“I think he was bitten,” she explains. “He didn’t seem to know much about shifters. Not as much as someone would if he were born one. He said he wasn’t sure the bite would work if I were unconscious, so he yanked the crossbow bolt out of me and wrapped a chain around my ankle so I wouldn’t heal beforehe could bite me. I was in too much pain to ask him helpful questions, so that’s all I know.”
I get up from my chair. She tenses slightly. I grasp her arm, yank her up from her chair, and haul her against my chest because I need this woman in my arms like I need to breathe.
“You promised this wasn’t going to turn into a caveman situation.” Her voice is muffled against my chest.
“I promised not to howl. I did not promise not to hug you.”
“Oh.”
Howling was always the perfect way to release my frustration into the sky.
Hugging my mate is an entirely new experience. One I crave.
“Is this hug going to end soon?” she asks. “You’re probably making your enforcers very uncomfortable.”
“We’re good,” Cruz says.
“That was a sign to intervene before your alpha squeezes the stuffing out of me,” she mutters.
I pull back to grin at her. “You could have just clawed me.”
“I can’t get to any of the organs that would kill you,” she says.
She might not have hugged me, but she did nothing to break it. She’s right, though. This meeting is important, and as much as I want to hug my mate for longer, we have things to talk about.
I release her to return to my seat, but I pull her onto my lap.
She stares at me.
I focus on Cruz. “What did you find out about him when you were at the college?”
“You mean when you had them watch me?” Kat wiggles.
I rest my hand on the base of her spine. The warmth of her skin filters through her cotton t-shirt to the palm of my hand. “Quit wiggling.”
It’s distracting me in more ways than one.
“Not much. He kept his distance. Likely knew what we were and was smart enough to stay away,” Cruz says.
“Aren,” she snaps. “You dragged me onto your lap like a caveman.”
Someone hurt my mate. Tried to take her. I need her in my arms.
Maybe a more civilized good man wouldn’t invade her space like this, but I’ve never been civilized, and I’ve never been particularly good.
“This is who I am. It’s who I will always be,” I tell her.
Possessive. Fierce. An Alpha.
She releases a sigh and mutters, “Pull my braid again and you die.”
Which is as close as I’m going to get to her accepting me pulling her onto my lap.
I’ll take it.
Smiling slightly, I focus on Finan. “Someone must know him. We need to find him. Get in touch with every pack.”
Kat stops the wiggling that was only making me hard. “He didn’t have a pack.”
