Seeing Eye Mate (3 page)

“I don’t think so. I’ll call a friend to pick me up.” She tried to speak as sweetly as possible, but must have sounded a tad bit repulsed. The man’s eyes narrowed and he spat a big wad of gross, black tar at the ground near her shoe.

“S’no problem, lady. Jump on in.”

“The
lady
said no thank you.”

The tow-truck driver jerked at the sound of the deep, gravelly voice. Tieran’s heart pounded. It was them, or rather, one of them. Whether it was the playboy who’d smiled at her or the one who glared back, she couldn’t be sure. Hell, she hadn’t seen anything past their gorgeous faces to tell them apart.

His dark brown hair reflected the dull light above him. He had his hands tucked into the pockets of his black jeans, lending to his air of casualness.

His expression, however, was anything but casual. His feral eyes pulsed and flashed an eerie, yellowish-brown beneath deceptively long lashes. Tieran expected that at any second he would pounce. God help the poor soul he landed on.

“I told you.”

She ignored her gramama’s words just as she tried to ignore the quickening of her heartbeat and the hardening of her nipples beneath her shirt.
No more men. None. Stop looking at him
.

She couldn’t and had to swallow to keep her tongue from coming out and licking her lips the way she wanted to lick his body.

He was all male and she wanted him. Bad. Wanted to feel him between her thighs. Wanted his mouth and hands on her, caressing until she screamed out with her climax. Why? She’d never wanted Peter this way. Not even in the throes, or lack thereof, of passion. What was a throe anyway?

“Focus, Tieran.”

Her cheeks caught fire at her gramama’s command, jerking her completely out of her fantasies.

“I reckon it ain’t none a your business.” The tow-truck driver’s voice made her skin crawl and she barely refrained from rubbing her arms to ward off his ickiness.

A low growl—that’s the only way she could describe it—issued from her savior’s mouth and he cocked his head. Her savior?

“She’s here with me. I’d say that makes it my business.” His low voice rang with menace.

Take that!
She was suddenly sorry she’d glared at him earlier.

The disgusting man straightened to his full height and was still about a head shorter than Mr. Yummy. Tow-truck man spit again, some of the loogie landing on the interior panel of her door.

Sick. “That’s a really disgusting habit,” she blurted.

“You just can’t keep your mouth shut, can you, Tulla?”

Tieran mentally shrugged. The towing man continued to stare at the other man, whose lips had curved at the edges for some reason.

“I think he likes your attitude, Tulla. Wonders never cease.”

For long seconds no one moved or spoke, until finally, the towing man turned his head away from the car and spit for the third time.

Tieran could take no more. She gagged and her eyes watered.

“You’re on your own, lady.” He turned and stomped back to his truck. The engine roared to life. Gravel spewed out behind the tires as he reversed and took off down the street.

She sighed in relief. Thanking God was a bit much considering she still had a broken-down car to deal with, but then she remembered her savior. “Thank you.”

He stepped forward and planted a big hand on the top of her door, preventing her from closing it. “My name’s Caelan Graham.”

Please don’t tell me that. I don’t want to know and I don’t want to get involved again.

“He’s different, Tullabelle.”

“So? Butt out.”

“
And yours is?” He crossed his arms over the edge of the door and rested his chin on his muscled forearm. His posture clearly said, “I have all night.”

Fine.
Damn it
, but fine.

“Tieran.”

He seemed to ponder that for a moment. “What kind of name is that?”

“One step above Nareit.” Why did everyone in the world have to question her name?

“Be nice to him, Tulla.”

Caelan—could you have a sexier name?—smiled, letting her attempt at an insult roll off him, melting the icy demeanor she was trying to portray.

Aargh!

“Nice to meet you. Now, I have to go.” She yanked the door away from him, causing him to stumble, a surprised look on his face.

“And just how do you plan on doing that if your car doesn’t work?”

He had her there. She jammed the key in the ignition, praying it might start now that it had rested for a while. Right. Nothing would ever be that easy for her. She held her breath and turned her wrist. The engine purred to life. Feeling like a snot, she turned to Caelan and graced him with a bratty smile.

“See? It’s fine. Just needed a minute to cool down I guess.” Even she didn’t believe that.

As she pulled away, she glanced in the rearview mirror at Caelan who stood with his arms across his chest, grinning.

She found herself smiling back and shook her head. Fool.

Was she referring to him or to herself? Crap. What did it matter now? He was gone.

And her grandmother had said she was supposed to help him with something. Double crap. She’d gotten so flustered by the tow-truck driver and Caelan’s heated gaze that she’d forgotten the reason her car had conveniently chosen that moment to break down. As soon as she got some rest, she’d find out exactly how her gramama had made that happen.

“I can explain, Tulla, and don’t worry, my dear. He’ll find you.”

Tieran wasn’t even going to think about why that idea made her panties wet.

*

Caelan dropped his arms to his side. His slippery little mate had gotten away again. No problem. At least now he knew how to find her. He had her name and license plate number. Owning your own security company sometimes had its privileges.

Tomorrow. He’d go to her tomorrow after he finished the job he had in the morning. Then he’d sit her down and enlighten her with reality. His reality, not hers, since her version would be vastly different. Then he’d take her to bed and have his way with her, making her position in his life concrete.

And that was the only way it could be.

Caelan slapped the file folder down on the cluttered desk the next day and ran a hand over his face. Damn he was tired. His eyes were gritty from the number of hours he’d worked lately. They had to find this guy before he got to another one of their mates. He ground his teeth together, surprised the shifter community hadn’t been outed yet. It would come to that very soon if no one could identify the man responsible. Caelan was no closer to finding the bastard today than he was yesterday. Or two weeks ago for that matter.

