by Ellis Leigh
Deus wanted to follow her, to touch her more, to pin her sexy ass against the table and spread her legs. To expose her pussy and eat her like the feast he craved. Like she deserved to be eaten. But the frown on her heart-shaped face stopped him cold. That expression seemed too close to one of concern for him to ignore.
“Something isn’t sitting well with you, Beautiful. What is it?”
She smiled, distracted as she typed on the small screen. “Just issues with a client.”
“A client you need to meet up with?”
Smile frozen, she darted a glance at him. Wary and guarded once more. “Yes.”
His wolf wanted to growl, to drag her back to his den and protect her. But Deus knew instinctually that any move to restrict her would make her bolt, so he chained up his beast and tried to relax. To force his muscles to unclench. To portray a casual sort of calm and interest instead of what was quickly becoming an obsession in his head. “I could go with you, if you like.”
She laughed at that offer. Of course. “Not happening. I don’t need a babysitter.”
“C’mon, Beautiful,” he said as he reached for her hand, nearly howling at the spark of electricity that shot through him when their fingers brushed. That sensation, that moment, changed his plans to charm her. He didn’t want her to run, but he also didn’t have it in him to be cagey about his intentions. Blunt honesty felt like the right way to go in that moment. “I’ll be worried about you all night after seeing the way you frown at the messages you’re getting. I just want you safe. We want you safe.”
Her face softened, her body leaning closer as if unable not to. By the fates, she was stunning. So tall and lithe, so strong and confident. He’d been given a gift with her, a blessing he would never ignore. A mate he would spoil senseless.
If she ever stopped long enough to allow him to do so.
Beautiful ran a finger over his hand, making the hair on his arms stand up in attention right along with his cock, before pulling away again. “We’ll be fine, but I appreciate the concern. I really do have to leave now.”
Fail. But failing at this particular task was okay. A minor setback that wouldn’t stop him from getting what he wanted. His mate’s refusal to let him into her job that night should have irritated him, but it didn’t. He could handle her refusal because he knew he’d eventually work his way all up in her life. He just needed to find a crack in her armor first. Needed to convince her having him around was a good thing.
He needed to get to work.
“Let me walk you out.” Deus stood and wrapped his fingers around her elbow, leading her through the crowded coffee shop toward the exit. Keeping her close to him. Not because he worried about the humans around them. No, he simply wanted her body next to his. Wanted to smell her heady feminine scent, wanted to feel the warmth of her. He held on all the way across the room and to the doors leading to the street. He didn’t let go when they got outside either. Something she definitely noticed.
“Are you always this clingy?” she asked, still allowing him to hold on to her. To lead her. To be close to her.
“Only when I find the one woman the fates declared as my perfect match.”
“Yes, well, the fates have been known to be wrong.”
He couldn’t hold back his smile—that sassy tone both challenged and intrigued him. Fuck, he hoped she used it in the bedroom. “Perhaps. But not this time.”
“How are you so sure?”
“Even without having met you, I’ve been slightly obsessed with you for a year. Tell me, Beautiful, have you been watching my exploits? Tracking my online persona?” When she remained silent, he pushed a little more. “Be honest, now. You’ve felt the same need to keep up on what I’m doing as I have to check in on you. And it’s been getting stronger every day.”
“Ridiculous.” But she didn’t sound as if she believed that. In fact, she sounded a little stunned. As if she was finally putting pieces together in her head. Figuring things out.
“It’s worse now that we’ve met,” he said, pulling her closer. Needing to feel her body against his. To bring her close enough so he could whisper in her ear. So they could be alone right there on a crowded street in the middle of the day. “You’re aroused, Beautiful. I can smell it. You want me to touch you more, to press my lips against yours, to dip my hands under that tight little skirt and spank your naughty pussy. You want my cock.”
She huffed and pulled her arm from his hold, her face flushed and her breaths coming fast. “That means nothing.”
She doth protest too much. “It means we have a connection.”
“Sure…a physical one.” She stalked closer, letting her wolf lose a little. Letting him see the power of her beast. “Just because we want to feel your cock inside us doesn’t mean we want a single thing more. Our connection is flimsy, our attraction based on lust. I don’t have time to help you get your rocks off right now, though.”
The growl he released rumbled through his chest and definitely attracted the attention of passersby, but Deus was too far gone—too fucking angry—to hold it back.
“You think I need your help to get off? You think that’s the only thing I’m worried about right now? Wrong, princess. Yes, I want you. Yes, I want to strip you naked. But not just so I can—how’d you say it?—get my rocks off. I want to spoil you. I want to worship your body the way it deserves to be.” Deus pulled her closer, letting her feel how she affected him. Letting her get a good look at the desire in his eyes as his wolf peered through them. “Our connection may be based on lust right now, but it’s far from flimsy. And when I get you alone finally, when I have you spread out before me and you allow me access to this tight little body, it’ll be you getting your rocks off. Multiple times. Fuck, Beautiful—I’m going to make you scream when I get my hands on you. When I finally get to taste what’s between those sexy-as-fuck legs of yours.” A little closer still, every breath she took pressing her breasts against his chest. “But none of that can happen if you’re dead.”
