Opening the door and allowing her to precede him, he was suddenly struck by the faintest hint of the mating scent. Just a hint, nothing overt or heavy.
What the hell was up with that?
Every mate he had ever come in contact with had held a heavy mating scent. It was always unmistakable, and always heavy enough to ensure all other Breed males were warned away.
“Why do you need to go to the gym?” she asked as they moved into the hall to join Flint, Mutt and Dog. The fact that the mating scent was so subtle had his animal instincts pacing restlessly.
Glancing at the three men, the only thing that eased the dangerous rising possessiveness was the fact that each of them seemed completely unaware of Liza as anything other than his mate, despite the less than normal strength of the mating scent.
Strangely, Mutt, being his normal glowering self, was in the best mood of the three.
“Wow, we’re having a party today,” Liza observed mockingly as she too, obviously, noticed the lack of a genial mood.
“No kidding,” Mutt grumbled. “It’s sure as hell not been the Fourth of f**king July for the past twenty-four hours. I swear they’re”—he jerked his head toward Flint and Dog—“gonna start depressin’ me soon.” His deliberate country drawl had just the right amount of twang at the exact slow, deliberate speed needed to pull off the backwoods accent.
No one would ever have guessed that the Coyote the Genetics Council had called Mutt was actually so well spoken that detecting any sort of accent was usually impossible.
“What gives?” Stygian asked as they all entered the elevator, automatically placing Liza protectively between the four of them in the center of the cubicle.
“What gives is being stuck in this damned town babysitting,” Dog growled irritably, crossing his arms over his wide chest. “I’d rather be out hunting.”
“Hunting what?” Flint growled. “Even the natural prey is staying hidden. As if they would be in any f**king danger anyway. These three just enjoy the chase. Give them the chance to kill and they lose all interest.”
“Yeah, at least our chase is actually the hunting kind. Not many of us are into outrunning them,” Mutt grunted. “You’re strange, Flint.”
“Give me a break,” Liza muttered. “You’re all strange.”
“Lady, you’re a pain in the ass—both you and your friend,” Dog growled, obviously talking about Claire. “That little hellion is going to drive me crazy.”
The lack of any animosity toward Liza had Stygian rolling his eyes rather than threatening to tear Dog’s head off. It was damned rare to see Dog reacting to anything in any manner other than mocking or sarcastic. The fact that Dog was so irate over a woman had him wondering if the Coyote—
“I’d kill myself before mating with that little harridan,” Dog snarled as Stygian inhaled deeply. “So stop looking for the damned scent. It’s flat-out not happening.”
Flint snickered while Stygian shook his head. Claire would be happy to know that so far, the mating scent wasn’t detectable. That didn’t mean it would stay that way, though.
“I think this sparring session is just what we all need,” Mutt growled as the elevator doors swung open, depositing them in the private gym Jonas had arranged in one of the conference rooms on the ground floor. “I could handle kicking your asses to hell and back. Might make all this enforced indoor boredom actually worth it.”
“You’re going to spar?” Complete disbelief filled her voice as she moved to face Stygian. “You brought me down here so I could watch the four of you spar?”
Staring into the narrowed gaze of his mate, Stygian suddenly felt more defensive than he liked. And he found he sure as hell didn’t like being defensive in front of Liza.
“No, I brought you down here so you could do that work you were bitching about while I spar,” he growled, hiding his confusion at the scent of—envy?
She was envious?
This proved true the rumor that intense training went into every member of the Navajo Breed Underground Network and explained why Liza and Claire were able to deny being a part of it, despite the reports they received that both women were. They wouldn’t be officially inducted until their training was complete.
“And obviously, to fight off the hornies.” Dog’s mocking smile was back. “What happened to mating heat, Stygian? You should be sparring with your mate in the bed, not your buddies in the gym.” He chuckled at what he considered a joke.
“Shut the f**k up, Dog,” Stygian ordered, glaring back at him.
The son of a bitch was right too, and that just pissed Stygian off even more.
“What he should be doing is leaving me alone in our suite to work instead of dragging me down here to watch a bunch of overgrown little boys wrestle,” Liza snapped, the sudden scent of her anger spilling from her like honeysuckle in the spring.
What the hell had finally managed to piss her off anyway?
If only it were her lust scenting the room so sweetly. If it were, he wouldn’t have to spar with these yahoos.
“Stygian, why don’t you just help your little honey find herself a place to work,” Dog suggested with a hard smile.
“Preferably a place where she can watch us kick your ass,” Mutt agreed with his best smile, which was actually a hell of a scowl.
Mutt would have made a hell of a poster boy for the Coyote bogeyman. Stygian had no doubt mothers frightened their children into good behavior with a similar visage of what could get them in the dark if they didn’t behave.
“Yeah, why don’t you just do that, Stygian,” Liza agreed with a mocking smile. “So I can watch the four of you pound on each other like idiots.”
Turning back to her, brow arched suggestively, Stygian let her know exactly why they were there.
Silently.
His gaze locked with hers.
He was going to pound on these three like an idiot, or he was going to end up f**king them both blind in that suite upstairs.
It was her choice.
Liza didn’t have to be a Breed, she didn’t have to have an incredible sense of smell to detect the lust fueling his gaze. It was there, burning like a neon blue flame in his black eyes.
She’d known he was aroused, known he’d wanted her in the past two days, but she hadn’t known it was burning as bright or as hot as it was. As bright or as hot as she had each time she allowed herself to pull back from the job she was determined to finish first.