Grayslake: More than Mated: The Right Spot (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read online

  Yeah. He was a goner. She was his mate. He understood that now. His inner cat preened with joy and prodded him to mark her and make her his own in a visible way that others would recognize. He didn’t want to push too hard though. What if she wasn’t feeling the same things he was?

  Mario pushed all doubt from his mind with a conscious effort of will. If she didn’t love him now, he’d stick around and make it happen. He’d be at her side every minute of every day until she realized they were perfect for each other. The cat swished its tail in agreement.

  “For now, we wait. Escobar will call me when his men are in position, then I’ll call Van and he’ll release the two targets. I’m betting they’ll come directly back here, to search the house next door for the drugs, and lie in wait hoping their marks will come back.”

  “What if they go after Greg and Maryann first?”

  Mario shook his head. “Most likely scenario is that they’ll try to find the drugs first. They didn’t get much chance to search next door this morning. We interrupted them before they could get a good look around. They’ll come back and hope to strike it lucky. The drugs are their primary target, murder of the couriers a secondary objective. They’ll want the drugs secure before they kill anyone. And if they can’t find the drugs on their own, they’ll need the courriers alive to question until they do find them.”

  “Makes sense.”

  They worked in companionable silence for a while, until they’d both finished their tasks. All was prepared and there was nothing more to do but wait.

  Patty sat back in her seat and sighed. “I wish Maryann had picked a less adventurous way to reach for her independence.”

  Mario had to chuckle. “How is she doing?” Patty hadn’t said much about her quick trip home, but she hadn’t looked upset, so he wasn’t too worried.

  “A lot better, actually,” Patty replied, a look of thoughtful wonder on her face. “I would’ve stayed home longer if they needed me, but she and Aunt Suzy were in the middle of baking a batch of cookies. They were going to stay inside and do homebody stuff all day because Maryann is still a bit sore, but they’re both enjoying the quiet time together. We get so caught up in our individual lives sometimes, we don’t spend enough time together.”

  “I know what you mean,” he agreed, thinking about his own wandering ways. He hadn’t been back home to Argentina in a very long time. But that might have more to do with avoiding his grandmother than anything else.

  “I just hope we can resolve this so she never has to worry about it again. Poor kid has had a rough enough time already. I don’t want her to have recurring problems from her first—maybe only—bid for independence. Dammit. Why did she have to choose Greg for her first adventure?”

  “I learned a long time ago, there’s no use crying over spilt milk.” She looked so forlorn, he had to comfort her. “Come here, querida.” He moved his chair back to make room on his lap.

  Much to his satisfaction, she came over and sat down sideways across his legs, her arms around his neck, her head resting against his shoulder. She fit nicely in his arms and the feel of her in his arms went through him like a warm caress.

  “Sweetheart,” he lowered his voice, whispering near her ear. “I would do anything to make this easier on you.”

  She pulled back to meet his gaze. “You’ve already done so much. Without you and your contacts—and your willingness to help—this would be so much worse. You being here is like a miracle, Mario.”

  He drew her closer, leaning his forehead against hers. “You are the miracle, mi osito.” He kissed her, unsurprised when the kiss developed into an explosive passion that demanded an answer.

  Patty was more than willing to be distracted from her problems by passion. When Mario took her into his arms, she let all her worries slip away. They could wait until later. Right now, she wanted to be with her mate.

  And yeah, she was certain now. For better or worse, her bear had chosen. Mario was their mate. No question about it.

  She felt the world spin a bit when Mario rose, with her in his arms, then whirled around to place her butt on the kitchen table. Did he intend to…?

  The way he was tearing at her clothing told her the answer was an emphatic yes!

  She did the same for him, raising his shirt and whipping it off over his head as he rid her of hers. Then her bra disappeared and he slowed for a minute, his big, warm hands covering her breasts, then pausing to play with her nipples. She sucked in a breath when he squeezed just right, then gasped as he dove down to suck first one and then the other into his mouth. His very talented mouth.

  She was panting for air when he finally released one of her nipples with an audible pop. His hands had been busy while she’d been distracted. He lifted her briefly to lower her pants and panties in one well-orchestrated move. He’d done this before.

  She didn’t mind his experience though. She’d never had such an adventurous lover and she’d never done it anywhere other than a bedroom. She needed him to take the lead a bit here, on unfamiliar territory. And she like his dominance. Her bear wanted to bask in his strength and roll around in his luscious, sexy scent. He was all male. And he was all hers. At least for now.

  He stepped between her bare thighs, his hands caressing her skin in ways that made the fire within her leap. She didn’t want to wait. She wanted him. Right now. She unbuttoned his pants and began working the zipper down.

  “Do you realize what we’re doing here, querida?” His lightly accented voice came to her, a dark whisper on the air. She made herself listen despite her distraction. “This is for keeps, mi amor.”

  That shocked her gaze upward to meet his smoldering eyes, lit emerald from within. The cat was very near the surface, as she knew her bear was too. Her eyes were probably black with the bear’s presence, but he didn’t seem to mind.

  “Keeps?” she repeated, needing to know for sure that he meant what she thought he meant.

