Page 12 of Untamed Instincts

Quinton was beginning to feel like he was pushing himself on Noah, and that was a feeling he didn’t like. If the human hadn’t been his mate, Quinton wouldn’t have bothered to go after Noah when he walked out of the diner.

He didn’t chase men. Not the ones who didn’t want to be chased. Quinton didn’t have a problem landing a guy in bed.

But this was entirely different and a whole new level for him. Noah was his mate, and no matter how frustrated he felt, Noah was one man Quinton couldn’t wash his hands of.

“Dad?”

Shit. He’d forgotten Ryker was on the phone. “Yeah?”

“Jesus. Where’s your mind? We have a psychotic threat in town, and you’re acting like this isn’t important.”

“Look…” Quinton blew out a breath. “That hot little number is my mate. And by the way, don’t ever fucking call him that again. I’m busy pulling a Hyett right now, so, no, Toro isn’t at the forefront of my mind.”

“Why didn’t you tell me he was your mate?” Ryker sounded even more pissed than he had about Quinton’s disinterest concerning the vampire.

“Keep using that tone with me and I’ll teach you some manners when I get home,” Quinton growled. “Now, if it won’t cause your head to explode, I’m going to hang up.”

Noah pulled behind an apartment building and parked in the dimly lit parking lot.

The place needed better security lights. The ones at the far end weren’t even on, causing the back half of the lot to become a predator’s playing ground.

As soon as he parked, Quinton got out, going straight to the driver’s door of Noah’s car. The human was throwing too many mixed signals.

Quinton waited until Noah exited the car then shut the door for him. “Were you trying to lose me at the light? When you have someone following you, it’s courtesy to either wait at the traffic light with them or pull over if the follower gets stuck at it.”

“Can you chew me out when we get inside? I don’t want to turn into a drowned rat.”

Noah took off toward the back door of the building. Once again Quinton was right behind him. He felt as if that was all he’d been doing since they’d left the bar.

Dogging his mate’s heels.

Quinton caught the door before it closed. Was Noah always so rude?

They climbed to the second floor in silence. His mate fumbled with the lock at his door, dropping his keys twice. The second time, Quinton swiped them off the floor and unlocked the door then held up the keys. Noah took them before hurrying inside, leaving Quinton standing in the hallway.

With a shake of his head, he walked into the apartment and closed the door behind him. He would have said something to Noah about his rudeness if he knew where in the hell the man had gone.

The unit wasn’t very big. The living room consisted of a couch, side table, and an area rug, leaving little room for anything else. The small flat-screen television was mounted on the wall with a few framed pictures on either side.

None of them were personal photos, just pictures of flowers and beaches and an old, covered bridge.

The rest of the walls were bare.

Nothing in the room gave off a cozy, lived-in vibe.

Looking to his left, Quinton spotted a fridge past the doorway. The kitchen. He wandered to the room and peered inside. It was the size of a large closet. Only a few cupboards above a sink with maybe twelve inches of counter space on each side of it.

The room wasn’t even big enough for a table.

Quinton pulled back when his mate stepped out a door to the right of a tiny hallway, if you could call it that.

With his massive size, Quinton felt like his presence shrank the apartment to an even smaller space.

“I’ll get the coffee started.” Noah whizzed past him, hurrying into the closet-kitchen.

Quinton had seen cats at bath time less nervous than his mate. The guy had a frantic energy that caused him to act edgy.

After Noah started a pot of coffee then tried to hurry past him again, Quinton gently gripped his slim upper arm.

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