returning to the resort and indulging in him before heading off to be pampered at the spa, a perfect reward for a job well done. “I got into a fight with a wolf.” I nodded in the direction of the girl and her parents. “He tried to infect that little sweetheart over there with lycanthropy. She’s twelve. He was flirting with her in line, so I skipped into the line after recording his behavior and sent her out while lying through my teeth about it. But the wolf got his ass kicked. By me.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“He didn’t even get a chance to hit me back. I kneed him in the groin and took him out like I took out my first steak last night. Maybe if he’d gotten into a pack and tried to make the most of his infection, he wouldn’t have been a useless wolf. But he was a useless wolf, so he got taken out like my steak.”
“Is he still alive?” Sebastian asked in an amused tone. “That steak didn’t last long.”
“Alas, he is. The cops took him away, and this nice lady is confirming my pay.” I nodded to the woman, who watched Sebastian with interest. “Libby, this is Sebastian. He’s my handler.”
Sebastian held his hand out to shake with the woman, and he showed her his CDC card. “Sebastian Sumners. Do you need me for anything?”
“Miss Wells has taken care of the matter, but if you’re her handler, we can finalize her bounty payment for this now. As she captured admissible evidence proving the bounty, she will be issued a bonus. She prevented any accidental infections after the target made himself bleed in order to contaminate a cup of coffee. As she is a lycanthrope, additional charges will be filed against him, as it is the equivalent of attempting a forced mating.”
“She’s mated. To me,” the lion growled.
Damn. It would only take a nudge or two to make him roar, but I’d be kind to everyone else for once in my life and resist the urge to antagonize him. “Yes, yes, Mr. Mane. Your territory has not been violated in any fashion whatsoever. Do not make me drop you to the sidewalk like I dropped that dumb fuck of a wolf. Behave.”
“Ah. You two are mated?” The CDC checked her tablet. “This says you’re single, Miss Wells?”
“He roared at me, and I find that irresistible.” As I sounded ridiculous, I shrugged. “I took pity on him, plus he likes feeding me. It turns out I really enjoy being fed. We have a relationship founded on skillfully annoying each other, and I’m easily manipulated when he roars. I really don’t see how anyone can blame me for this. His roars are quality roars.”
Sebastian sighed. “If you could avoid marking our files with that for the moment, we are working on a bounty, and we do not want our target, should he have unauthorized access to internal files, to get wind I’ll be around. He’s targeting women of Harri’s build and appearance, so I’m backing her in the field while she acquires evidence and makes the hit. I’ll handle the paperwork myself,” Sebastian promised.
“I can do that. I have the paperwork here for her payment if you’d like to finish processing it. We always give grace if there’s a reason, anyway. I’ll put a note to update her file effective for three months from now. If you’re hunting a bounty of a single lycanthrope, then it makes sense to keep your status unchanged for now. But please report to the CDC within the next ninety days so you can have your viruses evaluated.”
“Easily done,” Sebastian promised. “Do you need her for anything else?”
“Five minutes for signing of paperwork, and then you can be on your way,” Libby promised, tucking her meter under her arm to make it easier to work on her tablet. “It’s just confirming the payment amounts and signing off on the bounty.”
Sebastian focused on work while I sipped my hot chocolate, and once certain the lion’s attention was locked on Libby and her paperwork, I wandered over to the girl I’d bailed out of the line. “Are you doing all right?”
“I think so. He was just so pushy,” the girl complained. “But thank you, I wasn’t sure what to do. No one’s bothered me like that before.”
As she’d already had her general sense of security shattered enough for one day, I decided I’d leave her parents to the tough task of teaching the