Mate Claimed

CHAPTER TWO

Iona blinked, for the first time looking at him in more than frustration, anger, or crazed need. “Are you saying you need my help?”

“Yes.” He said it simply, no shame attached.

“And what do I get in return? You leave me alone?”

Eric felt his grin spread across his face. “I can’t leave you alone, love. You’re unmated and unclaimed, in my territory. I need to look after you. But I think we can come up with an agreement.”

“Oh really? The moment I enter your Shiftertown, all the Shifters there will know what I am. How will that help me?”

“Your sister or your mother can be the on-site manager. You never have to leave your office if you don’t want to.”

Iona wrapped her arms around her knees, gathering herself in. “Never leave my office? Never go to Shiftertown? Seriously?”

“Seriously. I’d come to you.”

“Huh. I’ll think about it.”

Eric moved to her side again but kept himself from touching her. “I really do need you. And you need me. Think of it as an opportunity to better understand your Shifter side.”

“I don’t think I want to understand my Shifter side.”

“Yes, you do. You’re going wild, and you need to learn how to contain it.”

Iona shivered, looking away, and Eric’s protective need sprang to life again. He wanted to fold her in his arms, take her home, keep her safe.

When Iona looked up again, the fear in her eyes was stark. “What do I do?”

Eric leaned into her, inhaling her ripe, sensual scent. “I’ll help you through this. But you have to trust me.”

Iona went still, though he sensed her body reacting to his. She wanted him, and everything in Eric knew it, and responded.

“You have to give me reason to trust you,” she said.

“No, sweetheart. Trust means believing in me even when you don’t understand.”

Eric nuzzled her again, and Iona let him, not pulling away. He’d scent-marked her the night he’d met her, but a scent marking was not the same as a mate-claim. Eric could scent-mark his children, his siblings, and anyone else he needed to, and it meant that Iona was under Eric’s protection.

Any Shifter coming across her would scent Eric and know he’d need to deal with the Shiftertown leader if he messed with her. Even Graham would understand that, though whether Graham would leave her alone was another question.

Eric breathed his scent onto her again as he brushed the line of her neck, renewing the mark. Goddess, she was sweet. She smelled clean like a mountain meadow, and her underlying scent was warm with wanting.

He made himself sit up and push away from her, rising in one move. Before Iona could scramble to her feet, he reached down, took her by the arms, and hauled her up next to him.

His human side was fully aware of her nudity and the petal-soft feel of her skin. Her breasts were full, the tips dusky, and the twist of hair between her legs black. Beautiful.

“You need me, Iona.”

Iona took a step back, breaking the contact. “You need me, you mean.”

“In theory.”

“Chew on this theory, Eric. I’m not one of your mate-claimed females, or whatever you call them. I’ll give you what you need to build your Shiftertown houses, and you’ll leave me the hell alone. Bargain?” She stuck out her hand.

Eric looked at the hand, Iona offering a handshake in the human way. He didn’t bother to take it. “No bargains, love. We do what’s necessary.”

Iona was gorgeous when she was fired up, blue eyes hot, her stance challenging. Eric’s reaction to her was obvious, even in the dark.

Her gaze dropped down his body, stopping at his very erect…erection. She put one hand on her bare hip and kept her voice light. “So what is that? An extension of your tail?”

Eric shrugged, unembarrassed. “I’m a male Shifter at the prime of life, and you’re a female entering her hottest mating years. What do you think it is?”

Iona’s eyes flickered, her need strong. Her pheromones filled the air until Eric could taste them. “Damn it,” she whispered.

She shifted to her wildcat. She couldn’t shift as swiftly as Eric could, and Eric saw that it was painful for her. His hard-on faded as he watched her struggle, but his wanting for her didn’t die. Iona was beautiful and wild, and he wanted her to be free. And safe.

Iona bounded past him. Her wildcat was sure-footed and fast, her pelt beautifully dark, her eyes as ice blue as her human eyes.

