Page 13 of First Surrender (The Serafina: Sin City 1)
At least this guy wasn’t sensitive. She’d guarded enough men like that for a lifetime. Men who wanted her to stroke their ego—among other things. As if they thought that was part of her job. Fucking losers. They found out soon enough that she wasn’t just a pretty face. It was always a pleasure watching the shock on their faces when some moron thought he could lay hands on her then found himself flex-cuffed and flat on his face with her boot in his back. Her boss always warned their principals how things were done and made them sign very detailed contracts regarding their own behavior with her, but some of them never listened.
“The meeting starts in five minutes. We’re going to get you in, you’re going to take care of business, then my team is escorting you out. There will be no socializing or bullshit tonight. I refuse to put you at more risk than you already are. Understood?” Iris didn’t sugarcoat anything because it clearly wasn’t necessary with Berr. They’d already been over all this before, but she’d go over it a dozen more times if she felt it necessary. She didn’t think he would ignore her, but the last thing they needed was for anyone, including her team, to get hurt. Not only was she protecting Berr, but as team leader tonight, she considered her people her responsibility too.
“You’re the boss,” Berr said good-naturedly as they continued their slow trek across the marbled floor.
A few people nodded at Berr, but when he kept his expression stony and didn’t invite conversation, everyone stayed away. Which made her job easier. A jazz band played a slow song on the stage on the west side of the dimly lit room. A few giant chandeliers glittered prettily above them with what she guessed were real candles flickering from them. She was pretty sure the lighting was supposed to be romantic, but she didn’t like it. The brighter it was, the better she could see a potential threat. It was too dark right now. The sound of clinking glasses and laughter filled the air, various perfumes trailed around her, but she didn’t see anyone particularly threatening. Any server with a tray that got too close was smoothly cut off by Kell. The man was huge but moved with a stealth that impressed her. But if someone had managed to slip a gun past security…no, not with her team manning all the doors. It wouldn’t have happened. Still, she would never let her guard down.
“Iris, there’s a man at your six bearing down on you two. I’m intercepting.” Vincent’s voice had a deadly edge to it.
“Slow down,” Iris murmured to Berr, who immediately complied. Turning to the left so that Berr’s body was blocked from whoever was coming up on them, she swiveled and used her own body as a shield.
Then froze when she saw the man walking toward her, a determined glint in his piercing blue eyes.
What the hell was he doing here? Seeing him in the flesh after a month was a jolt to her system. She felt as if she’d been doused in ice cold water. Or punched right in the face. Somehow she found her voice. “Stand down, Vincent. Now. He’s not a threat.” Well, not to Berr. But he was a complete threat to her sanity.
She didn’t have to give any more explanation than that. Vincent stopped where he was, but his hand was close to drawing one of his concealed weapons from beneath his jacket.
Berr stiffened beside her, but then he shifted and must have seen who was walking toward them because he relaxed. “He’s fine, Iris. He’s joining in the meeting tonight. Last minute addition.”
Okay, that would have been nice to know, but she held her tongue. Mainly because she was having a damn hard time finding her voice. Her stomach tightened because of a whole mess of reasons, none of which she wanted to contemplate right now. As her pulse started to race, she bit back her anger at the affect he always had on her. Shit, shit, shit.
“Wyatt, good to see you. Thought you’d already be in the meeting by now. We’re running a bit late.” Berr held out a friendly hand to Wyatt, but the other man’s laser-like focus was all on Iris. And he was pissed. The anger rolling off him was almost palpable. “This is Iris Tarango, my date for the evening.”
Iris swallowed hard. Oh, Wyatt freaking Christiansen knew her very well. Too well. They’d grown up together, been friends for a long time, then a month ago she’d gone and done the dumbest thing ever.
She’d married the frustratingly sexy man.
Excerpt from
Claiming His Mate
by Savannah Stuart
Copyright © 2013 Savannah Stuart
Lauren Hayes shoved a wayward strand of hair under the knit cap she wore as she slid up to the outside back wall of the quiet, two-story house. The black cover over her hair had nothing to do with the chilly October weather. Right now she was all about blending into the shadows this cold fall night. Which meant dressing in all black, like a sneaky burglar.
Because she was about to do something stupid. Incredibly stupid. She inwardly berated herself.
