“What the fuck are you doing, Liam?”
“You can’t be here, Gianna,” he tells her. Her lip sticks out, and she begins to pout, but I can still see the anger in her eyes. I’m certain she’s trying to get him to bite her in the hope that once one of us is mated to her, the rest of us will give her mate bites too. I’d rather cut off my dick than stick it in that piranha.
The doors open on the bottom floor, and he takes her by the arm and walks her to the building entrance, practically shoving her out the door. The glass doors close behind her, and as he returns to my side, I watch with amusement as she loses her shit. She screeches again and stomps her foot in anger before screaming something and flipping him off then storming away.
I whistle as he gets to me, and I shake my head. “Dude, what the fuck?”
He shakes his head, not looking at me as we start walking toward the mission rooms. “Fuck, I don’t know what happened. She approached me in the locker room, and I was telling her I didn’t want to see her again, and then the next minute, we’re dry humping in the elevator and my teeth were aching to bite her.Thank fuck you came along when you did, because your scent was what brought me back to reality.”
I frown. “That sounds like magic at work. Do you think she’s wearing a spelled charm or something?”
He runs a hand through his white hair before rubbing his jaw, looking lost. “Fucking sure felt like it.”
“You need to avoid her. If you see her, go in the opposite direction,” I suggest, and he nods, quickly agreeing, but grabs my arm.
“Don’t leave me alone. I’m worried if she corners me again, I won’t have the strength to fight her off.”
“Sneaky fox bitch,” I mutter. “Don’t worry, we’re going to be assigned to the palace for the next few weeks once the new royal presents themselves, and she definitely won’t be getting in there.”
His sigh of relief is heavy, and I almost turn around and chase after her to make good on my burning her hair off her head idea. Instead, I slap my bond mate on the shoulder. “Come on, I was just heading to the gym to work off some aggression. Why don’t you join me?”
He falls into step with me. “What has your panties in a twist?” he asks. I can feel his gaze on the side of my face, but I don’t look at him.
“I just came from the apartment where Gryffin is preparing to leave again,” I mutter, my annoyance leaking into my tone.
“Ah, Gem, I’m sorry.” He claps a hand on my shoulder and gives it a squeeze. My other bond mates aren’t stupid, they know how I feel about the tiger. I try my best not to let it affect how we work, and I’ve been mostly successful until now, but Gryffin’s obsession is affecting us. I’m certain it’s part of the reason we haven’t been gifted a mate yet. We’ve been a group for ten years now, which is the longest a bond group has gone without finding their mate. I feel like we are being punished, but for the life ofme, I can’t figure out why. Something has to give, or the five of us are going to splinter irrevocably.
The two of us are silent as we walk toward the incident room, but a sudden shout has us exchanging a glance and picking up the pace.
The incident room is wide open, and I find Hunter and Brodie with General Bryson. Hunter is arguing with his father.
“We don’t have time to chase around after some human. We are still trying to locate the other missing children and deal with the uptick in feral occurrences. Assign a different team the task of babysitting.” Hunter’s nostrils smoke, and his eyes shimmer with his dragon’s annoyance.
Brodie is leaning against a wall with his arms crossed, watching the two with amusement. Liam and I join him.
“Hunter didn’t take the news well, I see,” I comment quietly.
Brodie scoffs. “What makes you think that?”
“Hunter, enough. It’s a direct order from your king, and you will obey it. I have three other teams working on the missing shifter children.”
“What about the missing humans?” Brodie asks, and I turn my attention to the wolf.
“What humans?” I inquire. This is new information for me, and from the look on Liam’s face, him too.
Bryson leans against the table and hangs his head, and I can see the weight he carries from being in charge. I’m glad that’s not me. He sighs heavily then visibly gets his shit together, throwing his shoulders back and straightening.
“In the last two months, humans have been going missing on a semi regular basis after visiting the neutral zone. We were originally unaware because the missing people were being reported to the human authorities. They have recently read us in on the reports.”
“Why did it take them so long to let us know if they went missing after visiting this zone?”
Hunter scoffs. “Petty jurisdiction crap.”
My mind processes the information swiftly, and my shoulders slump as I put two and two together. “Fuck! Are we assuming the missing humans are the ferals?”
Brodie hip bumps me before pushing off the wall and taking a seat at the table Hunter and Bryson have between them.
“Yup,” he says dejectedly.
