Contracted: Mercenary Shifters (Mercenaries for Hire Book 3) Read online

  No, all I had wanted was his mark. As if sensing where my thoughts went, his own desire tampered down, and was replaced by a cool, deceitful anger. It brewed deep in his belly.

  “You’re walking on a thin line, chickadee.” Dom crowded me, the heat of his body licking against my own. Anyone else would be terrified of those reptilian slits that overtook his pupils, and the jeweled look the irises took on. Not me. Oh, big, bad Dom didn’t scare me.

  “Maybe I want to cross that line.”

  “You know there are people in the room, right?”

  I quirked an eyebrow in a silent challenge. I resisted popping my hip out and further drawing his attention by placing my hand on it.

  “Scared?”

  His lips upturned and the fire grew in his eyes. Hot, feisty desire roared through him; it was the desire I remembered when we first met. Wild, uncontrollable need for each other. It hadn’t really died down—most of the time it was a simmer we ignored so we could get on with our daily lives.

  “Everyone out!” Dominic commanded without taking his eyes off mine.

  A delicious shiver of anticipation shook through me. I tugged my bottom lip in, slowly wetting it, thinking of what else was hot and heady for him.

  “Now!”

  “You don’t have to be nervous, Dom.”

  “Fuck that, your body is for my eyes only.”

  I shifted my legs, the tension easing a tiny bit of frustration that had built up. Those were words of love coming from him and made me want him all the more.

  “Just give me your bite.”

  “Fuck!” Dom took a step back, rubbing his hand over his face. And just like that our moment was shattered. He worried because I was human and he didn’t always trust his dragon side.

  “I trust you, Dom … all of you.”

  “We are not having this conversation right now. We were about to fuck.”

  I gave him my best ‘what the heck’ look. “Dominic.”

  He was truly testing my patience now.

  “Dammit, Eden, I was going to surprise you tomorrow night.”

  “What?”

  “I was going to surprise you after our human wedding. Winnie told me use some fucking petals and shit, with candles, but really I was just going to be deep inside of you and ask.”

  Tears welled in my eyes. I pounced on him, pressing my lips against his. He wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me close. My big softy … not that he would ever let me say the words. It warmed my heart that he would do this for me. And it was very much his style. I tucked my head in the crook of his neck, allowing him to just hold me.

  “Thank you.”

  Dom left after that, promising me that he would be waiting for me as soon as dawn broke. Since he found me … or rather was hired to kidnap me, we hadn’t been a night apart. When his friends were in trouble he always made it home back to me. The bed felt empty and my body cold without him wrapped around me. He would never admit it out loud, but he was the cuddler of the two of us.

  Morning didn’t come soon enough.

  Once it did, I practically rolled out of bed, dead on my feet with lack of sleep. The other girls weren’t much better. Pretty sure at one point Lucas had come to the room and Mazy slipped out for a couple minutes. I couldn’t blame them, they had just admitted their mating. They were in the heat of the mating haze.

  “How are you perky right now, Winnie?” Mazy asked, sounding groggier than me.

  I slipped my glasses on, and the room came into focus.

  “Perky? Ha! I’m tame right now.” She was flitting around the room picking up everything and anything. She looked like she was racing toward something.

  “Maybe we should call Quintin.”

  “Quinn?” Winnie snapped back up, focusing on Mazy. “Nah, he is probably sleeping in for the first time in a couple weeks.”

  “Come on, sweetcheeks! We gotta get you dressed and a bow on you.”

  “Did she just say bow?” I asked.

  “Yeah, you better run,” Mazy replied with a laugh as she went to the bathroom.

  Once Mazy was done in the bathroom, Winnie ushered me in with instructions to take a shower, and not to touch my make-up. I hadn’t planned on it, and I wore very minimal make-up to begin with. I came out of the shower, wrapped in a towel when the door flew open.

