for you?” Ronald pushed himself up and brushed off his clothes. “He’s rich, horny, drunk on Cam’s shifter rum, and he works for the council. He’s heard everything about rabbits and their sex drive. Do you honestly think I was going to end up doing a walk of shame in the morning? I’d have him buttoned down and claimed within the hour. Travel, money, everything I could ever want all mine for the taking.”
“You little shit. You were going to force bond me?” Eagle went to swing at Ronald but Kee held up his hand to stop him.
“You can have him after, Eagle,” Kee snapped. “What do you think you were doing coming in here and upsetting my mate? Squealing like a kid and pretending to faint? Anyone would think you hadn’t seen a gargoyle shifter before.”
“I haven’t.” Ronald folded his arms across his chest. “But it was all part of the act, wasn’t it? Poor little shifter needs help from his huge predatory mate-to-be. It would’ve worked too, and now, you’ve gone and fucked everything up for me. And it’d hardly have been a forced mating – damn, you’d have been begging for it, Eagle.”
“You fucked things up for yourself.” Kee was incensed. “Why the hell are you trying to force a bond mate situation when you’ll meet your own fated mate one day?”
“Ha! Who wants a fated mate? Sheesh.” Ronald shook his head. “Look at Roger – his fated mate won’t even look at him and yet they’ve known what they are to each other for months – at least since Cam met Fergus. He’s pining away and for what? An arrogant wolf who thinks his shit doesn’t stink. I’m not going to be like him. I’m not going to be stuck being faithful to one person for eternity. If I hold off having sex until I meet my fated mate, I’ll only experience taking one cock up my ass my whole life. Bond mates, however…”
“Great,” Eagle snarled. “Not only were you going to coerce me into bonding, you weren’t even planning to be faithful.”
“Like you would be. You’ve got player written all over you. And everyone knows it’s not possible to force a fucking bond. Sheesh, you’d have been begging to bite me once you’d seen me without clothes.” Ronald shook his head. “Later. I’m out of here. First decent fucking visitors we get in town for over a month, and you had to ruin it for me. Thanks a lot, Keenak.”
“You aren’t going anywhere until you’ve apologized to my mate.” Grabbing Ronald by the arm, Kee swung him around and pointed in Dian’s direction. Dian was still in his gargoyle form, although now he was standing up. My gods he has the cutest tail. “Apologize.”
“Sorry.” Ronald looked anything but.
“Properly.” Kee caught Ronald’s hair in his hands. “Now, or I’ll march you down to the sheriff’s office and you can tell Rocky why you thought it was a good idea to trick someone into a bonding. We have laws against that in this town.”
“How would you know? You’ve barely been here a month.”
“Two months, asshole, and I read.” Kee gave Ronald’s head a shake. “Apologize for insulting my mate.”
“I’m really sorry I insulted you and upset your sensitive nature, sir. I swear it won’t happen again.” Ronald batted his baby blue eyes, his hands in front of him as though he was begging.
“Ugh!” Eagle huffed. “Get that bastard out of here. He’s bucking for an Academy Award.”
Kee looked at Dian who was watching them gravely, his face completely devoid of emotion, his hands fisted loosely by his side. The only thing moving on him was his tail that was winding around one of his thighs. Kee wanted to know if the tuft of hair at the end of the tail was as soft as it looked. But as Kee watched, Dian nodded, just once and for Kee that was enough.
“Just get out.” Kee released Ronald’s hair and gave him a shove. “I’ll be speaking to Cam about banning you from the pub for the next month.”
“Hey, I apologized.” Ronald scurried to the door.
“You’re fucking sleazy, that’s what you are, Ronald, and Cam’s not going to be impressed to find a second member of your family preying on innocent visitors.” Kee hurried over and slammed the front door shut, not even bothering to wait for Ronald to get off the porch. “As for you,” he turned to Eagle. “Next time you want to get laid, stick to the