Chapter 517 Chapter 517
The next fifteen minutes were filled with an awkward silence. His cat was behaving like a gloating asshole, and he couldn’t think of a way to convey his thoughts on why they shouldn’t be having a victory party yet, at least nothing that he could do while she was sitting right beside him. Yes, she was good and truly marked, but the last time he checked, her cat had not reciprocated with a bite of her own. Was it the cat holding back or the woman?
It needed to be discussed, now, when they were alone. “We should,” he looked over to see that he had her attention, “talk about things.”
Her eyes moved to search his face for a second. “I’m not big on sappy conversations.”
Tripp smirked and looked back at the road. “Well, it can’t always be stab-now-talk-later.”
Amari laughed softly, “don’t I know it.” When she blew out a breath, he had to wonder what she’d been thinking about and if she’d been considering the fact that they were mates too. “So,” he felt her eyes on him, “how does this work?”
Sending her a quick surprised look, he shook his head, “being as I’ve never been mated before,” he gave the steering wheel a squeeze, then turned to watch where he was going, “I have no idea.”
“You haven’t thought this through?”
He decided that mentioning she was the one that accosted him first to frolic in the shower, was a bad idea. “Been a little busy.” He glanced down at his phone wondering how the teams were doing and if Tomas’ brother was truly secured in an unknown location.
“Yeah. The past few days have been full of surprises.” She chuckled, “I hate surprises.”
Tripp smiled, but kept his eyes looking straight ahead, “not all of them have been bad ones.”
“Easy for you to say, you weren’t knocked out while you were driving.”
He moved just his eyes and looked at the open window. Reaching over, he pressed the button to put it up all the way. “True.”
“What happens when we’re back to the teams?” She shifted in the seat, so she was turned toward him, “with us?”
Taking a breath, he paused, all he could smell was sex. The air inside the jeep reeked of it. “That’s not really my call at this point,” he gave her a quick look, “is it?”
Amari shook her head and looked down at her hand. “I guess it isn’t.”
He forced himself to look straight ahead. Tripp wanted to reach his SUV before dark, so he could give it a once over and disable the tracking unit.
“I don’t know, Tripp. My cat is acting like a scatterbrained twit the past few days.”
He clenched his jaw so he wouldn’t speak and stay something stupid, like ‘you don’t say.’
“I just,” she shifted in the seat and looked behind them, “finding my mate has never been on my list.” She turned back, “know what I mean?”
Tripp nodded, “I do.” It was the truth. He was happy with his life or had been until a few days ago when he’d been sent to find a missing Alpha female. That—how the hell did he explain the situation with her father? In all the possible outcomes, that didn’t end well. Every angle of this, once they got back to other people was going to be a shit show. “I don’t want to sound like a dick,” she looked back at him, “but shit is going to get real when we’re back with the teams.”
“I can’t wait for the action.”
He shook his head, “that’s not what I’m talking about.”
Her brows furrowed, “what?”
Tripp inhaled slowly, then turned back to watch the road. “Every shifter within a five-mile radius is going to know.”
“That we got naked together?” She sounded amused.
He shrugged, “that too, but no, I’m talking about a very visible bite on your neck, and,” he brushed the hair back from his neck, “the absence of one on my neck.”
“Oh.” She blew out a breath, “I didn’t think of that.” Amari cleared her throat, “Listen, no one needs to know I didn’t consent before—”
“You know as well as I do that’s not going to fly. You carry my scent now and I don’t have yours.”
“Yeah,” she turned to look out the windshield again.
“Honestly,” he glanced over to see a serious focus look on her face, “I don’t know how I’m going to react when you’re around the others.”
“What do you mean?” Concerned eyes connected with his.
“You near other males.”
She snorted, “you don’t have to…”
“I got pissed off because one of them sent you gummy bears.” He growled.
She turned, amusement on her face, then it faded, “it was just Zain.”
“My cat doesn’t seem to care.” Tripp wasn’t trying to upset her, just needed to give her the facts to avoid issues later. If that was possible.