CHAPTER TWENTY
“I can’t believe we’re sleeping again.” Rune snarled.
I sighed in contentment, fluffing my pillow under my head. “Double shift, remember? And we have to be up early for the planning thing.”
“I hate and love that you’re responsible.” The black panther huffed. “I couldn’t even see you after I got off work.”
“Does it make you feel weird that I work more than you do?”
“I certainly don’t like it,” he mumbled. “I want more dates with you. I enjoyed our time together today. But you’ll be a princess soon, and all of this will be behind us.”
I turned inside his hold, placing our noses mere inches apart. “I liked spending time with you today too.” I touched my nose to his and brushed it back and forth twice.
He hummed deep in his throat. “This is nice too. I think we’re getting the hang of it—except for the sex part. We need to be doing that a lot more.”
I snickered. “Your mind is always in the gutter.”
“I told you I liked pussy the first day we met.”
“You’ll get mine soon, stud. I don’t like this any more than you do.”
The black panther huffed again. But it was a satisfied noise.
Just as I was dipping into sleep, Rune asked hesitantly, “How attached to this apartment are you?”
“It’s mine,” I replied through my haze of sleep. “I like having something that’s mine.”
He hummed. “What if you could keep it and move into a bigger place?”
I peeked open one eye. “Are you asking me to move in with you?”
“And if I was?”
I closed my eye again, while my forehead wrinkled. “That’s a little fast, isn’t it?”
“My home is on a much more secure property. You’d be safe there.”
I yawned and opened my eyes. I stared into a golden gaze. “Would it make you feel better?”
“Honestly?”
“Of course.”
He rushed to say, “It makes my skin itch thinking of you here alone. I am a possessive male with everything that is mine, and it’s hard to control the environment here. My men are having issues with a few of the tenants. They won’t leave so my men can stay here—even after a hefty bribe. It’s taking all of my self-control not to throw you over my shoulder and get you the fuck out to the safety of my home.”
My eyes had gradually widened with each word he’d said. “Whoa.”
His chest heaved. “You asked, beautiful.”
Eventually, the shock of his tirade wore off, and my brows puckered. “You’re really that worried about me here? Truly?”
“Yes. Other than the fact Mr. Valentine is a kill-happy motherfucker, I am one of the most powerful men in this world. You may be immortal, but if you were kidnapped and tortured, it wouldn’t be pleasant. Healing over and over again while someone hurt you.”
“Do you just want to lock me up in your house or something?” I questioned cautiously.
“I’m not that bad. But when you’re sleeping, it’s best to be protected.”
My face scrunched in anxiety. “This is getting complicated.”
Rune kissed my forehead. “It always is.”
After a second, I muttered, “It is pretty stupid staying here, isn’t it?”
“It’s not stupid. Not exactly. It’s merely unwise.”
“Same thing.”
He grunted, not commenting.
I rubbed at my forehead, so weary. “Should we leave now?”
“We’ll be okay tonight. There’s about of twenty of my men roaming the place. And I’m here with you.” He pressed his forehead to mine, and grumbled, “And if you don’t want to live with me, then I’ll buy another place that’s just as secure.”
My black brows rose. “That’s generous.”
“I’m hoping you pick to live with me, though.”
I rubbed my nose against his again. “I’d like sleeping next to you every night. I don’t mind it so much.”
In the silence, he pressed his lush lips to mine. Chaste and sweet.
“One more,” I whispered.
He obliged, his lips caressing my mouth softly.
I smiled against his lips. “Yeah, I could get used to that.”
* * *
I held a palm up, shading my face from the sun. “I should have brought my sunglasses.”
Rune stopped in his tracks, the bustling citizens of New City walking all around us. He tilted his black head of hair to the side, peering into the distance, and asked in a quiet tone, “Alex, do you have a pair of sunglasses on you my mate can use?”
I squinted in the direction he was staring at, but I didn’t see anything abnormal. “Talking to yourself there, stud?”
Rune turned his regard to my eyes, his lips quirking. “No. Just wait a second.”
