Chapter Eighteen

"You've eaten, you've got your coffee, and you've got me, your attentive mate who's all ears, waiting to hear what you've got to say." Pax wiped his mouth with his hand. "And no kissing for you until we've had our chat. I would hate for either one of us to be distracted from what is clearly an important matter. Apparently, I can have that effect on you."

Busted. "I'm definitely guilty of enjoying our kisses." Storm put on his most charming grin. "I'm also guilty of enjoying the smile on your beautiful face, the way your laughter lifts my heart, the gentle way you snuffle against my chest in the mornings when you're still asleep. Your mere presence in our house makes it feel like a home. My first thought in the morning is of you and I'm still thinking of you as I fall asleep at night. I dream of…"

Pax's mouth dropped open. "My gods! Stop! Are things really that bad? Has my uncle put a contract out on me or something?"

"I was trying to be sweet so we could have a moment here," Storm protested, his grin slipping.

"Your smile was plastic." Pax pointed to his cheeks. "Your words, while beautiful, were another form of distraction. You thought… wait for it. It will come to me. Yes, yes."

He pointed at Storm's chest, his finger wavering. "You thought I'd be so blown away by the romance of your words, that I'd jump on your lap, kiss you senseless, and you could put off this conversation for another day, or at the very least the five minutes it would take for you to bring me to orgasm. Tell me I'm wrong. Lie to my face."

Oh shit. Storm was getting a bad reputation with his mate, and it might be justified. "I would never lie to you. I can't. You're my mate." Sighing, Storm said, "I don't want to hurt you, and if my words hurt you…if I tell you what's going on and you get upset, then I've hurt you. Mates don't do that to each other."

Pax tapped the table. "Okay. I'll guess. That way it's not your words that are hurting me. Am I in danger?"

A large pit formed in Storm's stomach. "Yes."

"Are you in danger?"

Storm looked to one side and then the other, and then said, "Possibly. Probably. Maybe."

"Does this involve your family?"

"Yes."

Pax frowned. "Well that makes absolutely no sense. How on earth would your family know about me? Your brother thinks I'm just some twink with a big mouth and a car fetish. There's no way anyone in your family could've tied me to you." Then his eyes widened, and his voice dropped to a whisper. "Oh, my goodness, the conspiracy theory is true, isn't it? It's really true. Does this business of yours that you don't want to tell me about involve any member of my family? Like my uncle perhaps?"

That pit got larger. Storm nodded. "We haven't got any concrete facts," he hastened to add, "although Cyrus and his friends are working on this issue day and night. But from what it seems… Shit. There's no easy way to say this. My family is here on a job for your uncle, to do away with you. If it helps, my father doesn't appear to want to kill you. It's more likely he wants to use you for your magic. When my brother described you as the person who'd threatened him with the police…well, apparently Bullet met his namesake and my father's pissed because Bullet got so distracted by my presence, that he didn't take you to him."

"Python wouldn't have let that happen, even if you were unconscious at the time." But Pax sounded distracted. "Why would my uncle do this now? Why would he get in touch with random crocodile shifters from Florida? We're nowhere near Florida. How on earth did this happen? Did it have anything to do with the bear? Is everyone trying to kill me?"

"No one knows where you are, precious, and every man here would defend you with their lives, including me." Storm struggled to explain. Frankly, none of it made sense to him either. Pax's whole situation was either the biggest set of fucking coincidences known to man, or someone was playing a very long game.

"From what Cyrus found out, the bear situation was random bad luck. That bear had been hunting young men in Bozeman and from as far away as Big Sky for the past two years, which was one of the reasons Cyrus was called about this case. I was told to come and save you because one of the gods' mates, who give us jobs sometimes, saw a connection between the two of us and decided I'd be the best person to save you, seeing as that's what I do – well, not the save so much. That was unusual. But anyway, that's how I was tasked with saving you then."

"Gods, right. This situation can't get any weirder." Pax shook his head and then reached for the donut box, frowning when he saw it was empty. "So the bear was bad luck, or bad judgment on my part being taken in the first place. My uncle is trying to get rid of me. I don't know why because I don't cause him any trouble, but fair enough. Life happens like that sometimes. But how did your father get involved in all this? I doubt my uncle's ever been to Florida."

"That's something we don't know." Storm huffed out a long breath. "You should know, the reason Cyrus has been pestering me is that I told him he couldn't question you. I didn't think you needed to be interrogated about your life when you're the one my father's after."

"Cyrus thinks I'm responsible for all this?"

"No. Not that." See, this was why Storm hadn't wanted to say anything. Now Pax was upset again, and Storm wouldn't put it past his feisty mate to go charging after Cyrus when the man was just trying to do his job. "No one can find any information about you at all. No indication of who your family is, who your parents were. Cyrus thinks that knowing about your past and your family could help us come up with the reason why your uncle is trying to get rid of you now. We couldn't even find out how old you are. There's no listing at all for you on the paranormal database."

"I don't even know what that is." Pax shrugged. "I turned twenty-five a month ago. I know I don't look it, but I am."

"Twenty-five is the age of maturity for paranormals." That was a strong clue and could be a reason why his mate was being targeted now, rather than before.

"It doesn't make any difference, if you think about it. I've lived alone for years, and it's not like I've ever celebrated my birthday. The only reason I know the date was because my uncle texted me and told me to wait for him at my apartment that night because he was going to bring me dinner to celebrate me being an official adult."

Storm frowned. "That doesn't sound like your uncle's normal behavior. Not from what you've said about him before."

"The dinner invitation was unusual, but it turns out he hadn't changed at all." Pax yawned. "I need more donuts. My uncle never showed up, which is his typical behavior. Speaking of which, I should really replace my phone. The bear took it when he took me. Marybelle's probably been trying to get in touch with me, and my uncle is probably texting wondering why I'm not dead yet."

"Who's Marybelle?" Storm might be bound with magic, but it didn't stop him growling.

"She's a lady who lives in my apartment complex. We used to meet up for lunch sometimes. Why are you growling like that? She used to think I was a waste of space as well, but she might've cared enough to make sure I wasn't dead."

"Oh, Pax." Storm's jealousy died as quickly as it had sprouted. He tried to get out of his chair, but he still couldn't move. "I really want to hug you right now."

"We haven't got time for hugging. We need a plan."

Then maybe you shouldn't look so damn cute when you're in a feisty mood. Storm sighed. "I assume you want to talk to Cyrus after all…"

"Only to tell him I don't know anything so he'll stop pestering you."

"Can you at least release me from this magical hold before we see them?" Storm gave his mate his best puppy-dog eyes. "You know darn well Python would immediately assume you've restrained me like this so you can use me like a sex toy."

Pax leaned away from the table and eyed him up and down. "Points to Python. I wouldn't have thought of that, but no," he added when Storm felt his cock stir. "Not right now. We have to behave like responsible adults. Someone's trying to kill me, and I think that takes precedence right now, don't you?"

"Can I think about that?"