Page 70 of His Runaway Mate

“Why would my ire be in play?” Rex comes striding around the corner, black shirtsleeves unbuttoned and rolled up to his elbows, forearms flexing like two powerfully sexy pythons. I feel a tremor of arousal that my body would not be able to bear if I was to pursue it.

Fescue looks at me, encouraging me to confess to save the both of us.

“I was asking where my father is,” I tell him.

“That man is not your problem right now, nor will he ever be again,” Rex says, his handsome features thunderous with disapproval as he mentions my father and finds him, ironically, disdainful.

I think he’s here. I think he’s allowed the man to be on his land.

“If he is here, he shouldn’t be,” I tell Rex. “He’s more dangerous than you think. He’s worse than you saw when you rescued me. Don’t bring him in. Don’t try to fix him.”

“There are medications…”

“There’s no fucking medication for evil,” I burst out with such intensity that both Fescue’s and Rex’s brows head for their hairlines at equal pace. “You think he’s disturbed? You think he just needs the right treatment? It won’t do anything. He likes the kill. And he likes to consume. And I don’t think there’s a medication that can take that prey drive out of him. Ever.”

“What do you want me to do with him?” Rex asks the question softly and plainly.

I can’t bring myself to answer. The simple thing, the proper thing is to end my father the same way he has ended hundreds of people. But I could never bring those words to pass my lips.

“I don’t know,” I say, sounding much weaker than I intended to. “I’m just saying he is dangerous.”

Rex crosses over to me, wraps his arms around me, and holds me against his body. “I know,” he rumbles. “I have this under control. You don’t have to worry anymore. That’s the deal. That is what it means to be mine. You never have to worry about that man, or anything else, ever again. All you need to think about is being a good girl and having my babies.”

He makes it sound so easy, but my brain does not believe in easy things.

“What did you do with my pack?” I ask the question because I want to get away from the topic of my father. Rex really thinks he can do something with him, which is wild.

“I sent your boys home. Laura will remain here with us. She has not been much in the way of trouble, and you do need a companion.”

“Can we hang out now?”

“I’ll send her in,” he says, sparking excitement in me. I may as well be in a jail cell just like the boys were for how little freedom I have at the moment. I know better than to complain about that, though. I’m sure Rex would whip my ass for the ingratitude and audacity if I started insisting on free rein of the place.

Fescue and Rex give me some space for a moment, and I feel as though I can breathe more deeply as something like a sense of normal starts to creep around the edges of my life.

It will be good to see Laura again. She was there, at the mine. She came with them to find me. Her loyalty is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt and I owe her so much.

“Hey, boss,” she grins as she comes into the room.

I give her a big hug, which is not like me usually, but she accepts it and squeezes me back.

“Thank you,” I say. “For coming. You didn’t have to.”

She gives me a quizzical look as she pulls away. “Of course I had to,” she says. “You’re my boss.”

“I mean it,” I say seriously. “Thank you for coming for me.”

“I would always come for you. Now. More important, we need to start planning your wedding,” Laura says, beaming. She’s bouncing around as if she has a reason to be excited, but I really can’t see why.

“He hasn’t proposed to me.”

“Of course he hasn’t, but he will. You know he will. You’re probably already pregnant with his baby. So we should be thinking about venues, and themes, and promotional opportunities. Would you consider a branded sweet bar?”

I can’t think about any of this, much less a branded sweet bar. Branded with what? Our Runaway designs? That would be tacky. Or maybe it would be cool.

“What kind of sweets?”

“Well, I was thinking we could do what those ladies on the reels do and buy a lot of sweets in bulk and then set up sweet tables and have them be branded at like corporate events and things? We could do themes. Like yellow, or silver, or red, white, and blue. Basically, you get the candy and it’s in these colors…”