pat on the ass in a bar. In other words, she was scary.

As Elena listened to her lover presumably talking to someone on the phone, since she hadn't heard any other voices yet, she couldn't help thinking it was time to tell everyone how she felt. Gage had to feel something for her if he kept coming back to Fort Bragg to spend time with her when he wasn't even coming or going from his latest mission. He'd risked an awful lot in taking the chance to get involved with her since it would be severely frowned upon should their relationship come to light.

In retrospect, they hadn't been able to avoid what was between them, and it wasn't always pleasant. There was something about the combination of their two personalities that begged for them to grate on each other's last nerves. Gage had said it was the strain of animal-like sexual attraction between them, but for Elena, it had been lust at first sight. After the last several months, it had finally become the dreaded four letter L-word. How she wished lust was still the word that fit that description, but instead, it was love.

She was holding out hope her mother was wrong. That all men weren't lying, conniving, cheating dogs who couldn't be trusted with a woman's vulnerable heart. Then she could tell Gage how she felt, and hopefully, he would tell her that he loved her, too. Perhaps then, Elena could take him home, introduce him to her man-hating mother and wary two sisters, and show them there were in fact good men out there. Maybe, afterward, one of her two sisters would break the Demos 'no long-term man' rule and go out and find a stud of their own. Cynics could be converted into believers.

All she had to do was break the news to the man she loved first, which needed to be done tonight since she was out-processing from the Army and headed home to Swansboro, NC in two days. She probably should have mentioned it to Gage beforehand that she hadn't renewed her enlistment due to her mom's baffling illness, but she had never gotten around to it.

It was hard learning to open up and share your personal life with someone of the opposite sex when you weren't used to having anyone around to care about those things. The two of them would need to talk about how often they could visit each other since her living arrangements were going to be drastically different.

Easing silently out of the bed, she picked Gage's t-shirt up off the floor and pulled it on over her naked body. Not that she had a problem with nudity, especially in front of her insanely sexy man, but his voice was starting to get louder as if he were irritated with someone. She didn't exactly feel comfortable butt ass naked if he was going to be in a foul mood.

Curious as to what had riled her lover up, she tiptoed to the closed bedroom door and convinced herself it was not wrong to eavesdrop on the man you had elevated to boyfriend status, a fact she planned on informing him of shortly. Being someone's girlfriend gave you rights to snoop a little. It was written down in the women's laws somewhere, she was sure.

Placing her ear on the door, she closed her eyes and concentrated on what was being said on the other side of it. There was a muffled sentence before a short span of silence, and then Gage spit out a "Fuck you, Alec."

Aha. He was talking to his brother. Elena had been astounded when Gage had told her he was one of triplets. At his size, she could only imagine how big of a baby he must have been. While he said his sister, Lulu, was nowhere near his height or size, apparently Alec was just as tall and broad as his brother. She could practically feel her womb rejecting the idea of carrying even one baby that size, let alone a second one or a third smaller one for the hell of it. All of her internal parts that scientifically classified her as a woman threatened to jump out into oncoming traffic if she even entertained the idea of two of them.

Returning her concentration back to Gage, she heard a few more murmured sentences, and then he seemed to snap. "Hell, no, she's not my mate! Do you take me for some kind of idiot? There's no way it could ever work out between someone like her and someone like me. Elena's a hot piece of ass, but it's not worth going through all of the trouble to make this something more than that."

With those words, her heart felt like it was shriveling up in her chest and dying an excruciating death. Every dream she'd barely realized she'd been having withered away and disappeared, leaving gaping holes inside she wasn't sure could ever be filled again. Even her uterus, which had been protesting almost violently moments before at the imaginary future triplets she and Gage might have one day, seemed to throb with pain after his words.

How could she have been so wrong? Why in the world had she ever thought it was going to be okay to hand her heart over for someone to love? Momma had been right. Men weren't capable of deep emotions such as love.

The self-preservation that had been ingrained into her from puberty kicked in and said it was time to get the hell out of here. There was no way she was going to give that jackass the pleasure of knowing he'd thoroughly crushed the heart she'd only now learned to use.

Moving as quickly and quietly as the highly-trained man on the other side of the bedroom door, she pulled her pants on and slipped her feet into her tennis shoes. Luckily, his apartment was on the ground floor, so all Elena had to do was slide the window open and ease out of it until she was standing in the grass outside of his building. She didn't bother with taking the time to close her portal of escape. Instead she ran to her SUV, digging her keys out as she hauled ass, and hopped in that sucker faster than the Duke boys could ever hope to get into the General Lee.

Tearing out of the property's parking lot, she didn't bother to look back and see if Gage Ivanov had even realized she'd left him. Besides, with her too tight chest, lack of air to breathe, and the kind of pain that felt like it could take down a thousand pound elephant, Elena was sure she no longer felt anything at all for him. Yeah. He'd effectively killed everything inside of her that could have constituted as love, or otherwise known as stupid. So, on that note, he could watch her dust fade behind her for all she cared.

Somehow, she'd find a way to make herself believe that eventually.

Gage

He set the silent phone down on the couch beside him and listened to her scurry away from the door. Clenching every muscle, locking every bone in his body, he forced himself to listen to the rustling on the other side of his closed bedroom door as Elena frantically got dressed and prepared to leave.

The faint sound of a sniffle almost broke his resolve to stay put. Knowing his mate, she hadn't even realized she was crying. The woman was simply too tough and too proud to ever admit to such weak emotions. It was one of the things he admired most about her. He could go over all the reasons why he loved the woman who was, at that moment, lifting his bedroom window to climb out of it, but it wouldn't change the cold hard facts.

She was human. He was not. He could take the chance of telling her the truth about himself, pray she wouldn't flip that proverbial hot-headed wig of hers, and see what happened. However doing that would only solve one problem before leading to another. If he told her the truth and she didn't accuse him of lying or try to kill him for being what he was, then they'd have to disappear or both risk a death sentence.

Sure, with enough time—ten or fifteen years or so—of Elena staying quiet and keeping his secret, the Other community would come around and pardon the customary death sentence that was standard for letting humans know what you were. He didn't want to sentence them to a life of isolation on the off chance they could shoot for that unlikely goal, though. He knew, deep down in his gut, his contrary mate would never forgive him for cutting her off from her family for that long. Hell, he couldn't imagine being away from his family for that long. In short, he knew it was back to square one for them.

She was human. He was not.

He had to let her go while he still could because Gage knew he'd almost done something tonight that would ensure he'd never let her go. While they'd been making love, his fangs had lengthened and he'd almost buried them in her shoulder, marking her as his mate forever, or at least, for the short human time span he'd have with her. Simply put, was unacceptable.

Thank God her eyes had been closed and she hadn't seen his teeth shift. Elena had been so lost in her orgasm, lost in the amazing feeling that flowed between the two of them, she'd completely missed his fuck up. He'd really been so damn close to ruining everything for both of them. It was hard not to give into all of it, too; his feelings for her— his instincts to make her his—especially when she'd looked so beautiful—so fucking radiant—lost in the moment of pleasure he'd given her.

As he listened to her SUV's tires peel out, he reminded himself again this was what needed to be done. Breaking her heart and forcing her away from him was for the best. For both of them.

Then he heard a crunching sound fill the air. He felt small trickles of warm blood start to seep down his hand from the phone he'd broken into who knew how many jagged pieces cut his skin. He tried to tell himself then his heart wasn't broken into jagged pieces like his demolished phone. He tried really hard to make himself believe he absolutely had done the right thing. He kept trying all night, the next day, and the following week after that.

Still, he failed to make himself believe it.

And when he went to find his mate to apologize for what he'd done... she was gone, which, he reminded himself, was for the best.
Chapter Four

Elena

August 2013 – Swansboro, North Carolina

"You viperous heifer! Touch my Jimmy Choos again and the next time you go to bed, you'll wake up missing something vital!" A manicured, polished red nail pointed at Elena in the face before the screeching continued. "Why would you be anywhere near high heeled shoes anyways? It's not like you wear them. You're too manly for that. Wait. Did you sabotage my shoes? Don't tell me you somehow ruined my seven hundred dollar shoes?"

Snorting in disdain, Elena avoided all eye contact with her eldest sister, Chloe. Driving her sister into a raving lunatic was by far her favorite pastime and the easiest way to do that was to fool around with her Barbie doll-like wardrobe.

"Of course I didn't wear your shoes, and I didn't sabotage them, either. Like I'd ever wear that kind of crap. But Moira came over here yesterday to tell me about the undercover sting she has going on down at the police department. She wondered what kind of shoes hookers wore. So I pulled out a pair of your shoes to give her a visual reference on what she'd need to buy."

"HOOKER SHOES! Why you little bit—" Chloe launched herself over the back of the couch at where Elena calmly sat with a shriek that kind of reminded Elena of the sound of a train right before it hit the car parked on its tracks. The good news was Chloe was a lot less destructive than a train. She might try to hurt Elena, but she would whine for hours afterwards if she broke one of her precious nails in the process. The bad news was Chloe was so curvy Elena was pretty sure that big ass of hers could count as her train's caboose and was going to break something when she landed.

Waiting the couple of seconds before her sister was flying airborne towards her, before being almost on top of her, Elena ducked to the side so that Chloe sailed right past her to unceremoniously crash into the coffee table, which Chloe's wide caboose did indeed break.

"Be careful, Chloe. I would hate it if you accidentally hurt yourself from overexertion."

Chloe pushed herself off the floor so she could glare at Elena over the coffee table that lay in pieces on its side. "Keep your grubby little hands off my stuff. Don't they teach manners in the Army?"

Elena snorted a laugh. "Sure they do. They teach us manners somewhere in between showing us how to maintain our weapons and how to kill someone with nothing but combat knives and our winning personalities.

"When is Delta going to get here? We're supposed to be at the lawyer's office in a little over two hours. It takes at least an hour and a half to travel from Swansboro to Wilmington."

Gracefully rising from the carpet, Chloe started to straighten her clothes. "Delta should be home any minute now. She probably got lost in the library again. Really, how can one person read so many books? No wonder she's still a virgin. Being a virgin at the age of twenty-two should be something that's practically non-existent living outside a military base. With all the Marines strolling around Camp Lejeune, you would think she would have taken care of that pesky, little detail by now. Our little sister gives new definition to the word 'geek-tastic.'"

Rolling her eyes, Elena fought the urge to slap her sister. "Well, we can't all be a whore like you, now can we?"

"I'm not a whore. Whore's spread their legs for money. I don't spread my legs; I just talk men out of it." Brushing her ridiculously long, golden-brown hair out of her face, Chloe smiled. "But it wouldn't hurt the two of you to be more like me. All it would take is a major wardrobe makeover, some make-up, and your sincere efforts to act more like a woman instead of a man."

Grabbing a throw pillow off the couch, Elena beamed it across her sister's head, sending her shuffling sideways in her ridiculous four-inch heels. "Watch it, you overgrown prom queen. I'd hate to have to go to jail because I gave in to the temptation to choke you to death."

The door to the house flew open, banging harshly into the wall behind it. Elena's jaw dropped right before Chloe's shrill voice sounded. "What have you done to yourself, Delta? You look like an emo serial killer! And take off the Freddy Krueger inspired t-shirt this instant! It's awful."

Delta flopped down on the couch before shoving her dark auburn hair out of her face. Elena stared at her sister, cataloging every change in the drastic makeover. Gone were the thick plastic framed glasses; Delta must have contacts in for the first time in her life, which was a scary thought to Elena because her little sister was about as graceful and coordinated as a wrecking ball. She couldn't help wondering how many times Delta had accidentally poked herself in the eye while trying to get the contact in.

Moving her gaze down, she took in the new clothes. It was a big change. Delta's nerd loving wardrobe for work usually consisted of below the knee skirts matched with frumpy polyester blouses and was typically topped off with her expected, librarian-type bun. That was her public persona. At home, Delta never made it out of her sweatpants and Star Wars t-shirts.

As much as Elena hated to agree with Chloe about anything, if you looked the word 'nerd' up in the dictionary, you'd find a picture of Delta as a definition; IQ, personality, loner-type tendencies and all.

The geeky Delta image was nowhere to be found, however. Right then, sitting next to her, was a completely different entity. Delta's dark auburn hair was cut into shaggy layers that fell around her face to cover the tops of her shoulders. She'd also dyed a large chunk of hair black in the front. Her lithe, little body was dressed in snug, black skinny jeans tucked into what appeared to be a pair of black motorcycle boots. Instead of her baggy blouse, meant for someone's grandmother, she was wearing a tight red and black striped tee that accentuated her small body. The whole outfit seemed to give the illusion she was built to be a petite rock-star ballerina. Too bad she tripped over own tiny feet practically every hour of the day.

Elena wasn't one to judge people. Her attitude usually followed the to-each-their-own motto, however, since this was her baby sister, half of her wanted to dive into interrogating her over the drastic makeover while the other half of her decided it was such a big improvement she was going to leave Delta alone so she could proceed with her favorite activity instead—torturing Chloe.

"Red and green, Chloe, not red and black."

Chloe cocked her head to the side the way a dog does when confused. "What are you talking about? Christmas colors? Has your brain finally become mush from lack of use?"

Elena fisted her left hand on her hip while she waved her right one in Delta's direction. "You said her shirt was Freddy Kruger inspired. I'm pointing out that, once again, you're wrong. Freddy's sweater was red and green. Delta's shirt is red and black. So it's obviously not Freddy inspired."

Elena watched her little sister try to keep her shoulders from shaking due to laughter while her older sister literally bristled like a pissed off cat. "Why you little—"

Holding up her hand to stop Chloe's tirade, Elena continued, "Now, now, Chloe. Don't get yourself all worked up again. I'd hate for you to engage the two brain cells you have left in your head and wear them out beyond repair. I don't think they've accomplished brain transplants yet, so the damage would surely be irreparable. Now, let's move past Delta's makeover so we can head to the lawyer's office. Mom would be rolling over in her grave, laughing at us, if we managed to be late for this because we were all getting along so well. Besides, I need to get her will reading over with so I can contact a recruiter. I need to get away from you before some of your air-headedness starts to affect my oxygen supply."

Delta's eyebrows snapped down as a frown marred her face. "You promised to stay home with us for a while. Why are you going back so soon? You haven't even given the civilian world a chance."

Something was there in her little sister's eyes that broke her heart. Hurt. Abandonment. Maybe a little disappointment, too. Wanting to erase as much of that as possible while avoiding her true feelings on the matter, Elena reverted to what she did best, picking on Chloe.

"I've decided the civilian world can't handle all the awesomeness known as me. Besides, if I stay anywhere near Chloe for too much longer without Mom here to break us up, she'll start to drive me crazy and I'll be forced to retaliate. Imagine if she sent me over the edge and I shredded all of her precious hooker wardrobe." Chloe growled in warning. "That would probably flip her crazy switch for good then she would try to murder me in my sleep. One of us would end up in jail. Think of how bloated she would look in prison orange. Then you would be out two sisters. This way is much easier."

Elena grabbed the keys to her SUV before walking out the door with a huge grin on her face. There was nothing better than coming home so she could mess with her older sister's diminished brain capacity except for maybe playing war games with her unit. It always turned out to be pretty fun, too. Or polishing her favorite hand guns. Yeah, that always made her happy.

When she re-enlisted, they'd station her somewhere far away from here. Elena would make sure of it. Not that she needed that much distance between herself and her sisters, but he still haunted her when she lay in bed, lonely at night. She needed to get the hell out of North Carolina.

The drive to the lawyer's office in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina was a quiet one. All of the back and forth banter between sisters vanished under the oppressive reminder their vibrant, loving, kick ass mom was no longer around for advice on their lives. Or for hugs. Even the occasional slap to the head would be greatly missed. Agatha Demos's hunger for life had been like nothing Elena had ever seen duplicated in this world. The woman had been the prime example of taking the world by the balls, living life the way she thought it should be lived, and to hell with everyone else. Aggie had always reminded them all you really needed in life was your family; especially your sisters.

Elena took some time to observe her baby sister, Delta, out of her peripheral, wondering for the second time that day over the drastic changes her sister had gone through. Bugging her with questions wasn't the answer, though. Out of the three sisters, quiet, shy, unassuming, mouse-like Delta had been the least like their mother. Although the surface had changed, Elena figured deep down Delta was still the wallflower. The one they had to bribe with some high-end technology if they wanted her to go out in public and mingle with other people. Only time would tell if she'd offer explanations, or if there were inner changes to match the outer ones.

Glancing to the rearview mirror she observed her older sister, Chloe. The first of the three Demos sisters, she was a prissy version of their mother. She had a firm grasp on their mother's concept of taking the world by storm, not letting anyone hold her down, even if she used her feminine wiles to do it. Chloe had been that way ever since the ex-boyfriend, Butowski, had hit her. Chloe had refused to ever be so used or abused by a man again, insisting Mom's ideals had merit. Not wanting to ever marry, any children Chloe ever had would be raised in an entirely women-filled household with tough, feminist ideals.

Delta would be the opposite. Elena knew her little sister longed for that once in a lifetime love. The kind of stuff fairy tales were made of. Elena had no grand notions of that. She had no use for keeping a man around permanently. The last time she had entertained that idea had landed her in a world of hurt, and she wasn't exactly eager to repeat it. Living life without a man in it wasn't that bad. If she got lonely enough, she could buy all the companionship she needed in an adult toy store.

For the most part, she found the idea of having a man around annoying unless they were doing something she considered beneficial. You know, take out the trash, cook dinner, give her the much needed marathon of wild monkey sex. Besides that, why keep them around? So she could watch them lie around in their underwear, scratching their unmentionables before farting? Living in front of the television to play the latest war game instead of living life on the edge? No thanks.

Elena was coming back around to the way her mother had been. Men were only good for what they had in their pants. The only difference between her and her mother was Elena had no plans for having kids. Ever. As far as she was concerned, birth control was her best friend.

She was perfectly happy with the fact the Army was as good as it would ever get when it came to a commitment for her. She not only adored the men and women she had worked with, but it had filled something in her nature that she had a hard time finding in everyday life. The only drawback to the Army was that she had to settle for being a MP, or military police, since what she considered were all the cool jobs—Infantryman, Calvary Scouts, Rangers and Delta Force—were closed to women. Which sucked because, often enough, she longed to be in the thick of things, smack dab in the middle of it all. Most women thought she was strange; she thought it was fun. Maybe all her wires were crossed because the thought of going on one of Chloe's shopping trips was pretty much equivalent to torture in her book. Give her an M-16 and some grenades before pointing her in the direction of the enemy, though? Heaven.

Putting her thoughts on hold, Elena parked the car in the parking lot bordering the lawyer's waterfront building. Standing quietly on the sidewalk outside the building, the three sisters reached for each other's hands before walking any further. They might pick at each other mercilessly, or squabble until the neighbors threatened to call the cops on them for disturbance, but it didn't mean they didn't have each other's backs. Without a doubt, Elena knew Chloe and Delta would be there for her no matter what. The same held true for her if she ever felt like her sisters needed her.

Strengthened by the fortitude of their bond, they continued on. Minutes later, they followed a receptionist who looked like she moonlighted as a call girl into Mr. Adam Wroth's office.

Mr. Wroth stood to greet them, holding out his hand to shake each of theirs. At an average height with an average weight on a fit body for a close to fifty-year-old man, Mr. Wroth would have seemed like your average elder if it weren't for the intelligent gleam in his bright blue eyes. Combine that with the perfectly-cut, brown hair; a sharply angled face; and topped with his natural confidence... Well, then you had a man any woman would sit up to notice. She was betting high dollars on the idea Aggie Demos had flirted shamelessly with him.

Elena watched the secretary lean into her boss's personal space and bat her long eyelashes at him as she asked in a badly imitated Marilyn Monroe, breathy voice, "Is there anything else I can do for you, Mr. Wroth?"

Chloe leaned over and mock whispered, "She's doin' him."

The lawyer gave Chloe a look of abject horror as his secretary smirked at him.

Rolling her eyes to the ceiling, Elena muttered dejectedly, "Again? Must we do this again?"

Looking back to Chloe, she shrugged. "What? Just sayin' it like I see it, sister."

Frustrated, Elena threw her hands up in the air. "How many times do we have to have this talk? Huh?! How many times do I have to tell you it is not okay for you to be walking around, broadcasting people's sex lives in public?"

Chloe used her hand to flip her hair over her shoulder, as if bored. "I don't know why you're so worked up over it, Elena, really. If he's going to give his secretary the business, he should expect people to comment on it."

Losing her temper, Elena pointed a finger in her sister's face. "No, he shouldn't have to be subjected to your crazy ass—"

A masculine throat cleared, bringing their attention back to the lawyer, who was watching them with a pleased smile on his face. What was that about? "If you ladies could please hold off the finger pointing, name calling, and inevitably, the hair pulling, nipple twisting, and slap fight sure to ensue, perhaps we could move on here?"

Huh. How did he know that in ten minutes or so Chloe would be trying to pull her hair out by its roots while she in turn tried to twist Chloe's nipples clean off at the same time that Delta watched us in amused resignation? That grin of his was still in place, and Elena wondered for a moment what he saw when he looked at the three of them.

Three half-sisters. Two of them had been blessed with their mother's Greek olive-skinned complexion while Delta, the odd ball out, had been given a much paler skin tone. All three sisters with almost identical facial features; straight, pert, small noses; high cheekbones; and lush lips. That was where similarities ended, however.

Delta's hair color was a rich auburn, complemented by her stunning, moss green eyes. Chloe stood out with her long, curly, golden-brown hair with natural, subtle, honey-blond highlights, which was at a length that reached to almost the middle of her back. She also possessed warm, brown eyes that had been compared numerous times to chocolate and the body of a 1950s pinup model. Chloe was every man's sensual fantasy in the flesh and almost the spitting image of their mother.

Sticking out like the sore thumb that she was, Elena's own hair was stick straight, reached to the midway point between her shoulder blades and consisted of a deep, shiny black color. People didn't notice Elena for her non-existent busty chest, or the pinup girl body she wished she had. No, if she garnered any attention at all, it was because of her eyes. Not that she was vain because hell would freeze over before she ever acted like Chloe, but even she admitted to herself every now and then she had killer eyes that were often described as blue-green or turquoise.

Since Mom hadn't believed in long-term, monogamous relationships, all three sisters had different fathers. None of them knew who they were, either. The only things they did know about them would be from the differences in their appearances from their mother and each other. The variety of their looks often threw people for a loop when they saw all three of them together. Enough features in common to make it obvious they were related, but also enough differences to keep folks guessing as to how they were related.

Mr. Wroth sat back down behind his desk to shuffle a few papers around before looking back to the women. "Ladies, please have a seat."

The three black leather chairs were situated in front of his cherry desk. Taking a quick glance around the room, Elena noticed it was decorated in calming tones of beige and blue with hints of silver accents in small details, like the shelving on the walls. Common sense told her Wroth had either let a woman decorate his office for him, or he had hired a decorator 'cause she had yet to meet a man who knew how to match colors, let alone decorate a room this comfortable. The scheme sent out a serene vibe that would more than likely be the total opposite of the heightened sense of panic, grief, or anger his clients probably felt.

Wroth's voice brought her attention back to him. "Your mother's will was somewhat odd, but very concise. It is to be read in two parts. We're reading the first part today." Picking up a packet of papers off the desk in front of him, he intoned on the contents with a serious voice.

Elena had a full attack of ADD two minutes into his legally worded spiel and couldn't take it anymore. Interrupting him, she said, "Mr. Wroth, I know you're supposed to do all this by the books, but could you please take some pity on my short attention span and spit it out already?"

The poor man looked somewhere between baffled and amused. "You want me to spit it out?"

"Yes! For the love of God, get to the damn point already before I die of old age," Elena huffed.

The lawyer laid the papers back on his desk and leaned back in his chair. Elena was starting to wish she could slap that damn grin he was still wearing right off his face. "Your mother's will basically states that she is leaving an inheritance of a substantial amount to be split between the three of you. As well as the information on who your biological father's identities are in case any of you were so inclined as to look into those familial relations. However, you will not receive the money, nor the names, until you spend a consecutive ninety days living and working with your extended family."

Confused looks were traded between the three sisters.

Leaning forward in her chair, Elena asked, "Extended family?"

Appearing uncomfortable, Wroth cleared his throat again, "Yes, extended family. Your mother has two sisters who live here in Wilmington. They're already here, waiting to meet you. Hold on one second, please." Mr. Wroth pressed a button on his phone.

"Clare, will you please escort Indigo and Thea in."

That annoying, fake breathy voice answered, "Right away, Mr. Wroth."

A moment later, as the soft click of the door knob turned, Mr. Wroth stood as two gorgeous women in their late forties strolled in.

Elena had to stifle the gasp that threatened to escape. The resemblance between the two women and her late mother, Aggie, were uncanny.

Waving his hand towards the first woman, Mr. Wroth spoke, "This is Indigo Demos, your mother's younger sister by two years." While the small wrinkles around her eyes and mouth indicated she was at least slightly stressed, she gave a friendly, almost teasing, wave towards Elena and her sisters.

Indigo had shining brown hair that was contained in two braids that reached halfway down her back. That would have been okay if there hadn't been a multitude of flowers woven in and out of those braids. She was dressed in loose, distressed, dark-blue jeans slung low on her slender hips and being held up by what looked like a white, braided hemp belt. Her aunt's orange and white tie-dye tank top was so bright it practically blinded you, and she was wearing Birkenstocks on her feet.

Apparently, Elena was related to a frickin' hippie.

Elena felt the familiar muscles under her eye start to twitch. She was only seconds away from complete loss of any good manners because it was taking every ounce of willpower she owned not to start actively searching the woman for the peace sign tattoo Elena was sure she had somewhere on her willowy body. If her aunt started singing Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Elena was so out of there.

Mr. Wroth's voice broke into Elena's inner musings about setting fire to that tie-dye tank top the moment the woman took it off.

"And this is your mother's older sister, Thea. Thea and Indigo, these are Agatha's daughters, Chloe, Elena and Delta."

Elena turned her attention to the other aunt. Thea Demos looked to be the polar opposite of her sister, Indigo. She stood facing them with her legs braced, her arms crossed over her chest and a grey, short sleeve t-shirt that revealed rather toned arms. If she decided to punch someone, Elena knew it would hurt like hell, and she totally respected that.

Delta leaned over and whispered by her ear, "It could be you in twenty years, Elena. It's like an older, mirror image."

Elena had to admit her sister was right. They both sported healthy, tomboyish figures and the same general aura of bad attitude. She'd been told many times in her Army career that the world simply could not handle two of her. It looked like those individuals who had made that statement had been wrong. She'd also been told once that anyone harboring a personality even remotely like her own would either love her or hate her, so either Elena and her new Aunt Thea were going to get along like gangbusters, or they were going to strangle each other in the very near future.

Of course, all inner debates about how she would get along with her Aunt Thea ended when Elena caught the lawyer staring at her Aunt Thea's ass.

She felt Chloe lean into her side again. "He's doin' her, too."

Could somebody just fuckin' shoot her?
Chapter Five

Elena

November 2013 – Wilmington, North Carolina

"Three sisters walk into a wolf owned bar—"

"Again with the jokes, Chloe?" Elena shot a dirty look at Delta who was giggling at Chloe's antics. "Okay, it's time for the rules."

Chloe mocked. "Again with the rules?"

"Yessss," Elena hissed back at her. "Because, without rules, my airheaded, oldest sister tells vampires bad jokes, which nearly gets the life sucked out of us! If Aunt Thea hadn't been there with her freakin' piece of maple two-by-four, you probably wouldn't be here now! And because of that, the vampire refuses to be an informant for her anymore." Elena turned her glare to Delta who was still giggling. "And, without rules, Delta walks around to any Other she meets and asks them inappropriate questions all in the name of 'research.'"

Delta stopped giggling to sputter a defense, "I only wanted to know! It's not like I can go check out a book at the library to learn more about them!"

"God, it's a miracle nobody's managed to kill you two yet." Elena ran her hand through her hair in frustration. "No jokes. No questions. This one is important for me and you know it. Don't fuck it up."

"Are you ready to talk about it, Elena?" Delta spoke the question softly and with compassion, which pissed her off because she was going to have to tell her sisters about him.

Originally, she had no intention of ever telling either of them of her humiliating experience with the very person they were about to confront. That had been shot to hell, though, after their aunts had given them the info for this case and asked them to start the investigation while being monitored. This was the first step towards proving they had what it took to start working on their own for the family run private investigation business. Elena loved working with her aunts, so she refused to let either of her sisters fuck this up for them.

Glancing at the door to the bar, half of Elena was downright gleeful at the idea of walking in there and making Gage Ivanov's life a living hell in any way she possibly could. If it meant harassing him about his sister, so be it. The other half of Elena wanted to run as far away as fast as possible from the man who had absolutely shattered her into a million pieces. It was almost two years later, and she was still trying to metaphorically superglue herself back together.

Aunt Thea finally got out of the SUV and joined their huddle behind the vehicle. Taking a deep breath, she tried to get her shit together. It was time to get this over with.

Running a hand through her hair, she forced herself to calm down so she wouldn't snap at Delta. It wasn't her fault Elena had to go confront the douchebag from her past. "I'm good. Don't worry about me. All I'm asking for is that you two not start shit while we're in there. I want to go in, do what we've got to do, and then get the fuck out of here. Okay?"

Chloe was unusually silent as she nodded her head and started walking after Aunt Thea towards the bar. Elena and Delta followed close behind them, through the front door and up to the long stretch of bar along the right wall. The four of them settled on bar stools and Chloe crooked her finger at the bartender who was watching them with interest.

Leaving Chloe to ask after Ivanov, she made a quick visual scan of their surroundings. There were a couple of guys towards the back playing pool. No way to tell if they were demon, vampire, or shifter unless they did something supernaturally freaky. On the opposite side of the bar, several men and women had pushed a bunch of the smaller tables together so they could all sit at one long table together. Elena was guessing from watching them talk and lounge all over each other they were probably shifters. It was something about the way they interacted with each other that gave them an impression of being a solidified group. Since she was sitting in a wolf shifter owned bar, Elena was guessing they were probably part of a pack of wolves.

She heard Chloe murmuring to the bartender beside her and a following sound of beer bottles thudding on the bar top, however Elena kept her eyes on the rest of the bar. She didn't like the idea of anything sneaking up on her. That's where her attention would have stayed, too, if it hadn't been for the sudden sound of a door slamming against the wall. She turned herself back around to face the bar when she saw him storming towards her.

Her breath caught in her throat as she took him in. His face was twisted in a mask of rage and he was so pissed off he was literally stomping in her direction. After almost two years she'd hoped something horrible had happened to him, something that would have disfigured him hideously so he still didn't have the ability to make her heartbeat skip. Luck wasn't on her side since he was still as drop dead gorgeous as he had been the last time she had seen him. Damn, but it seemed as if fate must really fucking hate her.

She pushed her pain down and flipped the internal switch that turned her into an unfeeling bitch. Being numb on the inside was better than trying to sort through the barrage of emotions that were trying to overwhelm her.

Elena picked up her beer bottle and took a few fortifying gulps. As Gage stopped in front of her, she felt her sisters tense up on either side of her, ever at the ready to jump in and fight her battles if they felt it was necessary.

He snarled at her, "What the fuck are you doing here, Sergeant Demos?"

Elena set her bottled beer back on the bar and decided not to let his anger at her appearance bother her. Pasting a smile on her face she didn't really feel, Elena leaned forward and rested her elbows on the bar. "I take it you haven't heard, Master Sergeant Ivanov. I'm out. As for the reason as to why I'm here in this bar, though... well, that's easy, I was looking for you."

A man sauntered up to the end of the bar, and Elena immediately knew who he was. Alec, Gage's brother. The man who had been on the other end of the phone listening to Gage tell him how Elena was just a piece of ass, how she would never be good enough for something more permanent with him. Alec looked exactly like the man who had once been the love of her life except he was the light to Gage's darkness. His hair was white and in a mohawk, his eyes were a weird arctic blue, his arms were covered in tattoos and there was a smug panty-dropping smile plastered to his face. While Gage was glowering at her, his brother Alec was eye-fucking Chloe. If she weren't so concentrated on not showing the asshole in front of her how much he'd broken her heart, she'd laugh at the differences between the brothers.

Gage loudly snapped, "Why would you be looking for me, you little harpy?"

Elena refused to let his animosity affect her. She widened her grin because she knew it would bother him. "I'm here to ask you about your sister, Ivanov. Seen Lulu lately?"

Gage leaned across the bar to get in her face. "Why are you looking for Lulu?"

Reaching into her back pocket, Elena pulled out her new business card and pushed it across the top of the bar so it was right in front of Gage. "I got drafted into the family business recently; I'm merely here doing my job."

Gage shot her a disgruntled look and then dropped his gaze to the card. Wiping his face to display the best blank look Elena had ever seen on him, she watched as he brought his attention from the card back to her and said, "That's not possible. You can't work for AI. That would mean you're—"

Oh, this was the good part. This was where she got to rub it in his face she was so much more than that hot piece of ass he'd labeled her as on the phone call to his brother years before. By the bead of sweat that had just rolled down the side of his neck, Elena knew Gage was already well on his way to putting together the truth.

"That's right, Ivanov. Amazon International would mean I come from a line of Amazons, wouldn't it?" she asked in a sickly patronizing voice as if she'd been talking to an exceptionally small child.

Elena saw Gage's fingertips turn white as he gripped the bar top. The only other outward sign besides that small drop of sweat that let her know he wasn't as unaffected as he was pretending to be.

She went in for the kill because she was more than ready to make her point, rattle him up and then get the hell out of here. "And I'm here with my sisters to investigate your sister, Lulu, for the charge of murder."

When Gage let a fierce snarl out, she considered it a total win she didn't pee her pants in fear.

Gage

Was this a fucking joke? At the moment, he'd give his left nut for someone to jump out from some hidden spot and yell at him that he'd been punked. Of course, it was his luck it didn't happen. No, reality was sinking in fast.

The only woman he'd ever almost given in to the urge to take as a mate was sitting in front of him, pretending to be calm and collected as she informed him that she was descended from a long line of Amazons, which was a species of human that was genetically superior to those around them. As a result, while they still lived an average human life span, everything else in them was wired for survival. They were literally born and bred with unique traits that made them the ultimate fighters. Every single one of them had been endowed with either a unique understanding for strategizing, an uncanny ability with fighting and the use of weapons, or extreme intelligence. It was Mother Nature's way of taking the next step in human evolution.

Elena fell nicely in that middle category. Why in the hell hadn't he seen it before? Granted, most women were already better shooters than your standard human male, but Elena's skills with weapons had always been exemplary. Gage had gone and observed her at the range as often as he could because it had been his proverbial catnip. Watching Elena as she went through the expert level drills, easily taking out targets with that big ass .45 of hers, was cause for an instant hard on. He'd fuck her for hours afterward. How had he been so blind as to miss all of those signs?

Now, his mate sat in front of him with a look on her face that said 'I wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire,' and karma was slapping him in the face quite nicely with how badly he'd fucked up. What the ornery woman didn't know was she had just sealed her own fate with him, and if she thought she was walking out of this without repercussions, then she was sorely mistaken. She'd actually had the nerve to come in here, shove it in his face that she wasn't simply some fragile human, and then continued by threatening his sister. Oh, hell, yeah; she had it coming, and he was going to give it to her good.

Fuck, yeah. He was going to finally do what he should have done the first night he'd met her; he was going to bend her ass over his lap and spank it. Once he had that sweet, little backside of hers all warm and red from his hand, he was going to pick her up and bend her over the end of his bed. When he had her positioned like he wanted her, he was going to shove himself into that tight, wet heat she had between her legs and fuck her so hard she'd swear she felt him in her throat. Before he was done, she'd be screaming so hard and so long she'd blow that voice of hers out so she wouldn't be able to argue with him for a few days about anything. Then, when he felt like he couldn't take it anymore because he was going to explode inside of her, Gage was going to sink his teeth into the back of her neck and mark her. That crazy ass bitch was his mate and he'd be damned if he walked away from her again.

She started tapping her nails on the top of the bar and it brought Gage out of his plans for her. Elena had a smug smile on her face like she thought she'd already won the war between them. Wrong. He had fought in more wars than that pretty, little head of hers could imagine. She didn't have a chance in hell at winning against him. It was time to wipe that look right off her face.

"So you're here for Lulu?"

That finger of hers kept going; confident, strong with its steady beat. Tap.

"Yes. Do you know where your sister is, Master Sergeant Ivanov?" Tap.

"Yeah, but it doesn't mean I'm going to give you that information, Demos."

Tap. "Why not? Afraid your sister is guilty? Trying to help her hide?" Tap.

Leaning forward into her space, he crooned back, "Let's get something straight here, baby; we both know you're not any kind of actual law enforcement. It's not like you can arrest her." Tap. "So stop trying to act all big and bad like you've got some kind of actual power here. No one is afraid of you."

Her rhythm faltered for a second before continuing. Tap. "I don't need to be any kind of law enforcement to bring your sister to justice if she's guilty. All I have to do is turn her with any evidence I find of her guilt over to my client. He'll give her all the punishment she needs." Tap. "And don't call me baby."

"Oh, yeah? And who is this client my sister should be so concerned about? Baby."

Her eyes narrowed, but those fingers of hers didn't falter again. Tap. "Our client is one of the Ninth Circle Council members. He also happens to be the brother of the murder victim. Concerned now, Purr Boy?" Tap.

Gage knew his mate inside and out. So, when a big grin suddenly spread across her face, he knew it was because Elena had seen the muscle in his jaw tick. He knew Others that weren't nearly as observant as the woman before him. Tap.

"What's wrong, Ivanov? Cat got your tongue?"

He felt his even, white, human teeth bite down into his bottom lip. Damn, she was determined to rub his face into all of her revelations about him. Was she trying to tell him she was disgusted with him because of his tiger? The thought she might hate him for what he was started to fray the tenuous leash he had on his inner beast. It was taking everything he had not to let the animal free to claim the contrary woman they both wanted so badly.

Elena's attention was drawn to the bar top between them and she snorted. He looked down to see what her reaction was about and found his long, black, curved claws were embedded into the wood.

"Well, I hope those suckers don't pop out while you're wiping your ass because that would be awkward." Tap.

Alec and Jenna, who were standing at the end of the bar, busted out laughing. Gage didn't laugh, though. No, he started to growl in a way that was low and menacing. It pretty much matched how he was feeling at the moment. Snarling in frustration, he watched Elena stare back at him with a mask of indifference on her face, which pissed him off. She'd never been able to hide her emotions from him before. He didn't like that she could do so right then when he felt like he was about to all but burst from what he was feeling. Chagrin. Anger. Hope. Love.

Unaware of his predicament with reigning in his beast, Elena continued to taunt him and his tiger. "Awww, what's the matter, Mr. Kitty? Don't be mad and scratch up the furniture. You do that too much and someone might want to declaw you." Tap.

"Don't," he snarled.

Cocking an eyebrow, Elena asked, "Don't what, Mr. Kitty?" Tap.

"Don't come after my sister because you're looking for payback. She didn't do anything to you. I'm the one you want to hurt here, and we both know it. And if you tap that fucking finger one more time, there will be consequences, Elena."

She barked a laugh at him, her pretty smile morphing into an ugly sneer. "Consequences? What do you think you'll do? Scold me like a recalcitrant child? You sure as shit won't be laying hands on me because the time where you were allowed to touch me is long gone." Tap.

His tiger surged forth in anger, and all rational thought was gone. Determined to make their mate listen to them, Gage used his hands to push himself up and forward, about to lunge over the countertop and tackle Elena to the floor, however he never made it.

The barrel of her .45 pressed against the center of his forehead stopped him dead in his tracks and sobered both him and his tiger immediately, and not because Gage feared he was about to hurt her. He was incapable of physically harming or endangering his mate. The gun stopped him because it meant she thought he would hurt her, and that sad fact ripped his insides to pieces as effectively as his claws slashed open a deer at dinner time.

He didn't move. Didn't make a sound. Hell, he didn't even breathe. He stood there and let Elena keep the gun's barrel pressed against his flesh.

Alec, however, was roaring in anger. Instead of standing down at the end of the bar, Alec was situated just to the side of him as he leaned over the bar towards his mate, threatening to rip out her throat if she didn't lower the gun. In the same instant, her relatives had braced around her, ready to defend Elena's safety if need be because Jenna, Adam, Owen, Logan and Kent surrounded them, preventing any avenue of escape they might have had.

Weapons that hadn't been visible on the Amazons a moment ago were waiting to strike if need be. The situation was rife with tension. Everyone was waiting to see what happened next. Instead of being concerned for his own welfare, all Gage could think about was that his mate was in danger.

He retracted his fangs and claws, but didn't move in any other capacity. Keeping his eyes glued to the bright, determined blue-green gaze in front of him, he raised his voice so everyone could hear him. "Back away from the Amazons."

He sensed his brother's and companions' confusion. They didn't move right away so he growled, "NOW."

They all slowly started to back away from Elena and her relatives, yet Gage didn't move a muscle. There was no way to tell that if he tried to back away from her if she would pull the trigger or not. Did she hate him that much she could kill him? With the .45 this close to his head, it would basically blow it clean off, and there was no coming back from that. Immortality and an advanced healing system couldn't cure missing most of your cranium.

Feeling the stirrings of a despair he'd never known before, Gage wondered if he had a chance in hell of fixing things between them.

Never taking his eyes off of hers, so she could see the sincerity he was baring, he raggedly whispered, "I would never hurt you, Elena."

Her unflappable mask was back in place so he had no idea what she was thinking. There was no way to know if she believed him. All he could do was stand there with the cold steel of her gun digging into his skin, reminding him of how badly he'd fucked this all up, and wait for her response.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity—but in reality was more than likely only a minute—those lush lips of hers parted, and she turned all his hopes to ashes. "What a lie, Ivanov. We both already know you don't care about anyone else but yourself, and this hot piece of ass knows better than to trust anything you have to say. If you see your sister, give her my card and tell her it's in her best interest to call us. If she continues to hide from us, I'll keep assuming she's guilty. And don't think you can hide her because, if I get wind of it, I'll be back. Trust me when I say, you don't want me to come back because of that."

