Page 18 of The Mobster's Mate

She nodded and pulled out her phone.

Rick turned back to Quinten. “If you make me regret this…”

Quinten rolled his eyes. “What exactly do you think I’m going to do? Use this opportunity to rob you? Kill you? Take over your pack?”

“There’s no telling what someone like you could do,” Rick said quietly. “Bring him inside.”

Quinten ignored the slight of his character and nodded toward Darius. He knew the wolf didn’t like it, didn’t want to have his hands full in case he needed to fight, but he wasn’t trusting anybody else to carry the cat.

His pilot, a sixty-year-old human who’d served in the Air Force, would be staying with the helicopter while they were inside, making sure nobody tampered with it or planted a tracker.

What could he say? Rick wasn’t the only one with trust issues.

He followed close behind Darius, the witches on either side muttering to each other as they looked the cat over. Their faces were grim.

He pulled out his phone and shot a text message to Ginger and Dominic, letting them know they’d arrived and to keep an ear open in case he had to call them to bring in the cavalry.

He didn’t think Rick or his pack would be a problem—they were a bunch of do-gooders, after all—but overprotective alphas could be unpredictable, and the man had an army at his disposal. One that had taken down the Council, which should have been an impossible feat.

As soon as they walked through the front door, he saw Gabriel. It seemed like days ago that he’d talked to him on the phone, not a little over twelve hours. The conversation—and his anger over it—came flooding back as soon as he locked eyes on the long-haired hunter.

Well, ex-hunter.

Supposedly, he was retired, but considering some of the things Quinten had heard Gabriel and other retired hunters were doing for Kincaid, he wouldn’t bet his fortune on it.

Gabriel nodded warily at him as he approached, but Darius stepped between them, a low growl coming out of him.

“Easy, Dare,” he said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder. “We’re all friends here, right?”

Rick grunted, walking across the entrance hall toward where a younger man with short blond hair waited for him, hands twisting in front of him.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Gabriel said with a small, forced smile. “But as long as you and your wolf behave, everything should go fine.”

Darius snarled at being called Quinten’s, but he didn’t take offense. The way Gabriel had said it had been condescending.

Quinten glanced around the large entrance hall, taking in the expensive but not ostentatious decorations and the surprising lack of people. He would’ve thought with a pack as big as Rick’s there would have been Enforcers and betas busy at work, as well as assorted pack members running the household or coming by for help.

He glanced at Gabriel again. “It’s pretty quiet around here.”

Gabriel just shrugged, shoving his hands into the pockets of his cargo pants. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, despite the mild spring weather they were having, showing his thinner Southern blood. His long hair was down around his shoulders, the small braid with purple beads denoting his hunter clan allegiance showing.

Quinten couldn’t see them, but he also knew there were bonding bite scars on each side of his neck, one from each of his shifter mates.

Gabe opened his mouth but snapped it shut when Rick started striding toward them.

“Jamie says there’s an empty room on the second floor.” Rick glanced at him and Darius. “We’ll take him from here. You two wait with Ericka in the—”

Quinten didn’t wait to hear where he thought the two of them could be hidden away to make Rick and the others feel more comfortable. “We’re not waiting anywhere. Where he goes—” He pointed to the unconscious jaguar. “—we go.”

Rick bared his teeth. “That’s out of the question. I don’t want you any closer to my family than absolutely necessary.”

“I don’t give a shit. A life for a life, Rick. I’m not leaving a person I’m responsible for alone with strangers who are going to be conducting magic on him. Get your witches, get your doctor, and let’s go.”

Rick stepped closer, his eyes flashing bright for a second before he locked himself down, but his voice still came out in a low rumble. “Watch it, Amato. I may owe you for saving my life, but you’re still a fucking guest in my house.”

He could feel Darius vibrating with tension, one word from Quinten away from launching himself at the alpha. But that wasn’t what Quinten wanted.

Not today anyway.

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