She threw her head back to let out a how?—
“No need to shout, baby. I’m right here.”
Peyton stood there, smiling, leaning against a tree, his arms nonchalantly crossed over his chest as if he were awaiting a bus.
She was back on two legs by the time she leapt into his arms, kissing him.
“Now that’s a way to greet your mate,” he teased as she devoured him with kisses.
Behind them, she was aware of Badger starting the truck and driving off, but she didn’t care.
Peyton was here, in her arms, and he wasn’t a mirage or a dream or a nightmare in a casket in the cargo hold of an airplane.
“I love you,” she whispered against his lips.
“I love you, too, baby.” He slanted his lips over hers again, his energy matching hers, eager, starving.
Hers.
“Why aren’t you fucking naked?” she mentally growled. And yay, fast shifter healing, meaning she was totally in the mood for being fucked right now.
He laughed. “Because someone jumped into my arms. At least there aren’t any dumpsters here.”
That made her laugh. She laughed until she realized she was sobbing and they were sitting on the ground, his back against the tree and with her cradled in his arms.
She had no idea when that happened.
He kept her head tucked under his chin and gently rocked her. “I’m so sorry, baby,” he whispered, over and over, interspersed with, “I love you so much.”
Gillian finally wiped her eyes and tipped her head back so she could look at him. “Why didn’t you come home? Why meet here?”
“Everyone needs to believe I’m still missing. We can’t risk my scent showing up fresh in the compound. Before Badger takes you home, you’ll stop at the little campground and shower. He said no one’s staying there right now.”
“Why? If we’re in your—oh.” Now she understood why Badger insisted on driving Peyton’s truck.
He smirked. “My scent on your clothes can be explained by the truck. Smelling freshly fucked by me cannot.”
“How long are you here?”
“Badger will pick you up, take you home, then come back and get me. We’ll exit through the national forest entrance. I fly out of Seattle in the morning. Oh, and Duncan’s leaving tonight, too. He’s flying to Florida for a quick errand. Then he’ll be back.”
She palmed his cheeks. “How long will you be gone?”
“I don’t know, baby. We need to get Ray Dorland here. If he thinks I’m still alive, he’ll go to ground.”
“I can’t do this without you, Peyton.”
He captured her hands and kissed them. “You aren’t doing it without me, baby. But if we don’t end this now, it’ll drag on. Possibly for years. I want Adair to grow up safe. We have to find and destroy that lab, and it can’t be done piecemeal. They’ll shut down and set up somewhere else if they know we’re on to them. We can’t fuck around with this.”
“You’re going to personally go do that, aren’t you?” His grim expression was too much of an answer for her. “Why, Peyton? Why do we have a stable full of Enforcers if we’re not using them?”
“We will be using them. But I can’t ask members from other shifter packs and even other shifter races to help while I stay behind. We’ll need Primes.”
“Will I see you again before that?”
“I hope so. But we’ll have to move quickly once we have confirmation from Ray Dorland.”
“And if he’s not involved?”