With that, she lowered her weapon, however she kept it in her hand at the ready as she departed the bar with the three other women. She didn't look back to see that, for once, Gage wasn't wearing a mask to hide what he was thinking or feeling. Anguish was written plainly on his face for everyone to see. Even worse, the fact she didn't look back was a silent message to him. She didn't consider Gage a threat, and she no longer cared enough to give him a second glance.

It was the last part that bothered him the most.
Chapter Six

Elena

With her chin held high, Elena marched out of the shifter run bar like she wasn't afraid of anything. She should be scared, absolutely terrified even, but the part of her brain where the fear to survive was supposed to be embedded wasn't there. According to her aunts, it was part of her nifty Amazon breeding. Instead of fear, she felt damn near giddy on the inside. She was so freaking stoked right then to have finally put Gage Ivanov in his place that she could do a damn cartwheel!

She was aware the reaction wasn't normal, but after everything she'd learned these last few months about what really lived in the world, what exactly was normal? She could care less that she had potentially pissed off a lot of super-fast, seriously powerful supernatural creatures that had the ability to turn into some form of animal and run her down like she was a happy meal on legs. Nor did she care that they didn't really need to turn into said animal to rip her into teeny, tiny pieces. No, the only thing she could think about right then was the fact that she finally, finally, got the chance to give the jackass who broke her heart the proverbial fuck you. Frankly, she hadn't felt this good since the last orgasm said douchebag had given her a couple of years ago, however Elena refused to linger on that sad truth.

As she reached the front passenger side door of their SUV, Delta's delicate hand landed on her shoulder. Her soft voice asked, "You okay?"

With a wide grin she answered, "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

Delta's eyebrows furrowed down into a 'v' and she cocked her head to the side. "Because you confronted the man who broke your heart? Maybe because when he told you that he'd never hurt you, implying physically, it was written all over his face that he meant it? He looked almost as heartbroken as you have these past two years. Are you sure he doesn't care for you, Elena?"

Confused, she stared unseeingly towards the bar's entrance. Her sister's questions caused some of her inner joy to fizzle. Could Delta be right? Had Gage really meant what he'd said? She'd taken in the look on his face when he'd spoken those words, but had chalked it up to him lying because he thought he had to save his worthless, furry ass, not that Elena would have ever pulled the trigger anyways.

She'd put the gun against his forehead to send a message. To warn him she wouldn't let him hurt her in any way ever again. The thought of actually pulling the trigger and ending the life of the man she'd once loved... well, something inside of her wouldn't let her do it. She'd spent half of that intense situation silently pleading in her head for him to back off so she wouldn't have to test the theory on whether she could pull the trigger or not.

Yet, when he'd said those words 'I would never hurt you', any second guessing she'd had flew out the window. All of the pain she'd felt when she had overheard him telling his brother, Alec, on the phone that she was just 'a hot piece of ass' and that she wasn't 'worth going through all of the trouble to make this something more than that' had overwhelmed her all over again. It had been a fabulous reminder to her heart that this man had never cared one iota for her, so she'd buried all of the pain again and went back to business.

Delta was wrong, Gage Ivanov wasn't capable of an emotion such as love, and hell would probably freeze over before he ever felt sorry for what he'd said about her. That was why she was determined to hurt him in any way she could. Right then, that meant going after his sister for murder. If Lulu turned out to be innocent after all, well, at least Elena had been a pain in his ass for a while. However, if Gage's sister was guilty, what better way to cause him the level of pain he had caused her than to hand over his beloved sister to the Ninth Circle for execution? From what she'd heard of the Demon's ruling Council, they would torture her in ways that would make her eventual death seem like a reward.

Looking back to Delta, she forced a smile she no longer really felt. "Don't let him fool you, little sister. Gage Ivanov wouldn't know how to care for someone other than himself or his siblings if his life depended on it. Now let's go home. We need to go over this case file again to see what our next move should be."

Elena climbed into the vehicle, buckled up, and then looked back to the bar entrance one last time before her aunt drove them away. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and she felt like someone was staring at her from the other side of the tinted glass, but it was probably her raw nerves making her paranoid.

Gage

He watched as the SUV drove away. His mate was staring right at him through the door and she didn't even know it. In that small moment of time, that mask of hers had dropped, and everything she'd refused to let him see before was there as plain as day.

He hadn't merely hurt her feelings when he'd ended things between them two years before, he'd broken her. It gutted him.

The woman who had awed him with her feisty personality and inner strength while they were together seemed a shell of what she once had been. He'd done that to her, and if he didn't somehow fix this between the two of them, he would never forgive himself for it.

An irritated Alec snarled from behind the bar, "You want to tell me what that was about, brother?"

Stalking back to the bar, Gage grabbed a bottle of high dollar whisky and a clean glass. "Not really." As he poured himself a generous amount, he added, "Besides, we have bigger problems than Elena right now."

"Like what? What exactly is a bigger problem than a crazy ass, gun toting, Arnold Schwarzenegger wannabe Amazon who wants your striped, orange hide as a new rug for the front of her fireplace?" Alec snapped.

"Elena doesn't like fireplaces," Gage deadpanned. When he looked back to see Alec's look of disbelief, he continued, "Lulu, a dead demon, and the Ninth Circle Council sound like a bigger problem to me, dipshit."

He threw back his glass and swallowed the whisky in a couple of big gulps. The fiery liquid burnt as it went down his throat, yet he ignored it and poured himself some more.

Jenna chuckled and he looked over to see everyone was staring at him. When he saw the curious look on Adam's face, he grunted, "What?"

"I thought Russians liked vodka?" Adam intoned while eyeballing his most expensive bottle of bourbon.

"And I thought dogs liked to chase their tails and lick their own ass, but you don't see me assuming that about you, now do you?"

Adam growled at him, but Jenna put a hand on his chest to calm him while chuckling. "Don't bother, babe. Let the cat drink his whisky. He's going to need it."

Adam looked down to his mate in curiosity. "It's not that bad, Jenna. If Lulu is innocent, Gage will figure it out and get her out of the mess."

She chuckled again. "That's not why he needs the booze, babe."

"No? Then why?" he asked her.

Jenna snorted. "Are you kidding me? Can't any of you see it?" Jenna looked around questioningly at the group's confused faces before cackling. "He's in love with a woman who hates his guts, not to mention she appears to be as gun happy as me! Does no one find this as funny as I do? Just think about it! What are the chances he's going to come out of this without at least a few bullet holes? And then we'll all get to sit around and laugh at him as he has to pop those fuckers out and heal. The Great Gage—Mr. No-one-is-better-at-mayhem-and-killing-than-me—Ivanov is scared of one little non-Other woman! He's practically shaking in his little fur-lined boots he's so scared of her!"

Gage slammed his glass on the bar top and snarled, "She's damn near six-feet tall; that is not little! And don't make fun of my boots, you crotch-sniffing bitch! They're special ordered through a supplier for the military's Special Forces and you're jealous I won't get you a pair."

Jenna growled at Gage.

Gage snarled back at her, flashing a fang.

His brother walked up behind him, laughing, and slapped a hand down on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it, bro; I'm sure you'll get the Amazon to come around. Eventually. Like when she's ninety and too old to fight yo—"

Before Alec could finish his sentence, Gage reached up, wrapped his hand around the back of his brother's thick neck and slammed his head down on the bar top. The bar went eerily silent and Alec's unconscious body slid to the floor with a thump.

Then Jenna said, "A hundred bucks says the Amazon tries to skin him the first time she sees his shifted form."

Gage bared his teeth at the annoying cop before picking up his glass again to take a healthy swallow. He ignored the group of dummies as they started laughing hysterically at him, taking bets on if he'd end up a tiger striped rug, as he poured himself another drink.

He'd find a way to get them all back later. Right then, he had to figure out how to fix things with his wayward mate because part of him was afraid that Jenna was right, and he didn't want to end up as a damn rug.

Elena

Sitting down at the oversized kitchen table, Elena opened the file on the dead demon and started spreading out the information they had. They had to figure out what their next step was going to be. Chairs scraped against tiles as they were pulled out from around the table and her aunts and sisters sat down.

"What's next?" Chloe asked while studying her manicure.

"We need to track down Lulu Ivanov."

Chloe pulled a nail file out of somewhere and started slowly filing her nails. "Should we buy some catnip and little mouse toys? Maybe we can use those to lure her out to talk to us."

Elena felt the muscle under her eye start to twitch again. If she didn't know that Chloe was being purposely daft, she'd give into the urge to throttle her.

Grabbing a typed report, she started skimming over it. "Let's go back over what we have. The victim, a demon, according to the Ninth Circle's coroner, died as a result of a penetrating wound to the chest cavity—"

"Ewwww. Something penetrated him to death?" Chloe gasped in horror. Leaning forward, she asked, "Did they at least use lube to make it easier on the poor guy?"

Elena's hand crumpled the report in frustration. With a mock growl, she leaned towards her sister and snapped, "Would you let me finish my damn sentence before you cut me off with your nonsense?"

Chloe shrugged her shoulders and started filing her nails again as a response.

Clearing her throat, Elena tried to get through the report again. "Like I was saying, the victim died as a result of a penetrating wound to the chest cavity where his heart was then removed."

Delta stopped rubbing her bottom lip, a habit she did while deep in thought, to murmur back, "So, the Others are immortal, can heal from most things that would kill humans, but they can't re-grow organs. Interesting."

"Nope. We can add organ removal to the 'It kills them' list, Miss I-must-study-everything-like-a-science-experiment. Moving on." Elena dropped the coroner's report to the table and pushed some of the pictures out so they were in the middle of the table. Pointing to the graphic up-close shot of the victim's chest, she went on, "See the edges of the wound? The coroner goes on to state in the report that they're jagged, not a clean cut edge like you would get from a scalpel or knife. He states they're consistent with torn skin from claw marks. Their conclusion makes sense given the fact the body has wounds consistent with claw marks all over it. Most noticeably are the deep scratches on his face, neck, arms, and hands."

"Defensive wounds," Aunt Thea murmured.

"Exactly. Those claw marks along with a report of the victim fighting with Lulu hours earlier are the evidence they submitted to us. Because of those two things, the Ninth Circle says Lulu is guilty."

"Did any of their documents about the crime scene mention scents from the room?" Aunt Indigo asked.

Chloe wrinkled her nose. "Ugh. I'm not ever going to get used to the fact they can smell things."

"Like that you're full of shit?" Elena muttered.

Chloe started to sputter in indignation at her sister, but Aunt Indigo cut her off, "Not now, girls. Focus. The Ivanov's have a reputation and we don't want to piss them off."

Chloe snorted. "What's wrong? You afraid Gage will have a hissy fit?" She looked over to her sisters. "Get it? Hiss-y fit?" Chloe started giggling, however she stopped when it was met with silence. Throwing her hands up in the air, she continued, "Get it? Cats hiss, so hiss—"

"Don't ever tell that joke again," Elena interrupted.

Chloe stuck her bottom lip out in a pout. "Ohhhh... did I make you mad? Are you upset because I made fun of your boyfriend, Garfield?"

"Not at all. I could care less about Gage Ivanov," Elena lied. "That was simply the worst joke I've ever heard and I never want to hear it again." She looked down to the pictures before her and shuffled them around until she found the one she was looking for.

Using her fingertips, she pushed it out so everyone could clearly see it, pointing to shards of glass lying on the floor next to the wall. "That's what is left of a woman's perfume bottle. Because it had been thrown at the wall and shattered, they claim it was all they could smell at the scene. The Ninth Circle investigators state it's Lulu's perfume."

"And there was no other evidence?" her Aunt Thea asked. "No witnesses who might have heard them arguing around the time of death? Nothing to tell us the motive of why Lulu might have killed the demon?"

"According to the victim's brother, Lulu was his mistress," Elena replied.

"They're trying to pitch this as a lover's quarrel," Thea mused. She leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms, and stared at the crime scene photos. After a few silent seconds, Thea said, "I don't like it. It's too clean cut."

"Clean?" Chloe asked, her eyebrows inching up her forehead. Pointing her nail file at the pile of photos in front of them, she said, "Nothing about that says clean to me. Do you see the way the room looks? It's a mess. It looks like two wrestlers decided to have a no-holds-bar smack down. And look at all of the blood! It could be a scene from Saw 4! How does that say clean to you?"

Aunt Thea rolled her eyes. "I wasn't talking about the room. What I meant was the Ninth Circle's case against Lulu. They give us a coroner's report that points to shifter's claws as the tool implemented in the cause of death. There are no scents because supposedly Lulu's perfume bottle was thrown against the wall and shattered. They don't mention any witnesses, but the man was at his place of employment, which is a dental office!"

"If they met at his office after hours, why would there be any witnesses?" Delta asked. "The place is closed. Everyone probably went home already."

"His office is located in a medical plaza with several other different medical practitioners. At least one of those offices also doubles as an urgent care clinic. Because of the hours the urgent care clinic operates on, there should at least be a witness from there. I'd bet good money one of those employees saw something or someone around the time the demon was murdered. I'm telling you girls, the case the Ninth Circle is giving us is too clean cut. It may seem circumstantial to anyone else who looks at it, but all I see is they've left out any information that might give us reasonable doubt," Thea explained.

Elena shuffled through the reports again. "She's right. There are no witness statements here. We've got the coroner's report and the crime scene report. With the pictures, that's all they gave us."

Elena leaned back in her chair and tipped her head to look at the ceiling. Why? Why in the fuck couldn't this have been a slam dunk case? Was it too much to ask that Lulu Ivanov would be guilty without a doubt? Then, when she handed the asshole's precious sister over to the Ninth Circle Council, she could enjoy some much needed revenge. But NOOOOOOOOOO, fate had to go and fuck with her plans. That meant she had to face the reality there was a good chance her aunt was right and Gage's sister was innocent. If that was the case, she couldn't do it then, could she? There was no way Elena would stoop as low as turning an innocent woman—or tiger—over to some pompous demons to be tortured in God awful ways before they killed her. She didn't like to admit it to people, but she did have a strong moral code. Elena let everyone who didn't know her think she was capable of anything because then they were more likely to fear her, and she liked it that way.

The thoughts running through her head made her want to punch something. Gage's face sounded like a good target, however he wasn't around for that, which was a shame because the idea of breaking his pretty face was the only thing that might make her feel better right then.

"I'm sorry, Elena," Thea said.

A hollow laugh escaped from her. "For what? Pointing out I was already starting to let my emotions rule my judgment and common sense? Don't be. Perhaps I should be apologizing to you instead."

"For what?" Thea mimicked her. "Being one of the many women in the history of the world who wanted to hurt a man as much as they had hurt her? Don't be. You forget your ancestors were basically born from the concept. At least you didn't do something stupid, like TP his house and slash his car's tires. Your mother did that once, you know."

Elena felt her spirits lift as an idea started to form.

Her Aunt Indigo's voice interrupted her plotting. "I don't like the look on your face, Elena. Please tell me you aren't planning to toilet paper Gage Ivanov's house and then slash his tires?"

A slow, sure smile spread across her face as she looked over at her sisters. Trying to mollify her aunt, she shrugged her shoulders. "Me? TP somebody's home? Naw. You don't have to worry about that."

Indigo's brows furrowed and she hedged, "No? Then what should I be worried about? Because you're definitely up to something."

"I'm not up to anything. But tell me, if you were a scared tigress with two big, burly, badass brothers, where would you run to for help?"

Her aunts still looked at her suspiciously, if perhaps a little worried as well, but then Thea nodded in understanding. Elena's sisters, who knew her inside and out, more than likely knew without a doubt she was up to something. Instead of chastising her, they did what any good sister would do; they gave her equally devious smiles that let Elena know they were onboard for whatever she was planning.

"Ladies, it looks like we're headed into the tiger's den." Getting up from the table with a confident stride, she headed off towards her room to collect some much needed supplies.

She had one large kitty to interrogate and irritate.
Chapter Seven

Elena

"So let me get this straight, you want us to go in there, shoot the bitch, and then drag her fat ass out here to our car? Are you nuts?!" Chloe screeched.

Elena huffed. "No. I want us to make entry into the structure, detain the suspect, and then secure her in our vehicle."

"Say WHAAAAA—?" Chloe asked in confusion.

"Yes, Chloe, Elena wants to go cap a beyotch. Where's your ride or die love, homie?"

Chloe and Elena stopped glaring at each other to slowly turn their heads and stare at Delta, slack jawed and a little confused as to what she was talking about. Whatever cockamamie thing that had come out of her mouth was not their sister.

Giving the redhead a slow head to toe inspection, Elena decided that it still looked like her sister, even if it didn't talk like her sister. Had Delta been a victim of a modern day body snatcher's scenario? Was this someone else wearing a Delta suit? There was a lot to the paranormal world she hadn't learned about yet, but she didn't think there were body snatchers, which meant only one thing.

Sighing wearily, Elena muttered, "What are you researching now, Delta?"

Her little sister's cheeks slowly turned bright red in embarrassment, and then the blush spread down her face to cover her throat, too. Chagrined, Delta looked down to her feet then used the toe of her silver ballet flat with little spikes on the tip to kick a rock before answering, "I might have watched a few movies to learn the intricacies of urban slang."

She didn't know what to say, so she kept gawking at Delta. Aware Chloe was doing the same thing and that both of them doing it was probably making her shy, little sister anxious. It would make her feel bad, yet she kept doing it anyway until Delta threw her arms up in the air in exasperation.

"What? You never know when we might meet a new potential informant that has a rich dialect in urban slang! One of us would need to be able to understand what they're saying!"

Still unable to form words to respond to another one of Delta's oddball ideas, Elena shook her head in disbelief.

Her lack of response didn't deter Chloe, though. "I love you, perhaps not as much as I love my Jimmy Choos, but I do love you. However, if I ever hear your supposed urban dialect again, I will take your precious laptop upside your head to deter you from further research."

Elena snorted and Delta sulked. "Whatever."

To keep from a fresh round of ridiculous sibling fighting, Elena snapped, "Can we get back to the mission at hand, please?"

"Yes, G.I. Jane!" Chloe gave a piss poor mock salute that Elena had to grit her teeth over so she wouldn't correct it. "Please tell me again how you want us to go into the Ivanov house, shoot Lulu, and then have us drag her body out to the trunk of Aunt Indigo's car! The car you stole, I might add."

Elena rolled her eyes at Chloe's theatrics. "We're not shooting to kill, you idiot, so calm down. We're only tranquilizing her so we can chain her up at our house and question her."

"And we can't go knock on the door, ask her for a cup of coffee and some answers, why?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Chloe reached out with her hands towards Elena's neck like she wanted to strangle her, but Delta stopped her. "Besides, I'm leaving behind a few presents for Ivanov. If I can't get my revenge by arresting his sister, at least let me have this." When both of her sisters continued to glare at her, she did what she'd never done before—begged. "Please."

"You're going to get us killed." Chloe sighed as she shook off Delta's hold on her. After straightening her clothes, Chloe nodded silently and then turned to start stomping towards the Ivanov's house. "Fine. But if I get turned into cat chow during this stupid bullshit, you better make sure to bury me in my Manolos. I wanna be the hottest, chewed up, dead chick anyone's ever seen," she snapped.

Elena leaned over to Delta and whispered, "And she says we're weird."

Delta looked at her and deadpanned, "You're like the Amazon version of RoboCop with your ridiculous mission speak and small armory hidden away in your bedroom. I watch movies like Friday and asked a vampire once if I could rub his fangs all in the name of research. Are any of us normal?"

"Good point." Elena pulled out her tranquilizer gun that had enough darts in it to put down a herd of elephants and headed after Chloe. "Now let's go get the crazy hooker before she gets herself clawed to death by tigers."

They walked up to Chloe who was standing at the front door. As Elena approached, she could hear the faint sounds of scraping and clicking, so she peered over her sister's shoulder to see what she was doing. There was no way to hide her shock when she saw Chloe was picking the lock.

"Where did you learn to do that?"

A louder snick sounded as Chloe turned the knob and opened the door. Without looking back, she whispered, "From a friend I met at a casino."

Elena wondered when Chloe had been to a casino and what else she had learned from this mysterious friend as she watched her sister tiptoe cautiously into the house. Elena edged silently past her, holding the tranquilizer gun up and ready to shoot. Looking around, she cursed the layout because it was, in essence, one big open area.

One room flowed into the next, so there weren't a lot of hiding spots should they need to take cover. There was a hallway to the left. The bedrooms and bathrooms would probably be back there.

As she was about to start silently easing her way towards the hallway, a small body topped with red hair tumbled on the floor past her.

She watched Delta try to pull herself into a pitiful looking crouch. Delta was far from coordinated, though, so her feet slipped out from under her. For a second, she almost looked like she was trying to run in place with her feet slipping and sliding all over the place. Finally, Delta stopped her pathetic running man imitation so that she ended up in a squat. Her hands held out in front of her, clasped together with her pointer finger and thumb in the shape of a gun. Good Lord, her sister looked like a Charlie's Angel reject.

"What are you doing?" Elena asked in an angry whisper.

"A tuck and roll."

"That was NOT a tuck and roll," Elena argued.

"Yes it was!" Delta snapped back.

"NO, it wasn't. A tuck and roll is a quick, smooth, efficient maneuver that allows you to stay out of the line of fire while still moving forward towards your target. Whatever THAT was, was not a tuck and roll. It was more like a flailing, sad advertisement you would be the easiest one to kill first. And why are you still holding your hands like they're a gun? Are you going to shoot imaginary bullets now, too?"

"Well, you wouldn't give me a gun! What else was I supposed to do?" Delta wailed.

"You're damn skippy I wouldn't give you a gun! You'd probably shoot yourself while trying and failing to do your stupid tuck and roll!" Elena yelled back, forgetting they were in a tiger's den and supposed to be quiet.

"Eh... guys..." Chloe shakily whispered.

"My tuck and roll is not stupid!" Delta shouted, ignoring her oldest sister.

"Not only was it stupid, I should video record it and send in a copy to the Army! They can use it in their demonstration of how not to do a tuck and roll," Elena yelled back.

Delta stomped her foot. "I wasn't that bad."

Chloe raised her voice a little and said, "Oh, s-i-s-t-e-r-s..."

Nodding, Elena continued to argue, "No, you're right; you were worse." Delta started to sputter, but Elena cut her off with a wave of her hand then pointed back to the front door. "That's it; go back to the car—"

"HEY BITCHES!" Chloe screamed. Elena and Delta's heads snapped up to glower at Chloe. "Can you shut the fuck up about your rolls and tucks and LOOK. THE. FUCK. UP!"

Slowly, knowing they weren't going to like what they were about to see, the two sisters looked up, and there, on the other side of the vast living room, was a full grown tiger laying across a beam. Watching them. Analyzing them really. Elena would swear the tiger was smiling, or at least, she hoped it was a smile because, otherwise, she'd have to admit all of those shiny, pointy white teeth it was showing right then was a threat. That was not good, like a tiger's going to eat me and not in a good way, not good.

The tiger's tail was slowly swishing back and forth, hanging down from the beam, while it continued to watch them. Elena debated shooting the tiger with the tranqs, but her aunts had told her shifters didn't turn back to their human form when they were unconscious or dead. There was no way she and her sisters could drag that big bastard back to the car. Hell, even if they could drag it to the car, it wouldn't fit in the trunk. So she stood there, warily observing the tiger for any small, subtle movement while it continued to watch her.

Suddenly, the tiger jumped down from the beam to lay on the ground. Elena brought her gun up in front of her, ready to pull the trigger if she had to. She then stood there with her sisters and watched in fascination as the tiger's body started to shudder.

Loud popping and grinding noises started to come from the beast as it started to shift back to its human form. Hair started to recede from the body, claws disappeared, and the tiger's thick-muscled body morphed into slimmer parts. It was enough to turn Elena's stomach a little because it looked excruciatingly painful, but she couldn't tear her eyes away. In a matter of minutes, the very large tiger was gone, and in its place was a tall, slim, beautiful redhead. Lulu?

The redhead got up from the floor in a smooth, almost elegant move, and then started walking their way. Naked. Elena did not want to see a naked lady. Even if she had to grudgingly admit she was a drop dead gorgeous naked lady. However she couldn't take the chance of telling her to go get clothes because the shifter might grab a weapon instead of the garments and use it on her.

Keeping her gun trained on her target, who was closing the distance between them with a smile on her face, she pulled the trigger two times in quick succession.

The redhead's smile turned into a grimace right before she let out an unholy roar that damn near made Elena go deaf and then fell to the floor. It seemed Lulu hadn't thought Elena would actually pull the trigger. She snorted. That was because the woman didn't know her at all. Elena's personal motto was shoot first, ask questions later.

"Holy shit, you actually did it!" Delta squealed.

Giving her sister a 'duh' look, she asked, "Did you think I was joking when I told you the plan?"

Shaking her head frantically, she said, "No, but I thought for sure you would change your mind once you saw her."

"And there's another reason why you're not getting a weapon. First rule of weapons training is you don't point it at anybody unless you're ready to use it. Stick to your computers, Delta. You and everybody else are safer that way."

Delta rolled her eyes and Elena turned back to the unconscious redhead sprawled out on the floor. "Come on, you two; let's get her to the car and get out of here." Chloe walked over to the couch and snagged the green throw blanket. "Good thinking. I'm getting tired of seeing this broad's breasts."

"Well, then stop looking at them, you perv." Chloe draped the blanket over the redhead's body.

"How can you not look at them? They're like yours, unnaturally large. I can't help but stare at the women who have too much of what I don't have enough of."

Chloe bent over to grab the tigress's hands. "You're jealous of my beautiful girls. Grab her feet, Ms. No-Boobs-At-All."

Elena went to bend over and grab the woman's feet, but movement out of her peripheral vision stopped her. There, standing in the doorway in nothing except a towel was another redhead. She could damn near be the twin of the one Elena had shot with the tranquilizer darts a moment before. How many of these damn redheaded, funky ass, tiger shiftin' broads were there?

Redhead number two's jaw was gaped open in shock. "What the hell is going on here? Let go of my grandmother right now, you crazy bitches!"

Grandmother? Elena looked back down to their unconscious victim and swore. She'd tranqued the wrong chick!

Bare feet slapping in quick succession drew her attention back up to the woman who she was sure was the real Lulu Ivanov. Lulu was running towards them with her claws half shifted, her mouth open in a loud growl, and some gnarly ass fangs hanging out.

Elena didn't have time to scream 'HOLY SHIT' like she wanted to because she'd never known they could partially shift their bodies like that. No, she had just enough time to raise her gun, point it at the blur that was approaching her almost too fast for the human eye to track, and fire two shots.

Then she barely tackled Chloe out of the way in time before the blur kept going straight for where the two of them had been huddled over Grandma Ivanov. Lulu's uncoordinated limbs tripped over her grandmother's prone form and then went flying like a naked human airplane out the front door. Elena didn't think the sight of a naked, flying Lulu could get any funnier, however she quickly figured out she might be wrong when she promptly heard a loud, startled squeak from Delta, followed by a crashing thud.

Elena and Chloe scrambled to their feet and then to the front door to make sure the angry tigress was really unconscious from the drugs Elena had shot her up with. What they found was Delta laying stunned and confused, sprawled on the ground on her stomach. Lulu had collided into her and then landed with her face down in Delta's derriere and the rest of her body pinning poor Delta's legs down so she couldn't move. The tigress's nose was buried right in the crease of Delta's backside, creating a sight neither Chloe nor Elena would be forgetting anytime soon.

Elena heard Chloe's phone make a noise and didn't bother turning her head. "Did you take a picture of this?"

"Yeppers. I wanted photographic evidence that cats do in fact sniff asses like dogs." Chloe sang the words instead of saying them. Elena tried not to laugh. Really, she tried, yet as she watched Delta struggle to pull her legs out from the deadweight of an unconscious shifter and heard Chloe's phone continue to take more pictures, she lost the battle and burst out with uncontrollable laughter.

When Delta glared at her for her laughter then flicked Chloe's camera off... she laughed harder.

"Just think of it as research, Delta!"
Chapter Eight

Gage

He knew something was wrong the second he got out of his truck. With his sharper Other senses Gage could see the drag marks through the gravel of his driveway where something heavy had been pulled from his house. Whatever had transpired had to have happened earlier in the day, though, because he couldn't scent anything strange in the air around him.

Jogging up to his home's front door, he heard his brother's truck pull up and park behind him. As soon as he opened the door, the unique smell of his mate filled the air along with the scents of her sisters.

If circumstances had been different, coming home to Elena's scent would be one of the best experiences of his life. The fact he was also smelling an unusual dusty, clay type smell that didn't belong here probably meant this was not going to be something that made him happy.

"Babushka?" he called out as he stepped into his home.

A gravelly crunch sounded under his foot. He looked down at the floor, but even with his enhanced eye sight all he could make out were tiny rocks. Why were there rocks in his house? If this was his grandmother's idea for turning his house into one giant ass Zen rock garden, he was going to be pissed. As Gage walked over to the wall to turn the light on, he heard Alec walk in behind him.

"Yo, bro, what the fuck do you have on your floor?"

Good question, Gage thought to himself right before he flicked the light switch on. Of course, the minute the lights came on he wanted nothing more than shut them back off again.

"Is that—?" His brother started to ask.

"Shut the fuck up!" Gage growled.

Alec's boom of laughter echoed through the house as Gage closed his eyes in anger, trying to pretend he wasn't looking at a very obvious message from his angry, devious mate. Oh, when he got his hands on her he was going to strip her naked, throw her onto his bed and paddle her ass for this!

A soft, plush object collided with his head before he heard it hit the floor at his feet. Opening his eyes and looking down, he saw a small, stuffed mouse that he could smell was full of catnip. It was a goddamn cat toy his brother had thrown at his head.

Snarling, he lost his temper and roared at his brother. The bastard seemed to care less that he'd pissed Gage off because he was laughing so hard he was bent over with his hands resting on his knees, gasping for air.

Gage did his best to ignore the idiot as he looked around his home. Cat litter covered his hardwood floors everywhere he could see. Since the litter was even covering the floor in the hallway, he suspected he would find it in the bedrooms and bathrooms as well. His Elena hadn't stopped there, though. There were cat toys all over. Little stuffed mice like the one Alec had thrown at him, sparkly little balls, a brightly colored pop-up tunnel for house cats to play in, and a scratching post over by the French doors on the other side of the room.

When he saw the motorized mouse scurry across the floor, he almost flipped his shit. There had to be dozens of ridiculous cat toys spread throughout his house.

Walking across the litter covered floor, he saw the little yellow piece of paper taped to one of the support columns. He snatched the note and instantly recognized Elena's messy scrawl.

Dear Garfield,

Don't forget to scoop out your litter after you take a shit.

Elena

P.S. I have your grandmother and sister with me.

Don't worry; you're the only one I want to make a tiger skin rug out of.

Strangely, Gage wasn't worried about Babushka's safety because he believed Elena when she said he was the only one she wanted to make a rug out of. He was worried Elena would do something stupid, though, like turn his sister over to the demon's Ninth Circle Council. Lulu might be guilty of being a twit for getting involved with a mated demon, but she wasn't a murderer. Gage knew that about his sister; she didn't have it in her to murder the demon, or anybody for that matter. She was a lover, not a fighter.

Crumpling the little note in his hand, he stood perfectly still, trying to regain his composure. His tiger was going ape-shit in his head. The beast wasn't mad at what their mate had done. No, the beast was angry because the scent of their mate was finally in their den, but she wasn't here to stay, and the tiger blamed him. There was nothing he could say to the animal half of himself because the beast was right. The situation was all his fault.

The tip of his ear suddenly tingled and he ran his hand over it to rub the odd feeling away. The tingly sensation happened again at the back of his neck and as Gage swiped his hand over the area, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end because someone was standing behind him.

Turning around, he found Alec standing there, holding a wand with feathers on the end of it.

"Hey, can we keep all the toys for your future cubs with the Amazon?"

Elena

"Where were you the night of October twenty-eighth?"

"Really? You've got me handcuffed to this raggedy ass armchair in a dark room with a light in my face asking me ridiculous questions? You've watched one too many shitty cop movies, haven't you?" Lulu huffed in annoyance at Elena, who stood on the other side of the table between them, eyeballing her with disdain.

"Answer the question, Lulu."

"And why should I answer your question, Amazon? Why should I do anything that could possibly help you when you've got me detained here without telling me why? And what kind of fuckin' handcuffs are these?" She rattled the handcuffs against the chair to make a point.

Ignoring the handcuffs question, Elena murmured back, "I'm here to help you, Lulu." Somehow, Elena managed not to cringe at the half lie. True, her intentions had changed a little. Instead of persecuting Lulu, she was back on the right track of seeing if the woman was truly guilty or not. The fact that Elena had once been bound and determined to turn the Ivanov sister over to the Ninth Circle simply to hurt her brother was of little consequence at the moment. Or, at least, that was what she was telling herself so the regret of her actions didn't eat her alive.

"How the fuck are you helping me right now? I didn't sign up for some kinky slap and tickle classes, so un-cuff me, skank!"

"I'm not going to take the handcuffs off until we get a few things straight."

"Yeah, like what?" Lulu snapped.

Elena crossed her arms over her chest. "Like, where you were on October twenty-eighth?"

Baring her teeth in a snarl, Lulu snarled, "I'll tell you what I know."

"Good."

"You're a twat-waffle. That's what I know." The tigress tried to lunge at Elena again, but the titanium handcuffs covered in a ridiculously expensive strengthening spell cast by one of the most powerful witches of this century kept her hostage in the chair.

Sighing in frustration, Elena glanced at her watch. Eight o'clock. Shit. They'd had Lulu and Vera Ivanov for several hours at that point. It was only a matter of time before Gage showed up, hissing and spitting like the pissed off kitty he'd turn into once he figured out where she had the two women. She really needed to hurry this interrogation along. If Lulu hadn't slept so long because of the tranquilizers, Elena could have been done with this already. She was going to have to stop her quiet 'Good Cop' routine if she wanted any answers before Gage got here.

Crossing her arms over her chest, she glared down at the pissed tigress. "Look, I don't give a flying fuck if you don't believe me when I say I'm trying to help you out here. It's in your best interest to let me know where you were the night of October twenty-eighth or I guaran-damn-tee you're going to regret not telling me."

Snarling, Lulu exposed her lengthening fangs and snapped them in Elena's direction like she wanted to take a bite out of her. "What is one little Amazon going to do to me? You're not strong enough or fast enough to take me on before I could rip your throat out."

"Speaking of ripping things... that's why we're here."

"Because you want me to take a bite out of you? Really, Amazon? You're pretty and all, but I don't swing that way."

Elena snorted. "Don't worry; you're missing a few vital parts for me, too. No, I was referring to you taking a bite out of Andrew Holden, your lover." When Lulu's face turned to confusion, Elena added, "You know, the dead one."

Lulu's confusion melted away to a blank mask.

Irritated at the obstinate woman for clamming up on her, she snapped, "Holden's brother sits on the Ninth Circle Council, Lulu. He's the one who hired us to hand you over on murder charges. If you don't start talking, giving me something to help you out here, you're as good as dead by torture. Is that what you want?"

Shaking her head, Lulu said, "How are you going to help me? There's not a damn thing you can do. You're almost as weak as a human in our eyes. Mind your business, Amazon, and let me go. I was exactly where I needed to be to get help when you kidnapped me."

Well, didn't that snarly little comment just piss her off to no end? The tigress thought she was too weak to handle this? Pursing her lips, Elena decided to show Lulu what this weak, little Amazon would do when pushed to her limits. She'd already sized up her captive to be a prissy girl like her sisters, so for the most part, she knew what made the woman tick. Or scream for that matter.

Looking down to the floor as if she saw something, Elena gasped, "Holy shit! That's a big one!"

Sprinting out of the small room, as if she were in a panic, Elena jogged into her aunt's kitchen with a smile on her face. This was going to be so much fun.

Rooting around in one of the cabinet drawers, she found the hammer she'd used a few weeks ago when she'd seen a big, hairy spider she'd wanted to kill in the worst way, and grabbed it. Elena internally shuddered at the memory of that spider. God, she hated all of those eight-legged, freaky, little bastards with a passion. Her absolute homicidal hatred of the arachnids was about the only girly quality she had.

Walking at a brisk pace back towards the room she'd left Lulu in, she passed Chloe who gave her the stink eye when she saw the hammer Elena was holding.

As Elena passed her, Chloe asked, "What are you doing? You're not supposed to hurt her."

Elena smiled. "Oh, I'm not going to hurt her."

Chloe walked quickly behind her to catch up. "You're not supposed to kill her, either."

"Not planning to."

"Then what the hell are you doing with that hammer? Decided to hang a picture of your ugly face where she could see it as a new torture technique?"

Elena ignored the insult. "Nope again. This is sooooooo much better than that."

She could tell her sister was seriously worried after that, yet Elena continued to ignore her. Her plan was simple: Make Lulu Ivanov think she was one seriously unstable chick on a mission. What better way to do that than to fuck with her head, freak her out, and then scare the shit out of her?

Picking up her pace until she was sprinting into the room, pretending to act hysterical, she ran in front of the table so Lulu could get a good look at her wild, crazy eyes and the hammer in her hand.

"Where did it go?" Elena yelled, pretending to look at the floor around the table.

The tiger fidgeted in her chair, trying to push it backwards from Elena. "What the fuck is your problem, Amazon? Did you forget to take your crazy pill today or something?"

Feigning an exaggerated fear, Elena searched the floor then under the table before she screamed, "There's the big bastard!" Elena smacked the hammer harshly on the table leg closest to Lulu's leg, causing the tiger to try and jump away from her.

"Jesus, you crazy bitch, you almost hit me!" Lulu roared at her.

Elena was having the damndest time trying to hold her laughter in, but she had to pretend for another minute or so before she could drop the charade. "DAMMIT! I missed the big, furry monster. That's got to be the largest spider I've ever seen! Where did he go? I fuckin' hate spiders! Do you see him?" she screeched.

Elena pretended to look the table over again until she reached under the table and hit it right in front of where Lulu was sitting, almost hitting her knees in the process. The tigress roared again in anger and was practically hopping in her chair, desperate to try and put some space in-between herself and Elena.

Elena pulled back from under the table and once again pretended to look for the make believe spider. Lulu's hands were on the edge of the table, trying to push herself and the heavy ass arm chair she was shackled to away, but she wasn't making much headway.

Elena thought, Bingo, as her eyes zeroed in on the tigress's hands clenched on the table. Elena swung her arm one final time as hard as she could, swinging the damn hammer until in smashed into the table less than half an inch from her captive's hands. Lulu let out a God-awful shriek, however the rest of her body froze like a statue. She was staring at the head of that hammer, embedded into the wood of the table she was clutching for dear life. Eventually, she oh-so-slowly moved her gaze up to meet Elena's slightly crazed but determined one.

Elena watched as the dawning of realization crossed Lulu's face. It was then or never.

With an angry whisper, Elena said, "Now, I'm going to ask you one more time, and if you don't answer me, the next time I see my invisible spider and swing this hammer at it, it's going to just so happen to be on you. Where were you on the night of October twenty-eighth?"

She heard the tigress gulp, and then, in a wary, hushed tone, she answered, "I was at home by myself, crying into a pint of ice cream."

Elena didn't move a muscle. She stayed right in her crouch over the table with the hammer between them to remind Lulu that she meant business. "And why were you crying into a pint of ice cream?"

She sniffled. Her skin paled drastically and her pretty, green-gold eyes watered. Not the kind of reaction Elena imagined a cold-blooded killer would give her. "Because Andrew and I had fought."

Starting to feel annoyed because she had to pull answers out of this chick much the same way a dentist had to pull teeth out of a patient, Elena growled, "Why did you fight?"

"We fought because I brought him photographic evidence that his wife was cheating on him. I wanted Andrew to leave her for me."

With that little tidbit of information, things were starting to make more sense to Elena. From what had been explained to her, shifters weren't known to break up matings or marriages. While shifters weren't supernaturally tied to a mate to keep them faithful, they did very much believe in the sanctity of matings, more so than humans did. While Lulu would know demons didn't necessarily have those same qualms about cheating on their mates, Elena was aware that it had to grate against every belief the tigress had to be a mistress and not the dead demon's mate. Of course, Lulu had been hoping Holden would leave his mate for her.

"And he said no?"

She nodded. "He said no."

"Why?" Elena asked.

The first tear leaked out of the corner of her eye and slid down her cheek. "He wouldn't leave her because she's pregnant, and he was sure he was the father."

"Did you kill Andrew Holden, Lulu?"

Shaking her head, her breath shuddered in her chest as she tried to suck in air. "NO! I loved Andrew! They're framing me, Amazon! I didn't kill him!" A ragged sob escaped Lulu before she hoarsely whispered, "I c-couldn't kill him..."

"Who's framing you? The wife? The Ninth Circle? Be more specific," Elena murmured as she stood up, walked over to the open door where Chloe stood with a Kleenex box, and then took the tissues to the weeping woman.

Lulu grabbed a tissue and tried to wipe her face off. "His w-wife and h-her lover."

"And how do you know they killed Holden and are framing you?" Elena asked.

Lulu blew her nose into the tissue so loudly it sounded like a warped elephant mating call in the wild. "Because they both know I saw them. They know I would've told Andrew."

Elena nodded. The pieces to this puzzle were finally coming together. "So one or both of them probably confronted Andrew, and when it went bad, they tried to pin it on you." Elena's mind was in overdrive, going over all of the angles in this case and trying to figure out how she could clear Lulu for the crime.

Chloe walked over to her and softly requested the key that would unlock the spelled handcuffs that still held the tigress immobile. Elena heard metal softly clanking and murmurs between the two women as she continued to think about what would prove Lulu's innocence in the Ninth Circle Council's eyes.

Elena was so deep in thought she didn't even notice that Lulu's grandmother stood at the doorway watching the scene with Delta and Aunt Thea. She also tuned out Chloe's snort as the glimmer of an epiphany started to niggle its way into her mind. Elena halfway turned to ask Lulu a question when her sister's voice spoke before she could.

