Becca froze with her beer halfway to her lips. She put the glass down and the wiped her mouth on a napkin. “Cubs, you misogynistic mutt! Leopards have cubs.” Her gaze flicked to her watch. “Only two hours in and you show your true colors. Wow. I should be grateful you got to it so quickly. At least now, I’ve only wasted part of my afternoon instead of the whole day.”

She pushed her chair back, the shudder spilling her beer across the wrought iron table, splashing his feet and legs.

“Jesus! Becca!”

“Thank you for lunch and the illuminating conversation, Jaylon. Looks like you won’t need to reschedule your meeting after all.”

She unhooked her purse from the side of her seat and stormed out.

“Becca! Wait!” Jaylon’s chair fell backwards as he rushed after her, grabbing her by the arm as she rounded the path toward the exit.

A low growl left her throat as she tried to jerk her arm free. “I’ll probably end up in jail, but you’ll crawl back to your pack with your tail between your legs and my claw marks across your face if you don’t let go of me, right now!”

“Becca, please. This whole Alpha thing is a sore subject. Your instincts were right. I am new to the game. The transfer of power just happened and it’s the reason I’m in the city today. I’m not a misogynist. I love women. All kinds of women.”

She raised an eyebrow. “A prolific hound dog and modest, too. You are so not helping yourself, mutt.”

“Argh! I didn’t mean that the way it sounded either!” His eyes sought hers.

“You’ve got two seconds to let go of my arm or I claw the smug right off your muzzle.”

He let go. “I am not smug.”

Becca stared him down but didn’t turn on her heel like he thought.

“You play the suave, silver-tongued devil when it suits you, but the moment the conversation turns remotely substantive you clam up and then suddenly can’t express yourself?” She turned it back on him. “Sorry, not buying it.”

“I can express myself. Come back to the table and I’ll tell you whatever it is you want to know.” He gestured toward the patio.

“I can’t.” She glanced at her watch. “It’s late and I still have to meet my friend and then head back to Penn Station. There’s no commuter rail with multiple time tables home. It’s Amtrak, so if I miss my train, I’m stuck.”

“Give me a chance to make this up to you. I’m really not a shallow Neanderthal. I’ll even get you a hotel room for the night. Only spend the rest of the evening with me.” He moved to tug her back toward the table.

“People are watching, Jaylon.”

“As well they should. You have no idea how sexy you look all angry and fierce.”

She followed him back to the table. The wait staff had cleaned up her spilled beer and replaced it with a fresh one. Becca pulled out her chair and sat, but kept her purse on her shoulder.

“I’ve had women pissed at me before, but I’ve never had one threaten to disfigure me. It’s scary and intoxicating, as I’m guessing you are by nature.” He exhaled with a tentative chuckle.

“You’ve never met a leopard before,” she shot back.

“True. I’m glad you’re my first.”

“Try again, lover boy. I want talk, not flirting.”

“So, if I told you how your scent is driving me crazy, you’d claw me with one hand instead of two, right?” He tried humor again, and this time she smirked. “Well, not quite a smile, but it’ll do.”

“Talk, Jaylon.”

He explained what happened as best he could, giving her the Reader’s Digest version, but he purposely left out his upcoming meeting with the matchmaker.

“They want to make you a role model for your pack? Why are you having a hard time with that? Most Alphas are the ultimate mentors for their kin.”

He grinned. “Did you actually use the word kin?”

Annoyed heat tickled her cheeks. “So? It fits.”

He shrugged, chuckling. “Yeah, but it’s so—”

“Mountain man?” she cut in.

Jaylon’s grin went ear-to-ear. “I was thinking hillbilly, but that works, too.”

“Leopards aren’t just lowland forest animals. My Leap was originally from the mountains, but had to migrate because feuds were killing too many of our males.”

He burst out laughing. “You make it sound like the shifter version of the Hatfields and the McCoys.”

Frowning, she took a deep drink from her beer. “Yuck it up, puppy. Keep poking fun and you’ll be paying for a night at the Plaza before the night is out.”

Jaylon reached across the small round table and lifted her free hand to his lips. “Worth every cent. And I wasn’t lying earlier. Your scent is branded on me now. I can’t get enough of it or you, Becca. I don’t know what happened when you crashed into me, but life as I know it is over.”

Becca slipped her hand from his and pulled it back across the table. “I don’t know, Jaylon. Too much, too soon. I have obligations as well. Obligations I can’t really get into.”

In that moment, she was unreadable and Jaylon’s wolf howled. He needed more time.

“I need to make a quick phone call.” Jaylon got up from his chair. “I’ll be right back.”

He walked toward the restaurant’s interior, his hand already reaching for his phone.

“C’mon, c’mon. Pick up,” he mumbled as the line rang.

“Jaylon Ross. I hope you have a good reason for keeping an old lady waiting in a coffee shop for an hour.”

“I apologize, Mrs. Wilder. It couldn’t be helped.”

“Is that so?”

“Look, I know I reached out for help with my situation, but I managed to work things out on my own.”

“I see.”

His eyes narrowed at her quiet reply. “Do you?”

The older woman chuckled on the other end of the phone. “More than you know. When something good happens to stumble into your arms, you have to go with your gut.”

“It’s funny you should use that expression.”

“Which expression?” she questioned.

He chuckled. “Stumble into your arms.”

“Hmmm, yes,” Gerri replied. “Escalators, like one’s love life, can be tricky to navigate.”

Slack-jawed, Jaylon blinked, not knowing how to respond, but the line went dead before he got the chance and he stood beside the interior bar, stunned.

Was the old woman psychic or was she spying on him? Or was Becca the one he was supposed to meet all along? Jaylon wished he’d paid more attention to what his father told him.

Composing himself, he watched Becca through the dining room windows. She picked up a steak fry and licked the salt from its crispy underside. The innocent gesture was so unconsciously erotic, his cock jerked in response.

The sight of her pink tongue and how it curled around the golden french fry left him groaning at the thought of that same full mouth on his hard length.

His inner wolf growled, pacing in its inner cage, fighting with him to drag her beneath the nearest tree and take her.

A wash of predatory images took him again and he had to suck in a slow, steadying breath, the word MINE bouncing off his brain. Nothing and nobody had ever made him feel like this before, and if fate played the way he wanted, no one else ever would.

Becca would be his.