His fingers twitched. He would spare a minute to try to reason with her, but one way or another, she was leaving this cell.
Either walking. Or tossed over his shoulder.
“And if reinforcements show up and they decide to shoot you in the head?”
She sniffed at his perfectly rational argument. “I have Rage to protect me.”
He snarled at the soft taunt. Now that his possessive urges had been unleashed, the mere thought of another Pantera offering his protection to this female made a red mist cloud his brain.
“Are you trying to piss me off?”
The pale green eyes that had once been soft with affection were now glowing with a dangerous light.
“What I’m trying to do is my job.”
He leaned forward, meeting her glare for glare. “Your job isn’t to put yourself in danger.”
“That’s not your call.”
“It damn well is.”
If he’d been in a rational mood, he’d have realized he was going about this all wrong. No female wanted to be told what to do. Especially not a Pantera female. His mood, however, was far from rational. From the second he’d heard that Payton was missing he’d been running on pure Hunter instinct. “And this mission just got cancelled.” His hands grasped her upper arms, preparing to haul her over his shoulder, but even as he pulled her forward, she reached up to slam her fist against his nose.
More startled than hurt, he released her to stare in shock.
“Ow.”
“I warned you.” She bit her bottom lip, no doubt already feeling guilty at using violence against him.
Not that she backed down.
Pride flowed through him.
Payton had always been kind, and loyal, and terrifyingly brilliant. Oh, and sexy as hell.
Now she was confident.
It made his cat purr with pleasure.
There was a low chuckle as Rage stepped through the doorway, his gaze taking careful note of the way Hakan moved to stand protectively at Payton’s side.
“As amusing as this little farce is becoming, the guards have returned to watching their football game,” the younger Hunter informed them.
Hakan pointed a finger toward Rage. The male Pantera had allowed Payton to put her life at risk.
“We’re going to have a discussion when we get back to the Wildlands.”
With a sound of annoyance, Payton moved to exit the cell, her spine rigid.
“Go away, Hakan.”
He prowled right behind her. “Not going to happen.”
Rage gave a short laugh as he turned to lead them out of the hidden room.
“You might as well let him tag along,” he told Payton. “He’s not leaving without you.”
Payton muttered something beneath her breath, but she gave up her futile attempt to get rid of him. Instead, she quickened her pace as they moved through the large lab and into a room that was packed tight with computer equipment.
Meeting Rage’s questioning gaze, Hakan gave a nod of his head, sending the younger Hunter out of the room to keep watch. Hakan leaned against the frame of the door, watching as his soon-to-be mate slid into a chair at the desk in the center of the floor and did her thing.
He didn’t understand all the numbers scrolling across the monitor, or what she was doing as she switched from screen to screen. Computers made his brain cramp. But he knew that Payton was a beautiful sight as she leaned forward, her expression intent as she absently nibbled on her thumbnail.
This was her world.
Well, not entirely.
Soon her world would also include being spread across his bed, her pretty face flushed and her copper curls tousled as he crawled between her spread legs and licked her sweet cream until she screamed his name as she climaxed.
He was instantly hard. Yeah, no big shocker. He had twenty years of pent-up desire blasting through him.
He was going to combust if he wasn’t sinking deep into Payton’s warm, willing body. Soon.
“That’s it,” she at last breathed, her fingers flying across the keyboard. “I’m in.” Hakan moved to stand at her side, his entire body vibrating with impatience. Every passing minute increased their chance of getting caught. Then, Payton released a low growl. “Damn.”
He placed a hand flat on the desk, watching the numbers as they rapidly disappeared from the screen.
“What is it?”
“The firewall has detected an intruder and is purging the data.” She gave a sharp shake of her head. “I don’t know how much I’ve managed to get.”
Hakan glanced toward the door as the shrill sound of an alarm blasted through the air.
“It doesn’t matter now,” he said.
“I could try—”
“No.”
Not about to waste time arguing, Hakan leaned down to scoop her out of her chair, holding her tight as he headed for the door.
“Hakan.” She tilted back her head to glare at him. “Put me down.”
“Forget it.”
“How dare you.” She squirmed in his arms as they reached the hall. “This is my mission.”
“Sorry, sweetheart,” Rage said as he fell into step beside Hakan. “We just ran out of luck.”
“Don’t call her sweetheart,” Hakan snapped at the younger male.
Payton continued to squirm. “He can call me whatever he wants. It’s none of your business.”
Rage looked like he was trying not to laugh. “I’ll scout ahead.”
Hakan sent him a wry glance. “Wise choice.”
Waiting for Rage to disappear down the hall, Hakan turned to carry Payton through a private office and into the attached storage area. The elevator would be the first place anyone would look for an intruder. Thankfully, he’d already located the utility duct that was large enough for him to fit through.
“You’d better check that caveman attitude, mister,” she warned as he reached up to knock aside the ceiling panel and grabbed the first rung on the ladder that was built into the side of the duct.