"Hey, Elena."

Shooting Chloe an irritated glance for stopping her soon to be almost as great as Sherlock Holmes moment, Elena snapped, "What?"

Chloe's mouth spread into an evil grin right before she said, "There's a giant spider on the wall behind you."

Elena spun around and immediately spotted a real spider and her body shuddered in disgust. The bastard was huge and she swore he was staring right at her with all of those creepy, googly eyes of his from where he sat high up on the wall. With the lightning fast speed of a ninja, Elena shrieked a war cry and flung herself at the wall with her hammer aimed above her head at the spider's location.

Hitting the wall fast and hard, her hammer buried itself deep in the sheetrock with Elena's lean body left hanging from it, her feet about an inch off the floor. She tried to pull her hammer out of the dusty rubble to see if she'd squashed the disgusting bug, but her hammer was stuck.

With an annoyed grunt she let go, turned to her sisters and barked out, "Did I kill it?"

Chloe smiled at Lulu. "Told you she was a freak."
Chapter Nine

Elena

Wiping the sheetrock dust off her shirt, Elena ignored the traitorous bitches she called sisters as they laughed at her and chose to focus on Lulu instead.

"Do they know you took pictures of them?"

Confused at the change in subject, Lulu gave her a funny look.

"Holden's wife and her lover, do they know you took pictures of them?"

Shaking her head, she answered, "No."

"Do you still have the pictures, Lulu? Or did you give them all to Holden?"

A spark of hope ignited in the devastated tigress's eyes. "I still have them! Holden wouldn't even take the pictures from me that day."

"Go to your house and get them. Bring them back here so we can devise our plan on how to take down Mrs. Holden and prove to the Ninth—"

A thunderous roar shook the house, effectively cutting her off as it was followed by some foul cursing.

"Oh, fuck," Elena muttered. Gage was here.

She turned back to where her hammer still hung high up in the wall and jumped up, trying to pull it out so she could use it as a weapon. Planting her foot against the wall, she tugged hard and finally managed to rip the damn thing out of the sheetrock.

Spinning around to face the doorway, Elena's jaw nearly dropped to the ground when she didn't see her sister or her aunt scrambling for weapons.

"What the hell are you all doing? We've got a pissed off tiger probably about to tear us to shreds and you're standing there!"

Chloe crossed her arms over her chest. "We told you we thought it was a bad idea to kidnap his sister, but did you listen to us? Nooooooo. Then you had to go and make it worse by kidnapping his grandma, too, because you're a moron like that. Leaving your spiteful little message behind in his house probably didn't help, either." Chloe shrugged. "I figure you're fucked now that he's here. I'm not sure if it's metaphorically or literally."

Delta chimed in just when Elena considered beating Chloe with her hammer instead of the oncoming threat. "I don't think he'll hurt you, Elena. I think he loves you."

Elena gave a mirthless laugh. "You fool! Gage doesn't love me! I'm simply the dumb bitch that let him screw her for six months. I'm—"

She never got the chance to finish the sentence. A blur sped into the room, and in the next second, Elena found herself pinned to the wall facing a very pissed off Gage Ivanov who snarled in her face loudly, "Mine."

Looking at the shifter, she wasn't sure who was in control, the man or the tiger. His eyes were more gold than green and little, orange and black hairs were covering his forearms. He'd probably snap her neck in a second, but she wasn't going down without a fight.

Baring her teeth at him, she gritted through them, "Your family is safe so put me down, motherfucker!"

Baring his teeth back at her, Elena forced herself not to flinch when she spotted his wicked looking fangs. Gage tightened his hold on her upper arms, the tips of his claws digging into her without breaking the skin as he leaned in closer to her face. "You. Are. Mine."

"Fuck you, Ivanov! You're not going to do a damn thing to me because I'm going to help clear your sister's name with the Ninth Council! So put me down, asshole. You won't be burying my body today!"

Growling, Gage said, "I don't want to bury you, Elena." His words were barely human. Perhaps the tiger was the one in control right then?

She scoffed. "If you don't plan on burying me, then what were you going to do? Snack on me in tiger form for your next meal?"

A weird chuffing sound came from Gage's chest. Was he laughing at her? That jackass! She opened her mouth to let him have it, however Elena ended up gasping instead. Gage pressed the lower half of his body into hers.

"I don't want to bury you; I want to bury myself in you."

For the first time in her life, Elena was shocked speechless. Gage's long, hard length was pressed into her belly. He lifted her body up the wall a little so their hips were aligned and then Gage ground himself into her, rubbing what she knew was a big, beautiful cock up and down her mound. Even through her jeans, Gage was hitting her clit in the perfect combination of pressure and stimulation that Elena knew it was a flippin' miracle she didn't spontaneously self-combust into a much needed, long overdue, not self-induced orgasm.

Why would he do this to her? Why would he torture her with the hint of a pleasure that she hadn't felt since he'd broken her heart? Because it was torture of the cruelest kind. A grim reminder that all she'd been to this man that she'd loved was a release of bodily fluids. Yet, knowing that was all she was to him, she also knew no one would ever make her feel as good as he had.

Needing to do something—anything—to stop this manipulation of her body and hopefully get him away from her, Elena said the very thing she had to convince herself of. "I wouldn't fuck you again if you were the last man on Earth."

Gage stopped grinding his cock against her and Elena felt both relief and regret. Her relief, however, was short lived. He leaned into her, completely covering her body with his own so that she felt him everywhere.

Placing his lips against the shell of her ear, he whispered, "It's a good thing I'm not merely a man then, isn't it, my little wildcat? Since I'm more animal than man I can smell how much you want me right now. The scent of your pussy weeping for me is making my mouth water. I can't wait to taste it again, and I will be tasting it because I'll be eating you for a meal, Elena. I'm going to bury my face between your thighs and lick all of that sweet cream because it belongs to me, just like you do. I may have pushed you away once, but I realized my mistake a long time ago. You. Are. Mine. If I have to tie you to my bed and fuck you senseless until you're unequivocally addicted to me, I will."

The feeling of his lips whispering over her ear as his voice rumbled the sensual threats sent her senses into a tailspin. Her nipples were pebbled hard against his chest, she was breathing in soft, rapid pants, and her entire body tingled as she felt herself growing wetter by the second.

Elena felt his head move down until he buried his nose against her throat. She felt his warm breath against her skin as he inhaled deeply and then exhaled with a soft growl.

"God, I love the smell of you. I've missed it so fucking much, and I don't care what I have to do, but I'm never going a day without the smell of you warm, wet, and ready for me again."

Elena looked down at the top of Gage's head, which was buried between her breasts, when a throat clearing brought her attention back up to the rest of the room where everyone was staring at her. Including some new people who hadn't been there a few seconds before. Alec and her Aunt Indigo. No one was moving towards her to save her from the obviously bat shit crazy shifter. Apparently, Chloe didn't even feel bad for her current predicament because she mouthed the words 'lucky bitch' at her.

What. The. Fuck? Was she in an alternate universe of some kind? Had she fallen asleep and put herself in some twisted ass version of The Twilight Zone? Because Elena thought someone should be rescuing her right at that moment, not standing around, watching as an oversized shifter played scratch and sniff with her body.

When Gage suddenly started rubbing his face all over her breasts, she felt the warm flush of a blush spread over her cheeks. Alec laughed, Lulu's eyebrows shot up to her hair line and Gage's grandmother smiled, which freaked Elena out on a level she frankly didn't know was possible. She could apparently strip down and take a communal shower with other women in the Army, but she knew that she could not handle Gage playing with her boobies in front of an audience, especially if that audience was related to him.

Mortified, she moved her gaze away from Grandma Ivanov's and looked to her sisters for help. Chloe was silently laughing at her, but Delta looked like a lobster, she was blushing so hard. Yeah, right then she wasn't sure who was more embarrassed here; her or her virginal sister. Gage began purring as he continued to rub his face all over her chest and Elena finally hit her limit.

He still had her upper arms pinned to the wall, yet the lower half had range of movement. Elena reached over, put her palm on his chest, which made him purr louder, and then moved her hand over his firm flesh until she felt the little hard pebble of his nipple. Bingo! She'd found her target. Using her thumb and her pointer finger she proceeded to give Gage the titty-twister of a lifetime.

Dropping her so he could rub a hand over his offended nipple, he roared, "What the fuck did you do that for?"

Propping her hands on her hips, Elena scowled back. "Maybe because you were rubbing all over me like I was covered in catnip?"

Gage stopped rubbing his pec as a look of predatory intent came over his face. That look caused her heart rate to spike and her palms to get sweaty. The man had told her he wasn't going to snack on her like she was a cheeseburger from his favorite fast food joint, so why was he looking at her like he wanted to order a large order of fries.

He stepped forward, invading her space, and it took everything she had not to back away from him. That would show weakness or fear, and she wasn't about to admit to either of those.

He took another step forward, and that time, she had to back up because, otherwise, they would be touching. Elena couldn't allow that to happen. As mad, and—maybe she was finally willing to admit—utterly devastated as she was because of Gage's actions two years ago, parts of her still wanted him. It was like her DNA was hard-wired to light up her body like one of those old pinball machine games every time he touched her. Her nerves were still flashing and zinging from when he was rubbing all up on her a moment before. She didn't know what she would do if he touched her again right then.

Gage's hands came up, landing on either side of her body, so that he had her caged between sheetrock and him. Her frantic mind gave an internal, nervous giggle as she realized it was a whole new version of a rock and a hard place. She kept her breathing calm and even, but her heart had sped up more, pumping like she was running in a marathon.

"Elena," Gage crooned.

"What?" She'd tried to make the response snippety, yet even to her ears it had sounded kind of breathy.

"I was covering you in my scent. Do you know why I would do that?"

Elena's mind blanked. She blamed the rising sense of panic for that. "No. Why?"

Gage's tongue licked over his dry bottom lip, and it reminded her of all the times he had used that slightly rough instrument to lick her to orgasm. When she tore her eyes away from his mouth, she noticed he was smirking at her. Damn him! He'd done that on purpose.

Leaning his face a few inches closer so that their lips were almost touching, he answered, "You are my catnip, Elena." She started to shake her head no frantically, but he stopped it by moving his face so that it touched her cheek, the five o'clock shadow sensually scraping over her skin as he spoke into her ear. "Yes. You're my catnip, my temptation, my Eve in the Garden of Eden. You might not have been made from my rib, but you were made for me and only me. I won't push you away again, and you won't run away again. Do you understand me... mate?"

Elena pushed against his chest. She needed to get away from him, put space in between them so she could think; so she could breathe. The smell of him was clouding her judgment. His words—his body encasing her in the cocoon of his warmth—were going to her head faster than her favorite bottle of whisky. He was somehow pushing past the wall of anger she'd erected around herself, and she was feeling raw. Exposed.

She couldn't let him do this to her again; settle a part of himself so deeply inside of her that she'd end up not knowing where he began and she ended. The last time she'd let him in like that, he'd ripped himself away, and it had been so much worse than ripping off that band-aid everyone hated. It had felt more like he'd reached inside of her and ripped everything out; the heart that had come to love him, the lungs that had become addicted to the smell of him after they made love, even the womb that had started to tick its biological clock because she wanted to have children with this man.

When she had left last time, Elena had felt like a hollow shell. What would he do to her if he ripped himself away again? What would be left of her this time?

Her breath hitched in her chest, and she felt a tear escape her eye and start to slide down her cheek. She pushed harder against him, and when that didn't work, Elena started slapping furiously at his chest. She was suddenly desperate to get away from him and out of this room full of people she suddenly remembered were still there, who were probably standing there, watching her break down.

Gage grabbed her hands in his and held them immobile against his chest then he closed the last few inches between them and once again pinned her body to the wall with his own. Only this time, he had pulled his face back to look her in the eyes. He looked determined, and she started to pray she would survive that resolve of his.

"You have every right to be upset with me."

Upset with him? Her mouth dropped open, and she was about to tell him exactly how upset she was with him when he cut her off.

"I'm simply going to have to prove to you that you're never leaving my side again. Starting now."

Elena stood there, feeling dumbfounded, and probably looking like a large mouthed bass with the way she kept opening her mouth, only to shut it again. Gage grabbed her, putting his shoulder into her stomach before he lifted her into a fireman's carry that had Elena's face dangling right above his butt. She was too shocked to move at first—too stunned to know what to say—so she just hung uncomfortably over the behemoth's shoulder, trying to figure out what the hell was going on here. Of course, that only lasted a few seconds until she heard Chloe's voice calling her name.

"Oh, Elena..."

She braced her hands on Gage's lower back and lifted herself up a little so she could see Chloe still standing in the room with a huge smile on her face. Delta, Lulu, Alec, and Gage's grandmother were smiling at her as well, however her aunts were both frowning.

She looked back to her oldest sister to see she was giving Elena a little finger wave as she announced to the room, "He's doin' her."
Chapter Ten

Gage

His distressed mate hung limply over his shoulder until he reached the doorway to the room. As he was about to exit it, her sister Chloe opened her big mouth, and that was when his mate went from docile to a kicking, screaming ball of fury. It was a good thing he had such a good grip on her legs because, otherwise, she might have kicked him in the nuts. She still managed to get in some good kidney shots, however. If he'd been human, those punches would have knocked the wind right out of him, forcing him to drop her. A fact that must have frustrated her because, when he didn't do anything other than grunt, it seemed to piss her off that much more. He simply continued to ignore the tirade and carried her out of the house to his truck.

He managed to open the truck's passenger door without her kicking anything except him, and then he quickly reached in and opened his glove box where he grabbed the one thing of Elena's that he'd kept after she'd left him; her Military Police issued handcuffs. It had been a rare, sentimental move on his part, however when he'd seen the mess she'd left at his place, he had known he was about to put those handcuffs of hers to good use.

Popping open the rotating arms with one hand, he used his other hand to sling her down into the passenger seat in front of him. She seemed to be refusing to give up on her violent protest against him; she kept punching, aiming at his chest, stomach, and the arm that wasn't holding her, but that was okay because it kept her distracted from what he was doing.

As fast as he could, he slapped the first side of the open handcuffs down on her left wrist, and then reached over, pulling her wrist with him, and snapped the other side of the handcuffs shut on his steering wheel.

The minute she heard the ratchet clicking shut, she stilled, staring at her left hand secured to the steering wheel in shock. Gage didn't waste a second, either. He slammed her truck door shut and moved at an inhuman speed around the front of the vehicle so that, a second later, he was opening his driver's side door.

After he got in and slammed his own door shut, he decided to sit there and wait for the oncoming explosion. It was time Elena realized he meant every word he'd said. She was never leaving his side again, and he'd had absolutely no qualms saying that in a room filled with their family because he abso-fucking-lutely meant it.

He didn't have to wait long for her to start her shit. "Tell me you didn't do that," she angrily whispered.

"Didn't do what?" Gage asked, playing dumb.

"Tell me you didn't just handcuff me to your steering wheel."

He was looking straight at her, but she refused to meet his gaze, choosing to stare at her wrist in shock instead. He couldn't help wondering if she was hoping that if she glared at the handcuffs hard enough that laser beams would miraculously shoot out of her eyes and cut the confining metal off like she was Superman or some shit.

"Can't do that, Elena, because I did handcuff you to my steering wheel."

Trying to jerk her captive hand away, Gage smelled her blood the instant the hard metal handcuffs broke through her skin.

"Stop it! You're hurting yourself," he ground out as he grabbed the injured wrist.

Elena shrieked. "Then un-cuff me, jackass!"

Taking the key out of his pocket where he had placed it back at his house, Gage waved it in front of Elena's face for a moment before inserting it into the handcuffs. He heard her sigh in relief and ignored it. She was only going to get angrier when she saw what he did next. Unlocking the side attached to the steering wheel he repositioned the free cuff around his right wrist and snapped it closed. Then, before his ornery little human could say anything, he held up their captive hands in the air between them.

"You must not have been paying attention back in that room when I told you that you were never leaving my side again. Pay attention now, mate, because I meant what I said. You will spend the rest of your days with me."

"You're off your fucking rocker, aren't you? And stop calling me that!" she screamed.

Oh, he knew what she meant, but he was having so much fun riling her up that he couldn't help himself. "Calling you what?"

"Mate! Stop calling me mate, you moron!"

Starting the truck, he put his free hand on the steering wheel and started to back out of the Amazons' driveway. "Can't do that, either."

As he shifted the truck from reverse to drive and shoved the gas pedal to the floor, she spit out, "Can't or won't, cat?"

"Won't."

She let out a scream so loud, primal, and outraged that he was pretty sure her Amazonian ancestors heard it from the grave. He'd never seen her so pissed before. The cab of his truck filled with her spiced chocolate smell and his cock responded by threatening to bust out of his jeans. Jesus, the smell of her right then was enough to make him horny for at least a week.

