The Mating Project (13 page)

"To
be fair, I don't think it would have made much difference had you told
me." He glanced at Maria, and a faint smile played around his lips.
"It is what it is."

He
shrugged his shoulders and finally raised his amber gaze to Malachi.

"It's
fucked up, that’s what this is."

Both
men jumped when a beer bottle narrowly missed their heads and smashed against
the wall. The dregs of beer left at the bottom ran down the magnolia wall in
pale streaks of yellow, as the glass fell around them like macabre confetti.

"Hello,
I am standing right here, in case you haven't noticed." Maria's sarcastic
voice brought both their attention back to her, and Malachi smirked.

"Oh,
trust me, princess. I'm very aware that you're here. After all your stink is
all over him, so it’s
kinda
hard to miss."

Silas
punched him in the gut with enough force to wind him, and Maria hissed and
bared her teeth.

"What
the fuck was that for?" Malachi glared at Silas and blocked the next punch
aimed at his face.

"
Don’t
fucking talk to her like that. She doesn't deserve it.
This isn't her fault."

"And
don’t call me princess. I'm no one's fucking princess, mutt boy."

"Really,
so you weren't sent to seduce Silas here to sign up to your Mating Project
then?" A shadow crossed her expressive features, and Malachi knew he'd
scored a home run. Silas tensed next to him, and regret surged through Malachi
at the hurt he sensed in his friend.

"Yes,
I was, but I've told him that, and what we have has nothing to do with that.
Silas knows that. I don’t give a flying fuck if he signs up or not, I—"

She
flinched when Malachi's wolf took over. He leapt across the room and had
her
pinned against the counter in record time. One hand
pressed around her neck, he held her still, all too aware of her nipples
beading into hard nubs against her chest. Her scent intensified, calling him to
taste, and he allowed himself one deep inhale against her wildly beating pulse
point. A shiver went through her when he couldn’t help but linger, and all the
fight left her.

Just
like that he was under her spell, too, and that pissed him the fuck off. He
released her, but he didn’t step away, couldn't if his life depended on it.
This was why he'd stayed away, and just kept tabs on her from afar. This was
also the reason why he hadn't claimed Silas, even though he'd known the human
was his mate from the minute he'd scented him five years ago now. It had
confused the hell out of him then. He wasn't gay; he knew that. He didn't even
consider himself bi, but with Silas that had never mattered, just like it
didn't matter one iota what his brain was telling him now. His wolf was in
control here, and he wanted this cougar as much if not more so than he'd done
ten years ago. The years hadn't lessened the attraction. They had just
strengthened it. Standing in this kitchen, with his two mates, all he wanted to
do was
claim
them both and howl his fury at that
unjust hand fate had dealt him.

"
I fucking
care, princess. Silas is too good to get involved
in that shit." He growled the words into her face, but the damn woman
didn't even flinch. She simply stared up at him with the feline eyes of her cat
and snarled.

"Don’t
you think I fucking know that? I'd never have agreed to come here, if it was
for the council. Cole Jackson sent me. He runs a tight ship, and he is
aboveboard."

"He's
a fucking original. They all think they can rule the place."

"Aren't
you forgetting something here, mutt boy?" Her smile was unsettling to say
the least. "You're an original, too, whether you choose to accept your
place at the council or not."

At
her taunting voice Malachi tightened his hold on her neck, until her eyes grew
wide and she clawed at his hand.

"
Malachi."
Silas's warning
relaxed him, and he released his hold on her. Instantly Maria pushed him away
and gulped big
lungfuls
of air into her chest.

Silas
stepped into the breach and pulled her close. He ran a soothing hand over her
back and glared at Malachi over her head.

"Don’t
call me that. I've no wish to be anywhere near that fucking council, and
besides my place was revoked ten years ago, by your father no less, together
with a price on my head. Guess daddy dearest didn't appreciate his little
princess coming home smelling of wolf."

Maria
stiffened in Silas's arms.

"Is
that your excuse for not coming after me? What are you?
A man
or a mouse?
I waited for you, goddammit. I cried myself to sleep every
fucking night, not knowing if you were dead or alive, feeling like an outcast
in my own house, because they all knew what had happened, or they thought they
knew. But you didn't even have the guts to claim me then, did you? Oh, the
irony of everyone thinking I'd slept with you. Dad couldn’t look at me for
weeks, and Mum aged ten years in a day, and what did you do? Ran away like a
frightened little puppy instead of fighting. You're a fucking original. You
have all that power at your fingertips, and you just slink off into the night,
and let everyone believe you're dead. What about your pack? You're their Alpha,
yet you left them to flounder. Those women and children you made me promise to
protect, they're living in poverty at the fringes of our society, because they
have no leader, no one to protect them, because you're too much of a coward to
stand up for them."

She
ran out of steam and buried closer into Silas's embrace with a whine of
distress that tore at his heart.

"You've
no idea what you're fucking talking about. There's more at stake here than my
pack, and not that it’s any of your business, but I do look after them.
From afar, where it’s safest for all of them.
I'm persona
non grata as far as the council is concerned, and until I bring the real person
behind all this shit to justice that's not going to fucking change, so don’t
lecture me on my responsibilities, princess."

He
would have gone on, all the frustration and hurt spilling out of him in one
giant rush, but Silas's frown stopped him. He'd already said far too much.

