Dylan (Bowen Boys, #3)(14)

“Everyone has choices. And mine is to get the hell away from here.” She took another step. “Please, you have to believe me. You’re safer if I leave.”

“You’re going to have to convince her,” Khan said. She looked at Khan when he spoke. “She thinks that she needs to leave so that you can remain safe. Show her that you can protect her if the need arises.”

Jack watched Dylan move into the room, then the other men joined him. She looked at Corrine when they started to unbutton their shirts. This was just getting too creepy.

“I think you might want to sit down, dear,” Corrine said to her. “This is about to become very frightening for you. Oh, and don’t run. If you do, it will cause you problems, and I don’t believe you need any more of those right now, do you?”

She shook her head and looked back at Dylan. The man had a chest that just screamed to be licked. When he winked at her, she flushed, then thought of shooting his dick off.

“Not nice. What will I do with you if you do that?” She flushed more when she caught images of them together in the big bed, and looked at the bed. She knew that he was doing that and tried not to think how enjoyable it would be. His low growl had her looking at him again.

The room tightened, and she had a feeling that all the air had been sucked out of the room. When she lifted her gun, she only raised it a few inches when she realized what had happened. The room was full of panthers.

“Holy mother f*ck feathers.” She stumbled back into the chair behind her as one of them walked toward her. “Stop right there.”

He, of course, didn’t. His paw was a big as her thigh, and she trembled when she could see the tips of his claws sticking out. He took it off her leg and laid his head in its place. Jack looked at Corrine and Caitlynne.

“I can shift as well, but I’m hoping that this will be enough to convince you that we can help you much more than you can do on your own.” Jack heard the words that Corrine was saying, but it was too much. “That’s Dylan on your lap. The others can’t touch you because, if they do, he’ll kill them. He won’t want to, but it’s in his DNA to protect you.”

“Me?” Her voice squeaked, and she tried again. “Why me? I mean, I’m not a family member. I’m not even sure that I like you all.”

He growled low, and she looked down at him. He rubbed his massive head over her lap, and she heard him purr. She looked up at Corrine again.

“You’re his mate,” Corinne said. Jack started to ask what that meant when Dylan lifted his head suddenly. She didn’t know what was happening, but he looked tense, and it made her feel the same way. When the other cats moved toward the opposite side of the door, she knew whatever was coming was f*cking huge. Dylan put his mouth over her wrist and held her.

“What the f*ck is he doing? I need that.” The cat that walked in the room wasn’t as big as Dylan, and his black fur was tinged in gray. He looked older, softer, and a little heavy. The snort from Dylan made her look down at him.

“I wasn’t going to shoot him.” He let go of her wrist. “This is f*cking off the charts insane, you know that, right? I’m going to wake up in a minute and this is all going to be a dream. I mean, there can’t be four panthers in this house, in this room with me. I’m a reasonably sane person, right?”

She leaned back in her chair and stared at Dylan when he nodded at her. Standing up, she made her way to the bed. The sooner she lay back down and woke up, the faster this would be over. Dylan, the cat, crawled into it with her, and she didn’t argue with him. Only insane people argued with figments of their imaginations.





Chapter Five


Dylan watched her lay there. He knew she wasn’t asleep, but she didn’t move, either. His family left the room as soon as she lay down. He remained his cat and stayed on the bed beside her. The first few tears hurt him more than he would have thought.

“I didn’t kill that family. When I got there, they were dead already. I had an assignment to kill him, just the male, but not anyone else.” She moved over more, and he nearly moved closer to her. “I know you think I should be happy about what you’ve done, showing me what you…f*ck, I don’t know what I think, but I’m still leaving. I’ll tell Caitlynne all she wants to know, but after that, I’m going to leave. And I swear to you that no one will ever know what you’ve…that I was here.”

He jumped down off the bed when she finally cried herself to sleep. Dylan shifted, pulled on some comfortable pants, and took her tray to the kitchen. Khan was sitting there with his mate and Marshall.

“She all right?” Dylan shook his head at Khan. “I’m sorry, Dylan, I thought it would help. I think it shows that she’s a strong woman to not have run from the room screaming.”

“She said she’d talk to Caitlynne and tell her everything, but she’s still leaving.” He turned to look at his brother. “I don’t know what to do. I need her. I know that we’ve not mated or anything, but I can’t let her go.”

Marshall cleared his throat. “Actually, there is something you can do. Bite her. Well, not just bite, but you can mate with her. Do it tonight. I think if you do, she’ll be more inclined to stay with you. Provided you do it correctly.”

Monica laughed. “I think he’s telling you there’s more than one way to mate with her and it doesn’t necessarily involve full-out sex.”