Page 8 of Slay All Day

“What?” he asked, his brow wrinkling as he darted his gaze toward me before concentrating on the road again.

“That’s how long I’ve been a slayer,” I explained.

He shook his head and flashed me a grin. “I’m impressed by your ability to sidestep the main point of what I was saying.”

I liked that he felt comfortable enough to call me on my attempt to steer the conversation in another direction, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to give him a little bit of a hard time. Pressing my lips together, I huffed out a breath through my nose. “Are you going to be totally reasonable about this without any alpha male mumbo jumbo?”

“I’m not saying that it’s going to be easy for me, knowing that you’re going to be in dangerous situations,” he admitted with a sigh. “But I’ll figure out how to deal. I refuse to believe that fate would give me the beauty of you only to take it away so quickly.”

I felt his sincerity through our mate bond and was dismayed by how quickly the link between us was snapping into place. Since I traveled a lot as a slayer, I hadn’t been around when two members of my hold had found their mates over the past eleven years. Filled with a deep appreciation for being one of the lucky few who had found the person fate had intended for me, I leaned over and pressed a kiss to Trey’s cheek. “That was such a perfect answer.”

He interlaced our fingers and brushed his lips over my knuckles before setting our hands on his thigh. “It didn’t even have any alpha male mumbo jumbo.”

“I have to admit, I like that you’re not trying to go all caveman on me.” I squeezed his hand with a grin. “Especially when your urge to protect me is strong enough that I can feel it through our bond.”

His eyes flashed gold, and I felt the brief glide of fur against my hand. “If it was up to my tiger, you’d still be back at my house, curled up in my bed waiting for me.”

I snorted, picturing how shocked he would have been if he’d actually tried to pull something like that with me. “Your tiger would’ve had a heck of a time trying to keep me there when I have a job to do. I’ve been studying martial arts since I was little, and it shows when I’m fighting. Even Camden was impressed with the skills I’d acquired back when I joined E.V.I.E., and I’ve done a bunch of training with him since then.”

“Who the fuck is Camden?” he asked, tightening his hold on my hand.

“He’s one of the E.V.I.E. trainers.” I was used to keeping details about the organization to myself since everyone in E.V.I.E. tended to be more than a little secretive, but it felt natural to share things with my mate. “I don’t know a ton about him except that he’s got mad fighting skills and an innate knack for knowing exactly how far he can push when we’re training—right to the very edge of your limit without crossing over.”

He grumbled something about Camden sounding like an asshole—with more than a hint of his tiger in his voice—before asking about my favorite style of martial arts. The conversation turned into a debate over the benefits of Krav Maga versus Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu that lasted until we reached the outskirts of Pine Ridge. Glancing out the window, I realized how spread out the houses were. “There’s a lot of land to cover for a town of only two thousand people.”

“Welcome to the heartland of America.” He pointed at the road in front of us, which was empty except for Jake’s car. “Where you’ll often find miles of farmland between homes, and you could miss a town if you blink while driving through it.”

The skies were clear overhead with no planes in sight. “It’s too bad I can’t just fly over the town to do recon. I could cover a heck of a lot more area in much less time.”

“The situation would go from bad to worse if anyone spotted you. Pine Ridge is a fully human town, and they’re not clued into the fact that shifters exist—let alone dragons.”

“Hopefully, that won’t cause any problems when it comes to hunting down the vampire.” I’d had a few bounties in small towns where nobody knew about shifters, and it tended to add another layer of complication. When gossip was treated like an Olympic sport, people felt comfortable being nosy as heck, which made it that much more difficult not to attract unwanted attention. “I’m assuming I won’t have the same issue in Tigerville?”

“You might surprise the stripes off a few tigers before word gets out that I’ve mated with a dragoness,” he teased.

I giggled at the mental image his joke evoked. “I’m looking forward to seeing your tiger’s stripes up close and personal.”

“And I’d love some more time with your dragoness,” he agreed, his dark eyes heating at the prospect. “After we find the vampire, I’ll take you out to explore. Our streak owns a fuck ton of land surrounding Tigerville, so there’ll be plenty of space where she can spread her wings and show off for me.”

“Then I guess I’d better put all my slayer skills to good use so we can find the bloodsucker quickly and get to the fun stuff stat.” I winked at him, shivering a little when I saw the desire in his eyes. The chemistry between us was practically electric, and it took all of my willpower to put my game face on when we drove down the main drag in Pine Ridge and pulled into a parking spot next to Jake’s car. I’d never had a problem focusing on an assignment in the past, but I had a feeling that working with my mate was going to test my ability to concentrate on the mission because he was a distraction unlike anything I’d ever encountered before.

We climbed out of the vehicle and joined Connor and Jake on the sidewalk. There were a few people standing in front of a small diner across the street, but nobody else was outside. Lowering my voice, I reminded the guys of the plan we’d discussed before we’d left Tigerville. “If you find anyone who exhibits signs of being under the influence of a vampire, remember to be careful what you ask. We don’t know how powerful the bloodsucker is yet. He may have put safeguards in place to let him know if someone interferes with his control over the humans he’s glamoured.”

“Got it,” Connor confirmed with a nod.

Finding the vampire would be much more difficult if we had to deal with a power play first. I flashed Connor a smile, grateful he had been cool about me taking the lead on the hunt. But judging by the deep growl that rumbled up Trey’s chest, he wasn’t thrilled by the platonic moment between his alpha and me.

8

Trey

Watching my mate take charge was sexy as fuck—something I was more acutely aware of when we were near unattached males. Connor or Jake would never disrespect my mating bond by hitting on Denica, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she laid any guy who tried flat on their asses. But the jealous streak that had come to life when I found her didn’t care about logic. It only cared about making it blatantly obvious she was mine. Luckily, she got where I was coming from and humored me by patting my shoulder and pressing a kiss to my cheek before turning to scope out the north side of the street.

I had to reposition my cock because it felt as though the zipper was going to leave a permanent imprint on my hard-on. Connor flashed me a knowing look, and I shrugged my shoulders. He shouldn’t be surprised that I was perpetually hard around Denica. He hadn’t experienced it himself yet, but he knew that the attraction between shifter mates was intense.

“We’ll head south,” he announced, jerking his chin to the left. “If we find anything suspicious, we’ll let you know.”

Denica nodded, and I interlaced our fingers as we walked down the sidewalk. We passed a lawyer’s office and dry cleaner before we headed into a bakery. My gorgeous mate picked out a couple of pastries and chatted with the girl at the register while I scanned the handful of people seated at the tables under the guise of searching for an empty one. Nobody jumped out at me as an obvious lead, and when I took a deep breath, I didn’t catch the cold scent of death clinging to anyone. Turning back to Denica, I handed my debit card to the cashier after she slid a couple of to-go cups with coffee across the counter. Once she was done ringing us up, I followed my mate over to a table in the corner. Her focus remained on the cashier while she ate her strawberry crossover puff pastry.

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