“What the hell areyoudoing knocking on her door in the middle of the night?”Maddie asked.
“She hasn’t returned my calls or texts.I wanted to make sure she was okay,” he answered as he glanced at Bane and Roan, then shifted his eyes back to her, his brow raising.
Maddie shrugged.She didn’t owe him any sort of explanation.Lola was not anything more than a friend, and not even close enough for him to show up at her apartment this late.
“Who is this male?”Bane asked, his voice sounding even deeper than it had in Lola’s room.Probably because Antonio’s wasn’t nearly that low.
“An acquaintance,” Katy answered as she cocked her hip to the side and rested her hands on her waist.
“I’m more than a damn acquaintance, Kate,” Antonio bit out.“I’ve known you three for over three years.”
The three guys just stood there staring at them as if waiting to choose who they’d let in.Finally, Maddie huffed and threw a hand in the air.“Roan is my boyfriend and Bane is my cousin,” she said trying to figure out what kind of excuse would get Antonio to leave without the Shaman and panther dudes attempting to kill the little human dude.Maddie reached out causing Katy to have to step to the side.She grabbed Roan and Bane’s wrists and pulled.They lurched forward, no doubt because they let her.There was no way she could have ever made them so much as sway in the wind.“They needed a place to stay and Lola’s parents offered their couch and floor.”
Both guys followed her inside and she pointed to the couch.“Sit.”She glared at them.
Roan started to walk past her, then paused right in front of her.He reached up and ran a finger across her bottom lip.“Whatever you say, Baby.”Winked at her and kept going.Maddie couldn’t move, she couldn’t breathe.She knew Roan was just playing along, butdamn.He didn’t have to be so damn convincing, or sexy.
As Bane passed her, he leaned down.“I’m a cat, not a dog.For future reference, we don’t take orders well.”
His words broke through the haze of whatever it was that Roan had caused.“Then don’t show up at my BFF’s door after we told you to freaking leave.Or did you forget there's a pissed off lion down the hall who would love to tie your intestines around your neck and hang you from the fire escape?”
Roan let out a low whistle.“Dang, my girl’s got a mean streak.I like it.”
“Shut up,” she bit out and refused to look at him.She was not going to take the fake, little relationship any further than was needed.Antonio was about to leave, then it was pretty much unnecessary at this point.
She looked over at Katy.She’d moved to the edge of the doorway and was talking quietly with Antonio.She looked over her shoulder at Maddie.“I’m going to step out in the hall and have a little chat with our friend.”
Maddie frowned.She tried to convey by her look that she wasn’t sure that was a good idea considering how they’d seen him act at NNP.Katy subtly shook her head as if to say, 'Not to worry.’
“Maybe I should,” Roan started, but Maddie snapped her head around and interrupted him.
“You should sit and let me get you some blankets so you can go to sleep.”The last word snapped out of her mouth as her eyes no doubt conveyed very clearly she wanted him to keep his ass on that couch.The last thing they needed was a testosterone cock fight.
Bane’s eyes jumped past her and widened briefly before he looked over at Roan.But Roan was looking at her.Bane nudged the Shaman.
“What?”he asked, still staring at her.
“There’s a wolf,” Bane growled.
“That male wasn’t a wolf,” Roan said flippantly.“I would have known and you would have smelled him.”
She heard the door close and walked over to one of the chairs that faced the apartment door.Choosing the furthest chair from Roan, she stared at the door.She ignored the feeling of his eyes.
“I wasn’t talking about the male,” Bane said.“On the fierce female’s arm.”
His description of Katy made Maddie smirk.He wasn’t wrong.She was one of the fiercest people Maddie knew.
“On her shoulder,” Bane continued.“A black tattoo of a wolf.”
Something in the air shifted, and Maddie looked back at Roan.All flirty-ness was gone and in its place, a deep frown.“I would have been able to tell if she was ananimus,” he said, but he didn’t sound as sure.
“Would you?”Bane asked.“Seems like the rules are changing.If Visata changed how mates are bonded, then who’s to say how ananimuscan be distinguished?”
Roan thought about it as his eyes bounced from Bane to her, and then over to the door.She watched as his body started to go rigid.The obvious muscles in his arms and chest tensed up as he pushed to the edge of the couch.He clearly wasn’t sure if he should risk making a commotion by going out in the hall, and disrupting the conversation between Katy and Antonio, or waiting for Katy to come back inside.
“You seriously think she’s like Lola?”Maddie asked.
“Did she get that tattoo at Wild Ink, when Lola went?”Roan asked.
