“And you can tell him Gideon made contact,” she snapped to the Coyote alpha. “He captured them; I merely kept him from killing them. And Graeme has cameras here somewhere that recorded every second of it with full audio as well as video. He has them all nicely wrapped up and tied with a very pretty bow. If Jonas is nice, I’m certain Lobo will agree to send a copy of the security videos.”
“And your bill will be in the mail,” Del Rey snickered, his gaze as amused as the scent of his laughter when he turned to Lobo. “She’s worth keeping, isn’t she?”
Graeme’s low growl earned him her elbow in his side while Lobo’s chuckle hid the sound of the warning rumble.
“Only if she wants to be kept,” Cat assured him with sharp sarcasm as she jerked from Graeme’s hold and moved to the staircase. “Tell Jonas we’ll talk later. It’s late and I’m really not in the mood to deal with more arrogant, superior Breeds without sleep. I’ll talk to all of you later.”
“Cat?” Del Rey had her pausing and turning back to him. “Are you okay?”
Her brow lifted at the question. “I’m walking and talking, right?”
“A bit stiffly,” he acknowledged with a hint of a grin. “Do we add assault to the Jackals list of charges?” It was evident he wanted to.
“Add it to Raymond’s,” she informed them shortly, preferring not to go into details. “Any damage done, he inflicted it.”
“Brave little tigress, yes?” Ashley piped up, the Russian accent heavier as she held back her laughter.
“Brave?” her sister questioned. “I don’t know if ‘bravery’ is the word for it.”
Cat glanced back at the two Breed females, aware of more than a dozen pairs of male Breed eyes on her. Particularly one, the Bengal posing as a Lion.
“Bravery?” She let her gaze slide over the males. “Self-preservation, ladies. Self-preservation.”
• CHAPTER 9 •
Graeme watched as his delicate little mate moved unhurriedly up the stairs, her cute little ass bunching in the most delicious way.
Turning, he growled at the other males in the room watching as well, especially the two Jackals watching him with narrowed consideration.
The first spoke up. “She doesn’t carry your scent, Lion. I sense the bond, but not the completion of it. Complete it, before your rival does.”
The rumble of warning in his chest was one the Jackal took seriously. Shrugging as though it were none of his business, and ignoring the Wolf Breed at his side whose warning growl backed up the primal command, the stronger Jackal let a smile quirk his lips.
“Hey, Lion,” he said, calling Graeme’s attention back to him. “My name is Kiel, my partner Lowen. It would pay you to find a moment to speak to us before we meet Jonas’s volcano. Which I’m certain we will sooner rather than later.”
The rumor of Jonas’s volcano was a truth many scoffed at. The volcano meant there was no evidence, no trace of the director’s steps to ensure that certain types of evil were extinguished forever.
“Why would I want to do that?” Graeme sneered.
He’d learned all he needed to know, that when it came to Cat, he was far too susceptible to her desires.
Pale yellow eyes flashed with a moment—just the faintest heartbeat—of somber knowledge before a mocking smile crossed his lips. “Just for the hell of it perhaps.”
Just for the hell of it.
“Bureau heli-jet is landing, alpha,” Ashley called out to Del Rey as he stood watching the exchange. “The big bad director of Breed Affairs is on board.”
Glancing at Lobo he could see the Wolf Breed preparing himself for this meeting. It wouldn’t be quite as easy as it would have been had Cat not called Del Rey and his girls to witness the Jackals’ capture before Lobo and Graeme arrived. And it sure as hell would have been easier had she not dropped the little bombshell about Gideon and that she was directly responsible for the packages being saved for the Bureau.
The little witch. She’d outmaneuvered him with such sweet deception that he could do nothing but admire her for it. That didn’t mean he was going to allow her to get away with it. Because it was damned sure Lobo wasn’t going to let him forget it.
Any debt Jonas owed for the first known capture of a Jackal team, as well as the proof the Bureau needed against Raymond Martinez, was now owed to Cat.
At least now perhaps Jonas would get off Lobo’s back about sending enforcers onto the grounds to oversee Cat’s protection.
“Well, gentlemen, what do we have here?” Jonas stepped into the foyer, followed by his assistant director, a tall Celtic Coyote Breed, Rhyzan Brannigan. The assistant director’s gaze turned first to Raymond, a cold smile quirking one corner of his lips. When he glanced in Graeme’s direction his amusement couldn’t be missed.
Behind them, several Bureau Enforcers stood alert, their hard gazes locked on the prisoners as satisfaction filled Jonas’s gaze.