10. Ranger

TEN

RANGER

The rain hadn't let up, and even though I was in the shower and it was hard to hear anything except pounding water, my wolf said Matt needed me.

Yeah, but he's also afraid of me, so there's that .

No. He's calling you .

I turned off the shower and got out, but before I could reach for a towel or robe, my mate sprinted into the bathroom. Despite Dane and the relentless rain, I had been thinking of Matt while standing under the water and was tempted to jerk off.

But I couldn't. Even though I was sporting an engorged cock, it wasn't right when my mate was terrified, especially when he knew nothing about me except that I was mafia.

"Oh my gods!" Matt was still wearing his suit, now ruined thanks to the rain, and it sagged in places, crumpled in others, while I was buck naked. And his gaze was fixed on my arousal.

I was pleasantly surprised at his reaction. I was big, huge in fact.

"You're enormous." He put both hands over his eyes and splayed his fingers, peeking between them. "No, that's not what I wanted to say, but your cock is distracting me."

I smirked. I couldn't help it. He was adorable, and if it had been any other place or time, I'd have asked his permission to take him to bed.

"Can you put it away?"

"No problem." I reached for a bathrobe and made sure to sway my hips before turning and giving him the perfect view of my ass. There was a sharp intake of breath from my mate.

Success!

Why did he come in? my wolf reminded me. Ask him .

"Everything okay?"

The cute version of Matt vanished, and in his place was the cranky one, which he had every right to be. He held up the phone.

"He can see where I am."

"How?" I snatched it off him and removed the SIM card.

"Don't crush it," he begged. "I need the numbers in there for my exposé."

There wasn't going to be any exposing of anything except my cock, but I didn't destroy it. "He can't track you. He's not…"

Shoot, Dane, just like our family, had men in law enforcement. But in this weather, which had just been declared a disaster by the local government, no one would be taking the Alpha's calls. Unless they had to. And if he had something on them, they'd have to.

"I'm sure he can't." That was a lie, but I was thinking of my mate, not wanting him to freak out.

He is freaking out . My wolf had eyes and ears.

Thanks for that. Helpful .

Always a pleasure .

"But I'm going to get dressed and make a meal. Are you sure you don't want to shower or at least change your clothes?"

Matt glanced at the open door leading into my bedroom. "Don't laugh, but I don't want to be alone." He held up a hand to shush me. "I know you're a bad guy too, but there's no one else here, so I'm stuck with you for now."

I outstretched my hand toward the shower. "You can use this bathroom."

"Okay," he said in a small voice.

I made no move, and Matt put both hands on his hips. "Excuse me, just because you showed me your goods, doesn't mean I'm going to do the same."

Shame. I pursed my lips to suppress a laugh.

"I'll wait in the bedroom." There were towels on the shelf at the end of the shower enclosure, and I got another robe out of the closet.

"Leave the door open."

"Okay."

I got dressed while listening to the sound of running water in the shower. The rain hadn't let up, and I checked the river, making sure it hadn't flooded its banks. I called Flint, asking him to check in with our informers in the police to see if Dane had gotten hold of anyone.

Matt's plan to expose the dirty deeds of The Obsidian Circle could be a positive for us if it disbanded the pack and sent Dane and his lackeys to jail. Though human prisons didn't have a great record of keeping shifters prisoner unless they were in specially built facilities manned by shifters.

I didn't see it happening, especially after today.

Matt emerged, his hair dripping, wrapped in a white robe. The dried blood was gone, his hair was darker again, and he'd removed that diamond stud from his ear. "I'm starving. Does almost being killed make you hungry?"

My wolf had killed other shifters, and while I'd never been in a firefight with humans, adrenaline did give me an appetite. "Perhaps."

"I shouldn't have worried about Dane tracking me. At the very least, he has a concussion and is in the hospital overnight."

"You're right."

He's wrong, my wolf hissed in my ear.

