So, she’d admit it. She was sore.

The first time had hurt. The second time had been stupidity on her part. Her She Bear had eased the pain, loving the dominant moves of her mate, but her pussy was definitely out of action for a day or two until her advanced healing kicked into gear and she could walk without cringing.

It was so bad, and she felt like such a wimp, that she was letting Jarvis drive her baby. She could tell he was both horrified and impressed at how badly she was aching, and though he deserved for her to slap him for being impressed, he was just a man. And this situation was her fault—she could have left well alone after the Claiming. Could have toddled off to the shower. But no, she’d had to reaffirm what they had together by compounding the situation—making her already tender nether regions feel like they were on fire.

She shifted in her seat as the pressure of her weight settled right there.

“Stop fidgeting,” he said gruffly as he drove them through the city. “It’s making me horny.”

She snorted. “Well, you can use your fist. My pussy is AWOL.”

He cocked a brow at her and then shot her a wicked grin before returning his attention to the road. “Is that a challenge?”

“No, it fucking isn’t,” she snarled. “You’re too big. It’s your own fault. If you weren’t so huge, this wouldn’t be happening.”

He laughed. “You know how to compliment a man, baby.”

She grunted. “Only a man would find that a compliment. If I’m still walking funny tomorrow, I’m not leaving the apartment.”

He cleared his throat because he was a wise man. If he’d laughed, she’d stick her claws into his thigh. “Understandable.”

“Yeah. It is.” She gritted her teeth as they went over a bump in the road. “Fucking hell, what did you do to me?” Then, holding up a hand, she stated, “Don’t answer that. I don’t need to know.”

His hand came to rest on her knee as he expertly guided them through the busy afternoon traffic. Houston’s roads had been a nightmare when she’d left for Mississippi all those years ago, but now the cars on the roads had nearly trebled. Nightmare then was like ‘Day After Tomorrow’ bad now.

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to mock. I hate that you’re in pain.”

She pouted, but relented as he squeezed her leg comfortingly. “It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. I’ll make it up to you later.”

She sat up straight. “How?” she asked, ever curious.

He just grinned. “You’ll find out later, nosey.”

Huffing, she folded her arms across her chest and asked, “Since when did the MC have a subdivision?”

“Well, it’s more like an estate. It’s a private development. Justiss came to us with the idea years ago, and we’ve been developing the land ever since for the Bears with families, who need somewhere to live, they can build there.”

“So it’s like a neighborhood for Bears.”

He nodded. “Yeah. It’s quite cool if I do say so myself. I’m growing out of the clubhouse. It’s getting young with all the new prospects and it’s hard for me to deal with.”

“That’s because you’re a fuddy duddy,” she teased.

“Jeez. Mars used the exact same phrasing.” She snorted at his grumble. “I was thinking, after we’ve dealt with the social worker, do you want to have a drive around? You could see if there was a plot of land you liked. We could build there?”

“Can’t we stay at the apartment?” Her question wasn’t a whine, but it was important. The idea of living in a neighborhood surrounded by nosy fucking neighbors was abhorrent to her. Just the notion made her want to shudder in horror.

He shrugged. “For the moment, it’s fine. But when the cubs come, well need somewhere bigger than a one-bed apartment, babe. Surely you can see that?”

She grimaced. “Humans do it.”

“Yeah, but we’re not humans. Plus, it’s easier for me to shift. I have to shift often. The older we get, the more we need to.”

“Really?” She frowned, unsure if that had positive or negative connotations. “How come?”

He shrugged, and it was so dismissive she realized he wasn’t concerned about so she didn’t have to be either. “We don’t know. It keeps us calmer.”

“You might be calmer now the bond is in place,” she suggested.

“No. Mars is the longest mated among us and he still has to shift nearly every day. I think it’s a stress relief thing. I have to do it nearly every day as well.”

“Wow,” she whispered, kind of aghast by that. “My daddy used to shift once a week.”

“Was that by choice or circumstance? You lived in the middle of the city, right? And back then, there was no allotted space for Shifters to change.”

She grimaced. “I guess it was by necessity when you put it like that. But he was younger than you, so I mean maybe it wasn’t as imperative to him as it is for you.”

He shrugged. “Maybe. Still, you’ll be surprised at the estate. It’s not how you imagine.” He shot her a look. “I know what you’re thinking. The Clan version of Desperate Housewives.” He chuckled. “But it’s not like that. It’s a huge plot of land. We’re not overdeveloping it. We’ll buy more land before we do.”

