Adri twisted back to face Rafe, barely noticing as the jackals booked it.
Mate?
Rearing back onto his hind legs, he placed both front paws on Rafe’s chest, his surprise emerging in the saw-like call rumbling from his lungs. The noise turned to a purr, and his eyes slipped closed as Rafe reached out to grasp his ruff again, his other hand scratching behind one of his ears. That shouldn’t feel so good.
“Caught that little slip, did you? Come inside, kitten,” Rafe said, laughing when his attempt to back up just had Adri walkingon his hind legs to stay pressed in close. “I’m tired, and you’re heavy, sweetheart.”
Reluctantly, Adri dropped back down to all fours, twining his way around Rafe’s legs as he moved them back into the clinic and locked the door behind them. The move was somewhat hampered by his head being level with Rafe’s waist when he was standing, but he made it work.
His nose wrinkled in distaste as he passed the threshold of the building. The smell of death permeated the space—charcoaled cougar. Rafe must’ve been staying up late to examine the body. The sickly scent was enough to send Adri shifting back to his human form, where his nose wasn’t quite so sensitive. Rising from a crouch, reality crashed into him like a brick thrown through a window as human sensitivities took over from jaguar instinct.
Rafe passed him a pair of clean sweats from the wicker basket in the corner without comment, sensing his change in mood.
“I need to call Luca about the missing shifters,” Rafe said. “He’s been looking into things for me, and I’m sure this has something to do with the experimentation we think the D-2S has been undertaking. My patients here at the clinic tend to be vulnerable, with no pack or family to look out for them. They’re the perfect targets.”
Adri could hear the rage and pain hidden in those words. It was enough to distract him from that word echoing on repeat in his brain—mate. “If not here, they would have found them somewhere else. You didn’t fail them.”
“I didn’t save them either. But I will.”
Adri huffed a breath in annoyance. Rafe already had dark circles under his eyes and was moving more slowly than usual. He needed to stop trying to save everyone else and look afterhimselffor a moment. His doc needed a fucking minder. He didn’t like that Rafe hadn’t noticed the threat from the jackals until Adri jumped them, either. Or that they’d suggested others would be coming. Where was Rafe’s security?
“Call Luca and then you’re going to bed, where you should’ve been already,” Adri growled.
Rafe looked up from his phone, mouth twitching up in a smile. “Is that right, kitten? How are you going to enforce that?”
“I’ll drag you there myself.” And then he’d keep watch over his doc as bodyguard, because the guy clearly wasn’t capable of doing it.
It didn’t mean they were in a relationship or anything. Adri just owed him. And he couldn’t stand the thought of anything happening to the doc. No one else would take care of Rafe as well as he could.
Rafe’s smile stretched even wider. “You know, the best way to make sure I stay in bed is to stay there with me.”
Adri rolled his eyes. “Call the damn hacker,” he said, moving to the clinic’s kitchenette so he could grab one of the energy bars and a bottle of iced coffee that Rafe kept on hand for when he was busy. “And eat something,” he added, pushing Rafe gently into a seat and placing the food in front of him.
“Why are you so reckless with your safety? You should’ve had Marco on those jackals the first time they broke in,” Adri said once Rafe had finished updating Luca on what he was looking for.
Rafe stood and stretched his back, twisting and reaching in a way that distracted Adri enough that he had to take a moment to calm himself before following him when he headed upstairs to the apartment.
“They’re just vulnerable kids doing their best to survive in a dangerous city. You, of all people, should understand.”
“They’re adults, and I’m more than a fucking trauma backstory.”
Rafe spun to face him as they entered the apartment, backing him up against the nearest wall and cupping his jaw in a firm grip. “I meant you understand what it’s like to be the one standing between a young person and a life they shouldn’t have to live, kitten. You do the same thing every day with those fighters coming through your gym.”
“Oh,” Adri said, eyes flicking down.
“And they’re not adults by shifter standards. They’re only in their twenties. Still too young to know better.”
Adri pulled away from Rafe’s touch, glaring at him. “Is that why you wouldn’t go further when we first met? I wasn’t achild. I’d dealt with more than most in twenty years. I was plenty old enough to know better.”
“I didn’t go further because I wasn’t going to settle for anything less thaneverything. Old enough to blow me in a gym isn’t the same as old enough to commit to forever. Forever is a really long time.”
“Oh, are we admitting that now? The thing you didn’t mention for the lastthirteen years?”
“You asked me to stay away from you, so I did. I’ll always do what you ask. Just like I’ll always come when you call.”
“Because of this … potential … between us?”
“Because you’re my mate.”
