Page 61 of Titan’s Mate

Mari! Growling, Titan lunged for the closet door. Just as he entered the room, two armed men smashed through the bedroom windows, shattering them. At the same time, Jaeda burst through the bedroom door, firing her weapon.

One of the panther soldiers fired, hitting Jaeda full in the chest. She hit the floor. Titan gave a roar, pulling his weapon and rounding on them.

But in the moments he’d been distracted by Jaeda getting hit, a third man had come through the window and dragged Mari off the bed.

It was Raines’s old second-in-command, Jax. And he was holding a knife to Mari’s throat.

Chapter 27

That panther fucker was dead. Pure and simple. Titan snarled at him, feeling Bear pushing to the surface.

Jax said, “It’s the shaman, right? Jumbo?”

“Titan,” he said. “And you’re dead.” The other soldiers immediately trained their weapons on him.

“Now, now,” Jax said. “Let’s not be hasty. We can work this out.”

“Oh, we can,” Titan said. “Either let her go, or my crew will kill you where you stand.”

Behind him, Jaeda took in air in a great gasp. Her vest had stopped the bullet, but he knew she felt like she’d been kicked in the chest by a mule.

“I don’t think so.” There was still gunfire coming from outside. “My boys have your people pinned down. And they’re good shots—they’re bound to get one or two. Unless I ask them to stand down.”

Jax checked out the room, as if looking for someone else. “I’m disappointed—I was looking forward to seeing my old friend Ray, but he doesn’t seem to be here.” Ray Danvers was the alias Brandon had used when he first came to town and went after Raines and his rogues. “You didn’t kill him already and take his crew, did you?”

He’d meet Brandon soon enough. Titan had heard Jaeda whispering into the comms, calling in the rest of the crew.

“Shut up and let go of my mate.” She was his, and if Jax didn’t stop touching her, he’d regret it for the approximately two minutes Titan would allow him to live.

“Yes,” Jax drawled. “Your little roly-poly defenseless mate.” He gave a dramatic sigh. “I guess Fierro’s not really important, because you’re the one I need. And you’re going to get me exactly what I want, or I’ll kill her.”

“Then tell me what the fuck that is. I’m losing patience.”

“I want the treasure we got from your clan. Raines never shared it, and I know it’s still here, in the bottom of that closet. I lost two guys trying to get it out, but I knew you could get to it with your weird-ass white bear mojo. I just never figured it would take you so damn long to come and try.”

Titan felt the old fury burn through him. “You stole that treasure from my clan. It’s mine.”

Jax’s face contorted in a snarl, and Mari stood very still.

“You think I care?” Jax said. “You and Fierro’s damn crew took everything from us! Then you set the Shifter Council on us, so we can’t even claim an official territory. We have women. Cubs. How would you feel if your cubs were starving?”

Titan would have almost felt sorry for him, except he’d said ‘the treasure we got.’ He’d been there, in the raid on Titan’s village. His voice shook with rage. “How would you feel if they were dead? Like my clan? What about those women? What about their cubs?”

Jax said, “I was against that. I tried to stop Raines. But once he had the artifact, he compelled us.”

Titan didn’t know if he should believe him or not. It didn’t matter. “You. Killed. My. People. And now you’re threatening my mate, and you expect anything from me?”

“I do what I have to do,” Jax said. “And so will you. You found the treasure vault, didn’t you.”

“Yes.”

“And you can break the spell on it.”

“Yes.”

“Then do it. Give us the treasure, and I’ll give you your girl back unharmed.”

The treasure didn’t matter, but he’d promised Mari he’d get that artifact. He’d promised her choices. He wasn’t going to let her down now. “I need one thing out of it. You can have everything else. Gold, artifacts, I don’t care.”