Page 39 of Boss's Mate

“Not more dangerous than I am to him,” Lance assured her, and he leaned down to kiss her one final time. “Rest well. You're safe now.”

He watched her stretching languidly, the covers slipping just low enough to give him a peek of her ample breasts. And he was forced to grit his teeth, knowing if he didn't get out of there soon, he might never leave.

“I'll be back,” he promised.

“You better be,” Kayla mumbled, barely low enough for him to hear. Lance couldn't help but laugh. There was a time when Kayla wouldn't have dared to say something so dominant to him. It was new, and he realized he liked it. The idea of having someone to boss him about in that feminine way that she-wolves did, someone to tie himself to, made his heart swell.

Though he still felt a little guilt toward his late wife, it was finally becoming bearable.

She would want me to be happy,he told himself, remembering Lewis’s words as he turned toward the door.

He paused to look back at the bed, hand on the door handle and whispered, “I love you, Kayla.”

But she was already asleep. The peacefulness of her soft breathing made him smile. He watched her a moment longer, spying the bitemark he had left upon her shoulder. Reaching for his own, he felt small imperfections in his skin where she had left her mark.

We can't take it back now,Lance thought, slipping from the room. There was nothing left to do but try and figure out where they were supposed to go from here. That, and what the hell they were going to do with Stan.

With that in mind, Lance charged down the stairs and out the front door. He had barely taken two steps onto the porch before something was launched into his chest.

Shocked, he stumbled backwards, grabbing at whatever it was.

“You had better get those on quick. I just spotted Sarah down the street,” Darius said from where he had propped Stan up in a sitting position, now restrained with special silver-runed cuffs courtesy of the Michaels witch sisters.

Lance looked at the checkered baggy pajama trousers Darius had thrown at him. When he raised a brow, Darius shrugged and said, “I keep them in my car for emergencies.”

“You went to your car and left him?” Lance growled, inclining his head to Stan.

“He was still unconscious at the time, and I had to get the cuffs,” Darius pointed out while Stan glowered at Lance with a murderous expression. “He's still here, isn't he?”

Lance growled again, about to bark something about that not being the point, when Sarah suddenly appeared at the end of the driveway. She was marching with her gaze on the floor, a storm cloud hanging above her head, and Lance steeled himself for whatever was coming. His daughter had always had a temper, just like her mother's, but this was an entirely different situation from anything they'd ever encountered before. He wasn't at all sure how she was going to react.

“Sarah,” Lance said carefully.

Sarah halted half-way up the drive. Her head whipped up, and the moment she spotted him standing on the porch in nothing but Darius’s pajama bottoms, her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed.

She was silent for only a second before all hell broke loose. “You have got to be kidding me! You just couldn't wait until all this blew over, could you?”

She stormed up the driveway and stood at the bottom of the porch steps, glowering up at him. “Have you completely lost your mind? Kayla, I almost get. She's vulnerable, lonely, and self-conscious. I can see why she'd be weak to you, but you? What possible reason could you have for going behind my back like this?”

Lance closed his eyes, letting her batter him with her words before he said, “Sarah, it wasn't like that. Neither of us meant to hurt you. Can we talk about this later? There's something important I have to do first.”

“Important? Is this not important?” Sarah demanded, gesturing between the two of them. “Am I so low on your list of priorities that you don't even feel the need to try and defend yourself?”

Lance walked down the steps to stand before his daughter. Head held high, he said, “I have nothing to defend myself for. I have done nothing wrong. Kayla and I are both consenting adults. And if you have a problem with our union, you may want to take it up with the great wolf gods.”

“What the hell do they have to do with this?”

Sarah took a half-step back. Though she no longer wore the bandage around her head and Lance couldn't smell fresh blood, her hair was clotted with old blood, and she had to stroke a grimy strip from her face to look at him. Her gaze burrowed into his, waiting for an explanation.

Holding his breath, Lance moved his shoulder to give his daughter a good view of the bitemark Kayla had gifted him.

When she saw it, her face twisted with confusion, recognition, and finally realization.

“You…you are mated? You've mated with my best friend?She'syour fated mate?” Sarah babbled, her tone shrill with disbelief. “You have got to be kidding me?”

Lance shook his head, his lips pursed. He didn't speak. There was no need. Sarah would have whatever reaction she was going to have now, and nothing he could say or do would change any of that.

“I…I…no! I can't accept this. I won't!” Sarah protested, taking several steps back this time. She turned away from Lance.

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