Page 6 of Slay All Day

Trey shook his head. “I never would’ve thought my fated mate would turn out to be Damien Veles’s sister. Which I guess makes sense since Connor and I didn’t even know he had one.”

It felt super weird to be talking about my brother while I was naked. Rolling off the bed, I grabbed his shirt off the floor and tossed it over my head. As soon as I had my arms through the holes, Trey yanked me back by the hem, and I fell on top of him. I could’ve escaped his hold using any number of self-defense techniques I had learned during my study of martial arts, but I liked being sprawled across his broad chest. I didn’t want to cut off my nose to spite my face, metaphorically speaking, so I stayed put.

6

Trey

Resting her cheek against my chest, Denica covered her mouth as she yawned. I sifted my fingers through her silky hair, happier than I had ever remembered being before. Lying here quietly with my mate was incredibly satisfying, and my tiger was completely relaxed. The smug bastard was curled up inside my head grinning, but I couldn’t blame him—we’d hit the jackpot with our sexy and capable mate.

“Man, it’s been a crazy day,” she mumbled.

I slid my hand down her back, tucking it under the soft cotton of my shirt to stroke her spine. “Crazy good.”

“Only the past hour or so.” She yawned again. “But the rest of my day has been crazy hectic. I accepted and fulfilled a bounty in the same day, plus I took on a new one when it was the last thing I wanted to do—”

“Thank fuck you agreed,” I interjected, unwilling to think about how badly it would’ve sucked if she hadn’t. “The shit that’s going down in Pine Ridge is awful, but it’s what brought you to me.”

“Yeah, finding you more than made the quick back-to-back trips worthwhile,” she agreed with a smile as she lightly stroked her fingers over where she’d bitten me on my chest. Female shifters didn’t have to return their mate’s bite to complete their bond, but I was thrilled as fuck that Denica had chosen to leave her mark on me. It made me want to leave even more signs that she belonged to me all over her smooth skin.

I was contemplating where I might want to do that next when her stomach let out a little rumble. “When’s the last time you ate?”

She bit her bottom lip and shook her head. “Does whipped cream on top of spiked hot chocolate count as food?”

“Not even close.” I nudged her off my chest, rolled off the mattress, and tugged her to her feet. “C’mon, I’ll make you something.”

“You don’t have to go to all that trouble. A small snack will be enough to get me through until morning,” she argued as she followed me out of the room.

“I wouldn’t be a worthy mate if I didn’t see to your needs,” I disagreed, leading her into the kitchen.

Jumping onto one of the stools lining the front of the counter, she snickered. “You already did that. Three times.”

“Damn straight.” I cupped her cheeks with my hands and tilted her head back for a deep kiss before I went over to rummage in my fridge. “But I need to make sure you’re in top form before we head over to Pine Ridge later today.”

She leaned her elbow on the counter and propped her head up with her palm. “I should probably look over the information you and Connor have collected so I’m fully in the loop. Damien mentioned you were able to get a hold of the police reports and one of your streak members examined the bodies?”

I ran her through everything Connor had shared with me while I made us a ham and cheese omelet and toast. She asked a few questions while we ate, but I could tell she was quickly losing stream now that she had some food in her belly. After she took her last bite, I picked up our empty plates. “Head back to bed, baby. I’ll be right behind you.”

“’Kay, thanks,” she mumbled as she stood.

It only took me a few minutes to clean everything up, and then I followed Denica into my room. It was incredibly satisfying to see her curled up on my mattress, with her dark hair spread over my pillows. She had claimed my usual side of the bed, but I didn’t move her. As long as I had my mate in my arms, I didn’t give a fuck where I slept.

Spooning my chest against her back, I pulled her close and buried my nose in the crook of her neck. The human and animal halves of my soul were in perfect harmony as I followed her into slumber.

Sunlight streamed through the cracks in my blinds only four hours later, but Denica didn’t stir. There were dark smudges under her eyes, and I wanted her to get more rest. Pulling the covers higher to help shield her from the brightness, I drifted back to sleep. When she finally began to move, I was surprised to find it was several hours later. “Morning, baby.”

She shifted in my arms and pressed a kiss to the mating mark on my chest. “It’s more like good afternoon. I can’t believe I slept so long.”

“After the day you had, I’m not surprised.” I stroked the side of my nose down hers. “I wish we could stay here until tomorrow morning, but we’d better get moving.”

“Yeah, we have a vampire to catch,” she agreed, seeming to light up from the inside at the prospect of the battle ahead.

Since she was a slayer, her anticipation wasn’t a big surprise. But how quickly she got ready after we took a lengthy—and satisfying—shower together was. I’d barely had enough time to make a pot of coffee before she joined me downstairs. “How do you take yours?” I asked as I poured the dark brew into two travel mugs.

She came up behind me and wrapped her arms around my torso. “Sugar and cream if you’ve got it.”

“Will milk work?” When I felt her nod against my back, I opened the fridge, grabbed the jug, and splashed some into her mug.

“A tiger without cream? What has this world come to?” she teased, giving me a big squeeze before coming to my side and adding some sugar to her coffee. Then she took a sip and sighed, “But this is pretty darn perfect.”

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