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Tommy, the middle child, was a flirt. He didn’t much care for the way that he was treating the staff, treating them like they were only there to serve him, but since he wasn’t going to have much to do with this project, he kept his mouth shut.

However, if he touched one of the staff again like she’d asked him not to, he was going to say something to his father.

Men like Tommy gave the term wealthy a bad name.

Just as the dinners were coming into the room, he’d had enough.

Turning to his father, he told Sheppard that the young man was getting too personal with the staff.

Something occurred to him as Sheppard stood up to talk to his son, and he had a look on his face that told him this wasn’t a one-time offense. Then Tommy whelped like he was in pain.

“Behave.” Tabby hissed the word to her brother and had a hold on his ear that might have been comical if not for the fact that she was making him listen to her.

“Behave yourself, Thomas Reader, or you can go home right now. These people are our guests. You know for a fact that I won’t put up with your shenanigans.

Leave the staff alone or go home. That’s your only two opinions. ”

“I was just having a bit of fun with them.” She twisted his ear, and that had him complaining again. “All right. I’ll behave myself. Christ, when is it against the law to have some fun?”

“It’s against the law when you harass someone who is working for you, and since she’s bringing you your dinner, she’s officially working for you.

” Tabby sat back down and turned to look at her mother.

“He’s going to be lucky some waitstaff isn’t going to be spitting in his dinner at the rate he’s going. ”

He might well have handled it differently, but he was glad that it was taken care of.

Tommy had been patting their asses and making lude comments since he’d sat down.

When his father looked in his direction, Tommy shrugged, and Sheppard whispered for him to behave himself, too.

It seemed that the entire family knew what they were dealing with in the younger son.

After empty plates were taken away, that opened the discussion to the warehouse.

They usually never spoke about business at the table, and today, other than him telling Sheppard he was in good hands, it wasn’t discussed.

But almost as soon as the last dirty plate was taken away, Tabby stood up and handed out file folders to everyone at the table.

“I wanted everyone to know where the progress is on the warehouse.” She handed her dad one, and then him and their fingers brushed. That was all it took for him to know what she was to him. And Christ, oh mighty, she was his mate.

The rest of the conversation was a blur for him.

All his mind could center on was that she was right here in the room with him, and he couldn’t talk to her.

As she went on about how the warehouse was coming along nicely, a week ahead of the planned finish date, he realized that he didn’t have a house nor even a stick of furniture to put in one.

Just as he was started to hyperventilate, he looked at his brother when he said his name.

“Are you all right? You’ve gone pale, and your breathing is labored.” He nodded, then shook his head. “What the hell is wrong with you? You’re looking like you’ve lost your marbles.”

He looked at the table and then back at Melbourne.

“She’s my mate. I think she’s my mate anyway.

” Melbourne asked him how did he know. “I don’t know.

That’s why I said I think she is. But I have this overwhelming need to protect her from her family.

Not to mention, I need to touch her. Is that her being my mate? ”

“I don’t know. I don’t have one, you nutball.

But you look like you’re freaking out. Stop it.

” He thought that was a good idea but couldn’t think beyond wanting to touch her.

“Fowler is going to kill you if you embarrass him like you’re doing.

Just breathe before I have to slap the piss out of you to make you not pass out. In and out, you idiot.”

He thought that he was breathing all right until Melbourne pinched his thigh under the table.

The sharp intake of breath made him realize that not only was he not breathing right, but he seemed to be gasping for air; he was deprived of breath.

Coughing to cover up what was really going on, Fowler asked him what the hell he was doing.

“I don’t know. I think Tabby is my mate.

When she touched me just now, I had this overwhelming need to touch her more.

Not to mention protecting her from her dumbass brother.

Don’t be pissy with me. I’m doing the best that I can right now.

I feel like I’m messing up, and I don’t have any idea why. Is that right?”

Fowler didn’t say anything for several minutes, and he had a feeling that he was talking to Amy.

Or their parents. Whatever he was doing, it wasn’t helping him from being freaked the fuck out.

When he finally did speak, it was as if he’d taken some kind of chill pill and was talking to him in a nice, calming voice.

“She’s your mate. Congratulations. Just keep breathing in and out, and you’ll be fine.

We can talk after this meeting. All right?

” He thanked him. “You’re going to be all right, Edgar.

Just try and remain calm so you don’t freak out your mate.

She’s already eyeing you like you have four heads.

” He looked at her just in time to see her glaring at him.

“Just smile…no, don’t smile. You don’t do fake smiles well, and she might well think you’re leering at her.

Just, I don’t know, just sit there and behave for a half hour or so, and you’ll be able to talk to her.