He was failing his shifters. All of them, even if none of the mates murdered so far had been from his pack. Caelan still felt responsible. Fat lot of good he’d do them in his current state of mind.

He cursed himself for not being able to concentrate this morning. He’d been too fucking busy thinking about Tieran. When he’d woken up this morning his dick had been so hard he’d had to jack himself off. Something he hadn’t had to do since high school.

Imagining Tieran’s head bobbing up and down as she sucked him off had done the trick, but it just hadn’t been the same as having her do it for real.

He wished now he had been more forward last night. Somehow gotten her to come home with him or something. His body already knew what it was missing even though he hadn’t completed the transfer of body fluids.

Yeah, right, Graham. Letting her see the real you would have gone over well. Probably would have sent her racing for the hills.

“You find out anything?” Eli settled his tall frame into the chair across the desk.

Jesus, Caelan was so preoccupied with his mate he hadn’t even heard his brother come in. Not good. “You look like hell. Have another late night?” His brother was an eternal rake. Caelan thought maybe Eli was trying to deny his future.

Eli grinned but the smile looked forced.

“You could say that.” Eli raked a hand through his hair. “Got a lot on my mind, I guess.” He gestured with a jerk of his chin to the papers strewn across Caelan’s desk. “What ya got?”

“Anything I can help with?” Caelan asked, ignoring his brother’s attempt to change the subject.

“No, not until we get this killer business behind us. My problem can wait.”

“If you’ve got an issue—”

“I don’t, Cael. Well, I do, but nothing serious. I’ll get to it later. What do you know?” Eli pointed to the papers again.

Caelan sighed and let the issue drop. Sooner or later Eli would get around to telling him. They had no secrets. He hoped.

“I know where she lives, where she works, her debt-to-income ratio, her education and where she shops. Hell, I can probably even tell you her bra size.”

Eli’s face lit up with a wolfish grin, no pun intended. “What? All that and no name? I was talking about the Mate Killer, anyway.”

Caelan fisted his pencil until he heard a crack.

“What size are they?” Eli continued, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Tieran, and no, I didn’t find out anything.” He would ignore his little brother’s comment about Tieran’s cup size for now. “You won’t get a rise out of me that easily.”

“No, I can see you’re in no way affected by the very hot human who’s got you sporting a permanent woody.”

Caelan itched to wipe the smug look off his little brother’s face. Eli would get what was coming to him sooner or later. He couldn’t escape finding a mate forever. Caelan had a feeling it would be Nikki who brought Eli to heel. “The police have no leads, even after last night,” he said, striving to keep his voice normal.

Eli brought his chin up sharply, his eyes narrowed. “What happened last night?”

“Another one,” Caelan said solemnly. “They think she was attacked by a pack of wild dogs or coyotes.”

Eli snorted. “Coyote are wild dogs, aren’t they? Wait a minute. Why did he take one while in wolf form? That’s a pretty big leap from his previous attacks. Maybe he fucked up.”

Caelan shrugged. “And maybe we’re dealing with a full-blood shifter. The moon was full last night, he wouldn’t have been able to get out of it. Or it could be he just knows what the hell he’s doing. It might be a ploy to throw us off, to make us think he’s a full-blood so we’ll back off looking at the half-bloods completely. Not to mention he’s been very careful not to kill in the same way twice, even in his human form.”

Eli leaned over and braced his elbows on his knees. “Okay, so we know all the women targeted so far have been mates. There has to be some way of leading the police in the right direction. Hell”—he threw his hand in the air—“we’ve got fucking shifters on the force. Can’t that asswipe, Hayward, drop a hint or something?”

Caelan shook his head. “Not without giving himself away in the process. But since we haven’t been able to trace a scent marker, there aren’t a lot of hints to drop. Our police shifters are stuck using conventional methods just like the human crime scene techs. And so far, there’s been nothing to pick up.”

“Shit. By the time they get all their i’s dotted and t’s crossed, we won’t have any mates left.” Eli slapped his thighs and rose from his chair. “You going to see her now? In the flesh I mean?” His smirk said he’d known all along where Caelan’s thoughts had been today.

Caelan threw his pencil down. It bounced off the desk and javelined toward Eli who caught it with a lightning-quick reflex, his grin spreading from ear to ear.

“Yes, I am.”

Eli nodded once. “Keep her safe.” He strode to the doorway. “I have a feeling she’s going to do great things for us.”

Caelan snorted. “The great eagle in the sky tell you that?”

“No.” He laughed. “Just my gut. Later, Bro.”

“Yeah, later. Hey, don’t you have a meeting tonight? Who is it with?” Caelan asked his brother’s retreating figure.

Eli tapped his fingers on the doorframe, a strange look marring his features. “Yeah, with Dane Christian.”

“You ever figure out what he wanted?”

This time it was Eli’s turn to shake his head. He stared out the window of their home office, almost distracted by whatever he saw. “He said a friend recommended me. Mentioned something about needing me to do something for him. I’ll see what he wants and get back to you after.” He gave a two-finger salute and walked out.

Caelan sifted through his papers until he found the file with the bright pink tab. Not that he needed to look at it again, he’d memorized the contents.

Twenty-one sixty, West Springdale. His mate had been living in the same city as him all along.

It was time.

*

Tieran stared at her front door with pure contempt. She’d woken up later than usual this morning, courtesy of the erotic dreams she’d had of Caelan—all night long, thank you very much—and now she was grouchy. Lack of sleep was not the only reason for her current mood, though.

She’d worked an extra long day yesterday trying to finish her current project then had to deal with the situation last night, only to get up extra early this morning to go back into work.