Page 8 of His Beast Mate

“You don’t understand,” Alex said. “The bitch ain’t going anywhere.”

“He lost her in a hand of poker. Collateral plus more. She is mine.”

“William is a moron. He can’t gamble with the bitch. She’s not his to gamble with.”

I shrugged. “Not my problem. Take it up with him.”

Kitten,” Alex barked. “Come here.”

Who was this guy? And then everything happened in three seconds flat.

The doorman reached for my girl.

I slapped his hand away.

Kitten stepped in front of me. Christ!

She swiped his gun.

I reached for the gun, but she shot the doorman point-blank between his eyes. She aimed and shot the other two. Then she handed me the gun and dropped to her knees, her forehead on my boots.

I gaped at the three bodies with holes in their foreheads. “Wha…” I crouched and spread my arms. “What the fuck?”

She lifted her head, green eyes pale, the color of jadestone. “You are my mate. I vow to protect and serve you for the rest of my life.”

I blinked.

She threw her arms around me and buried her nose in the crook of my neck.

“Well, fuck me.” I patted her back and looked around the place. We were dead meat. Right in the middle of the foyer, with William’s entire security team outside. I checked the gun. Four rounds left. This would not kill everyone. “Kitten,” I barked, mad as hell with her, but as I said her name, I changed my mind, taking in her situation. Before me was a woman, abducted, beaten, and humiliated, and she found it her duty to protect me.

God, this was awkward, and I was way out of practice with the opposite sex. Her Beast Mother had chosen the last male on earth who knew what to do with a female mate. Man, I could find my way in life, get what I wanted most of the time, but women? Didn’t know what to do around them. I cleared my throat when she sniffled. “Don’t start crying.” It came out as a command when I intended for it to come out comforting.

“Okay.”

I found my baby voice, the soft, comforting tone I used when speaking with infants. “Sweetheart, I’m not…I’m not saying anything about your mating thing. I was just saying that we’re fucked.”

She looked up at me with a frown. Okay so baby voice didn’t work. I patted her shoulder for reassurance that I hadn’t lost my mind.

“Where is the backup?” she asked.

“There’s no backup. We thought it best if I went in alone. I was supposed to scout out the situation, but the cards were dealt, and I saw an opportunity.”

“I fucked up,” she said, looking at the bodies. “We were gonna walk out.”

“We are walking out,” I said. “Just not as planned.”

“I have a confession to make.”

“Right now?” I heard footsteps approaching. Whole bunch of them. They’d try to enter the house any second now. And yet I felt I had to let her have this moment with me. I’d seen this mating thing with beast guys. She was a woman. They processed everything at high emotional altitudes I couldn’t possibly understand, so I did what I felt I should do. “Tell me how you feel. It’s all right. I’m with you in this.”

“I had to clear my name. Those two men who took me would’ve run the moment I left this forsaken place, and I would never have seen them again. I couldn’t leave them alive. I had to clear my name.”

“Great. Fucking great.” She’d just told me she’d planned to kill them even when she’d agreed we’d walk out. “Baby, this house has a security team. Twelve armed men.”

A knock came on the door. “Mr. Ghason, everything all right in there?”

She pinched her lips and whispered, “I didn’t know about the security team.”

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