Calmly, Edgar. Don’t freak out on her, or you’ll be worse off than I was when I first found Amy. ”

“I don’t want that at all. You really were a major fuck up.” Fowler thanked him, and it sounded so sarcastic that it did make him feel better. “All right, I’m better now. Thanks.”

When Fowler found out that Amy was his mate, he ordered her around like she was a simpleton.

Then, when she couldn’t take it anymore, she got her revenge in a sweet way.

It was a wonder to all of them that they’d ever been able to make it work between them the way that Fowler had been acting.

Now they were not only good paired mates, but he thought that they were best friends as well.

And that was the kind of relationship he wanted with his mate. To be friends as well as lovers.

By the time the meeting ended, he was all right with the way things were going.

He must have reassured Tabby as well because she was no longer glaring at him but smiling when he asked a question.

He’d had plenty to ask her, too, since he’d gone over the paperwork.

He knew about as much as she did about the plant and its profit margins over the next few years.

He was actually excited about the venture now that he knew he could if she would allow it to work side by side with her if she needed him.

Waiting to talk to her after Amy did, he looked around the room at the state of affairs it was in.

It needed to have an overhaul. There were also cobwebs in the corners and some dust over the light fixtures.

It wasn’t gross by any means. He had a bit of dust in his apartment, too.

But the carpet needed to be replaced, and a few of the tables were wobbly.

Yes, the room needed a makeover. He’d talk to the—

“Did you want to talk to me?” Tabby speaking to him pulled him away from what he’d been thinking about the room. “I’m wanting to go home and go to bed if it’s all right with you.”

“I’m sorry you’re here so late. I did want to talk to you, but it can wait until you’re rested.” She told him to tell her what was going on earlier. “I came to a realization. What do you know about shifters in general?”

“A bit. We have a lot of them that work for us.” He nodded. He could smell them on her. Bear, tiger, and a wolf. “What’s your point?”

“I belong to you. I mean, we’re mates.” Nodding when she shook her head, he told her that they were. “I’m not as positive as I might have been earlier, but now that I’m standing next to you, I’m sure. Your scent calls to my other half.”

“Not that I believe you, but what sort of shifter are you? And if you tell me that you can’t discuss this with me, I’m going to smack you around like I did with my brother.

” He asked her why he’d not be able to discuss it with her.

“We have this one shifter that works for us, and he claims that he isn’t supposed to tell people what he is.

I know what others we have working for us, but he’s so secretive about it that it makes me want to fire him. ”

“Have you been around him much in the last few days?” She said that just before coming in here, she had gotten the files from him. “May I smell your hands? I can tell what he is without him knowing.”

Not only did he smell her hands but the file that she had in her hands, too. It took him two tries until he finally was able to tell her that he was nothing more than a human.

“Why would he tell me he’s a shifter then?

” He said he didn’t know but asked her a couple of questions so that he might be able to tell her why he was doing that.

“No, he doesn’t ask for special time off, but I’ve never seen him lift anything more heavy than a ream of paper. And he complains about that.”

“I have no idea what sort of worker he is, but I’d get rid of him for the simple reason that he’s lied to you.

If you can’t trust him, then that is as good a reason as any to get him out before he does something to harm your business or you.

I’m a dragon, by the way.” She nodded, then looked at him with a cocked brow.

“You don’t believe me? I don’t think your dad did either.

He thought it was too funny for me to be one. ”

“I have no reason not to believe you, but I know nothing at all about your kind.” He told her that few people did.

“I guess I can understand that as well. The less people know—don’t tell my brother Tommy.

Here, of late, I don’t trust him with a lot of things going on around me.

Also, I don’t really care how you feel about this, but I have a daughter.

She’s my number one priority over anything else. ”

“As she should be, and I will protect her like I will you. But about your brother, that’s not good.

If you don’t mind me asking, what has he done to lose your trust?

” She pointed out tonight for one thing and that he keeps doing things to upset the normal way of things going on at the first warehouse.

“You mean the buying of the days-old fruit and the salmon?”

“One of many, yes.” He told her that he’d look into a couple of things and get back with her. “All right. But what about us? I mean, I’m not even sure there is an us, but I’m too busy to try and figure out what you want from me.”

“Nothing at all that you’re not sure you want to give me.” She looked skeptical. “Why don’t we talk more tomorrow. You’re exhausted, and I need to get some things finished up, too. I’ll be in the hotel lobby tomorrow, and the three of us can have breakfast together. All right?”

She agreed, and he followed her out. But he kept an eye on her brother. There was something off about him, and he’d figure it out for her. Tomorrow. He needed to get home, too.