by Em Ashcroft
Maybe he was overthinking things. It wouldn’t be the first time that had happened. So he shrugged, cradled her close, and said, “Maybe not.”
Chapter Seven
Nathan came out of his dressing closet knotting his tie. He’d chosen red silk with fine black stripes today. Actually that was wrong. He’d grabbed the first one on the rack. The black suit and white shirt had been chosen the same way.
Vaughn and Trinity were sprawled, naked, in his bed. Vaughn lay on his back, his arms spread out on either side of him. Trinity lay curled up against him, her leg settled between his, her thigh nudging his cock. Her head was pillowed on his shoulder, her hair spread over her face. Both were breathing deeply in sleep. They made a fine couple. In Nathan’s bed, in his house.
And he didn’t mind one bit. Strange, that. They took up the whole of the bed on their own. Nathan added the job of buying a new bed to his mental list. They’d have to get the breedmate room sorted out soon. His was fine, but a breedmate room would have three closets, three sinks in the kitchen and more space. He’d knock the guest room on the other side through and have the whole thing remodeled. At least he would one day. For now, a bigger bed would do. Once they caught the bastard threatening Trinity. Until then, nobody got in or out except the three of them.
Turning away, he sighed. Which meant he would have to do his own laundry. Cooking, cleaning, and so on he could cope with, but for some reason, he hated doing the laundry.
A small price to pay in order to keep Trinity safe. He’d gladly pay much more than that.
During the drive to the hospital, Nathan noted his reactions with the clinical precision of a surgeon. A very good one, even if he did say so himself. He took the highway when he’d sometimes take the back roads for a change, traveling partially shifted. Enough to keep his heightened senses and his strength. Perhaps that was why he felt uncomfortable.
No, fuck it. It was the bond. As the distance between him and his breedmates increased, Nathan fidgeted, and the urge to turn around and go right back increased. By the time he reached the hospital and parked in his usual spot, he felt as if ants were crawling over his skin. Any more and he’d go out of his head. And he was only five miles from home. That was plenty for this stage in the bonding process. He couldn’t even ask anybody because he couldn’t alert them to what had happened last night. His enemy would consider the bonding a weakness.
He knew one strong reason why he’d done it. He could keep a tighter leash on Trinity. She’d kill him if she knew, but if he didn’t tell her, perhaps she wouldn’t find out. That was a kind of cowardice he was fully aware. No, it was full-on yellow-bellied cowardice, but the thought of upsetting Trinity made him want to tear his heart out. And he was better equipped than anybody he knew to do that. He knew where the heart was and how to get at it, and he had the inborn talents with which to do it.
That savage thought sustained him on the way to his office. He managed a polite nod to the receptionist and a couple more on his way upstairs. But he breathed a sigh of relief when he reached his office and he could close the door.
He wanted people to think everything was normal and prepare the way for Trinity’s arrival tomorrow. If anybody was watching, he wanted the observer to see the world carrying on as normal.
Turning on his computer, he typed in his passwords and accessed his cases for the day. He had three operations scheduled. Two were on humans and one shape-shifter, but that was a minor tweak to widen a vein in an arm, nothing too stressful. He’d have the leopard home by nightfall. Which was a bit of a disappointment because he could do with something challenging to occupy his mind. He’d do his best for his patients, as he always did, but for once, he would have to force himself to it.
A message flashed up on his screen informing him that he had a visitor. His PA, which he shared with the rest of the surgeons in the cardiac unit, was a woman of some power. She controlled access to them all, but that was where her similarity with the secretaries of old died. She was sexy, he supposed, but he didn’t want to compromise the awesome job she did. He wasn’t so sure about his colleagues and the rest of the department he ran. He took the decision that if he didn’t ask, he didn’t know. One day someone would come to him and complain about favoritism or something, and then he’d have to take notice.
He clicked the response button to let him in.
This time Nathan had nothing, but he prayed that Chris did. As soon as the door to his office closed behind the police captain, Nathan barked, “Anything?”
The captain sent him a sardonic look as he fetched a chair and took his time settling it before the desk. He straddled it, resting his arms along the back. “You tell me,” he said.
“We did exactly what we planned. We went home and stayed there.”
Chris gazed at him for a full minute. “And?”
Nathan leaned back, folded his arms, and raised a brow. “Ate, showered, slept, what do you think?”
“And bonded.”
Nathan closed his eyes. “Is it that obvious?”
“Only to another bonded breedmate. It’s the scent, the attitude, or maybe the hands-off vibe.”
Nathan opened his eyes. “What hands-off vibe?” He could understand Trinity bearing that, but she wasn’t a shifter, so how the fuck could Chris tell? Maybe he was just working the moment.
Chris was openly grinning now. “You belong to her, and she’s marked you as surely as you’ve marked her.” He sniffed. “It’s all in the air, man.”
Nathan put his head in his hands and groaned. “Shit.”
“Yeah. I was hoping you wouldn’t do it before we got Driscoll. But let’s look on the bright side.”
Nathan lifted his head. “What bright side? Apart from me finding my breed partner of course.”
