Avet, Danica - Ain't No Bull [The Veil 4] (Siren Publishing Classic) (31 page)

He snorted. “I’m not getting mated. That’s a minotaur thing. You guys get that cow-love look in your eyes and that’s it. Bears are different.”

“We’ll see.”

They didn’t speak again until they reached the house. Grant tried his best not to flip out when he saw Isola’s SUV was gone. Maybe her friends had borrowed it to go to the Black Dog Camp. She had to still be here, if only so she could kick his ass.

He was out the car a split second after Ricky pulled to a stop. He didn’t even bother closing the car door behind him in his rush to see Isola, to beg forgiveness, and to get her cranky ass back in bed to finish the mating dance.

“Isola!” he shouted as he stormed through his front door.

The two Amazons were there as was the incubus. He ignored them and started for the bedroom. She was here, had to be.

“Mr. Strickland,” Isola’s leader called to him as he walked by.

He waved his hand at her. “Later. I need to talk to Isola.”

“She’s not here.”

Grant stopped cold in his tracks. She wasn’t here? He folded his arms over his chest as he turned to face the trio. “Where’d she go?”

The drag queen wouldn’t meet his eyes. The incubus looked at him with mingling of admiration and pity. The female though, she was rock solid and hard to read. He couldn’t tell if she was sorry, happy, or didn’t give a rat’s ass.

“She’s outcast from the tribe. She has nothing to do with the problems you’ve found yourself in the middle of.” She didn’t back down from his growl, instead lifting an eyebrow at him as though she dared him to attack. “You’ve managed to stumble on a very big problem, Mr. Strickland. The Veilerian High Council has sent me and my associates”—she gestured to the drag queen and incubus—“to protect you from further kidnapping attempts until the person behind the attacks is stopped.”

“Where’s Isola?” he asked again because he wanted to give her a chance to tell him. He’d track his mate down if he had to, but it would waste valuable time.

The Amazon ignored him as though he didn’t exist. “The Council has sent in their best Guardian Elites to search for and capture the person of interest. Until then, you’ll have to stay here where we can easily protect you.” She paced in front of him, apparently having no idea she put her life in danger with every word she uttered. “We’ll also post guards at your parents’ home to protect them in case someone tries to use them as bait for you. In the meantime, I want you to tell me exactly what happened with those nymphs and anything else you’ve learned since then.”

Grant didn’t answer, causing the Amazon to spin around and glare at him.

“Well?” she asked placing her hands on her hips.

He arched an eyebrow at her. “Where’s my mate?”

She waved her hand dismissively. “Izzy’s whereabouts aren’t important right now since she isn’t part of this operation. Now, tell me what those nymphs sai—”

Grant’s hand around her throat cut her off mid-word. He didn’t want to hurt her, but Isola’s location was more important than anything else. He tugged the Amazon towards him though it was more like she came to him on her own, her blue eyes flashing fire.

“Where. Is. My. Mate.”

He didn’t even see the fist that crashed into his nose, too focused on the Amazon’s face. His grip slackened, which gave her the chance to pull away from him.

She shook out her hand once she was out of range. “I’ll allow you that since you don’t know better, but next time you grab me, minotaur, I’ll shove your head up your ass. Got it?”

Ignoring the blood that poured down his face, he stalked closer to her. “Where is she?”

The damned woman didn’t back down. “I told you she isn’t important right now.”

“My mate is always important, woman!”

“If she’s so important, why did you run out on her, huh?” The new voice drew Grant’s attention away from the woman in front of him and towards the drag queen. He…she must have read surprise in his face because her glare became pointed, lethal. “Yeah, we know she mated you, that you mated her, but that your kind has harems. So what gives, huh? You want to break her heart or something?”

“Rosetta,” the other Amazon said in warning.

“No, Saga, this big bastard thinks he can just fuck my girl, run away, and then come back acting like he gives a shit? I don’t think so.” Rosetta, the drag queen, stalked up to Grant in fur boots. He blinked. “You think an Amazon takes a mate easily? Huh? You think she
shares
her mate with anyone? Ha!” The scorn in her eyes would’ve felled a lesser man, but Grant held up. “You don’t deserve her, and once she’s back with her tribe—with people who
love
her—I’ll make sure she never thinks about you twice. There are plenty of males who’d give their left nut to be with her and I’ll make sure—”

Grant roared, the shift surging through him at the thought of some other man touching his mate. He was peripherally aware of Rosetta backing away from him, but it was the thought of Isola making love to another male, of another male seeing his woman in the throes of passion that was foremost in his mind.

“Did you have to piss him off?” Saga, the cold Amazon, demanded.

“Oh, so this is my fault? You’re the one who was ignoring him!” came Rosetta’s strident reply.

He bellowed, silencing the two arguing women. Isola. He needed to find her. Now.

Ricky stood by the door, shaking his head at the two Amazons. “You guys really did it this time. You realize we won’t be able to stop him until he finds her?”

“Good luck with that. She should be halfway to
Montana
by now,” Saga muttered as she shook her head.

Grant grunted, his nostrils quivering, as he dragged in Isola’s scent. It was faint, but unmistakable. He could track her. He hadn’t lied when he said he was good at tracking. He might not be as good as his mate, but he could and would follow that delicious rose scent to hell and back.