Yeah, she was infuriated on a level that any sane man would steer clear of, yet she was also aroused. Part of her might want to beat him bloody, but with the strong smell of lust currently coming off her, Gage also knew there was another part of her that wanted to fuck him senseless. It was time for him to get her home, naked, and willing before she tried to kill him.

~~~

Twenty minutes later, he parked his truck in front of his home and turned the engine off. Looking over at Elena, who was sitting perfectly still and unbelievably quiet, he tried hard not to become nervous. Elena was a lot of things—strong, beautiful, hard headed—but one thing she was not was quiet.

Since his mate had been unnaturally silent from the moment that Amazonian scream had died on her lips, he figured that meant one thing, she was plotting. He'd known generals and heads of state that were practically geniuses in strategy over the centuries of his life, and none of them had been as dangerous as his woman on a mission. All he could do was hope that some way, somehow, he got through to her tonight.

Lifting the console between them, he then opened his door and got out of the truck. Reaching back across the seat so he could grab her, he dragged her to his vacated seat. Once he had her situated right in front of him, Gage wrapped one arm under her legs and his other arm around her back, pushing Elena's handcuffed arm into an awkward, bent angle against her back. Making sure not to hurt her, he lifted her stiff form until she was cradled in his arms.

He waited for her to try and fight him again, but nothing happened. Maybe his ornery mate was finally aware that with the handcuffs connecting them she didn't have much of a chance anyways.

Kicking his truck door shut, he walked her to the front door and angled them both so the hand behind her back, clutching his keys, could unlock and open the door. After he walked into his home with the crunching of kitty litter underneath his boots as the only sound to be heard, he paused, thinking that for sure she might break down and giggle when she heard that, but again there was nothing.

As he kicked the door to his house shut behind them, she finally spoke through her clenched teeth. "You can put me down now."

"Don't want to."

"And I don't want to be handcuffed to you, so that should prove we can't always get what we want. Put me down, cat."

He grunted. "You into the Rolling Stones now? I've got that album, you know. I could put it on if you want to hear it."

Elena started bucking in his hold, trying to force him to drop her. Silly human. As if she could force him to do anything. When he tightened his grip on her to keep her secure against him and quickened his steps towards the hallway that led to his bedroom, her frustration gave way to an explosion of angry words.

"You mother fuckin', ball lickin', hairball coughin', oversized alley cat, douche juicin', bastard!"

"Douche juicin'? That doesn't sound very appealing. I hear there are creams for that if you need them, babe." Gage crossed the threshold to his bedroom and walked over to the corner where he had his large, king-sized bed against the wall. He set his wiggling woman on the edge of the bed and then turned her body so she faced him.

Quick as lightening, Elena brought her knee up, trying her best to land a blow to his nuts. He was prepared for the move, though, blocked the strike and then used his body to pin hers to the bed.

Frustrated, Elena spat out between her teeth, "Do they have a cream to cure Asshatism? I could finally get rid of you then."

That last comment caused an unexpected laugh to escape him. He couldn't help laughing really. His woman was so determined to kick him to the curb that she wasn't letting what he was telling her sink into that thick skull of hers. She was never getting rid of him, and he'd figured out how he was going to prove it to her. Unfortunately, it didn't involve his earlier plans of getting her naked and screaming his name, however he could wait a little longer for that.

Getting up on his knees which were straddling her body, he picked her up and moved her body higher up the bed so they could lie down comfortably. Knowing he couldn't trust her not to try and kick his teeth in, he used the hand that wasn't attached to the handcuffs to help pry her legs open and then lay his body between those luscious limbs of hers. He was a big, heavy bastard, so he didn't want to completely cover her. Instead, he situated himself so his head was pillowed on her chest, his left arm wrapped around her waist underneath them, and the fingers of his right hand were interlaced with hers.

Elena stiffened under him as he finally got comfortable on top of her. She was probably expecting him to put the moves on her, which he fortunately realized would have been an exponentially dumb move on his part. She would use anything against him at that point, including the act of sex. She might give in to her body's desires to have him, but the minute they were done, she'd say it had been meaningless. She'd also probably spout some ridiculous shit like he only wanted her for a release of bodily fluids.

So, no sex for them. No matter how much he wanted to be buried balls deep in this woman, he would wait until she knew that she was so much more to him than a quick fuck. Elena was everything to him, and he was going to find a way to make her figure that out even if it killed him.

As he lay there on top of her stiff body, waiting for her to relax, he anticipated whatever barb she would throw at him next, yet after several minutes ticked by, he realized none was coming.

Hoping to pierce that impenetrable barrier she'd encased her emotions in since she'd left him, he told her exactly what he was feeling. "I missed you."

Elena gave an un-lady-like snort, but didn't say anything.

"I didn't mean what I said the day you left."

A deprecating laugh came from her, but she continued to give him the silent treatment.

Tightening his left arm around her waist, he squeezed gently, trying to offer her a hug of comfort, although she'd probably rather have bamboo shoots shoved underneath her fingernails than receive any kind of comfort from him. And didn't that sting his pride a bit that his mate would more than likely prefer to endure unimaginable pain than be with him?

He was perfectly aware, however, that he had no one to blame but himself.

Trying to move away from his negative thoughts and stick with his goal of making Elena love him again, he kept going. "There was a reason I said what I said."

"Because you were telling the truth?" she deadpanned.

Gage shook his head no, which caused the side of his face to rub back and forth on the spot between her breasts. "Nope. I was lying when I pretended to tell Alec on the phone that you were nothing more than a lay."

Her breath hitched. "What do you mean, pretended to tell him? I heard you talking to him through the door, Gage."

He shook his head no again because it gave him a reason to rub the side of his face across that intimate spot of her body repeatedly. Gage only wished that instead of through her shirt he had been able to mark his scent on her skin. They weren't ready for shirtless yet; he'd have to be satisfied with this for the time being.

"Nope. You heard what I wanted you to hear. I pretended to be on the phone with Alec. Just like I said hurtful things because I knew you were awake and listening. I was trying to make you think I didn't care so you would leave me."

There was a short, silent pause while he wondered what she was thinking. Knowing how stubborn his mate could be, he was betting she was trying to find some way to twist the truth up in her head to keep protecting herself from him.

"Pretending to have a conversation with your brother? That sounds a bit farfetched, Gage. The more likely scenario is that you hate that your easy lay caught you in a conversation you didn't want to be overheard."

See? Twisted.

He knew he was going to have to prevail to the logical part of her brain. "How long have you known about Others, Elena?"

"Four months. Why?"

"Since you've learned of our existence in that time, do you feel you've learned a sufficient amount about shifters' abilities and anatomies?"

"Enough to get me by. What does this have to do with what we are talking about?"

"So you understand we have pronounced sensory abilities compared to humans?"

"Yeah, I get that you've got some animal genetics. So what, purr boy?" she huffed.

He smiled. He'd never say it to her face, but sometimes she really did remind him of a kitten with her fur all ruffled up in ire.

"Then you concede it would have been easy for me to hear you up and moving about in my bedroom through a closed door?"

He felt everything about Elena pause after his statement, even her chest stopped moving as she momentarily stopped breathing.

Eventually, after inhaling a much needed deep breath, he heard her cautious voice reply, "Yes. You could have easily heard me moving around. If that's the truth, then why do it? Why pretend to have a conversation with someone in which you make me feel about as welcomed as a dried up five dollar hooker instead of just breaking up with me to my face? Why would you want to hurt me like that if I had meant something to you? This is why I'm having a hard time believing you. If I had meant anything at all, you would have never hurt me the way you did."

"That's where you're wrong."

"I've been wrong about a lot of things in life, Gage. You're a great example of that. I don't think I'm wrong about this, though."

Gage ignored the dig, and kept going. "You're wrong because you did mean a great deal to me. In fact, I had fallen in love with you."

"Bullshit!" Bucking her body to try to get him off her, she started to lose her temper again. "You never fucking loved me, you giant prick! People who love each other don't set out to break the other person's heart into so many pieces that it's impossible to fix it again afterwards."

"The fact I hurt you to push you away proves what I'm telling you. If you would stop thinking with your emotions for a minute and think with your head instead, you could probably figure out why I was afraid to fall in love with you. Why I was afraid to make you my mate."

Settling down again, she asked in complete exasperation, "If you're telling me the truth, then spit out the reason, Ivanov. Tell me this all important excuse of why you felt it was such a bad idea for us to be together."

"No."

"Why the fuck not?" Elena screamed in exasperation.

"Because if I tell you why, you're going to try and run from me and I won't let you do it, so I'm going to let you figure it out on your own. Until then, I'm going to spend every second I have proving to you that I did love you—that I still love you—and I'm going to make you love me in return again, too. I'm going to do everything in my power to tie you to me in every way imaginable so that, when you do figure it out, maybe you won't run from me. Because I can't live without you anymore, Elena. I've tried for two years and it was the biggest mistake of my life. You walked back into my life and now I'm doing what I should have been man enough to do in the first place."

"What's that?" she whispered.

"I'm claiming you for my mate."

"But you're not a man, remember? Less than an hour ago you told me that yourself. You said you're more animal than man, and if I remember my science teacher correctly, tigers aren't exactly known for mating for life, so why should I believe anything you're telling me right now?"

Lifting his head to set his chin in the middle of her chest, Gage looked her in the eyes and murmured back, "Because you make me want to be more man than animal. You make me want to live and love deeply enough for one lifetime rather than live hundreds of lifetimes without you."

Turning away from Elena's confused expression, Gage laid his head back on her chest and settled himself in for the night. Even with everything left unresolved between them, he was content enough to have her in his arms again that he started to do something he hadn't done since he was a youngster.

He purred in contentment.
Chapter Eleven

Elena

It was the growl that woke her up. It wasn't a menacing oh-shit-something-large-and-furry-is-about-to-kill-me growl. No, it was the low, husky growl of the man who was still lying on top of her. The drool worthy, built like a brick shithouse man who was once again rubbing his face slowly in the space between her breasts.

What the hell was his sudden fascination with that part of her body? He hadn't been nearly as enamored with it when they'd been together before, which was a good thing because frankly the man rubbing his face against her like that made all of her much neglected girl parts throb. Elena was pretty sure if she looked down to her chest, she'd see her nipples were hard enough to poke an eye out. Stupid, traitorous body!

"I know you're awake wildcat," he mumbled.

She looked down to see Gage still had the side of his face firmly plastered to her chest and wasn't even looking at her. Maybe if she ignored him, he would think he'd made a mistake and she was still asleep after all, giving Elena a much needed few moments of quiet so she could think. She was still feeling a bit off kilter from their talk last night. Plus, her girly bits were all excited about him pressed up against her like this, pinning her to the bed.

She'd never admit it to anyone, but Gage's natural dominance over her could make her soak her panties faster than you could say Euripides.

Closing her eyes, she couldn't help going back in her memories to the time when they'd been together. He'd been the first one of her lovers to figure out that, while she had a tough attitude on the outside, inside was a bit of a different story. She liked being feisty in life and sometimes in the bedroom, too, however she also wanted a man who would take over. To make her feel feminine and cherished.

Elena wasn't looking to kneel at some guy's feet and call him master, though. In fact, she'd probably roast Gage's nuts off with that flamethrower she'd illegally bought a few years ago if he ever asked her to do that. Nevertheless, there was still something inside of her that needed to have a man take charge a bit; prove he was strong enough to protect her by overwhelming her with his brute strength—prove that he cared enough to push her limits literally and metaphorically when she needed it—but not to hurt her with the same power he'd used to subdue her.

Gage had been the only one she'd let into her bed who had done those things without thinking she was some kind of circus freak in bed, or without being an asshole by trying to turn bed-play into something abusive. He'd also been the only one who had given her the dominance she needed from him, yet also instinctively knew when she needed some gentleness because she felt vulnerable about surrendering. Elena getting what she needed in the bedroom without her own dominant nature outside of the bedroom feeling bruised somehow was a delicate balance.

What had seemed like the best part back when they'd been together was that Gage wasn't putting on some act to fill her needs. No, he was simply being himself while letting Elena be herself. Between the two of them, they'd filled each other's physical, mental, sexual and emotional essentials beautifully. Naturally. So it made sense that the man who had somehow fit her perfectly in every way was also the man who'd broken her in ways that she wasn't sure could be fixed because he'd been, and would always be, the only man who owned her. Heart and soul.

That was why it scared the shit out of her that he was back in her life.

When she'd agreed to work the Ninth Circle's case with her family, she'd never imagined Gage would be happy to see her. She'd never imagined he would start throwing the word 'mine' around like he was a big kid and she was his favorite toy. And she certainly never would have guessed that he'd come at her with declarations of love.

She wanted so badly to believe the words he'd given her last night, but honestly, she didn't know if she could. What if she gave him what was left of her heart—those many jagged, bruised, jaded and broken pieces—and instead of fixing what was left, he threw them away again?

She didn't think she could survive that.

Her already closed eyes squeezed even tighter and she willed her breathing to stay slow and steady. She couldn't very well pretend she was asleep if she got herself all worked up and started bawling like a blubbering idiot, could she?

She felt Gage move his head off her chest and she wondered what he was up to. Then, slowly, he dragged his body the small distance up her own so their bodies were aligned. His hips were firmly nestled in the cradle of her thighs so she could feel every hot, hard, delicious inch of his cock pressed against her core.

She could sense his face hovering just over her own and feel the warmth of his breath on her lips. She was so tempted to open her eyes so that she could look into his; she loved the exotic coloring and missed the way those eyes had looked as he held her stare while making love to her. She couldn't do it, though.

She couldn't open her eyes to see Gage's own rich, swirling green and gold looking back at her because he might see something she wasn't ready to show him yet. He might see that she still loved him. Desperately.

She felt him move above her again right before she felt a sharp nip to her bottom lip, causing her to gasp in surprise. Her eyes sprung open against her will, in time to watch Gage's face dip close again so that his raspy tongue could lick where he had bitten her seconds before to soothe away the sensual pain.

"What are you doing?" she snapped.

Gage leaned down closer to her face again, his tongue coming out to presumably lick her lips and Elena freaked. Slapping her hand over his mouth, she watched as he narrowed his eyes at her in calculation right before she felt his raspy tongue lick her palm.

"Stop licking me, Ivanov!"

Elena felt, rather than heard, the small growl he let loose against her hand before he licked her palm again. Every time she felt the wet, pink, sandpaper tongue of his glide across her skin, it reminded her of when it had caressed much more intimate parts of her body, causing her nipples to tingle and her pussy to clench with need.

Frustrated with her reckless attraction to him, she started to pull her hand away from his mouth only to find it caught and trapped in his own large, strong hand. He brought her palm back to his lips where she couldn't see what he intended to do and then bit her gently on the fleshy section below her thumb.

She gasped at the erotic sensation. It was a small bit of pleasurable pain that he soothed away with more caresses of his tongue.

Her hips arched into Gage's involuntarily as her needy body tried to take over her reluctant brain, and his cock started to grind down into her, rubbing right over her clit. Elena didn't know whether to curse or thank the jeans she was still wearing. It had been so long since she'd felt the large, familiar stalk of him sliding so deep into her that it almost hurt. So long since her senses had been overloaded with nothing other than pleasure. That little bit of fabric was causing the most delicious friction in all the right places as Gage thrust his body against hers. More importantly, those jeans were keeping her from making a huge mistake.

Elena knew better. If she let him in, he'd run over her like he was a Mack truck and she an upcoming piece of road kill meant to decorate the highway.

"We can't do this," she gasped.

Licking her palm one more time, he then forced her hand over her head and pinned it to the mattress. "Don't worry, baby. I'm not going to fuck you yet."

He wasn't? Well, what the fuck did he think he was doing to her then? Leading her on? Getting her all worked up so he could walk away while she suffered—unfulfilled and needy?

Sure she knew it was a bad, bad idea for them to have sex, but she hadn't thought he would be the one to stop them. Asshole.

Just like that, Elena's famous temper snapped. "Well, why the hell not?"

Gage gave her a predatory smile then thrust his cock to rub right over her clit again. Her legs were starting to tremble, her panties were soaked, and if he rubbed her the right way one more time, she was going to explode.

"Because you're not ready for us to have sex yet, wildcat."

Ignoring her irritated glare, he leaned down to her left breast and sucked her hard little nipple through her t-shirt and bra. Elena rocked her hips up into his, suddenly needing the impending orgasm more than she needed her next breath.

As she rubbed against Gage's magnificent arousal, he nipped at her sensitive, aching peak.

Elena was writhing up against Gage's hard body, ignoring the warnings her muddled brain was trying to send her. The release she needed was right there... almost within reach... and she was nothing except a tangled mass of sensation. She was riding this wave of euphoria, desperate to reach the pinnacle of carnal liberation that she had denied herself for so long.

Gage released her left nipple, and she cried out in dismay, "Gage!"

"Shhh, baby." He licked over the skin bared around her shirt's neckline before dropping his mouth to linger above her right breast. "Jesus, nothing has ever tasted as sweet as you." He lightly nipped her tightly beaded nipple. "I'm going to lick you all over soon and you're going to beg me for it."

Elena would have protested his statement, however Gage gently tugged on her quivering peak before suckling it into his mouth. She forgot how to think. All she could do was feel.

With every thrust of his hips against hers—every tug on her nipple—she felt the tidal wave of sensation growing, seizing her body until every muscle was locked tight in anticipation. Her mouth dropped open in a silent scream and then she was consumed, cresting on the giant wave of ecstasy that had her screaming out in bliss as bursts of lights went off behind her eyes. Her inner walls were fluttering, wishing Gage had been filling her to overflowing instead of achingly empty.

Toes curled, panting through the remaining spasms of pleasure, Elena lay trembling in the aftermath of her long overdue orgasm. Lethargic after being overwhelmed both physically and emotionally, she'd only meant to keep her eyes closed for a few more seconds, but as she felt Gage's body scoot back down her own and settle into her again as he had the night before, she fell asleep. Completely missing those internal alarms of hers that were screaming she was in jeopardy of emotional danger since she was basking in the one thing she hadn't felt in two long years.

Gage's loving comfort.
Chapter Twelve

Gage

He'd been lightly dozing for the past couple of hours like any respectable feline shifter would when he sensed his mate start to wake up. He wasn't ready to hear her bullshit, so he pretended to keep sleeping since he knew she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. At the moment, she was serving as his personal body pillow because he was still lying on top of her with his face resting between her breasts, and he didn't plan on giving that up anytime soon. She was just so damn comfortable!

The remaining arousal of her scent, leftover from her previous orgasm, had started to dissipate. He tried not to cringe at the sudden slight tang of her wariness. After all, it was his own fucking fault his mate was reluctant to believe how much he loved her. He was the idiot who had spewed a bunch of hurtful bullshit in order to push her away. All he had to do was continue on with his plan and she would eventually forgive him.

Right?

Okay, so he might be a little more worried than he cared to admit before. Elena was one of the most bull-headed individuals he'd ever met. They'd once gotten into an argument while dating because, as she was staring out his apartment window, she'd said the sky was the prettiest shade of powder blue she'd ever seen. He'd stupidly looked over from the TV, out the window, and had replied, "Babe, it's blue."

This led to the dumbest thirty minute argument of his very long life, which he'd then foolishly made worse by telling her it was the "dumbest fucking argument of my life."

Yeah, not his brightest moment. So, it was a good thing he'd ducked when she'd thrown a glass at his head, but it was an even better thing when he'd caught her after she'd tried to take a flying tackle at him. Twenty minutes of pretending to let her wrestle him later, and he'd had the best make-up sex with an angry, energetic woman known to man. Or Other.

As his mind moved back to the present, Gage started to wonder if he was going to break through to his stubborn Amazon at all. The idea she might deny everything they had due to her stubborn pride scared the shit out of him. If he could sit her down and flat out explain the why of doing what he'd done, then she'd forgive him. He couldn't do that, though, because knowing his Elena, the moment she realized that he'd tried to prevent himself from attaching to her in a mating sense both physically and emotionally because of her mortality, she'd leave him. She wouldn't wait to understand that a shifter's odds of survival after losing their mate weren't good. The human half of them might survive the depression, but their bestial half usually pushed them over the edge.

The McPhee Wolf Pack had almost taken out their own Alpha, Adam, when he'd mistakenly thought he'd lost his mate, Jenna, in the hospital a couple of months ago. The man's wolf had been enraged enough to take over and Adam had terrorized the woods surrounding his Pack's property for days before Jenna had been able to go to him and calm him down. Afterward, Adam had a second chance with Jenna and forever.

Even if Gage talked Elena into a second chance, he'd never have forever with his mate. He would have the duration of her life span. When she died, he would probably perish shortly after. If he didn't die from the depression, then someone would probably have to kill him because his tiger would go insane. Very few shifters ever escaped such a circumstance.

The feeling of movement beneath him brought Gage out of his somber musings. Elena wiggled her hips, which caused her breasts to jiggle in front of his face, and he had to bite back a groan. What was she trying to do to him? Was she attempting to entice him, or trying to escape? Not that she could since she was still handcuffed to him.

He felt her wiggle again while shifting her legs a little. Even though their bodies weren't exactly lined up for her inundations to be beneficial, it was driving him crazy because he could imagine sliding up a couple inches until the most intimate parts of them were rubbing each other.

Holy shit, the woman needed to stop! His dick had gone stiff as a board at the first wiggle and now he was lying there with a hard on big enough to hurt somebody, or cause permanent damage due to blood loss to his brain.

A few moments later, when she wiggled her hips again, he couldn't help himself any longer. Wrapping his free hand around her waist, he gently squeezed her to him while rubbing the side of his face between her breasts, marking her with his scent.

"If you don't stop wiggling those sweet, little hips, I'm going to do something we'll both regret."

By the end of his statement Elena's entire body was frozen with stiff muscles. "Regret?" her sleep-husky voice asked.

Growling a little, he picked up his head to look her in the eyes. "Yes. Regret. I know you're not ready for me to spread your legs and fuck you so hard that we threaten to pummel our way through the damn mattress, so until you're ready, stop with the damn wiggling, woman!"

The scent of renewed arousal filled the air, and the smell of it was so thick and lush Gage's mouth actually watered.

Elena's pink tongue peeked out to swipe nervously over her bottom lip. "Who said I'm not ready?"

He was shaking his head no by her third word. "You're not tricking me, Amazon. If I fuck you now, you'll try and play us off as a one night stand for old times' sake, or some other cheesy ass line. That's not happening. The next time I slide my dick into that tight, little pussy of yours will be after you admit to me that you still love me, and not one second before."

The sharp, tangy scent of her anger filled the air between them. "Then what the hell was that earlier, huh? If you didn't plan on having sex with me, why'd you start fooling around in the first place?"

She was pushing at his chest and shoulders with her free hand, trying to move Gage off her. He snorted. Like that was going to happen? But her attempt was kind of cute.

"I don't know what you're complaining about. You got off, and I didn't exactly hear you say no while you were screaming my name."

He watched as his mate's face turn an interesting shade of red before she sputtered, "Y-

Raising an eyebrow back at her, Gage replied, "Cock blocking? Last time I checked it was my cock, so I can block it if I want to."

"You catnip addicted crack head! I ought to take one of those squeaky mouse toys I left here and shove it up your ass!"

He was trying really hard not to laugh at her, however she was making it difficult on him. Her little insults were cuter than anything. Every time he got her riled up like this, it only made him want to find really creative ways to shut her up.

"I'm not into that kind of ass play, babe, but if you want me to play with your ass, that's good to go."

Elena started slapping his chest and bucking her hips wildly, trying to dislodge him.

"Damn girl, why do you always have to get violent?"

Gage moved his legs to straddle Elena's and then took the hand that was still attached by cuffs to hers and used it to cross over her chest and pin her down. When his mate realized he had her effectively pinned down again, she sent him a death glare that would have scared the piss out of any man, Other or not.

He shouldn't try and ruffle her feathers anymore, yet he couldn't help himself. "I do like it when you get all feisty, though. It makes me want to kiss you." Bending down, he brought his face in closer to hers.

Before he could connect their lips, he found himself once again thwarted from his goal by her free hand over his mouth.

"Oh no, you don't, Ivanov. You're not kissing me."

He nipped her palm a little too sharply this time, causing Elena to yip 'ouch' and pull her hand away.

"Remember what happened last time you covered my mouth so I wouldn't kiss you? If you're looking for another orgasm, baby, just say so. I'll get my fingers and tongue involved this time."

"You're such a pig!"

"No, I'm a cat."

Elena gave a short scream of frustration, which diverted her from Gage's movements. He utilized her distraction to try and kiss her again, but she realized what he was trying to do, and turned her face to the side, effectively blocking his kiss again. Gage let his lips linger on the skin of her cheek, pressing a light kiss before grazing the tip of his tongue across it to taste her skin.

"I only want one little kiss, mate. Why won't you let me have one little kiss?"

Keeping her head turned away from him, she mumbled, "You really want to know why I won't kiss you?"

Gage skimmed his lips in a small circle on her cheek, causing her body to give an involuntary shiver. "Yes."

"Okaaaaay," she muttered mischievously. Elena turned her face towards his, so they were eye-to-eye, opened her mouth as wide as she could, and then huffed her breath in his face.

The smell that assaulted his nose was like something out of a toxic nightmare. Gage flinched backwards and gave a short roar of affront. His nose hairs felt singed, his eyes were watering, and he was pretty sure he'd rather sit through another training session in the Army's gas chambers than ever smell that God forsaken smell again.

"Isn't morning breath great, Gage?" Elena chirped.

Gage stopped rubbing his watering eyes to glare down at her. "Morning breath? Morning breath! That smelt like a chemical weapon! Are you trying to fucking kill me?" he yelled.

"Well, you were the one that wanted a kiss. I tried to spare you."

Moving off her and then maneuvering himself off the bed, he reached down and scooped his malicious mate up in his arms. He didn't have to worry about her struggling this time because she was laughing her fool head off.

Gage carried the cackling Amazon into his bathroom and then set her on her feet in front of the sink. Opening up one of his cabinet drawers, he pulled out his unopened spare toothbrush and handed it to her.

"For the love of all that's holy, please brush your fucking teeth. It's killer. Literally."

"Aren't you going to un-cuff me?"

"Nope." Ha! Suddenly his little Amazon wasn't laughing anymore. Nope, that statement had her back to glaring at him sullenly.

She started to open her mouth up and this time he slapped his hand over her mouth. "Oh, hell no! If you think you're going to stand here and blast me with your nuclear breath, you've got another thing coming. You're going to brush your teeth and then we're getting some coffee. Without coffee, I can't promise any sane reactions to any hare-brained things that you do."

She pouted for a minute at him and then turned around, faced the sink and brushed her teeth.

While she saw to eradicating that offensive odor, Gage started to prepare himself for the many battles he would face today trying to get through his mate's thick skull. The woman really had no idea how serious he'd been when he'd said he wasn't letting her leave his side, which meant he didn't have any plans of un-cuffing her whatsoever. If she thought it was bad that he wouldn't un-cuff her to brush her teeth, wait till she found out that he didn't plan to un-cuff her when she had the urge to go to the bathroom, either.
Chapter Thirteen

Elena

Silently fuming, Elena poured herself cup of coffee with her free hand while ignoring the large idiot standing next to her. The nerve that bastard had! It was one thing to keep her handcuffed to him while she was doing something like brushing her teeth, but when she had to use the potty? She was going to kill him! That had been the singularly most embarrassing moment of her life. Sure she'd had to pee in front of people when she'd been in the Army. That was why there were communal bathrooms for crying out loud. Still, she'd never had to pee in front of someone she'd been intimate with before.

After that, she understood why some married couples liked to say "Some things should stay a mystery" because peeing in front of someone you'd seen naked was too much. What was worse? She hadn't been able to make herself pee at first. His standing there with his back to her had been enough to keep nature from happening. He'd literally scared her bladder into not cooperating! Elena was pretty sure he'd rolled his eyes when she'd told him that she needed him to turn the bathroom faucet on.

So Elena continued to ignore the overgrown fur ball and took a sip of her coffee. Heaven. When all else was wrong with the world, as long as she had her coffee, things were A-okay.

"You hungry?" Gage suddenly asked.

"Nope," she answered, refusing to look at him. Besides, why should she? Her coffee cup was so much more interesting.

"Okay, you've brushed your teeth, emptied your bladder and now had some coffee to drink. Any other pressing morning needs you need to take care of?"

What was he up to?

She finally looked over at him out of the corner of her eye. Hesitantly, she replied, "No. Why?"

In the blink of an eye, her coffee cup was removed from her hand and she found herself pinned against the kitchen counter. Gage fisted his left hand in her hair and pulled backwards until she had no choice other than to look up at his face. When she saw the desire and determination burning in his eyes—making them literally glow a little in an eerie, green-gold radiance—she stopped breathing completely.

His voice came out a rough grumble. "You've been avoiding kissing me like it's a death sentence, which leads me to believe one thing."

"What's that?" Elena whispered.

"You're scared."

She instantly denied him. "I'm not scared of you, Gage."

Nodding, he agreed, "I know you're not scared of me. You're scared of you." Taking their handcuffed hands, he placed them both over her heart with his covering hers completely. "You're afraid of this, which makes me think that all of your denials about how you don't love me anymore, or don't care about me anymore, are bullshit because, if you weren't scared, then you wouldn't be afraid of my kiss. Perhaps you're afraid that, if we get too intimate, I might melt some of your resistance away, and you'll give in and admit you still love me. And a kiss is intimate, isn't it, love?"

Elena tried to shake her head no, but his fist held her still. "If it's not true and I've got it all wrong then kiss me, Amazon." When she hesitated, he whispered, "I dare you. Kiss me."

Much to her horror, Elena felt tiny pinpricks in the corners of her eyes as they started to water up. "Why are you doing this, Gage? What do you want from me?"

He studied her a moment, watching her so intently that she felt naked from the inside out. "You."

"Me?" she squeaked back.

"You," he answered again with an unwavering gaze.

Trying to bolster her courage back up, Elena snapped, "I'm not an item you pick up at the store or a whore to be bought off the street. You can't go dragging me around where you want me, snarling 'mine' whenever you feel like! I'm a human being, Gage; you can't own me!"

She expected the ornery tiger to get mad and snarl at her, instead he did something much worse. One side of his lips curled up in smug satisfaction, and the bastard smirked at her.

"I may no longer live in a time period where one person can actually own another person, but make no mistake, love, I do own you. Every little inch. Every breathy moan you give me when I'm playing with your pretty pussy. Every hungry kiss you give me when I'm buried deep inside you. Every beat of that stubborn heart that you swear doesn't still love me, and every inch of that fierce soul of yours... They all belong to one person. Me."

It took everything Elena had to ignore the sweet words about owning her heart and soul. That statement was both a balm and a painful, scarring salt to her emotional wounds. She chose to concentrate on the blunt words he'd used about a certain part of her anatomy instead.

"You are not allowed to talk about my va-jay-jay like that! And you definitely do not own it! Last time I was checked, I was the one who washed it, kept it from looking like an uncontrollable bush and made it feel good these days. Therefore, it belongs to me."

Elena would have crossed her arms in a self-righteous fashion; yet, since she couldn't, she settled for a gigantic victory smile instead. She kept standing there with the smile until she watched as Gage's eyes took on a wily look before he slowly moved them down her body until they settled on the very body part they had been speaking of.

She watched as he licked his lips as if he were munching on something delicious and then he groaned. "Don't worry, mate; I'll assume all of those responsibilities from now on. No need to make you wash my pretty pussy... or satisfy it anymore. In fact, let's go wash it now. Would you like a tongue bath?"

It was sick of her, however the words "tongue bath" made her soak her panties in about five seconds flat, which only served to piss her off as much as it made her horny.

Punching him in the chest, she yelled, "Bad Kitty!"

Gage looked back up to her face and playfully pouted. "So does that mean there's no pussy for the pussy?"

It was then she grew frustrated beyond belief. He was never going to stop! Which meant she was either going to kill him in anger, or sexual frustration.

"You don't have to be sexually frustrated, babe. Say the word and I'll bend you over the counter and fuck you like our lives depend on it."

Elena gasped in horror and started rambling frantically. "Did you read my mind? Is that part of this mating bullshit you insist on? And stop laughing at me, jackass! What the fuck are you laughing at?"

Gage had let go of her body with his hands, and instead had braced them on the kitchen countertop behind her with his face buried in her shoulder as he cackled like a loon. When he didn't stop laughing to answer her question, she tried to punch him in the gut with her right hand. The punch was weak because their bodies were so close together she couldn't get enough power behind her, but it must have gotten her point across because he stopped laughing for a whole two seconds.

"Y-you thought I-I was r-reading..." Gage started laughing harder.

Rolling her eyes up to the ceiling, she again waited for the idiot to stop. When he didn't, she snapped out angrily, "Well, you did read my mind, didn't you?"

"No, b-babe. You're so f-frazzled you said that shit out l-loud."

The big twit kept laughing, only causing her to feel somewhere between mortified and mad as hell. She'd really blurted that out? Crap, he was right. He had her so frazzled it wasn't funny. That only ticked her off that much more. He thought it was funny to get her so wound up that she started blurting shit out like some inexperienced teenage girl? All so he could prove some point that no matter how much she protested, she still loved him? Who cared if she still loved him! She'd show his ass what it was like to be so damn emotionally twisted that you didn't know which way was up!

Elena grabbed Gage's face with both hands, turning him towards her and then crashed her lips down on his, thrusting her tongue into his mouth as she did it, doing her best to batter his senses the way he always seemed to batter her heart.

He growled seductively into her mouth as her tongue curled around his own, threatening to overwhelm her senses with the vibration and sound of his raw, carnal need. Their mouths moved against each other in a desperation they'd never had in the past. Each stroke of their tongues was electric, each nip and suck of their lips was wanton, and each devastating second was stealing her sanity away.

His left hand dropped down to clutch her ass in his strong one-handed grip and then he lifted her to the countertop and settled himself into the V of her thighs, never stopping the sensual assault on each other.

Elena was quickly losing herself into him. She was becoming mindless with the pleasure that she'd been denied for the last two years, yet so lost in his touch she didn't bother remembering the whys of her denials.

Gage pressed into her harder with his hips. Using his hand to push her into him so that they were grinding against each other in their erotic delirium. Her anger was melting away under his kisses as they drugged her with desire. Her worries were fading away with each rock of his hips. In their place was a mounting need to be with him again, feel him inside of her in every way that mattered. Because maybe, just maybe, the little hopeful voice in the back of her head whispered, this time he would stay. Perhaps she would get to keep the man she loved with an aching intensity that had devastated her before. Maybe, she should give up her anger and tell Gage tha—

"Damn, I need popcorn to snack on while I watch this."

Screaming like a startled drama queen, Elena jumped backwards at the voice that came from the kitchen's entrance and hit the back of her head on the kitchen cabinets behind her. Then she screamed again in surprise when she was suddenly jerked off the counter by a furious Gage, who was, at the moment, running at an inhuman speed after his brother, who was consequently running for his life out the front door.
Chapter Fourteen

Gage

How much would Babushka hate him if he killed the fool? Surely two grandchildren were enough and the big blond ignoramus wouldn't be missed. Not only had Alec cock-blocked him, he'd also put him back at square one with his mate because, after his nitwit of a brother had snuck in on his and Elena's make out session—scaring the shit out of her in the process—Gage had lost his head and dragged his mate around like a rag doll. Right then her shoulder and arm were sore from his mistake, and worse yet, Elena was trying to use the whole thing to put physical and emotional space between them again.

Sitting in front of Elena in his dining room, he gingerly placed the bag of frozen peas on her shoulder and tried not to cringe when she winced.

Needing to take his anger out on something, he snarled at his brother, "What do you want, Alec?"

Alec was standing on the far opposite side of his kitchen looking suitably chagrined. Not that Gage would give him any points for that.

"I said I was sorry," Alec mumbled.

Gage roared at his brother in frustration.

Alec held both of his hands in the air. "Calm down, bro. I really am sorry. I had no idea you didn't sense me walk into the room. You usually know when I walk into the house, much less a room, okay?"

Through his haze of anger, Gage realized there was a hand petting his chest. He looked down to watch as his mate's hand continued to pet him in a soothing motion. Loving the feel of her touch, he kept statue still so as not to scare her affections away. Her hand kept up the almost orgasmic petting, so he took the risk of her stopping so he could look at her face. Maybe this was a good thing developing here if she felt she should try to console him like this.

When he did finally look up, she faltered for a second before continuing to run her hand over his chest.

Uncertainly biting her lip, she leaned in a little towards him and whispered, "You want to tuck that big, pointy thing away?"

Huh? Worried the perpetual hard on she gave him had somehow popped out of his pants, he looked down to his crotch. Nope, his dick wasn't out.

He heard Elena snort and looked back up to her face. She stopped petting him for a second and used her pointer finger to tap one side of her mouth.

"I meant the other big, pointy things."

Gage ran his tongue over the side of his mouth, and sure enough, his canines had dropped down. Damn Alec for getting him so upset!

Feeling his tiger too close to the surface, he snarled loudly in frustration, which was enough to get Elena to start petting his chest again. That appeased his beast a little, to have their mate touching them, so he closed his eyes to try to calm down. Inhaling deeply through his nose and exhaling out of his mouth, he centered himself between man and beast. It was a delicate line that kept his tiger in check and the man in control, but he'd been pretty good at doing it since his very first shift.

Apparently after he had claimed a mate, he was going to need to be a little more careful of his emotions or there'd be a Siberian Tiger running down the street from his home in no time. His fangs slowly receded into his gum line, and after several more breaths, he opened his eyes again. He found Elena watching him closely, and he hoped it wasn't in such a way that she was thinking about striped rugs in her future.

Refusing to take his eyes off his mate, he asked his brother again, "What do you want, Alec?"

Elena nodded to herself as if pleased with his calmer state and moved to take her hand away from his chest. His tiger snarled loudly in his head, and the man agreed with his inner beast. That wouldn't do at all! Gage trapped her hand against his chest to make his point, and then he refrained from chuckling when his mate sighed disgustedly at him.

"If you two are done playing kissy face, then we have somewhere to be."

Well, that statement caught his attention.

Looking over at his brother in confusion, Gage asked, "What?"

Huffing in exasperation, he said, "I tried to call you eight times! Where is your fucking phone, man? Jenna's uncle called a meeting because he received some new intel. We were supposed to be at Adam's bar ten minutes ago, but because you weren't answering your phone I stopped by here instead. Get your ass in gear and let's get the fuck going already!"

Gage's nerves were already on edge; his brother getting snappy with him was only making it worse. When Gage snarled a warning at Alec and started to get up with the intent of slapping his brother upside his head, it was Elena's hand on his chest that stayed him. You'd think a wiser person would have realized that Gage was still very much on edge and backed off a little.

Alec had never been a wise person.

His brother rolled his eyes and then muttered, "I'm never getting mated. After watching both you and Adam turn into snappy, little hormonal girls over a couple of women, I've thoroughly been cured of even thinking about it."

Gage opened his mouth to let his brother have it, but Elena beat him to it. "I don't think we'll ever meet a woman that has an IQ as low as yours, Alec, so you shouldn't have to worry about it. I seriously doubt there's a woman on the planet with that low of a brain cell count, and Lord knows any woman with a higher brain cell count would be smart enough to run in the opposite direction rather than mate with you."

Gage barked out a surprised laugh as his brother glared menacingly at his mate. Alec meant for the look to scare her into submission, however it proved how little Alec understood Gage's mate. It was again proven perfectly after a small, silent staring contest between Alec and Elena, when she said, "Maybe your weird white hair and freaky blue eyes intimidate other people, but it makes me want to take my baseball bat to your head so I don't have to look at you anymore."

With that said, Gage scooped Elena up in his arms and carried her out of the kitchen towards his bedroom, laughing the whole way.

Misunderstanding why he was carrying her away from his brother to the other end of the house, Elena said, "You don't have to protect me from him. I don't care if he can turn into a giant-sized kitty cat, I'll kick his ass."

Shaking his head, Gage replied, "Alec would never hurt you, love."

Confused, Elena asked, "Then why did you carry me out of there?"

Dropping her to her feet in his bedroom, he led her over to his closet and pulled out his smallest t-shirt, an XXL red t-shirt Elena had given him as a prank gift during their relationship that said 'I would cuddle you so hard.' He then grabbed himself a grey ARMY t-shirt and handed both of shirts to his mate to hold for them.

As he dragged her over to his dresser and then opened one of the drawers, he finally answered her. "We have to get ready to go meet Pack Master Davies."

He grabbed a pair of jeans for himself and a pair of grey sweatpants for her before dragging her towards the bathroom. The dragging her bit became a little harder, so he looked back to see his mate was literally dragging her heels across his floor to try and stop him.

Cocking an eyebrow at her, he asked, "What's wrong?"

"We can't take a shower together!" she squeaked.

He smiled at her nervousness. It was so unusual for his ferocious little mate to be spooked like this. "Why not?"

"If we go in t-there and s-start to get n-naked... w-w-well... I thought you said we weren't ready for sex!"

From stuttering to shrieking? Elena really was spooked. Her sudden worries over having sex were a complete one-eighty from her earlier seduction attempts, so it could only mean one thing. He was finally tearing down those seemingly impenetrable, emotional walls she'd put up against him. She was feeling vulnerable, and that meant he was closer to convincing his mate she was his. On top of that, it had only taken him a day to do it. It damn near made him want to pat himself on the back for such an accomplishment!

Of course, he really shouldn't be surprised he was succeeding already. In two hundred and sixty-four years he'd yet to fail at getting anything he had really wanted. Gage had assumed it would have taken longer to get her to start to come around. He had been more than prepared for a long wait if that was what it would have taken. Tigers were notoriously known for their patience while hunting. If Elena was starting to give in already, he wasn't going to complain.

Today's agenda: Find out what Pack Master Davies wanted and unnerve Elena some more with some third base action.

Tomorrow's mission: Get Elena to admit she still loved him and have amazing make-up sex.

It was only Wednesday, so if they kept that schedule up, he could have her bitten and mated by the weekend. His Babushka was going to love this.

"Earth to Ivanov! Are you kidding me? You're fucking daydreaming right now?"

Elena had a death grip on their t-shirts and had braced her legs like she was ready to fight him tooth and nail about going to the bathroom. It was cute, her thinking she'd be able to stop him. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to waste.

Scooping her up in his arms again, he carried her struggling body across the hall to his bathroom and kicked the door shut.

"Calm down, woman. We're not having sex, although I wish we had time for it. We're going to get undressed, take a shower, and then get dressed and go. Stop your hissy fit and get your ass in gear."

Setting her down on her feet, he reached back and locked the bathroom door to keep his brother from intruding on their privacy. Then he pulled his shirt over his head, but he had to stop when it stuck on the handcuffs. He still wasn't ready to take the cuffs off them, determined Elena would get his point about his refusal of any separation between them, so he did the only thing he could do. He tore his shirt so that it was no longer hanging from the cuffs. Rid of the garment, he unbuttoned his jeans and let them drop around his ankles before kicking them completely off. Left in nothing except his boxer briefs, he quickly pushed them down his legs, and then stepped out of those as well. When he looked back up to see Elena's progress, his eyes were met with a completely clothed woman who was standing there staring at his junk with her jaw dropped open.

He thought that if he stood there for a second, she would realize she was staring and stop, but nope, she just kept staring. Which caused the certain appendage she was gawking at to start to get hard. Damn the woman! She was making this difficult!

"Did you want to get undressed, or did you want me to undress you?"

Her head snapped up and she scowled at him. "I don't think this is a good idea. Why don't you take the handcuffs off and we'll take separate showers?"

Heh. If she thought she could negotiate with him, fat chance. "Are you ready to tell me that you love me?"

Her brows dropped into a deep V and her jaw tensed.

"Yeah, that's what I thought, Amazon. So the answer is no. Now, get undressed so we can hurry this up. As much as I'd like to fuck you until your screams are echoing around these tiled walls, we don't have time. This meeting with the Pack Master is important."

"Well, if you don't take the handcuffs off, how the hell am I supposed to get my shirt off all the way?"

Losing his patience, Gage reached over, took the neckline of her shirt with both of his hands, and then ripped the shirt down the middle. While Elena cussed him a blue streak, he reached over and tore the sleeve on the arm that was handcuffed to him in half as well.

"There, now you can get your shirt off. Would you like me to help you with your jeans, too, or can I go turn the water on for us?"

She gave him a death glare while unbuttoning and unzipping her jeans. Ignoring it, Gage maneuvered his body around her so he could reach into the shower and turn the water on for them. Sticking his hand in the stream, he waited until it was a comfortable heat level for his ornery mate before he turned back around to get her... and stopped dead in his tracks.

There, in front of him, was something he'd been afraid that he would never see again. A naked Elena. Every inch of her gorgeous, olive-toned complexion could be seen. Standing there outraged, hands on her hips, one hip cocked with attitude, full of fiery passion and more beautiful than anything he'd ever seen. How had he ever thought he could go on without her in his life?

Holding his hand out as an offer to help steady her, she frowned at it for a second before giving in and placing her hand in his. He pushed the shower curtain back to invite her in and then guided her into the relaxing rush of water.

Stepping in behind her, Gage closed the shower curtain and watched in fascination over his mate's shoulder as Elena ignored him while washing the front of her body with a soapy washcloth. Funny how such a simple act could transfix him entirely. If he could, he'd stand there and watch her do that all day.

Unfortunately, he didn't have all day. Grabbing the bar of soap, he lathered up his hands to wash the front of his own body. He tried to keep a little distance between himself and Elena, regardless of the difficulty because of their handcuffed hands, while they both washed because his dick was still harder than a steel pole. He didn't want to make her any more uncomfortable than she already was.

Of course, that plan was shot to hell when she reached her free hand around to wash her back. Her hand accidentally brushed his dick, causing his eyes to cross from the small pleasure that shot down to his already aching balls. The moment she made contact, her whole body froze. Gage thought for sure she'd move her hand away, not wanting to touch him so intimately, but his mate always seemed to do the opposite of what he expected her to do.

He felt her tentative fingers massage the tip of him through the cloth and he groaned in pleasure. With a little more surety, she slid her hand and the washcloth down his shaft and then up again up to the tip, simultaneously cleaning him and torturing him. When her hand slid back down to grab his balls, he knew he had to stop her before this went any further.

Reaching over her head with his handcuffed hand, it enabled him to hold her around the waist and trap her free hand between their bodies. Smoothing his hand over her abdomen till he was cupping her small breast, he squeezed her nipple in warning. He loved the sound of her gasp.

"Don't tempt me, you little minx. You know we don't have time for this right now."

He wasn't sure what his little wildcat was thinking, however he wasn't going to question the small show of affection, even if it had been lust driven. Gage carefully turned their bodies so their backs faced the showerhead and pulled her backwards so he could get her hair wet. In the most docile manner he'd ever seen her, she allowed him to shampoo and then condition her hair slowly, giving her a sensual massage as he cleansed the strands. Once he made sure all the conditioner was rinsed out, he used his free hand to wash his own hair quickly.

Then he grabbed the washcloth from her and added more soap to it. With slow, sweeping motions, he cleaned Elena's abdomen up to her breasts, lingering momentarily on her nipples before reaching down to run the cloth over the folds of her pussy. He loved listening to her needy little moans as he ran the soapy rag over her body.

When she whispered his name, it sounded close enough to begging to shred some of his restraint. He let the washcloth slip from his fingers before cupping his hand over the sweet warmth of her mound, dragging his fingertips through her trimmed curls. With his other hand, he reached up and turned her chin so he could capture her lips. Taking slow, drugging sips from her lips.

As he swept his tongue into her mouth for deep, lingering kisses, he used two of the fingers playing with the curls covering her folds to rub over her entrance. Her hips started to rock, encouraging him to continue; he eased his fingers inside of her tight sheath. The tips of his fingers were high inside her, rubbing over her g-spot at the same moment that his thumb brushed over her clit. Elena moaned into his mouth and deepened their kiss.

They didn't have time to make love, but he had a few minutes to satiate his mate. After being unable to touch her for the past two years, he'd be happy to give her as many orgasms as she wanted. Hell, he'd give her so many orgasms that she wouldn't be able to walk for a week if she let him.

Thrusting his fingers in and out of her in a slow, steady rhythm, he made sure to rub over her bundle of nerves on the inside while keeping steady pressure on her clit. It didn't take long before she was begging him, demanding how his ministrations should continue.

"Faster. Harder," she panted into his mouth.

He sped his movements up little by little, enjoying the feel of her walls starting to clamp down on his fingers, however his impatient mate wanted more because she screamed, "Please, Gage! God, please fuck me!"

He wanted to fuck her so badly. His cock was rubbing against the seam of her ass and it took everything he had not to bend her forward a little bit and slam home inside of her. His instincts were screaming at him, though, telling him it still wasn't time and she wasn't ready to give in to him completely yet. He couldn't accept less than everything from her, so he held himself back, barely.

Speeding up the thrusts of his fingers so that they were moving both faster and harder inside of her, he dropped his mouth to the side of her neck and nipped the skin there. "Do you like the feel of me inside of you, mate?"

"Yes!" she gasped.

He added a third finger and then pushed up high inside of her to rub of her bundle of nerves again. "Do you need to come, baby?"

"Yes! Please, Gage. Please!" Elena screamed.

Pistoning his fingers in and out of her at a superhuman speed, he watched her face as she threw her head back to rest it on his shoulder and wailed her need. Watching her like this—on the verge of coming for him—was heady, going straight to his head like the finest of wines. It made him dizzy with so many emotions that his head started to swim.

She was right on the precipice of falling over into what he imagined would be one of the most explosive orgasms she'd probably ever had. Her pussy convulsed around his fingers as he kept up the preternatural pace.

Moving his thumb over to brush her clit again as he kept up the motions, he nipped her neck again even more sharply this time, just short of breaking skin, and then growled, "Come for me, mate."

That was all it took to push her over the edge; her back arched and she screamed his name out in a shuddery breath, her entire body trembling in climax. He held her through it, relishing this moment as he would every one after it as well. To see his strong Amazon so vulnerable in her passion was one of the greatest gifts she could ever give him.

He was panting into the skin of her neck, strung tight with his own needs and emotions that were making his heart beat faster than it ever had before. There were words he wanted to give her, promises and plans he wanted to make. She wasn't ready yet, though, so he would continue to wait until she was, all the while praying it would be soon.

Gently kissing the spot he had bitten, he squeezed his arms around her in a hug before reluctantly giving up their moment of intimacy. It sucked to give this rare moment of peace with his Amazon up, but they had other battles besides their own to fight, and it was time to go face the one that came from Germany.
Chapter Fifteen

Elena

"Stop dragging me around, dammit!"

"Well, then walk a little faster, Amazon. We're running late," Gage grumbled in annoyance.

"And let's not forget WHY we're late, shall we, lovebirds?" Alec's eyes were full of mirth as he gave her an eyebrow wiggle.

Elena did her best not to blush again. Gage's brother had been throwing verbal jabs their way ever since the two of them had emerged, dressed and ready to go, from the bedroom. She'd heard everything from, "So do you feel a little relaxed now?" to "Awww... you're wearing his shirt! How cute!"

Elena really didn't like being picked on about Gage's shirt because it brought back memories as to how she was dressed in said shirt in the first place. When the epically blue-balled and frustrated tiger had realized he was going to have to un-cuff one of them to get her dressed, he'd literally roared in frustration. That roar hadn't been enough to intimidate her into not trying to escape, though. So the minute he'd popped the lock on his cuffs, she'd started attacking him. Punches, kicks, elbows to his head, plus scratching and biting him wherever she could.

Elena became a whirlwind of arms and legs trying to get Gage off her. Not that it had done her a lick of good. He'd pinned her to his bed on her stomach with her wrists trapped in one of his big hands above her head, and then slipped the red t-shirt over her arms and head faster than she would have thought possible. His speed hadn't kept her from trying to break free while she thought she could, though. Elena had started bucking her body to try and get Gage off her when he did what might have been the most shocking but sexy thing she'd ever experienced in her life. He'd placed his teeth in a warning grip on the back of her neck and bit down just enough to shock her into submission.

For a second there, when she felt the sharp points of his teeth on her skin, she hadn't been sure if she was going to piss herself or cream her panties. She'd quickly found out the answer, however, after he had growled against her skin. Those vibrations against her neck had somehow traveled every nerve ending she owned straight to her clit, causing her to throb in an erotic pain. A throb she was still feeling at this very moment. And since she knew that both Gage and Alec would be able to smell her desire, she was freaking mortified about it.

Halfway across the parking lot, Alec started needling her again. "If I remember correctly, that's the t-shirt you bought Gage as a gag gift, right, Elena? I'm pretty sure he told me about it one time, but don't worry, I think it looks better on you rather than it did on him. You know, you don't have to advertise to get some cuddling, girl; I'd be more than happy to do it if Gage won't."

Luckily, Gage wasn't inclined to let his brother pick on her anymore. He swiped a hand out at Alec, and when Elena saw the claws protruding from his fingertips she figured he wasn't playing around with his brother at the moment. Apparently, mate status came with some serious perks, like pest protection.

Not that she was accepting Gage's mate claim or anything.

As the snarly tiger dragged her through the familiar bar's entrance, the hairs on the back of her neck immediately stood up. Someone was watching her. Glancing around the bar, she tried to spot whoever it was that was setting off her internal radar, yet she didn't see anything out of the norm. Probably because Gage was still dragging her at a fast clip behind him through the main area towards the door to the back that she had watched him come out of the first time she'd come here.

Once through the door, she found several sets of eyes watching her. All of the faces were instantly recognizable since they were the same ones she'd seen the day she'd come here to confront Gage. The black haired woman and the red haired man who seemed to be a couple; two men, one older at the head of the table and the other, younger one sitting on one side of him, both of whom resembled the black haired woman; and finally, Gage's grandmother and another man with brown hair and a pretty boy demeanor which instantly irked her.

She briefly studied all of them, taking in whatever bits of info she could, and storing it all away in her head for future use. They all seemed just as curious of her as she was of them, so she figured there was no shame in blatantly giving each of them a good once over.

She had a hard time looking Gage's grandmother in the eye, however, because she was somehow sure the woman knew that Elena had been getting down right freaky with her grandson less than an hour ago.

Some of the room's inhabitants studied her with curious expressions while the others eyed her warily like she might try and steal their wallet. Her skills were so much more badass than wallet theft, though. For instance, her expert-level shooting qualifications. These people simply had no idea.

While internally trying to guess what species of Other these people might be, she watched as Gage's grandmother leaned over and whispered into the ear of the man who sat at the head of the table with shoulder length black hair and bright green eyes. He wore power and arrogance like a second skin, but Elena had a feeling his aura of attitude was well deserved. Perhaps with that kind of surety in power he was the leader of a Clan of Vampires or an Alpha of a Pack or Pride?

Whatever Grandmother Ivanov said caused the mysterious man to smile at her, and Elena damn sure appreciated the man's smile. It was the kind of smile that spoke to a woman. It said 'I'll fuck you in ways you'll never forget and leave you a sobbing, crying mess when I'm done.' It had to be one of the sexiest things she'd ever seen.

No sooner had the thought flittered through her mind than she felt Gage's fingers squeeze her hand, so she looked over to see him glaring back at her in annoyance. Apparently he didn't like it when Elena ogled other men in front of him. Whoops.

However Gage didn't give her time to find a way to brush it off because he pulled her into his body possessively and dropped his mouth so that his lips were touching her ear.

"Should I take you into the bathroom and quickly remind you who it is your pussy belongs to?"

Her breath caught at his blunt words and she soaked her panties at the mental images of what she'd done in the shower with Gage.

When she didn't answer him right away, he added, "I'd be happy to show you that I'm the only man who knows exactly how deep, high and rough you like it, love."

Knowing the room was probably full of other shifters that she didn't want to smell her arousal, she did her best to lock down her libido. She had to get Gage to stop talking or she was going to have a spontaneous orgasm right there in that very room.

Unable to trust her voice to talk without cracking like a prepubescent teenager, she shook her head no instead.

She felt his teeth sharply nip her ear lobe and then he whispered, "Then keep those flirtatious looks of yours saved for me, mate. I'm a very jealous beast."

Nodding, she turned her head to face him and gave into the insane urge to kiss the very lips that had been teasing her ear. She wasn't sure who was more shocked at her actions, her or Gage. When she felt him falter at the touch, Elena started to pull back, feeling slightly chastised, but Gage didn't let her get very far. His lips engulfed hers in a short, fiery kiss that she swore she could feel all the way down to her toes before she heard Alec sigh on the other side of them.

"God, not this again. This is why we're late in the first place!"

Elena pulled away from Gage so she could reach over and punch the annoying shithead, but Gage kept her fist from making contact by stepping to the side and pulling her body with him.

"Leave the mate of your brother alone, Alec! A good grandson would make his babushka happy if he would go out and find a mate of his own, but NO, you insist on being this whore of a man that Jenna is always speaking of. This does not make me happy," Gage's grandmother complained in her thick Russian accent.

Elena snickered as Alec hung his head to stare at the floor at his grandmother's poor play on words.

The only other woman in the room, who Elena was guessing was Jenna, happily corrected the woman at Alec's expense, "It's man-whore, Vera. Remember? Not whore of a man."

Gage's grandmother waved her hand through the air as if it didn't matter. "This is like that other word you tried to teach me. You say asshole; I say hole of the ass, but we say same thing, yes?"

Everyone at the table was snickering at Jenna's bugged out eyes when she responded, "Not really, no."

Elena watched the man at the head of the table push a map up on the table in front of him. "Let's get back to business, people. We don't have time to waste."

Gage led her over to two empty chairs at the table where they could sit. As they did, the man in charge looked at her and inclined his head. "My name is Pack Master Davies. Please forgive me for sounding like an uncaring jackass, but I don't have time to catch you up on this situation. Since Gage insists you be here with him, please sit there, stay quiet, and then you can badger your mate for details later."

Elena immediately opened her mouth to deny being Gage's mate, but the big bastard lightly stomped on her toes in a warning to shut up. He must have considered it a love tap, however it was still hard enough to hurt like hell. Since she was in a room full of people, she couldn't very well cry out 'owie-owie-owie' or punch him in the face like she really wanted to, though.

While she was rubbing her offended toes through her shoes, she snarled at the irritating man who was quickly driving her insane, "Remember, I don't get mad; I get evil."

Gage frowned at the threat, Alec snorted, and Pack Master Davies started speaking again as if Elena wasn't dangerously close to giving Gage a titty-twister.

"Riiiiight. This from the woman who is wearing a shirt that says she'll cuddle people hard."

It might have been unwise, but Elena shot Mr. High and Mighty Davies her best death glare. That fast he'd gone from panty melting hot to someone she wanted to take with her on her next trip to the gun range. He'd make a really good target. The man seemed oblivious to her killing looks, though, because he kept talking.

"I'm sure we're all terrified of your evilness. Now, if we're done acting like teenagers with our first crushes, let's move on. It's been three months since Minna informed us of the Corvus Pack's activities and the precarious situation with Alpha Marcus Corvus. Needless to say, three months is too long. A little over a month ago, I made a phone call to one of my most trusted friends, a vampire who lives in England. I informed him of the situation and asked him to fly over and do some surveillance for us."

"It was risky, telling someone outside of us what's going on," Jenna stated somberly.

The Pack Master snarled at the Jenna woman, flashing his canines while doing so. Elena watched in fascination as the red-haired man wrapped his hand around the back of the woman's neck and gently squeezed. A silent warning.

The reaction from this Davies character seemed a little harsh to Elena, but from what she'd learned of shifter politics so far, the Pack Master was the head enchilada of wolves in a specified area. Jenna confronting him with something like that was probably the equivalent of Elena chastising the President of the United States to his face. In other words, it was a no-no.

After a tense moment, the Pack Master tucked his fangs back up into his mouth and moved on. "Baines is particularly good at blending into crowds and not being seen when he doesn't want to be; he's been spying on the Corvus Pack for me for close to a month now. Following some of the pack members as they go in and out of town, into their favorite bars, and their usual activities in general. He's tried to get close to their compound, however there's no way to do it without being discovered.

"Early this morning he contacted me with time sensitive information. We have to go in. They're planning to assassinate Marcus Corvus."

The room was deathly silent after the Pack Master dropped that little bomb. Elena couldn't help wondering how important this Marcus Corvus was, and why in the world someone was going to kill him?

Jenna was the first one to speak again. "Did your friend hear why they want to kill him now; after all this time?"

The Pack Master shook his head. "No. Baines would have told me had he heard something to that effect. He stated the whispered conversation was quickly cut off by someone else exiting the back door the two men had been talking by. Once they were interrupted, they both went back inside the bar."

The younger looking version of the Pack Master finally spoke up. "So we get Minna in here, we go over the diagrams of the compound that she's drawn us, and we start planning. We can't let them kill Corvus."

The Pack Master nodded and then scanned the room, scrutinizing each of them. "I don't think I really need to say how dangerous this mission is going to be. We'll be headed into another wolf pack's compound without knowing exactly how many of them are inside. I'm sure Baines can surveillance the place between now and then to give us a heads up on guards on the perimeter and such, but otherwise, we're flying blind. That being said, I can't make any of you go except Gage and his team. The rest of you, it's your choice. You have until Minna gets here to make it."

Once done with his speech, the dangerous Pack Master stood up from his chair and left the room. Much to Elena's surprise, Vera was right behind him. She'd never considered the fact shifters of different species intermingled relationship wise, which was ridiculous after she thought about it. Why wouldn't they? After all, they spent most of their time as humans. Their beasts didn't entirely rule them, so of course they might find someone on the other side of the fur fence to get freaky with. It was the ultimate proof that dogs and cats really could get along.

Speaking of getting along, why did the Pack Master say Gage was the one person who didn't have a choice about going? She didn't think one species of Other had any authority over another. Why would a wolf have the right to tell a feline shifter he had to go? Was Gage in some kind of trouble she didn't know about?

A tug on the handcuff still attached to her left wrist brought her attention over to Gage.

"What are you thinking about?" his low voice rumbled.

Turning her body in the chair to face him, she crossed her legs and got comfortable. She didn't want the pesky cat to know she was worried about him, therefore she'd have to give him something else to talk about. It was fact finding time.

"Who's this Corvus guy and why does some pack of wolf shifters want to kill him?"

Gage leaned forward to rest his arms on his knees and clasped his hands around the ankle Elena had dangling from her knee in front of him. "Marcus Corvus is, or was, the Alpha of the very pack that holds him hostage. That they managed to subdue him at all is somewhat amazing because he's a very old, powerful shifter. We're not quite sure what exactly has happened, but we know that, somehow, the wolves in his pack have turned into a bit of an extremist group. A few months ago, a few of their pack came here and caused a lot of trouble. That's how they came to be on our radar."

"What did they do here?" Elena asked.

"Went into a high-end restaurant and held some Senators and their families hostage." Nodding his head in the direction of Jenna and then across the table at pretty boy, he continued, "Jenna and her partner, Kent, are on the Wilmington Police Department's SWAT team. They were the ones to go in after the first SWAT team failed. After Jenna and Kent's team neutralized the situation, Jenna told her uncle, the Pack Master, about it.

"It's unusual for Others to do anything that would put the public spotlight on us, but it seemed like these guys were doing it for the attention. They claimed to the Police and the Press they were doing it for a ransom, but once we started investigating the situation, that didn't seem right. The Corvus Pack is loaded. Its members shouldn't need to do anything drastic like that for money."

Elena threw her hand up in the universal stop gesture and then leaned closer to Gage to whisper, "Back that truck up, did you just say Jenna's uncle is the Pack Master? The same Pack Master that threatened her with his snarling, cranky rabies and fangs impression?"

Gage leaned into her space to whisper back, "Yes, that's her uncle. And I hope you know whispering is pointless because every person in this room heard what you said."

Elena tried really hard not to blush in embarrassment as she looked up and found the room's inhabitants smiling at her.

Looking over to Jenna, Elena apologized hesitantly, "Ummm... sorry?"

Jenna snorted in amusement before looking at the red haired man who still held the back of her neck and was basically invading the woman's space in every way he could. "Do you think I could get away with telling Uncle Owen I think he has rabies?"

The red haired man shook his head. "Not if you want to keep breathing you won't."
Chapter Sixteen

Gage

He watched as his mate turned her back on the others while they joked and faced him again. His hands were still holding the bare skin of her ankle; he couldn't help himself. Both man and beast were anxious to have some type of physical connection with her since she'd yet to accept their mating. He started rubbing his thumbs in slow circles on her baby soft skin and it took everything he had not to purr at the contentment the action gave him.

Elena studied him for a few seconds before she asked, "So you're going on this mission to rescue this Alpha who's being kidnapped?"

Nodding his head, he answered, "Yeah. This is important. We believe this pack has terrorist type plans for the future. We know they have extreme prejudices against humans. We need to rescue the Alpha because he can give us the information we need to shut down whatever his pack is planning, and because he doesn't deserve to die this way. The man's a fucking legend in our world. It wouldn't be right to let some twisted, sadistic idiots kill him."

"I get it, Rambo; you need to save the world. What I don't understand is why the Pack Master said you were the only one here he could make go on the mission."

Gage shrugged his shoulders. "The Spec Ops group you saw me working with in the Army does more than military missions. Part of the reason we exist is to help keep the Other Community in check. The heads of the world's government organizations agree the world isn't ready to know about us, so if we hear about something that could potentially out us to the humans, it's our job to go investigate and shut it down if need be."

"Wait a second. I thought humans didn't know about you, period, point blank, end of the damn story. You're telling me the government knows?"

Gage shot her an amused grin. Sometimes her naivety was so damn cute.

"Do you honestly think that in thousands of years no government official has figured out what we are?"

Completely flabbergasted, Elena's mouth opened and shut a few times before she said, "How can that be? In my entire life, I've never heard a serious rumor about vampires, werewolves or demons! How can you sit there and tell me some of the human population knows? Certainly something would have leaked out by now?"

Gage shook his head. "You're thinking the wrong way, baby. I never said human; I said government official."

He watched as the light went off in her head. "So there are Others who are in government?"

"Exactly. We need them there. We have to know what's going on. You'd be surprised how many demons and shifters are in government positions."

"No vampires?" she asked curiously.

Gage shrugged. "A few, but it's harder with their severe allergic reactions to the sun."

She giggled at his lame joke, and he felt his chest squeeze at the sound. He'd do almost anything to hear that sound from her every day for the rest of her life.

Squeezing her ankle to get her attention, he murmured, "I have to call my team now. It won't take a minute."

Whipping his cellphone out, he dialed Tyson who picked up on the first ring. Relaying the essential info, he promised to debrief him further once the man arrived in Wilmington. The Lion was going to have to get their unit ready for action and there was no time to delay.

As he hung up the phone, Gage was already running a mental list in his head of what equipment he was going to have to grab from his house. Tyson would have the plane, so transportation for the group wouldn't be an issu—

"So, Mr. Puss in Boots, you've got an interesting conundrum on your hands," Elena suddenly announced.

Gage cocked an eyebrow in question and waited for her to continue. She looked all too smug at the moment in his opinion, which meant he wasn't going to like whatever it was that was about to come out of her mouth.

One side of her mouth ticked up in a smirk. "Are you going to take me on the mission with you...?" She raised her handcuffed hand, which of course raised his own hand, and held them in the air in front of him. "...or are you going to un-cuff me now?"

He narrowed his eyes at Elena. The scheming little shit. She was a little too smug about this.

Alec scoffed, "Of course he's not taking you. I don't care if you are an Amazon, you're still a vulnerable human. That would be like leading a lamb to the wolf buffet."

Elena lost her smug look to shoot an incredulous glare at his brother. "The wolf buffet?"

"Would you prefer it if I had said it would be like leading little Red Riding Hood to her Grandma's House of Doom?"

"I'm not completely helpless you know!" she snapped back.

"Sure, that's why you're handcuffed to my brother because you're not helpless."

Elena's face turned red in anger. "I was in the Army, jackass! You don't think they taught me a thing or two while I was in?"

Alec rolled his eyes. "Like I was saying, a piggy to the slaughterhouse." He let out an oink sound. "Here comes the bacon."

"The phrase is 'a lamb to the slaughter', you imbecile!"

Gage watched their spat with little interest. Instead, his attention was focused on his mate's face and her devious little plan. A plan he was pretty sure had just backfired on her, but she hadn't quite figured it out yet. Without having to pry it out of her, Gage was pretty damn sure Elena had thought Gage wouldn't take her on the mission. She'd probably anticipated that he would think it would be too dangerous for her. And if he couldn't take her, then he'd have to un-cuff her and let her go. At least, that's what she'd assumed.

The truth was a different matter. Gage knew all too well how capable his ornery little mate was. He'd checked her service records after he'd fucked her for the first time. He should feel bad for intruding on her privacy like that, but the fact was, he didn't. A man had to be certain of whether he'd just stuck his dick in crazy because crazy women were the ones that tried to sneak in your room and cut off your cojones while you were sleeping in retaliation for you ending things.

What he'd found while snooping through her record at the time had surprised him. Not only was it exemplary, but Elena had achieved expert status with her weapons qualifications and had also excelled in her hand-to-hand combat training. If she had been a man, they would have asked her to join one of the Special Forces teams.

Looking back, her service record should have tipped him off that she was more than the average human woman, however he'd ignored all of those seemingly important signs to focus on one thing and one thing only, she wasn't crazy. Therefore, he could keep sticking his dick in her without fear of losing it. What a fucking idiot he'd been.

So there he sat, with a conniving mate who had thought to outmaneuver him, only she had ended up being manipulated around to Gage's intentions of taking her on the mission with him by Alec instead of himself. A couple of insinuations from his brother about it being too dangerous for her to go, and she had instantly been spitting mad because Elena was more than capable of going on this mission and protecting herself. Even against shifters. All Gage had to do was put the right weapons in her very capable hands and turn her loose on those poor, mangy bastards in Germany, and they would never know what hit them.

"You're not really thinking about taking her, are you, bro?" Alec sounded worried.

Gage pulled his eyes off the very angry face of the woman he loved and glanced over to his brother. He loved the idiot, but if his sibling didn't learn quickly to watch what he said around Elena, there would be no way Gage would be able to save Alec from her wrath.

Grabbing Elena's handcuffed hand in his own, he placed them on the table in view of everyone to make a statement. He would not be separated from his mate for any reason. He rubbed his thumb in soothing circles over the baby soft skin of her hand and thanked God for what was probably the thousandth time that he was able to do such a simple act as touching her again.

"She's going."

"Have you lost your fucking mind?" Alec shouted. "You're going to get her killed!"

Gage growled at his brother, not liking the man's insinuation he would ever do anything that would or could harm his mate.

Alec leaned forward and lowered his voice. "Think about this, brother, and think hard. You and I both know you wouldn't make it if anything happened to her."

He felt Elena's body stiffen next to him. It wasn't hard to figure out she was probably a little shocked or confused at Alec's statement. She still hadn't figured out Gage had pushed her away because he would probably die of grief whenever she died because of her humanity. It was a grim reminder of exactly why he needed to keep Elena with him at all times. He needed every second he could get to work his way into the stubborn Amazon's heart. Make her love him so much that she couldn't bear to leave him when she figured it all out.

Gage gave her hand a gentle squeeze for comfort and then resumed his slow circles on her skin. He didn't have time to wallow on the matter. He had to get things taken care of so he could concentrate on Elena.

First, they had to get to Germany and rescue Alpha Corvus. Second, they had to come back and clear Lulu of her murder charges with the Ninth Circle Council. Then, finally, he could have some time with his mate. No interruptions. No worries other than their relationship.

Turning his attention away from his internal thoughts and back to his brother, he smiled. He could tell from the varying facial expressions of everyone in the room they all thought he was out of his mind to consider taking Elena with him. The only person who might understand how he felt at the moment seemed to be Adam, who was looking at him with resignation.

