“Now look at that. It looks as if he’s tamed his hellcat.” At Burkhart’s teasing comment, my chest feels as if it’s going to explode from happiness. My hellcat—yes, she’s mine, and if any fucker thinks that he’s going to touch or even look at her as that son of a bitch was doing earlier, they better think twice.

As I lift my head, I see a dazed look in her eyes as she opens them to look at me. Her lips are swollen from our kiss, and her breath is uneven. All I want to do is dip my head again and keep kissing her, but we have company, and soon, I will have to go. “I will be safe, Hellcat, especially now that I have found you. I will hurry back, and when I do, we can continue with what we just started.” I see her cheeks fill with colour when she realises that we were practically devouring each other in front of the others.

“Just be careful,” she says in her husky voice, her hands still clutching my T-shirt, her eyes vulnerable. My hellcat is all fire, but now she’s showing vulnerability that she hides from everyone. I am pleased that she is allowing me to see that side of her; something tells me that she doesn’t show this side of herself to many.

“I promise. Now let me up. I need to go,” I say, swatting her ass with my hand. I hear her breath catch and see her cheeks flush. Darn, my girl likes that. My cock that’s already straining to be released hardens even more. Fuck, I swear, if I don’t bury myself deep in her heat soon, my cock will never be the same again. As she rises, her hand lands on my hardness as she pushes herself up. I groan loudly at the feel of her hand touching me.

“Oh . . . Oh, I’m sorry.” Her cheeks are fiery red, but then a naughty smile spreads across her face. “Nice package,” she says in a sultry voice, and then starts to make her way inside. The imp. She’s not just a hellcat, but a tease too. Fuck, I can’t wait to get back. I’m going to bury myself so deep in her that she will never doubt who she belongs to.

“Hey, Ceric, you better hurry up. The guys will be leaving soon. I will be here thinking about you, though, while I enjoy my woman,” Brandr says with a straight face, but there’s a twinkle in his eye. I lift my hand, showing him the finger, while with the other, I adjust myself. I nearly groan again at the ache. Fuck, I’m going to have major blue balls.

“Make sure to keep your dick in your pants and your head in the game this time,” Burkhart teases with a grin. “No, wait. Maybe take your dick out of your pants. You might frighten them more with the poor weeping sod.” Burkhart and Brandr throw their heads back and roar with laughter. Aria giggles.

“I will start now.” I start to loosen the buttons to my jeans. “And then the one weeping will be Brandr, once Aria sees what she’s missing.”

“Wishful thinking, Brother. My girl knows what I can do with mine,” Brandr quips. “It leaves her with a smile every time.”

“Brandr!” Aria gasps, slapping his hand with embarrassment, but she has a loving smile on her face as she looks up at her man. We are still all laughing as we make our way into the garage; I see Draco, Cassius, and Celmund are already on their bikes. I walk towards the hidden panel that is now open and take out my weapons of choice.

Strapping them on, I ready myself in case of a fight. Now that I have a mate, I can’t take any chances. If anything happens to me, she will be lost, and I will never let that happen if I can help it. I’m nearly at my bike when Wulf walks in, a scowl on his face. I see that Jasmine’s not with him. That’s a first; usually when he goes out, she always comes out to say goodbye to all of us.

“You okay, Brother?” Draco asks.

 “She’s fucking upset Jasmine,” Wulf growls. “If she ever comes near me again, I don’t care about the fucking consequences. She’s history.” His amethyst eyes blaze in anger as he mounts his bike.

We all know no one messes with Jasmine; Wulf is overprotective of that woman. Before, I thought it was overkill on his part, but now that I have Nova, I understand where he comes from. All I want is to keep my woman happy. If anyone dares to upset her, I know that I will more than likely also react the same way Wulf is reacting.

I can’t stand the thought of anyone being depressed or sad. I know it’s a flaw on my part the way I let it affect me, but after what happened to my mother, I can’t let that shit happen to anyone else. I was only a teenager when she died, but the pain I felt has never left me.

My father died when I was only fourteen. In Elemental years, that’s extremely young. I tried to make up for his death by doing everything in my power to please my mother. My mother was a happy and caring woman before my father died. Once he died, she became a shell of herself. She lost all her will to live. Her sadness was so raw that anyone close to her could feel her desperation and anguish.

I tried everything I could think of to make her happy again, but it was as if I wasn’t even there. She stopped eating and communicating, and eventually she stopped living. Four months after my father’s death, I left her for an hour to come back and find my mother dead. She was lying in the bath with her wrists slit, her life’s blood in the water of her bath.