There was no turning back now. Shifters were notorious gossips and word had spread through the grapevine that Grant Kincaid, alpha of the Kincaid wolf pack in Gulf Shores, Alabama was on a honeymoon.
With his new human mate.
That by itself had shocked the shifter world. Kincaid’s father had been a brutal bastard—before he’d died. A shitty alpha who’d hated anyone who wasn’t supernatural. Or at least that’s what Lauren had heard.
The current alpha was two hundred years old and she was twenty-five so it wasn’t as if they’d ever run in the same circles. She’d also heard Grant wasn’t like his father and from the brief meeting she and her pride had with him six months ago, she had to agree that he seemed pretty decent.
Even if he was a stubborn ass who refused to give her family back what was rightfully theirs. Now that the alpha was out of town, she and some of her pridemates had decided to break into his house.
To steal from him.
Maybe steal was a bit of a stretch, she thought as she moved against the side of the house. Wind whipped around her, sending another shiver racing through her. She was simply taking back something that belonged to her family’s pride. She had to remind herself of that. Her sister was getting married in two weeks and the broach the elder Kincaid had taken from her family almost a hundred years ago was supposed to have been a wedding gift when the oldest Hayes daughter got married. The piece of jewelry had been in their family for centuries. Well, the jewels had been. Three, four-carat—colorless—diamonds and a handful of emeralds had been passed down from oldest daughter to oldest daughter in some form of jewelry ever since. When Lauren’s mother had received a necklace from her mother, she’d had the jewels put into a broach instead.
And Lauren desperately wanted to give it to her sister Stacia as a wedding gift. She deserved it.
Since Lauren was one of the few shifters on the planet who could mask their scent from other shifters, vampires and pretty much all supernatural beings, she’d been more or less volunteered for the job by her cousins. She also had a knack for breaking into places. Not that she was normally a thief. Her cousin Tommy, however, was. When she’d been twelve he’d taught her a lot of tricks, including picking locks and hotwiring cars. Her parents had been so pissed when they’d found out. After she stole back what was rightfully theirs, she bet they’d be glad she had those extra skills. Of course they’d be angry at her for doing this, but she’d known if she told them they would have ordered her not to. She figured it was better to do this then beg forgiveness later.
She had a few pridemates waiting a mile away in case she ran into trouble, but they had to stay out of sight unless she called them.
Right now they were all on Kincaid territory. Didn’t matter that it was a touristy beach town right on the Gulf Coast and that humans had no idea a shifter pack had carved out an area to live here. As a jaguar shifter, she knew she shouldn’t be here without permission so if she got caught she was so screwed. Wolves weren’t known for being forgiving. And stealing from an alpha? She shoved those thoughts out of her head. If she was scared, she couldn’t work.
Here goes nothing.
The two story house was raised like mo
st houses on the beach but he also had an upstairs patio that she planned to use to her full advantage. She shimmied up one of the columns with a preternatural speed and hoisted herself up and over the lattice style barrier. Being a cat, she was nimble and quick on her feet, but it still took strength to do this in human form.
Crouching low to the ground, she carefully looked around the large patio at the closed French doors and then back at the beach. The waves sounded softly about a hundred yards away, the calm methodic rhythm doing little to soothe the nerves punching through her. She was about to break into an alpha’s home. So, so, so stupid. But it would make her mother and sister happy.
Thankfully the quarter moon was hidden by clouds, further helping her cover. She’d been watching the Kincaid pack’s comings and goings for the last week in preparation for tonight. It was midnight so almost every one of them was at one of the many bars or the hotel Kincaid owned. They all worked together as a big family. Their hours were more like vampires’ than shifters’, but clearly it worked for the pack because they were ridiculously wealthy.
Owning beach front property anywhere could be pricey, but they also owned an entire condominium building next door to Kincaid’s personal residence. At least almost everyone was at work. And even though she knew for a fact they had a security system, she’d thrown a giant boulder through the back French doors a couple days ago in preparation.
Lauren had felt like a total jerk doing it, but she’d needed them to replace the doors. Which they’d done this morning. The chances of them having already replaced the security contact that would be standard with the system on the new doors was about five percent. More like zero percent considering she’d been watching the house practically ever since she’d ruined the doors. And when she hadn’t been spying, one of her pridemates had.
As she examined the French doors now she realized the lock was also new. And it wasn’t the cheap kind either. But, she was very good at getting into places she shouldn’t.
