“Because if we cut through the politics, I might actually be able to help your boss’s partner.”
Shawn grunted, shook his head.“I tell you what.Let’s go to Pride House, let’s talk to the right people, and after, if I don’t think they’ve told you enough, I’ll give you my take.”
Bailey gritted his teeth, but Shawn didn’t wait for him to start with the rebuking.He just turned away from the distasteful scene ahead of him; something that looked like it belonged in a goddamn movie, and headed up to the Pride’s governmental seat.
He wasn’t about to fuck this up too much.
Sure, he wanted answers, but he was playing to a whole other different set of rules.
And El’s situation was so precarious, there was no way he was about to make this any fucking worse.
Chapter 4
Ryan grunted as he took a seat in his office.He’d have been better off sitting behind his desk, would have presented a far better image to the cops who were bound to come and ask him questions.But sitting upright was beyond him at that moment.
Even though the shift healed, it didn’t take the pain away.
He was in no fear for his life, but his body and his nerve endings didn’t know that.He literally felt like death warmed up.
Leaning at an awkward angle against the sofa in his study, the place where Trip usually worked, he lifted his legs to lay as flat out as his length would allow on the too-short sofa.
Trip had gone upstairs—half-carried by Adam and Marc who had gone with him.He’d been bitching with each step, but if Ryan felt as fucked as he did, then Trip had to be in absolute agony.
Wincing in sympathy, he blinked open his eyes when he heard a rumbling sound.
He’d thought he was alone, had thought El had gone with Marc, Adam and Trip, but she hadn’t.
She was so fucking neat.
Panthers were like that, though.
Maybe it was because she was black and looked sleek as fuck, but she was as proud as a Sphinx—and it didn’t escape him that a Panther had no business being sphinxlike.
He grunted, then held out his arm for her to come to him.
She’d been seated a foot away, obviously watching him and unsure of his or her next move.
At his beckoning hand, she padded forward, her steps silent as she approached.He kept his gaze on hers, aware that she needed the contact, and murmured, “It’s okay, baby.I’m fine.”
He knew she’d scent the lie, knew she’d even scent his pain.
But that was okay.She wouldn’t scent his fear because he wasn’t scared, and she’d probably taste his rage; but again, that was good.
El was too new to being a Shifter to understand what the fuck was going on.The basics, which were taught from the moment they were born, were new to her.
The emotions she could suddenly taste and smell were going to bewilder her, and fear was the one most likely to trigger a response in her.
The others would probably confuse her, but not cause her to be scared, too.
When his fingers brushed the silky fur atop her head, then moved down to scratch under her chin, she nuzzled closer, not stopping until her side was pressed against him.
He wasn’t sure what made him say it, what made him do it even—whether it was because she couldn’t talk back or not—but he murmured, “I love you, El.”
She stiffened at his side, but when she didn’t shift back, he reckoned it wasn’t that much of a trauma to hear those words so soon.
Still, he figured he’d better explain.
“You’re my mate.I always knew love would grow, and things have been so complicated, I guess I shouldn’t even be feeling this way yet.But, when that damn blast lifted me off my feet, all I could think of was you.
