Page 27 of Brandon’s Mate

They couldn’t have her.

Her eyes changed, grew soft instead of challenging. “Come on, Brandon. You can deny it all you want, but whatever you’re into, I know it’s dangerous, even if those guys weren’t. You need backup. Colt and Remy are on the way…”

Colt and Remy McCall were coming here too? Fucking pile of steaming glitter shit.

He suddenly felt suffocated. His past was coming back to engulf him just when he needed to focus on the mission. He did the only thing he knew how to do—lashed out at her.

“You dragged the twins into this? What the hell is wrong with you?”

Bad move. Kitty was pretty easygoing most of the time, but she had a temper, and he’d just pushed her too far. She rose to her feet.

“Oh, I don’t know. Just the desire to keep my oldest and used-to-be bestest friend from getting killed because he’s too proud or too stupid to call for backup—”

His cat started screaming inside him. Love kill bite rip tear blood kill kill. The ghost panthers melted through the walls, surrounding him, eyes burning yellow.

Rage and fear and longing and desire churned inside him. He had to get her out of here before he did something crazy. In two strides he was looming over her, trying to pull on his dominance to influence her, but it slipped away from him.

“You have no idea what you’re walking into,” he snarled. “You need to get out of here before the bodies start dropping.”

He was right in her face, but she’d never been intimidated by him, and she wasn’t now. Kitty shoved him in the middle of his chest to get him to back off. He didn’t budge, so she had to tilt her head back to yell at him.

“The bodies are already dropping, judging by what I saw when I drove in here,” she snapped. “You’re pulling one of your crazy stunts, is what you’re doing, and you’re trying to do it alone, which is just stupid.”

That tore it. “A stunt? You have no fucking clue what’s going on here, but none of this is for fun. I just buried one of my last friends in the world—somebody I swore to protect—and his killers are here in this town. I’m not losing anyone else.”

Her face immediately went soft. “Oh, Brandon. I’m so sorry.”

He didn’t want soft. He couldn’t deal with soft, and he didn’t deserve comfort. Not with Nick’s ghost staring at him accusingly from the corner.

“Don’t be sorry. Just get yourself away from me before I get you killed.” His cat was growling, rumbling in his chest.

“I can take care of myself.” She put her hand on his arm, and her touch and her scent just set him off. He had to get her to leave.

He swung her around so her back slammed against the wall, and he pinned her there with a hand on either side of her head. “This has nothing to do with you. You need to leave. Don’t push me, Kitkat. I’m not the boy you used to know.”

He realized too late he’d made a tactical error. The rumble had become a full-blown snarl, and he couldn’t stop it. Having her this close was driving him crazy, and it was driving his cat crazier.

She put one hand on his chest, the way she used to when his cat was going wild. It used to settle him, but now it just made things worse.

“That won’t work on me,” he whispered in her ear. “You don’t soothe me anymore. You get me all riled up.”

Bite her.

Oh hell no. He lowered his mouth to hers, and kissed her.

Chapter 10

Brandon’s lips met Kitty’s, and she felt the shock all the way through her body. His mouth was hot and hard, desperate and demanding, and his panther growled deep in his chest.

Her wolf growled in return, and her arms curved instinctively around him, pulling the two of them together, heart to heart.

She felt Brandon take in a deep breath, and then suddenly his arms were around her and their bodies were fitted perfectly against each other.

His lips softened and his hand slid up to curve around the back of her neck. His kisses grew slower, deeper, his tongue tasting her and tangling with hers. A soft groan escaped his lips.

Warmth spread from Kitty’s chest all the way out to her fingers and toes. She used to dream of Brandon kissing her, but she’d never been able to imagine anything as amazing as this.

It was hot and exciting and set her nerve endings on fire, and at the same time it felt warm and sweet like coming home.