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Anger chafed at her nerves, but she didn’t have quite enough energy to work up to mad. She would. Later. For now, her cat was seething enough for them both.
Bree knew without opening her eyes that Alex was in her bedroom. His scent mingled with the comfortingly familiar smells of fresh bedding, light perfume, and lavender-scented cleaner. Beneath those were very faint traces of other scents she knew—ones that belonged to Elle, Vinnie, Valentina, James, and a small bunch of others.
Her cat’s fur puffed up. It unnerved the feline to know she’d been surrounded by so many people while unconscious and vulnerable to an attack.
Forcing open her heavy eyelids, Bree winced as light stabbed at her eyes and exacerbated the dull throb in her temples. Bad move. But she hadn’t expected to be greeted by sunlight; hadn’t thought she’d slept until morning. Then again, maybe she shouldn’t have been so surprised. She was hit with three damn tranquilizer darts, for shit’s sake. They might have taken time to knock her out, but they’d done their job eventually.
Letting her eyelids flutter partially open, she found Alex sitting in the chair beside her bed, his dark, watchful gaze fixed on her. A hazy memory flashed in her mind of his wolverine charging at the fox and effortlessly taking him down. Hmm, it seemed she had him to thank for the fact that she hadn’t been kidnapped.
She swallowed, frowning at the audible click of her tongue. “Hey,” she croaked.
“How’re you feeling?” he asked, his voice flat.
“Like I was drugged. What time is it?”
“Just after 7am. You’ve been out of commission for a few hours, though you did wake at one point.”
Keenly aware that she was naked beneath the covers, she rubbed at her dry eyes. “I did?”
“Yes. About an hour after you shifted back to your human form while in your sleep, you woke and ordered everyone to get out and leave you in peace. Well, it was more like a mumble, but the words were clear enough. Hearing you dish out attitude seemed to relieve everyone, so they were then happy to head home.”
“Why didn’t you leave with everyone else?”
“I didn’t want to.”
Giving a half-assed answer was just typical of wolverines. Since she had much more important questions on her mind, she didn’t push for a proper response. “Who was the fox? Why did he come for me?”
“He was hired to take you.”
She listened as he told her about good ole Augustin and the retrieval agency. “Well, retrieving things for people is a better way for loners to earn money than by becoming a hired gun. Shame they had to spoil that by dabbling in kidnapping.”
“Vinnie ordered a search to be done on Giuseppe Marino. He plans to pay him a visit today and get the client’s name. It’s probable that it’s the hyena, John Jones.”
“But why?”
“Maybe he just wanted to interrogate you and force you to tell him where Paxton is. You said the hyena’s convinced he’s alive.”
Fucking Paxton. Even from the grave he brought shit to her life. “Is the fox dead?” If the answer was no, she’d be thoroughly happy to rectify that situation.
“My beast killed him.”
Jealousy pricked at her cat—she’d wanted that privilege. “Then I’m guessing he didn’t die easy. Good.” Holding the covers close to her chest, she slowly sat upright.
Alex frowned. “You should rest.”
“I feel groggy, not sleepy. I need coffee.” Conscious she was butt-ass naked, she hesitated to move. It wasn’t that she had any hang-ups about nakedness—she was a shifter; she was used to shedding her clothes in front of others. Still, she didn’t want him to think she was flaunting her body at him or something. “You realize I’m naked, right?”
His dark eyes heated. “You won’t have anything I haven’t seen before.” One brow flicked up. “Not shy, are you?”
Oh, she heard the challenge in those words. Well, if he thought she’d get all flustered about being naked in front of him, he was highly mistaken.
Bree slipped out of bed and, ignoring the heat and weight of his gaze, snatched a pair of panties and an oversized T-shirt from the drawer. Once she’d pulled them on, she turned to face him. Her breath caught at the predatory, smoldering glint to his bold stare. A glint that disappeared so fast she had to question if it had ever really been there.
Guessing he was probably eager to leave, she said, “Thank you for your help last night. You can go now. I’ll be fine.”
Bree headed to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Checking her reflection in the mirror above the sink, she almost groaned. Oh, the sight was super cringe-worthy. Her eyes were mere slits, her face was far too pale, and her hair was one big shaggy mess. Perfect. Just. Perfect.
Alex clasped the arms of the chair tight, fighting the urge to drag her out of the bathroom, toss her on the bed, and thrust inside her to assure himself she was alive in the most primitive of ways.
