“Six.” I looked over my shoulder to see the new prospect coming toward me.
“What’s up, Kitty?” I asked, turning away from the prospect and looked back toward the girl. Kitty was our resident tiger shifter, the only one we knew of in these parts. When he came in wanting to prospect, we were surprised. By nature, tiger shifters are mostly solitary cats. They don’t need or want a family like the rest. They keep to themselves, but Kitty was different.
“I felt the tension rising quickly back here,” he said, looking around trying to pinpoint the negative emotions in the room.
She wasn’t on the seat where she’d been before I turned away. I scanned the room, searching for her, but I only spotted her when I saw the struggle.
King’s fingers were wrapped tightly around her upper arm. He was looking down into her face with murder in his eyes. I expected her to cry out for help, struggle against his hold, or start crying. She didn’t do any of those things. My mate’s face looked calm, and she locked her eyes with King’s head-on, not cowering.
I moved forward, ready to step in and rip King’s arm from his body, but I stopped when I saw her eyes go that iridescent color again. She didn’t break eye contact with King, and when I looked into his face, his expression had gone blank, like her eyes. The murder and rage that was burning in his gaze only seconds before was burned out.
“What the fuck?” I asked myself.
“It’s gone,” the prospect whispered behind me with confusion at the same time. “The high tension in the room just vanished. It’s never done that before.”
I watched King let her go. He turned to go back to the table as if nothing had even happened. My woman was heading in the opposite direction toward the door. I signaled to the prospect to keep an eye on the back table as I moved up the side of the room to cut my girl off. She was smart, not drawing attention to herself by running away.
“Hold up there, Sweetheart.” I let her body crash into mine and wrapped my arms around her. Her palms landed flat against the muscled wall of my chest. I breathed in her scent slowly, my eyes closed at the delicious smell being up close and personal. My body came alive and desire dumped in my veins from her nearness. My eyes almost rolled into the back of my head from the exquisite smell of her. Inside my chest, my leopard purred and salivated for a taste of her. Mate. The word echoed through my head. I’d never thought they were real or that I’d find mine, but she…
A roar from the back table reverberated through the room, bringing my attention back from the woman in my arms to the man she’d been sitting beside earlier.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.” She didn’t panic in fear, though she should have been shaking in her fucking leather boots. A pissed off lion wasn’t something you wanted to cross without backup behind you, unless you’re a crazy motherfucker or have a death wish. Yet here she was, no family in sight, standing alone and against a lion and a leopard.
Her scent was familiar, yet unknown. I’d smelled her kind before, but I couldn’t put my finger on what she was. When her eyes went that bright, clear color again, I expected to feel something happen, wondering what exactly her ability allowed her to do.
In my peripheral vision, I saw King moving toward us angrily. Quickly, I pulled her behind my back, prepared to change so I could defend her. Consequences be damned. I didn’t care what the fuck she did, she was mine.
“I don’t know what kind of fucking place you’re running here, Six, but someone in this shithole robbed me.”
I raised a brow; he didn’t have a clue who’d stolen from him even though she was standing right behind me.
“This isn’t a church, King. If someone stole from you, perhaps you should keep a closer eye on your possessions.”
“You don’t want a war with the Demon Pride, Six.” He stepped closer to me. Over his shoulder, my guys were moving closer, getting ready to pounce. I signaled, silently shaking my head for them to hold off. There were too many humans in the room, some were sensing that hell was about to break loose. I could smell the acrid scent of their fear starting to permeate the air. Others were utterly unaware, still playing the slots or tables.
“I don’t give a shit about the Demon Pride, King. None of my guys stole your shit, it’s bad for business.” I raised my hands out, gesturing to the room at large. “And why would we want to fuck with business? It’s booming.”
He took a deep breath, and I half expected him to recognize her scent and pounce on the both of us. But even as I thought it, I felt the tension ease from my shoulders and the room around us. Kitty was using his ability to calm everyone in the room. Getting King out of here without him changing and forcing our own changes was critical. We couldn’t expose the world to shifters. If they knew about us, we’d be science experiments in labs, or worse, there’d be a witch hunt for all shifters.
The lion growled loud enough for the shifters in the room to hear, but not loud enough to alarm the humans. I felt my mate grasp the back of my jacket with her fingers at the low, threatening sound.
“Time to cut your losses, King, and get out.”
87
Camilla
“You’re my mate.” I swallowed hard after smelling his scent. He reminded me of leather, musk, motor oil, and fur. There was an underlying smell of feline. A cat shifter. A leopard if the patch on his back was accurate. The Dark Leopards MC was notorious in the shifter communities around San Antonio. Their game room
