Page 12 of Mated
Gage and I exchange a look, and I nod. Same one I saw feeding.
Ruin glances back at me. “Well, we’re going to be working through that, true? So unfortunately your introduction into pack society may have to wait.”
She stares at him. “Pack … What now?”
I offer her a brilliant smile. “As a bitten shifter, you have a few options. With no pack loyalties or hierarchy, you can register as a rogue. This would let you live the life you have, but you have to endure routine check-ups and you can’t travel out of state without notifying the board.” Her nose wrinkles in distaste. “Or you can ask for pack protection from your local alpha. If he agrees, and he probably will, then you will report monthly to him for the sabbat runs. One on the full moon, and one during the new moon.”
She blinks. Her fucking lashes are long, and just as thick as her hair. “I’m a firefighter. I don’t have time for this shit.” Her colorful language makes my gut warm. The woman is brazen. Fierce.
She starts to push from the bed again, completely ignoring the IV and the few bandages left on her body.
I leap across the room.
Her body is scalding beneath the thin gown, and not quite flawless, but close. She has several burn scars on the backs of her hands and the slim column of her neck. But the rest of her body has a smooth, golden glow.
“Didn’t we do this earlier?” I ask, pushing gently at the muscle in her strong shoulders.
She watches me from less than a foot away, her eyes shifting to a turbulent jade as I watch. Her anger only adds to her delectable and smoky scent. “And I’m pretty sure I told you not to touch me.”
My lips tremor. “I think your exact words were tolet you go. You didn’t say for menotto touch you.”
Her white teeth gleam in such a shifter-esque motion that a fucking shiver of awareness flows down my spine.
“Tanner.” Lilah’s voice is soft. “Let her go.”
“Yeah, Tanner, let me go.”
My eyes close.
Fucking hell.
The sound of my name from Nisha’s full lips rings through me like a gong. My dick hardens in my jeans.
I back up, putting massive amounts of fucking space between us. “Yeah. Sure thing, Boss Lady.”
Nisha scowls, brows narrowed, like she is waiting on me to move away even more.
I plaster a cocky smile on my face. “Okay. So … I got everything I need,” I say and start walking to the door. The sooner I am out of here—
A hard hand closes over my bicep, halting me. “That’s it?” Ruin demands.
I glance at his hand on my arm. He releases me, but his jet-black eyes are frigid, empty.
“Yeah, that’s it,” I retort. “If I have any other questions, we know where she works, true?”
He exhales but steps back. I walk around him without a backward glance and slip out the door.
Caine and Horan wait outside near the nurse’s station. The demon peers at me from behind the fringe of his midnight hair and smirks. “Hey, kitty-kitty,” Caine croons. “What’s got your tail in a bunch?”
I flip him off, brush past Horan, and keep going until I hit the parking lot.
My truck sits at the curb thanks to Gage. I climb inside the hot, stuffy interior and immediately bang my head on the damn steering wheel a few times.
As pretty as Nisha is, she is off limits as anything other than a witness to a deranged shifter attack. Nothing more. Because more would mean doing a lot of really naughty things to her, and judging from her anger just now, I would be purring up the wrong fucking tree.
The passenger side door opens and closes. Caine’s brimstone fragrance pools in the confined space but he remains quiet.
“Gage elect to stay with Ruin?” I ask, forehead still pressed to the leather covering the wheel.
