If one more of these sorry motherfuckers looks at her, I'm going to lose my mind.
I didn’t know how many more of these fake work dates I could take. It was the third weekend in a row since we started this undercover gig, and I still couldn’t get my cock under control around her. Three weekends of Nova dressed to the nines, without her Emotoblock spray, and I was so damn hard every time she came near me, I could hardly walk.
The woman was divine. Her scent was ambrosia. Peppermint and rosemary. Juniper berries and orange zest. She smelled like winter. At least, she had the first time I met her, and I would bet anything she tasted even better.
My nightly habit of jerking myself to images of her flashing through my head did nothing to take the edge off. In fact, I wanted her more than ever. This was getting ridiculous. I needed the GHA to make a move, show their hand already. My phone buzzed, and I grabbed it, frowning when I saw who it was from.
My mother. Of course, my mother would text me when I had Nova on my brain. Who needed cold showers when you had nightly interruptions from your mother? Ugh. Seriously though, Mom was the Queen of our Lion Pride, and a fierce matriarch. She was responsible for over one hundred breeding pairs, and that was quite a feat among Big Cat Shifters.
I knew what she wanted from me, and it didn’t make things any easier. The Spring breeding cycle was coming up with the next moon, and she fully expected me to do my duty as her son and a prime male in the Pride to try to impregnant one or more of the females during their heat.
Rrrrr.
My Lion snarled. The animal was so not on board with that plan it was not even funny. I silenced my phone, deleting her message, and muting the contact. I didn’t need that shit when I was working.
My eyes scanned the crowd. Nova was driving herself to meet me at Quenched tonight, as she had every night after that first time. She always had the perfect excuse. Tonight she had to stay late in the lab, going over her latest round of testing on the antidote she derived to counter that GHA poison.
Apparently, she found a way around their latest batch of nasty. Good on her. I knew she would. It wasn’t like I didn’t trust her to figure shit out. She’d already managed to return the Hyena female we’d recovered last week back to her human skin, and so far, the woman had no trouble passing back and forth between shapes.
Nova Harbor was a fucking genius. I understood that better than most, having spent hours of my life going over her file. The woman was my obsession. She took up more headspace than I’d care to admit. And no, I was never going to say that out loud. I looked down, tapping my empty tumbler of whiskey on the bar and catching the bartender’s attention. He poured a generous refill, and I held the glass halfway to my lips when I felt her re-enter the room.
“Hi Asher,” she said.
Damn. I loved hearing my name roll off her tongue. It was easy as pie now that she’d gotten used to it. Much better than Donnelly or Agent. My Lion growled pleasantly inside my mind’s eye. The animal was pleased to see she was growing more and more comfortable around us.
“Hey, Hotshot,” I murmured, my eyes just eating her up.
“Would you mind holding this? I have to use the restroom,” she added, not even waiting for my reply before she pushed her purse into my hands.
She’d excused herself to the restroom when she arrived, and it was all I could do not to follow her. Tonight she wore a pair of low slung jeans that looked as though they were panted on and when she’d turned around, I caught a peak of a tattoo curling just around her hip.
A tattoo. A motherfucking tattoo.
Of what, I had no idea. And it didn’t matter because that little secret beauty was for my eyes only. I wanted to take off my shirt and wrap her up in it. Hide her gorgeous skin from inquiring eyes. And yes, I fucking knew what I sounded like. A lunatic! A possessive alphahole moron. But what was I supposed to do?
I stood there at the edge of the bar, willing the crowd to part as I watched the door to the ladies’ room like a fucking creeper. I felt on edge, angsty, and I knew exactly why. Fuck. How long did I think I could go on like this? Being near her and not touch her except for a few casual swipes of my hand on her back, or those few times we moved together on the dance floor.
Nova wasn’t really into the party scene like me. She seemed to enjoy herself more when we were cozied up at a table, just talking or sharing some food. I liked the fact she ate. She might look like a movie star, but she ate like a real woman. Just one more thing for me to like about her.
Shit. I liked everything about her. Putting her in danger every weekend was not sitting right with me. I thought we’d have these GHA bastards by now, but they were behaving cautiously for whatever reason. I didn’t know if I should thank them for making me spend more time with her or kill the motherfuckers for torturing me once I found out who they were.
