Mate Claimed

“Agree to let me take care of that. Your idea of liaising is intimidation and fear. There’s an easier way.”

“No, there isn’t,” Graham said. “Terrify the humans, and they do what you want. Works like a dream.”

“In a place where Shifters outnumber humans, sure. Look around you.” Eric jerked his chin at the streets and buildings below them. “Humans everywhere. Trust me, subtlety works.”

“Yeah, look where subtlety’s got you. You didn’t argue with them very much in there, and you tried to shut me down when I did.”

“Because I don’t need humans knowing our business.” The more humans believed that the Collars controlled the Shifters, the better.

“I’m not crawling and hiding from humans,” Graham said.

“Keeping your hole shut about Shifter secrets is not the same as crawling and hiding. There’s too much at stake.”

Graham’s scowl would have sent most of the Shifters in Eric’s Shiftertown running for cover, but Eric met him stare for stare. Graham was going to be hard to tame.

Graham finally shrugged. “All right—I’ll keep my mouth shut around humans. Because I’m not talking to them anymore. You liaise, if that’s what you like. When you fail, tell me, and I’ll scare the shit out of them and get a few things done.”

With a final glare, Graham turned his back and walked away. If they’d been in animal form, Graham might have sprayed behind him or done something equally disgusting to show Eric his contempt.

Eric turned away himself, so that if Graham glanced behind him to see how Eric had taken the insult, he’d see nothing but Eric walking uncaringly toward his motorcycle.

He knew Graham wouldn’t look back, though. Eric unstrapped his helmet and heard Graham start up his own bike. Graham was dominant enough to know his gestures made the right implications, without having to double-check.

Eric waited until Graham had ridden out, watching the man drive through the streets toward Charleston and North Las Vegas, before he started his bike and departed the other direction, heading for Duncan Construction’s office on the west side of town.

Iona dropped her sandwich and jumped to her feet when she sensed Eric outside the door to the office. It was a terrific sandwich from a little deli down the street, and now it was a mess of roast beef, honey mustard, lettuce, and fresh bread all over her desk.

Eric walked in, bringing with him a wave of November chill, but Iona broke into a sweat.

He wore a short-sleeved black T-shirt under his leather jacket, one that showed the tatt sliding down his arm when he took off the jacket. He removed his sunglasses, giving her the full flash of his jade green eyes.

She’d tried to forget his tall, strong body over hers when he’d cornered her like prey in the canyons, or at least pretended to forget. Now with Eric in front of her, she shivered all the way down, the sensation of him stretched out on top of her as vivid as when it’d happened.

That had been in his territory. This was hers. Iona gathered up the mess of her sandwich, dropped it back on the paper it had come in, wrapped it up, and wiped her hands on paper napkins.

Eric let the door close behind him. Her office was a trailer on the site where they stored their equipment and supplies and sold building goods on the side. At least it was lunchtime—her mother and sister were off doing wedding shopping, the guys lunching wherever they liked to lunch.

Iona was relatively alone here, but…

“What the hell are you doing, Eric?” she said, making her voice not shake. “How is a Shifter coming openly to my office going to keep me safe?”

CHAPTER THREE

Eric gave her his stare, not smiling or saying hello, nothing a normal person would do. He showed up, sliding into her life again, and that was that.

His Collar glinted above the line of his T-shirt, proclaiming what he was—not human, a wild thing someone had tried to cage. His look said that, though humans might try for centuries, he’d never be tamed, though he might pretend he was for his own reasons.

He asked her, “Did Duncan Construction win the bid?”

No apologies, no embarrassment. Not even glee. Eric leaned against the desk and looked at her, and it was all Iona could do to not react. In any way.

“Yes,” she said.

Eric’s eyes softened the slightest bit. “Good girl.”

Why did that little morsel of praise warm her all over? “You couldn’t have called to ask me that? I know Shifters have phones. Or did you forget how to use yours? You push the numbers on the little buttons…”

“Cute.” Eric leaned toward her and brushed his fingertips over her chin.

She should jerk away, break the contact, but Iona couldn’t move. He was an alpha male, and she was…

She didn’t know. She’d avoided Shifters all her life, so Iona had no idea if she was dominant or submissive or what either of those really meant.

She knew only that when Eric looked at her, her thoughts shot back to the night they’d stood together behind the Forum Shops, and he’d fed her sweet chocolate with his fingers. She remembered every taste of that chocolate, every flavor passing her lips, and best of all, Eric’s mouth following it.

“I thought you wanted to protect me,” she said. “Coming openly to my office isn’t the way to do it.”

Eric straightened up, removing his mesmerizing touch. “No one’s here, and no one noticed me. I need to see the architect’s plans for the Shifter houses.”