She blinked, her body going stiff. He held her stare with his, pinning her with it. Making sure she understood. That she knew he wasn’t fucking around.
And she did. He could see it in her eyes, feel it in the energy around her. Not that it mattered. His mate was nothing if not stubborn.
“I need to get to work,” Beautiful said, pulling herself away from him. Forcing distance between them. Leaving him standing there on the street alone. She had only taken a few steps before stopping and turning back to face him. “It’s a simple handoff—I’m worried about getting paid tonight, not dying.”
“Yeah, well…that makes one of us.”
Her lips quirked up. “Your concern is touching. Unnecessary, but touching. Good day, Alaska.”
“Good day, Beautiful.” Deus watched her walk away, his wolf growing more agitated with every step.
Before she disappeared into the crowd, she turned one last time and shot him a glare that would have made a lesser man’s knees shake. “And don’t even think about tracking me tonight.”
He totally thought about tracking her. And as soon as he made it home, he planned it out and enacted it too. Followed her through traffic cameras and various other CCTV feeds he hacked in to along the way to verify where she lived, then set up a ring of cameras to keep an eye out for her exit. The job wasn’t perfect—her building wasn’t in his neighborhood so he had trouble with blind spots—but it gave him something to do instead of panicking over her being ambushed by some client.
Deus waited for almost an hour for something to come up, the fear that he’d somehow missed her exit twisting his gut. And strengthening his resolve. The next time he saw his mate in person, he was putting a tracker on her damn phone. Fuck it—he needed her to be safe more than he needed her to not want to kill him.
The ringing of his own phone had him diving for it, but he could only sigh when he saw his Alpha’s name on the screen. Not who he wanted to deal with at the moment. Which definitely showed as he growle
d out his greeting.
“What?”
“Easy, son.” Luc’s low rumble made the hair on the back of his neck stand up, his Dire power working its way over the connection. “I can feel your stress from here and I know you’re distracted, but I wanted to check on when you’re coming to Alaska.”
Shit. Deus glanced at the time—he didn’t have enough of it to make the flight he’d booked. Didn’t really matter—no fucking way could he leave his mate behind without knowing she was safe. He didn’t want to leave her behind at all. And Luc, having been through this with five packmates already, would understand that need once he knew the fates had finally gifted Deus with a woman like Beautiful.
Which was not a conversation to have right then. Instead, while typing a quick rescheduling note to his pilot, Deus responded, “First thing tomorrow. I booked a private plane.”
For two, but Luc didn’t need to know that just yet.
“Good. I’m going to need you to…”
But his Alpha’s words faded out as Deus finally saw what he’d been waiting for. He almost didn’t recognize his sexy mate as she left her building. She seemed hidden under a long, thick fur coat and a pair of sunglasses so dark and round, they covered half her face. His Beautiful…disguised. And leaving.
Time to focus on tracking her.
As she stepped into a waiting car, Deus did the only thing he could. He told his Alpha, “I’ll call you back,” and hung up his phone.
The car with his mate in it took off down the street, speeding across town while he watched. The chase definitely on. Deus switched from screen to screen, camera to camera, to keep the vehicle in his sights. Right turn, left…losing it at one point but picking it back up two blocks down. His surveillance felt like a game of Frogger, the focus of every ounce of his attention bouncing all over the roads as each camera caught a glimpse of the vehicle she rode in. As he jumped from feed to feed to follow her.
Finally, the car pulled alongside a curb and pulled to a stop in a neighborhood he wasn’t really familiar with. She stepped out and looked around, her movements slow and precise. Her eyes still blocked by those damn sunglasses. He had a decent shot of her, but the focus was from the back, so he took to another screen and checked the feed from camera to camera, trying to get a shot of her face. A direct look at her expression instead of some side view. He needed to see her, to get a feeling of if she was confident or nervous.
His phone rang, but he ignored it, focused wholly on seeing what his girl was up to. But when she turned, when he saw her arm raised as if holding something to her face and his phone rang again, he figured it out.
“Beautiful?” he asked as soon as he swiped to answer her call.
“Are you watching me?”
“You told me not to.” Not a lie—not an answer to her question either.
“Doesn’t mean you listened.”
He could hear the smile in her voice, so he simply chuckled.
“You’re a naughty boy, aren’t you, Alaska?”
Yes. Always. “I am a bad listener. You should probably be aware of that fact.”
“Good to know, and I’m glad for it right now. I need you to pay attention. Something isn’t right with this job.”
Every bit of humor disappeared, and when he spoke again, his words came out on a rough growl. “What can I do?”
“You can see me now?”
“Yes, turn a little to the left.” Fuck, that pretty face made his gut clench and his cock hard. “Gotcha—camera must be on a light pole because I’m looking down on you.”
“I see it. Do you have access to any cameras inside the building across the street by chance? The one under construction.”
Deus scanned the immediate area for CCTV feeds and any sort of electrical patterns that would indicate extended security cams, coming up empty. Mostly. “No, but I’ve got surveillance pointing toward the building from the north side and have a great view in.”
