“I don’t need him to say it. I feel that he cares. I never once felt that you did.”
Dieter advanced on her, looking ready to grab her.
“That’s close enough,” Tate warned him, a growl rumbling in his chest—one that came from both him and his cat. “Step away from her.”
The eagle rounded on him, his face red. “You think I’m afraid of you?” He let out a derisive snort. “Fuck you.” Retracting his fingers like they were claws, he lunged.
Tate snapped out his fist, slamming it into Dieter’s jaw. The eagle dropped like a stone, dazed. “It didn’t have to go this way.” Tate fisted the guy’s shirt, dragged him out of the office, and dropped him at Luke’s feet. “Get rid of him.” Tate then spun on his heel and headed straight to his mate.
Havana went easily into his arms and blew out a breath. “Well that was unpleasant.”
He cupped one side of her neck. “You okay?”
“Yes. Your enforcers gave you a heads-up that he was here, huh?”
“They did. My gut told me that Dieter would make this play at some point, so I had a pretty good idea of why he’d come here. I didn’t want you dealing with it alone.”
“And you wanted to metaphorically pee on your territory.”
“You’re more than just my territory, baby. You’re my everything.” He squeezed the side of her neck. “If it turned out that we weren’t mates, you’d still be my everything.”
Her face went all soft in that way he liked. “Right back at you.”
“Good. But we are mates. We just need your devil to accept me as you do.”
“She’s more than halfway there.” Havana smoothed her hands up his chest. “I’m sorry that she’s taking her sweet time.”
“Don’t be. This is all on me. I let her down. I let you down. In doing so, I hurt you both. I don’t expect her to just forgive and forget all that—she doesn’t understand why I originally held back. She’s just looking out for you. Although it stings that she’d feel you need protecting from me, I know it’s my own fault. She’ll come around. And when she does, I can officially claim you.”
“A claim I will return.”
“Yes, you will.” He slowly took her mouth in a soft, languid kiss, loving how she strained toward him for more. He pulled back with a sigh of regret. “I’ve got to go. I have a few things to do.”
“Alpha stuff?”
“Alpha stuff. I’ll pick you up at the end of your shift.”
“Okay. See you then.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Havana sighed. “I’m not calling you ‘Alpha’ in bed.”
“Why not?” Tate asked, fighting a smile. Teasing his mate had fast become one of his favorite things to do. “You could play the shy submissive devil who can’t meet my eyes.”
“You are nuts if you think that’s going to happen.”
“It could be fun.” He’d never really been a big fan of soaking in a bathtub. He preferred showers. But as he lay in his freestanding tub with his mate situated comfortably between his legs, he felt more relaxed than he had in days. It was a combination of things—the feel of her skin against his, the heat of the water, the lavender scented bath bomb, the relative silence. The fact that she was naked was a bonus.
“You won’t even try?” he asked. “Playing the role of shy submissive devil who has disobeyed pride rules and needs to be punished by her Alpha … yeah, that would work.”
“Not happening, Garfield.”
Tate nipped the tip of her ear. “Fine, be that way. I’d rather play the ‘Alpha Male Claims his Mate’ game anyway. We can call it practice.”
A claiming between Alphas could be savage. The moment the mental path for their true-mate bond cleared, the mating urge would slam into them. It was said to be so all-consuming that it robbed a person of all control and left them with only one thought in their head—to claim their mate. But the mating urge also fed a natural-born alpha female’s need to test their male, so there would be no fast, sex-crazed fuck for Havana and Tate. She’d make him work for it, just as she always did.
Until her devil opened that damn door, the mating urge would remain dormant. Assuming that was the only thing blocking the bond’s frequency, of course. There was no saying for certain that Havana had gotten rid of whatever issues that blocked it before her devil shut him out. But Tate believed they’d worked through them together.
“You’re not reluctant to become Alpha female, are you?” He dragged his fingertips up the arm she’d braced over the side of the tub. “I was hoping you’d come around to the idea.” His cat tensed as he waited for her answer.
“I can’t say I’m excited to lead your pride, but I don’t have an issue with it,” she said, her eyes closed, her head resting on his chest. “I was hesitant at first, but that was mostly because I worried your pride mates would see you mating a lone shifter as a weakness. But now that I’ve met each of your pride mates and—with the exception of a few—seen that they’re nothing but happy for you, I’m okay with it.”
Tate felt his mouth tip up, touched by her concern. “I didn’t realize you worried they’d consider my claiming a loner a demonstration of weakness. You should have mentioned it. I could have told you that it was a senseless worry—my pride mates don’t have issues with lone shifters. We employ them, we associate with them, and we support Dawn’s shelter. In fact, my pride mates often donate blankets, food, furniture, and clothing to the shelter. I don’t order them to do it. They do it because they want to.”
“I was pretty sure you’d tell me that I was worrying unnecessarily, but I needed to see for myself that that was the case.”
“So you’re good with ruling the pride alongside me now?”
“Yes. Don’t think my not being excited means I’ll do a half-assed job. I won’t shirk my duties, neglect the pride, or leave the main bulk of the responsibilities to you. I’ll be your partner, your equal, your sounding board—whatever you need.”
“I’ve never doubted that you’d be a committed Alpha. You already are one. It’s just that your clan currently consists only of you, Aspen, and Bailey. Camden sort of lingers on the periphery of it. He gives off the lone wolf vibe.”
“I suspect the only thing that keeps him in one place is Aspen.”
Tate felt his brow crease. “I don’t think so. He cares about you and Bailey in his way.”
Havana’s nose wrinkled. “I don’t know if he cares about us per se. It’s more like he cares what happens to us. Aspen’s the only person he’s formed a bond with, from what I can tell. But I don’t know if it’s a healthy bond. It’s just a little too intense. I can’t explain it well.”
“I know what you mean. Something about him is …. off. But I don’t get the sense that he’s cruel or unfeeling.”
“The stuff that happened in his life before he appeared at the center … It’s a doozy of a story, Tate. Maybe it all switched off something inside him, or maybe he’s always lacked a certain something that I can’t quite put my finger on. Corbin said he used to watch Camden very closely when he was a kid, worried he’d go down a dark path. But then Aspen turned up at the center, and Camden connected with her. That seemed to stabilize him somehow.”