She couldn’t relax, especially when outdoors, despite being surrounded by pride mates—many of whom were enforcers on patrol, masquerading as either pedestrians, window cleaners, painters, or homeless people. A shifter would have no problem seeing through the enforcers’ acts, but that was the point. They wanted Paxton to see that security was super tight.
Mateo, Drina, and the Cages were still in the wind, and Bree couldn’t help but wonder if they were dead. If they were, they wouldn’t have died easy. No one died easy at the hands of Paxton Cage, and that just made her anxiety that much more acute.
Her cat was no less tense. She wanted to hunt Paxton down and kill him before he had the chance to kill her mate. If Bree had a starting point, she just might have tried it, but she had absolutely no idea where to begin looking for the piece of shit.
“You’ll be bored out of your mind just standing in the street.” And she’d be worried out of her mind.
He shrugged and bit into his last Pop Tart. “I’ll take some beef jerky with me.”
“You say that like eating is a form of entertainment for you.”
“Well, it keeps me entertained.”
So it would seem. “Why not just sit in the daycare’s reception area?”
“Because listening to kids squealing and crying will ruin my snack-on-beef-jerky quality time.”
Awkward fucker. There was no sense in asking him to wait indoors for his safety—it would only prick at his pride and make him all surly and frowny.
This whole thing sucked large. Alex was an absolute badass, yes, but that didn’t alleviate her fears. Because Paxton also knew that the wolverine was a badass, so he’d be sneaky and cunning about his attack.
She was jumpy. Edgy. Her gaze was often restless when they were out, constantly flitting from person to person. Her gut rolled each time her phone beeped or chimed, even though it didn’t seem likely that Paxton would make contact again. He’d delivered his message, and now he’d expect her to do as he’d told her. And since she had no intention of doing so, well, Alex was in a fuck load of danger and—
“Stop.”
She blinked. “What?”
“Stop doing this to yourself.” Alex pushed his empty plate aside. “You’re always fidgeting, biting your lip, and can’t seem to keep your phenomenal ass in a chair for long. Your appetite has gone to shit, and you’re not sleeping well. Stop obsessing over what Paxton said. You’re going to give yourself a damn ulcer.”
It was easy for him to say. Rising, she dumped her mug in the sink. “And if it was me who he’d threatened to kill, would you be relaxed?”
“I don’t expect you to be relaxed, baby girl.” Standing, he crossed to her. “I just don’t want you to be constantly on the verge of having an anxiety attack.”
She raked a hand through her hair. “The two most important people in my world were taken from me. Losing my mom was hard. Losing my dad was harder—probably because I was then officially alone. Losing you … I don’t know if I could come back from that, okay?” Her voice broke. The admission cost her, because she didn’t like making herself vulnerable.
Sighing, he caught her face with his strong hands. “Look at me. You’re not going to lose me. We’ve been over this already—he’ll try to kill me, sure, but he’ll fail.”
“He’s a damn assassin, Alex. He killed people for a living, and he did it because he enjoyed it.”
“And what am I, a cuddly bear? You’ve seen me and my beast play with our prey. You’ve never seen us full-on attack someone. You’ve never seen us fight to kill. Believe me when I say Paxton won’t find me an easy target. Why do you think my mom isn’t whatsoever fretting about him? There’s a reason that wolverines are so strongly feared.
“He’s not going to come at me in the middle of the street, especially not when our pride mates are scattered all over the place. If I don’t take him down in an instant, the others will. He’s not going to risk that.”
Okay, that was a good point. “Fine. Just … just don’t get hurt again,” she said, her voice a little wobbly. “You took six bullets—”
“And yet, I’m here. My kind aren’t so easy to kill.” He pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her. “Don’t do something girly like cry,” he ordered. “I mean it.”
Her lips twitched. He’d said it like the force of his formidable will alone could stop tears from falling. She buried her face in the crook of his neck. “You mean it, huh?”
“Yes. I don’t want snot on my tee.”
God, he was just about the only person who could make her want to smile when she was down in the dumps. “And here I was thinking you were worrying about my itty, bitty feelings.”
“The potential of snot stains worries me more. But your feelings come a close second to my tee.”
“Wow.” She lifted her head and met his gaze. “You know something? I think you like me just a little.”
“I like you almost as much as I like beef jerky. So close …”
Yeah, her smile broke free. Another woman might have been annoyed that he wasn’t showering her with reassurances and comforting words, but Bree didn’t need soppy sentiments. She preferred the raw, sweet, honest declarations he occasionally spouted—even if they were often accompanied by him accusing her of being stupid or something.
She gently poked his chest. “You’re almost as great as snow cones. And they’re awesome.”
“They are.” His eyes drifted over her face, intense and broody. He gave a satisfied nod. “You’re good,” he decided.
“I’m good.” But her stomach was still in knots. It would probably stay that way until the moment Paxton had been apprehended—something that needed to happen soon, or both she and her cat were liable to lose their shit.
“Okay, ladies, I’d say we’re done here,” said Dani, closing her notebook. “Thank you all for coming, and I’ll see you at the next meeting if not before.”
Like the other omegas, Bree pushed away from the table and headed for the break room door. She was super eager to get out of there and get back to Alex.
“Bree,” Dani called out, standing. “Could we talk a moment?”
Oh, wonderful. “Sure.” Holding the strap of her purse, Bree held back as the others filed out of the room. Dani hadn’t made a single snarky comment toward her during the meeting. Which had felt weird, to be honest. But there was something a little different about the primary today. She seemed more at ease with herself. Still, Bree’s cat watched her warily, flexing her claws.
Once they were finally alone, Dani rounded the table and raised a placatory hand. “I’m not going to pick a fight. I just … I have some news that I’d like to share with you.” She swiped her tongue over her lower lip. “I thought you should know that I’ve asked Vinnie to transfer me to another pride.”
Almost rocking back on her heels, Bree blinked. “Transfer you?”
“As much as I hate to admit it, I can’t keep the position of primary here. And I’m too young to retire, so he’s going to find me a pride that’s in need of a primary omega like me. I’ll be briefing everyone else on my decision soon. I wanted you to be one of the first to know because, well, it’s going to substantially affect you. You’ll need to take over as primary—it wouldn’t have been fair to spring that on you.”