Gold(34)

He sat down. She got on her knees behind him, and he whipped his head around, trying to see what she was doing.

“You’re tense,” she said. “Relax.”

“You don’t need to—”

“Last night you took care of me. Let me take care of you.”

Then her hands sank into his shoulder muscles at the base of his neck, kneading firmly, and he let out a satisfied breath. Damn if it didn’t feel good every time she touched him. No matter how she touched him.

“I’m sorry if you felt I abandoned you down there,” she said. “It’s great to catch up with my family, but when I realized you’d left and weren’t coming back, I worried you felt neglected.”

“No,” he said, leaning back into the massage. Had he ever had someone do this for him? He didn’t think so. “I know you came home to see them. I’m just tagging along.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” she said. “Thanks to you, the trip has been amazing. It would have been awful without you.”

“Thanks,” he said, feeling a flush work over his cheeks. He wasn’t used to her compliments, and he was a little uncomfortable with them still.

Fake admiration, distant admiration, that was what he was used to.

All his life he’d been alone but surrounded by people. It was so different being with just one person and starting to get close.

Scary, almost.

Especially since she didn’t yet trust him with all her secrets.

She ran her hands over the front of his chest. “You want to do something tonight?”

He turned around on the bed, pushing her backward as he crawled over her. He stroked her hair out of her face and ran his eyes over her curvy body.

She bit her lip, and he groaned at how tempted he was to take her.

But he’d just seen a shifter, and that changed everything. So as much as he wanted to make love to his mate and keep exploring what was going on, he knew there was something else he had to do first.

“I have to make a call,” he said, pulling back from her with a sigh. “You go ahead to bed without me.” He walked over to the window and closed it, then pulled down the lock. “I may not be up until late.”

She pouted, sitting back on the bed. “Seriously?”

He wanted to stay with her. Every cell of him loved to be by her side. And there was nothing he would love more than sexy times. But right now, he had to sort something out that was more important than anything.

Her safety.

“I’ll be back soon. I’ll hold you while you sleep.”

She exhaled and nodded, curls bouncing. “Okay, but don’t be long.”

“I won’t.”

He reluctantly shut the door and headed down the hallway, his hand on his phone in his pocket.



Dante walked outside, away from where he’d seen the cat. He scented the air, making sure he couldn’t sense Cliff around listening to him, and then pulled out his phone.

He never really used it, but with his ring inhibiting his dragon powers (so he couldn’t mentally communicate long distance with his team), he had no other choice. He could still read thoughts occasionally, if someone was in the room with him, but he used to be able to hear his team across cities.

He dialed the number and put the phone to his ear as he rested against a tree that was a good way from the cabin, down by the road that led toward town.

Citrine picked up after only a few rings, sounding harried. “Dante. Is something wrong?”

Dante straightened. “Sort of.”

Citrine let out a sigh. “Something is always wrong with you three. Don’t know how Aegis handled it. What is it this time?”

“Something going bad there?” Dante asked, amused.

“Hello,” Adrien cut in.

“Hey,” Sever said.

“You’re on speaker,” Citrine said warily. “We were having a staff meeting, so it’s a good time to call.”

“Yeah, um, about that.” Dante rubbed his neck nervously. “Look, are there shifters we can’t tell are shifters? I couldn’t scent this one.”

“A shifter?” Citrine asked. “What kind?”

“Cat, I think. Not a lion.”

“Let’s see. You’re in Utah. Mountain lion, I think.”

“Whatever it is, I know who it is, and I didn’t for a second catch on that it was a shifter. Is that because of the ring?”

“No,” Citrine replied. “That’s not part of what it does. I do know that cat shifters are mostly a fairly modern development. Or at least the discovery of them. One of their abilities is that they can’t be detected by regular shifters. I’m not sure if modern dragons can do it, but I know I can’t.”