Thewomanwaitingforthem was stunningly gorgeous, with glossy blonde hair falling down her back.Her bright blue gaze never shifted from Mikhail, and her smile was dazzlingly white, her lips a vibrant pink to match the burgundy of her apparel.She was slim, and her clothes were classic and custom-fitted.Edwina identified that easily, and she owned not one designer outfit.
When they’d almost reached the terminal, the woman started running.She launched herself at Mikhail with a cry of excitement.
Edwina froze, her gaze drawn as the woman’s pink lips pressed against Mikhail’s.Her entire body shuddered, and the low growl of her leopard rumbled through her mind, her feline demanding action.That was their mate.
Ivan grasped her arm, and Edwina wasn’t sure if he was keeping her safe or stopping her from springing at the woman cuddling her mate.Mikhail was hers.
“Steady,” Ivan murmured in her ear.“Keep control and don’t draw attention.”
The stranger drew away from Mikhail and grinned up at him.“I thought you’d be pleased to see me.”
“I am,” Mikhail said in a low rumble.
The woman frowned and took another step back.“I thought you were away on a brief business trip.”Her gaze settled on Edwina, her blue eyes slicing and dicing before smoothly shifting back to Mikhail.“Who is she?”
Mikhail’s reply was inaudible, and Edwina didn’t hear it, even with her shifter abilities.She strained for even a few words, but nothing.When she stepped forward, Ivan grabbed her upper arm.
“Let me go.”Edwina tried to wrench from his grip.
“You need to trust Mikhail.”Ivan spoke in an urgent whisper.
“Why?”Edwina snapped, jerking and gaining freedom this time.“We’re practically strangers.”
“You know him enough to mark him,” Ivan replied softly, not shifting his gaze from the couple.
“A mistake.”Shame and anger warred in her.Disappointment in herself as her grandmother’s words haunted her.You’re an impulsive girl with no self-control.You never consider the consequences of your actions.Never.Instead, you leap into the flames and leave a mess for everyone to clean up.
Her grandmother was right.
Tears stung her eyes, and emotions clogged her throat.She was a stupid girl.Marking a mate was irreversible.Anger flared in her then, burning through the tears and searing emotion that left her unsteady.Death could be arranged if he didn’t get his hands off that blonde bimbo.A growl erupted, and Ivan gripped her shoulder.He frog-marched her from the main entrance and kept walking until she couldn’t see Mikhail and the woman.
“Stop,” he demanded, shaking her.
Edwina’s head rocked back and forth.“She has her hands all over him.”The words spilled free, uncensored.She wasn’t invested in him.She wasn’t.He was a stranger, using her to attain a goal so important that he’d traveled to Scotland to collect her.He might be her mate, but he hadn’t made a return claim.
Her breath hitched, each hiccupped gasp difficult as if she were sucking through a straw.The truth.He’d fucked her so their scents combined to fool his family and everyone else who mattered to his plans.
She swallowed hard, but that knot filled her throat again, and her jaw ached from the tension and bitterness that suffused her.She was an idiot.Her shoulders slumped.“I’m tired,” she managed, her voice thick.“When will we leave?”
“Soon.”Ivan wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her back to the central doorway.Mikhail and the woman must’ve entered the building, but Gregory was waiting for them, his expression blank.
“I hope you understand what you’re doing,” he told Ivan.“Mikhail won’t like you touching her.”
“He should’ve planned better.Clarice will create problems.”
“Clarice?”
The two men exchanged a glance and ceased their chatter.
“Let’s go,” Ivan said.
They entered the squat building, and to her surprise, it was empty.
“W-where is Mikhail?”Edwina asked.Had he gone with that woman?Mortified when a whimper escaped, she angled away from them, bowing her head and letting her hair fall over her face.
“Hell,” Gregory muttered.“Mikhail needed to see to something personal.He’ll meet us at his place.”
She rubbed away the tight pain in her chest.“I thought you were his security guards.Why have you let him go off on his own?”
