Numbers (New Species #14-15)(29)

Dana tore her gaze from Mourn and glowered at her mother. “Stop already. You’re ruining our moment.” She looked back up at Mourn and smiled. “You make me happy too. I don’t want to go back to the life I had. I want to stay with you.”
“We’ll be mates.” He leaned in.
Dana rose on tiptoe and braced her hands on his chest to kiss him. Someone grabbed her arm though, and yanked her back. She cursed and jerked away from her mother. “What is wrong with you?”
“You’re making a huge mistake,” her mother hissed. “There’s a wealthy doctor up in my room. What can this New Species give you that Dirk can’t?”
Mourn snarled. “How about this?” He gripped his hoodie and ripped it open, exposing his chest and abs. “He doesn’t sexually attract her. I do. I love Dana. I would do anything for her. She’s the reason I want to live.”
Dana chuckled, openly admiring the skin he’d exposed. “You are so sexy,” she told him. Then she shifted her gaze. Her mother’s eyes were wide, her mouth hanging open. “Any more questions, Mom?” 
Her mom kept staring at Mourn’s exposed chest. It amused Dana when she realized he’d rendered the older woman speechless.
“He has that same effect on me.” Dana reached out and slid her hand over his stomach. “And he purrs. Meet your future son-in-law. We’re getting mated.”
Her mother finally snapped out of it, gawking at Dana. She still didn’t speak.
“Priceless.” Dana removed her hand from Mourn and held it out to him. “Take me home, Mourn. Paul, do you mind staying with Mom until she recovers?”
“Not a problem. I’ll explain things to her once I get her doctor out of the room so we have privacy.” Her brother cleared his throat. “I could have lived without knowing about the purring.” He addressed Mourn. “Welcome to the family. It’s a crazy one, but it’s all yours now too.”
Mourn released his hoodie and grasped Dana’s hand. “Dana is worth it.” He lifted his upper lip and revealed his fangs to their mother. “We’ll learn to get along.”
He didn’t look pleased about it, but Dana was just relieved that he wasn’t rushing away from her after getting a dose of his future mother-in-law. She tugged on him and he followed her back to his security detail. One of them opened the back door of the SUV for them while the other one climbed into the front driver’s seat.
Mourn let Dana get in first, and then followed. He pulled her onto his lap as the driver started the engine, and the second guard belted into the front passenger seat. Dana wrapped her arms around Mourn and shoved the hood down to see his face better. The windows were tinted so she felt it was safe to do it in public. He looked angry.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Stop apologizing for other humans.”
“I warned you that she’d be rude and unreasonable.”
“You did, but she birthed you. We’ll have to find a way to get along.”
“Or we could tell the guards at the front gates to ban her from ever visiting us.”
He finally smiled, and the anger melted from his features. “She is your mother.”
“She’s a pain in the ass.”
He laughed. “I meant everything I said to you. I love you, Dana. I want you to be my mate.”
“I’d like that so much.”
“You aren’t afraid to mate me anymore?”
She shook her head. “No. I just want to go home with you.”
“You’ll move in with me?”
“Yes.”
“I won’t ever let you go.” He held her tighter. “You’re mine.”
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
She leaned in and brushed her lips over his. He growled softly and kissed her back. One of the men in the front seat cleared his throat. Dana had forgotten about them, or that they were even in a moving vehicle. She reluctantly pulled away.
“Sorry,” the guard in the passenger seat murmured. “We’re not that far from Homeland, and she’s still technically a guest until you sign papers so she’ll need to be patted down. Two canines are manning the gates we’re going through. You might want to hold off on celebrating that she agreed to mate you until you get her home, Mourn.”
He growled.
“What does that mean?” Dana arched her eyebrows, curious.
“They’ll smell arousal on you, and possibly tease us. I don’t want to subject you to that.”
“Oh.”
Mourn shrugged. “It would be goodhearted teasing but you blush easily. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable because they’ll know I was touching you.”“Thank you.”