When
all was said and done, his life was in danger for simply being here. There was
nothing to stop Maria from running straight to her father and turning him in.
Nothing but the connection between them, which even now made his wolf whine.
Her cougar's answering purr reassured him a little. Maybe this was for the
best. Maybe they could somehow make it work. With her on the inside, so to
speak, they might finally be able to track the bastard down. He'd have to leave
a trail somewhere. Even as he thought that, his gut clenched as his wolf
protested at the mere notion of placing his mate in danger.

Silas,
too, must have come to the same conclusion because he tightened his hold on
Maria, and she visibly relaxed.

Shit,
they had that
whole mind conversation going on right now. How Malachi knew that, he had no
idea. Maybe it was the tilt of Maria's head as she listened to something only
she could hear. How was that even possible? Silas was human. Not even a sniff
of shifter blood in his ancestry. Lord knows Malachi had looked as a way of
explaining this unreasonable attraction he'd felt to the guy. In the end he'd
just admitted defeat. The fates were sent to screw him over, and this little
spectacle in front of him just served to emphasize that fact. It also meant
that red hot poker of jealousy stabbed at his insides, and twisted them into a
painful knot of misery.

When
Maria spoke again, her voice sounded small and lost.

"I'm
sorry this is getting us nowhere. As Silas just pointed out to me, you had your
reasons." She glanced at Silas. "I've got to go. I dare say you two
got some catching up to do, and I'll only be in the way."

"You'll
never be in the way, baby."

A
sad smile lit up her features at Silas's words, and she cupped his face and
kissed him. A mere brush of her lips against his, but it made Malachi's wolf
want to howl. The tenderness between them was hard to take. He wanted that,
dammit. They were his mates, yet he was the outsider here, and he had no
fucking clue how to make it right between them all.

In
direct contrast the ice and hurt in her eyes when she looked at him could have
frozen the Sahara, and she flinched away from him when he took an involuntary
step toward her.

"Don't
you fucking touch me—not
now.
Whatever your reasons,
I'm not ready for that."

Silas
sighed, and Malachi nodded just once, and her tense frame relaxed slightly. She
turned to Silas, and he gestured to a pile of clothing Malachi noticed only
now. There on the sofa lay a neat stack of clothes that carried Maria's scent.
She grabbed them and disappeared into Silas's bedroom.

A
tense silence fell between the two men, and neither one of them moved, until
Maria re-appeared. The loose trouser suit she wore was crumpled, yet screamed
understated elegance. Even with her hair in a mess and not an ounce of make-up
on her face, she was stunningly beautiful, and it hurt to look at her.

Eyes
wide and face flushed she looked like she smelled. Aroused, hurt, confused, and
above all scared.

She
glanced at the two of them, grabbed her handbag and then scuttled off as fast
as her heels would let her.

The
front door clicked shut behind her retreating back, and Silas swore.

"You
better sort this thing out between you and her, because, fuck it, Malachi. I
won't give her up. I can't."

Malachi
nodded and suddenly felt very old.

"Neither
can
I
, Silas. What the fuck are we going to do?"

Chapter Ten

Maria
slowed her agitated steps and took a deep breath. She was late and Emmi hated
her being late, but that surreal conversation with her mates had taken much
longer than she'd thought. Add to that morning traffic, and she was now half an
hour late for her meeting. She'd also be hopelessly late for work, but that was
the least of her worries.
Mates.

That
word kept bouncing around her in her brain and had her cat pace underneath her
skin. It wasn't that unusual to be mated to two men, not with fertility rates
the way they were, but these weren't council chosen. No, she, a pure blood
cougar, who'd had the rules drummed into her from birth, was mated to a human
and a wolf, or at least she would be soon.

There
was no doubt in her mind that her wolf would come after her this time. Their
connection was too strong, too intense to ignore, and even as pissed off as she
was at him, parts of her had just melted when she'd been plastered against him
in Silas's kitchen.

Add
to that the fact that Silas and Malachi were clearly lovers and her libido had
skyrocketed. It had taken all of her willpower to not thrust her fingers into
her drenched pussy when she'd watched the two men kiss.

How
this was all going to work, Lord only knew. She could just see her father's face
when she announced that she had a human and wolf mate who were also lovers. Gay
shifters were ostracized, even in this day and age, but then again, neither man
was gay, were they? Silas was known for his eye for the ladies, and not once
had there been any mention of any male contact. Unless he was extremely
discreet, then his only sexual contact with a man had to be Malachi.

It
was enough to make her head spin trying to figure it all out. Not that her head
was engaged in any of this. No, her cougar was very much in charge here, and
that muscle in her chest, that hurt just thinking about not seeing her men
again.

Maria
fixed a smile on her face and sauntered into the crowded coffee shop with as
much aplomb as she could fake. Emmi looked worried enough as it was, and Maria
bit down her guilt at having to involve her at all.

"Hey,
baby mama, what's the long face for?" Maria plonked herself in the chair
opposite from Emmi and grinned at her. "Still not had any then, I take
it."

"
Maria!"
Emmi glanced around the crowded coffee shop, and her cheeks turned crimson.
Really, she was far too easy to wind up, but she really did need to get laid.
The human was far too tense, and for the umpteenth time Maria wondered what
game Cole was playing.

"Do
you have to be so loud?" Emmi glared at her, and Maria giggled. The sound
surprised even her. Emmi gave her a curious look and slid a coffee across the
table toward her.

"This
is probably stone cold by now. What took you so long? No, let me guess, getting
some, were you?"

Much
to Maria's dismay heat crept into her own cheeks. Since when did she blush, for
fuck's sake? Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve for all to see. She
couldn't bring herself to look at Emmi, lest she read in her eyes what her
heart was telling her, and she slugged the coffee down in one go.