Page 49 of An Uncertain Claim

He shifted his weight nervously and I wanted to chuckle at having made this big, muscular, badass enforcer uncomfortable. “Technically, I answer to the Alpha first,” he finally answered begrudgingly.

“Okay. Let me get something together.” I put together my bag and turned to find Mason watching me curiously.

“That’s it? You’re not going to argue with me about the Alpha outranking you?” he questioned.

“No,” I said with a shrug. “I was just curious. I’m not all that familiar with pack hierarchy. It makes sense though. You can’t serve two masters and all that.” My grandfather hadn’t had a mate when I was growing up, so I wasn’t sure how the role of Alpha female worked.

“Oh.” Mason cocked his head and studied me as if I were an abstract painting that he didn’t understand.

“Let’s go,” I urged and walked past him to exit my office.

“I heard you were interesting,” Mason commented when we reached the parking lot.

“Interesting?” That was often the word people used when they wanted to convey that something, or someone, was batshit crazy without actually saying it. He could’ve been using the word literally though, so I waited for him to explain.

“Logical, funny, and badass.”

I thought that over for a second, then I grinned. “I’ll take it.”

Mason laughed as he opened the door to his SUV and helped me inside. We chatted on the short ride, then he checked the house over before waiting outside the door for me to set the security system. Perhaps I should have been insulted, but after my experiences, I was relieved.

I hadn’t admitted it to Nathan, because he was already too cocky, but I was burnt out, so even though it was barely eight, I went to bed, promising my cat that we’d go for a run soon.

Nathan woke me later when he lifted me out of the bed and stalked to the master suite, muttering about stubborn women and felines. I’d been too tired to dissect whether or not I should sleep in Nathan’s bed, so I’d passed out in the guest room. Apparently, Nathan didn’t see it as a complicated decision because after we were settled, naked and cuddled together, he put his finger under my chin to lift my face and make sure I heard him. “You sleep in here. With me. Got it?”

“Okay,” I agreed sleepily.

He woke me up just long enough to remind me of the incentives for spending the night with him by bringing me to orgasm with his mouth before doing it again while he was deep inside me. “You can remind me anytime,” I panted.

“Noted,” he chuckled.

When I came down from the high, I was completely depleted of all energy and lights out seconds later.

* * *

“Explain this DNA theory,” I told Tanner the next day. “I need to talk it through out loud.”

“Sure.” He was lounging on a couch Nathan had moved in the day before with the explanation that I needed somewhere to nap.

Before he could start, Nathan walked into my office, pushing the door so hard it smacked against the wall. Then he pointed at Tanner. “Out.”

Tanner didn’t hesitate to obey and threw me a sympathetic look before he was gone.

“That was rude,” I said tartly. “I needed his help.”

“You go nowhere without me, Peyton.Nowhere.” He ran his hands through his hair and paced in front of my desk.

Ah, he was salty because I’d woken up before him and asked Allison to take me to work. “I ate breakfast, left you a note, set the alarm when I left, and had an enforcer bring me here and escort me inside.” I listed all the things that he’d lectured me about. Multiple times.

“That’s not the point,” he said through clenched teeth.

I leaned back in my seat and watched him carefully, wondering what I could have done now to make him so angry with me. “What is the point, Nathan?”

He paced a few more times and took an elastic band from his pocket to twist his hair up. It really was sexy like that. Although I’d found I liked the silky tresses down too, which was so weird since I usually hated long hair on men. My cat purred like she usually did when I admired Nathan’s body.

Nathan came to a sudden stop and his eyes flew to my face with fire burning in their molten silver depths. “Baby,” he growled, making me shiver, “if you don’t rein that shit in, you’re going to find yourself flat on that desk screaming my name.”

“That’s not exactly a deterrent,” I muttered, slouching in my seat and trying to think of anything non-sexy. “Fine, I’ll work on it. Do you want to finish explaining what it was about this morning that had your panties in a twist?”

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