Rule Breaker(45)

            “How?” It was Dog who asked that question, confusion apparent in his voice. “How can you be so sure?”

            How could he be so certain? Dane almost grinned, but he was far too aware of the other two watching him. He couldn’t claim to have smelled it, because Dog was a Breed as well; he would instantly question why he hadn’t smelled it.

            That left the truth, which was far stranger than fiction.

            Lifting his hand to rub at the back of his neck, he stared at both men a bit uncomfortably. This wasn’t going to be an easy explanation and it was one he rarely made.

            “I sense it,” he finally muttered.

            “Excuse me? You what?” Dog asked with his ever-present mockery, albeit thicker than normal.

            “It’s complicated,” he gritted out, not enjoying the sensation of having others watch him as he so often watched them.

            “You don’t say,” Dog commented wryly. “Why not explain it to us anyway?”

            Shooting him a glare, Dane bit down on the tip of his cigar before clenching it between his thumb and forefinger and lowering it slowly.

            “I told you, I just sense it,” he repeated, forcing back his discomfort.

            He’d be damned if he’d let that grinning jackass of a Coyote know that he felt a bit at odds trying to explain the little talent he had.

            “Do tell,” the warrior suggested, a bit more firmly than Dog had.

            “Telling’s the hard part,” he admitted with a twist of his lips. “It’s a knowledge that’s there once I see them together. Rather like a gut feeling.”

            “Gut feeling, huh?” Dog was definitely laughing at him; thankfully, it was silent laughter.

            Dane couldn’t help but let his lips twitch, because with this Breed, he would definitely have the last laugh.

            “And sometimes, all I have to do is hear a certain name on a Breed’s lips to know who his mate is. Want to start naming names, boet?” The South African slang for “friend” slipped before he could stop it. A problem he was having more often of late.

            Dog’s eyes instantly narrowed as suspicion lit them, the gray darkening, flickering with a hint of anger.

            “Stop letting him rile you, Dog,” the warrior grunted in disgust from Dane’s other side. “He tried that one on me last year. You have to know him well enough not to let him mess with your mind.”

            Oh, he could do far more than mess with Dog’s mind. There was a reason he had sought out the Coyote and formed a friendship with him when he had. If this Breed didn’t have friends soon, not just acquaintances or other Breeds who didn’t care to fight with him, then he was going to be in a spot of trouble.

            “You’re going to end up in a world of hurt if you make the mistake of messing with what you assume is my mind,” Dog warned him quietly.

            “There would first have to be a mind within that thick skull of yours to mess with,” Dane suggested mockingly before turning back to the warrior. “Rescind the virginity clause and give her a choice. I never understood why you put her under such constraints to begin with when you’ve done it with no one else.”

            Surprise reflected on the other man’s face before instant denial filled his gaze.

            “The hell I will.” The warrior suddenly tensed, his brows jerking together in a frown as the tinted contacts he wore picked up the faint hint of color that Dane was certain he’d want no one to glimpse.

            “Virginity clause?” Dog was far too easily distracted tonight, Dane thought with silent sarcasm.