“Not gonna happen,” Kieran said.
“So, I think I get the whole ambush dynamic now.” Tor flicked his finger at all three of us. “Before I was the reckless one who did dumb stuff without thinking. Then our fated mate comes along and she doesreallydumb stuff that makes me look positively levelheaded.”
“In my defence…” I shot them a weak smile. “I did it for you.”
“I look forward to hearing your spirited defence of why you decided to have sex with me, accept the mating bond, then sneak out while I was asleep.”
Mack’s steady gaze made clear that nothing I could say would get me out of that spanking.
“Damn…” Tor hissed. “That’s how it went down.”
“So…” Mack’s voice was full of dark intent as he leaned in. “What made you think that was a good idea?”
“It’s their fault.” Kieran and Tor shook their heads when I pointed at them. “They told me to jump.”
“What?” Mack looked over his shoulder at the two of them.
“With your heart,” Kieran hastily explained. “That’s what we meant, Harper. To let us in.”
“Well, I did.” I couldn’t look at them as I said this. My eyes made a very close inspection of Daria’s parents’ curb, noting that they needed to get some weedkiller onto the dandelions springing up everywhere. “And my heart said I needed to protect you.”
“That’s our job.”
“And it’s mine too.” I forced my head up, meeting their gazes head on. “You want me to be your mate? I’m gonna throw down to protect you as well. That’s why I did it, why I shot Dax. Mack.” His arm was rock solid with tension as I placed my hand on it. “You’ve been traumatised, shut down by the crazy shit your family pulled.” I shook my head. “I may or may not know something about that. It felt like history was repeatingitself. That you’d need to kill the last remaining member of your family.”
“Something I intended to do to protect you.” I caught the moment when Mack’s eyes bled from blue to yellow as he stared at me. “I thought I could keep Dax away by avoiding bonding with you, then when it was clear that was never going to happen, I knew I’d have to put him in the ground. I’d…” He swallowed hard. “I’d protect you the way I failed my mother.”
My hand went to his cheek, my eyes aching as I traced the pattern of stubble down that plane.
“And I wanted to protect you from having to go through that all over again.”
Mack had more to say about that. I could see it in the way he shook his head and then sucked in a breath. Tor appeared beside me, leaning against the car with a smirk.
“Seems like there’s a whole lotta protecting going on.” His smile faded for a second. “Not quite enough on my part, though if you need me too, me and Dina can feign a blood feud and then I’ll fight for your honour.” His forehead wrinkled. “I think I’d win.”
“Or we can go home and finally accept what we all know is true.” Kieran scanned the lot of us. “That we’re meant to be together as a sleuth?—”
“Ambush,” Tor corrected.
“Pack.”
Mack’s nod made me think that maybe, just maybe, he’d get past this little oversight of mine.
“And now we don’t have any dire threats hanging over our head, maybe it's time to work out what we want to do with the rest of our lives,” Kieran finished.
“So does this mean we can finally, finally have sex?” I may or may not have begged just a little. “Because all that dream clit teasing is kinda getting old.”
“After,” Mack growled. That should’ve been a warning, because his hand slapped down on my arse, far harder than Daria had managed. “I promised you a spanking, Harper, and now you’re gonna get it.”
Chapter 43
Tor
Maybe having another troublemaker in the house wasn’t such a bad thing.
For one, Mack was growling at Harper, not me for once, and second? He looked a whole lot different when he was mad at her. When he prowled across the kitchen floor, she backed up quickly.
“So, Fur Face, surely we can work this out? I mean, I didn’t even do anything that bad.”