When you loved a woman who had the heart of a warrior, you couldn't try to wrap her in bubble wrap and put her on a shelf. You had to let her be who she was or you'd end up suffocating her fiery spirit. Gage refused to do that to his mate. Besides, he had ways to protect her from the potential dangers.

"Don't worry about Elena. By the time I'm done outfitting her with weapons, she's going to be a one woman army. If I were you though, brother, I'd stay away from her after she has fire power. I can't guarantee she won't shoot your annoying ass."
Chapter Seventeen

Elena

Sitting in a plane worth a few million dollars to the Army and still handcuffed to Gage was not where she expected to be right then. No, Elena had thought she'd be sitting back in her room at her aunts' house right about that time, let free by a man who was overprotective on a good day and a damn Neanderthal on his worst days. She'd honestly thought Gage wouldn't want her on the mission for the very reasons his brother had protested over a couple of hours earlier.

The joke was on her. Not only had Gage not let her free, but after making a few calls to his team and some arrangements with Pack Master Davies, he'd taken her to her aunts' house and flaunted his keeping her hostage like it was no big deal. The man apparently had no qualms about walking into her family's house without knocking and then asking her which way led to her bedroom.

Had he cared that her entire family had been sitting in the living room watching them?

No.

Had he listened to her when she had said she refused to tell him which room was hers?

No.

Had her two sisters or two aunts bothered to get up off their lazy asses to help her get free of the crazy tiger?

No.

All four of those bitches had sat there, quietly watching her and Gage as if they were some kind of fascinating documentary about animals mating in the wild and had not lifted one fucking finger to come help her.

What was worse? All four of them started cackling like hyenas after Gage had ignored her protests, scooped her up in his arms, and then had headed up the stairs to where the bedrooms were located. That was about the time Elena had decided it was time to disown her family. Treacherous bitches!

She was so mad at them she didn't bother to say a hi, bye, or go fuck yourself on her way out the door with Gage and a duffel bag of her clothes fifteen minutes later. They better not ask her for Christmas presents this year because, if they did, all of them were going to get a dose of Nair in their shampoo bottles and blue die in their toothpaste.

There she sat—still dressed in the stupid red, 'I would cuddle you so hard' shirt she'd bought Gage two years ago and regretting ever buying it for the bastard—in the passenger area of the plane among their rag tag group.

Everyone who had been at their meeting was here minus Grandmother Ivanov plus some chick named Minna, who apparently was from the very pack they were going to attack, and five members of Gage's unit, who had joined them on the plane.

Since the plane had taken off, the group had turned into a ball of nervous energy. Feet tapped, legs bounced, and fingers drummed on top of the arm rests as adrenaline and instincts revved up. There were only two other people on this plane besides herself who weren't twitching like crack heads in need of a good fix, and that was Jenna and her SWAT partner, Kent. Elena was ready to start shooting people because of all the damn fidgeting!

When she had asked Gage a few minutes ago in a whisper what was up with everyone and the non-stop squirming, he had mock-whispered back that shifters didn't do well in enclosed spaces. Then he had informed her there was no point in whispering because everyone there with them could hear everything she'd said.

Leaning her head back against the headrest, she closed her eyes and tried to tune all of them out. Maybe if she sat there quietly, she could block all of their incessant restlessness out and find her inner happy place.

Gage placed his hand on her thigh and started rubbing his thumb in circles over her pants. He seemed to be doing that particular gesture as often as he could, and it was starting to bug the shit out of her. She wasn't sure if the action was supposed to comfort her or turn her on, but either way, it was making him harder and harder to resist.

How was she supposed to keep the infuriating man at arm's length if he was always touching her? She didn't need the constant reminders from him about how quickly or easily he could get her wound up with a few simple strokes of his thumb.

That thumb was dangerous, dammit!

"How long will the flight to Germany take?" one of the guys in Gage's unit suddenly asked.

Elena sighed in resignation. So much for peace and quiet.

"Nine hours," mumbled Alec sullenly.

Elena's eyes snapped open at his tone and she glanced at Alec. "Is nine hours going to kill ya there, big guy? Because you sound like you'd rather have your nuts nailed to a wall than be on this airplane for that long."

Alec's mouth opened to respond, but Jenna cut him off, "Be glad we're here on Gage's plane with his unit. The last time I went to Germany with Mr. Freaky here... well, let's just say his testicles weren't the thing getting nailed on that flight."

This time Elena's eyebrows shot clear up to the top of her forehead.

"Mr. Freaky?" she asked Jenna.

The other woman snorted. "We are talking about Alec, right? Have you looked at him lately?"

Elena was kind of surprised at the woman's response. Looking back to find Alec glaring at Jenna, she took in his appearance. He had on a charcoal t-shirt that showed off his bright and colorful full sleeve tattoos, and he was wearing some of Gage's camouflage pants and a pair of combat boots she'd seen him in more than once. Scanning back up, she took in his unusual artic-blue eyes that were still pinned on Jenna and his white-blond hair was shaped into his normal Mohawk. Unless the woman was talking about Alec's hair and tattoos, Elena didn't see anything about the man's appearance that would label him a freak.

She couldn't help feeling kind of disappointed that Jenna might be prejudiced somehow. So far the woman had seemed rather friendly with her, even if she was abrupt at times. It would be a shame if Elena had to kick her ass because she was being a racist bitch towards Alec because of his hair and ink choices.

Turning back to Jenna, somewhat disgusted, she snapped, "What the hell are you talking about? I don't see anything wrong with him."

Jenna held her hands up in the air in a surrender motion. "Whoa... calm down there. I wasn't trying to piss you off. All I'm saying is, how many white tigers have you seen in the world? If the real, wild white tigers are rare, don't you think an Other white tiger would be a tad unique?"

Elena unclenched all of the muscles in her body she hadn't quite realized she'd tightened in the first place. Without even a conscious thought, she'd placed herself on the edge of her seat, ready to fly across the aisle of the plane and deck the woman for insulting Gage's brother.

Damn, this emotional shit was getting heavy for her. She hadn't even accepted her feelings for Gage yet, and here she was, ready to rumble over his brother's honor. Perhaps she shouldn't have been so stoked to come on this mission. A little distance from Gage and the rest of his family might have been a better idea.

She felt a tug on her handcuffs, so she looked to the other side of her where the pest in question was sitting. Of course he was sitting there, smiling all smugly at her display of defending his brother. He probably thought the next thing she would do was fall on her knees and declare her undying love for him. Not.

Elena was trying to think of the perfect thing to say that would wipe the smug smile right off his face when she felt a tug on her hair from Alec's side. Just what she needed, another Ivanov man poking and prodding her, which was damn annoying! She was not the Ivanov's personal human rope to be yanked on in some twisted version of tug-of-war.

Turning back to Alec, she snapped, "What!"

The hulking white tiger gave her a cheesy grin and said in a smarmy voice two octaves above his normal range, "Awwww, I lubs you, too, sis! Does this mean I can have a hug now that we're family and all?" He held his arms out wide like he was waiting for her to actually hug him.

Elena's upper lip lifted in a snarl of irritation. She must have been out of her ever loving mind to defend this annoying piece of dick lint!

"Don't get all mushy with me, idiot! I only got defensive because I thought she was being a bigot about your tattoos and general appearance. I don't like prejudice of any kind, but now that I think about what she's said, Jenna has a point. If the white tiger is a rare thing in the wild, that's got to be the equivalent of you being a one-nut-wonder or something at a side show. Can my sisters and I put you on display and let the paying customers pet you?"

Alec dropped his arms back to his sides and then tapped his lips with one finger like he was considering her proposition. "Will they be petting my very large and awesome two nuts?" he suddenly asked.

Jenna barked a laugh as Elena told him no.

"If there's no nut petting, then I'll have to pass. Sorry, sis, I can't expose my boys to the world if they're not going to be appreciated properly."

A sudden, loud banging sound came from the front of the passenger area. It had Elena and everyone else swiveling their heads to see what the noise was. What they found was Pack Master Davies with his head tilted back as he repeatedly banged it against the wall of the plane behind him.

"What the hell are you doing that for, Uncle Owen?" Jenna asked him.

He stopped banging his head then pulled his eyes from the ceiling to look at her. "I would rather beat my head against the wall until my brains are leaking out of my ears than listen to one more second about Alec and nut petting. So can you all please stop before I'm traumatized by mental images for the rest of my hopefully very long, immortal life?"

By the end of his rant the man was snarling, and Elena wasn't one hundred percent sure, but she thought that might be foam at the corner of his mouth. Great. Something else she didn't need, a rabid, old guy who could shift into a wolf and rip them to shreds on an airplane ten thousand feet in the air.

Alec leaned forward in his chair to say something to the Pack Master with a teasing glint in his eyes, however Elena stopped him by slapping a hand over his mouth.

"We're good. No more nut jokes for the window licking, white tiger." She felt Alec growl against her hand. "Is there something we can do to pass the time until you receive your intel from your friend? For instance, does that TV over there work? Because this sitting around and waiting is killing me."

The Pack Master didn't answer her, but Gage nodded and then picked up a remote and turned on the television that hung on the plane's interior wall. "We'll have to put on a DVD. It's not like the Army pays for the premium channels."

The younger man, Logan—who Gage had explained was Jenna's younger brother—spoke for the first time in Elena's presence. "Do you have Mission Impossible?"

Before anyone could answer him, Jenna snarled in his direction and pulled her pistol out of her holster. "Anyone puts on Mission Impossible and they get a bullet in the ass!"

Adam chuckled and Elena sighed in disgust. This was going to a long, long flight.
Chapter Eighteen

Gage

His sensitive ears picked up the chime of a phone seconds before Pack Master Davies said, "Baines came through with the video."

Thank God. They were only three hours outside of Germany and Gage wasn't sure how much more sitting around and doing nothing he could take. He was so bored he felt like popping his claws out and starting to shred the seat cushions for the hell of it.

The group had watched two movies, which hadn't been so bad except for the arguing about what movie to watch. He'd wanted to start throwing them off the plane if only to stop the damn arguing!

Looking over to Tyson, he gave him a chin lift and said, "Hook his phone up to the television so we can see the video."

While Tyson was linking Davies's phone up to a laptop—which would then stream the video to the TV—Gage looked over to Minna, the former Corvus Pack member. The blond submissive wolf had thrived in Adam McPhee's Pack. He'd heard through the grapevine she was dating one of Adam's wolves, which had surprised him because Gage had thought maybe she had a romantic tie with the Corvus Alpha. The German woman had begged them almost daily to rescue Corvus, yet it seemed all of that begging hadn't been for a lover, but perhaps, a friend. Hopefully, in a little more than a couple of hours, the woman would get her wish. All they had to do was go into the Corvus Pack compound, grab the hostage Alpha, and kill any hostile wolves that got in their way.

Gage called Minna's name, and when she turned her head to look at him, he gestured with his hand to the TV. "We need you to point out anything and everything you know about the compound while we go through this video, okay?"

She nodded and then went to stand beside the television. Tyson gave her a remote with some quick instructions on how to pause or restart the video and then sat back down in his seat.

Minna pushed a button on the remote, and a dark, grainy image of the ground came on the screen as the video started. The view shifted upwards until a large, brick mansion came into view. There was no fence or barrier around the house, only trees. That would work into their favor because they wouldn't have to scale a wall to get in or out.

That fast, Minna paused. In her thickly German-accented English, she spoke, "This is the front of the house." It was a good, clear shot.

He quickly analyzed what he could see of the structure. There were a lot of windows, they would have to be careful about moving about in the yard because of it. Windows meant exposure if anyone in the house happened to look outside and see them. Or shoot at them. It looked like a double door for an entrance. That could come in handy if the group had to exit quickly. More bodies could fit through two doors instead of one.

Gage scanned what he could see of the two-level structure and wondered, was there more they couldn't see?

"Is there a basement?" he asked Minna.

She nodded. "Yes. It runs almost the entire length of the house, so it is very big."

That interested Gage. A mansion that size, the basement alone could probably house a small army of wolves in case of an emergency. They probably had their hostage down there, too.

"Is that where they're holding Alpha Corvus?"

"No." Minna pointed to the second floor of the house on the screen. "I last saw him up here, in a room on the backside of the house. Well, maybe I shouldn't call it a room. They put a cot in a large walk in closet, and it became the Alpha's makeshift prison."

"Why the closet?" Jenna asked. "Why not lock him down in the basement?"

Minna shrugged her shoulders. "That's a good question. I get the impression there's something down in the basement they don't want most of the pack to stumble upon, not that most of us spend our time down there anyways. That's the enforcers' quarters. You don't go down there unless you're one of Beta Lars's enforcers for the pack or someone who's managed to get in good with them. I avoided anything about the basement." The tone of her voice was fearful. Whatever went on down in the basement had the submissive wolf scared.

"Why?" Gage asked. He needed clarification of the possible dangers. They couldn't walk into this situation completely blind. Whatever information they could get from her could be the difference between life and death later.

Minna shuddered subtly before going a little pale in the face. Licking her bottom lip in nervousness, she finally croaked out, "The men are allowed to do whatever they want down there. Think about what that could mean for a submissive wolf like me. A basement full of dominant male wolves with little to no scruples... I'd be lucky to get out alive, nonetheless intact."

Damn. The more Gage heard about this Pack, the less he liked them. It didn't take much more than the stiffening of his mate's back as she sat beside him for Gage to know Minna's insinuation was not lost on Elena. The Corvus males had obviously been given free reign by Lars to do whatever the fuck they wanted to do. A small, weak wolf like Minna would never survive that kind of abuse.

That scenario also explained a lot to Gage about why the members of the pack were letting the Alpha be held in such a dishonorable manner. When the Beta was giving you everything you wanted and letting you do whatever you wanted, why change that? This information led them to a new problem.

"Minna," Gage murmured gently, "do you think there are women trapped down in the basement, being held against their will?"

She shook her head. "Most of the weaker women who couldn't stand that kind of behavior silently slipped off after the Alpha was locked up."

Jenna softly asked, "Most? What happened to the other women then?"

"They disappeared." Minna's voice cracked on the last word. Tears spilled over her eyelashes and then a small whine escaped her. "I was the last of the women who didn't like that kind of attention from the men. The remaining women who chose to stay... let's just say they enjoy certain kinds of rough or violent tendencies, and some of the men do prefer it when their partners are willing."

Gage closed his eyes against the unwelcome visualizations of what had probably been going on in the Corvus Pack for such a long period of time. The women who had 'disappeared,' yeah, they were dead. The women who had escaped, they were the lucky ones.

That made him wonder. "Why did you stay, Minna? Why didn't you leave with the other women?"

She wiped a hand across her face to dry her tears. "I couldn't leave him, you see. Although I respect Alpha McPhee for giving me a place to stay, and a new pack that welcomes me, Alpha Corvus is my master. He saved my life when I was too young to be living on the streets to survive. Then he let me go off to a nursing school away from the pack, and he paid for it. He has helped me when I could not help myself. For that, he has my undying loyalty. I will always follow him, even if it is into death itself."

With that honest, somber statement, the picture of Minna became a bit clearer for Gage. He'd guessed for so long her interest in Corvus had been a love interest, and in a way, he had been right. It was love, but not the romantic kind he had assumed. Minna loved Corvus as a child loved a father—as a victim loved their rescuer—with a pure, innocent loyalty that could never be killed. The kind of loyalty a sick, twisted wolf like Lars would kill for.

Minna sniffled as if she might cry any second. "I finished nursing school about a year and a half ago and came home to my Pack. A few months later is when Lars took over. I don't know what the Beta originally gave Alpha Corvus to incapacitate him, but the Alpha had a bad reaction to whatever it was. It almost killed him. Lars had me dragged out of my bed in the middle of the night and told me that, if the Alpha died, I died with him. Then, Lars ordered me to keep Alpha Corvus alive and in a coma with the same stipulation, if the Alpha died, I was dead, too. I was the only pack member with medical knowledge is what saved me from being dragged to that basement. Lars told all of his enforcers I wasn't to be touched."

Minna dragged in a ragged breath. "I kept Alpha Corvus alive those six months I was with him, but he was starting to deteriorate and I couldn't figure out why. I'm worried about what state he'll be in now since I haven't been there for the past three months to take care of him."

The tone of the plane was somber after those words. He imagined every man on the plane was filled with the same unbridled fury he was feeling himself. Who knew what his mate and Jenna were feeling; sympathy, pity, a need for vengeance for the small, sensitive blond wolf.

They didn't have time to dwell on what hells Minna had lived through, or the women who were buried and dead somewhere. They had a mission to plan, an Alpha to rescue, and a bunch of depraved, shameless wolves that Gage planned to rip apart with his own two hands.

Pack Master Davies must have been thinking along the same lines he was because he thanked Minna for what she told them and asked her if she could tell them any more.

Minna pushed the play button, and for the next hour, the group stopped, started, and rewound the surveillance video a dozen times. They asked Minna questions, pointed out possible entrances and exits to the building, and plotted the best way for the lot of them to go in and wipe out a bunch of bastards who deserved anything other than an easy death.
Chapter Nineteen

Gage

After what felt like an eternity, the co-pilot's voice finally came over the intercom. "ETA is thirty minutes."

Gage looked over at his unit. "Lock and load. Tyson, give me the duffle bag." He looked over to Davies. "Your man going to be at the air strip in time?"

Davies whipped out his cell phone and started texting as Tyson placed the bag at his feet then gave Elena a wary look and asked him, "You sure you want to do this?" He pointed to the bag.

Gage snorted. "There are worse things than giving her this."

The lion-shifter pride leader's eyes bugged out of his head. "I'm not so sure of that, but it's your funeral, man, not mine. I'm glad I'll be on the other side of the house." With that, Tyson walked away. Gage looked over at his mate, who was watching him with one eyebrow cocked up in curiosity.

He waited for her to say something, perhaps ask what was in the bag, but she didn't say a word. Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew the key to their handcuffs and unceremoniously unlocked them. Elena's face was a mask of surprise, however they didn't have time to bullshit around about him finally taking the handcuffs off. They had to get ready for what they were about to do.

Not ready to give her the entire contents of the bag yet, he bent down and unzipped enough of the bag to reach his hand in and grab the change of clothes and the pair of combat boots he'd had Tyson procure for her. Pulling them out, he zipped the bag back up quickly so she couldn't see the remaining contents, and then thrust the clothes in her direction.

"Go to the bathroom and change."

Elena narrowed her eyes at his tone, but she grabbed the clothes and disappeared into the bathroom.

Not having a minute to waste, he asked Tyson to pull the floor plans they had of the house up on the television. They needed to go over it and their plan one last time before they left the plane. The sounds of the men checking and double checking their weapons played like a familiar song in the background as he waited for Tyson to finish setting up their visual. As the simple lines of Minna's drawing popped up on the screen, Elena came back out of the bathroom.

Some men fell in love with women who looked like sensual supermodels, were high maintenance, and couldn't imagine leaving their house without a purse on their arm. Other men fell in love with women who were sedate, angelic-looking in a girl-next-door, simple way and could care less for fashion. Most men wouldn't give a second glance at the woman he loved.

Elena was thin in a way that made him want to feed her junk food for a couple months to put a few extra pounds on her. She didn't strut like she was sex on legs or walk gracefully like a dancer would, instead she marched quickly and quietly as if she had purpose. He didn't think she'd worn a bit of make-up since the day he'd met her and he'd only ever seen her hair down, in her Army regulation bun, or up in a ponytail, as it was now. Plus, the day she ever willingly wore a dress or skirt would probably be the day that Armageddon hit, yet as he watched his mate stride towards him in a set of Army regulation camos, he couldn't help thinking she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Perfect for him in every way. He could only hope that soon she would see they were perfect together.

She resumed her seat next to him, remaining stiff in posture, as if she was waiting for him to do something. Unable to stop himself from nettling her, he leaned his head into her space and barely stopped himself from laughing when she moved her hands away from him, as if she were afraid he was going to handcuff her again.

He didn't stop leaning in until his lips were touching the shell of her ear and then he whispered. "Seeing you dressed like that brings back a lot of memories, Sergeant Demos. Remember the time you came off shift and I surprised you in your apartment and used your own shirt to—"

Elena leaned away from him then slapped a hand over his mouth before he could finish the sentence. A blush spread over her cheeks at the same time she scowled at him as they heard several snickers behind them.

In an angry hiss, she whispered, "You know damn well they all heard that. If you don't want me to cut your nuts off and roast them over an open fire, you won't do it again, cat."

Gage smiled under her hand, satisfied he'd been able to rile up his mate so easily.

Tyson cleared his throat uncomfortably, a sure sign he was nervous because Elena had no clue just how on point she'd been with the roasting comment without realizing the weapon Gage was going to give her. "Ready to review the plans, Ivanov?"

Placing a gentle kiss on Elena's palm, he pulled away from her, knowing the time for playfulness was over. They couldn't afford to fuck this mission up. Too much was riding on their group going in and completing this successfully. An Alpha's life was on the line and they needed to do what they could to shut this pack down. If they didn't at least temporarily incapacitate them, there would be no telling what they might do next, and the subsequent scheme they pulled off might finally alert humans about the supernatural nature of those living among them. That was a risk they couldn't take.

Turning to face the group, he motioned for Minna to go back over to the television as she had hours before.

Glancing down to his watch, he noted the time. "ETA is now twenty minutes. All right, wolf, let's go through this one more time."

Twenty-five minutes later, they were departing the plane in the dead of night, while fifty feet away a man with a small moving truck painted black was waiting for them.

Gage had the duffel bag in one hand and Elena's hand in his other. Surprisingly, she hadn't fought him when he'd grabbed it and threaded his fingers through her own. He needed the contact to soothe his tiger, who was anxious about them taking their mate into danger. His human side understood the tiger's anxiety, however he also knew that, if Elena didn't stray too far away from him and kept ahold of the weapon he was about to give her, she would be fine. His mate was a warrior and could hold her own. He had to have faith in her and her skills if he was going to keep his sanity.

As they drew closer to the truck, Gage took in the features of Davies's co-conspirator. The vampire was leaning against the truck with his arms crossed over his chest and one foot overlapping the other. On the surface, he seemed at ease, like he didn't have a care in the world and hadn't been watching an unstable wolf pack for the past couple of months.

As Gage stopped feet in front of him, he noticed small laugh lines around the man's eyes and the dimple that appeared in his left cheek when the man smiled at the Pack Master. The vampire looked to have been frozen in immortality around his mid-thirties. He was slightly shorter than Gage at just under six-feet with blonde hair. His pale skin stood out in stark contrast to his black clothes and Gage saw the outline of a tattoo on the side of his neck that disappeared under his shirt.

Davies held his hand out to the man in greeting, which the vampire grabbed to pull Davies into a one-armed hug. As they gave each other slaps on the back, the Pack Master murmured. "It's been too long, my old friend. You need to stop hiding out a continent away and come home."

They separated, and the vampire shrugged. "Where is home? England? America? When you've lived as long as we have, you become your own home. Everything around you changes, and you learn that you are your only constant. I've been thinking about coming back to America, though. Introduce me to your crew and let's get going."

Davies slapped a hand down on the man's shoulder and turned to face them. "This is Rhett Baines. You remember my nephew, Logan, I'm sure." Holding his other hand out in Jenna's direction, he motioned her to come to him. When she stepped forward, Adam was plastered to her back like a second skin. This caused the Pack Master to snort in amusement. "This is my niece, Jenna, and her mate, Adam McPhee, the Alpha of North Carolina." Davies pointed to Gage, "This is Gage Ivanov; his mate, Elena; his brother, Alec; and the rest of the men are Gage's unit."

Baines tilted his head to the side and stared at Elena. When Gage watched the man's nostrils flare, it took everything he had not to reach forward and rip the man's head off his shoulders. The tiger didn't like the other man sniffing the air for his mate's scent.

"She's human." Baines turned his attention to Gage. "Do you think it's wise to bring your human mate here? I imagine she'll be more of a liability than a help."

Gage heard Tyson chuckle behind him. Ignoring that, he stared at his inquisitor. "I'll worry about my mate; you worry about getting us to the Corvus Compound unseen."

Baines shrugged. "Your loss if she dies, not mine." With that parting shot, he walked to the back of the truck and slid open the door for them before disappearing to get in the front to drive.

Gage watched Davies peel off from the group to sit in the cab of the truck with his friend so he could update the vampire about the things they had learned on the flight over as the rest of the group climbed in the back of the vehicle. Once they were all in, Gage pulled the door shut. The truck roared to life and immediately took off towards their destination.

Feeling Elena next to him against the wall, he set the duffle on the floor in front of him and then pulled a flashlight out of one of his cargo pockets. Turning it on with the beam shining on the bag, he crouched down over it and motioned for Elena to do the same. When they were both situated comfortably, balancing on the balls of their feet as the truck turned to the left, he got her attention by running one of his fingers down the side of her face.

"You already know that you're to stay with me on the first floor of the house when we go in. Our objective is to keep any of the Corvus Pack from going up to the second floor while the others rescue Corvus. What's in this bag is how you're going to help me do that."

He unzipped the bag completely and then spread it open so she could get a glimpse of the contents. His mouth kicked up on one side when he heard her gasp.

"Is that...?"

"A M2 Flamethrower? Yes."

The faint scent of Elena's arousal filled the air around him and Gage guessed his mate had creamed her panties. He wished he knew if it was because he'd pleased her or if she was having an internal orgasm over the idea of using such a weapon.

When she spoke, her voice almost quivered in excitement. "I've always wanted to use one of those."

Gage snorted. While most women liked roses or chocolates, his mate dreamed of high firepower weapons.

Pulling out the heavy weapon, he set the tank and firing apparatus on top of the bag. "The tank weighs almost seventy pounds, so we're not going to put this on you until we get close to the house. The two large canisters hold napalm. The third, smaller canister holds the compressed gas. This valve here is the Pressure Regulator; you need to turn it before we go into the house. You with me so far?"

Elena nodded her head and he knew his little Amazon was ready for action.

The truck made a sudden right turn and Elena grabbed his thigh to keep her balance. Ignoring the heat of her small hand so close to where he would love to feel it, he pointed to the flamethrower's shooting half and explained, "This is called the gun housing. The next thing you do is flip the ignition valve here on top, backwards. That valve keeps the fuel from flowing out of the gun nozzle when the trigger lever is released. When you squeeze the trigger, the fuel will be able to flow through the nozzle, but only if the valve is open.

"There are two handles and two triggers. The one up front is the ignition trigger. You need to pull it first. You'll see a small flame appear at the front of your nozzle after you do that. The second trigger down by the stock handle is the fuel release trigger for the napalm. Don't waste your fuel. When you use it, pull the trigger for five second bursts to conserve what's in your tank. The flame will shoot out up to sixty feet.

"Since it has an extended reach, I'm going to face you towards the basement entrance. It won't take long for the enforcers down there to try to come out in force once they know we're in the mansion. The minute you see them coming, light 'em up. I'm going to concentrate on the front entrance of the house and the stairs leading up to the second floor. I need to keep both of those clear of any threats. If one of the wolves happens to get too close to you, scream for me. Nothing will keep me from getting to you, do you understand?"

This time her nod was somewhat somber, though it was also determined. Gage could tell her trained soldier-mentality was clicking back into place after lying dormant over her time as a civilian.

"How long do you think we'll have to hold the first floor?" she asked him.

The truck started to jolt rapidly beneath their feet and Gage knew they were now driving over uneven ground instead of pavement, which meant they were probably nearing their stopping point.

He tried to take a calming breath and shrugged at her question. "Not long, hopefully. No more than ten or fifteen minutes, if we're lucky. Anything longer than that and we risk pack members in the house calling for reinforcements to come to the compound. We have no idea how many wolves live in close proximity to their compound, so we'll need to be in and out as fast as possible. You ready for this?"

Elena smiled and answered, "Hooah."

Gage barked a laugh, as did some of the other occupants of their truck.

Ignoring everyone else, he leaned into her space so they were close enough that the tips of their noses were touching. "Remember, you're my mate first and a soldier second. Nothing is more important to me than you are. So don't be proud and think you can handle all of this on your own. We work as a team, and the nanosecond you think you might be in trouble, you yell my name."

Wrapping his hand around the back of her head, he then touched his forehead to hers. "I can't live without you again, Elena, and I don't want to anyways, so please don't do anything stupid."

She gave him no response, and as tough as he was, he didn't think he could take another one of her denials about how they weren't mates while he was so on edge about her safety. His tiger was already yanking at the inner leash he kept it on, anxious to come out to protect their mate.

As the truck slowed down to a stop, presumably at wherever they were going to park it for a quick getaway, Gage was afraid he might lose the battle on keeping his beast locked down, when suddenly Elena brushed her lips against his own in a kiss that held no hesitation but plenty of promise, and the enraged roars of his animal inside his head melted away.

In that moment, nothing else mattered except the kiss of his mate.
Chapter Twenty

Elena

What says 'I love you'?

A flamethrower.

That Gage had given her a fire wielding weapon of mass destruction to defend herself on this mission was proof of two things. One, the man knew her inside and out; he would know that having her hands on such a piece of equipment would almost send her into fits of glee. Two, he'd given her something that would not only defend her, but it would do so in such a way the hostile wolves wouldn't get anywhere near her. It was proof that, although he was placing her on a battlefield where she was grossly unequal to her opponents, he had faith in her to survive it anyways. For that alone, he had definitely earned the kiss she'd just given him.

Gage was quickly breaking down all the emotional defenses she'd erected against him. Little by little, through not only his words but also his actions, he was showing her that he did indeed love her. Which was why she was still unbelievably confused about his reasoning for hurting her like he had. Or rather, the lack of reasoning since he continued to refuse to fully explain it. She was starting to think that, whatever his reasons were, they didn't matter because after getting Gage back in her life to some capacity, she was loathed to let him go again.

And this time around, she could tell he was more invested in her—in them—than he'd ever been before. He showered her with affection. He spoke with her openly in candid ways he'd never done before. He tried to verbally beat it through her hard head that he wasn't going anywhere this time. He'd apologized profusely for hurting her. And, most importantly, he gave her mind shattering orgasms that ruined her for all other men.

Elena still wasn't one hundred percent sold on this mate thing, however she was open to dating him again. After they got home from this mission, she was going to sit him down and be honest. He could consider this a relationship, or whatever it was that he wanted, as long as he let her take it slow on her end. If he was being honest about her being his mate, then it shouldn't matter to him that she wanted to take baby steps towards that conclusion for their relationship. If he was truly her mate, then he would metaphorically be there waiting for her when she was ready to cross the proverbial finish line with him. It all sounded perfectly reasonable to her.

When the rear door to the truck was pulled up, she set aside her inner musings. Elena was about to be knee deep in supernatural creatures that wouldn't hesitate to rip her to bloody shreds and feast on her remains. If she wanted to stay alive long enough to go home and finally get laid by her boyfriend, she needed to set aside the personal stuff for now.

Gage grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the back of the truck with one hand while holding the duffle bag with the M2 in the other hand. When their group was all unloaded, they huddled together to listen to Baines's quiet words.

"Ten miles to the north is their compound. Gage, you'll need to carry your mate on your back if we want to get there at our pace and not hers. You'll also need to do the same when we leave. Davies's boy here tells me you all know your positions and jobs. I'm going to stand outside the house to intercept any incoming trouble."

Baines slung a black backpack off his shoulder so he could dangle it in front of them. "I brought some of my personal stash of fun with me when I came here, so if you hear some loud explosions outside, that's me telling you there's too many incoming threats and to get your asses out of there. Understood?"

Elena gave her affirmation along with everyone else under Baines's shrewd gaze. "Good. Let's get this over with then. I'm ready to put some naughty puppies through some training paces."

Between one eye blink and the next, their entire group was gone. The reality of how fast everyone had disappeared shocked the shit out of her. She had expected people to disappear in a trick of smoke and mirrors at a Las Vegas magician's show, not in the clear night air before her very eyes without the aid of illusion. It was a brief and amazing reminder of how very different all of them were compared to her. Elena couldn't even make her favorite brownie ice cream disappear that fast, nevertheless herself.

Before she had time to think much more about such a display of unnatural speed, Gage was squatted down in front of her, waiting for her to climb on his back. She stepped forward, plastered herself to his back, wrapped her arms around his thick neck, and barely caught her squeal when he stood up. Gage grabbed her feet to wrap around his waist, and when she took the hint and tightened her legs around him, he reached back with his hand to swat her on the ass.

"Hold on, Amazon. This is going to be the quickest ride you've ever been on."

Elena snorted in amusement. "Funny, I thought it would be the time you were drunk and horny after watching that X-rated movi—"

Her words were lost in the wind as Gage charged forward. Elena's ponytail flew about her head, and it was hard for her to breathe because the tiger was speeding so quickly to their destination. She made the mistake of looking down at the ground, which they seemed to practically fly over with how fast Gage was traveling, and her stomach turned a bit queasy at the sight of the green blur underneath them. Trying to stem her nausea, she buried her face next to Gage's neck and closed her eyes.

A sudden, brutal jarring of her body made Elena feel like she should have launched forward right off Gage's back and over his head—much like a car crash victim went through their front windshield—except Elena didn't go flying because Gage had a death grip on her legs that was totally going to leave big, ugly bruises on her tomorrow. Her lungs were burning from lack of oxygen; she tried to take a deep breath in again and found she could this time, only the breath didn't help the feeling that her stomach was trying to climb up her esophagus and out of her mouth.

Elena started to gag and Gage gently dropped her legs to the ground, keeping a hand on her butt to steady her. As she felt another violent dry heave coming, Elena pushed on the annoying tiger's back until he finally let her go completely so she could double over with her hands on her knees.

After managing to not upchuck her entire stomach, Elena gasped, "ASSHOLE."

She expected Gage to chuckle at her, but was met with silence. Elena picked her head up to look at him and found him watching her pensively with the flamethrower in his hands.

Holding the weapon's tank-pack out to her, he whispered, "We have to get you suited up to go, babe. There's no time to waste."

Understanding his seriousness, she stood up and turned around so he could help her put on the pack. He slipped the straps up her arms and over her shoulders so it hung from her back like a heavy backpack. She snapped the waist strap shut and tightened it so everything was secure and in place. Gage then walked around to stand in front of her, still holding the weapon's gun out to her, yet he didn't let go of it when she grasped it with both hands. Instead, he held on tightly, seemingly reluctant to let go. Elena looked up to question his hesitation when she saw the reason written as plain as day on his face.

Gage Ivanov was scared shitless.

It was a look she'd never seen on him before, and she would never forget it. He closed the distance between them so the only thing that separated their bodies from touching was the formidable weapon in their hands. "I want you to know that I have faith in your abilities, Elena. I know you're going to go in there kicking ass and taking names, but I still need to ask you to take care of yourself. You're not merely protecting yourself, you're protecting me, too."

She gave him a disbelieving look. "Gage, there's not a thing on this earth I can protect you from that you couldn't protect yourself from."

She felt his grip on the gun tighten, and for a second she was worried his preternatural strength would bend the metal it was made from and permanently damage it. She couldn't bring herself to ask him to lighten up, though, because the way he was staring at her made her feel as though he was looking right through the fleshy shell of her body, straight into her soul. At the same time, it appeared to her he was opening himself up in a way he'd never done before so she had the same privilege of seeing through him to his soul. The sensation was nothing like she'd ever experienced before in her life. She couldn't have looked away from him even if her life had depended on it.

Gage's low, gruff voice whispered back, "Don't you get it by now? You carry my heart with you wherever you go. Whether you're right by my side or half a world away from me, you carry everything I am with you. I need you to protect that by keeping yourself alive because, if you die, I die with you."

Every molecule in her body froze at his obvious sincerity. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. What remained of her emotional barriers to keep him out of her heart? Gone. Said heart was clenched with so much love and emotion that it was painful. Elena knew, like it or not, she most certainly still loved Gage Ivanov, and quite possibly more than she ever had before.

She opened her mouth to say something, anything really, but a hard bump against her leg caused her to jump in surprise and then look down. Standing silently, watching her with crystal-clear, light-blue eyes, was a large, black wolf. Perhaps she should have been scared about a wolf big enough to rip her to shreds sneaking up on her like that, but she wasn't for two reasons. One, Gage was still standing calmly in front of her, and the man would most assuredly rip anything to shreds that could possibly endanger her. And two, those eyes looked exactly like Jenna's eyes. Elena was ninety-nine percent certain the wolf was, in fact, Jenna O'Conner. The remaining one percent of her hoped she didn't crap her pants if she was wrong and the wolf suddenly took a bite out of her leg.

Keeping her gaze glued to the wolf's, she asked out loud, "Is that...?"

"Jenna? Yeah. Now pay attention to me, Amazon. Pretend the nosey wolf isn't there."

Elena returned her focus to Gage. He grabbed her chin with his fingers, holding her in place for his dominating stare. "Answer me. You'll be safe?"

She softened towards him. "Yes, Gage. I promise, if I need help, I'll let you know. The same goes for you, though, cat. If you need help, you let me know, too. Sparky and I will come running to save the day."

One side of his lips tipped up and he finally let go of the flamethrower's gun. "Sparky?"

Elena petted the gun's nozzle. "You can't have something this beautiful and not name it. It was either Sparky or Krakatoa." She shrugged. "Sparky seems spunkier."

He shook his head in amusement. "All right, Sparky, you ready to do this? The others are waiting for us."

Elena looked over to where the rest of their group was indeed waiting for them. Jenna, Adam, and Logan in their wolf forms; Alec in his white tiger form; and the rest of them in their human forms except for the vampire who was, well, just a vampire.

Looking back to Gage, she nodded again. "Affirmative. Let's do this."

Gage leaned back into her space and reached an arm around to the back of her pack. Elena knew he was turning the pressure regulator valve for her tanks on, but she became distracted because he lightly touched his lips to her own.

Pulling back from the sweet, chaste kiss he whispered again, "I'm going to pick you up in my arms this time and run you to the front door so you can keep up with us. Hold your breath and hide your face into my chest so you don't get sick this time. When they have the Alpha and it's time to go, I'll grab you and run straight to the truck. Be ready, and don't forget to cover the basement door because we're depending on you to keep the enforcers that are down there off of us. Ready?"

Elena nodded one last time and then, in the blink of an eye, they were moving at what felt like the speed of light. Her stomach dropped away again, but it immediately jumped up into her throat because, that fast, they were stopped in front of the house. Gage placed her on her feet, and though a little woozy, Elena turned to watch Tyson quickly picking the lock on the front door.

Gage gently pulled her behind his body because Elena wasn't meant to be in the first wave through the door. She and Gage would be stepping through last and taking their places to hold the first floor while the Pack Master, Minna, Alec, Jenna and Adam made their way up to the second floor where the hostage Alpha was supposedly being held. Gage's unit, Logan and the vampire would be spread out around the house to combat any wolves who might be protecting the perimeter of the compound.

The door popped open, Tyson stepped back, and the Pack Master quickly, but quietly, pushed through the front entrance of the Corvus homestead. After that things moved pretty quickly. Those who were meant to go inside the house did. Those who were supposed to spread around outside the house were already gone. And, just as planned, Gage and Elena were the last ones through the door. By the time she made it into the house, the others were already halfway up the grand staircase and moving fast.

Her combat boots thudded against the tile floor as she made her way to the area where Gage was pointing at for her to stand. This place was massive. Minna had informed them it was ten thousand square feet between the first and second floors, not including the basement. That was a lot of area to cover. Good thing their tactic was standing their ground and securing the front door.

She had her gun up and ready to shoot at a moment's notice while she swiveled her head around to take in the interior. It was too quiet and she didn't like it. Where were these wolves? Sure it was about three o'clock in the morning here, but Elena had thought at least one person might be up and about.

Looking for any threats and making sure none of the Corvus wolves snuck up on her, she continued in her attempt to take in the details of the space. Low lighting throughout the first floor caused her eyes to strain, but she guessed it was on low because shifter eyes wouldn't need a lot of light to see at night. Everywhere she looked, Elena saw old world charm, rich fabrics, and opulent paintings. Knowing shifters were immortal and sometimes lived thousands of years before they went crazy and had to be put down or were killed off by a rival, she wondered how old some of this shit was. If she had to light up Sparky, she really hated the idea she might roast some five-hundred-year-old painting or some antique piece of furniture that could be worth a fortune.

She did another visual sweep in the opposite direction. They'd now been in the house a minute tops. Surely something would happen soon.

Her scan of the area brought Gage into view where he stood on the other side of the stairs. He was also scanning the area, but she figured he was doing a much better job with his superior senses acting as an earlier warning system, compared to her inferior sight and hearing capabilities. She glanced down to his hands resting at his sides, and she couldn't be sure because of the dim lighting, however she thought the tips of his fingers looked quite a bit longer and pointier than normal. Were those his claws?

He turned his head to glance at her, and Elena inhaled sharply when she caught sight of his eyes glowing a little in the dark, kind of how a dog or a cat's eyes glowed at night. The effect was both beautiful on the fierce man and just a wee bit creepy.

Knowing she couldn't let herself get distracted by the titillating sight of Gage, she returned her visual sweep in the other direction. Bringing her back around to the basement door which was still closed with no light shining from underneath it. Maybe the Corvus Pack had made sudden vacation plans and bugged out? Because this house was too quiet and surely someone would have sensed or stumbled upon them by that point.

Elena figured they'd been in the house for a minute and a half now, yet it had felt like an eternity waiting for something to happen. Hopefully, in a couple of minutes, her comrades were going to come back down those stairs, with one more person, and they could bug out of here.

She was just about to return her visual sweep back to Gage's direction when a small movement caught her eye. She kept her eyes glued to the area, trying to figure out what it was that had inadvertently caught her attention, when she heard a low, menacing growl from behind her.

Gage.

He sensed whatever it was, too, and that's when she saw it. The basement door handle was turning oh so slowly, as if the person opening it was trying to open the door without getting their attention. Elena's eyes were locked on the doorknob while she watched the handle stop turning, then start once more. She flipped her ignition valve on the top of her gun nozzle, placed both of her fingers on the flamethrower's triggers and then physically braced herself for whoever it was that was about to come out of the door.

Gage was still growling lowly behind her. All of the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck were standing on end, and sweat was beading on her forehead. She felt the tingles of anticipation throughout her body as if she were being electrified as the doorknob finally stopped turning. Her breaths were coming in small, fast pants as she pulled the ignition trigger, causing a small flame to appear at the end of her gun nozzle. The door eased open bit by bit and her finger on the fuel trigger actually twitched, almost causing her to let out her first load of devastating flame, but she stopped herself before it happened.

Which was a good thing because the a pale, little hand the size of a small child's eased out of the open crack of the door to grip the door frame. Elena was stunned speechless.

Good God, she'd almost pulled the trigger and killed a fucking child.
Chapter Twenty-One

Gage

He heard Elena gasp when the small hand appeared from behind the door. Though he wanted to go over and stand at her back against any perceivable threat that might come, Gage had to stand his ground until they figured out what was going on. If the enforcers figured out they were there, they might have sent the child out as a distraction while they attacked from another direction. So he stood on his side of the ridiculously over-sized staircase with half of his attention on the door to the basement and the other half facing the opposite direction.

The door eased open incrementally until a little head peered out from behind it, and what he saw made him want to roar in rage. A little boy with big, brown eyes rounded in fear and a massive bruise covering his right cheek stared at Elena. Who would hit a child in such a manner? Gage felt his blood boil at the thought of how hard the little boy would have had to have been hit to receive a mark that big and colored such a deep purple. He saw the little boy's bottom lip tremble and a tear drop down from his left eye as he looked from Elena to Gage.

Was he afraid of them? Or was he afraid of the person who had hurt him? Would the child's protective wolf parent be right behind it? The thought didn't ring true to Gage because, if the child had a protective parent, the boy would have yelled for them already to come and protect him from two people who were obviously intruders. Or was the child's abuser standing behind the boy, ready to use him as a deterrent to Elena using the flamethrower against them?

Gage's mind was racing a hundred miles an hour at all of the possible scenarios. When the boy unfroze from his surprised position, he soundlessly slipped out from behind the door and took a step away from it. Elena took a matching step backwards from the boy, and he could tell it was because she was unsure of what might happen with an innocent civilian put in front of her.

The boy glanced back at the door and then took another hesitant step in Elena's direction. This time his wary mate didn't take a step back, though. She stood her ground, waiting to see what would happen.

Although he was halfway across the expansive room, Gage heard the little boy suck in a small breath before he whispered, "Will you help me?"

He could almost feel his mate's hesitation across the room at the small child's plea, and he didn't like it one bit. This could be a trap.

Gage quickly looked about to make sure no one was trying to sneak up on them as he heard Elena whisper back hesitantly, "Help you with what?"

Not seeing any danger around them, he'd looked back in her direction to see the little boy, whom he was guessing was around ten-years-old, take another step in her direction. "Take me away from here? Please?"

The terror in the boy's voice shredded Gage's soul. It was tortured. No one that young should sound like that.

"Why do you want us to take you away from here? Isn't this your home?" Elena asked him quietly.

He whispered back, "No."

"You're going to have to help me out here, kid, if you want me to help you. Have you been kidnapped? Is that why you can speak English; because you're not from here?" Elena asked the questions quickly and quietly, seemingly aware of the possible danger of taking the time to talk to the child when she should be on alert for trouble.

The boy shook his head. "I haven't been kidnapped, but please take me with you!" When his voice cracked loudly on the last word, his head jerked back to look at the door to the basement, as if afraid someone had heard him.

"If you haven't been kidnapped, and this is your home, why would you want to come with us? Don't you want to stay here with your mommy and daddy?"

Gage watched as the boy shook his head again, only this time it was frantically. The child's fear must have won out over his wariness of them as strangers because he covered the distance separating him from Elena until he stood right in front of her. Elena moved the nozzle of the flamethrower to the side so it wasn't directly in the kid's face, pointing it again at the basement door.

The boy sobbed, but it was in a manner that you could tell he was still trying to be as quiet as he possibly could. "This isn't my home. My mom and I lived in Arizona. She brought me here a month ago to meet my dad for the first time. She said it was important because I was different." Tears poured down his face and snot ran down his nose. He used the sleeve of his ratty, long-sleeved shirt to wipe his face. "As soon as Mom told him who I was... he... he... he killed her!"

Gage watched as Elena dropped down into a crouch in front of the child and then reached her hand out to wipe away some of his new tears. "Who killed her, honey? Your dad?"

The boy nodded again.

He couldn't see his mate's face, however he could tell Elena was trying to soothe him by putting her hand on his shoulder and using a gentle tone of voice. "Why did he do that? Do you know?"

The kid stepped closer to Elena, into the space between her legs, seemingly looking for comfort. Looking over his shoulder one last time to check the basement door he was obviously so afraid of, he then looked back to Elena. "He said she had to die because she was human. I didn't understand what he meant at first, but then later that day, he changed right in front of me. He became a monster and all of his friends laughed at me when I screamed!"

The boy had the bottom of his shirt all knotted up in his hands, fidgeting. "Please, lady, please, please, please take me away from here."

Gage watched his mate run one of her fingers gently over the bruised side of the kid's face. "Did he do this to you, honey?"

When the boy meekly nodded once more, Gage was filled with fury. To hear the child's own father had hurt him in such a way was despicable. Parents were supposed to protect their children, not torture and batter them. Besides, shifter children were so rare it was considered a blessing to have one. Who could treat such a gift that way?

As much as his heart broke for the child, though—and this scene bothered him beyond measure—Gage didn't like the timing of all of this. Sure, it wasn't the kid's fault, but they had to be alert. Anything could happen at any moment, and you could never be certain when things were going to go to shit on a mission.

Elena smoothed the boy's dark hair back from his forehead. "Can you tell me if there are any other children in the basement? Any women?"

"Only my dad and the men he works with are down there. I didn't see anyone else in the basement when I snuck up here for some food because they didn't feed me dinner." And, as if on cue, the kid's stomach rumbled loudly.

"Okay, little man, what's your name?"

"Zane."

"Okay, Zane. I need you to go stay by the front door behind me. Squat down and try to make yourself look as small as possible. My friends and I are here to do something, but we'll be leaving in a couple of minutes. 'Til we leave, I need you to do what I say and don't move no matter what happens. Can you do that for me?"

The boy nodded enthusiastically. "Thank you, lady!"

Elena pushed the boy in the direction of the front door. "Go now, do what I—"

An enraged roar ripped through the house from the second floor and Gage could feel the vibrations of it through the soles of his boots. Instinctively, he knew it was Alec.

Instantly alert for whatever was about to happen, he saw Elena push the terrified kid towards the door again.

"Now, Zane! Go! Do what I said NOW!" she snapped.

She gave him a quick once over, and Gage took the opportunity to say what needed to be said. "Burn those bitches like bad barbeque, babe."

A small flame popped up at the end of her nozzle again as she pulled the ignition trigger and then turned back to focus on the oncoming threat.

The whole house was suddenly clamoring with noise. Gage could hear fighting upstairs and feet thudding on the basement stairs. Trouble was closing in fast from two different directions. He looked over his shoulder at the front door to check on Zane and found the kid exactly where Elena had told him to be, squatted down with his arms thrown over his head to protect himself.

As the thunderous sound of fighting and running footsteps became louder, he looked toward the top of the staircase. Three wolves were vaulting over the bannister of the second floor, forgoing the stairs altogether, dropping down to the ground floor with their sights set on him. He heard a loud banging sound to his left where Elena was, like a door hitting the wall hard, followed shortly by the hissing blast of Elena's flamethrower and agonizing screams, but he couldn't look over there.

As his three opponents landed on their feet, Gage quickly took in their state of dress, or in one of their cases, the lack thereof. It was apparent they'd been in bed because one wolf was in his boxers, a second wolf in some sleep pants and the third wolf was butt ass naked. Not that being naked was unusual for shifters, yet it didn't mean Gage enjoyed seeing other men with their dicks swinging free.

They launched themselves at Gage with claws and teeth bared to fight. He caught the wolf in his boxers by his throat and immediately threw him into the wolf with no clothes on. Both of them flew backwards several feet and smashed into the wall violently from the power of Gage's throw.

The third wolf in his sleep pants took advantage of his preoccupation with the other two and wrapped his beefy arm around Gage's neck, placing him in a choke hold. He was probably hoping to hold him there until his comrades picked their dazed asses up off the floor and came back to the fight, however Gage wasn't going to wait around for that.

Gage used his right hand to grab the man's elbow while bending them both down and out to the side a bit, using his opponent's leverage against him. Once they were bent over, he turned his head in the lock, grabbed the man's wrist with his other hand, and flipped the wolf over his shoulder while also securing the arm that had been holding him in a submission lock. After Gage's maneuver, he used his knee and braced it in the armpit of the wolf, leaving the wolf exposed for Gage to retaliate in an attack by smashing his fist into the wolf's fat head several times, knocking him unconscious. The whole thing might have taken ten seconds to happen, which was long enough for his two friends to get back up on their feet and attack again.

Chaos had erupted all around him, and as he watched the two wolves circle him, he hoped the rest of their group was okay upstairs since he hadn't seen them come back down yet. There were roars of rage, shrieks of pain, and Elena's flamethrower had now gone off for the second time.

His two remaining opponents started striking out at him as a team. One would lean in and swipe at him with his claws, and while Gage blocked the attack, the second wolf would hit him from the other side. Gage would then turn to fight off the other attacker, and the hits would reverse so he was getting punched, kicked or clawed on his unprotected side—much like wolves attacked while hunting with their pack. He had to kill off one of these assholes, and he needed to do it now so he could check on Elena and the kid.

Having figured out their tactic, he waited for the blow to come at his front. When it did, he dodged to the left instead of blocking the attack as they expected him to do. Moving in on the attacker in front of him, he grabbed the man by his outstretched arm and spun him around so that Gage had the wolf's arms pinned behind him. He placed the man in front of him as a human shield when he felt the second wolf move behind him.

Spinning both himself and his captured wolf around, he placed his hostage right in the path of his comrade's claws, which had been meant for Gage's back. As the naked German wolf's claws sank deeply into his pack mate's chest, Gage wasn't sure who was more surprised at the turn of events, the man with claws in his chest right above his heart, or his friend. It didn't matter to Gage, though, because it served as the distraction he needed to take them both out.

He placed one hand on the injured wolf's chin and his other on the back of his head then snapped his neck like it was a twig. When he let go of the head, the wolf's entire body collapsed to the floor in front of him, pulling the second wolf's hand out of his chest cavity with it.

His pack mate stared at the dead man and then the heart clutched in his hand, in panic. When he looked back up to Gage with murder in his eyes, Gage took his claws and swiped them across the man's vulnerable throat as easily as a knife through warm butter. Placing both hands on either side of the wolf's head, he twisted and then pulled with all his might until Gage had ripped the man's head clear off his body.

He didn't even flinch when the dead wolf's arterial spray spurted on him before the headless body fell to the floor. Gage threw the head next to its body as he heard Elena's flamethrower go off for a third time, so he turned around to check on his mate. What met his eyes could have come straight out of a horror movie.

Elena stood there with fire shooting out of her weapon at the already blackened doorway and surrounding wall to the basement. Flames were licking up the sides and spreading down and out to cover nearby paintings and some of the floor.

When her flame shut off, there were several blackened bodies burning in the doorway. Facial features were no longer discernible except for holes where the eyes and mouth had once been. Amazingly, the teeth were still intact and white as can be, almost smiling out of their owner's corpse at him as if they were laughing at death. A couple of the bodies had fallen to the floor, but a few of them seemed fused to the walls behind them by the extreme heat they'd endured. Arms were missing, skin was sizzling and massive boils were already rising.

He didn't seem to be the only one mortified at what was left behind because his mate doubled over and started to puke her guts out.

He began to go to her, however a noise on the stairs stopped him. He looked up and found his brother standing there in his tiger form with a dead wolf hanging from his mouth. Alec tossed the body to the side and then took a flying leap at a second wolf that came barreling out of a hallway in his animal's form. The two collided with a sick thud and went rolling out of Gage's line of sight.

He didn't worry about his brother because he knew the six-foot, four hundred fifty pound tiger could handle one much smaller wolf easily. He did, however, end up vaulting up those stairs anyways because, at that moment, the rest of their group came into view ringed by wolves. Minna was struggling to carry the much larger frame of the presumed captive Alpha Corvus, while Davies, Adam, and Jenna were all attempting to keep her safe from those who had surrounded them. They were outnumbered and trying to fight off wolves who were taking every chance they could to lean in and swipe or bite at any of them. Once they had one person weak enough to take out, the small, safe circle around Minna would be gone and the Corvus wolves could go in for the kill.

Clearing the steps in a few mighty leaps, using his powerful legs, Gage launched himself at two wolves and tackled them to the ground. As the three of them landed on the ground, Gage had his hands wrapped around the neck of one of the wolves, squeezing to cut off his air supply. Claws ripped slowly and deeply down his back, yet he didn't let go of his quarry. He couldn't if he wanted to live. So he used the adrenaline from the pain to crush his victim's windpipe and watched as the man flailed wildly, struggling for breath that wouldn't come, before the light dimmed from his eyes.

Knowing he could only kill the shifter by beheading him or ripping out his heart, Gage tore out his throat with one swipe of his claws and then finished by using his claws to tear through the back side of the neck, ensuring the spine had been severed.

His victory was short lived because claws gripped his own neck and sunk in as the German wolf roared in rage over what Gage had done to his pack mate. Gage felt those claws sink in far enough until they scraped the outside of his own windpipe, and that's when he started to worry. One wrong move and he could accidentally help the fucker decapitate him. The problem was, Gage was face down with the wolf on his back, which put him at a severe disadvantage when it came to reaching his enemy.

Left with only one option, and not a great one at that, Gage reached up with his hands and grasped the wolf's wrists. Using as much crushing strength as he could, he heard the sick sound of bones breaking as he attempted to pull the claws threatening his life out of his neck. Both the wolf and he were using every ounce of strength they had to force their muscles to go which way they wanted them to go. So thank God Gage was the bigger bastard here because centimeter by centimeter he started pulling those inch and half long claws out of his flesh and away from his vulnerable throat.

Looking to turn the tables around and surprise the wolf, he waited until only the tips of his attacker's claws were grazing his skin and then Gage turned his head. This caused his neck to be shallowly ripped open, however it also gave him the opportunity to sink his fangs into his enemy's arm, biting down all the way to the bone. The wolf screamed in agony and let go of Gage in shock, which gave him the chance to rear his head back and head-butt the man right in the face. The crunch that followed told him he'd broken a nose, but it wasn't enough to get the feral wolf off his back. Gage turned his upper body to swipe backwards at the man with his claws, yet he met thin air instead of a body. His brother had the man's neck in his mouth, dragging him back off Gage as he bit down savagely.

"Get your ass up off the floor, Ivanov, and let's get the fuck out of here!" Davies barked.

Gage got to his feet while holding one hand over the bleeding wounds of his neck. It helped stop the blood flow until his body started to heal itself, and he didn't want Elena to see the injuries and freak out on him. His throat hurt like a motherfucker, but he'd take the pain any day over the possibility of not having his throat ripped out.

He followed the others down the stairs with Alec racing ahead to stand by Elena and a terrified Zane. Davies had Marcus Corvus slung over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, while Jenna and Adam flanked him for protection. Minna was right behind them with Gage bringing up the rear. If they were lucky, they'd make it to the truck without pack reinforcements showing up.

When they made it to the first floor of the house, Gage sighed in relief that he could see the remaining members of their group that had been tasked with securing the outside of the structure during the mission outside the front door waiting for them. He saw his brother changing back to his naked, human form just off to the inside of the front door, and used his own body to block the view from his mate.

Gage grabbed Elena's free hand because her other one was being held in a crushing grip by Zane and pulled them outside so he could start a head count of their group. Everyone was there... except the vampire.

"Where the hell is Baines?" he growled. If that bloodsucker had betrayed them, Gage was going to hunt his ass down and kill him very slowly by hanging him upside down and draining the blood out of his body with slit wrists.

Tyson stepped forward, pulled his hand off his neck and slapped a folded up gauze against his wounds to help staunch the flow. "He went to get the truck after we cleared the perimeter so we could haul ass out of here a little faster. He should be here any minute. Jesus, you're bleeding like a stuck pig."

Before Gage could rip his second's head off for saying that in front of his visibly shaken mate, Alec popped in with that smart-ass mouth of his. "Funny, that's what I said to your sister after I popped her cherry."

As Tyson snarled and lunged for Alec, Gage couldn't help thinking that sometimes he really did love his brother.
Chapter Twenty-Two

Elena

The plane was in the air and it was heavier by one kid, one vampire and one nearly dead Alpha. The vampire was sitting next to Jenna, chatting her up like he had a death wish. Adam glared at the man as though he was mentally peeling the skin off his body in two-inch strips. Jenna, on the other hand, was giving Rhett an amused look, almost like she thought he was brave, but she was also stroking her mate's hand with her thumb in plain sight. A subtle hint that she was very much taken. Rhett was either dumb as a box of rocks or didn't care because he kept talking and flirting.

The unconscious Alpha was lying on a portable stretcher in front of Minna, who was on her knees tending to his many wounds. The man looked like a walking skeleton; he was so thin and he had cuts, bruises, and oozing sores everywhere that was visible. Elena knew shifters were supposed to be these incredibly tough and resilient creatures; she still didn't understand how someone could survive looking the way that man did.

The boy, surprisingly enough, was sitting on one side of Elena, curled up as close as he could get without actually sitting in her lap. His arms were wrapped tightly around her waist, his head was burrowed into her side, and he was scared shitless. Elena could feel his body trembling.

She couldn't imagine what the little guy had gone through; watching his mother murdered right in front of him. Being beaten and mentally tortured by the man he'd learned was his father. And then watching her roast members of his father's pack to death with her flamethrower. Her heart nearly broke in half for the small boy's situation, but she was also a wee bit worried.

What if he became too attached to her?

She got that he was latching on because Elena was the only person who'd had the time to be nice to the kid so far. When you're little, scared, and in an unknown place, you latch onto the person you think is going to keep you safe. All of that was fine and dandy, but she couldn't keep the kid forever. In fact, she might be allergic to children in general because just the thought of them made her break out in hives. Anything remotely resembling motherhood was not in her cards right now. Nevertheless, Elena would do her best not to freak out and pry the kid off her side like she'd just found out that he was diseased with the black plague, however she was also going to have to help find him a home.

Her mental light bulb went off. If the kid's father had been an enforcer, then the dad was a wolf. If the dad was a wolf, the kid was probably a wolf. Looking over to Jenna and her mate, Adam, who looked like he wanted to choke the flirtatious vampire, she wondered if the couple could take him. They were wolves after all. Or, if they couldn't take the boy themselves, perhaps they could find a good wolf home for him in Adam's pack.

Zane squeezed his arms around her waist, and she looked down at him. He was staring up at her with those big puppy-eyes, and she almost melted at their sad, pleading expression. Almost, but not quite.

"What's up, kid?"

Zane's stomach rumbled loud enough that everyone in the passenger area of the plane could hear it, and the poor kid blushed at the sound.

"Let me guess, you're hungry?"

Zane shyly nodded.

Looking over at the group, she found both Alec and Gage staring at her intently, which was seriously unnerving. Refusing to let them see her discomfort with their probing stares, she asked, "You got any MREs in this place?"

Alec started gagging at the word MRE. "You can't feed the boy that!" More cat gagging, which was the worst sound in the known universe in Elena's opinion. "MREs..." Gag. "...are like eating cardboard." Gag again.

Annoyed to be chastised for trying to help the kid out, Elena snapped, "Cough up the damn hairball already and stop the racket. It's making my hand itchy for the baseball bat I promised to beat you with."

"Here," Tyson's voice rang out. "Catch."

Elena held her hands up right in time to catch the MRE that came sailing her way. Looking at the package, she read the contents. "Beef ravioli. That doesn't sound so bad, eh, kid?"

His eyes got wide at the sight of the package and his stomach rumbled loudly again. She opened the package and took out the main course. Ripping off the top of the plastic packet with the ravioli in it, she handed it and a spoon to Zane, who immediately started shoveling food into his mouth like he hadn't eaten in days. Of course, he probably hadn't, yet Elena had never watched a kid eat before, and with this situation, he kind of reminded her of a vacuum. He was sucking that shit in so fast he was barely chewing it at all.

In fact, Elena was pretty sure he didn't even taste it for the first several bites he was consuming it so fast, and her theory was promptly proven a couple of minutes later when Zane scrunched his face up, his lips twisted in distaste, and he might have even turned a little green. Then his internal vacuum of a stomach hit the reverse button and everything he'd eaten moments before projectiled out of his mouth in the most impressive display of regurgitation that Elena had ever seen. She couldn't help sitting there in shock as she eyed the kid's vomit sliding down the opposite wall of the plane.

"And THAT is why I call those God awful things 'Meals Ready to Eject'," Alec crowed.

A few members of Gage's unit were gagging, some of their group were looking at the young wolf with pity and the others were trying to cover their laughs so they wouldn't make the boy feel uncomfortable. Zane gave her a sheepish look and whispered sorry as he handed the ravioli back to her.

"No worries, kid. I guess you didn't like the ravioli. Can someone get me some towels and a bottle of water so we can get him, and this mess, cleaned up?"

Tyson once again handed her supplies, and she started to wonder if the man had some magical bag he kept this shit stored in. He seemed to be prepared for just about anything.

Elena wet one of the small hand towels and helped to clean off Zane's face. Luckily, there was no puke on his clothes—no way to wash laundry at ten thousand feet. After unbuckling her seat belt, she cleaned up the nasty projectile vomit as best as she could and stored all the dirty towels in a trash bag that, once again, Tyson had produced for her. That lion was starting to freak her out. Once she washed her hands in the bathroom, she came back to her seat, picked the MRE up off it, and sat back down.

Zane's head was hanging in shame and she felt sorry for the kid. Bumping his shoulder with her arm, she tried to soothe him. "Don't worry about it, man. It happens to all of us."

"It's not that," he whispered.

Confused, Elena asked, "Well then, what is it?"

The kid's stomach rumbled again loudly and this time he rubbed his hand in circles over it. "I'm still hungry."

The boy had barely finished puking like a drunk frat kid and he was still hungry? Good Lord, what kind of iron stomachs did these shifters have?

Gage grabbed the opened MRE package off her lap and pulled out two smaller unopened packets. Handing them to Zane, he said, "Here, cookies and a pop tart. Eat those to tide you over and we'll get you a real meal once we get home."

Zane tore into the packets like a crazy little madman and started stuffing cookies in his mouth until Adam barked at him, "Eat slowly or you'll make yourself sick again."

Elena watched in surprise as Zane stared at Adam, but then dipped his head so he was no longer making direct eye contact. Perhaps the kid realized Adam was a dominant wolf and regarded him as one would an Alpha?

Just as it seemed Adam realized that Zane was a young wolf in the need of protection and guidance. If that was the case, maybe it wouldn't be hard to get Adam to take Zane into his pack. The thought gave Elena a small sense of relief. She might not want to be a mother right now, however that didn't mean she wasn't worried about what would happen to him.

She watched as Zane slowly munched on his cookies before letting her head fall back against her seat and closing her eyes. Maybe they could get through the remaining eight hours of the flight home without anyone trying to kill each other in annoyance.

Relaxing her body, she was willing herself to take a nap when she heard Logan say, "Somebody put Mission Impossible on the TV."

"You play that fucking movie one more time and I'm going to be an only child in this family!" Jenna shouted.

Elena sighed. So much for not killing each other.
Chapter Twenty-Three

Gage

"You think he'll be okay?" his mate asked him twenty minutes after they had driven away from the airfield they'd landed on in Wilmington.

Gage had to admit he was quite surprised at Elena's protectiveness over the young wolf pup. Watching her take care of him during their mission and the plane ride had given him an insight as to what she would be like as a mother. He had to admit that he liked this maternal side of her; not that she would want to hear that from him if her present mood was anything to go by.

"He'll be fine, woman. Davies and McPhee will take good care of him."

He heard a feminine sniffle, so he looked over from the driver's seat of his truck at her. "Are you crying?" he asked her incredulously.

"I am not crying!" She turned to punch him in the arm, which gave him a clear view of her face. No, she wasn't crying, but her eyes did look suspiciously glassy, like perhaps she'd been about to cry. "And keep your eyes on the road, jackass!"

He snorted at her command. Looking back to the road, he started to wonder, was Elena ready to have kids or something? He could easily imagine her with lush curves and a cute, swollen belly filled with a cub or two. His body responded to the idea of getting his mate pregnant and his cock started to swell in anticipation. If she wanted cubs, he'd be happy to give them to her. Shifter children could be hard to conceive, so it would give him an excuse to fuck her senseless all in the name of procreation.

It sounded like a damn fine plan to him. He'd find a way to start working on it as soon as they got rid of the rest of the shit on their to-do list. For one, clearing Lulu's name of the murder charge by the Ninth Circle Council. Then there was still the pesky, little matter of Elena figuring out why Gage had pushed her away two years before. Since he knew that conversation wasn't going to go over very well, he refused to think about it. Both of them had just come off eighteen hours of round trip travel with nothing except an hour of a mission in between the two flights.

Their fight with the Corvus pack had been brutal and bloody and it was far from over. They hadn't annihilated the entire pack of wolves. In fact, their group had only killed those they absolutely had to in order to complete the mission. It probably wasn't their smartest move, however until they could get Marcus Corvus talking, they were hesitant to proceed. Although the man had been held captive now for who knew how long, it was still technically his pack. It was best not to kill them all off until Corvus gave the word on who lived and who died.

Gage heaved a weary sigh. He was too fucking tired to think about killing anyone. All he wanted to do was go home, take a shower with his equally tired mate, and then go to bed. All of their issues would be waiting for them tomorrow.

He pulled into his driveway and parked the truck. Silently, both he and Elena climbed out and slowly made their way to the front door. After he fished his keys out and let them in, he watched as she walked past him, down the hall and towards his bedroom.

It felt wrong for her not to be handcuffed and two inches from his side anymore. The funny thing was, his mate was so out of it—either mentally, physically or both—she'd yet to realize she wasn't being held hostage by him anymore.

Locking the door behind him, he made his way to his bedroom to see what she was up to. He didn't find her in there, though. She was across the hall in his bathroom where he could hear the shower already running from behind the closed door.

Not caring much for having a door separating them, he opened it, stepped into the room, and eyed her silhouette behind the shower curtain. She wasn't washing or even moving; she was just standing with her hands braced on the wall, her head bent, letting the hot water pour over her.

Stripping his clothes off, he opened the curtain and stepped in behind her. Gage could tell that she was aware he was in there with her because Elena had turned her head a little to the side at the sound of him getting in. Besides that, she didn't move. His poor, little warrior was so exhausted she didn't even have the energy to fling insults or threaten him for invading her private space. That was okay. He wasn't in there to fuck her. He was here for something so much more important than that. Comfort.

Placing his hands on the wall outside of hers, he let his front cover her back as he placed his chin on the top of her bent head. He was probably blocking most of the water from reaching her now, yet he didn't really give a shit. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, right then, she needed him to soothe her, and that was okay because he needed it too.

Minutes passed by, and they didn't move. Eventually, the muscles in Elena's body started to relax one by one, and she shifted her weight until her body was resting against him instead of holding herself up against the wall. Not wanting to run out of hot water while they were still in there, Gage moved backwards enough to grab the shampoo bottle. Pouring some on his hands, he rubbed them together and then ran them through her hair, making sure to massage her scalp with the pads of his fingers while he worked the shampoo through her hair thoroughly.

Elena gave a groan of pleasure before tipping her head back a little farther towards him. He loved to see her so unguarded. Dead on her feet with dark circles under her eyes, probably head fucked beyond belief from roasting people alive on their mission; yet, there in this disturbing setting, she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Who needed the frou-frou pageant queens of the world when he could have one feisty Amazon with a spine of steel?

Gage rinsed the shampoo out of her hair and then massaged conditioner in. Once he'd rinsed that out as well, he grabbed his bar of soap and rolled it between his hands until he had a nice foam of suds. Reaching around to her front, he placed his hands on her lower abdomen before starting to rub small circles into her smooth, slick skin.

As much as he would love to stand there and pet her body all night, he didn't want to take the chance of accidentally getting himself too excited—neither one of them were in any condition to have sex—so he kept his strokes short, though somewhat reverent, as he glided his hands across her body while cleaning her. He had to add more soap to his hands, several times, as he washed her breasts, legs and back, but his mate was putty in his hands by the time he was done cleaning her.

By some miracle, he got her to stand on her own in her half-asleep state long enough for him to quickly and efficiently wash himself. When he was done, he turned the water off, carried her out of the shower, and grabbed a clean towel on the way to his room. He managed to get them both dried off without her falling flat on her face and then finally tucked her into his bed where she belonged.

Gage slid beneath his sheets and curled himself around his mate who was already dead asleep on her side, facing away from him. Wrapping his arms around his woman, he closed his eyes and thanked God that he was holding her instead of being devoid of her presence as he had been for years.

He briefly remembered the old Army handcuffs he'd used to keep her at his side were still in one of the cargo pockets of his pants. His sleepy brain wondered if he would need them again tomorrow in case she tried to leave him, however as sleep claimed him, the thought drifted away.

