“Lady, you’re a pain in the ass—both you and your friend,” Dog growled, obviously talking about Claire. “That little hellion is going to drive me crazy.”
The lack of any animosity toward Liza had Stygian rolling his eyes rather than threatening to tear Dog’s head off. It was damned rare to see Dog reacting to anything in any manner other than mocking or sarcastic. The fact that Dog was so irate over a woman had him wondering if the Coyote—
“I’d kill myself before mating with that little harridan,” Dog snarled as Stygian inhaled deeply. “So stop looking for the damned scent. It’s flat-out not happening.”
Flint snickered while Stygian shook his head. Claire would be happy to know that so far, the mating scent wasn’t detectable. That didn’t mean it would stay that way, though.
“I think this sparring session is just what we all need,” Mutt growled as the elevator doors swung open, depositing them in the private gym Jonas had arranged in one of the conference rooms on the ground floor. “I could handle kicking your asses to hell and back. Might make all this enforced indoor boredom actually worth it.”
“You’re going to spar?” Complete disbelief filled her voice as she moved to face Stygian. “You brought me down here so I could watch the four of you spar?”
Staring into the narrowed gaze of his mate, Stygian suddenly felt more defensive than he liked. And he found he sure as hell didn’t like being defensive in front of Liza.
“No, I brought you down here so you could do that work you were bitching about while I spar,” he growled, hiding his confusion at the scent of—envy?
She was envious?
This proved true the rumor that intense training went into every member of the Navajo Breed Underground Network and explained why Liza and Claire were able to deny being a part of it, despite the reports they received that both women were. They wouldn’t be officially inducted until their training was complete.
“And obviously, to fight off the hornies.” Dog’s mocking smile was back. “What happened to mating heat, Stygian? You should be sparring with your mate in the bed, not your buddies in the gym.” He chuckled at what he considered a joke.
“Shut the f**k up, Dog,” Stygian ordered, glaring back at him.
The son of a bitch was right too, and that just pissed Stygian off even more.
“What he should be doing is leaving me alone in our suite to work instead of dragging me down here to watch a bunch of overgrown little boys wrestle,” Liza snapped, the sudden scent of her anger spilling from her like honeysuckle in the spring.
What the hell had finally managed to piss her off anyway?
If only it were her lust scenting the room so sweetly. If it were, he wouldn’t have to spar with these yahoos.
“Stygian, why don’t you just help your little honey find herself a place to work,” Dog suggested with a hard smile.
“Preferably a place where she can watch us kick your ass,” Mutt agreed with his best smile, which was actually a hell of a scowl.
Mutt would have made a hell of a poster boy for the Coyote bogeyman. Stygian had no doubt mothers frightened their children into good behavior with a similar visage of what could get them in the dark if they didn’t behave.
“Yeah, why don’t you just do that, Stygian,” Liza agreed with a mocking smile. “So I can watch the four of you pound on each other like idiots.”
Turning back to her, brow arched suggestively, Stygian let her know exactly why they were there.
Silently.
His gaze locked with hers.
He was going to pound on these three like an idiot, or he was going to end up f**king them both blind in that suite upstairs.
It was her choice.
Liza didn’t have to be a Breed, she didn’t have to have an incredible sense of smell to detect the lust fueling his gaze. It was there, burning like a neon blue flame in his black eyes.
She’d known he was aroused, known he’d wanted her in the past two days, but she hadn’t known it was burning as bright or as hot as it was. As bright or as hot as she had each time she allowed herself to pull back from the job she was determined to finish first.
Turning on her heel, she stalked across the gym as she attempted to push back her own responding hunger.
She couldn’t go there right now. She couldn’t deal with the need that existed between them, with the hunger that tormented her whenever she allowed herself to forget the fact that she wasn’t who she had believed she was for so many years.
She was accepting it, but it wasn’t easy. She should have been suspicious before the Breeds ever arrived, and she probably would have been if it hadn’t been for the dreams that had pulled her back from those realizations.