My breath caught in my throat as Nova walked out of the restroom, looking down as she moved. I saw the big asshole lumbering towards her before she did. He’d already been vetted by me and my guys and was just another lonely, horny regular at Quenched. I couldn’t hear what he said, but her frown was enough to get me moving.
The bass was thumping, and the crowd of people seemed to move and sway in time with it. It was dark, but that was nothing unusual. It was the blood red color tinting my vision that was different. That and the constant growl in my chest. The one that grew in volume when I watched the soon to be dead asshole put his filthy hands on Nova’s ivory wrist.
“Move,” I growled, standing right behind the sweaty motherfucker.
Nova’s gaze flicked right to mine, and I saw relief mingled with something else. Heat maybe? Fuck. I really needed to talk to her in private. In fact, I’d been wanting to get her alone since she stopped wearing that fucking Emotoblock spray of hers. But every time we went out, she insisted on meeting me there. She’d been avoiding me. And that shit stopped right now.
“Back off, Ken,” the clueless fuck said.
“I won’t tell you again, Pal. The lady is here with me, now get your fucking hands off her before I remove them from your body,” I growled, slapping my hands together to stop myself from ringing that fucker’s neck.
“Well, maybe she wants to come with someone else,” the asshole said, smirking as he closed his beefy hand around her wrist and yanked her into his sweaty body.
“Let me go,” Nova growled, trying to push off the man’s hand.
Something was going on with my little Vixen. She was growling and her eyes were glowing almost white in the dark hallway. I almost felt bad when I started to smell ozone in the air, but not really. That asshole was still holding onto her, and he deserved everything he had coming. Suddenly, there was a flash of light, and the distinct smell of ozone increased.
“Ouch!” he screamed, releasing her hand as a small bolt of lightning seemed to strike right where he’d been holding her.
I grabbed his neck, pinching his nerve and putting him to sleep, calling for the server to come over before a crowd began to form. Lucky I was strong as I dragged the heavy bastard over to the wall and propped him up against it. Nova was panting, and I knew I had to get her the fuck out of there.
“What the hell happened?” the server asked.
“This idiot dropped his drink and touched the outlet as he stood up. Must have got a shock,” I told him.
“Oh wow, okay, I’ll get the manager,” he said, and ran off.
I looked around, making sure we were alone before I reached out for Nova.
“Hey, Vixen, come on. We gotta go,” I said, but she was zoning out on me.
She was breathing heavily, in great big gulps of air. Her eyes were glowing inhumanly, and I knew it was only a matter of time before someone pointed it out. Shit. She still smelled of ozone and rain, but beneath that was that peppermint rosemary fragrance I only ever associated with her. Must be her soap or something. I didn’t know. I just knew she smelled good.
It was the first time I’d gotten that close to her in weeks, and definitely the first time since she stopped wearing that spray that blocked her scent and hid her emotions. I wasn’t ready for my reactions to the onslaught of her feelings. I mean, holy fuck, was she emoting!
Rage, fury, desire, and fear.
Above all else, she smelled like fear, and my Lion was two seconds from losing his fucking mind. I really did not like it when she was afraid. It made me want to break things. To hunt down whatever it was that caused such a reaction in her and wipe it off the fucking planet.
“Asher,” she whimpered my name, and I unfroze from my position, moving towards her until we were touching.
Everything and everyone else forgotten. All I could see were her bright eyes, and I wanted to help. I needed to make it better.
“It’s okay, Baby. I got you. Come here,” I whispered and reached out slowly to touch her. She nodded, and I took that for the assent it was.
“I’m gonna pick you up, okay? I got you,” I continued.
“Asher, I didn’t mean to—”
“Not your fault, Baby. It’s okay. I’m sorry I wasn’t fast enough. Fuck, I should have been faster,” I murmured, bending my knees so I could pick her up, princess style.
So many things were going through my mind when I witnessed what was going on between Nova and that asshole. I was so damn afraid I wouldn’t be able to stop if I laid hands on that man. My vision turned red, for fuck’s sake, and the last time that happened, hell, I didn’t even want to think about it.
But now I had her in my arms, shivering and clinging to me, something just clicked. The rightness of it all. The way she fit perfectly against my body. Her scent. Her softness. Her unrivaled beauty. Her. Just her. Before I could stop myself, I breathed the one word I should have never said out loud when it came to Nova Harbor.
“Mine.”