Eric watched in pure enjoyment before he fluidly shifted and ran after her.

Graham McNeil watched the humans shrink back in a satisfying way as he walked into the meeting room at the courthouse. They tried not to react to him, pretending they had all the power, but Graham knew he’d rule this room.

The only person who didn’t look intimidated was Eric Warden, the leader of the Vegas Shiftertown. Not leader for long, if Graham had anything to say about it.

The humans didn’t like Graham’s buzz of black hair, the fiery tatts down his arms, and his motorcycle vest. Eric had a tatt as well, jagged lines that started somewhere under his short-sleeved black T-shirt and wove down one arm.

Eric was going to be a problem. He was a strong alpha and had been leader of his Shiftertown for more than twenty years. As soon as Graham walked in, Eric’s jade green gaze fixed on him and stayed there.

The shithead wanted Graham to look away. To acknowledge that Graham was going to be second, maybe way less than that. Pussy.

Graham wasn’t about to look away. Neither was Eric. Graham felt his hackles rise, the wolf in him ready to shift. Eric’s eyes flicked to his cat’s, slitted and very light green.

They’d have stared each other down across the room for hours if a clueless human male, with no idea that a dominance fight was in progress, hadn’t walked between them.

“Mr. McNeil,” the man said. “Sit down, please.”

“Graham’s fine.” He’d rather remain standing, a better position for facing an enemy, but humans had a thing for chairs.

They wanted Graham to sit next to Eric. Idiots. Eric proved he wasn’t stupid by walking to the other end of the table and planting himself in a chair, leaving Graham to sit at the opposite end.

What did the humans expect Graham to do? Shake Eric’s hand, give him a big hug, wait for Eric to say, Welcome to my territory, let’s be friends?

They did, the morons. Amazing.

Graham’s Shiftertown had been tucked inside a mountain range south of Elko, a long way from anywhere, and he and his people had done pretty much what they wanted. A man with a check sheet came around every once in a while to make sure Shifters were behaving themselves and not eating people or whatever they thought Shifters did, and then he’d go.

But then someone in an office way back east, who’d never been to a Shiftertown in his life, had decided that times were tough, budgets had to be cut, and there was no reason to have two Shiftertowns in Nevada. So why not shove all the Shifters into one? The Shifter bureau could keep a better eye on them all that way.

Graham was used to the vast emptiness of rural Nevada, a place where a wolf could shift and run and run, never see a human for months if he didn’t want to. In this effing city, there were humans everywhere. They smelled like shit. Even Eric smelled wrong.

Graham had seen, on his way to the meeting, a sign on the top of a taxi advertising Shifter women dancing nude in clubs just off the Strip. Shifter females, taking off their clothes for human males. And Warden sat back and let it happen. That needed to stop.

He felt Eric’s eyes on him again. Graham returned the look with as much determination. You’re going down.

The trouble was, Graham was getting the same message back from Eric. This was going to be a long, bloody fight. The humans in this room had no idea what they’d started.

Eric took the seat on the opposite end of the table from Graham, not only to keep himself from ripping out Graham’s throat, but also to prevent Graham smelling Iona on him. It had been two days and many scrubbings since Eric had chased Iona in the wild land north of town, but he didn’t need Graham to catch any lingering scent.

Her sexy scent. Eric had dreamed of her for the last two nights, the dreams so vivid that he woke up surprised he was alone in his bed. He woke up hard and sweating, groaning as the sheets brushed his aching cock. He was like a Shifter in mating frenzy, but Eric had conquered that a long time ago, right?

Iona was made for mating frenzy. He thought of her with her long limbs curled around herself as she’d gazed at him in the moonlight outside the cave.

Eric needed to protect her, yes, but he also wanted to go to her, wrap himself around her, declare her his mate, keep her away from all others. A Shifter’s primal need was to hole up with a female for weeks at a time, keeping her safe while they sexed themselves mindless, nature’s way of ensuring that cubs came.

