Page 35 of Prey

I slap him on the shoulder and thank him, then, I say, “I’m proud of you. I mean it. I know it isn’t easy to move past the hurtand anger you have, but I promise you she’s worth every bit of it, and so are you.”

The last part has him catching his breath. He starts to argue and then just shakes his head and sighs. “It’s going to take some time to work through it but I’m trying hard to have an open mind.”

“That’s all we can ask for,” I tell him and head into the bathroom to shower.

Chapter eighteen

Cuddles & Cautious Hope

ETHAN

The knock at the door disturbs me from my perusal of the cabinets. Shasta has a lot of teas and coffees in her cabinetand I got overwhelmed looking at them all. That is part of what she does in her business though so it makes sense. It also makes sense for me to try to learn those things because they are a part of her. Though, I think it’s going to take some time to figure them all out.

Seriously though, who needs that many damn teas?

Laken is standing on the other side. He’s Joaquin's blood mate. Vampires are able to recognize their mates instantly. When Laken was dying on a battlefield in Japan, Joaquin found him, recognized him as his blood mate, and turned him to save his life. There was a bit of a transition…we will call it, as Samurai were known for being superstitious.

He holds out a duffle with some necessities for Kadi and I. We can go and get some more things later but all of us are pretty much covered in blood and rain water. Not to mention, my clothes are scorched from Shasta zapping me so many times. I hated putting my dirty clothes back on after my shower but I had to get the stuff off of me. I couldn’t stand the stench of Logan’s blood anymore with my sensitive shifter nose.

“You reek. What the fuck did you three get into today?” he asks, waving a hand in front of his nose. “That’s definitely not any blood I ever want to take a drink of.” He gags and moves across the room away from me a bit.

“That would be Shasta’s cheating ass ex-boyfriend Logan, who is also a member of the Society,” I say.

“Smells human though, so what gives with that?” he asks.

Shrugging, I say, “I’m the last person you should ask how that works, but my best guess is that he’s a puppet and not the one actually controlling the magic.”

He nods. “That makes sense. On another note, Joaquin came back from Supe Gen today smelling delicious and said he thinks we have another blood mate. One of Shasta’s friends, I guess? Jessa.”

“She was one of the healers that worked on me; the one who called Shasta for help, I think. Though I wasn’t really in the mood to be cordial while I was there so I don’t know much about her,” I say offhandedly. Hearing something behind me, I turn to see Shasta coming down the hallway into the living room.

She must have heard part of that because she adds, “Joaquin had a pretty visceral reaction to Jessa while he was there. However, it’s not going to be easy to win her over. She’s been burned a lot. I will say she did ask about him while I was in the office with her, so the interest is there.”

Laken cocks his head to the side and growls, “Give me a list, Shasta, I just want to talk to them.” He smiles. It’s not a nice one either. Laken is one of my Enforcers for a reason. He enjoys making people scream and the more blood the better. Him and Joaquin are our go-to for ‘interrogations’. Yeah, that’s what we’ll call it.

Shasta blanches. Then, she swallows and says, “Not my place. Ask Jessa and let me know how that works out for you.” She then laughs maniacally, heads to the kitchen, and opens the cabinet I was just rifling through. I watch as she pulls out a berry flavored tea and make a mental note that this was the first one she picked after a very stressful day.

I’ve got a lot of bullshit to make up for. Women aren’t hard to please if you pay attention. So, that’s what I’ll be doing from now on.

Laken laughs and heads for the front door. “I’ll see you all later. I’m meeting Joaquin for dinner.” He shuts the door quietly behind him as he goes.

Some of my guys are downright scary. Laken is one of them. He looks like a computer geek, but he’s probably the one you have to watch out for the most in the whole Club. Shasta looks over at me and raises a brow.

“Yeah, he’s…a great person if he loves you, but if he doesn’t…well, we’ll just leave it at that,” I say with a nervous chuckle.

“I was picking up a lot of that energy from him. Jessa is a sweet person too, but like I said, she’s been burned a lot. Family, relationships, some of her friendships. She doesn’t trust easily so they are going to have to really chase her. I don’t know how well she’s going to like that. Should be entertaining to watch, but I will zap the shit out of them if she gets hurt. It will make what I did to you earlier look like child’s play.”

Looking back at what happened at my parents place tonight I realize that she wasn’t even hitting me with her full magic. Shit. I gulp and look at her a little panicked. She smirks. She has on some pajamas that are…well, they are basically underwear and a barely there tank top. This must be what Kadi was talking about when he said you couldn’t really even call them pajamas. Groaning to myself, I shift my dick a little in my pants.

She may actually be the death of me, either by electrocution or blood loss from it all rushing straight to my dick. I stalk towards her and a look of panic crosses her face before she realizes I’m not out to get her, or at least not in that way. Wincing, I mentally punch myself in the face because it’s my fault that she’s still a little scared of me.

When I reach her and place a hand gently on her throat, I feel her pulse fluttering wildly under my fingers. Pushing her against the counter, I drag my nose up the length of her neck. Gods, she smells like citrus and sunshine. She whimpers and I tilt her head farther to the side to get to my bite mark. I lap at it a little. It needs a bit more of my healing saliva before it’ll fully heal. Kadi’s is already healed so I know he did the same.

Seeing both of our marks on her makes my dick even harder, but it’s been a very long day for all of us. As much as I would love to be balls deep in her again, we all need sleep. I tilt her head back, lean down, and capture her lips in mine. She winds herhands around my neck and pulls me closer to her, devouring my mouth with hers.

Groaning, I pull away from her and look into her chocolate brown eyes. Gods, she really is beautiful and I’ve been such an ass. “Hey, listen, I’m sorry. The way I’ve treated you is horrible and I promise I’m going to make it up to you. I know we already talked, but I’m telling you again because I want you to know I’m taking my groveling seriously. As much as I would love to bury myself in you again, we all need rest. As your mate, I have to make sure you get what you need, especially after the way things have been so far. I can say words all day long till I’m blue in the face, but you need actions and I’ll give them to you because you deserve no less than my very best as your mate.”

She tears up a little, and then nodding, she buries her face in my chest and clutches me to her. I hurt her badly. I’ll kick myself every day for the rest of my life for making her fear me. But if anyone else ever hurts her, like that douche canoe Logan, I will rip them to shreds with my teeth and then feast on them.

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