Rising Storm (Westin Force #2) - Julie Trettel Page 0,18

“Relax, Archie. It’s fine. Painter takes full responsibility for his mate. Emma’s not going to cause any trouble here, now are you?”

She surprised me by standing a little taller and shaking her head.

“Good. Come on. We’re headed your way now.”

I sighed as the four of us walked down to the Bravo conference room. It was where I was planning on enjoying lunch with Emma.

“New assignment?” I guessed.

“Afraid so.”

I looked at my mate.

“It’s optional for you. You take however long you need to get adjusted with your new mate,” Patrick said. “Aye?”

I nodded. I was already torn over what to do. I’d never let the team down, certainly not Silas, but could I choose them over her?

I motioned for Emma to take a chair, but I knew she wouldn’t, not with everyone there. Instead, as soon as I set our salads down she took one and moved over to the corner to be as hidden as possible. Tarron usually sat in the closest seat because it had the easiest access to power ports and he often dragged in more than one laptop or other equipment to meetings. He’d have to get over me stealing his chair.

I figured he could get over it for one day and sat down. Patrick eyeballed me. Even he realized we basically had assigned seats and I’d just changed things up.

He craned to look over my shoulder and smiled. I turned to see a frustrated Emma trying to open the container with her large gorilla hands. I spun around and came to her rescue. It made me feel good to do something for my mate.

She’d been with me for an entire week already and I’d only briefly caught sight of her in human form. She wouldn’t shift and she wouldn’t really talk to me. I talked a lot for the both of us, more than I’d ever talked to anyone. It should have been uncomfortable, but it wasn’t. I felt like I could tell her absolutely anything.

Still, I couldn’t understand why she insisted on staying in gorilla form. Grant had checked her over dozens of times for me and there was nothing physically wrong with her. I didn’t make it a big deal, but I was starting to get worried. I liked her gorilla just fine, but I really wanted to see and get to know her.

Finding out her real name had felt like a huge accomplishment. She’d communicated some and our gorillas were perfectly compatible, but it wasn’t the same and I was tired of sleeping on the floor even though I loved the fact she’d built me a nest out of blankets there.

At least in gorilla form I’d been able to hold her. It was the best night’s sleep I’d had in a while. But I couldn’t live my life as a gorilla.

Maybe Baine was right, and I needed to find a way to coax her out of hiding. Then again, when was the last time he had a good idea?

The others filed in. Tarron stopped at the door and his face crinkled, then he looked over my shoulder, sighed, and rolled his eyes. He took my usual seat without saying a word.

Silas gave me a questioning look and I tipped my head to the side. He seemed a little surprised to see her there.

“Settle down gentlemen, we have a new development,” Kyle said.

Silas cleared his throat. “Is this confidential? Should we take this somewhere else? No offense, but Sahara hasn’t even been debriefed yet.”

“Sahara?” Patrick asked.

“Emma,” I corrected. “Sahara was just a stage name given to her by the Raglan.” I tried not to growl my frustrations. “Her name is Emma.”

“She’s finally talking to you then. That’s awesome, dude,” Baine said.

I couldn’t stop the sigh. “Not exactly, but we’re making progress.”

“It’s fine,” Kyle said. “No need to relocate. You’ll all be fully briefed on the plane, this will just be a generic overview.”

Silas nodded. Something was off about him. I needed to set some time aside to talk with him. I’d been so focused on Emma that I’d just been walking through the motions of the day and taking every chance I could to get back to her.

“So what’s up?” Ben asked.

Grant and Taylor ran in at the last second.

“Sorry,” they both said as they took their seats.

It didn’t go unnoticed to anyone that she was looking a little disheveled or that Grant had her lipstick on his neck. They were newly mated though and still being given a pass. At least they kept