My virus wanted to get straight to the struggle portion of his plan, and she wanted all of the struggling to take place while naked. Considering her general patience when it came to my non-existent dating or sex life, I wouldn’t blame her for her ridiculous amount of lust.
Sebastian wore his suit a little too well, and the knowledge he’d made it only revved my engine in the best ways.
Still, I’d started our questionable relationship being a pain in his ass, and I wouldn’t go down without maintaining my high standards of driving him insane. “I hope you survive. I will be so sad if my daddy kills you. I’ll probably even shed an entire tear over your loss. And then I’d probably get my uncle as my handler, and work would be so bad. So bad. I’d have to get voice-masking software on my phone and never meet him in person. And figure out how to get the CDC to completely mask my identity to prevent the clan from having a meltdown. It wouldn’t end well at all. For the sake of my sanity and ability to fix my face, you must survive through your meeting with my family.”
His glare implied I ventured close to earning a roar, and my virus perked up at the thought of earning yet another one out of him. I grinned.
When caught off guard, even my family grimaced when I grinned or smiled, as it made the missing chunk of bone in my cheek more pronounced. All my expression did was annoy Sebastian into scowling even more.
“Are you going to roar for me, little kitty?” I taunted while doing a second check of the prized stand for the sewing machine. I gave my new baby a loving pat and hopped out of the bed, securing the tailgate into place. “I do like when I make your fragile hold on your temper fray and snap. And then all you can do to me is roar in my face. In case you weren’t sure, I find that to be so satisfying.”
“The next time I roar, it won’t be because you’re doing your best to piss me off, that much I promise. And the longer you resist, the longer you’ll go without hearing a single roar out of me.”
How utterly ruthless of him. “It better be a really good roar, lion.”
“And I will be expecting your best purrs. And yes, Miss Murder Mittens, lions have sensitive hearing, and I enjoy when you try to hide when you’re purring. That factored into my general willingness to roar at you. It seemed mean of me to deprive the sad, lonely little single lycanthrope of a joy in her life. I’m very interested in discovering how long you can sustain a purr, how loud your purring can get, and if I can make an entire lynx clan uncomfortable through making you purr.”
As far as negotiations went, we both won, and I could easily imagine my entire family having a catastrophic meltdown should a lion make me purr to that degree. “That better not just be some threat. If that is not a promise, I’m warning you now that there is nothing worse than a lynx caught in the throes of utter and complete disappointment.”
Sebastian chuckled, and he circled the truck to the passenger’s side, climbing inside. On my way to the driver’s side, I checked on my excessive collection of yarn, sewing supplies, and everything I needed to craft my way to heaven. “I owe you for my share of this.”
“You owe me nothing, but I will accept positive attention. I have decided your share of the bill is that I must be present when you’re crocheting or quilting, and it’s better if you do your work while near me. I am a lion, and lions require a great deal of attention. I am a lonely lion, so you have to pay extra attention to me. If you do not have a couch sufficient for two lycanthropes who are engaged in crafting activities, I will change that. Or I will bring rope, and I will enjoy your struggles while I tie you up to my satisfaction and drag you to your new home, after which I will recruit the lynx clan to move your things into the space I have chosen for you to live. I have already begun planning my takeover of the lynxes. This plan is exceptional, especially when they come to fruition. I get the woman, and I get control of an entire clan of moody cats. I will become a king of the jungle in an unconventional way. Bonus, I suspect lynxes do not have the general restrictions on number of children lionesses tend to come prepackaged with.”
The disturbing possibility of having gotten my ass kicked by the wolf I was supposed to brutally murder kicked in. I pinched myself, and it hurt as expected. I triple-checked the present vehicles, which by number and type implied somebody had died.
“Well, my mother gets upset when there aren’t kittens under her feet tripping her up, and the latest litter has gotten old enough she violated my poor father for more kittens. I do not think my father minded being used and abused for more kittens.” I hesitated, considering his threat—or promise. Hopefully promise. “Can I demand you must bring the rope? Because honestly, moving sucks, and the only way I’m moving is if someone forces me to move. And if my brothers do all the moving parts I don’t like while I get to struggle, this sounds like moving won’t be as bad as it usually is.”
“We’re lycanthropes, Wells. If you want rope and a struggle, I’m happy to provide the rope and will thoroughly enjoy your struggles. And I’m tired of being a good, patient lycanthrope, and I can’t help but notice you have not rejected me or ejected me from your personal space.”
“I have a week worth of spa and bounty hunting ahead of me, during which you can convince me I should investigate all ways of making you roar. But I’m not giving up annoying you into making you roar during business hours. That makes it worth putting up with you when I’m working.”
“If I had known all I needed to do to keep and hold your attention was roar at you, I would have yanked your tail a little more before indulging you, to make you properly earn those roars. Then again, I probably would have caved early, as a cranky Wells is a lot more of a pain in the ass than a purring one.”
“For the record, I will be purring while my brothers try to kick your ass, but then I’ll go from purring to snarling and yowling as soon as they do kick your ass. We’re cats. And I mean, we’re really cats.”
“As you did an excellent job of subduing your target without injury to yourself, I have decided you can pick what you have for dinner for two nights. Truth be told? That was flawless.”
I showed him where I’d poked my finger. “I did cut myself.”
“You were testing the shears for their viability as a murder weapon, and it would be wrong of me to use that against you. I realized I gave you an unfair option, as you might have wanted great chicken instead of steak. But really, pick what you want. You did that job as cleanly as I could ask for. Actually, I thought you were gonna dance around the point for a while before killing him.”
“I had the shears, she gave me the code, he matched my intel on him, so I saw no reason to give him a chance to surprise me. He deserved it, although he got off a lot lighter than he should have for being such an asshole.”
“Well, it looked like you probably severed his spine with your first hit. I wasn’t really sure why you decided to stab him so many more times, but I’m giving you full points for being thorough.”
“I wasn’t sure of the kill with the first hit, so I kept hitting him until I was sure of the kill.” I gestured to my wet shirt. “I got chicken all over my shirt when my parents inevitably ask why my shirt is wet. But because my shirt is wet, dinner should probably be takeout or fast food. We can do something nice on the way to the spa—or once we get to the spa. It’s a lycanthrope-friendly spa.”