Page 14 of Romeo

ChapterSeven

Romeo slept like hell that night. He couldn’t stop thinking about the female, whose damn name he didn’t even know.

It was dawn when he trudged from his bedroom, too keyed up to sleep, too angry with himself for letting her get away.

He couldn’t stop thinking about how soft her skin was and how gorgeous she was.

He also couldn’t stop wondering why she’d panicked.

Panic was natural at being caught, but it seemed like more than that. She’d been nervous when he was taking her to Midas’s home to interrogate her, but it wasn’t until she asked to be let go and he said no that she panicked.

Something about being held captive had set off her fight-or-flight instincts, and she’d flown the coop.

If only his tiger hadn’t overridden everything in his brain and made him tackle Lance. Then she wouldn’t have gotten free and disappeared.

He’d seen the footage from the motion cameras in the territory, following along as she raced through the woods until she crossed the border of their land and the cameras lost sight of her.

So, on top of not knowing who she was or what she was actually doing in the woods, he had no idea what vehicle she was driving or whether someone else had been waiting for her.

His tiger snarled darkly.

What if she had a boyfriend? Humans didn’t necessarily understand the call of truemates, and she might already be in a relationship.

Well, fuck that. He’d show her that tigers ruled, period.

He hung his head and sighed deeply.

His train of thought had been running away from him since he’d lost sight of her in the woods. He tried to stay on task, tried to think about keeping the ambush safe, but then he thought about her instead, and he didn’t want to find her so he could bring her to Cyrus for questioning. He wanted to find her so he could be with her. Mate her. Mark her.

Mine.

Going to the kitchen, he put a pod into the coffee maker and pressed the button a little more forcefully than he needed to. He set a mug under the dispenser and listened as the machine whirred to life. What the hell was he going to do?

And just what the hell would he tell her if—no,when—he found her? He’d have to tell her about his past, about all the bloody things he’d done in the name of following his king. He’d have to share his guilt and grief and hope that when he bared himself to her that she didn’t stick a knife in his heart.

But then, what if, like Cyrus and Midas thought, she actually worked for Humans Against Shifters? She’d hate him simply because he was a shifter, and how was he supposed to deal with that?

He remembered hearing about a human who defected from Brent’s group, who went on a speaking tour and shared that he felt like he’d been brainwashed into believing that shifters were evil and needed to be destroyed. He’d joined the group for the money Brent paid to his followers, but then he’d had to do things he wasn’t proud of in the name of supporting humans over everything else.

If he wasn’t mistaken, the human was later killed, and while the police had suspected Brent and his people, nothing was traced back to them and the case went cold.

Romeo didn’t want to think about his mate being in dangerifshe actually worked for Humans Against Shifters.

He hoped she was telling the truth. That she was actually a journalist and didn’t know the proper procedure for dealing with shifters and their ceremonies. No shifter group he knew of wanted someone spying on them and writing down their private goings-on.

But in his gut, he knew she hadn’t been telling the truth.

He didn’t really trust people. It took a long while before he’d even trusted anyone in Whisper Creek enough to tell them some things about his past. He just didn’t know what to do about this situation.

And then he had an idea.

He grabbed his phone off his nightstand and dialed Melo, one of the ambush members.

He answered on the third ring. “It’s fucking early, bro.”

“Sorry. Is Tera around? I wanted to ask if she could perform a spell for me. I’d ask Maya, but she and Midas left for their honeymoon.”

“Uh, yeah, hold on.” He could hear Melo walking and the soft sound of him calling his mate’s name. “Everything okay?”

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