Holding her furious glare, he dipped his head down to cover her lips in a kiss that spoke of his ultimate possession.
Pleasure detonated through his body. Oh hell. She tasted of fresh strawberries and innocence.
Pure female temptation.
“You haven’t seen caveman yet,” he warned against her mouth.
Her eyes widened, a vulnerable need darkening the pale green to jade before she was sharply turning her head away. As if she could close him out.
Hakan grimaced, urging her to wrap her arms around his neck so he could use both hands to pull them up the shaft and into the janitor closet above.
Payton could try to pretend that she hadn’t responded, but he had felt her lips soften beneath his kiss, and her faint tremor of excitement.
She might not want to want him, but she was as eager as he was to finish what they started twenty years ago.
Once on the upper floor, Hakan exited the building out the side entrance that he’d left propped open. Then, crossing the nearly empty parking lot, he was jogging down the street when he caught sight of Rage.
He gave a low whistle, pressing himself against the side of a closed Chinese restaurant. Immediately the younger Hunter was joining him, his expression concerned.
“What?”
Hakan nodded toward the dark car that had appeared around the corner, trailing Rage at a distance. It hadn’t come from the clinic, which meant that the alarm must have triggered reinforcements.
“You have a couple of shadows,” he said.
Rage smiled with sudden anticipation. Like any cat, he loved to toy with his prey.
“I’ll stay on foot and lead them into our special area in the swamps,” he told Hakan, referring to a section of the bayou that was filled with lethal bogs. Humans foolish enough to go in rarely came out. “You go to the safe house.” Rage turned his attention to Payton. “Can you use the computers there to find out whether or not you have the information you w
anted?”
“Yeah. She nodded, her arms lightly looped around Hakan’s neck as he cradled her against his chest. “I sent the data to an online account and Xavier had the safe house fitted with the latest equipment a few months ago. I should be able to check as soon as I get there.”
Rage nodded, glancing toward Hakan. “Take care of her.”
“That’s exactly what I intend to do,” he promised, his gaze locked on her pale face. “Even if I have to tie her to my bed.”
Rage gave a short bark of laughter. “Good luck with that.”
Hakan turned to head up the narrow alley, trusting Rage to lead away the humans.
“You’re going to need more than luck if you keep saying things like that,” Payton told him, a delectable flush staining her cheeks.
His lips twitched as he jogged through the empty streets, his instincts on full alert as they left behind the commercial area of town and headed toward the more graceful suburbs near the river.
“I promise you’re going to enjoy being completely at my mercy,” he murmured. “A soft bed, your arms and legs spread wide while I taste you from head to toe, making sure I take plenty of time to enjoy the places in between.”
He caught the unmistakable scent of her arousal. So, his little Geek had a naughty side.
Nice to know.
Clearly embarrassed by her reaction, Payton pressed her hands to his chest.
“You don’t have to carry me,” she told him.
He turned onto a quiet, old-fashioned street that was lined with weeping willows and gracious homes.
“I know.”
She muttered something beneath her breath that Hakan was fairly sure was a condemnation of the brainpower of the male sex and a derogatory reference to the size of his penis.
“Why are you being such a pain?” she demanded.
Halting beneath a large weeping willow, Hakan studied the street behind them.
“Because you deliberately put yourself in danger,” he growled, using his acute senses to search for enemies.
So far he could detect nothing beyond a small cat that was hunting a mouse in a nearby flowerbed, and a human male who was seated on his porch a block away drinking from a bottle of whiskey.
“It wasn’t deliberate,” Payton denied. “Besides, you’re always putting yourself in danger.”
He shrugged. “I’m a Hunter.”
“So what you’re saying is that you think what you do is more important than being a Geek?”
Belatedly realizing his error, Hakan glanced down to study the pretty, heart-shaped face. He grimaced. She had the sort of expression a female got when thinking about slicing off a male’s balls.
“I didn’t say that,” he hedged, surging back into motion to cross a manicured lawn and dart around the edge of a large mansion.
“Do you believe I should have walked away from our first opportunity to gain valuable intel on our enemies?” Payton pressed. “The Haymore Center is responsible for impregnating a human with a Pantera cub. We have to discover why and what else they were doing.”
His lips twisted as he jogged through the back garden and then easily vaulted over the low fence.
He paused in the shadows, studying the white, plantation-style home that was set well away from the street. Then, certain there were no prying eyes, he headed directly for the back entrance.
“I don’t have to be reasonable,” he informed her, placing his hand on a scanner. The lock would only open to a Pantera.
The heavy metal door swung inward, and Hakan stepped into the cramped entry, sending a text message to the Hunters HQ in the Wildlands as the alarm automatically sounded.
With no guard on duty, the alarm would alert Parish there were intruders.
Seconds later the alarm went silent.
Hoping the distraction had brought an end to the uncomfortable conversation, Hakan swallowed a sigh when she narrowed her eyes.