~~~

A hand slid slowly from between his pecs downwards until it stopped over his belly button. His breath hitched in anticipation and then he felt lips kiss the skin above his pants. He looked down at Elena just in time to hiss in pleasure as she swiped her tongue from one hip bone to the other across his skin. She was teasing him by refusing to open his jeans and take his rock hard cock out so he could put it in that pretty, little mouth of hers. Having her lips wrapped around him was his second favorite thing in the world. If she'd hurry the fuck up and stop playing around, he could get to his favorite thing. Her tight, little pussy.

Gage reached down and grabbed some of her hair in one of his fists. "Stop playing with me, baby. Take my dick out and get it nice and wet because I'm going to fuck you so fast and hard tonight that you'll feel sore and think about me all day tomorrow."

Her lips curled up in a big, smug smile that warned him she wouldn't be the only one with reminders of their love making tomorrow. Her deft fingers unbuttoned his jeans and slowly slid his zipper down, parting the flaps wide so that his cock sprang up between them. Sticking her tongue out, she ran it from the base all the way 'til she made a circle around his tip before sucking him in for a brief second.

Her mouth released him with a slight pop and then she murmured, "I love it that you never wear any underwear. It makes it so easy for me to play with you whenever I want."

He was going to give her a good pop on the ass for torturing him like this. "Babe, I see your lips are moving, but they're not moving where I want them to be, which is on my dick. Can you fix that please so I can get to fucking you already?"

Elena shook her head. "I can't. You have to wake up now."

He tightened his grip in her hair until her eyes went a little glassy from the small prick of pleasurable pain it gave her. "I promise you, love, I can't get anymore 'awake' than I already am. So if you'll drop your face a bit, open up that pretty mouth of yours and stay still, I'll do all the work for you. All you have to do is suck, I swear." He thrust his hips up at her face in his eagerness.

