Page 74 of Marked By Moonlight
“Time to go. The client will be waiting.”
Chapter Sixteen
MARIUS
The fifteen-minute walk to Anastasia’s apartment took Mina, Roux, and me across the short side of Hyde Park, and I cursed Clement the entire time. Police championships? In what, stealing another man’s woman?
“Regional police championships?” I couldn’t help muttering.
Mina looked straight ahead.
“Let me guess,” I grumbled. “That ass of a wolf shifter put you up to it.”
She gave me a fierce look. “Clement is not an ass, and he didn’t put me up to anything. He asked nicely.”
“I bet he did,” I muttered. “Did he butter you up with cake or something?”
Her step hitched. Then she continued stomping along.
“What would you have me do?” she muttered back. “You left without a word. Bene and Roux wouldn’t tell me anything, and Henrik attacked me. Oh, and meanwhile, I have a business to develop.”
“A business hosting police events?” I grumbled.
She ticked off one finger at a time. “It will allow me to test the logistics of hosting large groups of people. It will help spread the word that the château is available for events. And it never hurts to be on good terms with the police.”
My dragon sent whiffs of smoke through my nose as I pictured police officers partying it up in the stables I’d helped clear. Mina waved a hand in front of her face.
Was I being childish? Yes, and I knew it.
I kicked the ground and uttered a sullen, “Sorry.”
“Are you?” she shot back.
“Yes,” I said.
Sorry about not kicking that no-good wolf shifter’s ass,my dragon quietly added.Yet.
I sighed. It was hard to be good when bad was so much easier.
Mina is worth it,my beast decided.
True, but she’d just announced we weren’t welcome at the château. Where did that leave me? Where did that leave us?
“What?” she demanded, reading my face.
I shrugged. “Just wondering where we’ll go after this mission. Me and the guys, I mean.”
Mina slowed, then stopped altogether. I stopped too, bracing myself for one of her outbursts.
She sucked in a deep breath, calming herself, then towed me to a spot under the trees.
“Uh, guys…?” Roux called back.
She shook her head at him. “Give us a minute.”
The tiger shifter turned away, muttering to himself in French.
Mina took both my hands and looked me straight in the eye. “It’s not that I don’t want you at the château. I want you there. Desperately.” She swallowed hard. “I want you in my life. But coming and going without a word won’t cut it.” Her tone went sharp, then softened. “Not even if you’re trying to do the right thing.”