“Yes, congratulations on that. I thought you were single forever. Until you found Trinity.”
Nathan had spent most of his life alone, and now he had two people he had to learn to live with. He loved Trinity—that was no problem—but Vaughn was different. Sexually they’d been as close as two straight men could be, but she had done the work and sent both of them on their journeys to orgasm.
Fuck that was the last thing he needed, a hard-on as well as everything else he had to cope with.
“You’re hurting, aren’t you?”
“Hmm?”
Chris gave that infuriating grin again. “You’re missing her. Your body misses her. Get through today, and you’ll be fine. It gets better, I promise.”
“So you were like this?”
Chris lost the grin and nodded. “At first it’s agony, being more than arm’s length apart. But it gets easier. I’m not sure if you get used to it or if it eases off. Anyhow, the result is the same.”
Relief filled Nathan’s mind at the reassurance from someone not bonded for so long that he’d forgotten what it was like in the early stages. “Thanks. That puts my mind at rest.” He wouldn’t tell Chris until they’d settled, but maybe Vaughn’s plan of opening a branch of Wildcats wasn’t as far-fetched as it had seemed now. Maybe they could separate for days, weeks, even months sometimes. Not all bondings were the same. He guessed a lot depended on the people.
“Hey, buddy, just go along with it. I still adore Renata the same as I did the first day of our bonding, so that doesn’t change.”
Nathan longed to ask him about love, but he knew Chris and his breed partner, Odell, both loved their breedmate unequivocally. For all he knew, they had from the start. He wasn’t so sure about Vaughn.
He was worrying about something he needed to let go of, but that was his nature. “It’s a shame you haven’t tracked down Driscoll.”
Chris growled, the sound rumbling deep in his chest. “Isn’t it? He knows something about shape-shifters, that’s for sure. I think he stashed a different set of clothes somewhere because we tracked the old set to a mile outside the city. As far as we can tell, he ran, then changed, and drove away.”
“He’s gone, then?”
Nathan knew something was wrong with that theory. He shook his head. “It’s more personal than that. Tidy he might be, but he destroyed her stuff. He might have done it systematically, but there was fury in it. But when he could have, he didn’t kill her.” That was it. He’d left her alive. “Trinity means something to him, something important if he’s spent all these years hunting her down and planning for her. He wants her. Either she’s a trophy to him or something else.”
Chris, who had been listening impassively, burst up from the chair and strode to the window. “Yeah. That’s the bit I can’t get to fit. Trinity’s father wasn’t an important mobster. He didn’t have any information we know about. We’re working on the theory that Trinity knows something, even though she says she doesn’t. She must have seen something that day or heard something. Can you read her deep?” He turned back to face Nathan. “Only breedmates can read that deeply.”
“I won’t do it without telling her.” Nathan was positive about that. Trying to keep a secret from a breedmate was pretty much an impossible task. “If she lets me, I will. Especially if it means saving her life.”
Because he meant to use the bond between them to keep her safe, and he was sure Vaughn wanted to do the same thing. They’d read her so deeply they could never be apart in mind, even if their bodies had to separate for a time. Breedmates could delve so deep they could discover things the breedmate didn’t realize they knew.
It still didn’t explain why Driscoll hadn’t just killed her. Unless he wanted to take her somewhere and ask her. That was it. He blinked. “Or maybe she knows something Driscoll doesn’t. She has some information that’s important to him.”
“Like the location of a treasure map?” Chris said, his mouth curled.
“How the fuck do I know? Maybe she heard his granny’s last words or the combination to a safe. Her father was involved in an operation when he was killed.” He shook his head. “What happened to the other people involved in the heist?”
“We don’t know all the names. But some were arrested, and others got away. One went to Italy.” Chris shrugged. “It seemed to be an ordinary bank job gone wrong. At the time the police assumed Trinity’s father was an informant and Driscoll had found out.”
Nathan didn’t care what fucking information Trinity had. He just wanted it out of her head and Driscoll gone. He’d do everything in his power to make sure that happened. Nathan didn’t believe in second chances. As far as he was concerned, Driscoll was a dead man walking.
* * * *
Trinity woke up in a man’s arms. Not unusual these days, but when that man wasn’t Nathan that put the experience in the category of unusual. She became aware of the differences. Instead of Nathan’s smooth, near-hairless chest, she encountered a pelt of dark hair, soft under her cheek. More subtle differences became apparent as she emerged into wakefulness. This man had heavier, more solid ropes of muscle. Where Nathan was all sleek power, this man was solidly built, packed with raw strength. When she moved and sighed, he grunted, an essentially masculine sound that made her laugh. His arms tightened around her.
“Slept well, hmm?” His voice was rough with sleep.
“It sounds as if you did.” She wanted to kiss his chest but hesitated, wondering if he wanted any displays of affection. Bonding was one thing. That incredibly hot scene last night had been necessary for them to bond. Maybe he didn’t want any more. Maybe he didn’t want her here. Should she get up and shower?