She shook her head again as a devilishly shark-like smile spread wide across her face. "Wake up now, Garfield..."

~~~

It was the click of the handcuff's ratchets closing that woke him. He didn't panic or wake up fighting, though, because there was only one other scent in the room with him. Elena. He knew he wasn't in danger, physically at least. Mentally... there was no guarantee because who knew what the woman was up to.

Opening his eyes, he saw a very smug looking Elena sitting on top of him, straddling his waist. The room was lit by pale morning light behind her, meaning they must have been asleep for some time. To be honest, he'd still like to be asleep, but both he and his beast were far too curious as to what their mate was doing to gripe about it.

His arms were in an unnatural sleeping position for him, which was up by his head. He moved his eyes from his mate to look behind him at the headboard and found her handcuffs looped through one of the low, horizontal, wooden slats and then attached to both of his wrists. Did the crazy woman actually think these weak little cuffs could hold him?

He looked back to his mate for answers and found she was now smiling broadly at him with a teasing glint in her eye. The look told him two things. One, she knew the handcuffs wouldn't hold him if he wanted to be free, and two, she was feeling playful.

Well, cats do like to play...
Chapter Twenty-Four

Elena

"What are you doing, mate?" His voice was warm and gruff from sleep, and the sound of it sent a shiver down Elena's back.

The man looked delicious enough to lick from head to toe right now. Tied up to his own bed, no shirt, only smooth skin ready for her to touch. To tease. And that wasn't even the best part. She rocked her hips forward so the lips of her sex glided over his semi-erect cock. No, the best part was that Gage hadn't dressed them last night after their shower. He'd let both of them fall into bed buck ass naked. A first for them since they'd started seeing each other again.

She snorted to herself at the thought. Seeing each other again? What a funny way to put a hostage and kidnapping situation. Somehow, though, he'd done exactly what she had been so determined that she wouldn't let him do; the sneaky feline had wormed his way back into her heart. Elena was ready to admit her feelings for him, just like she'd been ready to do two years ago on that horrible night she'd heard Gage call her a 'piece of ass' through his bedroom door.

Only, as she'd woken up to his partial stiffy poking into her backside, she'd decided she was going to take the reins in this situation. Gage would get what he wanted, which was her, as soon as she got what she wanted, the explanation. Yeah, the annoying man had said she'd have to figure it out, yet she didn't want to wait for that. She was going to do the next best thing.

Elena was going to seduce the answer out of him.

Gage had been holding off the physical act of sex until she was ready to admit she still loved him. Elena had withheld those words and emotions because of a broken heart and his lack of an explanation. Now that he'd somehow managed to mend her heart a little, she wanted the damned explanation before she'd allow things to get any messier, like calling this a relationship.

Thank God the man slept like the dead when he was exhausted because it had given her the chance to slip out of bed and snoop around his room a little. Elena had grabbed the handcuffs she'd seen him put in his cargo pant's pocket, but decided handcuffs alone weren't enough to help her drive him wild. That's when her eyes had landed on the nightstand. Lots of people kept naughty toys in their nightstands.

Only it hadn't been naughty toys she'd found. He'd put something so much better than naughty in there. Gage had his Heckler & Koch MK 23 stored there—the very same gun they'd met over in the first place—along with all the loose cat toys she'd left behind in his house. It was like a drawer full of memories.

Elena had almost choked up when she'd seen it all, yet then her eyes had landed on one cat toy, and that's when she had known she'd found the most perfect—and unexpected—tool to use. She was going to sexually torture the man, who'd driven her crazy, with a feathered wand.

It was downright devious and mean—cruel even—but in her defense, she'd warned him back in the meeting room at the bar the day before. Elena didn't get mad, she got evil. And he'd pushed her to this by not answering her questions. Therefore, in her mind, he'd had this coming to him all along. Gage was lucky she intended to get him off while she was torturing him.

She'd placed the feathered wand behind her on the bed between his spread legs to keep it out of his sight until she was ready to use it. Now she just had to get her big, ol' kitty worked up.

He was watching her with the rapt attention of an apex predator, taking in every minute and movement she made as she settled on top of him, bracing her hands on his abdomen. Using a fingertip from each hand, Elena started tracing figure eights into his skin without breaking eye contact.

"Does my kitty like to play games?"

His chest rumbled with a purr. "What kind of games?"

"Naughty ones," she whispered.

Gage bucked his hips underneath her and she gasped at the feel of his hardening cock rubbing against her folds. "Baby, I can show you things I've learned over the years that you wouldn't dream up in your wildest fantasies. You want to play naughty games? We can play a new game every night. I'll be the most attentive teacher you've ever had. All you've got to do is tell me what I want to hear and we can start right now. Ever heard of hide and seek?"

Elena snorted. "And what will you be hiding?"

A big smile stretched across his face. "First my fingers, then my tongue and finally my dick. I'll hide all three things inside of you repeatedly until you find an orgasm. The fun part will be that I'll blindfold you and you'll have no idea where I plan to hide until I'm working my way in there. We'd have to see if we can hide all of my cock in your mouth, though, because I'm not sure it'll fit. But that's okay because you have two other holes if it doesn't."

Her mouth dropped open in shock and he winked at her expression.

"You're a dirty old man, aren't you?"

Elena started to lean forward to kiss him, but he bared his teeth at her and growled, "Wait."

Jerking back a little at his reaction, she asked him in confusion, "What?"

"Have you brushed your teeth yet? I'm not sure I can take another blast of your nuclear breath."

Elena barked out a loud laugh. "Learned your lesson the first time, did you?"

Gage nodded. "You know, I was thinking the Army could use you as a weapon. If they bottled that shit and found a way to reproduce it, they could use it as a chemical agent. Any enemy they unleashed it on would run crying in the opposite direction."

She playfully slapped his chest. "I brushed my teeth, you jerk."

Her hand on his chest vibrated from his purr. "Then come here and kiss me, woman."

She ran her hands up his body until she cradled his face in her hands and brought her lips to lightly skim across his. "How about we play my game first?"

"What game is this?" he quietly asked, his lips brushing against hers with every word.

Elena grabbed his cell phone off the top of his nightstand and started pushing buttons, explaining as she set things up. "We're going to see if I can make you come in ten minutes while you're lying there. If I can, then I get to ask you any question and you have to answer honestly. If you don't, then you can ask me anything you want and I'll answer honestly."

She turned the front of the phone around to show him the times set up there. "Ready to play?"

His face was a blank mask. "Any question and you promise to answer honestly?"

"Yes."

"Game on," he whispered back.

Elena started the timer and put the phone down on the bed beside them then she went back to giving Gage light, fluttery kisses. Teasing little touches of her mouth that quickly frustrated him. He tried to kiss her deeply, however she pulled back and slid down his body until her mouth hovered over one of his nipples. Elena kept her eyes on his as she snaked out the tip of her tongue and lightly licked the little, flat brown disc, causing him to hiss. She felt his cock jump at the touch where it was trapped between them and smiled.

"Don't get smug, Amazon. There's no way you're going to make me come in time."

Elena gave him a confident smile and licked his nipple again. And then again. And then she covered the small peak with her mouth and sucked hard enough to leave a hickey, slightly bruising his entire nipple. Gage threw his head back on the pillow and growled loudly as she continued to suck on his nipple. He bucked his hips against her and his length rubbed against her clit, causing her to groan.

Getting impatient, Gage grunted, "Why don't you suck on something else now, Mate?"

She looked up and gave him a devious smirk before moving her mouth over to his other nipple. He hissed long and hard when she bit it this time before licking him in slow, languid circles. The handcuffs rattled against the wooden headboard slat and Elena knew his patience was rapidly disappearing.

Keeping up with her plan to drive him crazy, she moved her mouth in small increments down his chest, dropping kisses along his skin. The teasing torture seemed to be working because Gage's body was practically vibrating with impatience. Taking her time to circle her tongue around his belly button and then grabbing his cock with her hand so she could oh so slowly run her tongue down the little hair trail that led to his groin.

Moving her hand lazily up and down his length, she placed a small kiss on the tip. He thrust his hips up so his cock bumped her closed lips in a desperate hint of what he wanted. She couldn't give it to him yet, though, not this time around in their game. In another minute or so and the timer would go off, letting Gage win the first round. She had to drive him insane between now and then, so she took the time to pepper light kisses all over his throbbing length without ever quite giving him what he wanted.

When the chime of the timer went off, he snarled in agitation as she let go of his manhood and straddled his hips again. His teeth were on display with his snarl, and his fangs were starting to drop down in length.

"You did that on purpose!" he accused her.

"Is that your question?"

Shaking his head fervently, he replied, "You're not getting off that easy, woman. You want to torture me? I'll torture you right back with the very thing you've been avoiding telling me. Do you love me?"

It was now or never. Was it wrong for a part of her to still wish for never?

As Elena stared into Gage's fevered eyes, she knew she couldn't deny him anymore. All she could do was hope this would turn out for the best because she couldn't live through another heart break.

Leaning forward, she placed her hands on either side of his head and skimmed her nose against his in a loving caress and then gave him a light peck on the lips. Pulling back enough to regain eye contact with him, she whispered her answer, "Yes."

He surprised her when he heaved an obvious sigh of relief and let his head drop back onto the pillow. She hadn't realized how worried he was about that answer. When he re-opened his eyes, they held a different kind of glint. Determination.

"Say the words, Amazon."

She had something to do before she could say those words. Reaching back over to his phone, she set the timer again. "One more round of our game if you want those words, tiger."

Gage growled in displeasure over her answer, yet the sound quickly turned into a hiss as Elena skipped all the previous foreplay and went back to what she'd been doing before, licking his cock. She didn't lick it for long, just enough to tease him from base to tip a few times before she sucked him into the warm cavern of her mouth. Her objective was different this time. Instead of drawing it out, she wanted to speed it up so she could use her secret weapon to winning this round.

Gage's hips writhed under her hands as she gave him slow, strong sucks. When she pulled off him with an audible 'pop,' his tip was leaking and he was demanding she give him more. So she did.

Maneuvering her body to straddle his once again, she quickly reached over to the nightstand and snagged the condom she'd left lying there. Ripping open the little foil package, she took the condom out and rolled it down Gage's length so fast it was a miracle she hadn't accidentally ripped the damn thing.

God, she was so ready for this. For him.

Elena took his throbbing shaft and placed it at her entrance and then slid herself slowly down until she felt his balls resting against her bottom. He was so thick the girth of him was stretching her until she wondered if he would be too much for her to take. Thankfully, after sitting there for a few seconds, her muscles relaxed a little and she knew she'd be able to ride him like a woman possessed and not suffer any repercussions from it.

Gage groaned loudly, letting her know that she felt as good to him as he did to her. She'd love to drag this out and torture him again, however she couldn't lose sight of what she was trying to do to him.

He was still worked up from her teasing him with the licks and kisses as she picked herself up onto her knees and kept rising until only the head of him was inside of her, and then she dropped back down hard and fast. Their bodies slapped together loudly at the contact and the erotic sound of their sex only made her wetter for him.

Glancing over to his phone discreetly, she took in the timer. Eight minutes. That's how long she had to make him come to win her question. It wasn't a lot of time, so she had to make the most of it. She started a punishing rhythm, riding him in a quick tempo that had her breaths coming out in harsh pants and her eyes rolling back in her head.

Gage was a vocal lover, demanding more and crooning encouragements to her. It didn't take long for him to figure out her rhythm and start thrusting back up into her every time she dropped down. The added thrust made it travel deeper inside her and she couldn't help the moans it forced from her. She needed more of him, though. Needed to see marks made by her on his body. Little, sensual brands of her ownership over him.

Digging her nails into his chest, she dragged them down until she scratched down to the bottom of his six pack. When he growled low in his throat, she worried she'd gone too far, but his next words put her at ease.

"Fuck, yeah, baby. AGAIN."

She placed her blunt fingernails back on his pecs and scratched down to his abdomen again, a little harder this time, and the red lines that bloomed in the aftermath of her path were one of the sexiest things she'd ever seen. His body was her playground and he hadn't pulled out of those handcuffs yet to stop her. He'd let her mark up his body by hickies on his nipples and scratching him all over, giving her words of encouragement for more.

Gage's movements were starting to become frantic. He was so close that she could feel his body trembling in anticipation. Elena kept up her rapid cadence while sliding both hands back up his chest where she grabbed both of his nipples in her hands. He snarled at her because of their bruised sensitivity and she gave him a snarl of her own back as she pinched both of them simultaneously.

He roared, she laughed. "I'm going to win this round, kitty."

"NO. I will outlast you."

"Not a chance, Gar-field." Elena knew what she was going to do next would be a mix of sweet and plain, ol' mean, yet she couldn't wait to push him over the edge. Already she felt her center fluttering around him in impending orgasm and she wanted Gage to come with her. As she leaned forward and sank her teeth into his chest to give him a love bite, he went wild beneath her.

Elena heard the crack of wood, but didn't bother to look up and see if he'd broken the headboard. She kept sinking up and down on his engorged flesh as she leaned backwards. In that instant, she saw two things that made her burn hotter than she ever had before. One, she'd left a pretty impression of her teeth behind on his skin as a souvenir. Two, Gage had not only broken the wooden slat on his headboard, but he had snapped the chain on the cuffs, as well. His hands were now free, the tips of his claws out and simultaneously clutching and shredding the comforter beneath him.

Gage was snarling denials at her now, taunting her with his stamina and how she wouldn't make him lose control in time, but Elena also knew he was full of shit. He was almost there and she was about to send him soaring over into his orgasm.

Leaning back, she braced one hand on the top of Gage's thigh and grabbed her feathered wand with her other hand. Holding the top of the wand right under the feather, she brought her hand closer to the juncture of his thighs, though she didn't touch him yet. She had one last thing to do before she startled her poor kitty.

"Gage," she panted as she sunk down on his length.

"WHAT?" he growled.

Letting all of her emotions, her lust, her passion, her affection and love shine through her eyes, she said the words. "I love you."

She felt his body tense under her and then she brought the feather up and tickled his balls with it. Gage's hips arched both in surprise with an instant orgasm and he threw his head back and roared until his voice was hoarse. The sight of him in the throes of ecstasy sent her over on her own orgasm and she clamped down, convulsing around him as she screamed his name. Her completion rolled over her in explosive waves that racked her body with small tremors.

Unable to hold herself up anymore, she collapsed down on his chest, uncaring they were both a bit sweaty now from their love making.

A hard hand grasped her hair and pulled her head back so that she had to look at Gage. When she did, he once again demanded, "Say the words."

No sooner had the 's' in 'words' been spoken than his timer alarm went off. He reached over without looking and tapped the screen to turn it off, keeping his eyes glued to hers.

It was time for her to take the final leap of faith and hope like hell he didn't break her with his answer. "I love you, Gage. Now, will you please tell me why you pushed me away two years ago?"
Chapter Twenty-Five

Gage

Dreading that this moment had finally come, he pondered the best way to break the news. He didn't want to tell her the truth, however honesty was the best policy in this situation. He'd been hoping she'd figure it out on her own instead of him having to tell her. His Amazon was too impatient for that, though.

Not knowing what he could say to soften the oncoming blow, he gave her the reality of their situation. "You, Elena, are the beginning to my end."

"What does that mean?"

"It means I've lived two hundred sixty-two years never worrying about what tomorrow would bring, thinking I would live forever to do whatever it was you do in life, and in no hurry at all about doing any of it. Then you came along. After six months with you, I realized I'd gotten in too deep; come to crave you too much. There were moments in my day I wanted you more than I wanted my next breath... and that was the problem.

"Mating myself to a human with a finite lifespan was basically signing my own eventual death warrant because, the moment you take your last breath, I will cease to want to keep breathing that same air. So I did something cowardly and pushed you away, thinking I was saving myself when all I did was condemn myself to something much worse: a life less lived; a life without you. It didn't take me long to figure out that I would rather live and love you in the span of your human lifetime than live without you for the rest of mine."

He could almost feel the pain radiating off her as she realized what he was saying.

Closing his eyes against the tragedy that was their situation, he chose to look at what he did have instead of what he wouldn't have. He wouldn't have immortality with the woman that was meant for him in every way, however he would have all of her days. Wasn't that so much more than an eternity of emptiness?

He ran his hand through her hair in soothing strokes, but he knew it would only soften the emotional blow a little. When he felt the small, wet drop hit his naked chest and smelled the salt that accompanied the tear, he felt like someone had taken a thousand razor blades to his insides and torn him to shreds. He'd give anything, absolutely ANYTHING, to spare her this pain.

He heard a feminine sniffle that was definitely a sound he'd never expected to hear from his fierce Amazon and then felt a few more tears hit his skin.

When she spoke, her voice was hoarse, both from their previous pleasure and her current pain. "I don't want you to die for me, Gage. If I'd known why you'd pushed me away, I would have never pushed my way back into your life."

He fisted his hand in her hair and once again turned her head until he forced her to look at him. "It wouldn't have mattered, Elena. I'd gone two years without you and I was miserable. I might not have admitted it to myself yet, but it was only a matter of time before I would have tracked you down. Don't you get what I'm trying to tell you, baby? I don't want to live this life without you. You are the thing that makes it worth living, and I mean it when I say that I'm content having one lifetime with you because, baby, that's all we need. We're going to live and love so hard and so much, living each day to its fullest, that the world will envy our love story even if it is short. And when the time comes that I follow you off this earth, I'll die the happiest man this world has ever seen because I'll have had you by my side for all of those days in between now and then. Now give me the words. I want to hear them again."

With tears running down her cheeks, her nose running, and the most devastated expression he'd ever seen on anyone, she was still more dazzling than any jewel he'd ever seen. More precious than any treasure he'd ever owned and more important than any victory he'd ever won on a battle field. She was quite simply, everything.

"I love you, Gage Ivanov."

"I love you too, mate."

Now he had to make sure that she didn't try to leave him in a warped attempt to save his life.
Chapter Twenty-Six

Elena

How could someone be both happier than they'd ever been and utterly heartbroken? The combination seemed impossible, and yet, as she lay there cuddled next to Gage, that was exactly how she felt. The happiness she was feeling; that explanation was easy. He loved her and he always had. Hearing it that morning had finally patched together the broken pieces of her heart she'd thought were too damaged and too jaded to ever be repaired.

Of course, the truth he'd given her to make her happy had also crushed her in the same breath. If Gage stayed with her—mated her, as shifters liked to call it—then she would be the cause of his death. Women the world over cooed about how men lived and breathed for the women they loved in romance novels and how they would give anything to have a man like that—a man who would give his life up so he could be with his woman. Elena could only think the reality of being the cause of your man's death wasn't as romantic as those books made it out to be.

Gage's chest rose and fell underneath her cheek with his deep, even breathing, inadvertently reminding her exactly what was at stake here. Could she really do this? Could she sign his proverbial death warrant? The bigger question was, if she walked away again, would he let her go? Something told her no, he wouldn't. He'd already literally handcuffed her to keep her at his side. If she tried to leave him, Elena had a feeling that handcuffs would be the least of her worries. He might chain her inside the house and never let her step foot outside of it again.

What was the solution here? What in the fuck was she supposed to do? She needed time to think. She could use a little space from Gage so that she could think about this clearly, however with as paranoid as he was about her leaving him, she was pretty sure hell would freeze over before she got that space.

Fingers shifted through her hair and then his sleep laden voice rumbled, "I know you're awake."

Needing the touch of his skin on hers for comfort, Elena rolled on top of Gage so that her head was now cradled on her arms on top of his chest and she was looking down at him. "How long have you been awake, cat?"

His hands snaked up her back and he started lazily circling her back. "Longer than you."

She snorted at his non-answer.

Unsure what to say or how to broach the subject, she hesitated. "Gage... we have a lot to sort through today."

He paused from stroking her skin and froze underneath her. When his hand finally moved off her back, she thought it was because he was going to resume his petting, but a hard slap landed on her backside instead.

"Ow! What the fuck was that for?"

"We've got to get our asses up and going, woman. You're right. We have a lot to get done today." He rolled her off him, stopping long enough to drop a kiss on her forehead, and then got out of bed.

Elena lay there and listened to him move around the room while she stared at the white ceiling, a bit confused. That had gone over easier than she'd thought it would. She'd thought for sure Gage would fight her on any kind of conversation she wanted to have about them and what he'd told her earlier that morning. What did this turnabout mean? She opened her mouth to ask him when clothes hit her right in the face.

Sputtering, she pulled the garment off her face and snapped, "What was that for?"

He gave her a grin that would have melted her panties clear off, if she'd been wearing any. "Get your lazy ass up, woman. I need to get you caffeinated and fed so you're not grumpier than normal and then we have to take care of this Ninth Circle business. I want to get this bullshit off our plates so we can move on and make plans."

A little perplexed, Elena asked, "Plans?"

He shook his head as if she were a small child and he was wondering if he needed to whip out a sheet of paper and his colored crayons to break this down for her kindergarten-style. "Yes, plans," he mock growled. "We need to talk about whether you just want a mating, or if you want to get married, too. All of those silly human traditions society has. I figured you wouldn't want a big wedding or anything, but with those crazy sisters of yours, I'm not going to assume anything." He pointed a finger at her. "If we get married, I get to pick where we're going on our honeymoon. And if we don't get married, I'm still taking you on a honeymoon to celebrate our mating and I pick that, too."

Elena sat there on the bed, completely shell shocked. Wedding? Honeymoon? MATING? She was over there contemplating whether she was going to make herself leave him so she didn't kill him and he was planning their fucking honeymoon? Her sanity checked right the hell out.

"Have you lost your fucking mind?" she screeched.

Leaning against his dresser, wearing nothing other than a pair of basketball shorts, he crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a blank look. "Not at all, mate. Why do you ask?"

She dropped the shirt he'd thrown at her head, completely forgetting that she was sitting there completely naked, and gripped her hair in both hands out of sheer desperation. "This morning you told me that you're going to goddamn die if you stay with me and you want to know why I think it's crazy that you're talking about a honeymoon? There are more important things to talk about than a honeymoon that may or may not happen, Gage! We need to sit down and talk about what we're going to fucking do here. Do you really think I can stay with you knowing that I'd cause your death?"

Between one breath and the next he had her on her back and pinned to the bed. His angry face was hovering over hers with a look that said he was absolutely not to be fucked with right then.

His voice was full of silky menace when he spoke. "Yes, the most important thing for us to talk about is our honeymoon because the shit you just spewed is what we're not going to be talking about. There's nothing to fucking discuss here, Elena. To die has already been cast and our fate is already sealed. There's nothing you can say or do to change my mind, so don't bother trying to leave me— I'll only hunt your ass down and drag you back—and don't think your aunts can hide you away from me to save my life. Because I can guaran-damn-tee you that, even if you did manage to get away from me and hide yourself where I can't find you, the loss of you would drive me insane. My brother would be forced to put me down."

Tightening his hands around her wrists, he pressed them into his bed and snarled, "You are mine, Elena. You may not have a mate bite yet, but it doesn't matter because in all other ways you are my mate. Do you understand? My heart, my soul, my sanity, my motherfucking life. You are my everything and you will not leave me."

Elena's breathing was ragged, however Gage's was slow and steady. She was about to crawl out of her skin with insanity and he was staring back at her with grim resolve. She was panicking and he was as he always was, steady as a rock.

"How can you be so calm about this, Gage? So nonchalant?" she cried. "We're talking about your death. You're immortal; we should never be talking about your death!"

His hands came up and cradled her face where he used his thumbs to wipe away her tears. "I am calm because death does not scare me. The only thing that scares me is a life without you. Nothing else matters."

His words caused her to cry harder, therefore he tried to soothe her by rolling to his side and holding her in his arms. She lay like that with him for who knows how long until she had no more tears to cry and the harsh reality of his fate had settled on her conscious like a black mark against her soul. She was both blessed and cursed. Weighed with chains of guilt and remorse, and yet, strangely free.

Elena couldn't leave him to save his life, so she would stay with him and enjoy his love for as long as they lived. And in doing so, she would kill the man she loved.

Eventually, Gage put a finger underneath her chin and raised her tear-stained face to force her to look at him. "Promise me you won't leave me."

She licked her lips nervously and answered carefully, "I won't leave you, but I also refuse to give up on finding a way for you to survive past my death. Can you understand my need to do that?"

He studied her closely before answering, "You can search the world over for an answer as long as you don't leave my side to do it." That was as much of a concession as she was going to get from her stubborn tiger.

"Okay."

He caressed the side of her face. "We do have to clear Lulu's name today and get that over with before the situation gets any worse. Are you ready to get out of bed and face this with me?"

She nodded. "I think that situation is going to be easier to fix than we'd thought. If I remember what I read of the Council's laws, all we have to do is cast reasonable doubt to delay her being taken into custody by them, correct?"

Gage nodded. "If we can produce another suspect, they'll have to investigate them. Why? Do you have one?"

"Yes. Before you decided to turn all caveman and kidnap me, Lulu had informed me of some photographic evidence she has that the murdered demon's wife was having an affair. If we get those photos from her and turn them over to the council, that should be enough evidence to cast reasonable doubt, right? Your sister thinks it was the lover that killed him anyways."

Gage gave a bloodthirsty grin. "You're damned right that's enough. Did Lulu's lover know his wife was having an affair?"

"Yes. He also knew his wife was pregnant, but he told Lulu he was sure the baby was his."

"So there's a good chance Andrew Holden confronted his wife about the affair. If he did, the wife might have decided it was time for him to go. She could have worked with her lover on a plan to kill him. Especially if the baby wasn't Holden's."

The information might seem circumstantial; yet, with the photos, it should be enough to stop the Ninth Circle Council from moving forward on trying to have Lulu detained and tortured.

"Let's go get those pictures from my sister and show those stuck up, aristocratic demons where they can take their evidence and shove it." Giving her another playful slap on the ass, he hopped out of the bed with renewed purpose while bellowing, "Get your ass moving, Amazon! I'm ready to show those pencil pushers they fucked with the wrong tiger!"

~~~

Six hours later, they were still sitting in the waiting room outside of the Ninth Circle Council's meeting room, waiting for an audience. Well, Elena was sitting. Gage was doing his best impersonation of a caged tiger at a carnival, pacing back and forth, back and forth, while snarling and complaining. Not that she could blame him.

Both of them had come straight here after picking up the copies of the photos from Lulu and they'd yet to be seen by the demons. The more time that passed, the more Elena suspected there was more going on here than they'd previously believed. Why else would the council ignore their summons for a meeting like this?

Elena's cell phone chimed with another text from Chloe. They'd had a steady conversation for the past few hours about the lack of progress on Lulu's case and the way the demons were giving her and Gage the runaround.

Help will be there any minute.

Elena stared at the message. What the hell did she mean? Who exactly would be able to come and help them?

Ten minutes later, she had her answer and she didn't know whether to laugh or die of shock.

Kent strolled into the waiting room with a determined stride and stopped in front of a curious Gage. Elena didn't really know the man since she'd only met him a couple of times, but she could guess by the look on Gage's face this wasn't the demon's normal scene. Despite her mate's surprise, she had to admit that he certainly looked like he belonged in this stuffy hellhole.

His brown hair was slicked back and he was wearing a black three piece suit with a white shirt and a blood red tie. He looked like the typical upper-crust citizen except for the five o'clock shadow on his jaw and the displeased look on his face. Both of those things screamed he'd rather have been drinking a beer in front of a ball game instead of standing right there.

He was sexy and dangerous in the sense that one didn't see him as a threat until it was already too late. If Chloe had gotten herself wrapped up with this guy, Elena wasn't sure who she felt sorrier for, Chloe or Kent.

"I hear they're avoiding you two?" Kent asked.

"What kind of games are they playing here, demon? You should go in there and warn them not to fuck with my family. I'll start ripping spines out and tearing heads off if they keep this shit up."

Kent shrugged. "You've been around long enough to know the Ninth Circle is and will always be up to something. I hear you have evidence that casts doubt on the charges against your sister."

Gage held up the manila envelope between them that contained the pictures Lulu had given them.

Holding his hand out, Kent asked, "May I?"

Gage handed the pictures over reluctantly and watched the demon closely as he opened the flap and pulled the pictures out to flip through them. Besides his obvious distaste for being there, the demon schooled his features so she couldn't tell what he was thinking as he looked at the images. He didn't take long before he stopped analyzing them and looked back at Gage with a new, somewhat resigned face.

"For whatever reason, Councilman Holden is gunning for your sister as his brother's killer. You're going to need someone with some serious power to go in there to vouch for you and these pictures."

"Well, where the hell do we get this person, Kent?" Gage snarled in anger.

"You're looking at him, you bad tempered bastard. Follow me and keep your mouth shut."

Not waiting to see if they would respond to the vague bomb he'd just dropped, Kent spun on his heel and started walking at a fast clip towards the large, closed, heavy wooden doors that separated them from the council. The very same doors the butler who'd escorted them into the waiting room had informed them would be useless to try and open because only council members or legacies, which were demons who'd been invited to join the council, could open them without suffering the pain of death via a nasty spell cast by an extremely talented witch.

And there was Kent, about to grab that door handle like he didn't have a care in the world. Did he not know about the death spell?

Slightly panicked for the demon's life, Elena called out a warning as she watched his hand extend towards the knob. "Don't touch—"

The rest of her warning came to a screeching halt as Kent grabbed the knob, turned it, and flung the door open so that it swung wide and banged loudly against the wall behind it. The voices that had been obviously arguing among the inhabitants seconds before were silenced at his dramatic entrance.

Stepping forward into the room, she and Gage followed him until they stood directly behind him in the middle of the floor with two long, polished wooden tables on either side of them. Both tables were full of councilors except the table on the left seemed to be short one member since there was an empty seat. The room was dimly lit and shadows filled the corners and edges, casting a sense of mystery and caution. The back wall was painted from top to bottom with a mural that depicted demons in some kind of battle against each other.

Elena didn't have time to examine the room any further, though, because her attention turned to Kent when he started to speak.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Ninth Circle Council, I could be polite and say it's a pleasure to see all of you, but I'd rather not waste time with lies." Waving the pictures up in front of him, he continued, "It's been brought to my attention that Councilman Holden has pressed charges against feline shifter, Lulu Ivanov, for the murder of his brother, Andrew. As per the laws this Council laid down over a thousand years ago, charges can be placed on hold pending a thorough investigation if acceptable evidence of reasonable doubt is presented in favor of the accused. I hold such evidence."

Murmurs flew wildly on both sides of the room, however they were immediately overwhelmed by the belligerent voice of one man at the end of one of the tables, who stood from his chair and pointed at Kent. "You have no right to be here and present evidence. You've neglected to assume your family's ancestral Council seat."

A few of the demons agreed with the man's objection while others argued loudly against him.

Kent held up his hands and the room quieted. "The lot of you have worked long and hard to get me to either ascend to my family's seat or appoint another to take it. You're right, I've avoided making that decision for quite some time, but the fact is the seat is still mine if I choose to claim it, which means I still have every right to come in here and present whatever evidence or argument I want to until the time comes that I have relinquished my seat to someone else. These pictures show your dead brother's wife with her lover, whom Lulu Ivanov is claiming is the real killer. Will you look at them, Councilman Holden, and consider the evidence?"

"I refuse to consider any evidence from a man who has spit on his obligations to his family and this council. You should leave now and take the trash you brought in with you."

Gage growled at the slight and started to step forward, however Kent held a hand up and stopped him.

"You won't consider the evidence I vouch for because I've yet to make a decision on my seat?"

"What's your word worth?" Holden spat at him viciously. "You have no honor."

Kent snorted and then looked from Holden to the other side of the room where the vacant seat sat. "If that's how you want to play it, then you can enjoy the repercussions of pushing me too far."

Kent left us in the middle of the floor as he walked to the empty seat. Elena felt the room as a whole hold their breath in anticipation of what he would do.

Placing the pictures on the table, Kent then reached into his pocket and pulled out a pocket knife. Flicking it open, he circled the enormous, ornate chair until he stood behind it and held his hands up for all of them to see. In one hand he grasped the knife, and in the other, he held his palm open wide in front of it.

"Upon my duty as one of the descendants of the Nine Circles of Hell, I assume my family's seat and the responsibilities of such on this Council." Slicing his palm open along what palm readers would call his lifeline, Kent watched for a second as the blood flowed freely down his hand and then he grabbed the middle of the top of his chair with his bloody hand. Elena gawked in fascination as his blood seemed to soak into the chair instead of dripping down it as she had expected it to, almost as if the chair was consuming it.

It seemed as though Kent and this council had a lot more going on behind the scenes than she could have ever imagined. When Kent lifted his hand back up and showed it to the room in some kind of demonstration that only the other demons would understand, his blood on the chair was gone and his palm had already healed itself. The sight of both things was enough to baffle Elena's brain for the next twenty years.

In a clear, controlled but booming voice, Kent spoke, "And my first act as Councilor is to submit this evidence and order an immediate reprieve in charges against the accused, Lulu Ivanov, pending a thorough and honest investigation."

The room erupted into chaos and Gage looked at Elena with a smile of satisfaction she couldn't help likening to the Cheshire Cat.
Chapter Twenty-Seven

Gage

Now this was a motherfucking party.

Adam's little bar was packed with his family, Elena's sisters, his unit, some of the McPhee Pack, that annoying vampire from Germany, and the man and woman at the center of the celebration; Lulu and Kent. His sister was sitting at the bar with Babushka, taking celebratory shots of vodka. Was her ordeal entirely over? No.

As they were leaving, Councilor Holden had warned them this was far from over. Not to mention the whole council seemed frazzled and were already arguing amongst themselves over the pictures. Kent had basically bought them time to get either a confession or substantial evidence against the man Lulu was accusing to clear her name once and for all. It wasn't the perfect solution, however it was a temporary band-aid that Gage would gladly accept.

Who knew that Jenna's SWAT partner was such a big wig in the demon world? The guy had always come across as a laid back, pretty boy to Gage. He would have never guessed that under all those smooth pickup lines and blue collar, bulletproof vest was an influential member of demon society. Kent was a classic case of appearances being deceiving.

He was extremely grateful to the man for coming to their rescue yet a bit worried about what Chloe had bargained with in order to get his help. He wasn't the only one who was worried, either. His mate stood next to him, cuddled into his side, as they both watched the duo in a corner of the room as Kent taunted Chloe in such a way that it caused the crazy, high maintenance woman to point a finger in his face and flay him with her words. That pair was a disaster waiting to happen.

The only thing more worrisome than those two? Elena's younger sister, Delta. She'd walked into the bar, taken one look at Rhett Baines, and had fallen underneath the vampire's playboy spell. Even now, out of the corner of his eye, he could see the two sitting at a table in a dark corner sharing a drink. It was a good thing Elena hadn't seen that yet. He didn't feel like holding her back from trying to kill the vampire when he'd much rather be enjoying the booze and the fun.

Elena was already a bit tipsy from her third Jack and coke, and he had to admit to loving the side effects of his woman being wasted. She kept pointing out and giggling at the silliest things, such as his brother trying to do the caterpillar on the small dance floor. Gage wasn't sure if it was the alcohol or her good mood in general, however it had affected her scent. She smelled more like chocolate chip cookies instead of chocolate spiced with chilies, and his mouth was practically watering to taste her in every way.

Jenna shouted Elena's name and waved for her to join her over by the jukebox, so Gage reluctantly let his delicious smelling mate go so she could get to know the Alpha female a little better, but he snarled at a man who checked out Elena's ass as she was walking away from him.

Moving back to the bar, he ordered another drink and bumped his shoulder against his sister's in a playful push. "Feel better now, sister mine?"

Lulu's drunken smile was a little wobbly and a little sad. "Yes and no, brother of mine. I'm grateful that Kent could help my case, but I'm still worried about the outcome. I loved Andrew and it slays me that anyone would accuse me of killing him."

He draped his arm across her shoulders and leaned in so they could speak in lower tones. "I understand that, and I hope you won't hate me for saying this, but Andrew wasn't worthy of you." She started to protest and he shook his head to shush her. "Any man who can't see the value of you as a mate and only wants to use you is not worthy of your time. Trust me. Take your time to heal, but don't give up. There's someone out there for you."

She threw back her shot of vodka. "Let's get my head off the chopping block before we worry about my love life, okay?"

Babushka butted into their conversation. "Gage has life of his love now. He should worry about putting his batter of baby in his woman's womb."

Gage went cross-eyed at trying to keep his grandmother's mixed up speech straight in his head. "Do you mean baby batter, Babushka?"

"Da. Now is the time to think of batter of the baby," she said, smiling coyly.

"We just mated. Why are you so obsessed with great-grandchildren already, grandmother?"

Babushka's smile stretched widely across her face. "Because she is heated."

It took Gage a minute to realize what his grandmother was really saying. "You mean, she's in heat?" he whispered. Granted, human women, or even Amazonians for that matter, weren't like shifters to go into an actual heat, but he understood what his Babushka was trying to say. Elena was at her most fertile right now.

"Da, my boy!" she shouted in excitement.

Gage opened his mouth to ask something else but ended up tackling his sister and grandmother to the floor when the sound of gunshots rang out in the room. Five shots were fired, and the moment the sounds ceased, Gage was up on his feet and racing towards where he'd last seen his mate. She was still there, however she was also the one holding the handgun, pointing it at the floor with a very angry Alpha McPhee now standing in front of her.

"You crazy bitch, you could have shot my mate!" Adam thundered.

Gage slid to a stop behind Elena and wrapped a protective arm around her waist. He reached forward and pried the gun from his mate's hand before she could do something reckless in anger, like shoot Adam since he was yelling at her. He saw that Jenna was physically trying to push Adam out of her way, though she was failing miserably.

"Get out of the way, you big bastard! Did she get it? Did she fucking kill it?" Jenna shouted excitedly.

Gage shook his head at the little wolf's antics. Jesus, these women were nuts. Thankfully he was only responsible for one of them.

"What is she talking about, Elena?"

She turned in his arms and gave him fevered and frantic eyes. "It was that humongous spider again! I'm telling you, Gage, that damn thing is the size of Texas and he's following me. I have a stalker spider!"

He stared back at his mate in abject horror. She'd shot up the place over a spider?

"She's not lying!" Jenna yelled. "I saw that freaky, little bastard and he was definitely watching her."

Adam growled. "Get your mate out of here, Ivanov, before she gets her hands on another gun and accidentally shoots somebody."

Gage wasn't one to normally take orders from a flea-ridden wolf, yet this time his tiger agreed with the man. He bent down, put his shoulder into Elena's stomach, and then picked her up in a fireman's carry. When she started to struggle, he popped her hard on the ass, and she shrieked in surprise. The whole room erupted in catcalls and applause as he carried her out of the building.

He stumbled a few steps when he walked off the curb, but managed to catch his balance without dropping his mate on her head. Maybe he'd had a bit more to drink than he'd originally thought. Had the bartender handed him a second bottle of whisky after he'd finished the first?

Elena was smacking his ass and saying something that sounded a little like 'beating his booty,' but he could be wrong. When they reached his truck, which was parked in the dark parking lot behind the bar, he set her down and opened the door for her.

"Get in, woman."

"Are you ordering me around again?" she challenged.

He swayed a little on his feet. "Yes. Ass. In. Truck."

She poked him in the chest with her finger. "If you want an ass in the truck, all you have to do is get in yourself."

All this talk about asses and his truck was getting him horny. He grabbed her by her hips, swung her around and pushed on her back until she was bent over with her chest on his seat.

Looking down at the sweet curves of her backside, he purred, "Speaking of ass in my truck."

"You wouldn't! We're in public, Gage," She panted.

Grinding his throbbing shaft against her, he agreed, "You're right. I can't take your ass out here in the truck. That requires lube, but I sure as hell can fuck that sweet pussy, Amazon. I bet you're wet for me already, aren't you? If I unbutton these skin tight jeans, will the smell of your pussy overwhelm me? Let's find out."

He unbuttoned, unzipped and pulled her jeans over her ass along with her panties, so that she was bare to him. The smell of her need was overwhelming and he wondered if it was because she was that turned on or if her heat had anything to do with it. Either way, it didn't matter. Nothing mattered other than his need to taste that exquisite cream she was making for him and him alone.

He dropped to his knees behind her and spread her legs as wide as they would go inside the jeans that had her trapped and then started licking. Long, slow licks from the top of her clit and over the petals of her pussy.

Elena was softly moaning with the first touch of his tongue, but she had her head buried in the seat of the truck, screaming by the tenth stroke. He loved her screams and whimpers; all of those sexy little sounds she made for him when he was sliding his tongue in and out of her before licking her up and down again. His lips were covered in her cream now and the smell and taste of her had made him harder than he'd ever been in his life.

Unable to wait any longer, Gage stood up behind her, unzipped his jeans and took his cock out. As he slid his already weeping tip up and down her opening, his conscience niggled at him about taking her without a condom and not telling her. She was in heat and he wanted her bare. It's not like he had to worry about sexually transmitted diseases since he was shifter, and while her heat meant she was fertile, the truth was that it was still hard as hell to conceive cubs. The chances were slim that he would get her pregnant this one time.

The tiger roared in his head. The beast wanted their mate swollen and sultry with their cubs and demanded he stop debating what nature intended.

Gage's conscious nagged at him some more, though, and he was about to pull away and talk to her about it when the unexpected happened. Elena shoved herself back and took him to his base. He groaned in approval.

She was wet, hot, tight and squeezing him with her muscles. His rational thoughts about cubs and heat completely disappeared and basic instinctive need took over.

Gage knew he was a little out of it because of the alcohol, and he didn't want to accidentally hurt her, so he tried to keep his thrusts slow and easy. It allowed him to enjoy every slow slide and that little noise she made in the back of her throat when he seated himself fully inside of her. Those noises were addictive, though, and his tiger wanted to hear more of them, and louder, so he increased his speed, yet it wasn't enough for him.

She was starting to shudder all around him, her walls fluttering against his cock, but her face was still buried in the seat. He wanted to hear her. Hell, he wanted the whole bar to hear her and what he was doing to her. Then they could all know how only Gage alone could pleasure this bold woman, and she was meant for him alone. That line of thought was probably the very reason she kept calling him a caveman.

His hand wrapped in the silken strands of her hair and pulled her head back. She was now arched in front of him, her face twisted to the side as he held her there, allowing him to see her passion-glazed eyes and clearly hear her loud moans of satisfaction.

His eyes zeroed in on her unblemished neck and the tiger once again roared in his head, demanding to see their mark there. Gage felt his fangs lengthen in his mouth in anticipation of what he was about to do. He wasn't going to wait another second to give Elena her mate bite.

He surged inside her faster, his balls now loudly slapping against her clit as he bent over her back and placed his mouth near her neck.

"You're about to come all over my dick, mate, and when you do, you're going to scream my fucking name, do you understand me?" he snarled.

Elena wailed, "Yes!"

He used his free hand to reach forward and grab her breast in his firm grip. The hold helped him pull her body back into his own as he hammered into her. Her body was trembling, her breath a raspy pant, and he could see her hands were clawing at his truck seat.

"Please," she begged him, saying the word in a litany that was music to his ears. "Please, Gage, give it to me."

"Tell me you're mine."

"I'm yours!" she cried.

"Tell me you want my mate mark," he demanded as he slid his hand from her breast down to cover her clit. She bucked her body wildly at his touch there.

"I want your mark!" she screamed desperately.

Those were the words he wanted—no needed—to hear.

He circled two of his fingers over her clit and it pushed her over the edge. She convulsed around him until her sheath was practically strangling his cock as she screamed his name with a broken voice.

Taking care not to bite her in a way that could be fatal, he sunk his teeth into the flesh where her shoulder and neck met. Her blood filled his mouth as he released the grip he had on her there at the same time that she came a second time, screaming his name.

The base of his spine tingled and his balls drew up tight until it was almost painful. When she clamped down on him one last time, he roared in his pleasure and buried himself inside of her to empty his seed into her womb.

In the aftermath, he lay on top of her, covering her completely while he licked at his mark on her neck. He should have felt a bit of guilt on how long it was going to take her to heal the mark, but all he could feel was a supreme satisfaction that she was, once and for all, finally his.

Her heart was drumming loudly, her body still shuddering as she whimpered a little when he finally stood up and pulled himself out of her. Gage redressed them both quickly before picking up his mate's limp body and arranging her so she was sitting in her seat. Reaching around to buckle her seat belt, he chuckled when she leaned her face forward and kissed his cheek before promptly passing out.

He had a temporarily sweet, almost submissive Amazon passed out in his truck. It was time to take her home and let her nap before he woke her up for round two.
Chapter Twenty-Eight

Elena

The smell of French toast woke her up for the second time that day. The first time she'd woken up was because Gage had insisted she should get her ass up and watch him change for the first time before he ran off to go catch his early morning breakfast. She'd dragged on his basketball shorts and t-shirt and then followed him out to the living room where he'd changed into a big ass tiger. Then he'd stood there, staring at her like he expected her to freak out or whatever.

She was half awake, half hung-over and he'd sprouted a freaking tail. Whoopty-fucking-do. If he wanted more of a reaction than a pat on the head, then he should have waited until she was halfway alive. She'd told him to go catch a squirrel and brush his teeth before he got back into bed with her before she opened the French door to let him out into the backyard.

As she had stared out the glass at the tiger walking towards the woods, her cell phone in the short's pocket had rung and she'd answered it grudgingly when she saw it was Chloe. As usual, her sister had been ungodly obnoxious first thing in the morning, however Elena had put up with the conversation since it had been about Delta. Chloe had just watched their little sister walk into the house wearing rumpled clothes from the night before and doing an obvious walk of shame. The two of them had attempted to remember if they'd seen her talking with any one guy in particular last night, but neither of them had been able to come up with an answer.

Still not awake enough to deal with Chloe's ramblings, she had turned around to head back to the bedroom she now shared with Gage when she'd stopped short as her eyes had landed on a white tiger with his hind leg extended in the air as he used his tongue to groom himself in an area that she never wanted to see him grooming again. She might have called him a freak, however she couldn't be sure since there had been no coffee in her system yet.

So waking up for the second time that day to yummy smells was infinitely better than how she'd been awakened the first time. As she sat up in the bed, she had to wince at the small shot of pain that traveled up her neck and over her shoulder. That mangy feline better be cooking her breakfast after biting her last night.

Elena moved to get out of the bed to take a quick shower, groaning at the other areas of her body that were sore. Gage had fucked her like a madman all night last night and she might be walking a little bowlegged today because of it. That breakfast smelled really good, though, so she was going to ignore all the pain and get her ass to the kitchen ASAP.

Rushing through her shower, she dressed in jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt for the mild North Carolina, November weather and then headed towards the man she'd, in essence, married last night in a parking lot. He was waiting for her at the kitchen table with a plate full of food and a cup of coffee. At the sight of the food, her stomach grumbled loudly and Gage must have heard it because his face spread into a wide smile.

Hunger pains hit her hard as Elena sat down and started shoveling food into her face. She couldn't remember the last time she had been this hungry. She practically inhaled her three pieces of French toast and the bacon. Before she knew it, she was picking food off Gage's heaping plate.

The man didn't complain once as she repeatedly stole pieces of bacon or toast and gobbled them up. He did tease her a bit, though. "If you're going to eat all of my food, the least you could do is come over here and sit on my lap and give me some love, woman."

Elena rolled her eyes in feigned annoyance and plopped herself on his lap. He wrapped his arms around her waist and nuzzled his face into her neck. She was used to him acting all cuddly and cat-like with the 'pet me, pet me' routine, but she wasn't used to the whole sniffing thing he was doing right now. The chuffing sounds he was making while he smelt her up like she was catnip were tickling her skin.

She reached her hand around and tried to push his face off her neck. "What's with you this morning? Stop smelling me."

He nipped the tips of her fingers so she pulled them away from his face and then started nuzzling her neck again. "I can't help it. You've never smelled this good before—" His body froze, statue still by the end of his sentence.

Elena rolled her eyes and nibbled on another piece of bacon. "Stop acting like a creepy stalker sniffing my panties."

His arms suddenly tightened on her midsection. "Uh, I have something to tell you, mate, and you might not be happy about it."

"You have a giant litter box after all? I'm not scooping it, Gar-field. You're on your own."

When she didn't get a growl or warning or a laugh of amusement back, Elena knew something was wrong.

Turning to face him, she took in his worried face and asked, "What's wrong, Gage?"

