Leaning forward, I crooked a finger at him, and he trotted right over. “I have an idea.”
“Care to share with the class?” he asked, a spark finally lighting up his eyes.
“Anticipation is half the fun,” I said with a smirk, “now get your workout gear on and I’ll meet you in the gym.”
“The gym?” he rasped, clearly having had other ideas of what we could do.
I laughed and pressed my hand against his chest, all but walking him out of the bathroom, dripping water as I went. When I closed the door on him, there was a thud on the other side. As if he’d dropped his head against it. “No fair, mate,” he called out, sounding pained.
With a laugh, I returned to the shower, grabbing up my bodywash to quickly clean myself. There were tons of bathrooms in this house, and somehow all of them ended up stocked with my favorite items, from hair products to period needs. There were even makeup essentials scattered in their drawers. I could essentially use any bathroom in the house and find what I needed to start my day.
I had no idea who was responsible, and while my first guess would be Hunter, it could be any of them. Though I knew for sure Talon was the one who planted hairbrushes ineveryroom of the house. It had been too long since he’d brushed my hair, and my beast wasn’t the only one uneasy with the twins so far away from us.
After my shower, I smothered cream on my back, using the mirrorto make sure I covered it all. I got dressed in Slade’s wardrobe—my clothes were in every room too—and was soon ready to find Kellan. Training with our resident weapons expert was exactly what I needed after that unsettling dream. Preparation was the only way to counter this feeling of vulnerability in the face of magic.
On my way out of the room, I passed Slade’s row of computers, one of which was running his search. Scanning the data, I noted that it hadn’t found anything else of significance, and was about to turn away when a minimized file caught my eye.Fletcher’s research.
Clicking on it, it opened in what was a blur until I forced my eyes to focus. I had to read slowly, since it wasn’t in the font or background color that helped me keep letters straight.
The file appeared to be a summary of Fletcher’s notes, focusing mostly on creating and breaking pack bonds. My breath caught at the thought of ever losing one of my bonds. I’d literally have to be dying before I’d break our quintet, or more accurately, one of them would have to be dying.
In Slade’s concise dot points, the entire process of breaking a bond was surprisingly simple. The difficulty came from needing magic and permission of the center or entitled alpha, since they were the ones who held strong ties to all the other members of the quintet.
I wondered if that was why Jewels and Fletcher hadn’t just broken my bonds to Hunter and Kellan, even when it interfered with their Talon plans. They couldn’t without my permission.
Of course, under the righttorturouscircumstances, I imagined a shifter would agree to just about anything to make it end.
Not wanting to know more, I shut the folder down, my gut churning in distaste. Needing to fill my mind with happier thoughts, I backtracked to Slade’s stalker wall and ripped the curtains open. Googly eyes bounced back at me, and I felt the slightest, unhinged chuckle creep up my throat as I stared at them. He’d left the eyes, and more than that, he’d added some shelves beside his security monitors, where all the glow-in-the-dark dragons from his room were perched.
Staring down at me.
I loved that he’d kept the items from my pranks. I was still working out plans for prank number three. Most of my ideas would require help from all the pack, but there was no point until we destroyed Jewels. Not a single alpha would mess with the cameras for even a second while we were in danger.
As I turned away, a pinned sheet of paper caught my eye. Mostly as it hadn’t been there the last time I’d stared at the stalker wall. The writing was small and boxy, and I couldn’t read it clearly until I got closer. As soon as the words made sense, I started to curse under my breath.
Slade had pinned a list of names, addresses, and social security numbers.
All of them human men.
Thismotherfuckerhad done exactly what he’d promised and tracked down the few guys I’d had sex with. Goddess give me strength. Marching over to his desk, I found a black marker in the drawers, the same shade as what he’d used to ink his murder-list in the first place.
When I returned to the curtain, I unpinned the paper and pressed it against the wall to scribble a huge black line through each name. Underneath I wrote, in my messy, childish scrawl,NO touching! Don’t push me on this one, Slade Riverson.
After I pinned the defaced paper back to his wall, I left the room feeling much more positive.
In the gym, I found Kellan absolutely whaling on the boxing bag. For all of his lightheartedness, there was a coiled lethality around him when he fought. In this state, no one could miss the deadly weapon buried beneath his golden complexion and easy-going smile.
As I closed in on him, it took real effort not to drool over the sweat dripping down his perfect abs, not to mention those delicious veins popping out of his forearms. Kellan shot me a smirk as he grabbed the swinging bag. “See something you like, pretty mate?”
“I see a lot I like actually.”
He growled and released the bag to prowl up to me. His scent was potent, and I almost swooned like a damsel.
“You have no idea how badly I want to fuck you against the wall,” he rumbled, his wolf flashing in his eyes until they blazed violet. “Bury myself in your tight pussy. I dream about it, mate. I dream about you. Every. Damn. Night.”
My thighs clenched against the pulse that thudded like a drumbeat between them, but I refused to be seduced by his dirty mouth and smoldering stare. “Let’s fight first,” I said, struggling to breathe through the intensity oozing between us. “If you beat me, you get to claim me.”
Kellan’s scent deepened, and he palmed his dick with a groan. “Baby, fuck, you’re speaking my love language now. Add in some praise and I’m going to be a puddle at your feet.”