I waited and wrapped my arms around one of his. It was pretty chilly this morning. I’d have to get a better jacket. “What are we waiting for?”
A man stepped in front us. Tall, muscular, and handsome. He was holding a pair of sunglasses in his right hand, his clothes casual and discreet.
“Thank you, Alex.” Rune took the sunglasses from him. “Charge it to my account.”
“It’s not a problem. They were cheap anyway.” Alex turned his eyes in my direction and dipped his head. “Ma’am.”
Before I could even thank him myself, he turned and jogged away.
I sputtered, “Uh, that was sweet.”
“My men like you.” Rune placed the sunglasses on my face. They were too big, but they blocked the glaring rays of the sun. “They think you’re funny. Apparently, you handle drunks really well.”
“It comes with the job.” I shrugged and started strolling down the busy street again, linked arm and arm with him. We were receiving quite a few looks as people around us recognized Rune. “I see why you have all the security now. You can’t even decide to walk to work and enjoy the fresh air without people rubbernecking.”
He snorted. “You haven’t seen anything yet. The closer we get to King Corporation, it gets a hundred times worse. We have security all around our buildings to keep the real crazies away.”
I shook my head and snickered. “I’m surprised you don’t have women rushing up to see you.”
He peered away, finding something in the distance vastly interesting.
“Holy fuck.” I glanced all around us, studying each woman who walked by. “Does it happen often?”
Carefully, he murmured, “It happens occasionally. Someone I’ve been with before or someone who wants to take a ride on the Rune merry-go-round.”
I eyed one woman ogling. “Well, at least all the women you’ve been with will be dead in less than eighty years.”
He threw his head back and laughed with such joy, and even more people stared. Rune leaned down and kissed the top of my head. “You have the right mindset to your new life.”
“Rune! Rune!” A busty woman waved her arm high in the air. My shifter’s arm tensed around mine. The woman darted between pedestrians, bee lining right for us. “I thought that was you.”
We stopped walking, and I asked under my breath, “Do you want to talk to her?”
“Fuck no. She’s a clinger. She does this about once a week.”
The woman stopped directly in front of us, her ample bosom heaving. “I think you gave me the wrong number. Anytime I call it doesn’t—”
I punched my fist out right at her throat.
She stumbled back, clawing at her neck and choking for oxygen.
“He’s taken. Don’t bother him again.” I leaned forward, glaring daggers into her watering eyes. “And tell anyone else that wants him to fuck off too. Or they’ll get the same treatment. Got it?”
She tried to talk, but nothing came out except wheezing.
“Nod if you understand.”
Instant nodding.
“Great talk.” I patted her shoulder as we walked around her and continued on our way.
Ten steps later, Rune sputtered in contained mirth, “That’s one way to handle it.”
I shrugged, pressing more against him. “Sometimes people have to learn the hard way.”
“Like a crushed esophagus?” He snickered.
“I controlled the punch. It wasn’t bad enough for mortal harm.”
“Where did you learn to fight?”
“The better question is, where didn’t I learn to fight. My father is all kinds of nasty, but he made sure I was taught certain skills. He didn’t want his asset—me—being taken away from him because I couldn’t defend myself. He told me many times my training was a long-term investment.”
Rune shook his head, his jaw clenching. “The more I hear you talk about him, the longer I want to draw out the kill.”
“Make it as long as you want, stud. I don’t mind.” At all.
He snorted, shaking his head. “You’ve never asked about my parents.”
My lips pinched. “You haven’t brought them up yet. Not really. All you said was you had a fucked up family. I don’t pry in shit like that.”
“It wasn’t…pleasant. A curse brought my mom to my dad. She’s completely fucked up in the head from the darkness that lives inside her. I don’t know why she hasn’t begged Cass yet for mercy. He’d give all the cursed mates their death without a second thought.”
“It’s that bad with them?”
“It’s that bad,” he replied smoothly. “My friends and I didn’t have the perfect upbringing you might think. We had screwed up families. We lived through the last war. All we truly had was each other to rely upon.”
I squeezed his arm. “You’re incredible.”
The darkness that had befallen him disappeared and he smirked down at me. “You think?”
