Mate Claimed (Shifters Unbound #4)(30)
Author: Jennifer Ashley

Iona protested about leaving the gate open behind them, but Eric didn’t slow. He’d send Jace and Shane back to pick up Eric’s bike, lock the place up, and go to Iona’s house to fetch clothes and whatever for her.

“What about the human side?” Iona said as they raced down the street. “They’ll arrest me. They might arrest my mother…”

“As far as the humans know, you’re human. Graham hates humans more than he hates me, and my Shifters will obey me. We’ll say I met you when I came to see you about the Shifter houses. I liked you, invited you to shack up with me in Shiftertown, and you came along. You wouldn’t be the first human to do that.”

“Shack up with you in Shiftertown,” Iona repeated. “Don’t make it sound so glamorous.”

Eric laughed. His blood was up, his body pulsing with excitement. He’d made the mate-claim, and she was his, this glorious, beautiful, lush-bodied woman.

“Only until we get this sorted out,” Iona said sternly. “I told you, I’m not giving up my entire life to live in Shiftertown.”

She would. But Eric would deal with that later. My mate. My mate. My mate.

“What fight club?”

Eric blinked, realizing that Iona was talking to him, and that he’d gone several intersections without noticing. He slowed the truck, trying to calm down.

“Shifters fight each other in organized matches to blow off steam. Humans forbid it; we don’t listen. I pretend I don’t notice my Shifters slipping off to fight each other illegally. They know I know, but we don’t talk about it.”

“What will your Shifters do when you show up in their secret club tomorrow to fight this McNeil?”

“They’ll live with it. I have to fight him there, because what happens at the fight clubs doesn’t count as a dominance change.”

“Dominance change? Which means?”

“If I lose the fight, it doesn’t mean McNeil gets Shiftertown. Nothing in the hierarchy changes. But I won’t lose.”

“But if you do lose, he thinks he gets me?” Iona’s glare intensified. “This is the twenty-first century. You don’t do battle over a woman, and I’m not meekly submitting to whoever wins.”

“I will win. And even if I didn’t, you could reject his mate-claim.”

“Then I reject it now! Take me home.”

“You can’t reject him until the Challenge is settled, and you still need to be protected. I won’t lose, Iona.”

“You’re saying I’m supposed to sit around and wait while you two fight over me? Forget it. I’m not playing.”

“It’s not play. It’s deadly serious. When I win this fight, the other Shifters will know they’ll have to Challenge me for you, and they won’t dare.”

Eric knew that Graham didn’t really want Iona—he’d made it clear he’d mate only with a Lupine and wouldn’t taint his line with a Feline. Graham had Challenged for Iona simply because he wanted to take her away from Eric.

A Shifter could mate-claim a female, even officially mate with her under the sun and moon ceremonies, and then never use her to make cubs. Pride and pack leaders of old had kept their packs and prides in line by mate-claiming all females not related to them and doling them out to the other males when they reached their mating years. Graham seemed the type to keep up that old tradition if he could.

Eric tasted the primal excitement of the rivalry. He hadn’t felt like this about a female since Kirsten, a need for a mate he thought he’d never experience again. He’d told himself he’d been keeping quiet about Iona all these months to protect her, but in truth, he was as old-fashioned as Graham, sequestering Iona from prying eyes while he worked on winning her. He laughed.

“Eric!”

Eric came out of his reverie to avoid slamming into a truck stopped in front of them.

“Maybe I should drive.” Iona was already halfway out of the truck.

“Don’t try to run away from me, Iona. I’d just have to catch you again.”

No, let her run. Hunt her. Bring her in…

Eric shut off the thought.

Iona didn’t run anywhere. She came around to the driver’s side, and Eric slid over for her. Another driver whistled as Iona climbed into the driver’s side, the slit in her bridesmaid’s gown riding up her thigh. Eric barely stopped himself from leaping out and ripping out the guy’s throat.

Iona put her foot to the gas and glided the truck down the road again. “I’m not going to run away. I like my truck. Besides, the sooner we resolve this, the sooner I can get back to my normal life.”

Eric sat close enough to her to touch her, loving the way her body moved beneath the satin gown. “You won’t have a normal life ever again. Your mating hunger is calling to you. You can’t fight it forever.”

“Not the best sales pitch you could make.” Iona gripped the wheel and turned through streets without asking directions, heading north to Shiftertown.

Iona had driven past the Las Vegas Shiftertown before, unable to stem her curiosity about it, though she’d never been through its gates. She’d seen that, behind the high chain-link fence, Shiftertown was a grid of streets with small, neat homes.

The fact that the gates were left wide open, the fence not topped with barbed wire or anything, had always made her feel better. The fence and gates were more symbolic than imprisoning.

A number of Shifters seemed to have motorcycles, she saw as she followed Eric’s directions down a street a block away from the gates. She also saw that, though it was dark and around dinnertime, Shifters were out and busy, some carrying boxes from house to house, some stacking furniture on front porches.

“They’re moving in with their families and neighbors,” Eric said to her curious glance. “Doubling up because Graham’s Shifters get here day after tomorrow. Stupid humans wouldn’t wait for the houses to be built.”

“We can get them done quickly,” Iona said. “But that still means a couple of months.” She slowed and turned where Eric indicated. “The new Shifters arrive day after tomorrow? After your fight?”

“Why do you think I picked tomorrow night? Graham and his seconds will have to follow the rules of the Challenge and the fight club, but I wouldn’t trust the bulk of his wolves not to do something dumb-ass while he fought me.”

Iona was surprised. Eric had been in a flat rage when he’d faced Graham in her office, ready to kill him. He’d made no sign that he’d been coolly calculating the best time for the fight. “Do you always plan everything so carefully?”