“Why don’t you go back to Gray’s room and wait for just a bit while we sort this?” Knox was speaking to Chantal, and I was about to argue that she didn’t need to be sent anywhere out of my sight while the asshole was here, but my woman beat me to it.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she disagreed.
“Why is that?”
“Because then I won’t be able to hear the excuses he has for sending some asshole to come kidnap me, and damn near have my pelt stripped from my flesh. I’m missing pieces of me, I should be able to hear what they have to say in the defense of their careless actions that have caused me great pain and permanent disfigurement.” I watched as Raven snarled and curled his nose up in distaste as she mentioned being disfigured in a way which wouldn’t heal.
“I already explained that I sent a steward to collect you, not to kidnap you.”
“Well, your plan was an epic failure!” Chantal turned to offer the man her back while still holding on to my arm with her hand. She glanced back over her shoulder and sneered at Raven. “I don’t know why you’re still here. I want nothing more from you. Explanations and excuses will pale in comparison to what I endured because of your actions. I think maybe the council needs to rethink which members are sitting on its glorious throne. If your handling of me is any indication of the way you handle the rest of your affairs, the feline shifters of the world are in dire straits.”
“Damn, sis!” Brace hooted out. “You tell ‘em!”
“Brace!” Knox’s reprimand was only half-hearted considering he couldn’t curtail the humor in his voice.
“We need to discuss a few things, and it should only be done with the leaders of this,” he glanced around the dirty garage entrance of our clubhouse, not realizing this was the business and the nicer interior was on the floors above. “What do you call your little group? Obviously, you are not a leap since you have others here beyond leopards.”
“It’s a fuckin’ motorcycle club,” someone called out.
“You choose to belong to a group of men who ride motorcycles instead of being with those of your own kind?” Raven asked incredulously.
“We prefer to be around other shifters we can tolerate rather than some groups out there in your world who do unspeakable things, like kidnap women and try to skin them for their pelts.” I insisted.
“Come, we’ll go to my office.” Knox insisted. “Brace, Bomber you’re on Chantal while we have our little chat.”
Chantal leaned up to place a kiss on my lips, squeezed my bicep one good time, and then she moved to go stand with Brace and Bomber who took her upstairs. The rest of the men dispersed with the exception of Knox, Snow, and myself. We took Raven and the two men he had with him to Knox’s office upstairs and settled in for a conversation that I didn’t think I was going to like one bit.
We weren’t in the office long when Knox received a call on our emergency line. A package had been dropped at the gates and we were both required to come see to it. “I’d like to speak to Chantal alone while you two are busy,” Raven demanded.
“That is not fuckin’ happening,” I happily informed him.
“You don’t get a say in the matter,” he countered.
“As her mate, I get the ultimate say in what happens with my woman. The only person whose opinion will supersede mine, where she is concerned, is her own.”
“This is ridiculous. She was meant to be mine!” The admission finally rolling off of his tongue was both satisfaction inducing and tipping the scale of my over protective anger issues.
“Too bad you fucked it up and left her to someone else’s care then. She’s no longer yours, and that was entirely your fault. You want something that precious, you collect it yourself.”
“We can undo the bond you formed,” he laid the threat down at my feet.
“Over your dead body,” I explained in simple terms. His henchmen both shot to their feet, ready to fight.
“Calm yourselves!” The order from Knox was heeded immediately, even by the henchmen. Interesting. That meant Knox was the most alpha animal in the room, not this Raven, the self-important council member. “We have some business to tend to before we can move forward, and we won’t be leaving the three of you alone here. Let’s go!” He turned and walked out of the office and headed back to the stairs that would take us down and out to the gate once more.
When we got to the gate, it was immediately clear what type of package had been left. The one in the form of a mangled female body that had obviously been removed of its pelt. Once we were closer, Thian informed me, “She has your name written on her, Gray.”
I moved to get a closer look. They left her face intact and tacked a note to her chest. “You took something of ours, Gray, we will continue taking from you until we get her back.”
“Why would they think this woman meant anything to you?” That was Raven, the fucking hemorrhoid rashing my ass over the past couple hours.
“Because this woman was going into heat and came on to Gray in public before he met his mate. She didn’t want to mate with a shifter who wasn’t a panther, but something about the panthers of her claw made it more appealing to go outside looking for any other type of cat rather than mate or breed with one of them.” Knox was the one to explain as I just continued looking at the woman. I still didn’t remember her name. I felt sick for her and what she had to endure though. I had turned her away, even knowing there was an underlying element of
