Chay chuckled. “You asked.”
“Yeah, but that’s just gross.”
Chay raised one eyebrow. “As opposed to what panthers eat?”
Gabriel sat up, a frown drawing his eyebrows together. “What do panthers eat?”
“Raw meat.”
“That’s…” Gabriel’s frown deepened. “That actually sounds pretty good. In fact, it sounds delicious. How sick is that?”
“I think I can arrange to get you a nice big juicy steak. That will probably stave off any raw meat cravings you have.”
“Just how raw does it have to be?”
“I’ll run it through a warm room and slap a band-aid on it for you.” Chay was a predator even if he was a falcon. He knew what it was to crave meat. His prey just tended to be a bit smaller. Rodents instead of cattle. Smaller birds instead of wildebeests.
Chay stroked a hand over the top of Gabriel’s head. “I’ll make you something guaranteed to make both you and your panther happy.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Chay patted Gabriel on the thigh. “Get up, baby.”
“And if I don’t want to?”
“I’m fine with staying here, but I can’t feed you in the bedroom. The steaks are in the fridge.” Chay chuckled when Gabriel’s stomach took that moment to growl. “I guess that answers that question.”
Gabriel groaned as he rolled off of Chay.
Chay leaned up on his side so he could look down into his mate’s face. “Lesson number one, mate. Always listen to your cat.”
Chay pressed a quick kiss to Gabriel’s lips then climbed to his feet. He reached back and held a hand out to his mate. “Come on, Gabe. Let’s go feed you.”
He pulled Gabriel to his feet when the man took his hand. He really hoped Dom and Aldrik had had a chance to clean things up a bit before they went back out into the other room. There were just some things Gabriel didn’t need to see…again.
Chay hated that Gabriel was in the middle of all of this, that he had even been exposed to this level of violence. He doubted the man was used to it. Well, he hoped he wasn’t. He didn’t know that much about Gabriel, but maybe he needed to take the time to learn.
“What do you do for a living, Gabriel?” he asked as they walked out of the bedroom.
“I work for Family Services,” Gabriel replied. “That’s how I was able to find Dom. I kind of broke a couple of rules, but I looked up his adoption paperwork.”
Chay glanced back at his mate. “You won’t get into trouble for that, will you?”
Gabriel shook his head. “No one saw me do it.”
“Can they trace it somehow?”
“I suppose they could if anyone was looking, but why would someone be looking?”
Chay paused at the end of the hallway and waved his hand toward the living room, which was clean of bodies, but still totally trashed. Broken furniture was mixed in with patches of blood. There was even pillow fluff, and a dead pillow.
“Okay,” Gabriel said as he looked around. “I see your point.”
Chay nodded, his point made. “Is there any way you could find out if someone has looked at what you were working on?”
“Unfortunately, no. Not unless I go into work and request the access log.” Gabriel winced. “That’s probably not a wise idea.”
“Why not?”
