Kaz tensed as the built-in navigation directed him around another turn. “There’s his lab,” she whispered, gesturing to a squat brick building bordered on either side by small bungalows.
There was nothing to mark it as a lab, nor a home. The windows were blacked out and there were no signs besides the plain gray numbers fastened to the metal door.
They had debated letting Norman know that she was coming, but Kaz thought it was better for him to be surprised. He didn’t want to give the man any time to call for backup — or help.
Not that it would matter. An army couldn’t have stopped Kaz from snapping his neck.
“What are we going to do?” Atria demanded as he parked the car half a block down.
Reaching for his trusty bolt gun, which he normally kept under his seat when driving, Kaz briefly checked that the fuel cell was fully charged and connected before he answered, “We’re just gonna talk, princess.”
“Kaz, you have agunin your hands!”
“Sure do.” He checked the safety before he slid the gun under his jacket and into its holster on his left side. Turning in his seat, he found Atria staring at him with a pale face and wide eyes.
The compulsion to soothe was almost as strong as the pounding desire to eliminate the man his instincts knew was a threat. He was helpless not to cup her cheek, and it was an entirely animal impulse to draw her in close, where she could take in his scent and warmth.
He wasn’t the man anyone came to for comfort, but when he watched a little color return to her cheeks, he decided that maybe sometimes his mating instincts weren’t too far off the mark.
“Everything is going to be okay,” he rumbled, stroking her soft skin with his thumb. “You’re safe. We’re just going to go in and have a little chat with Mr. Chambers.”
“Doctor.”
It was by strength of will alone he didn’t lean forward to nip her nose. Instead, he gave the silky cushion of her bottom lip a tap with the pad of his thumb. “DoctorChambers.”
Her throat moved with a hard swallow, but she didn’t pull away. A low purr built in his chest.If there wasn’t a console between us, she would be in my lap already.
Conflicting instincts made him at once want to drag her closer and also stuff her in the trunk, where she’d be nice and safe while he took care of her ex-boyfriend. Further complicating factors was the piercing urgency that made him want to turn tail andrun.
The beast knew that if he got her somewhere safe and warm, she’d melt for him. It knew that he could defend her there, and that she’d get comfortable with him, her scent mingling with his, until the glorious day when she would invite him into her nest—
“I don’t want you to hurt him,” she whispered, breaking his hormone-induced train of thought before it could get out of control.
Kaz scowled. “I’ll only hurt him if he gives me a reason to.”
It wasn’t totallya lie. He did only hurt people with good reason. The bit he left out was that Norman had already given him plenty of reasons to wring his scrawny neck.
He wanted to bond with my mate,the beast howled.That is mine! He can’t have it!
Even if it turned out he didn’t need to beat the man into a pulp — an outcome he severely doubted — then he planned to at least make it crystal fucking clear who Atria would be bonding with when she was good and ready.
He didn’t know the first thing about being bonded to a witch. Though Margot and Theodore had an air-tight, super-powered bond, they didn’t often speak of it. Kaz had always gotten the sense that it was a deeply private thing.
Now he was certain of it.
Ifheheld Atria’s power in his body, ifhewas responsible for filtering it and passing it back to her, where it couldn’t damage her delicate cells, then he would be fucking possessive of it, too.
He already was.
Atria searched his expression for a moment, the skin between her brows wrinkling with confusion, before she slowly shook her head. “Okay. Let’s just— let’s get this over with.”
He gave the side of her neck a proprietary squeeze. “That’s my girl.”
Untangling herself from him, Atria unlatched her door and swung her legs out, muttering, “I amnotyour girl.”
You’re right,he thought, climbing out of the car.You’re my princess. Now I’ve just got to figure out how to be a fucking hero.
“Stay glued to my side,” he instructed. Years of training and experience snapped to the forefront of his mind as he scanned the steadily darkening street. “If I tell you to duck or run, you listen to me. Got it?”
