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Larisa stomped her foot. “I am not Navarro’s mate—fated or otherwise—and I will not be discussed as if I weren’t here.”
Navarro growled at her seductively, calling to her as the males of their kind had called to their females for millennia. The effect was profound and immediate. Larisa’s whole body responded with flushed skin, stiffened nipples, and the scent of her arousal.
“That behavior doesn’t seem to be getting any better while we stand here,” laughed Bodie.
“No. Why don’t you join the others for breakfast? I will reprimand my mate and install her in my chambers and then join you downstairs. Depending on how you want to handle Gutierrez, I will claim my mate as soon as possible.”
Bodie feigned surprise. It was rare that he got to tease Navarro. “You mean you don’t wish to have her in the bed she shared with me?”
“No, my alpha,” replied Navarro with a wry smile. “That is the first, last, and only time Larisa will grace your bed. I thought to take her out on the balcony, lean her over the railing, and spank her until she has learned her lesson and declares to all that I am her mate. Once that is done, I will take her to our chambers, where she can spend the rest of the morning in desperate need contemplating the abysmal behavior that landed her there.” Navarro fisted her mane and pulled her close. “You will learn to yowl for me and me alone, my mate. Best I find you in a conciliatory and submissive mood upon my return.”
Navarro’s mouth descended on hers, ravaging it with his own. It took but a moment for Larisa’s tigress to take hold and respond to Navarro, clinging to him and returning his kiss with the same ardor which bordered on violence.
“You cannot let him do this,” she said as she finally found the will to push Navarro away, who only laughed at her belated response.
“Don’t look now, Larisa, but I already did. Navarro, I leave your mate in your hands. I will see you downstairs when you are able to ensure she is safe, relatively happy, and sated.”
“Your will; my hand,” intoned Navarro.
Bodie laughed and exited the room to the sounds of Larisa caterwauling and trying to evade the punishment she knew she had coming. Navarro would have his hands full, but Bodie was quite certain in the end, they would make a spectacular couple. He counted himself lucky. He could have ended up mated to the wrong tigress and having to kill his best friend.
While the use of catnip was forbidden within his clan, he chided himself for not having forced the issue with Navarro a while ago. Bodie had suspected that his lifelong friend was called to the fiery Larisa. Dosing someone with anything, especially catnip, was grounds for banishment if not death. Bodie would not have wanted to impose such a sentence on a tigress that he believed, mated to the right tiger, could be of huge benefit to the clan.
Bodie would find a way to repay Navarro’s generosity and grace. He jogged down the steps to join the rest of the clan. As much as he would like to give Navarro the time to claim and tend to his beloved, the threat from Gutierrez would not wait. The leader of the capybara needed to be dealt with and sent packing back to South America.
CHAPTER4
BODIE
Bodie longed to go for another run. The one last night had merely whet his appetite. Having a woman hadn’t helped. Perhaps both shifting and fucking would need to be put on hold. Or perhaps the capybara would prefer to fight in their shifted form. Either way, Bodie meant to send Gutierrez packing.
The doors that led out to the expansive brick patio were wide open to take advantage of the morning breeze that drifted up from the Mississippi and across the fertile land known as the delta. Its scent was rife with rich earth and the souls of those who had lived here before. Like all of those who had preceded him, Bodie felt connected to the land and to his ancestors. Their territory would not fall to the likes of the capybara—not on his watch.
Because Navarro had her pinned down on the balcony railing outside Bodie’s bedroom, those assembled in the great hall—and perhaps within the boundaries of the estate—could hear Larisa receiving her new mate’s loving discipline. Bodie had no doubt she would not be repeating her transgression.
“I didn’t see that coming,” muttered one of Bodie’s warriors.
He stood and tapped the rim of his orange juice glass with his butter knife. “As you can all hear, Navarro has asked for my blessing to take Larisa to mate. I have granted it. I know Larisa has been disruptive since she joined us—” There was muffled laughter all around. “but she is Navarro’s fated mate and her place is with us—” A long, loud, strangled wail could be heard coming from above. “Our beta will ensure his mate’s behavior is much improved but let it be a lesson to everyone within this clan: catnip is forbidden and the use of it, or worse the dosing of someone else with it, will have serious and permanent consequences.”
Bodie sat down and enjoyed his breakfast and then headed into his study. It didn’t take long for Navarro to join him.
“My apologies. It would appear your mate is stronger willed and more stubborn than I imagined. I take it her scent clinging to you is evidence of her capitulation?”
“Most definitely.”
“Again, Navarro, I feel badly…”
“Don’t, Bodie. Seriously, if I didn’t know for a fact she’d dosed you with catnip and then lay in wait for you to return in a vulnerable state, it wouldn’t have happened. The beast inside took control and took what Larisa offered and had manipulated. But there is no need for you to concern yourself with what happened. I say we put it out of mind and not give it another thought. Gutierrez, however, needs to be dealt with.”
Bodie nodded. “Not only is he planning to use the Mississippi to distribute this new drug, but he’s also looking for space to manufacture it.”
“How can he think you’ll let that go unchallenged?”
“I’m not sure. Beck and Nolan have already sent him packing. He has to know I will do so, as well.”
Navarro shrugged. “Well, critical thinking has never been a capybara trait.”
“Which is what worries me. Gutierrez has all the subtlety of a freight train, and yet he’s managing to play his cards close to his vest. I want eyes on him and his people at all times.”