“What do you mean?” Ricky demanded, moving out of Grant’s way as he headed for the door.

Saga sniffed. “She was given the option of staying with the minotaur and being outcast forever, or leaving for the
Yukon
and being allowed back.”

Grant stopped on the threshold at her words. Isola hadn’t been given an option, she’d been given an ultimatum. These last few days with her, he’d discovered just how loyal she was to the same people who punished her. She’d talked a little about her escapades with the Blood Maidens and every time one of her friends had been in trouble, she’d been there. Yes, she was outlandish. She was impulsive, but her heart was pure, her love for her tribe evident in everything she did.

Momentarily pulled out of his rage, Grant managed to shift back to his human form. Luckily, the sweats he wore were Ricky’s who was bigger than he was, which meant they hadn’t shredded completely when he shifted. He didn’t want Isola’s friends to see him buck-ass naked more than they had to.

He turned to them, listening as Saga and Ricky argued back and forth about how far Isola could have gotten since she left. He didn’t know why they’d argue about it and he didn’t care.

“You got something to add, bull?” Rosetta challenged, her face set in taut lines.

“Yeah, I do.” He looked to Saga, who ignored Ricky to listen to what he had to say. “Your tribe doesn’t deserve Isola. I might not deserve her either, but at least I love her and want her to be herself. You’re trying to change her into something she’ll never be, never satisfied with the joy she brings to you, and you want to mold her into a pale imitation of herself.” He shook his head. “And she mated
me,
but Little Miss Can’t-Stay-Out-of-Rooms,” he said with a pointed look at Rosetta, “interrupted before I could ask her to stay with me. But she is my mate. She might not believe it, you might not believe it, but nothing will stop me from making her happy for the rest of her fucking life.”

With that said, Grant headed out the door, following his nose to his mate.

* * * *

Inside the house, Ricky stared at Saga. Damn, but that was one fine woman! Too bossy and independent for him, of course, but a man could look, couldn’t he? The incubus sighed deeply as though he’d seen this all before and wasn’t interested. The Cajun hadn’t said a single word since Ricky and Grant had shown up and it wasn’t until now that the bear remembered he was even in the room.

“Can we call the queen now?” Fallon asked in a tired voice.

The Amazons ignored him, talking to each other in hushed voices. Good thing Ricky had excellent hearing because it was a conversation he wouldn’t have missed for the world.

“Good job, brain trust,” Rosetta hissed at Saga. “I can’t believe you told him what Queen Albreda planned for Izzy. Now he’s out there like some…some white knight charging to the rescue. That was
not
part of the plan!”

Saga’s eyes were bright with surprise and anger. “I know it wasn’t part of the damned plan, but I had to find out how he felt about her, didn’t I? Albreda suspected something was up between them and now we know.”

“We know that Izzy thinks she’s out of the tribe.” Rosetta spoke through her teeth, glaring straight in her friend’s eyes. “You promised we wouldn’t use that threat unless things were really bad.”

Saga’s ivory shoulder lifted in a shrug. Ricky’s mouth watered at the sight of the lean muscles beneath the taut skin. He could almost taste her.

“Izzy’s hardheaded, you know that as well as I do. If we’re ever going to become aunts, we need to take drastic measures. Now the minotaur is out there doing exactly what we wanted him to, and Izzy is doing what we need her to do—think about how she feels about him. Simple.”

“You’re both
couillon
,” the Cajun inserted with an aggrieved sigh. “
Ma fouine
was deeply hurt, not just because of having to leave her
taureau,
but because she does not want to leave her sisters.
Si c'est pas les maringouins, c'est les chaboulures.
”

“What’d he say?” Ricky asked as he absorbed all the information he’d learned.

Saga turned, looking at him with wide blue eyes that narrowed dangerously. “You’re still here.”

He shrugged and fought off the urge to glower at her for forgetting he was in the room. “Of course I’m still here, I want to know what the hell’s going on!”

She took a step forward. “You were supposed to follow your cousin out of here.”

“Yogi done screwed up,” Rosetta muttered as she checked her makeup in her compact.

“What the hell’s going on?” Ricky roared because enough was enough. These Amazons were driving him insane!

Fallon clucked and sauntered towards them. “I said ‘There’s always something wrong. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.’ Which loosely translates to, you just let the most important person in this operation go.” He shook his head at Ricky and left the house.

“Idiot.”

“He’s a man, Saga, he’s going to screw things up.” Rosetta snapped her compact closed and pulled out her sword. “We can castrate him now or we can go after the bull. Which do you want to do?”

Saga shook her head at Rosetta and strolled towards the front door. Ricky stepped in her path. She kept walking until she was mere inches away from him. He could feel the warmth from her body drawing him like a magnet. He wanted her something awful, but there was no way in the nine hells he’d end up with a woman just like his mother.

Not ready for her to know how much he wanted her, Ricky glared down at her. “Where are you going?”

She was cool as ice though, his Amazon. No, not his Amazon. She was a pain in the ass, that’s what she was. Her and her sisters. She looked him up and down, her expression shielded.

“I’m going to make sure my sister gets her mate.”

She pushed past him with Rosetta on her heels. The drag queen stopped and shot him a come-hither look. “If you want to follow with one of your hawt deputies, I’d love for someone to um, hold my sword.”