Chapter 247
Kasen grinned at the beautiful curvy brunette with hazel eyes giving him the death glare. She should be glad he stopped to help, but instead, she tapped her shoe-less foot like he’d done something wrong.
“Well, as you can see, your help is no longer needed.” She pressed her full, luscious lips into a line and continued to frown at him. “You can go on your way now.”
“You have a real problem using the words thank you, don’t you?”
She raised a haughty brow.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. I came down here, gave up my time, hell, I broke my clothes, got full of blood to save your ass and you can’t even acknowledge my help and say thank you.”
He saw the shock in her eyes. People didn’t talk to her like that. This got better by the second.
“I didn’t need your help,” she bit out through ground teeth.
“The Nile is not just a river in Egypt.”
He laughed.
She rolled her eyes and slapped her hands on her waist, making her gorgeous chest bounce.
“Really? That’s the line you’re going with?”
“I’m still waiting, princess.”
“For?”
“My thank you.”
He knew saying the words was only going to antagonize her, but damn, if he wasn’t having fun watching her blush from anger and being turned on.
“You’re going to need a chair so you can sit and wait. Or you’ll get tired standing that long,” she threw back, a glint of fire in her eyes.
He could be wrong, but he thought she might be enjoying this as much as he was.
“You’re a very anti-social feline.”
She raised both brows and laughed.
“Have you met many cats that are social?”
Dammit, she was right. Cats, from the house breed to the shifter kind, weren’t social. They didn’t do people, and quite frankly, he’d never spent much time around one.
“Whatever,” she said. “Get your clothes back on and leave.”
He needed a damn shower. The last thing he wanted was to make a bad impression on his future mate. Showing up at her house covered in blood would definitely do that.
“Thanks for the permission, princess, but I don’t think I want to slide into clean clothes with me covered in blood.”
Her cute lips formed into a pout. Kasen loved it when women pouted. Especially when they didn’t realize they were doing it. It was such an adorable, innocent look that made this clear alpha look like a kitten.
She bit her lip and glanced down at his body. Heat flared in her gaze. Not that he needed to look into her eyes to know she wanted him. The scent coming off her was driving his animal insane. Just his fucking luck that the wolf would want something totally against his kind. A feline. Lioness at that. Too bad, boy. Gerri got him a mate and the sexy brunette with the hazel eyes wasn’t it.
“There’s a river back there,” she motioned with her head.
The blood covering her didn’t take away from her beauty. Especially when it came to her body. The nipped in waist, the wide hips, and he didn’t focus on other areas for fear of looking like an aroused teen in front of her. Her face was pure angel. Wide eyes with a small straight nose, but it was her full lips and stubborn chin that made him want to grin.
Weren’t you looking for a challenge?
He could only hope his future mate was this interesting. He didn’t know what the fight was about, but to have this female stand strong against four males almost twice her size was unheard of.
“Are you joining me?”
He wasn’t an alpha if he didn’t attempt to get his way at all times.
She shook her head and curled her hands at her sides. Nerves. Interesting.
“I have work to do. I’ll clean up at home.”
“What about the four idiots from before?”
He hoped she’d give him something about the story. Right now, he wanted to know more about her. What would drive a woman to assume she could fight four men?
Pride. That’s all he could think of. Well, and stupidity, but he didn’t see anything stupid about this beauty. What he saw was determination and leadership in the way she stood proud, even though he knew she wanted to toss on clothes.
“They won’t be bothering me. I’ll take care of them.”
“Maybe you should have your mate teach those boys a lesson,” he said, taking a step closer to her.
Her scent under the blood called to him. His wolf rose at the whiff of her lioness.
She gave a slight grin and her face transformed from don’t fuck with me sexy, to seductively gorgeous. Fuck! This was so not what he needed.
“I don’t need a man to fight my battles. Perhaps your women are used to that, wolf,” she said the word wolf with a touch of disdain, “but in my world, the cats rule.”
Ouch. Straight to the motherfucking heart. This woman knew just what to say to challenge his wolf.
“It’s not all about having a man fight your battles, princess.” He came closer, only a few feet between them now. “Sometimes what you need is a reminder that someone’s got your back.”
She gave him a full blown smile that made his balls ache and his cock jerk.
“Someone does have my back.” She met his gaze, her cat in her eyes for him to see. “Me.”