  “You are my mate,” he said simply, his eyes flaring with certainty.

  “I—” Her throat too dry to speak, she swallowed, then tried again. “I know. You’re my mate too.”

  A grin split his face with satisfaction. “Then we are in accord,” he said, smiling from ear to ear. She felt herself smiling back. Their animals were in alignment, as were their human sides. He dipped his head to kiss her. “Te amo, mi amor. I love you.”

  The kiss went on and on. When he finally let her up for air, he held her face cupped gently in his palms and rested his forehead against hers.

  “I love you too, Mario,” she whispered, so glad to be able to say it aloud. “I don’t know how it’ll all work out, but I love you. Forever.”

  “Don’t worry about the future. It will work. We’ll make it work,” he promised her. “But right now, I think I’ll die if I don’t get inside you in the next few minutes.”

  “Me too,” she admitted with a wicked grin, pushing his pants down and off his hips, then wrapping her calves around him. “Take me now.”

  “You wish…” he slid forward, joining them in one long, slick move, “…is my command.”

  She couldn’t help it. She giggled.

  But then there was no more time for laughter as he began a pace that was both frenetic and full of significance. This wasn’t just mating. This was a good, old fashioned frenzy. A mating for all time. A mating to mark the beginning of something new and sacred.

  And when they reached their climax, she bit down on his shoulder, as he bit into her skin. The momentary pain only increased the pleasure as she realized the significance of the moment.

  Mating marks. They were together now. Never to be torn asunder.

  Chapter Twelve

  After that first round in the kitchen, Mario found the energy to move them into his bedroom, where he gave her a much slower, even more powerful ride—or so she claimed. It was all a bit of a blur to him. It wasn’t every day he claimed his mate for the first time. In fact, he’d never done it before, and would never do so a
gain in this lifetime. Today was special.

  Now if they could just get this problem with her sister ironed out, they could then take the time to really enjoy their new relationship. Maybe go on a honeymoon or something. Or just spend a few weeks in bed, only coming out for meals. Yeah, that would be pretty awesome.

  Patty stirred at his side, running her fingers over his chest and upward toward his neck, skirting around the slightly sore spot on his shoulder. He didn’t care about the pain. Bring it on. He’d suffer anything to wear her mark and have the world know that he was hers, just as she was his.

  “Sorry if I got a little carried away.” Her voice was a sexy, low rumble that washed over his senses as he rotated his head to meet her sultry gaze.

  “Honey, you can get carried away with me any time your heart desires.” He smiled at her and her luscious lips lifted in an answering grin that made him want to kiss her again.

  “I meant your shoulder. I didn’t mean to bite you so…thoroughly.”

  He sat up in bed, looking at her and brushing his fingers across the skin just below the mark he’d left on her. He examined it closely.

  “Are you in pain from this?” His fingers skimmed close to the mark again.

  “Not really,” she answered, her eyes sparkling up at him. “I’m sort of giddy about it, if you want the truth. I can’t believe this all happened so fast.”

  “That’s the way it is when mates recognize each other. Or so I have heard. I, for one, am glad to learn it’s true.” He dipped his head to kiss her shoulder lightly. “I have searched the world over for you, and now you are here.”

  “I didn’t go as far, but I’m so glad you found me,” she whispered back.

  He was about to go in for a deeper kiss when the quiet of the bedroom was shattered by the ringing of a phone. Both of them stiffened. That had to be the call they’d been waiting for.

  “Looks like we’re back on the clock,” Mario said, giving her a peck on the cheek before jumping out of bed. He grabbed his phone, answering the call before it could ring for a third time.

  As expected, it was Escobar. Everything was in position. Mario talked to his old friend for a few minutes, firming up the details of what they all expected to go down tonight. He saw Patty climb out of bed and head for the bathroom. She was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen, but he had to—somehow—keep his mind on the business at hand.

  Everything was set. Now all he had to do was make the call that would release the two hitmen, then sit back and watch everything happen. With any luck, they could wrap this all up within the next few hours and then he and Patty would be free to start their lives together.

  If the Goddess of his ancestors was smiling on them.

  Patty took the fastest shower of her life, toweled off and re-dressed in the clothes she’d worn earlier. She was going to have to start keeping a change of clothing with her if they were going to be doing this kind of thing. What was she thinking—if? They were mates. She was going to be jumping Mario’s bones for the next fifty years or so.

  She almost hugged herself, basking in the enormity of that thought.

  “Almost ready in there?” Mario’s voice came to her through the door to the bathroom.

  She was just finishing up, so she opened the door and went out to find him standing there in his black fatigue pants. Rawr. He looked sexy enough to bite. But wait. She’d already done that.

  She couldn’t help the smile on her face as she walked right up to him and wrapped her good arm around his neck, sliding close for a quick kiss. She would’ve liked it to be more, but they only had time for one quick kiss before they both had to get their butts in gear.

