Page 51 of Elusive Mate

“Your plane has a sauna?”

“Yeah, I figured with skis for landing gear, it would be a cold weather plane and it might be a good idea. Are you hurt in any way?”

“No. Why can’t you just let me go?”

“I told you why. My question is, do you really want me to?”

She looked at him. That hesitation. That softening of her expression. The way she yielded to him and surrendered all of herself when they made love. It was that which made him believe.

“I… I don’t know.”

“Zenya, I know I haven’t made this easy on you. I’m not an easy man. I can’t afford to be. But I can learn to be the man you need me to be. Our clan needs me to be strong. But they need you, too—your kindness, your compassion, and that damn bobcat needs to quit yowling and hissing at me like he knows it’s my fault.”

“Is Lucky still at Ice Storm?”

Lucian groaned. “Yes, Lucky is at Ice Storm. We no longer have a rodent problem, although he won’t deign to eat what he kills. He much prefers the stuff you were feeding him, which we had to get analyzed to find out how to make. By the way, he prefers it heated with a little warm cream and a raw egg.”

He watched as she tried to keep from laughing and failed.

“Oh, that’s nothing,” he continued. “When I finally made it up to our room on our wedding night—nicely played, by the way—he was sitting in the middle of our bed looking at me as if to say, ‘she’s gone, asshole. What are you going to do about it?’ And now he thinks he should sleep on our bed. I keep telling him there isn’t room for all three of us. I think he believes I should be sleeping elsewhere.”

“You two seem to have struck up quite the friendship while I was gone,” she said, laughing.

He loved hearing her laugh. It was like the most amazing symphony; one that he wanted to hear every day for the rest of their lives.

“Don’t tell him I said this, but he’s not bad company. I suppose we could put a nice bed for him in our room.”

“You let my pet bobcat loose in the house and let him sleep in our room?”

Lucian shrugged. “He seemed important to you, so he was important to me. We found a way to make peace with each other. I think he knows you and I are linked somehow, so he follows me, hoping I’ll bring you back to him.”

“So, you think I’d come back for the bobcat?”

“I don’t know sweetheart, but at this point I’ll use anything I can think of to bring you home. I am willing to admit you outfoxed your brother and I, and I’m willing to admit we probably had it coming, but please tell me that the week that led up to our bonding was not all a lie.”

She turned away, seeming to think about something. Then she turned back to him. “It wasn’t all a lie.”

“Then why? No, wait; you don’t have to answer that. I promised myself if I could just get you home safe, I’d give you time. I’d let you and Lucky move back into the other room…”

She pressed her finger to his lips. “I don’t want to sleep in the other room. Being a tigress on a long trek gives you time to think. I kept asking myself why when the ache I felt for you kept getting worse. I had almost decided I didn’t care if it was pheromones and fairytales, I felt something for you. Something deep and true.”

He waited, wanting desperately to press her, but sensing she needed to find her own way.

“I think I was afraid I would lose myself—in you, in the clan, in the children we would have. I loved being a vet and I think with the battle with the Shadow League looming, I’m going to be needed.”

“I agree—about being needed. That’s why I wanted your clinic to be everything you needed. We got the supplies and equipment you wanted, and several of our people want to work there and learn from you. Ice Storm has worked for many years without a traditional first lady of the clan, so we don’t necessarily need one. What we need is you. The role is yours to make of it whatever you will. I love you, Zenya. I always have.”

She lightly chucked him upside the head. “Then why didn’t you lead with that?”

“Because in case you missed it, your fated mate is an idiot.” He could hear the sound of the approaching plane. Lucian picked up the sat phone. “Circle round.”

She took the phone from him. “Or you could land so we could get in the nice, warm plane. I believe our alpha said there was a sauna, you know, where I could get warm?”

Lucian took the phone from her. “You heard my mate; she’d like you to land.”

Charlie laughed. “I guess it’s just like you kept saying, whatever Milady wants, Milady gets.”

She smiled at Lucian, winding her arms around his neck and rubbing up against him. Rising up on her toes, she smiled and said, “Let’s go home. I believe you said something about wanting to plow my pussy with your barbed cock?”

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