“I know.” My brows rose. “Do you want to know how I know?”
“Enlighten me.”
“Because my childhood sucked like yours did. And I’m incredible—which means you’re incredible.”
Rune’s grin spread to his eyes, making his golden gaze sparkle under the sun. “Beautiful, tough, and brilliant. I may have gotten lucky in the mate arena.”
“Luck is for pussies.”
He gurgled on a laugh. “Did you just call me a pussy?”
“Well, since you like them so much… You know what they say, don’t you?”
“I can’t wait to hear it.”
I winked. “You are what you eat.”
* * *
Rune jerked me to a stop and pointed at the building. “This is where we’re going.”
“The Corporate Army headquarters?” I asked in surprise.
He nodded. “That would be it.”
“But why are we going here?”
“Because this is how I’m going to take your father down.” His gaze was patient.
I brushed a stray strand of my hair off my forehead. “They’re going to help you take his businesses?”
“In a manner of speaking.” His smile was gentle, a bit sheepish. “I did lie to you that one day. I needed you to believe the story and had to be convincing. I don’t actually want his businesses for myself. My friends and I are trying to keep New City clean and safe. Your father’s businesses are not that. I’m going to use the help of the CA to take those businesses out on a single night—so there’s no way for him to jump ship and move anything anywhere else. The attack needs to be coordinated and precise. The CA can handle that.”
My jaw hung open. “I’m not mad about you lying.”
Rune’s chest lowered tremendously as he heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank you for saying that. I was kind of worried you’d be pissed at me.”
I stomped hard on his foot. A feral grin lifted my lips.
“Goddammit!” He hopped around on one foot, staring at me with wide eyes. “What the hell was that for?”
“Of course, I’m mad at you! I thought I already knew the whole story.” I aimed a sharp finger at his face, having to lift and lower my arm with each hop he took. “Don’t you lie to me again, Rune Mason.”
He limped on his foot, grimacing with each step toward me. “That fucking stings. I forgot what it’s like to not heal immediately.”
A little guilt filtered into my gut. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have done it so hard.”
He grunted. “Well, I learned my lesson. Don’t lie to the mate. She gets testy.”
I nodded once and then stared down my nose at him.
He muttered, “What?”
“I apologized for your foot. You should apologize in return for lying.”
“I already did that the day I got out of jail,” he grumbled.
“Rune…”
“Jesus Christ. I’m sorry. Fine?”
The man really didn’t like apologizing to people.
“Thank you.” I surveyed the sidewalk and the front of the CA headquarters. “We’re drawing a crowd. We should probably go inside.”
Rune limped ahead of me. “Come on then.”
I dashed to keep up with his long legs quickly taking him up the stairs. “I didn’t break it, did I?”
“If I said yes, you’d feel pretty shitty, huh?” His gaze flicked to me out of the corner of his eye.
My cheeks flamed with color, my adrenaline spiking. “I would feel pretty damn awful.”
“Well, you…didn’t.” Then he stopped hobbling and walked with a fluid swagger. “Gotcha.”
“You asshole!” I snickered in appreciation for the tactic he used.
“You deserved it. You know you did.” He opened the front door for me. “Are you ready to plan your father’s demise?”
“More than you’ll ever understand.” I hopped inside the building and smiled at him over my shoulder as I wiggled my eyebrows. “Do I get to go on the hunt tonight? I love fresh blood.”
He grabbed my hand as we walked to the check-in point, black uniformed soldiers rimming the lobby. “I thought you’d ask that. Poppy decided she wanted to dip her toe back into work. I offered for her to go tonight too. You two could look out for one another.”
My nose crinkled. “Babysitting duty?”
Rune shook his head slowly. “I think Poppy needs an outlet. She’ll be out for blood too.”
“Oh, well, hell yes!” I wiggled my shoulders comically as we finished the few steps to the security checkpoint. “I’m gonna kill some bad guys.”
Rune was staring at my chest. “Do that shake again.”
I snorted. “You need to get laid.”
With his nostrils flared, he glared. “Very funny.”