“Hey.” He sounded amused now. He touched her chin, urging her to tilt her head up. His eyes met hers, and he was smiling. That smile, close up, wrecked any resolve she might have had. His dark eyes were filled with warmth. “Stop thinking. I can hear the cogs going around.” His smile broadened. “I know a way to stop you thinking.”
That kiss didn’t feel like he planned to go anywhere anytime soon or that he wanted her to go. Stretching her arm up, she hooked it around his neck and enjoyed the fuck out of her good-morning kiss. He held her gently, as if she was fragile, and although she wasn’t, she loved the illusion. She felt precious. Nobody had treated her so gently since she was little.
Unexpectedly, tears sprang to her eyes.
Vaughn drew away and touched the corner of her eye. “What’s this? Do you hurt?”
“No.” Her breedmates’ tender care had ensured she felt excellent this morning. No lingering twinges from their bonding remained, physically speaking. She tightened her thigh muscles. No, nothing except the first twinges of arousal.
Her clit was beginning to swell, and moisture was seeping between her legs. Fuck, already? Sure, she wanted him, but now her mind had started working. It seemed to work on its own. It provided thoughts and ideas she didn’t want to think about right now.
Vaughn pressed a gentle kiss on her mouth. “Shut.” Then he kissed her again. “Up.”
A pressure on her mind indicated Vaughn’s entry. He soothed her and stroked her agitation into calm acceptance. Yes, he was right. That was better. She could think again. He watched her, smoothing the hair back from her face. “Better now?”
She nodded. “It’s just so strange, so not what I’m used to. And I don’t know you.”
“You know me. Better than anyone else, I think.”
She probably did. He had never refused her access to his mind. She knew she could plunge as deeply as she could, and he wouldn’t stop her. That took so much bravery she didn’t know how he did it. “You only met me yesterday.”
He smiled. “I investigated you when I was following Driscoll. I didn’t have a clue why he came here after he left prison. Not until I got Wildcats’ techie to hack into his background.”
She gasped. “Is it that easy?”
“Nope, not at all. But we have a wizard working for us at the agency. I don’t think many others could do it. I discovered a few things about you.” A sharp look came into his eyes then disappeared.
“Are you thinking about the murders?” She caught her breath and forced the calm to stay. Even now she couldn’t think about that horrible day without flinching.
He stroked her, his big hand running down her side and cupping her buttocks, holding her close in a gesture that was more comforting than sexual. Even then he evoked a response from her, a shot of arousal spiking through her. “No, honey, I’m not. Something else in your past.”
“Ah.” Now she could smile. “You didn’t know if I knew about being adopted.”
“Yes.”
“Oh yes, I knew. My biological mother died when I was born, and she never named the father. My parents never made any secret of it, which I think was the right thing to do. They told me I was wanted, and chosen, so I was just as precious as my sibs. I always felt wanted.”
“You’re wanted now.” He moved slightly, his cock rubbing against her skin, leaving a moisture trail. “Not only in that way.”
“Yes?”
He cupped her face with one hand. “Yes,” he said firmly. “You mean more to me than a breedmate. That’s a physical thing, a biological imperative. I didn’t think it would ever happen to me. But it’s more than that.” He gave a wry grin. “I’m not the best at talking about emotions.”
“With your background, I’m not surprised.”
“Yeah.”
She wished she hadn’t said anything when she saw the touch of sadness in his eyes. “I shouldn’t have reminded you.”
“Hey, we both have fucked-up backgrounds. Best we acknowledge them and move on.”
She agreed with that. “I’ve always tried to do that. It was hard for a few years, after my family died. I got some
great therapy, but I could have used somebody to talk to. A friend, you know?”
“Maybe we can be that to one another. Leaving my family behind wasn’t easy”
She nodded. “In a way, we both did that. Nathan understands, but he doesn’t, you know, know.”
“I understand, sure I do.”
He did. She read it in his mind, the precise pain that she’d felt after she’d lost her family. He might as well have lost his. His parents going fully feral meant they’d lost their human sides. If Vaughn had appeared before them in his human form, they’d have ripped him to shreds. As it was, the cat’s territorial instincts would have sent him away to find his own land had he joined his family in feral oblivion.
“I can see why they chose to go feral,” he murmured. “The world was in a dark place. Shape-shifters weren’t tolerated in many places, and humans were driving them out, but not overtly. Just because the government frowned on such behavior didn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
“At least it’s in the open now,” she said. “I’d never met a shape-shifter until I started studying. Not knowingly, that is. I had to retrain when I decided to work with shifters, and even now I can’t handle the big birds. I only do cat- and dog-based forms.”
“So it’s tigers and wolves for you.” He smiled and stroked her again. “I’m glad.”
“So am I, now.” Yes, she was. Glad she’d bonded, glad she’d finally found her people. Even with her family she’d felt slightly apart. That was nothing to do with her birth. It was something she’d sensed all her life. She could have gone through the whole of it without realizing what was wrong. This morning she’d awoken, and the feeling had gone. That was what was missing.
She’d found her place, where she was meant to be.
As Vaughn caressed her, Trinity let the bliss sink into her. The restless part of her mind was easily quelled once he touched her in the ways she wanted.
