Claiming His Mate(17)

“I’ll tell you how. Her pridemates—”

“My pridemates didn’t do anything, you liar.” Lauren growled low in her throat and Max could feel her trying to control her temper.

Max squeezed her shoulder and nodded at Charlie and Sapphire. “I want you two to stand guard out here, but give me a second.” Without waiting for a response, he shut the door so he could have some privacy with Lauren.

The second it closed, she whirled on him. “I didn’t do anything. I’ve been with you the whole time.”

“I know.” He didn’t doubt that for a second. But her pride was a different story. “Is it possible one of your pridemates did this?”

She blinked, her dark eyes stunned and…hurt. The sight of that sliced through him. “Are you seriously asking me that?”

“I have to look at every angle.” And he hated that he did.

“I told you they’ve left the area. I’ve talked to my cousins about this—twice—and they would never betray me. Not when I’m basically in enemy territory.”

“Enemy territory?” he growled, not liking the sound of that. He didn’t care if wolves and jaguars were technically enemies—or that Lauren was technically Max’s prisoner. He wasn’t her enemy.

“You know what I mean!”

Yeah, he knew. Still, it was possible someone had acted rashly. Max didn’t know her pridemates.

As if she read his train of thought, she glared. “They would never take them. Not when it would be leaving me to fend for myself.” Her gaze completely shuttered then. “Go look at the crime scene. Just don’t expect me to be in your bed when you get back. I’ll be in the guest room, as your prisoner.” At that, she turned on her heel and strode down the hall with her head held high.

Max wanted to go after her, to iron all this out, but he didn’t have time. If those two idiots hadn’t left the house unguarded he could, but right now he needed to make sure nothing else of value was taken from their pack and to catch the scent trail before it went cold.

Letting out a savage curse, he followed after her, but only to throw clothes on. True to her word, she headed to the guestroom and shut the door behind her. He heard the lock click before he stalked to his bedroom and quickly dressed. Even though he wanted to stay and talk with her, he didn’t have the luxury of time. Forcing his expression to remain blank, he opened the front door and slammed it shut behind him. Okay, the slam was childish, he just didn’t care. “Let’s go,” he ordered, not waiting to see if they followed.

Right now he should be balls deep inside the sexiest woman he’d ever met. Not dealing with the incompetence of two of his packmates. He was seriously counting down the days until Grant returned from his honeymoon. Sometimes being second-in-command sucked.





Chapter 6





Max stood in the middle of Grant’s office, visually scanning the nearly undisturbed room while he tried to decipher the various scents. Grant’s scent was embedded in the room and his mate, Talia’s scent, was faint. He could still smell Lauren too, but it was faded, not recent. And it was very faint. Other than those and Wade and Naomi’s nothing else was strong enough to stand out.

Pivoting to face brother and sister hovering outside the doorway, he pinned them with a hard stare. “Explain again how you two allowed this to happen.” What good was having patrols or security if they did a half-ass job?

The tall blonds both looked embarrassed, but Wade covered it first with annoyance. “I was downstairs grabbing some food and Naomi was supposed to be upstairs covering me.”

Way to throw your sister under the bus, asshole. Max had already heard their explanation but he turned to look at Naomi because he wanted to hear it again.

She glared at her brother and shrugged, as if it wasn’t a big deal, which just pissed him off. “I had to use the bathroom then I smelled the barbeque downstairs. I got hungry.”

“I saw the flashing green lights first,” Wade muttered.

Max had made them repeat their story a few times and it didn’t sound rehearsed. Whoever had managed to open the safe set off the interior tripwire, which triggered bright flashing green lights from three overhead sources within the house. They were silent but damn bright.

“I don’t see what the big deal is. You know that jaguar shifter took the brooch. Punish her and make her tell you where it is.” Naomi flipped her long, blond ponytail over one shoulder. There was a bite of censure in the wolf’s words. As if she was reprimanding Max.

Her words were like pouring gasoline on the slow burning coals of his anger. Slowly, he took a step forward, his gaze fixed on her. “You were given an order and failed to follow through. That, I could deal with, if it was an honest mistake. But you’re not even sorry about it. Now you want to order me what to do?” There was a very specific hierarchy in each pack and while the Kincaid pack rarely had problems, these were two betas in front of him. And they weren’t acting like it. It rubbed his wolf the wrong way, making him edgy. Max growled low in his throat and flashed his canines.