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Feeling her lips twitch, Bailey planted her hands on the table. “You’re one of the people who think me and Deke are destined to crash and burn, huh?”
Cassandra blinked. “That amuses you?”
“Sorta.”
“Can I ask why?”
“Sure.”
“Then why?” Cassandra prodded.
“Oh, well, dominant females don’t like to be wrong ever. They get all sulky when it happens. And, you see, you’re wrong.”
“You really are very confident that you and Deke will make it work, aren’t you?”
“Well, I have no intention of letting him go, so …”
Cassandra’s mouth curled. “I like that he has someone who won’t let him doubt his worth to them. You clearly won’t do that, unlike a certain female I could mention.”
Bailey grabbed a hoodie from the basket. “Let’s not mention her.”
“Okay, I’m good with that.” Cassandra paused as a machine buzzed loud, the tumbling laundry abruptly cutting off. “Well, I need to get going. See you later.”
“Later.” Bailey winced as she touched the hoodie’s boiling hot zipper. Rookie mistake. She dumped the piece of clothing on her pile and then blew on her smarting finger. Once the sting faded, she fished a tank out of her basket and folded it.
Hinges creaked again. She placed her tank on the pile and went to look—
A threatening whizz of sound. A sharp piercing sensation in her back.
Bailey whirled fast with a hiss of fury, her snake unfurling in an instant.
A familiar person stood at the door, tranquilizer gun in hand. Motherfucker. Disbelief beating at her, she lunged toward them—or would have. A dart buried itself in her chest before she had the chance. She ragged it out and again went to lunge … but then a heavy lethargy began to descend on her while a tingling feeling skipped over her skin.
Colors smudged as her vision blurred and darkened. Feeling like she was wading through concrete, she took one shaky step. And another. And another. But then her knees buckled, her legs gave out, and she landed hard on her ass.
The world tumbled and shook and spun as her head swam, her belly churned, and her body became dead weight. Then darkness pulled her under.
Luke’s brows flew up. “Really? Wow.”
Standing in the lobby of his building, Deke frowned. “Why ‘wow’?” He didn’t think it would be considered surprising that his own mate would have agreed to move in with him.
“I thought she might fight you on it. Mostly just to screw with you.”
“It may seem like life is a joke to Bailey, but she takes the things that matter seriously,” Deke told him, feeling defensive on her behalf.
“Yeah, I sensed that about her,” the Beta assured him. “You can see it in the way she’s so dedicated to her position as Havana’s bodyguard. Well, maybe you didn’t see it at first. You initially seemed to have a blind spot where she was concerned.”
Deke felt his mouth tighten, annoyed he couldn’t deny it. “I resented her for making me want what I couldn’t have.”
“Ah. I suppose I should have seen that.” Luke tilted his head. “How did she manage to work around your cat’s earlier aversion to physical contact?”
“In a way that only Bailey could have made work.”
Luke snickered. “How’s your cat doing these days?”
“Better now that he no longer feels alone. That was at the crux of his problem. He was lonely, and so he began feeling bitter when others around him mated. Then he became angry at himself for that bitterness. So he pulled back from everyone, which only made the loneliness worse. It was a vicious cycle.”
“I think it’s easy for us to take for granted how difficult it can be for our animals when they have no mate to anchor them. Just because they don’t experience the full range of human emotions doesn’t mean they don’t feel things very deeply and acutely.”
Deke nodded. “Loneliness creeps up on them way sooner than it does on us.”
“An animal like your cat, who grew up in a home where he was the only non-dominant, will have felt very alone in many ways. That would have made him crave finding an equal and being part of something.”
That was exactly how his cat had felt. “Now that he has what he wants, I don’t foresee him having another ‘nobody come near me episode.’ The only thing bugging him of late is that the imprinting bond hasn’t yet formed. He’s simply impatient to be fully mated to Bailey.”
Luke’s mouth hitched up. “I’ll bet you’re just as impatient.”
Deke smiled, unrepentant. “Of course I am.” His smile faded as he looked out the window and caught sight of Gerard and Isaiah carrying a limp Dayna toward the front door. “What the fuck?”
Swearing beneath his breath, Luke yanked open the door to let them in.
“We need either Helena or Sam,” said Gerard, urgency coating every syllable. “Please get one of them down here fast.”
