None of that mattered in the least as Chantal rubbed her flank against my own, getting to know me, scenting me, making me hers in this version of us too. I welcomed the touch, craved it, needed it, needed her. The bond was completing. I knew this, from all the times I had others explain how the bonding happened. Still, it was surreal to be experiencing it for myself.
We were given an hour longer to bond as mates before a knock on the door. “Gray, Wooly is back, we need you now. Might want to bring your woman too.”
“Hear ya, brother!” I called out to him. I heard him chuckle as he walked away.
Chapter Three Hundred Eighty
Dead silence greeted us as I pulled Chantal along beside me through the hall and into the main room of the clubhouse. All eyes were on us, despite the quiet. I could feel the sweat begin to bead up between our clasped palms as we entered the common area. She was nervous, and while I could feel the underlying hum of the emotion in the back of my mind, I didn’t need the connection to notice.
“Good to see you up and about,” Bomber called out to my woman.
“Thank you,” she offered him as she ducked her head shyly, not used to being the center of attention. For someone who had been in hiding all of her adult life, I understood her still trying to hide, but I also wanted her to know that the boys of the club were my family, hers now too. She needed to understand that they would have her back, just as they had mine.
“Everyone,” I addressed the rest of the room. Some members hadn’t been here when she’d been brought in. Those who weren’t here hadn’t seen her yet, even if they had received news that I had a mate that would be claimed. “This is Chantal, my mate,” I told them. A round of cheers and hellos circled the room as each man present gave greeting or congratulations. Chantal cozied into my side, sliding her arm around my waist as she did so. It was only when she was tucked safely next to me that she lifted her head and let the full weight of her silvery stare fall upon each of the men. They were immediately awed by her, I could tell, since half the usual wise-ass remarks were silenced.
“It’s a pleasure to meet all of you,” she insisted, a slight southern twang left in her cadence as she spoke, no matter how hard she tried to sound as though she was from here. It sparked the question of where she had come from, prior to having to hit the road and run when her family split up for the girls’ safety.
After another glance around, I made sure there weren’t any hang-arounds or club whores present. Knox noticed what I was doing and spoke up. “Just brothers here right now. We sent everyone else on their way, including prospects.”
I nodded at him. “Anything?” I asked as I turned to Wooly and Mammoth, both of whom had been silent during introductions.
“Picked up on some blood that obviously didn’t belong to her,” Wooly answered in his no-nonsense way. Mammoth just nodded his head. Our resident bear shifters were notoriously good trackers and usually our go-to men when someone or something needed hunting. “Leopard, must have been hurt in the alley before you showed up.”
“Were you able to follow it?”
“Only so far as the oil slick the assholes left behind in the vehicle they took off in. Think we know why they stopped. Whatever they’re riding in won’t last much longer. Something happened to damage it.” The guys looked to my woman for answers.
She shrugged her shoulders causing her breast to rise and fall across my lower ribcage. It took everything in me not to throw her over my shoulder and take her back to my room to ravage her once more. Jesus. “Fuck!” I hissed under my breath. Some of the men noticed and chuckled. I glared at them while adjusting my dick. “Fuck off!” The words may have been muttered, but their laughter was not.
“I don’t know what they used, or how they managed it, but I was knocked out for almost all of it.”
“Almost?” Knox asked as he moved in closer to us.
Chantal chewed on her lip again, a nervous gesture. “I woke when they were,” she started to say, but was cut off by the mewling noise in the back of her throat at the memory. “When they,” she tried again, clearing her throat and squaring her stance a bit. “When they tried to take my pelt, I woke up,” she finally managed to get out.
“Fuck!” Mammoth hissed as he turned away from her.
“How much did they get?” I didn’t see who spoke, and was too concerned with my woman’s distress she was attempting to hide from the men to worry about who it was anyway.
“Below the knee, both feet,” the doctor Knox had brought in the room earlier explained. He was a member of the club, from another chapter, and I wasn’t too familiar with him. My spine tingled as he eyed my woman up and down. “How did everything look once you changed?”
I sighed at that. The bastards wouldn’t be able to focus and get to work until they saw for themselves. I knew that. “You in a place where you’re okay showing them, babe?” I whispered the words in her ear to give the feeling of privacy, even though we