“Is there a particular reason you don’t have to be reasonable?” Payton demanded.
“Because you’re my mate.”
***
Mate, mate, mate…
Payton’s heart clenched with a savage pain as Hakan carried her through the kitchen and into the main part of the house that had maintained the original moulded ceilings and sweeping staircases from the eighteen hundreds.
Once, she would have given everything she possessed to hear that word on his lips.
The large, barely civilized Hunter had fascinated her for as long as she could remember. And she certainly wasn’t the only female who found a reason to hang around the training grounds when he was teaching the cubs how to fight. Or to jostle for a place to eat next to him during evening meals.
What female wasn’t attracted to a tall, dark, and sexily dangerous male?
But she’d moved beyond her teenage crush when her cat had reached maturity.
Suddenly he wasn’t just the male who made her heart pound and her knees weak.
He was the one.
The only one.
But while she’d rejoiced at the knowledge she’d found her mate, Hakan hadn’t been nearly so excited.
In fact…
She stiffened in his arms, furious that Hakan would claim her as his mate after he’d nearly destroyed her.
“Nothing to say?” Hakan broke into her dark thoughts.
“I’m trying to decide if I want to punch you in the nose again,” she snapped.
He arched a dark brow. “When did you become so violent?”
“When an arrogant ass decided he could push his way back into my life.”
Turning to the right, Hakan carried her through a double doorway into what had once been the library filled with rare first editions and graceful antebellum furniture. Now the towering shelves held a high-tech computer system and military-grade surveillance equipment.
“You knew my retreat would only be temporary,” he said with a calm composure that set her teeth on edge.
“Retreat?” Her own voice was closer to a screech. “Is that what you call sleeping with another female and then disappearing from the Wildlands?”
He came to a halt in the center of the floor, meeting her accusing gaze with a somber expression.
“I didn’t sleep with Jessa.”
She flinched, the memory slamming into her with brutal force.
Hakan had returned to the Wildlands after spending nearly a year away. Payton hadn’t even known he was there until she’d been walking home from a night out with a group of friends and caught sight of him standing near her parents’ home.
It was like being struck by lightning as she’d studied his big, beautiful body that looked as if it’d been chiseled by the hand of a master in the moonlight. And then she’d felt the pulse of his raw masculinity wrap around her, pulling forward until she’d stood directly in front of him.
She hadn’t even hesitated as she’d lifted a hand to place it against his cheek, a sense of wonderment swelling in her heart.
“Mine,” she’d whispered. “You’re my mate.”
The last thing she’d expected was for him to recoil from her touch, his expression hard as he’d simply turned and walked away from her.
She should have left it there.
He’d made it painfully clear he wasn’t interested in pursuing their potential mating.
Instead, she’d foolishly followed him to the Hunters’ communal quarters, watching in horror as a beautiful young Hunter with long, black hair and smoldering gold eyes had tossed herself into his waiting arms.
She’d heard all the rumors about Hakan and Jessa. But until that night it hadn’t had the power to rip out her heart.
“No, I don’t suppose there was much sleeping involved.”
Regret darkened his eyes. “Dammit, Payton.”
She abruptly turned her head to stare at the large window that overlooked the front yard, her body stiff in blatant rejection of his touch.
“Put me down,” she commanded.
Th
ere was a second when she thought he might refuse to release her, then with a low curse he grudgingly loosened his hold and set her feet on the floor.
Without hesitation she was headed across the room to take a seat at the antique mahogany desk placed near the marble fireplace. Leaning toward the sleek computer that was set in the middle of the glossy wood surface, she flicked it on with one press of a button.
Hakan followed to stand at her side. His frustration filled the air with prickles of heat.
“What are you doing?”
She grimly concentrated on logging into her online account. “I’m going to start downloading the information I managed to get from The Haymore Center.”
The heat of his body threatened to smother her as he planted his palm on the desk and leaned over her shoulder to study the computer screen.
“How long will it take?”
Her mouth went dry, her body shivering with an electric excitement as his chest pressed against her back, his breath brushing her cheek like a kiss.
“An hour,” she managed to get past her stiff lips. “Maybe more.”
“Good.” He nipped the lobe of her ear. “Then we’re going to talk.”
Deep inside, her cat was roaring with need, anxious to feel the touch of its mate, but she wasn’t ready.
Not when she was still pissed at him.
“I don’t think so,” she muttered.
“Maybe you’re right.” Without warning Hakan grasped the arms of Payton’s chair and swiveled her to the side. Once she was facing him, he crouched between her legs, his eyes glowing with amber heat as he lifted his hand to cup her cheek. “Since we can’t seem to communicate with our words anymore, let’s try a more basic way to express our feelings.”
“Hakan,” she breathed, her heart pounding.
His features softened, revealing a vulnerability she’d once thought was only for her.
“I’ve missed you, little one.”
She pressed herself back into the seat, desperately battling against the urge to rub her face against his hand.
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s the truth.”