  Winnie attacked. She had hair products, and machines. In her other hand dangled a bag with what I wasn’t even entirely positive I knew what was in it. I found out about two hours, and a very sore butt, later that it was make-up.

  “Can I go now?” I whined, starving for food and the need to move my legs. Mazy didn’t escape Winnie and her tools of torture.

  We switched places, which allowed me free reign from my new friends. We were at one of the guy’s fancy mansion in the East. The boys wouldn’t tell us which it belonged to; I had a sneaking suspicion it belonged to all three of them and they recently acquired it. None of them would admit it, though.

  The place was more of an estate—huge, with a rolling backyard that we set up for our “human wedding” as Dom kept referring to it. The rest of the day went too slow, dragging until the last moments that we had to get ready. My parents were invited and there was only about a half an hour before the ceremony. I didn’t think they would show.

  Dominic had made it clear he wasn’t interested in a relationship with my father, and my own relationship with him became very strained. I had regular phone calls with my mom, yet my dad never asked to speak to me. And I had not asked to speak with him. His actions hurt me even if he was being an overprotective, overbearing … well, bear. Bonnie tried to get me to see the light as well, but it came right down to the fact my father hired Dominic to kidnap and scare me.

  This could have been our bridge. I still hadn’t seen him.

  I glanced in the full-length mirror that Winnie had “found”. I wasn’t so sure about that but she brought it and set it up. My thick, waist-length hair had been braided into an overexaggerated braid, and Winnie used fake flowers throughout the design. It was really stunning. She had fought me tooth and nail about using my contacts. I outright refused because Dominic loved my bulky black frames.

  The dress was simple; silky and breathable. It fit the fairy look that Winnie had given me. As much as she hated it, I forced her to keep my make-up also at a minimum. But she had transformed me. I was a fairy sprite with ungodly good looks. I was hoping I could finally make a matching pair to Dom. A smile twitched at my lips.

  Butterflies erupted in my tummy. The first time I laid eyes on him, he had been domineering, ridiculous, and I had wanted nothing more to punch him in the face. And evidently kiss him as well. But the crude, foul-mouthed man was everything for me.

  I stepped away from the mirror. No, the way I looked today would never mar the fact that he was my mate.

  I straightened my back; the girls had already left, dressed and ready to go. Bonnie waited for me at the entrance of my room and locked her arm around mine. We walked downstairs together. And even though I had been with Dominic in every sense of the word since we first met, this felt like a whole new beginning for us.

  My heart pumped with a new speed of excitement. Today Dominic would really, truly be mine.

  Chapter 2

  Dominic

  Today, Eden would truly be mine.

  Winnie had convinced me to do this asinine plan in the first place for reasons I still couldn’t quite figure out. Before I had been so against it; Eden was mine already. My dragon knew it, I knew it, she knew it, and if anyone tried to refute it … I’d make them understand. As much as she was mine, I was a slave to her. As proven by the fact I currently stood in the most uncomfortable fucking suit ever. The tux was custom for me, which was demanded by Quinn for me to use his tailor.

  I rolled my shoulders forward.

  Front fucking row, Eden’s father glared at me with all the hatred of a true father. And while part of me wanted to respect that about him, the bigger asshole part of me
said fuck it. The asshole had hired me to kidnap my mate. I didn’t even care that it brought us together, he had demanded her back and I refused.

  Eden was mine, and today would only solidify that both in the human way and the shifter way. Eden said she didn’t need the human wedding … hell, I knew that. It was me that wanted it—I wanted her in every single possible way. I loved her so fucking much I was willing to wear a goddamn monkey suit that felt too tight.

  My dragon was edgy with the bear shifter who sought to steal my mate so close. Granted, he didn’t want her the way I needed her, but he had at one point wanted to take her back. Quinn straightened his back, the movement drawing my attention to him. I breathed a little easier knowing practically the only two shifters on this planet I could call friends stood next to me. They had my back … not that I’d need any help.

