Marisa Chenery: Jagers Mate

Because she was so special, they had become her Protectors. If it ever came out that she could do the things she could, they would have more than Miles trying to steal her away to worry about.

With a shake of his head, Jager said, “No, her being a mortal doesn’t bother me. The problem is the fact that I resisted arrest and she’ll probably try to cuff me when I get close to her again.”

Skylar started to laugh. “She tried to cuff you? I wish I’d been there to see that.”

Jager ignored him. “Anyway, once I got away from my mate, the lone wolf’s trail had gone dead. But he was definitely one of Miles’ men. He admitted to that.”

“We’ll have to tell Saskia. She’ll want to know,” Roan said. “So what are you going to do about your lady cop?”

Jager shrugged. “Not sure yet. At least I managed to get her name from the tag she wore. Are Dirk and Kye still with Roxie?”

They usually split their numbers and took turns watching over Roxie, especially when she went to Wulf’s Den with her mate, Beowulf. Beowulf owned Wulf’s Den, a local nightclub where werewolves and mortals mixed, not that the mortals knew that.

Roan nodded. “Yeah, they are. They should be home in a couple of hours.”

Jager grabbed his beer off the table and stood. “Good. I’m going to get Dirk to do his magic on the Internet and see what he can come up with on my mate.” Dirk, though well over a thousand years old, as were the rest of the Protectors, kept up his skills with all the new technology. He was an Internet junkie just as Roxie was.

Without another word, Jager walked out of the kitchen. He needed to be by himself for a bit. Now that he had found his mate, the mating urge would ride him hard until he claimed her as his own. Even now, just talking about Daylen had caused him to become slightly aroused. He would be lucky if he didn’t walk around constantly with a hard-on until she was his. And tonight, having listened to what Roan had gone through before he had claimed Ansley as his mate, Jager expected to have one erotic dream after another about Daylen. The longer he waited to make her his, the worse the mating urge would ride him. Not a patient man by any stretch, Jager knew he would have to act quickly.

Once he reached his bedroom, he shut the door behind him. He had plans to make.

First and foremost, he had to find a way to get Daylen to overlook what she thought was her duty and not want to arrest him. Once they got over that, Jager had a feeling he could get her to accept what was meant to be. If she didn’t, he had no qualms about throwing her over his shoulder and locking her in a room somewhere until he’d persuaded her to see things his way. Throwing himself on his bed, Jager turned on the television on the far wall with the remote and grinned. He knew just what he would do to convince Daylen to see things his way. It would be something they both would enjoy.

When dawn started to lighten the sky, Daylen drove her cruiser back to the police station. After a long night of patrolling, she was ready to go home and fall into bed. Once in her own car, a dark blue Ford Focus, she debated on whether or not to pick up some breakfast through one of the fast food drive-thrus, but in the end she decided against it.

Her body needed sleep more than it needed food, especially since she had one more night shift to go through before she had a couple of days off.

Arriving at the street where she lived, a neighborhood that was made up mostly of families with young children, Daylen parked her car in the driveway of her three bedroom bungalow. Inside the house, she locked the door behind her, then headed to her bedroom to change out of her uniform.

As she locked up her gun in the metal fire-safe lockbox she stored in her closet, she once again found her thoughts drawn to the man she’d encountered in the alley. She seemed to be thinking about him way more than she should. For some reason, she couldn’t stop herself from doing it. And it wasn’t because he had gotten away. No, she found herself mooning over what it had felt like to be kissed by him with his body pressed to hers. It pissed her off every time she did it. Daylen had never been, and never would be, the kind of woman to go all gaga over a man. And especially not one who went around sword fighting in dark alleys.

Daylen was too practical to lose her head over a man. Every relationship she had, she’d looked at as a partnership rather than a romantic love affair. If she found the man attractive, and he was willing to overlook the fact that she was a cop, she’d let things take their natural course. The sex would be all right, but it was never blow-your-mind good.

The relationship would usually peter out a few months down the road with no one getting hurt.

Now she had found a man who could not only kiss like there was no tomorrow, he’d also just about blown her socks off while doing it. And the kicker was she wanted to see him again. She also hadn’t reported the incident in the alley. For some unexplainable reason, she didn’t like the thought of another cop finding him and arresting him. Daylen wanted to be the one to bring him in.

Disgusted with how much time she’d spent thinking about him, she went to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth after she changed into a pair of pajama bottoms and an over-sized t-shirt. That done, she returned to the bedroom and got into bed. The dark shade pulled over the window blocked most of the light from outside.

Closing her eyes, Daylen drifted off to sleep with the image of the man swirling inside her head.

Miles sat in an overstuffed leather armchair in front of the wall of windows in his penthouse apartment watching the sunrise. He swirled the Scotch in the glass he held before he brought it to his lips and took a drink. The news he had received had been good and bad. He took another swallow of his drink.

The bad part was that the Protectors had once again found one of the men he used to find new recruits. At least this one had been smart enough to get away before he’d led the enemy to their door. The last time the Protectors had found the place where he trained his recruits Miles had had to destroy it, taking some of his men with it. It had taken him months to set up a new location, and to rebuild the number of lone wolves willing to follow him. He couldn’t afford a loss of that magnitude again now that the foretold one had been found.

The good news had in a small way made up for the fact that the Protectors were once more on his trail. A wicked smile spread across Miles’ lips. His man had made an interesting find before he’d managed to get away from the alley where he had encountered Jager. And Miles knew it was Jager from the lone wolf’s description of him.

He’d also told him about Jager’s reaction to the female police officer who had interrupted their fight. The sword-happy idiot had found his mate. Needless to say, Miles found that information quite useful. It wouldn’t be that hard to find out who the woman was. All he had to do was have one of his men follow Jager to her. The idiot wouldn’t be able to stay away from her. Since she had to be mortal, Miles knew it would hinder Jager’s ability to claim her as his. If the Protectors happened to come too close to his new headquarters, Miles figured Jager’s soon-to-be mate would make an excellent bargaining chip. And if Jager managed to claim her before Miles needed to use her, all the better. Mated werewolves couldn’t stand to be away from their mates. They became extremely agitated to say the least. It would be fun to watch Jager suffer while separated from his mate. It would just be one more incentive to get the Protectors to leave him alone. Given how honorable his sister and her brothers-in-arms were, they would do everything in their power to keep Jager’s mate from harm. Their weakness would be his gain.