Shifters on Fire: A BBW Shifter Romance Boxed Set (47 page)

Chapter Eleven

Winifred

“The eggs!” I pulled from Quentin’s delightful strokes. The man had way too much control over my body. With a simple touch, I became starved for more. There was no controlling my absolute desire to keep going, to return to the bedroom and let him do so much more. When his teeth scraped my skin, it was a tease. I wanted so much more but didn’t understand why. I had never liked the idea of such rough play in the bedroom before. But for him to bite me? A warmth filled me from head to toe just thinking about it.

The eggs had burnt to a crisp and couldn’t be saved. We decided to make batter for pancakes. It was sweet that he had tried to make breakfast for me, but he had no idea what he was doing in the kitchen. It was endearing to watch him try though.

When I whisked the batter, some of the batter splashed onto his expensive shirt. Quentin growled, just a manly sort of sound, but it spiked something inside me. I wanted to hear it again.

I flicked the whisk so more batter flew at him. Stifling a smile, I turned back to what I had been doing. “Winifred.”

“Hmm…”

“You did that on purpose.”

I fluttered my lashes at him. “Who, me? I would never.”

“Winifred.”

“Quentin.” I placed my hand on my hip. I had mocked his tone. His head dipped down a little, his lips pressed tight.

I still held of bowl pancake batter. When his lip lifted in a mock snarl, I threw the batter in his face with a small “eep.”

His back straightened, batter dripping from his hair. He blinked. I swallowed hard.

My feet took off while my brain still tried to catch up.

“Winifred,” he roared.

Laughter bubbled from my gut and I made it outside and halfway around the house before I heard his feet crashing on the ground behind me. I quickly ran out of breath between my laughter and my running. And he continued to chase.

An urge to keep going, to make him catch me was too much to ignore. We had arrived at night and the darkness had shadowed the beautiful scenery around us. The trees grew high up into the sky, the ground green and covered in plant life.

I slipped around the house, pressing my back against the cabin trying to catch my breath. Peeking around the corner, I jumped.

Quentin stood there with drying pancake batter in his hair and on his face like wet freckles. He breathed hard and I couldn’t tell what he had been thinking. Gathering my courage, I moved forward.

I wiped away one of his pancake-freckles and brought the finger to my mouth. His eyes never left mine but his hands fisted tightly and his nostrils flared. My stomach bottomed out in an excited, wonderful way. My hands shook a little with the adrenaline pouring into my body.

My mate had caught me.

Why did that excite me so much?

I didn’t care why. But what was he going to do now?

Moving too fast for me to follow, Quentin hoisted me over his shoulder. I huffed and slapped his butt to try to get him to let me down, but he responded with a slap of his own. My muscles clenched as desire flooded me. Well, that was new.

Quentin took me to the bathroom and undressed me. Next he turned the water on and undressed himself. I had ruined his shirt with my playfulness and I regretted my decision. It was obvious that clothes were important to him. I pressed my hand over his heart and I looked up at him.

“I’m sorry.”

He cocked his head a little. “About what?”

“Ruining your shirt.”

“Don’t be. It’s just a shirt.”

Once Quentin freed himself from his clothes, he helped me step over the lip of the bath and followed me in. He positioned me under the warm spray and pulled out a washcloth and soap.

“Do you mind if I wash you?”

That did funny things to my heart. My stomach tightened. I nodded. He was unbelievably gentle as he brought the soapy washcloth over my body. His arousal was apparent, but he did nothing about it, just focused on cleaning every inch of my oversensitive skin. Once he finished with me, I did my best to switch us around. He had to help and I followed his lead. Watching the pancake batter run off his hair made my lips twitch again. I had wanted to be playful with him. He hadn’t seemed to hate the idea of chasing me, not with his actions once he caught me. He always seemed too uptight. I wanted to loosen him up a bit.

Roaming my hands over his wet body excited me all over again. This was different. For once, I could take care of him. I made sure to pay close attention to his face, wiping away every last pancake-batter freckle. Once we finished rinsing, he helped me out of the shower. I had never been so openly naked with a man before. I had always been worried if they saw too much they would run. He did the opposite.

