Page 163 of Claimed

“One minute you don’t know her, the next minute you’re out of your mind with love?” He screws his face up.

“It’s not weird at all,” I respond. “It’s fuckin’ awesome. Something snaps into place, and you just know it’s how it’s supposed to be.” I sip my take-out coffee.

Jase lets out a grunt.

“I know how you’re feelin’, Jase. I started to wig out a bit right after Mase because it felt like the clock was tickin’ for me and I didn’t know what to expect. I mean, we all knowwhatto expect but we don’t fullyknowuntil it’s happening to us. Trust me, bro. When you smell her, you’ll know it’s how it’s supposed to be. Considering I thought I wanted one more kick at the can and the one I wanted it with turned out to be the one for me is probably not a coincidence.”

“Hm. But… you don’t think you’ll miss being single? Being able to play the field?”

“Nope,” I say immediately. “Thisis how we’re built.”

“I know I’ve said it before but serious… more than the monogamy, what flips me out the most is worrying about someone’s safety 24/7. Even more than I worry now about the whole pack?”

“Yeah. Their safety, their peace of mind. Whether they’ve had enough to eat. Whether they’re happy. What they’re thinking about when you feel tension or worry coming from them. But wanting to do nothing but fuck them and make them happy. Believe me, Jason, it’s the best.”

“I look around at the women in the pack and can’t imagine feeling that way about any of them,” he says. “Including the ones I’ve had a good time with.”

“I hear you. Maybe you’ll suddenly know it about someone you already know, or maybe it’ll be someone you’ve never met. Like with me and the others all mating outside the pack.”

“Yeah, and that’s a point of contention at home. Heard Cicely, Audrey, Leona, Bailey, and Roxy all bitchin’ at the bar about that right after you mated. All the super alphas being taken by women outside the pack like the girls at home are chopped liver or somethin’. Said at least you mated with a shifter, which pissed Bailey off, but me and Joel made the mistake of walkin’ right into that. Leona pointing in my face and sayin’ if I wind up mated to an outsider too they’re gonna picket in protest outside Roxy’s. Worried that you’re the middle of the council and you and all three before you didn’t mate with a local woman so now they’re stressin’ about Linc, me and Joel goin’ the same route.”

“It’s not up to you who you mate with, brother. There was concern it’d be someone in Silver Hills. Wouldn’t have surprised me at all.”

“Same,” Jase says. “Wondered if that’d happen. Some sweethearts in there. But there’s definite baggage with the girls Brody rescued from this joint last night and the rest of them are too old or too young. Be fun if it was Danica Young, but obviously that’s not happenin’, or it probably would’ve by now.”

“You never know what’ll happen until it does, my brother. But man, my mate has baggage and it doesn’t matter a lick to me. She’s mine, baggage and all, and that’s all that I give a shit about. That she’s mine, that she’s happy, fed, safe, satisfied, and smells like me. Baggage or no baggage.”

“No offense,” Jase says.

I shrug and sip my coffee again.

He goes on, “Don’t like to be a broken record, but just hate the fuckin’ suspense of it all. When is it gonna happen? Who’s it gonna be? Drivin’ me bananas.”

“Time will tell. Probably soon given the pace.”

“Yeah,” Jase mutters. “Wanna find my sister and know she’s all right, so if mating cuts me off at the knees I won’t feel torn between finding Sher and looking after my mate.”

He’s been jiggling his legs with impatience, but now his pace has ramped up to where the whole car is shaking with it.

“Maybe I oughta go in,” Jase straightens up. “I got the scent mask on, so…”

“But Meadows has seen you, knows who you are. There’s surveillance cameras. Be patient, bro. Jared’s capable.”

He grumbles under his breath and fidgets in the passenger seat some more.

The front door of the massage parlor opens and Jared strolls out, cracks a joke with the bouncers who laugh, and rounds the building. He’s getting in his truck in their back parking lot. A minute later, he’s pulling out onto the street, so I start my car and follow.

***

We’re in a twenty-four-hour supermarket parking lot six blocks away, the three of us outside.

“No new shifter scents,” Jared tells us. “I could smell the lingering scents from the girls from yesterday. Got a massage from some human who didn’t have the first fucking clue how to do a massage and declined the happy ending while giving her a good tip, so she skipped out happy, big smile on her fake lips, fake tits not even bouncing. While I was gettin’ dressed I slipped into the hall. Halls were quiet. I managed to scope the place out and no way he’s been there tonight and he ain’t coming, I suspect. Reason? Stepped up to an office door and heard the owner on the phone, leaving a message for Meadows.”

My phone rings and it’s Bailey calling. Jared stops speaking. I reject the call and gesture for him to keep talking.

He goes on, “I could tell by his message it’s not the first message he’s left. He’s pissed. Clear Meadows hasn’t called him back. And the animosity from the message… this guy wants to hear from him immediately. Said he had to take care of some things because of his deal with Meadows and Meadows owes him for it. If that guy planned to come pick up more dough, he might not do that now given he knows some guy came in, knocked out the desk guy and shoved him in a closet, beat up two patrons, ended another patron permanently, and took all those new girls with him, leaving behind only the girls that already worked there.”

“Good point,” Jase says. “Clearly the owner got rid of the body of the guy Brody pulled off his mate.”

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