Mourn pulled Dana against his chest and smiled. She would sign papers. He was grateful he’d insisted on leaving Homeland to meet her mother. The experience hadn’t gone as well as he’d hoped, but the end result was all that mattered. It had been worth arguing with Slade, and getting him to assign two task force members to escort him to the motel.
He’d had to tell the male how much Dana meant to him, and how he wanted her to be his mate. It was important that he impress her mother so he’d have one less barrier to overcome before securing her agreement. To meet a human’s family was important, and Slade had understood. He’d warned Mourn not to start any fights and he’d had to give his word.
Regret surfaced as he reevaluated his actions. He probably shouldn’t have bared his chest to her mother, but Darkness was the one who’d given him the idea. He’d said human females were impressed by muscles. He’d been desperate to show Daisy why he’d be a better mate for Dana than some doctor with a lot of money.
“Forget everything my mother said,” Dana whispered, resting her head on his shoulder.
“She doesn’t like me.”
“I don’t care. She’ll come around, or it’s her loss if she doesn’t, Mourn. You’re a wonderful person.”
“Perhaps I can train to be a doctor.”
She lifted her head to hold his gaze. “That’s not what you want to be, is it?”
“No, but I would become one if that will help your mother to accept us being mates.”
“You are so sweet, but stop thinking that way. Do you know what I want?”
“Tell me.”
“Don’t let my mom get to you. I fell in love with you just the way you are. I don’t plan to live the way she wants me to. You shouldn’t either. We’ll both be happier that way. We’re building a future together. She can deal with it, or not be a part of it. Period.”
He nodded. “I understand.”
“Good.”
“We’ll be home soon. I remember everything we’re supposed to do.”
She grinned. “You held that thought, huh?”
“As if I’d forget.” He reached up and stroked her cheek. “I swear I’ll be a good mate.”
“I swear that I will be too.”
“We’re motivated to be happy together.”
She nodded. “Yes. We are.”
Chapter Eleven

It wasn’t just two guards posted at the side gate when they entered. A third canine New Species met their SUV as they cleared the first gate. He wore jeans and a T-shirt instead of a uniform. Mourn got out, and Dana scooted across the seat. He helped her down. 
“Hello, I’m Slade.” He smiled at Dana, but then focused on Mourn. “I take it there were no problems?”
“I didn’t break my word.”
“It went really well,” the driver of the SUV stated. “We had no trouble. No one realized who we were, and we were on the lookout for camera phones. It was very uneventful.”
“Good. I appreciate you taking Mourn outside. You’re relieved.” Slade nodded to each man.
“Not a problem, sir.”
Both task force members walked away toward a building, just leaving the SUV there. Dana studied Slade, wondering who he was. He seemed to sense her watching him.
“How did your mother take meeting Mourn and learning that you are with a New Species?”
She grimaced. “My mom is kind of difficult. It could have gone a lot better, but that’s all on her.”
“It’s not because I’m Species,” Mourn added. “She wanted Dana to mate with a wealthy doctor.”
Slade put his hands on his hips. “Where is Paul?”
“He’s with our mom, explaining how she can’t tell anyone I’m with Mourn, and he’s also probably trying to calm her down. She likes getting things her way.”
Slade’s mouth twisted into a grim line. “Do you believe that she’ll go to the press to complain about you being here in hopes of putting pressure on us to force you to leave? We wouldn’t do that, but I’d like to warn our public relations team if it’s possible.”
“No. She’s aware that she’d have to move out of her home and go into hiding if anyone ever links our family to New Species. She won’t want to leave her friends and start her life over. She complained to me often about how Paul could mess up her life when he took a job here. She’s angry, but she will seethe without involving the press. My poor brother is getting an earful of it right now since he’s the only one she can bitch at.”
Slade nodded and looked behind Dana. He shook his head. “She doesn’t need to be patted down. She’s Paul’s sister and she’s with Mourn.”