Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 109705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Hazel blushed at his attention, but Roni couldn’t be annoyed with Marcus for that—he wasn’t being in the least bit flirtatious. Still smiling, the human continued. “If you change your mind, just press the call button, and I’ll be right with you.” Again, her words were only for him. “Before I leave, I just have to ask, have we met before? You seem so familiar.”
Roni rolled her eyes. Hazel clearly didn’t want to walk away from Marcus just yet and was coming up with a bullshit excuse to hang around.
Marcus shook his head. “You must have me confused with someone else.”
“Are you sure? Because I never forget a face. Are you a model or something?”
“Oh my God.”
Barely refraining from laughing at her outburst, Marcus turned to Roni. “You called?” Her scowl made his chuckle break free. He kissed the scowl away, and by the time he pulled back, the human had gone. “Still mad at me?”
She blinked. “Why would I be mad at you? You didn’t do anything wrong. She was the one flirting.”
That surprised him. In the past, women had snapped at him if another female flirted with him, which had always irritated Marcus. Hey, he was the first to admit that he liked flirting, but he didn’t do it when he was involved with someone. Flirting when you were in a relationship was plain disrespectful to your partner. As such, he hadn’t thought it was fair that his partners took it out on him if another female tried to flirt with him, even though he could understand why they didn’t like it. The fact that Roni hadn’t done that pleased him.
“Of course, if you had flirted back, I would have smashed your face into the marble table.”
That made him smile. “So vicious. And I wouldn’t blame you. Nor do I blame you for being annoyed with the human. I feel the same way about Zander.”
Confused, she frowned. “Zander?”
Massaging her hand again, he said, “He has a thing for you.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
“Oh, yes he does, pretty baby. But I’ve made it clear that you’re mine.”
“You confronted him?”
“No. I broke his nose.” At her gape, he shrugged. “I told you I’d be possessive with you. Learn to like it, sweetheart, because it’s not going to stop. And neither is my attempt to get you to talk to me about what’s bothering you.”
“Nothing’s bothering me. I was just thinking.”
“About . . . ?”
Tingles shot up her arm as he pressed a kiss to her inner wrist. “Lots of things.”
“Like . . . ?”
Persistent motherfucker. Fine, she’d let him have it. “Like . . . just how far can things get between us before we’re betraying our mates? Would I even recognize my mate for who he was? Is there any way to stop my wolf from ripping your throat out when you leave me for your mate?” He said nothing. She arched a brow tauntingly. “Sorry you asked?”
Leaning closer, Marcus cupped her chin. “Let me make one thing very clear,” he rumbled. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re mine. I marked you and I staked a claim on you, and I wouldn’t do either of those things lightly. If you do come across your mate and recognize him, you’d better hope to God for his sake that he’s stronger than me, sweetheart, or he’s dead. I’ll kill him before I let him take you.” She gaped again. “Sorry you asked?”
Roni swallowed hard, totally stunned by the vehemence in his tone. “I should have known better.”
He grazed his teeth down her palm to nip the heel of her hand once again. “Better than what?”
“Better than to get involved with one of the ‘quiet ones.’ Irrational, every one of you.”
“You think it’s irrational that I’d kill to keep you? Now you’re just being judgmental.”
She snorted. “And if I said I’d kill your mate if she came along to claim you . . . ?”
“I’d ask you to at least make it quick. As I saw from your fight with Eliza, you like to toy with your prey, and I’d be an unfeeling bastard if I didn’t prefer for my mate to have a swift execution.”
She didn’t believe one word of that matter-of-factly delivered statement, but still . . . “You’re insane.”
He smiled. “I love it when you try to flatter your way into my pants.”
Roni hadn’t been positive that it would happen, but she managed to get off the jet without mutilating the flight attendant—the slut hadn’t stopped flirting with Marcus. Well, not until Roni helpfully pointed out that whale vomit was an ingredient of many perfumes and cosmetics. Hey, the girl had a right to know.
Now Roni and her fellow wolves were parked in a rented SUV across the street from the house that the jackals might potentially be hiding in. It was a decent house, in a pleasant enough neighborhood, suggesting that it had been an expensive buy. For that reason, Roni couldn’t imagine the jackals using the place as a front. They could have gotten something much cheaper elsewhere.