Times were more civilized now. Females could reject the mate-claim, and they all lived in peace and harmony.

Bullshit. Whenever Eric looked at Iona, or scented her, or felt her warmth, civilization went to hell. He wanted Iona, wanted to be naked with her, nothing more.

Those thoughts were dangerous while Graham McNeil watched him from the other end of the table, but he couldn’t stop them coming.

One of the humans cleared his throat, calling the meeting to order.

The humans in the room were nervous. The smell of fear was rank, and Graham didn’t hide his disgust. But at least their fear scent would cover any residual one of Iona’s.

The talk moved instantly to housing, a bone of contention.

“Every effort is being made, Mr. McNeil,” the leader of the bunch said, a shit of a man called Frank Kellerman.

Kellerman was the head of the Shifter liaison committee, and the only one of the humans who wasn’t sweating hard in his suit. The rest eyed Graham in outright fear if they could bring themselves to look at him at all.

Kellerman went on, “The housing being built will equal that which is already in Shiftertown. For now, your families will have to adapt to boarding with others.”

Graham balled his hands on the table. “I’m not putting my wolves in houses with a bunch of fucking Felines or bears. His Shifters can double up. We’ll take the houses they empty.”

“I agree,” Eric said. All gazes shot to him now, including Graham’s. “Shifters have a tough time living with strangers,” Eric went on. “The Elko Shifters should occupy houses together, and our Shifters will move in with their own clan members.”

Kellerman gave Eric his smooth smile. “The point is that the Elko Shifters and the Las Vegas Shifters need to integrate as quickly as possible. Bunking together will induce camaraderie and make the transition painless.”

What an idiot. Eric kept his face straight, but Graham rolled his eyes. When strange Shifters found themselves thrown together in a tight space, the natural instinct was to go into a dominance battle.

Who controlled each house was as important as who controlled Shiftertown. Members of the same clan or same community already knew who was dominant. There would still be conflict, but exponentially less.

Eric said, “You shove us together without letting us get used to each other first, and there’ll be a bloodbath.”

“But you have Collars,” the nervous man who’d called the meeting to order said. “Shifters can no longer fight one another.”

“Then you’ll have a crapload of Collar-shocked Shifters all over the place,” Graham said from his end of the table. “We’ll fight for dominance, Kellerman. It’s instinctive, and it won’t be pretty.”

Eric stared down the table at Graham, willing the guy to shut up. Graham wasn’t used to dealing with humans. Eric had learned to let the humans understand just enough Shifter business to keep them happy, and how much to keep from them.

Graham met Eric’s gaze, but instead of subsiding, he sat up straighter, meeting the challenge. Dumb-ass. Challenging for leadership in this room would only get them both arrested.

“An even better solution,” Eric said, still looking at Graham, “would be to get the houses built before the wolves transfer down.”

“We can’t wait that long,” Kellerman said. “Though the houses will be started soon. We formally accepted a bid from a construction company this morning.”

Eric kept his gaze from moving. He hadn’t heard from Iona since their encounter, and he didn’t know whether she’d had her company make the bid. His Guardian, Neal Ingram, good at getting info Shifters weren’t supposed to have, said he hadn’t seen a bid come forward from Duncan Construction in the Shifter council’s records. It must have been sent at the last minute, right before this meeting, in fact.

Graham’s gaze sharpened as he watched Eric, catching Eric’s subtlest reaction. The Lupine was good.

“What construction company?” Graham asked without looking away from Eric.

Kellerman consulted his notes. “A small, local company who does quality work. They put in a decent bid, and we accepted it.” He closed the file, but Eric couldn’t see it anyway from his vantage point. “Their architects are already drawing up plans. Within a month, you’ll have new places to live.”

Eric didn’t let his expression change. The players in the poker tournaments downtown would have envied his blank face. Graham kept his gaze hard on Eric for a few moments before switching it to Kellerman.

