Rafe blew out a strained breath and slid the phone back into his pocket. The length of the yard separated him from Jasmine. A few hundred feet. It could’ve been miles. She needed a male’s touch.
His touch.
“The female’s got you twisted up. Be careful.” The warning was clear in Kade’s tone.
Rafe faced his brother once Jasmine slipped inside the house. Kade sat with his back against a tree. The intense glare focused on Rafe demanded his secrets. Rafe snorted. His brother could level his alpha stare at him all he wanted. He wasn’t getting anything more than Rafe was willing to share, which wasn’t much.
“Be careful of what? Blue balls?” He glanced at the front of his jeans and the bulge there. “Got those already. That’s why I need to get Jasmine alone. She left me in this state, and by the gods, she’s going to take care of me.”
“I’m not talking about sex.” Kade waved his hand to encompass Rafe’s body. “You’re tense. You watched her bedroom window all night and left me to prowl the grounds.”
He’d done more than that. While Kade had shifted and explored the area, Rafe had made his way to the house. He’d stood below Jasmine’s window simply to hear her breathing.
“And?” Rafe leaned against a tree, one leg stretched in front of him and the other bent. The relaxed pose was for Kade’s benefit. He didn’t need to know how edgy thoughts of Jasmine had left Rafe. “That’s part of surveillance. We’ve spent many nights dealing with humans who were in this exact situation. We confirm the kids are safe, then assess the situation before deciding the best way to retrieve them so as not to frighten them.”
“True. That’s standard practice. And exactly what I said we’d do.” Kade leaned forward. “Getting involved physically with their human guardians isn’t. That’s asking for trouble.”
Rafe couldn’t deny that. “I didn’t know she was the guardian of shifter cubs when I met her.”
“No. You just thought she was involved either in shifter trafficking or romantically with another Royal. Or two.”
“What better way to get her to trust me then to get her in bed?”
“You’re using her.” Kade smirked. “Is that what you’re trying to feed me?”
Rafe glanced away. He couldn’t look his brother in the face and lie. Kade knew him too well. “We still need to find out how she came to be the guardian of shifters. I intend to learn her secrets. If that means getting close to her to gain the knowledge, then that’s what I’ll do.”
“Look me in the eye and tell me that.”
“No.” Rafe glanced at him. “I have nothing to prove to you.”
“Then I’m calling you a liar. You want to get close to the woman because she’s caught your cats’ attentions.” Kade dropped a hand to the ground and leaned forward. “You’re sitting here wondering if your cats sense something about her you don’t. That maybe she’s your true mate.”
“She triggered my instincts. I’ll admit to that, but it’s because she smelled of other males. I wanted to steal her away. Simple as that.”
“Yeah, she smelled of her cubs.”
Rafe shrugged. “Again, I didn’t know it at the time. You can’t tell a shifter’s age by scent alone.”
“All right. I can buy that excuse as the reason you first got her naked, but—”
“She wasn’t naked.” He would’ve been happy if she had been, though. He could’ve licked her head to toe before joining their bodies.
“—but what’s your excuse for the way you’re acting now?”
“What did the fire chief say when you talked to him?” Rafe was done with Kade’s interrogation. Rafe didn’t want to analyze why he couldn’t stop thinking about Jasmine.
Kade sighed and shook his head, obviously guessing at the reason behind the change in subject. “Not much. I got the usual—I can’t share information associated with an active investigation—so I dropped Colonel Malory’s name.”
The older human had been instrumental in expanding the Shifter Affairs department by hiring shifters as agents. Many in the human government hated him because of it. Acknowledging the laws their forefathers had signed was one thing. Enforcing them when the exploitation of shifters had become a profitable business was another.
“And?” Rafe prompted.
“And I was told Colonel Malory had no jurisdiction in West Virginia. Any information about the fire would be shared once the investigation was completed.”
“Did you call Shifter Affairs? Maybe they can find out more.”
“There is no agency office in West Virginia. Supposedly there’s one in the works, but the details haven’t been finalized yet. I did leave a message with our contact at the Virginia office. All we can do is wait.”
The lack of information didn’t ease Rafe. “I don’t like it. Something’s not right about the timing of the fire and Megan’s discovery.”
“So you’ve said, but without any signs of trouble and no scents of other shifters, we can’t assume anything. We’ll watch over the cubs and assess the situation exactly as we’d planned.”
Rafe propped his elbow on his bent knee and leaned forward. “The lack of scents doesn’t necessarily mean a shifter wasn’t involved.”
Royals had the option of masking their scent with a drug supplied to them by the human government. Rafe rarely used it, nor did most of their males. Their women and children often did, however. For them, the discovery of the drug had been a godsend. They were easy targets for those who were looking to tap into the strength of the heavens.
“Why would a Royal kill an innocent human?” Kade shook his head. “No. I don’t see it happening. I can’t see Megan’s situation affecting any of our kind enough to go to that length. Honestly, most wouldn’t care if she lived or died. She’s just a single shifter.”
What Kade said was true. Most Royals avoided humans and single shifters. They’d been exploited by both enough times.
“I suppose.”
“Go on your date tonight and get the woman out of your system.” Kade stood. “In the meantime, we’ll watch and wait.”
With the order given, Kade undressed, then carefully stashed his clothes under a nearby bush. He walked deeper into the woods. Within one step and the next, he shifted into his jaguar form and slipped into the shadows.
Rafe turned his attention on the house and allowed Kade’s words to replay in his head. Kade was right. Jasmine had crawled into Rafe’s mind and taken up residence there, not something he had planned on or wanted, but he couldn’t walk away.
And it was taking everything he had not to think about why.