Page 12 of Hers to Love
Taika tightened his arms around her, and she snuggled even closer to him. “Well, he can’t have you, because you’re mine, and before you get all up in my face screaming about the fact that you don’t belong to anyone, I am going to make it my mission in life to make you see that you do. Just as I belong to you. But I digress. I’m not going to let that prick get you, and I am going to help you end the bastard who killed your Granny. Then, once all of these other distractions are out of the way, I am going to court you so damn hard you won’t be able to block the mating bond I know damn well has started to build within you, and we will start our lives. Together.”
Ata felt a fluttering low in her tummy. She knew it was a purely female reaction to his words, and the confidence she heard in them and not the mating bond. She could seethatwith her psychic eye, but wasn’t going to allow herself to dwell on that until she was free to do so. She wasn’t about to tie Taika to her when she was in such danger. If that mating bond was completed, then his lifespan would be matched to hers, and she was not going to be a party to taking him from his family group or this world when she had the power to prevent it. Taika had told her on more than one occasion that she was his to protect, but what he had to realize was that the same was true for her.
****
The sun was rising, and the room was lightening, but Taika wasn’t asleep. He was too enamored with the woman who lay sleeping so sweetly in his arms. She truly was his other half, and if there were anything she ever asked of him, he would move heaven and earth to get it for her. The only thing they would argue over would be his need to protect her.
He thought back to what she had said the night before that she needed to be a partner in whatever relationship they were forming. Ataahua had been right when she said the fates would not have wanted it otherwise. Fated mates like Ataahua and him were matched because they completed and complemented each other in every way. She was his other half, his equal, his partner, and the woman meant to be his above all others. It was only logical that he would be that for her. The problem was that she was in danger, and that had him and his gorilla both fighting their dominance and need to protect, not wanting to make her feel … less.
Remove the threat.
Taika frowned as those words came to him from his animal. The hairy bastard usually communicated with images, snarls, and contemptuous lip curls, but since they’d found Ataahua, he’d been using actual words.
Not have anything to say to you. You an idiot. Mate. She everything.
Taika rolled his eyes as the gorilla within him turned his back on him and went to sleep.Fucker.But he was a fucker who was on the right track. Ataahua had this asshole Zac Cooper after her, and he believed her when she said the bastard wouldn’t give up. Taika was just going to have to show him the error of his ways.
He slipped out of the bed and disentangled himself from Ataahua. Taika grinned when she frowned, burrowing further into the bed, and pulling his pillow closer to her. His mate was a cuddler, and he loved it! He stood for a few precious moments, watching as her face relaxed into a deeper sleep, then moved to grab a pair of jeans. He left the room and headed for his office.
He grabbed the phone, and dialed.
“Someone had better be fucking bleeding.” Remy was not a morning person.
“You need more beauty sleep?”
Remy growled, and told Taika to go and do something that was anatomically impossible to do. “What the hell do you want, Taika? I’ve only just come back off patrol.”
With the danger to his mate, he should have realized the family would want to make sure she was protected, and Remy would have been the first to step forward for the job.
“I want to take the fight to them.”
“’Bout fucking time,” Remy muttered, and Taika could hear him moving about, no doubt getting out of bed. “Who’s the walking corpse you want me to find?”
Give Remy a computer and he could find just about anything and anyone you might be looking for. “Asshole named Zac Cooper. Has a son called Mason. He’s rich and powerful, just the kind of asshole you know I’d hate on sight, and he’s into shit that’s not entirely legal.”
Taika could hear Remy typing away on his keyboard. “That’s it, baby, do your thing,” his second crooned to his computer, something he’d built himself. “We’ll find that big bad asshole for our Alpha, won’t we, darling? We’ll find him so that he can go and rip the bad man’s throat out? Yes, we will.”
Taika sighed. “Remy, my man, you have to get out more and meet some actual people. Talking to your damn computer like that will get you committed.”
Remy laughed, his fingers still flying over his keyboard. “As long as I can take her with me, they’ll not get a fight outta me.”
Taika said his goodbyes, then moved quickly back to his mate, already missing the feel of her skin against his own. He stripped and climbed into bed, and reached for her. As soon as he touched her, she turned to face him, pushing his pillow out of the way, and pressing herself against his side. She must need the skin contact as much as he did. It made his heart swell within him. She was his, and she was going to accept that mating bond. There was no other option.