“You’re talking prime real estate in this area for a large plot of land.”

He huffed. “It’s not like we can’t afford it, babe. The Clan is all that matters, don’t forget. The MC is just the front.”

“Is that why you use terms like prospects still? I know you’re not a proper MC anymore. You used to run drugs and weapons and shit, but not anymore, right?”

It was strange how that was so important to her.

Human laws meant nothing to Cinda, but at the same time she’d spent so long upholding them and writing about those who didn’t, that they’d kind of taken hold of her. Crafting exposes on the bastards who took advantage of their wealth or of their status had been her calling for so long that it would probably kill her if Jarvis said the illegal side of the MC was still up and running. As active as it had ever been.

But, he shook his head and handed her back her heart which had been thumping like mad in her throat.

“That’s one of the reasons why Martinez’s plan was always doomed to fail. We keep a low profile as an MC, but he’d never believe that we weren’t taking advantage of the legitimate businesses and using them to cover the illegal shit. When he tried to manipulate Spyder into transporting that package, that was his major stumbling block and he didn’t know it.

“We’ve not been running that kind of shit since…” He blew out a breath and thought back. A long way back if the way he was scowling was anything to go by. “Since Pip and Major got together. That has to be about twenty-six years now.”

“Wow, that’s a long time.”

“Didn’t Mundo tell you?” he asked, shooting her a confused look.

“He tells me shit about the MC. Even back in the day, he asked for Annette’s details not mine when we were working together on the paper.”

“He was trying to protect you.

“Keep me from the biggest scoops, you mean?” she grumbled but there was little heat to her words.

He laughed. “It’s probably a good job he didn’t involve you. Or, well, I guess it’s down to the Goddesses more than Mundo, babe. So you can blame them.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if Annette hadn’t met Mars, they’d never have mated. The human trafficking ring would still be ongoing. The MC would still be doing illegal runs. Maybe none of the cubs would even be around.” He shrugged. “The Goddesses work in mysterious ways.”

“Wow, I guess you’re right. I’ll stop blaming him then.”

“I dunno,” he teased. “There’s plenty of other shit you can blame him for.”

Her grin turned into chuckle. “Damn straight.”

“But, you were asking… yeah, we maintain the MC façade with the prospects and shit because it’s easier to look like an MC than a Clan.”

“You mean the locals still don’t realize it’s a Clan?”

He shook his head. “Not really. Some know. Hell, they’d have to be blind and deaf not to hear about the shit that goes down at the clubhouse but maintaining the MC façade is easier. It’s a clubhouse instead of a Clanhouse. We have a Prez instead of a Clan leader. You see what I mean?”

She nodded. “Makes sense. It’s a good cover.”

“Yeah. We’ve worked with it. Plus, by looking like an MC, albeit a clean one, we’ve created a little niche for ourselves. People think they’re rebelling by going to our bars and using our garages. It’s like they’re touching something illegal.”

She snorted. “People are fucking stupid.”

He laughed. “You don’t have to tell me.” He pointed out over the distance, where, in the middle of a plain, there was a large housing development. “That’s the estate.”

Her eyes widened. “It’s huge.”

“Yeah.”

“How the hell did you keep that land for so long? Dear Goddess, property developers must have been chomping at the bit to get a hold of a piece of that.”

“Yeah, they probably were, but Justiss owned it. I think he owned it a long time before Houston became the metropolis it is today.”

“So he bought it for like eighty dollars and ten cows, rather than the millions it has to be worth today.”

Laughter bellowed from him at the image of Justiss, the one brother who looked more like a stockbroker than a rider, trading in cows. “I don’t know. There might have been a cow involved, but I can neither confirm nor deny.”

She grinned. “It’s a beautiful plot. I’m surprised.”

“Yeah. I thought you’d like it.”

“Not enough to want to live there,” she warned.

“Not yet,” he teased. “I mean, we could always live in the clubhouse.”

When she wailed at that, he just chuckled.

Ten minutes later, they pulled into the estate’s gated community. Prospects manned the gate, and spying him behind the wheel, their brows shot up.

“Sir?”

“Hey, Henley, Todd.”

“A Porsche, sir?” Henley asked, gawking as he slid his hand over the bonnet.

“Never took you for a sports car fan, Henley,” Jarvis remarked.