I know that and you know that, but he doesn't .

Once Dane regained consciousness, he'd have taken his fur, shifted back into his skin, and been one hundred percent okay. But I couldn't explain that to Matt.

My mate held up his hand. "It's a little owie."

As shifters didn't suffer from human ailments, we had no ointments in the house for cuts. But again, my dad's quirky habits came to the rescue.

"I have what you need, but it's in the car."

"Okay. I'll come with you."

My mate padded down the stairs, and like me, he was barefoot. The house was warm and toasty, but the garage not so much. We walked through the door that connected the house to the garage, and the motion sensor lights flicked on. Matt shrieked and grabbed my hand. But it was the hand I'd marked, and he grimaced.

A kiss would make his hand better.

Don't lie .

I ignored my beast's truth telling and took the eucalyptus oil from the car, still holding Matt's hand.

He was lifting up one foot and the other. "It's cold."

I'd kiss his feet too if he'd let me.

Back inside, I got olive oil and poured some into a container, doing everything one-handed as Matt wouldn't let go of me. Not that I wanted him to.

"Olive oil for my cut? Is that supposed to cure me or are you planning on eating me?" His manic laughter was a sign the stress was overwhelming him or perhaps he needed nutrition. His hand wasn't infected, so that wasn't the cause.

"Eucalyptus oil will burn a human's skin." Matt didn't comment on my use of the word "human" and it was too late to take it back.

Using a medicine dropper, I put in a few drops of the eucalyptus oil and blended it with the olive oil. I put my hand under Matt's and dropped some of the liquid onto his palm.

"Do you want to rub it in or shall I?"

"You."

I gently massaged the oil into his wound. That was how he saw it. To me it was his mark, bonding us if he agreed.

Working the oil into Matt's palm, two different aromas assaulted my nostrils. The fresh scent of the olive oil contrasted with the sharp aroma of the eucalyptus as my fingers pressed gently on my mate's flesh. Touching him, having him so close I smelled his chocolatey breath from the candy bars, and inhaling his scent, I wished to freeze this moment and remember it for always.

Matt gasped though he didn't pull away.

I paused the massage. "Am I hurting you?"

"No."

He didn't tell me to stop, so I continued. As I traced small circles over his flesh, not wanting to cause him further pain, I glanced up and our eyes locked on one another. He didn't look away and neither did I. I was convinced there was a flicker of something in his gaze that hadn't been there previously. Not love, not even friendship. But not fear.

He broke my trance by tugging at his hand and telling me I could stop. The oil left a sheen on his palm, and I tore off paper towels and he dabbed round the cut, soaking up the oil.

I longed to get that moment back, to recreate it, but it had slipped away.

"Ready for food?"

"Very."

"There's nothing fresh, but my dad always has the freezer stocked, and there are dried and canned goods in the pantry along with dried herbs and spices."

I indicated for Matt to sit while I got a meal together. Pasta with tuna mixed with frozen peas would be quick and easy. Matt yawned but nodded when I held up the can of tuna, so I got to work.

I checked my phone constantly for the weather and messages from Flint. His guys hadn't made it to Dane's office because of the flooded streets, and there'd be no way the Obsidian people would make it out here. But worst-case scenario, I had to assume they had discovered Matt was my mate.

Matt interrupted my thoughts as the water boiled for the pasta. "I have so many questions, I don't know where to begin." He held up his hand, the one I'd marked. "Why this and why were you so concerned that you gave me a warning and then came looking for me?"

That was a whole lot of questions. "And if I hadn't, you'd be at the bottom of a river by now."

"You didn't answer me."

"Okay." I wasn't ready to explain about mating because that came with a big reveal. "I was worried about you. Dane is a bad guy. People who worked for him have disappeared. Isn't that enough for now?"

While I was hoping my mate would sleep tonight, I'd be awake planning on how to save him when Dane put out a hit on him.

"Not really."

"And I have questions for you."