But if something happens, Shaya, if you need any kind of help, you call me. Okay?”
“I’ve already made her promise to come to us if she needs anything,” said Taryn, giving Shaya a pointed look that said she was holding her to that promise.
Shaya raised her hands in surrender. “I will, I swear.” Turning back to Jaime, she squeezed her shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I can’t believe baby Kye’s a healer.” Greta, who had obviously been eavesdropping, huffed. Her scowl was solely for Jaime. “If you think you’re going to use my great-grandson as some sort of safety blanket, you’re wrong.”
“Greta, could you not go hatch somewhere else?” Jaime gestured to her plate. “I’m trying to eat here.”
“I see you’ve still got that bad attitude.”
“It’s obviously not that bad or you’d be holding in all that hot air. I’ll work on it.” Although Shaya’s leaving hung over everybody’s head, breakfast was an unusually cheery event. That cheeriness swiftly disappeared when everyone was gathered in the parking lot, saying their good-byes to the bubbly redhead. Taryn said her good-bye last, and honestly it was like watching the end of E.T. —there was no parting the two friends as they stood hugging one another.
“I’m really going to miss that girl,” Jaime said to Dante as they watched Shaya drive off.
“Nick will be utterly pissed, won’t he?”
Pulling her even closer to him with the arm that he had locked around her, Dante nodded. “He won’t let it go when he finds out she’s gone. He’ll track her down as best he can. Luckily, she has Ryan, Trick, and Marcus working on erasing her trail.”
Setting aside her concerns for Shaya, Jaime gave her mate a mischievous smile. “Think you can track me?” She was gone before he could respond.
Figuring it was only fair, Dante gave his mate enough time to get into the forest before racing after her. Excitement, anticipation, and amusement swirled around inside him. Only yesterday he had been nearing a state of depression, tired and exasperated and faced with the frightening prospect that he might never get to hold his mate again. Now here she was playing with him, using every single trick and technique he taught her to evade capture. He doubted that there was anyone who appreciated what he had more than Dante did at that moment. Doubted that—
Motherfucker. His peripheral vision had warned him of the movement coming from his right-hand side, but it hadn’t warned him fast enough. He was now flat on his back with a hot female straddling him. Not that he was at all complaining. He slid his hands up her thighs to shape her waist.
“I taught you too well.”
Smiling smugly, Jaime bunched up his T-shirt in her hands. “I want this off.” He arched a brow. “Oh, you do?”
“Oh, I do.”
He had no problem with that. Springing upward so that he was sitting upright, Dante allowed her to slide the T-shirt over his head. Then his mouth was on hers, urging her into him, as he slid a hand into her hair and gently tugged off the tie holding it up. Long sable hair that smelled of vanilla tumbled down, sweeping over both their shoulders and down her back. He fisted his hands in it—
something he’d missed over the past month. He crushed her body to him, growling at the feel of her pebbled nipples stabbing into his chest through her sweater. He loved the way she fit him just right. It drove home that this female had been made especially for him, was all his in every way.
“Lie back.”
He gave her order a mock frown. “You didn’t say please, baby.”
“Why would I, Popeye?” When she pressed a hand against his chest, he allowed her to push him to his back. The man really did have an amazing body. A body that she’d missed and intended to bite all over. Other than her claiming mark, all her previous brands had healed. That would never do.
Leaning over him, Jaime brushed her nose under the line of his jaw. His scent—a mix of his and hers—swam into her system, tickling her senses, comforting her and arousing her. When she bit down on his neck, he growled, but it wasn’t a sound of complaint. He tangled a hand in her hair and pressed her closer to him. Taking the hint, she bit harder and sucked. He growled his encouragement.
She kissed, licked, and bit her way along and down his chest, running her tongue between