Page 28 of Out of Peril

“You heard Lindsey. You hide. Let us take care of this.”

I glared at him. I didn't want him anywhere near those people either.

“I'll take care of this,” I corrected him.

“Look, I know we haven't exactly had the chance to talk, but this is what I do. I can handle it.”

“You can handle a bunch of panthers? Have you even met a panther before?”

Panther territory butted up against ours just at the edge of the manor.

Ours?

My chest ached at the thought. I was no longer a NOLA wolf. I was technically trespassing, but it was hard for me to accept that. They'd banished the beast, but they didn't know it was me.

“Panther?” he said, and my lips tipped up in a satisfied smirk. “Oh, I knew I recognized that voice and just couldn't quite place it. That was Kian Dannett and his friends. Right?”

I took a step back in shock. “You know the Dannett Panthers?”

“I know a lot of people and a lot of things, Linds.”

Involuntary warmth spread through me at the casual use of my nickname.

“But how?” I blurted out.

“Have you ever heard of Westin Force?”

I gulped hard. Of course I'd heard of them. They'd been wreaking havoc and taking down collections. The Collectors were terrified of them. Rumors had it they had disbanded the Raglan entirely. I didn't talk to many people, but I kept my head down and heard things.

“I can see you have. I work for them.”

“But you're a Collector. I spoke with Nate. He told me as much.”

Walker made a face and shook his head. “Nate's an interesting character, and I'm not at liberty to go into all of that right now. Just trust me on this.”

“What about your mate?” I practically growled, remembering the bitch by his side.

Anger boiled my blood at the thought.

He looked confused as he stared right at me. “You're my mate, Lindsey.”

His words sucked the breath and all the malice right out of me, stunned by his admittance.

Maya gasped.

Dante laughed.

I’d completely forgotten about our little audience standing there.

“The woman you were with,” I managed to say, unable to deny or confirm his proclamation. Though I supposed by not denying it, I was confirming it.

Gah! This was all insane.

“Taylor? Or I guess Tayla Grimes? She's my partner. Not that kind of partner,” he clarified, no doubt reading the expression on my face. “My undercover partner and fake wife. We were supposed to be going in deep on a long-term mission starting in Venezuela to help crack down on Collector activities. But I suppose that's backfired now. We'd been planning this mission for months. My bosses are not going to be happy about this.”

I wasn't sure if I should feel guilty about that or not.

“Oh,” was all I said and only because he looked at me like he was waiting for some sort of response.

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