Quentin patted me dry, and I returned the favor. We dressed each other without saying anything. His hand brushed against my breast, and I bit back a moan. My stomach grazed his alert member. I wore my tight, black jeans and an old rock band T-shirt. He dressed in well-made, fitted jeans, and another crisp white button-up. Covering up his body should be a crime.

The shirt pulled tight over his broad shoulders and curved over his toned biceps. My hands followed the line of his collarbone to his shoulders and down his arms. He let me touch, never moving. I peeked back up at him.

My head swam with questions. A big part of me, one that felt like it wanted to take over, wanted him to claim me. I didn’t understand what it meant but I wanted to be his. Really be his. A distant call in the back of my head agreed. My animal. Wherever she hid in my mind wanted it, too.

“I still have a lot of questions.”

“We will have time when I get back. I’d rather answer them now, but I have to eliminate the threat against you. Can you feel your animal at all?” Quentin asked.

“In a sense.”

“I can feel my tiger, ruling me, demanding me to avenge you. To ensure your safety. I can’t rest until I do. You will understand when she comes out.” He trailed his finger from the base of my ear to the edge of my jaw. My stomach flipped, my eyelids becoming heavy.

“I promise we will finish this when I return, Winifred.”

A few minutes later I heard the front door shut and the lock click behind him. Icy fear crawled up my spine. I tried to shake the feeling but it persisted. I think I was in greater danger here without him than in the city.

Chapter Twelve

Quentin

The ride back to the city was depressingly silent. I kept looking over the passenger seat. I had missed her terrible sing-alongs with the radio. I scoffed at the idea. Me, miss something? It was laughable. The things I desired had always been superficial. It was what I knew. Now I missed something no amount of money could buy.

Checking the rearview mirror for the tenth time since pulling away, as if I could see the cabin I left behind, and I shook my head. I wasn’t some desperate male who pined after the idea of finding their mate. I had been planning on mating a woman of breed. And now I found myself becoming attached to a latent, without even knowing her animal. I shook my head.

I had a job to do.

This wasn’t just a revenge mission. These shifters couldn’t be allowed to steal our own kind and sell them. It went against the laws we had in place. It was the worst sort of betrayal. I had done some bad things in my life, despicable things, but I would never sell one of our own as a prize. There were too many different ways we could be used. For sport, for a zoo, for slaves. No, that was a line that should never be crossed.

It took more than a couple of hours to get back into the city and, when I did arrive, I took the scenic route back to my penthouse. I had no idea the status of the investigation or whether these men knew who they were dealing with yet. I had been on radio silence since going out to the cabin with Winifred. We couldn’t risk being tracked by any electronic devices. It also meant I wouldn’t be able to contact Winifred.

I arrived at my penthouse and grabbed my phone. The place was undisturbed, but then again I hadn’t thought it would be. The building provided excellent security, and my door had a dead bolt, along with a regular lock, I had a security pad, and a camera set up on the outside.

The others had called me paranoid. Anyone who knew about us would never come after our stuff, but I refused to believe we were untouchable. The three of us had made a name for ourselves as a team. As a package deal, we had been
very
expensive. Not many people had the money to spend on all of us, but when we teamed up, there was very little we couldn’t accomplish.

I had met Dominic years before when the idiot had gotten himself into a position he couldn’t escape. At the time, I had been taking simple, business mercenary jobs. I would go into a business and destroy it from the inside out. That routine had been considerably less bloody than alternatives and kept the buyers’ hands pretty clean. Most of the times they could sweep in and pick up the scraps left over when the business fell, which meant they could grow their business even more.

Dominic had been hired to assassinate a top ranking business CEO. He had been my target as well, a rare hit contract for me, but I moved too slowly for my contractor so he hired Dominic as well. Dominic had been trapped inside the building and lost control over his shift. I helped him out of the building without asking any questions. He told me he owed me one for saving his ass, but he wasn’t too happy about it.

