“See that you stay that way,” Marco warned.
Rafe swallowed hard and forced himself to pick up his spoon and keep eating. He didn’t think Adri had realised there was a potential mating bond between them yet. Cats could be pretty slow on the uptake that way. It wouldn’t take long for him to notice if Rafe carried on the way he was, though, and he didn’t want to scare the younger man off.
“All I had was rumour. No proof. And I figured your manager would tell you anything you need to know. I’m not there for the pack. I’m there for my fighters,” Adri said, his green eyes flicking between them.
“Does Viviana know?” Marco asked.
Viviana was the wolf shifter Marco had put in charge when the Lunettis took over the ring at Rafe’s request after the last time he’d had to patch Adri up over a decade earlier. She was as loyal as they came, but she was also an alpha, so her first instinct would be to handle things herself.
Adri shrugged. “No clue. It’s not the kind of thing the fighters would bring up with her. It would put a target on their back. Make it seem like they were angling to leave.”
“If you hear anything more, you text me. Immediately,” Marco ordered.
Adri stared at Marco, holding his gaze longer than any wolf would have. Damn cats and their independent streaks. If his mate pissed his Alpha off, things were going to get super awkward.
“Sure. Why not?” Adri said finally, before focussing on his food.
Marco exchanged a look with Rafe, one eyebrow raised and a smirk on his face. Rafe just shook his head. His Alpha had been telling him to lock Adri down for years, but it wasn’t that simple. The jaguar had an independent streak a mile wide. When he’d ignored Adri’s wishes and arranged for Marco to take over the fighting ring he’d been indentured to, it had soured Adri to whatever was between them. Adri thought Rafe had a saviour complex. That he wanted to fix everything in his life. He wasn’t wrong.
This time together was Rafe’s chance to try to show the jaguar shifter that this need he had to care for his mate didn’t mean he respected Adri any less or that he wanted to control him. Especially now his mate was in his thirties—not a young man anymore, but still some forty-five years Rafe’s junior. Their hook-up when Adri was only twenty had been hot as hell, but even if Adri had wanted something more at the time, Rafe wouldn’t have bonded with him so young. Had he left it too long now and missed his chance?
Adri’s voice interrupted his spiralling thoughts. “I could go check out the unsanctioned ring if you want. I’m sure I can get one of the guys to give me the details.”
“No! Absolutely not!” Rafe snapped before Marco could answer.
What was Adri thinking? He might be too out of it to realise, but Rafe was still channelling healing magic into him in a constant stream to manage the pain of his healing limb. Rafe had cancelled all his nonessential appointments, his energy levels running on empty as he poured everything into keeping his mate comfortable. And now Adri wanted to go undercover in an unsanctioned ring that might be run by anti-supernatural terrorists who were experimenting on their fighters?
If he thought he’d seen Adri angry before, it was nothing compared to the snarl his mate turned on him now. The draw on Rafe’s pain-blocker grew as Adri twisted in his seat to bare sharpened fangs at him, his eyes flashing a brighter green and his pupils turning to vertical slits as his jaguar came forward.
“Fuck you, Doc. I’m out,” he hissed, pushing to his feet and stalking for the stairs.
“Wait. You can’t go. I can’t hold the healing on you if you leave the building.”
Rafe’s heart raced in panic as he watched Adri walk away.
“I can do whatever the fuck I want,” Adri snapped.
Wincing to himself, Rafe stopped all the power he’d been channelling into his mate, feeling like a total asshole. It would’ve cut off when Adri left the clinic and outside his range anyway, though, and it was far better that happened here in the safety of his home than outside, where Adri would be vulnerable.
Adri yelped as pain seared through him, and Rafe crossed the room in a blur of motion to catch him as his legs gave out, reinstating the pain-blocker as he sank to the floor, cradling Adri in his arms. The effort it took to restart feeding Adri his healing energy meant he couldn’t keep his feet, either.
Marco huffed, and his legs appeared in Rafe’s peripheral vision. “You’re both a mess,” he said, lifting Adri into his arms and carrying him to the bedroom.
Rafe rolled onto his hands and knees with a groan before staggering to his feet and shuffling after them. His Alpha was gentle as he deposited Adri on the sheets.
“Give the doc a break andrest,” Marco told the jaguar. “Andyou,” he added, turning to Rafe. “Stop draining yourself dry. He’s a fighter. He can handle a little pain.”
Rafe ignored him and moved to pull the blankets up over his mate.
Adri reached out to grip his wrist with his good hand, his words slurring with fatigue from the shock to his system. “Stop treating me like I’m fragile.”
“Then keep your ass in bed until you’re not,” Rafe grumbled, using his healing power to nudge the jaguar into sleep before shepherding Marco from the room so he could turn off the lights.
“He’s going to run again if you keep that up,” Marco warned as Rafe walked him out.
“He’s going to run regardless. Wolves run faster and longer. I’ll catch him.”
CHAPTER 3: ADRI
