Page 54 of Ruthlessly Mated

“Of course we do. The insurance.”

“Who do you think insured the port? What company would take that kind of risk?”

Tailor cocks his head at me. “Do you think I’m stupid, Conroy?”

“No.”

“It didn’t occur to you to ask what I meant by that? You just thought I was delusional?”

“Honestly, I wasn’t really thinking about what you meant. I was distracted by your horrific country vision.”

“You’re horrified by the country?” He looks at me with surprise. “Trust me. We have insurance. I didn’t spend the entire time at the port drinking and commissioning clothes.”

“You didn’t?”

“No,” he laughs, cuffing me. “I did things too.”

While we discuss these matters, Kita has come up quietly and is sitting next to Damon, murmuring soft words to him. He is speaking back. Softly, under his breath. Cute.

“We’re going to need to double back,” he says. “For the insurance.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I took our excess profits, converted them to gold, and buried it. We have significant savings off-site, in addition to what should still be in the safe at the port, which was built in such a way that just being set on fire won’t affect it too badly.”

“Seriously?” I am shocked, but in a very positive way. It has felt as though we can do nothing but lose of late; to find out that we have unexpected reserves is a great relief.

“Yes. Of course. Easiest way to be sure that value would be held. Anyway, it’s out of the port.”

“I don’t want to take her anywhere near that place.”

“I don’t want her out of sight. And we need the money. Can’t do anything without money. Unless, of course, you want to live out here in the dirt.” Tailor says.

“I don’t know,” I say. “It’s not that bad out here.”

“So you don’t want to live in the country, but you want to live here? In the desert?”

“You know what I want? To have things be easy. I don’t want to run a port again. I want to have babies. Lots and lots of babies. I want to mate my mate, and I want to live in peace, and I want to stop worrying about fucking pirates, and vampires, and humans who have a problem with us.”

“You want that now,” Tailor says. “But once you have it, you’ll be bored. And we’re going to have babies. We need to put a safe roof over their heads.”

“What about the sky?” I say. “Isn’t that a safe enough roof?”

“It leaks a lot.”

CHAPTER 9

Damon

While Tailor and Conroy continue their negotiations, I focus on getting Kita more comfortable within herself. They are excellent at dealing with logistics, but there’s so much more than simple logistics to deal with. There’s how she feels about being the wolf that she is. I know she will never be truly happy in her own skin until she gets used to it.

So, the next day, I encourage her to shift with me one more time, and the two of us head out into the wild rocky plains to look for prey. I do not know if this is her absolute first hunt, but I do know that she is not used to using her wolf form very much or very well. There are adorable little lapses of coordination that come from her brain not having had the practice of operating four-wheel drive.

I love spending time with her. Just the act of running, playing, being is enough for me. I adore this wolf. I love her so deeply there is no part of me that does not yearn for her, even when I am with her. I think she has always sensed that, and it shows inthe softness she has with me, the trust she displays when it is just her and me alone.

Pew! Ting!

At first, the sound is almost cute. A zipping noise, a little impact, a puff of dust.