Training Their Mate(14)

Dante shrugged. “When my brother gets focused on something, it’s best not to disturb him.”

Her stomach grumbled, and Dante slid down next to her. “What say we order a pizza?”

At that moment, she might have decided that Dante was her dream man. “You a pepperoni type or a veggie man?” Please say you like meat.

“I like my food tart and spicy. Just like my woman.” His eyes sparkled and for a brief moment, she thought he might even kiss her.

She licked her lips.

“Beer?” Trax asked, breaking the tentative connection between them.

Dante cleared his throat and jumped up. He turned toward her. “You?”

“I don’t think that’s wise with my head.”

“How about some aspirin?”

She looked at Trax. “Would that be okay?” She couldn’t remember what the doctor had said.

“Sure.” He poured green vegetables on his plate and shoved them in the oven. “Dante, why don’t you put our guest’s stuff in my room.” He moved his focus over to her. “I’ll sleep on the coach.”

Now they were being overly nice. “I can sleep on the sofa. You shouldn’t have to give up your room.”

Dante retrieved her stuff. “Don’t argue with him, sugar. Once Trax decides on something, there’s no changing his mind.”

He disappeared into what she assumed was Trax’s room. He turned back to preparing his meal.

“Why don’t you like me?” Yes, she’d felt his hard cock, but he rarely looked her in the eye and certainly didn’t try to make this ordeal easier for her. Had it not been for Dante, she’d be a complete mess now. Except for a dad who didn’t even bother to come to his ex-wife’s funeral, she had no family to speak of.

“Ma’am, it is my job to protect you, not entertain you.”

Wow. That was harsh. “Just asking.” Although he’d said the words with control, she suspected he might be hiding something.

Dante slipped down next to her and handed her two aspirin and a glass of water. She needed to pay more attention. She hadn’t even heard or seen him come out of the room. She swallowed the pills.

He pulled out his phone. “So the works is good for you?”

It took her a moment to realize he was asking about the pizza. “Can you add bread sticks?”

He smiled, something that seemed so easy for him. “I can order you anything you want.”

“How about Harvey Couch’s head on a platter.”

He grinned and looked up at his brother who was still hiding behind the center island. “Trax, I’m telling ya. She would make a great operative.” The pizza place must have been on his speed dial because he only pressed one button.

When he told them his name and said one order of the usual and hung up, she figured he lived on the stuff.

“She lacks a few of the necessary parts.” Trax briefly glanced at her.

Now he was being sexist. “So only men work in your groupie thing?”

His shoulders stiffened. “My groupie thing is a well-organized collection of highly specialized men.” He inhaled and his gaze shot down to the left as if he was debating adding something else. “You might as well get used to some of their names in case they stop by. We don’t want you frightened.”

“Well, thank you.” She really wasn’t planning on staying past tomorrow.

“General Armand leads our group. We call ourselves the Pack. His job is to ferret out the bad shifters to make sure they don’t draw attention to themselves.”

Dante leaned closer. “By the way, we call those people, Colters.”

She scrunched up her face. “Why Colters?”

“Legend has it a long time ago there was a man named Jack Colter who turned bad. He broke off from his pack and began to rob banks. Those who went to the dark side were called Colter’s men. From then on, we’ve called those bad shifters, Colters.”

“Interesting.” She returned to Trax’s comment about a general heading his group. She was impressed that a military man would run the organization. It didn’t surprise her that Trax would take part given he was a marine and all. “What would happen if these Colters got caught by the authorities doing something illegal, like drug smuggling?” She had no idea if the FBI knew about the existence of shifters and were just keeping the public in the dark.

The corner of his lip lifted. “It would be bad. Because it’s really hard to kill them or even drug them, as you found out, a lot of humans would get injured or killed if the two engaged in a shootout.”

“I don’t get it.”

He ran a hand over his short hair. “Unless a bullet hits a werewolf squarely in the heart, he can repair his body so fast, it won’t even slow him down. This makes werewolves highly dangerous to law enforcement, which is why we have to stop these bastards before the FBI or the local police find them. We have the poison bullets. The authorities do not because they don’t know werewolves exist.”