I called on him a year later when I was working another case, this time with the help of Lucas. Lucas did a mixture of mercenary jobs: assassinations, kidnappings, business corruptions. He and Dominic hit it off straightaway. They fought like an old married couple, and I think for the first time in Dominic’s life he actually had a friend. That job had gone sour and a rivalry business had called in their own reinforcements. That day we three mercenaries lived up to our name. We fought for the right price, but backed out when the price went too steep.

I grabbed my phone and searched my contacts. I didn’t have many, and I tapped Lucas’s alias. It rang about four times before I hung up and tried his other number. That one rang twice before he finally answered.

“What?”

“Hello to you, too.”

“Seriously, now—” He cut off for a second, swearing. When he returned he was out of breath. “Not a great time. I followed your little—Mazy! Get your ass back here!” Lucas berated her, his curses muffled. Probably had his hand covering the speaker. “Anyway, I followed your little chérie’s descriptions and tidbits to this hole down in the old factory district. Looks like they are planning an auction in a couple of days.”

“And what exactly are you doing now?”

“Having a bit of fun.”

“Good. Now stop having fun and meet me at my penthouse so we can plan.” I hung up. A couple of days. My skin itched. Something wasn’t sitting right with me.

Lucas arrived over an hour later without Mazy. He had a healing black eye. I raised a brow, Lucas moved like water when he fought, fluid and fast. Rarely did he ever come home with a scratch on him.

“Don’t ever take your female to a fight,” he said. I hadn’t planned on it, ever. For the next couple of hours, he told me all he could about the auction. We could only enter the auction with a ticket and they weren’t cheap. Unfortunately, they were also almost impossible to obtain. The location wouldn’t be given until an hour before the event. I didn’t question how he got the information. On top of being a skilled fighter, Lucas excelled in torture. Subtle, lethal torture. He never told Dominic and me where he learned it, but we all had hidden pasts we didn’t speak about.

I’d never told them my darkest secret. One I hoped Winifred would never find out. I would do everything in my power to make sure she never knew. My first job as a business mercenary had been a bloody one that left a dark-red stain on my past.

“We need a list of the people who bought invites. Or a name…”

“Done.”

Lucas had taken a seat at the island in my apartment and I stood on the other side. He should have shared such vital information first.

“Then let’s get the bastard and get our ticket.”

“There is something you need to know.” Lucas squirmed in his seat and refused to look me in the eye, another first for him. “Did Winnie tell you about her ex at all?”

I clutched the edge of the counter. Either my grip would break the marble or the marble would break me. The deep-seated anger I felt at thinking of the man who would have laid his hands on my mate flared. A murderous hunger filled me. Lucas eyed my arms and hands where the veins started to bulge from my skin.

“I see she did.”

“She mentioned him, yes.” My tiger pressed forward. Wanting that vital information about the man he would slaughter. I couldn’t argue with him on that one. He had full rein for that kill.

“Mazy told me a little more about him. You’re not going to like this. His name is Terrance McCullen.” A rumble rattled my chest. The McCullens were a widely known wolf pack with members on the council. “I guess Mazy got Winnie drunk enough Winnie confessed he had been very controlling and she had to go underground in order to escape him. It’s been almost a year. I checked up on him—”

“When did you do all this?”

“Yesterday. You might not want her, but Winnie is your mate. And you’re family, making her family. I watch out for my family.”

Yes, he did. Family meant a great deal to Lucas.

“Anyway, I checked up on McCullen, and he is in town. Here. Guess the name I got from the invitee list…”

“Terrance.”

“Yup.” He popped the P.

“We need to find him and kill him.” I didn’t know if I spoke to Lucas anymore or my tiger who stood up and paced. His tail twitched irritably.

That unsettled feeling crawled over my skin again. I reached for my phone. I wanted to call Winifred. She needed to be warned. But she was safe. I knew she was safe out there. No reason to add any more stress or fear to her already-full plate. I would dispose of her ex and disband the criminal group, and make sure nothing harmed her again.