Page 28 of Ruthlessly Mated
“I am being patient,” he says. “But my patience has limits. You are our mate, and you are going to have to obey me. Us.”
“I’m going to deliver my cargo,” I tell him. “And I took you with me because last I saw you, you were about two seconds away from…”
Next thing I know, his hand is on the back of my neck, his lips close to my ear.
“You’re being hunted by an ancient vampire,” he says. “And you are going to need us.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I’ve never needed anyone, and I don’t intend to start needing you now. I can look after myself.”
“You’re our mate. We all look after each other.”
“I wasn’t looking for a mate. I don’t want a mate. I’m not ready for a mate. I don’t have anything to offer a mate, let alone threeof them, and I don’t need anything. You can come with me. But stop talking about being my mate.”
He lets me go and sits back with something like a smirk. He looks less worried now than he did before.
“What? What are you smiling about?”
“You’re scared,” he says.
“I am not scared. I have never been scared. What am I supposed to be scared of?”
“Love,” he says, looking satisfied. “You’re afraid of being our mate because you’re afraid of being loved.”
“You grabbed me, beat my ass, fucked me until I was so sore I didn’t know if I could walk, and then almost got yourselves killed, and you think I’m afraid of love?”
“Yes. I tried to be nice to you. Every time I try to be nice, you make it impossible.”
“Would you know how to be nice if you tried?”
Tailor
They’re bickering. They don’t know it, but those two are perfectly suited for one another. Damon smirks at me and steals the last rasher of bacon from Conroy’s abandoned plate.
Our mate is rough around the edges, that much is true, but she has also only been our mate for just over a day. She needs time tosettle down and Conroy is going to have to find that patience he claims to have.
As horrified as I am by the outfit she’s wearing, mostly because it is made from plastic synthetics, and because it clings in ways that makes her look devastatingly curvy to people who should not be looking at her the way they are, I have to admit she looks cute blonde. She looked cute with dark hair too.
I have many questions for her. Questions like, why did you leave me asleep in bed while the greatest monster the world has ever known sailed directly for me. But I already know the answer to that. She is on a mission. A terribly dangerous, absolutely awful mission that might tear us all apart if we are not careful, and maybe even if we are.
“Listen,” Kita says. “I really should leave you three here. It’s not safe to come with me. I know you’re all big and hairy and you think you’re scary and terrible, but I am small and terrible, and that’s worse. A lot worse.”
“We’re not afraid of you.”
“I’m not telling you to be afraid of me. I’m telling you to be afraid. Generally. Mostly because of Alexander. Hitting him with a truck is going to slow him down a little, but he’ll be back, and angrier than ever. You guys have already suffered enough.”
She looks over at me. “You especially.”
“I met someone I never imagined I would meet. I now know what it is to be tortured by the world’s greatest evil. I look forward to discovering what other experiences might be had by knowing you, Kita.”
She smirks at me. “You’re angry. And you should be. Seriously. You should stay here. I’d pay you to do so if I could, but I won’t be liquid for a while. I need to move my cargo and then there will be a lot of money. I can give you sorry-you-almost-got-killed money.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Kita. None of us are. You are stuck with us.”
She squirts more cream on the pancakes that are now almost entirely cream, then somehow manages to unhinge her jaw wide enough to swallow one. It is a feat of quite an impressive nature.
“Alright,” she says. “Then we’d best be getting back to the truck. We have a city of bigoted, er, bigots to visit. Alexander will be gaining on us even as we speak. If he catches us before we get there, none of this will matter anyway.”
Kita