The kid whistled. “I’m not. But for this beauty, I totally would convert.”

Todd nudged him in the side. “Traitor.”

Jarvis snorted. “It’s my mate’s. She’s brought me over to the dark side, as females often do.”

Cinda rolled her eyes at that but leaned over so she could wave at the two kids. The guys’s eyes widened at the sight of her, and Todd gulped.

“Ma’am,” they croaked out.

“Call me Cinda. Ma’am is my mom.”

“She’s Mundo’s sister,” Jarvis explained and saw the guys look at one another as though that explained everything.

Mundo had a bit of a reputation in the MC.

A bit translated to a mountain.

He turned to look at her, basked in her beauty, before his Bear growled at exactly why the prospects had been gawking. Her tits were on full out display in her low cut tee.

Oh, they were fully covered and perfectly decently so for the public, but not covered enough for his comfort.

He growled at her. “I need to look at your wardrobe.”

She frowned at him. “Shut up.”

As the two prospects snickered, he glowered at them. “Open the damn gates and call Justiss’s house. Tell him we’re on our way.”

Henley shook his head. “Toni told me to tell you you’re on Cypress Avenue. Number fifty-two.” There was a small shelter with a window so the prospects didn’t have to leave the booth when it was raining and cars pulled up. Henley headed in there and returned with a set of keys in his hand. “This is to get in.”

Jarvis nodded. “Great. Thanks.”

Henley pressed the button to let the gate up and Jarvis switched the Porsche into gear.

“Your tits are mine,” he said the minute they roared through the gate.

“Who said they weren’t?” she asked, her tone dismissive enough to piss off his Bear.

When the beast let off a low grumble, she shocked the hell out of him by grumbling back. And it wasn’t Cinda making the noise, but her She Bear.

Didn’t his Bear fucking love that?

His cock went harder than a pike quicker than it took him to round the bend and pull over.

Before he could help himself, he’d unfastened her seatbelt and had dragged her over onto his lap. His hands cupped her tits as his mouth claimed hers.

She’d struggled at first, jostling against him and his caveman-like behavior, but she settled into him the minute his lips were on hers.

The way she submitted was no way a display of weakness, and his Bear knew it and fucking loved it.

If he didn’t already know that this woman was made for him, specifically tailored to his needs just as he was for hers, he’d have realized it right at that damn moment.

She grabbed a hold of his hands atop her breasts, palpated his fingers until he was digging into the soft tissue with enough force to have her head tilting back as she began to rock her hips and rub her core against him.

Only trouble was, the minute she did that, she flinched.

“Fuck,” she said on a low groan. It seemed to take all she had, but she raised her head and pressed her forehead to his. As their breaths brushed one another’s mouths, she murmured, “I’m sorry, baby. I can’t. I’m too fucking sore.”

“My fault,” he stated grimly, the tone not aimed at her but at him. “I’m not looking after you right.”

She shook her head. “Don’t be crazy.” The breath she sucked down was shuddery. “Goddess, I need you right now.”

“Later, baby. Later. I’ll make you feel good, I promise.”

She shuddered. “You always keep your promises?”

“Every time.”

“Good,” she said on a long exhalation. “Now, what in the heck was that about?”

“They were gawping at your tits,” he retorted gruffly.

“So? They’re tits. They’re supposed to be gawped at.”

He snorted. “Your unique way of viewing the world always astonishes me.”

She winked. “Don’t you know it, baby.”

He rolled his eyes at her, then helped maneuver her back to the passenger seat. “Come on. Let’s get this shit done with. I’ll feel better once it’s over.”

“Don’t like lying to the government?”

He chuckled. “What do you think?”

She shot him a grin. “Then what’s the problem?”

“I don’t know. That kid’s life is riding on us.”

“Shit. Now you’re making me nervous.”

“Sorry.” He shot her an apologetic smile. “You just be your usual self. That should get us through.”

“Oh? Why?”

“The social worker who’s coming? It’s a guy.”

And though his Bear growled at the smug smile that suddenly appeared on her chops, as the beast knew she’d use her wiles on him as she’d done so effortlessly with the prospects back at the gatehouse, he knew they needed that today.

Savannah’s childhood was riding on this and he intended to do everything in his power to make sure that happened.

Even if it meant watching his mate flirt with another guy.

Dear Goddess, Savannah had no idea the sacrifice he was making for her.