Graham turning away didn’t mean Graham was giving up. He’d sent Eric a signal that he knew there was something going on, and he was going to find out what.

After the meeting ended—with nothing resolved—Graham fell into step with Eric as they headed for the parking garage and their separate vehicles. “Why so interested in the construction company, Warden?”

Eric didn’t bother looking at him. “You aren’t?”

Graham stopped. They were relatively alone, the upper floors of the parking garage sparse at the human lunch hour. “What are you up to?”

“You know we have to alter the houses,” Eric said. “Be good to know what kind of plans these architects are coming up with. Better still to have the plans changed to fit our needs.”

Graham’s wolf gray eyes narrowed, but he gave Eric a conceding nod. “I get that. But how would they make plans to our specs? Without us giving away anything?”

“Agree to let me take care of that. Your idea of liaising is intimidation and fear. There’s an easier way.”

“No, there isn’t,” Graham said. “Terrify the humans, and they do what you want. Works like a dream.”

“In a place where Shifters outnumber humans, sure. Look around you.” Eric jerked his chin at the streets and buildings below them. “Humans everywhere. Trust me, subtlety works.”

“Yeah, look where subtlety’s got you. You didn’t argue with them very much in there, and you tried to shut me down when I did.”

“Because I don’t need humans knowing our business.” The more humans believed that the Collars controlled the Shifters, the better.

“I’m not crawling and hiding from humans,” Graham said.

“Keeping your hole shut about Shifter secrets is not the same as crawling and hiding. There’s too much at stake.”

Graham’s scowl would have sent most of the Shifters in Eric’s Shiftertown running for cover, but Eric met him stare for stare. Graham was going to be hard to tame.

Graham finally shrugged. “All right—I’ll keep my mouth shut around humans. Because I’m not talking to them anymore. You liaise, if that’s what you like. When you fail, tell me, and I’ll scare the shit out of them and get a few things done.”

With a final glare, Graham turned his back and walked away. If they’d been in animal form, Graham might have sprayed behind him or done something equally disgusting to show Eric his contempt.

Eric turned away himself, so that if Graham glanced behind him to see how Eric had taken the insult, he’d see nothing but Eric walking uncaringly toward his motorcycle.

He knew Graham wouldn’t look back, though. Eric unstrapped his helmet and heard Graham start up his own bike. Graham was dominant enough to know his gestures made the right implications, without having to double-check.

Eric waited until Graham had ridden out, watching the man drive through the streets toward Charleston and North Las Vegas, before he started his bike and departed the other direction, heading for Duncan Construction’s office on the west side of town.

Iona dropped her sandwich and jumped to her feet when she sensed Eric outside the door to the office. It was a terrific sandwich from a little deli down the street, and now it was a mess of roast beef, honey mustard, lettuce, and fresh bread all over her desk.

Eric walked in, bringing with him a wave of November chill, but Iona broke into a sweat.

He wore a short-sleeved black T-shirt under his leather jacket, one that showed the tatt sliding down his arm when he took off the jacket. He removed his sunglasses, giving her the full flash of his jade green eyes.

She’d tried to forget his tall, strong body over hers when he’d cornered her like prey in the canyons, or at least pretended to forget. Now with Eric in front of her, she shivered all the way down, the sensation of him stretched out on top of her as vivid as when it’d happened.

That had been in his territory. This was hers. Iona gathered up the mess of her sandwich, dropped it back on the paper it had come in, wrapped it up, and wiped her hands on paper napkins.

Eric let the door close behind him. Her office was a trailer on the site where they stored their equipment and supplies and sold building goods on the side. At least it was lunchtime—her mother and sister were off doing wedding shopping, the guys lunching wherever they liked to lunch.

Iona was relatively alone here, but…

“What the hell are you doing, Eric?” she said, making her voice not shake. “How is a Shifter coming openly to my office going to keep me safe?”