She left a note that I still have safely preserved away. I noticed she was crying when she wrote the note, as there were smudges in the ink. She apologised for what she was about to do, that she loved me dearly but couldn’t carry on without my father. She thanked me for being the wonderful son I was, and that I should carry on being the light in everyone’s lives as I was in hers.

My heart is in agony as it always is when I think of the beautiful woman my mother was and how the death of my father turned her into a shadow of herself. I never want that to happen to Nova, but I know that as bonded mates, this is normal. When one dies, the other soon follows, as they can’t live with the emptiness they feel in their souls.

I come out of my morbid thoughts as we start to slow. Looking around, I see that we have arrived in the area where the bar is situated. “Celmund, you and Ceric ride around the area, feel the energy levels, see if you can find anything,” Draco suggests into our earpieces. “Cassius, go up to where Bion and Caelius are. Let them know what we’re looking for. Wulf and I are going into the bar. I want you and Bion as backup in case we find trouble.”

We take off riding slowly as we try to capture anything we may have missed before. It’s difficult to feel any change in the normal energy of the earth, as the energy in the city has been disrupted to such an extent that we can never get a good reading. “I’m going to go on foot,” I call to Celmund. He looks over at me from where he’s riding and nods. We both pull up and park around the corner from where the bar is located. We start strolling down the street we parked on, slowly scanning every nuance that may have occurred, any energy disruption that we might feel, but there is nothing. As we reach the end of the block, we turn right and start to walk behind where the bar and the stores next to the bar are.

We are two stores in when I feel a spike in energy below my feet. Looking over at Celmund, I see he felt it too. “There are still three stores until we reach the bar. Do you think they have all the underground space from these stores, or maybe it’s a tunnel leading somewhere?” Celmund states as he taps away at his phone.

“Fuck, whatever it is, it’s a big area.” We continue scouting out the area until we’re back at our bikes. We make our way to where we stake out the bar, waiting for the others, only to find that they all arrived, plus some guy who is tied up and gagged.

“What’s up?” I ask as I look at the Keres on the floor. I can see blood trickling from his lip and a cut above his eye.

“We found this asshole coming out of the bar just as we were about to enter. Thought we would try to get info from him before making our presence known. As expected, he’s being stubborn, so we are thinking that maybe we can get Hellcat to persuade him to tell us what he knows. What do you think?” Draco asks as he leans against the wall, looking out the window that faces the bar.

I don’t want Nova anywhere near danger, but maybe we can take him with us. “Let’s take him to the warehouse. I will go get my hellcat and meet you there.” Draco looks at me for a second and then nods in agreement.

“Let’s go. I want to get this done as soon as possible. Cassius, you and Celmund take the SUV that Bion and Caelius brought. They will ride your bikes back when they are done here. Ceric, go get your woman.” I’m already moving towards the door before Draco even finishes.

When I arrive at the compound, I find our four women, Orion, Brandr, and Brielle, who seems to still be around—apparently Draco wants to make sure she’s safe before letting her go—walking out of the wooded area. They all seem happy as they walk towards me. Gabriela’s holding a bunch of flowers. Nova has a red flower in her hair that instantly makes me harden. Shit, my dick is out of control. The idea of stroking her body with that flower is messing with my mind.

“Hey, Brother, what’s up?” Brandr asks cautiously.

“I’m just here to pick up Hellcat,” I say. “We’re in need of your talents.” I see her eyes widen at my words, and then she stiffens, a smirk lighting up her face.

“I didn’t hear a please. Did any of you hear a please?” she asks, looking around at everyone with a raised eyebrow as she places a hand on her hip.

“Must say I didn’t hear anything,” Brandr joins in with a shit-faced smile. Asshole loves to see Nova give me grief.

I exhale loudly. “Hellcat, will you please move your ass? We’re on a deadline here.”

“Wow, isn’t he just so polite? I really got myself a winner, apparently,” she says sarcastically as she saunters towards me. At her words, my heart races. It seems as if she’s coming around to having me as her mate.

“Just get your ass on the bike. I will be as nice as you want later,” I state gruffly. I hear her huff as she mounts behind me. She places her hands on my waist, holding on lightly. Damn woman really likes to push my buttons. I grab her jean-clad legs and pull her tight against my back, and then I take hold of her hands and place them around my waist. “This is how we will always ride,” I grumble as I start the bike.

“Yes, boss,” she quips sarcastically.

“I’m glad you know it,” I tease as I ride towards the garage to grab a helmet for her before we make our way to the warehouse. The ride there is torture as I feel her sweet breasts against my back, her hands around my waist, bumping against the top of my erection every time we go through a bump. I feel my cock weeping with readiness. All I want to do is pull over, bend her over my bike, and take her hard and fast.

The only reason I don’t is because I want our first time to be perfect; I don’t want her to think of it as a quick rutting.