He sat there, staring at her instead of answering. Not talking, just gawking at her... and more gawking.

After several silent minutes of nerve wracking staring she finally snapped, "Spit it out already!"

"You're pregnant," he blurted.

Silence ensued again. Elena sat there, waiting for the 'Hey, I'm joking', or the 'Don't mind me; I was just smoking crack', however the man didn't say another word. He sat there looking slightly panicked.

She didn't know what was more unnerving. The bomb he'd dropped or the silence. Since she was kind of in denial about the first thing, she was going to say it was the second thing.

"Say something!" she shouted.

Looking a little sheepish, he replied, "I hope we have boys."

At those five, small words, Elena flipped her shit.

Jumping up from his lap, she angrily stood in front of him. "Are you really sitting there telling me that you've put a bun in my oven?"

He nodded.

"You injected me with your baby batter?"

Gage snorted. "Funny, that's what Babushka called it last night when she told me you were in heat."

That sentence made Elena see red. "Are you sitting there fucking telling me that you knew you could knock me up and decided to do it without asking me?"

He held his hands up in surrender, trying to placate her. "We were drunk. The idea sounded better in my head at the time. Besides, shifter children are hard to conceive, Elena. How was I supposed to know you would get pregnant so easily?"

"How could you do this to me?" she screamed.

"Because I want to own you in all ways, mate! Your heart, your soul and your body. And I will do anything and everything I have to, to tie you to me, including children."

That bloody tiger was going to be the death of her sanity. She'd told him she loved him, let him chew on her like a cat toy, and forgiven him for hurting her. Why in the hell was he still afraid that she would leave him?

Not having words to describe her anger, confusion, and frustration, she decided to let him know how she felt with actions instead.

Elena walked over to the stove, grabbed the dirty frying pan that was still sitting there, and threw it at his head. She knew she wouldn't hit him; the man was fast enough to dodge it. She didn't bother to stay after that. She stormed out of their home's back door to get some fresh air and try and calm down, ignoring the sound of her sister's voice, not knowing or caring when she had gotten there, as she slammed the door shut behind her.
Chapter Twenty-Nine

Gage

"Why is she throwing shit at your big, fat head?" Chloe asked as she walked into his house with Alec right behind her. Just what he needed. Twiddle-dee and Twiddle-dum showing up uninvited while he and his mate were fighting.

"Because I told her that, as of last night, she's pregnant. She's a little pissed I didn't talk to her about it before doing it," he answered truthfully.

"Shut the front door!" Chloe shouted excitedly.

Gage and Alec glanced at the front door of the house, which was shut, and then back to Chloe questioningly.

"I didn't mean literally, assholes."

One of Alec's eyebrows cocked up and he crossed his arms over his chest. Looking from Chloe to his brother, he said, "I swear, the older we get, the more ridiculous the human dialect gets with its idioms. The other night I met this chick after a fight, and just when things were starting to get hot and heavy, she told me she wanted to watch me 'spank my monkey'."

Gage cringed at the mental image his brother had given him and hoped fervently that Alec would stop talking soon. Otherwise, he might need therapy. As usual, however, Alec kept running his mouth.

"The sad thing is, bro, that should have been hot as hell for me. Her wanting me to get off in front of her like that. Instead, all I could think was that a hundred years ago it would have meant she actually wanted me to spank a real live monkey. Instant erection killer, I tell ya."

"Ewwww," Chloe mumbled. "Anyways, let's go back to the part where you explain how you knocked my sister up on purpose without her consent. After the little temper tantrum I witnessed, I'm guessing she's not very happy with you about it?"

Gage glared at Chloe incredulously. "Temper tantrum? My woman just threw an iron skillet at my head! I don't want to even think about what will happen if she finds my weapons stash!"

"Swiss cheese," Chloe stated.

He shook his head in confusion. "Swiss cheese? Are you hungry or something?"

Shaking her head, she snorted. "No, dummy. If Elena finds your weapons stash, you're going to look like Swiss cheese. I hope you have a really good life insurance policy. I expect my niece or nephew to be well taken care of if my little sister fills you with holes."

Before Gage could respond, Alec said, "Nieces or nephews," putting emphasis on the 's' in each word.

Chloe's jaw dropped open in surprise then she shrieked, "You guys can tell that? If she's breeding more than one spawn? Is it a smell or something?" She didn't give him or Alec the opportunity to answer, she only kept shrieking. "My God. Elena was right. You guys are freaks."

Gage felt his temper rising. Freaks? His mate had called him, and by association, their future children, freaks?

He snarled, "She said what?"

The color drained from Chloe's face at his tone of voice. She took a step back, putting her hands up in the air, presumably to ward him off, and then took another step away from him. "Now, now. No need to go and get all growly on me. In her defense, she didn't mean it quite as bad as it sounded."

With the stress of all that was going on around him, Gage felt the tenuous control on his beast start to slip. His tiger was pushing to the forefront, demanding to take over. Not that his other half would hurt his mate's sister, but it sure did want to scare the shit out of her for her careless comment.

Doing his best to keep his claws from emerging, he gripped the back of the couch in front of him. Gage knew asking further questions on the matter could cause him to get angry enough to lose complete control, yet he had to know. Had he been wrong about Elena? Gage wouldn't have dreamed the woman had a racist bone in her body, and yet, she thought he was a freak? If that was the case, what would she do about their impending cub or cubs?

"Well, what did she mean then?" he finally snapped out.

Trying to play it cool, he watched as Chloe ran a trembling hand through hair and fluffed it. Huffing, as if this whole conversation was ridiculous to her and she hadn't metaphorically stabbed Gage in the heart, she answered, "She said it this morning, Gage. You'd just turned furry to go catch a meal on the go. After she watched you change form for the first time and run off, I'd called her to talk about Delta."

Gage wasn't liking how this conversation was going so far. He'd thought Elena had been fine with his beast. She hadn't acted disgusted or put off when he'd come home. In fact, that night had been one of the best of his life. Not because they'd made love for the second time, but also because she'd come to him on her own. No handcuffs, no excuses, or ulterior motives like the night she'd played her games to get the truth out of him. All of his instincts had been sure Elena was finally ready to give him what he wanted. Her. Unconditionally.

That was why he'd gone a little crazy when he'd scented the heat his Babushka had told him about. In a weak lapse of judgment, he'd decided to make her surrender as his mate also irrevocable. She could never leave him if he got her pregnant. It might not have been his best plan, however a desperate man was prone to do desperate things. Now he worried more than ever that his plan had backfired.

"Are you listening to me, you giant fur ball?"

His head snapped up in Chloe's direction. "What?"

She rolled her eyes. "How typical of a man not to listen. Like I was saying, just as she was assuring me everything was all right between the two of you, she turned around to go back to bed and found Alec in his tiger form licking his balls. It weirded her out, okay? So there's no need for you to get all mad about it. I'm sure I would have said a lot more if I'd walked in and seen one of you guys licking your furry cat balls."

Gage couldn't believe his ears. Glancing over at his brother, who was still sitting on the couch, he noticed Alec was blushing. He didn't need to ask if his brother had been caught by Elena grooming himself. Jesus, no wonder his mate had called them freaks.

His head dropped down in relief. He didn't know whether to punch his brother for inadvertently causing him grief or start hysterically laughing at the whole situation. This whole mating thing was some stressful shit.

"Are you done with your hissy fit now? Because, if you are, I'd really like to get back to this plural baby thing," Chloe demanded.

At the mention of his newly conceived cubs, Gage smiled. He couldn't help it. The thought of two or three little rascals crawling around and snarling at their mom, making her crazy, was enough to brighten his whole day. However these cat references from Elena and her family were starting to get old. He hadn't missed the jab by her wordage of "hissy".

"I don't know, are you and your sisters ever going to stop abusing me with the feline innuendos?" Lifting his head to look at her, he watched as Chloe tapped her pointer finger to her lips with her eyes rolled up at the ceiling like she was thinking.

She finally shrugged her shoulders and said, "Nope, so you should cough up what I want to know anyways."

It was Gage's turn to roll his eyes. "I never realized Amazons could be so ridiculously single minded. No, we cannot detect how many cubs are gestating. We can scent a pregnancy, but nothing else."

"So why would Alec hint there's probably more than one baby?" Chloe asked.

Alec snapped, "Nature. Genetics. Think about it, but don't overtax those slow moving brain cells of yours."

Chloe's eyes narrowed on his brother and Gage almost cringed. It looked like Alec hadn't appreciated the whole ball licking story and was out for blood. He was wrong on his assessment of Chloe, however. Gage could see how most people would take one look at her high maintenance persona, sarcastic attitude, and flaky tendencies and see nothing except a good time girl. He'd already figured the oldest Demos sister out, though. It was all an act. The woman was a highly intelligent, shrewd strategist. Perhaps you wouldn't put her in front of an Army and tell her to win the war with your soldiers, yet if you gave her a scenario to manipulate... Yeah. The outer packaging said 'man eater'; the inner soul everyone seemed to overlook was something entirely different. He really couldn't wait until Elena's older sister met a man who didn't fall for her bullshit because, frankly, any man who tamed that little schemer deserved a good shot of bourbon for fortitude and a pat on the back.

Chloe retorted sharply, "I don't know anything about shifter genetics, you lack wit. We only found out we were a tad bit more than human ourselves a few months ago. Did you expect us to become genetic experts overnight?"

Inserting himself back into the conversation to head off the impending fight, Gage answered Chloe, "To expand on what Alec said, we assume Elena will be pregnant with more than one cub for a couple of reasons. On the human genetics side, I'm one in a set of triplets."

Chloe interrupted him, "I get that, but from what I understood, the chances were higher if it was a woman who had a family history of multiple babies, not a man. For instance, your sister, Lulu."

Gage nodded his head in consent. "That's true. The chances are much higher if it's the female from the side of the family with a history of multiples. However, you and I both know we're not simply facing human DNA here. That brings me to reason number two. Our preternatural Other DNA. In the case of shifters, some animal tendencies are more dominant than our human ones. If you look at your average reproducing tiger in the wild, they usually give birth to multiple cubs. So although Elena is in essence huma—"

"What you're trying to say is you have super swimmers."

Gage choked on his words and Alec snorted.

Suddenly, Gage's French doors crashed open and Elena ran inside from the backyard, past their stunned little group, and down the hall to Gage's bedroom. She reemerged less than a minute later holding the flamethrower she'd used on the mission in Germany.

Chloe stared at her sister, dumbfounded, not understanding what she was doing. Alec gave a small roar in alarm and held his hands up in the air in surrender. Gage watched the insane woman he loved ignore all three of them and try to storm past him and back out the door.

As she went to pass him, he snapped his arm out around her waist and stopped her. "What in the hell are you doing with that?"

Elena finally looked at him and he saw her left eye was twitching, which was never a good thing. Gage liked to think of that twitching eye as her sanity meter. The more it twitched, the more you had to worry about her doing something seriously stupid and catastrophic. At the rate her eye was twitching now, he considered evacuating the entire neighborhood as a precaution to whatever she was trying to do.

In a fervent whisper she told him, "He's back. I swear he's fucking stalking me. The little shit is so fast I can't goddamn kill him and he won't fucking go away, and if he doesn't leave me the fuck alone, I will burn the entire WORLD down in the pursuit of killing the little fucker!"

Maybe he should evacuate the state and not just the neighborhood.

Trying to grab and pull the nozzle of the flamethrower's gun away from her, they got into a small tug-o-war. Gage attempted not to use his superior strength to rip it out of her hands because he didn't want to startle her into pulling both of the triggers while she held onto the weapon. He had no idea if she'd already turned the valve of the pack on or not.

"What is this crazy talk, woman? Who in the hell do you think is stalking you and why are you trying to kill him?"

They were still playing tug-o-war with the gun when she shouted, "It's that furry, little bug-eyed fucker! No matter how many times I try to kill him, he keeps coming back! Let go! I have to roast him out of existence!"

Was there another shifter on his property? Was that what his irrational mate was talking about?

Gage looked out of the many windows he had and the French doors for a threat. Some sign of a wolf, feline, or bear shifter on his property. When he didn't see anything, he looked back to Elena. "I don't see anyone. What are you talking about?"

Snatching the nozzle out of Gage's lax hands, she ran for the doors. "Follow me! I'll show you before I incinerate his disgusting little ass!"

Little? What small shifter would possibly scare her? Gage ran out the back of his house after his seemingly unstable mate with his brother and her sister right behind him. He watched as Elena stopped in front of a tree a hundred feet away from his house and pointed with the nozzle of the gun up to a branch.

"SEE!" she cried hysterically. "Do you see the little freak? I'm going to get him this time and kill him for good!"

Gage ran up behind her and grabbed the nozzle of the gun again right after she'd turned the valve on the tank. All she had to do now was pull the two different triggers in the correct order and she'd light up his old oak tree like it was a log covered in gasoline on a bonfire.

"There's nothing up there, you deranged woman. Give me the M2 Flamethrower before you hurt yourself. Think of our cubs!" Gage yelled at her.

If there was ever a moment that he wanted to wrap his mate in industrial strength bubble wrap, secure it with duct tape and then secure her somewhere she couldn't hurt herself, this was it.

"Just look!" she wailed. "Look at the branch! He's there, I tell ya!"

Refusing to let go of the nozzle of the gun, Gage looked at the branch. At first he was sure there was nothing and then a very small movement in the middle of the branch caught his attention. Focusing his eyes on the spot, he stared until he realized what he was looking at.

A spider.

His mate was trying to set a tree on fire because there was spider on it.

Could pregnancy cause a woman to go absolutely strait-jacket-needed, break-out-the-drool-inducing-meds nuts? Because that's what he was worried he would need at this point, and he hated the idea the pregnancy was the thing that had pushed her over the edge.

Heaving a sigh of worry, Gage murmured, "Give me the weapon, baby, and let's go inside."

"If you love me, you'll let me roast him. He's taunting me, sitting up there on the branch like that! I swear to you, he's taunting me."

Gage felt Alec and Chloe step up to stand on either side of him as he finally pried the gun to the flamethrower out of Elena's hands. Handing it over to one of them without really looking to see which one it was, he unbuckled the weapon's strap from around her waist.

"I do love you, mate. More than you can possibly comprehend since you don't understand the true ramifications of me tying myself to your unstable, little ass for the rest of our lives. But you can't go around shooting weapons at teeny, tiny, little spiders. He's probably not the same spider you've seen before. And really, he's a harmless, little bug. What harm could he cause you?"

"He's not a harmless little bug. He's an agent of evil. We have to kill him, I tell you, or he's going to try and get us in our sleep!"

Pulling the straps off her shoulders, he tugged the weapon's pack off her back and then handed it over to the person that he'd handed the gun section to a second before. He heard the heavy tank hit the ground next to his foot, yet he didn't pay attention to it since all of his focus was on Elena in front of him.

Using his hands on her shoulders, he turned her body around until she faced him. Smoothing his hands up her arms until they ran over her shoulders, up her neck and cupped her face, he talked clearly and slowly as if speaking to a small child. "He won't 'get' us or bother us in any way, okay? I promise. Now, come with me into the house and you can yell at me for knocking you up. Won't that make you feel better? To yell at me and call me names? Then I can tell you how sorry I am and how much I love you. While you're yelling at me, I'll make you a snack. You have to start eating more now that you're carrying our cubs."

"Our cubs?" she asked, a little shell-shocked. "You mean there's going to be more than one baby?"

Oops. He'd forgotten that she'd stormed off and missed that part of the conversation he'd just had with Alec and Chloe.

Hesitantly, he answered, "More than likely, yes."

Her eyes seemed to glaze over a bit and then she looked from him to Alec on the side of him closest to the house and then her sister on the other side of him, who was holding the flamethrower and standing closest to the tree. When she looked back to Gage, he still couldn't tell what she was thinking and it made him nervous. How one strong, intelligent, fierce woman who'd come from a long line of Amazons could be so incredibly afraid of spiders, he would never understand.

"How sure are you there will be more than one baby?"

"About ninety percent sure," he answered honestly. Why lie? She might as well start to get used to the idea of more than one baby since it was going to be a reality.

"Aunt Thea told me shifters don't grow claws or fangs until they're in their teens, so the babies won't be able to shift to protect themselves until then."

Gage shook his head. "No shifting until puberty."

Faster than he could have ever imagined a human could move, Elena lunged for the flamethrower's gun, grabbed it from her sister, and had both triggers pulled and a line of fire aimed at the tree branch.

Gage shouted in surprise, grabbed the gun from her, causing her fingers to come off the triggers and the weapon to stop spewing its flames. He threw it to the ground away from them both.

"Are you completely fucking INSANE?"

She looked back at him as calm and collected as could be, as though the last five minutes hadn't happened at all. "Nope. My mind is definitely not lost. As a matter of fact, it's right where I left it, in my head."

Pointing to the burning branch, he snarled back, "Yeah? Then explain that!"

Elena shrugged. "I keep trying to tell you that's the same spider and it's out to get me. I would have walked away from it like you wanted me to, but then you had to go and tell me our poor kids wouldn't be able to protect themselves from it until they were older. I'm only a mother looking out for her children."

Gage didn't know whether to celebrate her burgeoning maternal instincts or go inside and buy a strait jacket off the internet. Either way, he knew that he couldn't love her any more than he already did, even if he was convinced their cubs were going to be psychotic.

Between his fears of her trying to leave him because of her humanity, their fight, and then this, he didn't know what to say to her. He also didn't want to open his mouth and voice something stupid because he was pissed off, stressed out, and she'd just scared the shit out of him with a fucking flamethrower. So instead of saying something that he'd more than likely regret later, he walked away... and he was headed straight for his favorite bottle of whisky.
Chapter Thirty

Elena

Elena watched the man who loved her enough to resign himself to a death sentence, walk away towards his house without saying another word to her. Sure, she got that he thought she was being totally irrational, but dammit, she just knew the damn spider was watching her! If he'd only fucking believe her. Hopefully, she'd killed that little bugger this time and Gage would get over it.

Chloe clapped her hands excitedly, startling Alec who had been watching his brother stomp off. "I'm going to be an aunt! YAY! I have to go tell Delta and our aunts now that you're going to get as big as a blimp while carrying your lover's furry spawn. Don't play with any more dangerous weapons; you have to think of the children. Talk to you later. Toodles!"

Elena's lip curled up in disgust at the word 'blimp'. She wouldn't get that big carrying around a baby or two, would she? The thought of her having children gave her a headache. What the hell did she know about kids? Any adult in their right mind wouldn't leave her alone with a juvenile, and yet, for some odd reason, Gage had deemed it okay to impregnate her. Did he have any idea what she was probably going to be like as a mother? Any child of hers would probably be learning to count with bullets instead of fingers. She sure as hell hoped Gage was ready for this whole parenting thing.

Alec shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and his movement reminded her that he was still standing there. "You know, ever since I met your brother, my life has been turned upside down and flipped inside out." Elena gave a rueful laugh. "Which is saying something, you know? It's not exactly like I was living this quiet, peaceful existence, but when I met him, something told me that, if I got wrapped up in him, it would really be taking a walk on the wild side of life," Elena mused.

"Fuck walking on the wild side, woman, that's boring. And lonely. Look at me. I'm practically the fucking poster child for living the untamed lifestyle, and if you repeat to anyone I said this, I'll deny it until I'm blue in the face, but I'm so damn tired of it. I feel like my life has become a regular freakin' washing machine. Wash, rinse, repeat. I'd give up all of my freedoms—all of my vices—to have a woman who wanted me for me, and not because I'm pretty or fuck like a sex god."

Elena snorted. "Confident much?"

Alec shrugged nonchalantly. "Just telling the truth. I'm not the only Ivanov that feels this way either. Look at Lulu. She's so tired of being lonely that she let herself get charmed by some cock sucking asshat who led her on and broke her heart. You and Gage have what Lulu and I want—a companion. Someone to take this insane ride called life, push the gas pedal to the floorboard, and enjoy it.

"Now that you have Gage, you can live your life going zero to sixty every second of it. You have a man who will protect you and your cubs until his dying breath, love you with every fiber of his being, and most importantly, keep your crazy ass in check so you don't end up in jail. So, yeah, walking on the wild side is tame to what life with Gage will be for you. What you'll have is something so much better. You're going to have this epic, fucking journey, and in a hundred years—"

She cut him off, "I don't have a hundred years, Alec. I'll be lucky to have sixty with him before I die."

Alec shook his head. "This was why I came over here today. Babushka told me that she knows a witch who owes her a favor. Apparently, this witch has some experience with a spell that can give you immortality, but there's a catch."

Elena's breath hitched in her chest. There was a chance she could stay alive and be with Gage... but what would it cost them?

"What's the catch?" she croaked.

"The spell will tie your lifeline to his. That's what will give you immortality, but if Gage dies, so do you."

She felt tears sting the corners of her eyes. As far as conditions went, that one was doable. Sure, there was a risk in both of them dying while the kids she was currently incubating were too young, however she would have to take the risk. She loved Gage too much to walk away from him again, and she wouldn't want to live without him anyways.

"I'll have to go thank your grandmother for this. It doesn't solve everything, like how I want to beat your brother within an inch of his life for shooting me up with his baby batter without talking to me first, but now I don't have to live in fear of him dying because of me."

One side of Alec's lips tipped up. "I'm sure the baby batter is exactly why Babushka made the offer. She's probably hoping for lots of cubs. If you're not careful, she's going to talk Gage into keeping you barefoot and pregnant, but don't shoot the messenger for telling you that. Anyways, like I was saying, a hundred years from now, you and I can sit down and write it all down. We can pretend it's our version of that vampire flick with Tom Cruise in it."

Elena gave him a crazy look. "You mean, Interview with a Vampire?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"You do know it was a book before it was a movie, right?"

Alec scoffed. "Do I look like I read, sister?"

She gave him a probing look. "I have this feeling there's so much more to you than your looks, Alec Ivanov."

He playfully pushed her shoulder. "Are the pregnancy hormones kicking in already, woman? Don't get all mushy on me for God's sake. Anyways, we'll write all this shit down, and then maybe you can turn it into your own book."

Much to Elena's horror, she found herself tearing up at Alec's poignant points about the life she could have with Gage. Was she pissed beyond belief that he'd done something so drastic as to impregnate her without her permission? Hell, yes. Could she understand that he'd done it out of desperation at the thought of her walking away? Yeah, she could understand that, too.

Placing a hand on her flat tummy, she wondered what the next nine months would bring. Would Gage run out in the middle of the night to buy her pickles and ice cream if she was craving it? The combination of the two sounded rather nasty, so she kind of hoped he didn't run out and buy that for her, yet perhaps he'd buy her a yummy chocolate cake instead.

She tried to imagine what their children would look like with his exotic green eyes and her olive complexion. Would they have his stark, black hair because of their tigers, or would they have her dark brown hair instead? And that fast, her mind was playing tricks on her because she pictured two little boys with Gage's black hair, proud cheekbones and her nose. One boy would have his father's tiger eyes, and the other would have her turquoise ones. And as the two of them grew older, they would be hell on wheels with her feisty, Amazonian blood running through their veins, driving their father absolutely insane in the process.

The little visual brought a smile to her face.

"So are you going to go in and tell my brother you forgive him for being a high handed idiot?" Alec quietly asked, bringing her out of her thoughts.

Feigning annoyance, Elena sighed, "If I have to."

Alec gave her a big smile. "Go give him hell, sweetheart."

She was ready to do just that, but she had to do one more thing before she went in. She stepped up to Alec, grabbed his face with both hands, and pulled him down until she could press a chaste kiss against his cheek. "Thank you."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I'm awesome and you're so disappointed that you're stuck with my moronic brother for the rest of your life instead of me. It's going to be a hard sacrifice settling for him when you could have had me, I know, but don't worry, I'll still drop by here at the most inconvenient times to cock block him and embarrass you. I have to teach my future nieces and nephews these things, you know."

Elena lost all of her good will and humor towards her brother-in-law. "Not if you want to keep breathing, you won't."

~~~

He was pacing like a caged animal in his living room, talking to himself while he walked back and forth, back and forth across the floor. Elena stood on the other side of the French doors, watching him as he walked and talked himself to death. She'd give anything to have those shifter superpowers right now so she could hear what he was saying, but short of using some top secret equipment from the government, she would never be able to hear through closed doors or walls. It was a crying shame. She bet the man was punishing himself much worse than she could ever do so at this point.

She was about to go inside when she noticed something moving across the floor, undetected by her frantic tiger, and her eyes zeroed in on it. At first, she thought it was a very stupid mouse that was in danger of becoming an anxiety snack for Gage and his temper, yet then she noticed the mouse was traveling forward in jerking movements. It was the damn robotic mouse she'd bought and left here when she'd kidnapped his Babushka and sister! How the hell had that gotten out of his nightstand drawer?

Looking through the door's glass over to the beginning of the hallway, she saw Alec peeking around the corner with a devilish grin on his face. How the hell had he gotten in the house before she had? Elena grabbed the door handle, prepared to open the door and rip Alec a new asshole for acting like an idiot again, when an angry roar shook the glass in the door.

Looking back to Gage, she found him stomping the poor robotic mouse into teeny, tiny pieces under his foot. He looked like a two-year-old throwing a temper tantrum. If that was what their kids ended up like, she was so screwed.

Opening the door, he was so busy smashing the toy to smithereens that he didn't even hear her come in. She called his name, but he didn't hear her, so she called it again. Still nothing over the loud growling and stomping of the pathetic toy. This time, she yelled, "Gage!"

He stomped his foot one more time and roared at her until she thought her eardrums would bleed and the windows would blow out. When his voice gave out and he finally stopped, Elena crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.

"Done with your hissy fit?"

Gage's angry and unfocused eyes looked at her and then widened as if he was only now realizing who she was. He roared again in answer, only it was at her this time and not some poor robotic mouse.

"You drive me crazy!"

She shrugged as she walked closer to him. "Yeah, but you love me anyways. And I have good news. According to your brother, your grandmother knows a witch that can make me immortal by tying my lifeline to yours. That means I can drive you crazy for eternity."

Gage processed what she'd said. "You'll be immortal?"

"Apparently so. Doesn't that make you happy?"

"Yes and no," he answered.

"Yes and no?" she parroted.

Gage nodded back. "Yes and no. Yes because having you for eternity is beyond my wildest dreams. It makes me the happiest man on earth."

"And no?" Elena asked with a scowl.

"No because I'm going to have to think of some kind of weapons vault that can lock you out until the end of time. Sometimes I think you're a little too unstable to play with my toys."

"You back stabbin', motherfucking—"

He closed the distance between them and shut her up with a kiss that fried all of her mental circuits. She felt everything he hadn't said in that kiss. How happy he was that he no longer had to worry about her leaving him long before he would ever be ready to let her go. His lust, his passion, and all of his hope concentrated on her lips. Nothing had ever tasted sweeter.

Breathless, he pulled away. "I love you, mate."

"I love you, too, cat, but you won't really keep all of the weapons locked away from me, will you?"

He shook his head. "No. Only until you're around three hundred and have given me a whole litter of cubs."

Sneaky fucking cat!
Epilogue

Elena

Elena slammed open the door to her aunts' house and stomped inside with Gage following silently behind her. He was like her goddamn shadow ever since she had become pregnant. He barely left her alone long enough to use the bathroom. "Is Delta here?"

Chloe and her aunts walked out of the living room to meet her in the foyer where she was standing.

Looking a little concerned, Aunt Indigo answered, "No. Why?"

Elena shook her head. "She was supposed to meet me at the McPhee Pack bar and never did. I thought I'd come by and check on her today. She was pretty upset over the guy."

"What are you doing going to a bar! You're pregnant for Pete's sake. You don't need to be taking my unborn nieces or nephews into a freakin' bar!" Chloe screeched at her.

She felt her left eyebrow twitch in annoyance and clamped down on her inner urge to smack the crap out of her older sister. "Are you fucking kidding me? I've been pregnant for like a week and you're pulling this shit on me already? It's not like I was going in there for shots and to get piss drunk! I went there in the hopes of getting Delta drunk so she'd finally tell us what happened with the douche nozzle that broke her heart. And you can't tell me where I can take my unborn children. They're my unborn children, you twat waffle!"

Chloe narrowed her eyes and growled, "You're lucky you're knocked up, bitch, or I'd lay the smack down on you right now."

She snorted in amusement. "The only thing you're capable of laying the smack down on is a credit card at some ridiculously expensive hooker's clothing line store, so don't get all high and mighty with me, you over-priced piece of fluff."

The two sisters lunged for each other, however they were stopped by their two aunts stepping in between them and Gage grabbing Elena gently around the waist to prevent them from fighting.

Aunt Thea gritted out between her teeth, "Can you two act reasonable for one damn day?"

Elena and Chloe stood there in stubborn silence, refusing to answer the question.

Finally, Chloe murmured, "You think she went to see the guy? I could never get her to tell me his name."

Aunt Indigo ran a hand through her hair in frustration. "It's possible. She wouldn't tell any of us who it was. The fact that she has refused to give any of us his name makes me think we know him. Why else would she keep it a secret?"

Elena pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. "So we start calling people. I don't think it's Alec, but we can start with him."

"It's not Alec," Gage chimed in.

Elena had to love being mated to a man of few words.

Rolling her eyes, she continued, "There are the guys on Gage's unit, Jenna's brother, and Jenna's SWAT team partner."

"Kent?" Chloe asked as if surprised.

Elena's brows furrowed at her sister's question. "Yeah, Kent. Why?"

A mask fell over her sister's features, turning them blank. She twirled a piece of her long hair around a finger. "I don't think it's Kent. We've been... spending time together," she answered nonchalantly.

With that answer right there, Elena was certain of one thing; they'd fucked.

"God, you are such a whore!"

Chloe tried to lunge for Elena's hair to start a catfight, and somehow small Aunt Indigo held her off.

All four of them were yelling now. Aunt Thea at Elena for calling her sister a whore. Elena at Chloe for being a whore. Chloe at Elena for being such a judgmental stick-up-the-ass. And Aunt Indigo at Chloe for trying to start a fight with her pregnant sister.

There's no telling how long the four of them would have stood around, yelling at each other like only family can do while Gage silently watched, because suddenly a loud banging on the door got their attention, so they shut up.

"You think it's Delta?" Chloe whispered.

The four women ran for the door with Gage prowling behind them, shoving each other out of the way to be the one to answer it in the hopes it was the youngest Demos sister on the other side.

Aunt Thea was the first one to get there, so she grabbed the door knob and flung the door open in haste without looking through the security peephole to see who it was.

What they found on the other side of the door wasn't Delta, though, which caused all of them to deflate a little in disappointment. No, standing there were two men Elena didn't know. Both tall, trim, fit, and incredibly good looking. Both sporting red hair, green eyes and pale, creamy white skin that would stand out in a crowd. And both of them looked so similar in appearance that you would have thought they were brothers if one of the men didn't look old enough to be the other man's father. Of course, on the younger man, all of that handsomeness was marred by the thunderous scowl on his face, which was currently being directed at her. What the fuck had she done to deserve that look?

Aunt Thea's voice finally filled the confused quiet. "Can we help you?"

The younger man turned his scowl from Elena to Aunt Thea. "Yeah, you can make sure that crazy bitch," he thrust an angry finger in Elena's direction, "never gets near another flame thrower or pistol again! She almost killed us!"

Everyone turned their heads to stare at her in silent accusation. Where was the loyalty in this family? It wasn't like she was a homicidal serial killer running around and killing people for fun!

She held her hands up in the air. "I don't know what the hell he's talking about, guys. Honest. I've never seen him a day in my life and Gage took all the weapons away from me and hid them after he told me that I was preggers." She pointed to the man who had stolen all of her fun away from her as proof.

Her aunts and sister turned their glares back to the man who was still glaring at Elena. The stranger took a small step forward, however the older man put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Calm down; this is not why we came here."

"Then why are you here? And who are you?" Aunt Indigo asked.

The older man's shoulders stiffened. "My name is Manus Campbell and this is my son, Deo. We came here because we know what happened to Delta and we're worried about her. Would you please let us come inside so we can discuss things with you?"

Chloe pushed her way to the front of the pack and pointed a finger in Manus's face. "You tell me what happened to my sister this very second or I castrate you where you stand."

Manus sighed in frustration. "I see Aggie passed on her temper to you girls."

After dropping that little verbal bomb, they all went deathly quiet. Until Chloe's temper kicked back in.

"Who the hell are you, buddy, and why are you talking about my mom!"

Weirdly, Manus looked to Thea and Indigo, hoping for some recognition or perhaps help, yet there was no help coming from her aunts.

His shoulders slumped a little as he muttered, "I see she took it to her grave then."

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Chloe. Elena stepped up to stand beside her sister as Chloe started to unfold the document. The words were faded—the paper was a wrinkly mess as if it had been crumpled and uncrumpled many times—but the words at the top were still bold and legible.

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

BUNCOMBE COUNTY

OFFICE OF REGISTER OF DEEDS

Application, License and Certification of Marriage

Scanning her eyes down the document, Elena took in the words and felt her heart speed up. What in the holy flying monkey shit was this? Her mom had been married to Manus? Suddenly feeling light headed, she looked back up to the man, who nodded his head as if answering her unspoken question.

"I'm your and Chloe's step-father, Delta's biological father..." putting his hand back on his son's shoulder, he continued, "and Deo is Delta's twin brother."

Elena's vision swam with tiny black dots. Her legs wobbled like jelly and she felt like she was on one of those Tilt-A-Whirl rides at a carnival. She tried to keep herself standing up straight, yet she lost the battle and started to lean dangerously to the side. Everything around her felt like it was in a tunnel. Even Aunt Thea sounded like she was in a tunnel when she heard her shout, "Someone grab her! She's going to pass out!"

Several hands grabbed her at once and she tried to push them off, but they easily over-powered her until she found herself reluctantly, and slowly, walking towards the living room couch. Once they sat her down, someone had her bend over and put her head between her knees. She heard Aunt Thea tell her to take deep breaths. Right. Breathing was good, she reminded herself. Vital, even.

After a few moments, she slowly sat back up, feeling a bit better. There were no more dots in her vision, however she wasn't exactly feeling like her old self yet. Her aunts were sitting on either side of her while Chloe, Manus, and her newly discovered half-brother, Deo, stood in front of her on the other side of the coffee table... staring at her.

Elena ignored the stares because she wasn't used to looking weak in front of anybody, especially strangers. All of this was too much to process. Her mother had been married and she had a step-father and half-brother she'd never known about. There was one thing that kept repeating in her mind.

"Why?"

Manus's eyebrows shot up to his hairline at her question. "Are you asking why she married me?"

Elena nodded.

Manus shrugged. "It was the only way I would give her a child."

This comment caused Elena to scowl at him. "Are you trying to tell us that our mother married you for some whacked out, baby-making business arrangement?"

Manus's features softened and he gave her a small smile. "It wasn't just a business arrangement. I loved your mother very much. I simply refused to give her a child without some kind of permanent attachment to her. So she agreed to marry me if I would help her produce a child, but instead of one baby, we made two."

Elena blew out a frustrated breath. "I don't understand this. Why would she marry you but not stay with you, and why would she leave our brother behind when she kept the three of us?"

Manus's mouth opened to answer her, but Chloe beat him to the punch. "Because she still considered herself an Amazon. Amazonian women do not keep their lovers, remember? Nor do they keep any boy children. If they birthed a son, they either killed them or gave them back to the child's father. I guess we should be grateful Mom wasn't a cold-blooded bitch and didn't kill him."

"Chloe!" her two aunts yelled at the same time.

Chloe shrugged. "What? I'm just being real. Don't act like it's not the truth."

Aunt Thea scowled at her. "There hasn't been an Amazon in the last four hundred years that's killed a boy child that we know of. The practice disappeared a long time ago."

"Don't get your panties into a wad. We need to skip all this crap and get back to the important part of the conversation."

Elena gave Chloe a look that said she thought her sister was nuts. "What's more important than finding out Mom was married and we have a brother?"

Throwing her hands up in the air, Chloe shouted, "How about the part where they said they know what happened to Delta and they are worried about her?"

Deo shook his head. "I'm not worried about her; she'll be fine." Pointing to his father, he said, "He's the one that's worried about her."

Losing her patience, Elena yelled back, "Well, why the fuck is he worried about her?"

Deo glowered at her. "Don't yell at me you crazy woman. I'm still mad at you for trying to kill me!"

"Why do you keep saying I tried to kill you? I've never seen you before, you nutcase!" she wailed.

Deo smirked in an evil way and his father saw it.

"Don't."

"Pfft. Keep dreaming, old man. I'm showing her right now." Deo put his hand in his coat pocket while he spoke to her. "One of the reasons dear old Mom wanted to have children with Dad is because he's a powerful warlock of some repute. She hoped to have a child with some magical abilities. From what I understand, Delta never developed abilities, but I did."

Pulling his balled up hand out of his pocket, he held it out in front of him. That devious grin on his face caused all the hairs on the back of Elena's neck to stand up in warning.

"One of my specialties is connecting to a familiar. I have one creature that bonds to me, and I can see life through his eyes. But when we're connected, we share a life force. So if he dies, I die, too. You tried to kill my familiar."

Elena shook her head in denial, but stopped when Deo opened his hand. Right there, in the middle of her brother's palm, was the bane of her existence.

It was that big ass, motherfucking, hairy spider that had been stalking her.

Seeing Chloe's gossip rag magazine on the coffee table, she snatched it up so that it was rolled in her hand and leapt with a homicidal war cry towards her brother and her enemy. This time, she was going to kill the little bastard once and for all!

Only she never made it near her target because her Aunt Thea was holding her back as Deo laughed his fool head off at her.

"Let me go! LetmegorightnowsoIcankillthatcreepyabomination!" she shrieked.

Deo stopped laughing, and his tone became severe. "You can't kill Rufus."

Elena stared at him in horror. "You named that disgusting thing Rufus?"

He nodded. "Yes, I did, and you can't kill him for two reasons. One, he's my familiar so he's very important to me. And you wouldn't want to break my heart now, would you, big sister?"

"You slimy, little turd!"

He continued on as if she hadn't spoken, "And two, he's going to help us get Delta out of her mess."

Hearing Delta's name brought her rage back down. Remembering that Delta needed help of some sort, she felt ashamed about momentarily forgetting her while being consumed with a maddening drive to kill the furry, bug-eyed monster. If Delta needed her, she would do anything to get her sister back to safety. Even play nice with the spider. She shuddered at the thought.

"You still haven't told us what trouble she's in or where she's at," Chloe snapped.

"Delta is at the den of Bash Yasin; a very old, scheming and deceptive vampire."

Elena, Chloe, and her aunts all started talking at once over each other, asking different variations of the same question, which was, "Why?"

Manus held his hands up in the air and shouted, "QUIET!"

The Demos women promptly quieted down to wait for an explanation.

Elena took this silent opportunity to give Manus the once over thoroughly for the first time. Now that she was paying attention, she could see the genuine concern written all over the man's face. He was truly worried about Delta, which in turn worried Elena.

Impatient, Elena snapped out, "Well, give us some answers already."

Deo pet his spider, causing Elena to shudder in revulsion again. The first place she was going afterwards was home to the shower. Then she was going to scrub every inch of her body raw in the hopes that the heebie jeebies the stupid spider gave her would go away.

"Rufus here was hitching a ride in Delta's purse yesterday to spy on her for me. I've been watching you all since we were informed of Mom's death, trying to decide on whether I should make contact with you or not." When Chloe started to say something, he held his hand up to stop her. "Last night, Rufus was there with Delta when she took the meeting with Bash Yasin. Apparently, they've met briefly before through a mutual acquaintance. Some guy named Rhett Baines. Bash had heard about Delta asking Rhett to turn her, and how Rhett had denied her, rather harshly from the sound of it. Bash offered to turn her himself, however there was a catch." Their brother gave them a stern look and said, "There's always a catch with those vamps, don't forget that. Nothing is ever free with those stingy bastards. Anyways, if Bash turned Delta, she would be indentured to him for the next one hundred years."

Chloe snorted. "There's no way Delta took a deal like that. She's naive, sure, but stupid? Not hardly. So where is she now? Crying into her tea cup about not getting what she wanted?"

Deo shook his head. "How quickly you've forgotten that I've already told you Delta is at Bash's den. And you forget all of Delta's admirable traits, like her romanticism of fairy tales and epic love stories. This Rhett may have turned her down and broken her heart, but do you really think Delta would walk away from the opportunity to live forever? Did you forget how much she likes her 'research'? Think of all the things she could research with an infinite life span. Yeah, I see by the panic on your face that you're figuring it out. You're wrong, Chloe; she took the deal. Delta's not here because she's a vampire now."

"Holy shit," Elena whispered in shock.

After gathering her wits, she asked, "What do we do now?"

Manus shrugged. "Wait for Bash to let her come home."

Gage added, "And finish clearing Lulu's name in the meantime."
Note From The Author

Thank you for reading Walk on the Striped Side! You're the absolute best for giving little ol' me a chance. For every Indie Author you read, somewhere out there a fairy gets its wings! Okay, maybe not, but it still seems pretty magical.

For those of you thinking, "Lulu's stuff wasn't solved." And, "What the heck?" DON'T PANIC. The ultimate resolution of Lulu's case will be resolved in the next Big Bad Bite book, The Demon Who Loved Me. I have to break out the big, bad Kent to properly handle that situation, and he demanded a story of his own to do so.

I hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did, please consider leaving a review at your favorite online retailers or review websites. These are great ways to help spread the word about books to readers who have yet to discover them.

Happy reading,

Jessie Lane
About The Author

Jessie Lane is a best-selling author of Paranormal and Contemporary Romance, as well as, Upper YA Paranormal Romance/Fantasy. She lives in Kentucky with her two little Rock Chicks in-the-making and her over protective alpha husband that she's pretty sure is a latent grizzly bear shifter. She has a passionate love for reading and writing naughty romance, cliff hanging suspense, and out-of-this-world characters that demand your attention, or threaten to slap you around until you do pay attention to them.

For more information on Jessie Lane:

<http://jessielanebooks.com/>

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