“Anything stand out on floor six?”
He counted up the windows and searched, zooming in as much as possible and cursing the grainy, black-and-white footage. “Nothing that I can see, but you’ve got company on seven.”
“Brilliant.”
He didn’t see how people possibly lying in wait for her could be anything but a threat. “Don’t move, Beautiful. I can be there in five.”
“No need.” She took off her coat, revealing a slick, skintight leather jumpsuit that had to have come from some of Deus’ own fantasies. She’d tied her hair up in a slick ponytail and wore much more sensible shoes than she had that morning. Fuck, she looked good. If she made it out unscathed, he was going to spank that tight little ass for days. A thought that had him groaning and sinking deeper into his chair. He couldn’t help himself. He slid a hand down to his rock-hard cock and pressed, looking to relieve the ache she ignited in him.
“What are you doing, naughty boy?” she asked, her head cocked to the side and her brow drawn down in question. He must have groaned out loud. No sense lying about it.
“Your ass looks amazing in those pants. I was just thinking about spanking it, but I think I’d rather give it a bite or two.”
“You really are naughty, aren’t you Alaska?” She blew a kiss to the camera. “We’ll talk about spanking and biting another time. I’m off to deal with the boring part of my job, though this one seems a little more interesting than most. Thanks for the heads-up.”
Before he could say another word, she ended the call, tucked her phone into her bra, and headed into the building. Out of his sight. Frantic, cock forgotten, he opened every feed in the area, taking up each screen on his wall. Searching for anything—a glimpse, a shadow, a view through a window. Anything at all. But the cameras gave him nothing.
“C’mon, Beautiful. Show me your face.” He enlarged the video feed from the north side of the building, checking every window. Scanning and rescanning. Five minutes. It would take him five whole minutes to make it to that part of town in his human form, and he’d have to go human. It was too early in the evening to get away with running through the city in his wolf form. That frustrated him to no end. He should have left when he offered, should have ignored her refusal. Sure. She was a wolf shifter like him and could likely take care of herself in a fight, but a bullet to the head would kill a shifter just as quickly as a human. She was his mate, his. The need to protect her overrode everything else.
Suddenly, Deus spotted movement, his eyes seeking her out and finally finding her. She’d somehow made it up to the eighth floor and was creeping across to what looked like a stairwell still under construction. Seven men stood in the room below her, though none close to the stairwell. There could have been more men on the floor—he didn’t have a clear view. He cursed himself for not giving her a head count. He had no way to let her know what she was walking into, how many adversaries she’d have to deal with. He could only hope she’d be prepared for such a large group.
Okay, not only hope for that. Because two of the men were definitely armed. His second hope would be that they didn’t have great aim. Five. Fucking. Minutes. Away.
His girl snuck down the stairs and around a corner, coming up behind the group of men. Deus leaned forward, literally on the edge of his seat. Watching. Waiting. Every inch of him ready to dive through the screens and come to her rescue.
With speed the likes of which he’d rarely seen, she took down all seven. No real struggle, no stress. Easy. Fast. Seven dead humans without breaking a sweat or letting one of them get a shot off. There was no way she wasn’t an Omega wolf—a powerful female of his breed. His mated packmates had all ended up with Omegas, so the fact that Beautiful carried that same innate power didn’t surprise him. The fact that the fates had gifted him someone like her totally did. Good goddamn, she impressed him. Even more so when she stepped right in front of a window on the north side of the building and waved. To him.
“Sassy,” Deus grumbled, snagging a screenshot of that little wave before finally relaxing
into his seat. He watched as she headed for the stairwell again, her head high and her ass swaying. Completely confident. Completely prepared for whatever would come her way. Amazing.
Ten minutes later, Beautiful walked out the front door of the building, those huge sunglasses back in place, a small bag thrown casually over her shoulder, and not a scratch on her delectable body. The driver met her at the car, helped her into her fur coat, then held the door for her. Simple and quick, efficient. And something no human would pay attention to in a city like New York. Brilliant. He waited until the driver had her secured in the car to call her, smiling when she picked up.
“Yes, dear Alaska?”
“Job accomplished?”
“Of course. Everyone has to pay the piper, and today, that means me. But you didn’t call to see if my client came through with his payment.
No, he didn’t. Balls to the wall time. “Come do this job in Alaska with me. I’ve booked a jet. We can have some fun in the snow.”
“I hate the cold.”
“You have a fur coat. Two, at least, from what I’ve seen.”
Her sigh sounded both irritated and completely phony. Damn, she was fun.
“What do I get out of this?” she asked, and Deus knew he had her. She’d be on the plane with him in the morning.
“Me.”
“Not enough.”
He’d make sure it would be, but he could play her game. “What do you want?”
She hummed, taking forever to answer him with a casual, “A favor to be named later.”
A dangerous proposition, going in without knowing the exact terms. Not that he had to think twice about it. “Deal. I’ll text you the details. And, Beautiful?”
“Yes, Alaska?”
“Don’t be late.”
“You wouldn’t leave without me.”
No, he wouldn’t. But he’d never tell her that.
Hell, he didn’t need to. She knew.
