Page 20 of Bad Blood Panther

Chapter 9

All too soon, breakfast was over. Jenny tried to make it last by helping with the cleanup, but Flynn was not letting her get away with that.

“You two,” he said, pointing at Jenny and Xander. “Upstairs in my office.”

Here it comes, Jenny thought, her mouth getting dry all over again. Just the thought of facing down a dominant like Flynn and trying to tell her story without giving away all her secrets was making her feel nauseous.

He makes pancakes, she reminded herself. He cares about Xander. So he can’t be that bad, right?

Scary, said her panther.

Yeah. She’d been such an idiot. Why hadn’t she realized, when she came here, that in a crew this small she’d be dealing directly with the alpha? She’d imagined she’d be dealing with Xander, and then he’d talk to the alpha for her.

Xander didn’t look scared, though. And the rest of the crew didn’t seem scared of Flynn either.

Yeah, but they’re crazy.

Flynn’s office turned out to be the front part of the loft, and consisted of a large and extremely messy desk, a filing cabinet, a liquor cabinet, and a few chairs. The back portion of the loft was separated from the office by a tinted glass wall, which gave the bedroom behind it a spectacular view out the windows set into the peak of the roof.

If Jenny hadn’t been so nervous, she would have swooned with envy. Apparently, Flynn did keep a few alpha perks for himself.

He waved them to the chairs, while he leaned against the loft railing, his arms crossed and his ginormous muscles bulging.

God. He could break her in half without even trying.

He fixed his eyes on Jenny. They were so dark they were almost black, like his hair, and they contained an almost terrifying intelligence.

“So,” he began. “Hit me with it. What kind of trouble are you in, and why the fuck did you decide to bring it here?”

His dominance pressed down on her like a boulder. She tried to remember the story she’d rehearsed, but all she managed to force out of her throat was an embarrassing noise that sounded like, “Eep?”

“Yeesh, Flynn, you’re scaring her,” Xander said. “Cut it out. She’s shy.”

“Fuck,” Flynn said, moving his gaze to Xander. “Well, tell her I don’t bite.”

Once he stopped looking directly at her, the dominance boulder felt like it lifted a little.

“You do bite,” Xander said. Jenny choked back another eep sound. He added, “Try dialing down the dominance, would you? I can barely breathe, and I think Jenny’s on the edge of asphyxiation over there.”

The pressure on her chest dissipated. Flynn muttered something about his crew hooking up with scared little bunnies who’d never been away from their clans before.

“Fine,” he said. “See? I’m nothing but a friendly pussycat.”

Pussycat, my ass. But at least she could breathe again. And think.

“So,” Flynn said. “Did you two get this mate shit figured out?”

What? They’d only been awake for, like, two hours. They hadn’t even talked yet. How were they supposed to have it figured out?

Xander lounged back in his chair, playing with the stapler from Flynn’s desk. “I brought her a dead glitter rabbit,” he said. “Does that count?”

Flynn rolled his eyes. “Of course you did.”

“Hey,” Xander said. “Don’t make fun. Her panther ate some. In pantherland, it means she thinks I’m fuckable.” He opened the stapler and squeezed it, shooting a staple across the desk.

Jenny felt herself go beet-red. How could he talk that way about what happened this morning?

“Shit, Xander, you’re embarrassing her,” Flynn said.