Rafe smirked as he leaned in to greet his friend’s wife. She had a wicked sense of humour, so the chances Adri would end up with sparkly bubble-gum-pink, or worse, gloves and head protection were high. It’s not like he had his own gear to use. Shifters didn’t bother for obvious reasons.
“Ah! The guest of honour has arrived!” a voice called.
Rafe and Adri turned as one to face the new arrival. Rafe wrapped a protective arm around Adri’s waist, angling himself so the mayor approaching with a wide smile would have to go through him to get to his mate. Adri huffed an annoyed breath against his throat but let him get away with it as they both worked to act casual while greeting one of the men they suspected had been hiding terrorists beneath their very feet.
It seemed unlikely the mayor wasn’t involved if the tunnel system was part of the Council’s arrangement with the few humans who were aware of supernaturals in the city. They needed proof before they could act on something that would destabilise the peace of the city so massively, though. There was always the chance the mayor was another victim who’d been forced to dance to the D-2S’s tune.
Nothing about the calculated look the mayor gave them as he took in Rafe’s protective stance suggested he was concerned for his safety. He was in full mayoral regalia for the evening, his gold chains of office hanging large and gaudy around his neck.
“It’s good to see you, Stewart,” Rafe said, reaching out to shake the mayor’s hand and squeezing just a little too hard for a human as he purposefully avoided using his title.
“Always a pleasure, Doc. Where’s your boss hiding this evening?”
Rafe reached up to give his mate’s nape a calming squeeze as Adri responded with a low growl to the mayor’s words. They were innocuous enough if they’d been human, but Stewart had enough experience in their world to know the suggestion that an Alpha was hiding from him was skirting the lines of politeness.
“I think the better question is where you’ve been hiding? Orwhat?” Adri said.
Rafe’s smirk grew wider. It wasn’t the most subtle approach, but there was something to be said for testing the mayor’s reaction to this kind of question. Stewart had been in politics long enough that his face remained relaxed as he pretended to laugh at the question, but Rafe heard the slight increase in his heart rate and saw the tension in his muscles as the human resisted his fight-or-flight response to being questioned by two predators. It wasn’t conclusive, but Rafe was pretty sure he was hiding something. Luca had turned as much of his attention to the mayor and chief of police as he could afford to divert from the D-2S, so it was only a matter of time before they’d have a lead.
“Thank you so much for the donation from your office, Your Worship,” Katie said, cutting through the weird tension betweenthem with practised diplomacy. “Maybe we’ll get you into the ring next year?”
Stewart laughed again. “I’m too old to be bouncing around, throwing punches. I’ll leave that to the young things who don’t know any better,” he replied, his eyes flicking back to Adri.
Marco stepped up next to Rafe as he stared down the mayor, trying to decide if the hidden insult to his mate in his words was worth responding to.
“We both know the young don’t have a monopoly on ill-advised activities that might lead them to an early grave,” Marco said, baring too-sharp fangs in a smile as he reached out to shake the mayor’s hand in greeting.
Tension coiled inside him as Marco held on a second too long, refusing to relinquish Stewart’s hand until the mayor broke eye contact. The delicate balance of the city felt poised on the precipice, threatening to fall at any moment.
Adri leaned in close as they moved away to let the two men face off. “You good here? I need to go help prepare the fighters backstage.”
Rafe smiled at the hint of disgust in his mate’s voice. Adri hadn’t whispered a word of complaint about helping Katie out with the night when she’d asked, but babysitting inexperienced human fighters for a fundraiser definitely wasn’t his idea of a good time.
“You’re the best, kitten. I’ll make it up to you later tonight,” Rafe murmured back, letting the room fade from his awareness for a second as he sank into the constant heat between them.
“You better,” Adri said, pressing a brief kiss to his lips before pulling away.
Rafe reached out to grasp his nape before he could leave, tugging him back in for a deeper kiss that had them both breathing harder. Unable to resist the temptation of the bruise he’d been refreshing every day on Adri’s neck, Rafe leaned in to mouth at it, sucking hard and biting down, all but gnawing at his mate as he used his power to make the deep impressions of his teeth remain long after his mate walked away.
“Doc,” Adri moaned in complaint. “You’re going to make me…”
Drawing on a bit more of his power, Rafe pulled back and smiled at Adri as he used it to stop the blood trying to fill out his mate’s cock as he responded to Rafe’s attention.
Adri’s moan turned into a whine of complaint, and Rafe raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t want to cross the room like that, did you?”
Adri huffed. “Do you haveanyidea how much worse that’s making my frustration?”
“You’re so beautiful like this. Aching for me to control your pleasure.”
Rafe patted his chest soothingly, sliding his hand under Adri’s tux jacket that he’d left open and letting his fingers brush over his mate’s hard nipples through his shirt. Adri tipped his head back to stare at the ceiling, tension in every line of his body, but he didn’t tell him to stop.
“Have you had enough fun now? I need to go get ready.”
When Rafe finally released Adri, he couldn’t tear his eyes from his mate’s body as he moved smoothly through the ballroom toward the backstage area where the fighters were gathering.Blinking as he came back to himself, Rafe realised Stewart had left while he was distracted.
“You’ve got it bad, Doc,” Marco teased.
“I assure you it is very, very good.”