  They’d agreed that she would make the call to the station, since it wouldn’t look odd at all for a junior officer to be calling her place of work if anyone ever checked the phone records for any reason. Mario was handling the Spanish connection for obvious reasons, but Patty had already sworn to herself that she was going to learn the language at her earliest opportunity. That wouldn’t be fast enough to help with this situation, but she wanted to take an interest in her mate’s life and background. Learning the language of his homeland seemed a good place to start.

  He stepped back, ending the kiss. He held out her cell phone and she took it. She knew what was supposed to happen next.

  “I guess it’s show time.” She took a deep breath and punched in the numbers that would connect her to the station. She delivered the short message to Van and hung up. “They’ll let the two men out in about fifteen minutes.”

  “If they come straight here, like I expect, we should see them in thirty,” Mario said, sending a quick text using his own phone. When he put away the phone he moved closer. “The ball is rolling now. We’d best prepare.”

  Thirty minutes later, almost to the second, they heard noise coming from the house next door. They were already in the backyard, looking down on the house next door, each from separate trees. Bears were almost as good at climbing as cats, and it seemed to make the most sense for them to observe the action from above.

  They weren’t supposed to engage the bad guys this time. They were only there to verify capture and act as backup, if necessary. Escobar’s men were going to do the dirty work of capturing the two ruffians.

  When the time came, Patty was amazed at the stealth with which a team of heavily armed, green-clad men melted from the trees and shrubs that bordered the backyard next door. They had the house surrounded in what seemed an instant. Silent. Stealthy in a way that humans seldom were.

  Son of a gun. Those soldiers were shifters. Had to be. The scents were drifting away, the slight wind blowing in the opposite direction from Patty’s position, but she’d bet her lunch that those guys were all shifters of one kind or another. They moved too fluidly and too silently to be human.

  She got a shock when one of the men closest to her looked up into her tree, directly at her, and winked. Of course, her scent was carrying in their direction. That clinched it as far as she was concerned. That one, at the very least, was some kind of shifter.

  She watched as two of the guys infiltrated from the roof, sliding into a couple of the upper story windows. She hadn’t even known there was anyone on the neighboring roof. These guys were good. Really good.

  But the fools inside the house didn’t go quietly, according to the plan plan. No, they ran out the back door and tried to hop the fence into Mario’s yard. Something had spooked them. Both men were gibbering in Spanish and their eyes were almost as wild as they had been when they’d seen Patty running at them in bear form. She almost smiled at the memory as she watched the soldier who had winked at her and another guy grab the two thugs from behind.

  Before they knew what hit them, the two men were on the ground, their hands zip tied behind their backs. It had all been done with super efficiency.

  The wink-meister hopped over the fence into Mario’s backyard at almost the exact moment Mario dropped from his tree and sauntered over to meet the other guy, slapping him on the back like they were old friends. Mario casually gave her all-clear signal they’d worked out beforehand and she climbed down a little more slowly, her bear making her only a tiny bit less nimble than Mario’s cat.

  She walked over to the men, examining their body language as she approached. They were definitely comfortable in each other’s presence. As if there was a long history between them.

  “You guys used to work together, didn’t you?” she said, speaking her mind as she walked up to them.

  “What gave us away?” The man who had winked at her turned to face her fully, his eyes sparking gold in the fading light. They glowed for a moment. Yep. He was a shifter all right. But his eyes weren’t the yellow of a wolf. This was gold. Something she’d never seen before. What was he?

  And his accent wasn’t one she could place. It wasn’t strong, but there was something definitely different about the way he spoke English. His looks could’ve been from anywhere in the Mediterranean. Or maybe the Middle East.
Or South America, even? She just wasn’t sure. He had one of those faces that could come from one of any dozen nationalities—or none at all. He was a chameleon, regardless of what his true beast turned out to be.

  “I’m Seth,” the man said, holding out his hand.

  Patty took it, returning the friendly gesture, though she was reserving judgment on the man himself. She wanted to know more about how he knew her new mate.

  “Patty,” she replied, keeping it cordial for now, even as her inner bear bristled a bit.

  “Keep your paws to yourself, Seth.” Mario put his arm around her waist and tugged her close in a caveman display that oddly, settled her bear right down. “She’s mine.”

  “Is that right?” Seth smiled as he cocked one hip. He was definitely a sexy beast, but she had her own and she wasn’t interested in any others. Mario was more than enough for her.

  “Oh, yeah,” Mario answered his friend, though he looked down into her eyes. “I’m all hers.” He reached up and tugged aside the neck of his shirt, showing off the mating bite that had already begun to heal. “You’re the first to bear witness.”

  “Seriously?” Seth sounded both shocked and happy, the tone of his voice doing wonders for Patty’s opinion of him. He seemed genuinely pleased for them.

  Patty tugged aside her collar too, showing off her matching mark. “Very seriously,” she answered, grinning at her new mate.

  “Oh, man. I’m happy for you, Wildcat. You deserve every bit of happiness. I thought you were crazy when you said you were retiring from the field, but now that I see what you have found here, I’m honestly a little jealous. Congratulations to you both.”

  “Thanks, man,” Mario said, shaking the other guy’s hand. “And thanks for handling our little problem next door. This op is very important to my mate and her family.”