  My gaze roamed over our small human wedding. Eden’s side was filled with Clan members, her adoptive mother sitting next to her father. She I liked. I had met with her a couple of times when Eden and her got together for lunch. Feisty little bear that one … definitely where Eden got it from. My side had two occupants: Moss, who I had not expected to come that was for damn certain, and Carlos, an old mercenary buddy of mine who had retired from the game when he met his mate over twenty years ago. His mate was a red-head with a bad attitude that only he seemed to be able to tame. She declined the invite.

  There was no heartache for me that my side was empty. I had long lost contact with any family I might have. Biological family. My brothers in arms were my family now and they stood at my side. Lucas’s eyebrow piercing flickered in the light. And if Quinn’s expensive watch glared into my eye one more time I might rip his goddamn arm off … of course then Winnie would have a fucking fit.

  The crowd hushed and the music started.

  I held in my snort of laughter at her choice of song to walk down the aisle to.

  Bonnie, her longtime friend from the bear clan, came down first; she was dressed identically as Mazy and Winnie, who came down the aisle after her.

  “When I get my hands on you, going to make you marry me.”

  Eden’s long, blonde hair was down just the way I loved it. It was frilly and done in a very girly way, but fuck she looked gorgeous. Her big, black frames were around her eyes which made me smile. Those glasses were my favorite. The white dress she wore was strapless, showing off her shoulders and her bare neck. After tonight it would no longer be bare. It would have my mark. I glanced at her fingers; also bare, but not after today. No longer.

  She stepped forward once the girls made it to the front.

  “Everywhere on Earth you go, you’ll have me as your man.”

  Her lips twitched upwards as she held my gaze during the entire song. She didn’t have eyes for anyone else and my dragon preened at the thought. She was mine.

  The song was cut off when Eden joined me at the front. A nervous, sweating human, who stood at the front with Eden and I, started the human ceremony. I barely heard the words he said and I didn’t think Eden did either. Her smile was ear to ear and at one point she stuck her tongue out at me. I growled a little. The human jumped but continued on the ceremony.

  “I understand you two have our own vows?”

  “Yes,” Eden said.

  “Go ahead.” The nervous human stepped backwards, indicating for us to speak.

  “The moment I met you, it was obvious that I was going to hate you. Even when there is never a chance I will stop loving you, I know for a fact that I will end up hating you once in a while, too. And you’ve proven that over time and time again it’s okay. We will always find a way back to each other. And I am never letting you go now that I have you,” Eden said with a twinkle of mischief in her eye.

  “I fucking love you.”

  There was a pause. Eden’s father growled lowly but loud enough that I heard. I didn’t have pretty words for her. She knew how much she meant to me; I didn’t need to tell her when I could show her … every day for the rest of our lives.

  My dick grew hard in the confining pants at the thought of showing her my devotion. Eden’s gaze dropped down and flickered back up to mine. Her eyes darkened considerably and she slowly licked her bottom lip just like she knew I fucking loved.

  “Careful, little chickadee.”

  “Maybe I like to play with fire.”

  Like magnets our bodies were drawn together. Her hips were in my hands; the silky material of her dress had nothing on her bare flesh. Her supple hands trailed up my chest, to wrap around the back of my neck to pull me down to her lips.

  Someone cleared their throat, breaking us of our moment. Eden stepped back, her cheeks flushed with her embarrassment. I gave her a wink knowing it would only annoy her that I was completely unaffected … well, I was, but by the crowd not by her.

  “If I may continue,” the nervous human spoke up again.

  Eden smiled. “Yes, please.”

  “If there are any that see reason why these two should not wed, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

  “Best just to skip the silence here,” Lucas muttered under his breath. Quinn grunted, either to shut him up or in agreement it was hard to tell.

  “I have reason!”

  My head snapped to Eden’s father, expecting him to be standing in objection to our mating. But he was twisted in his seat as many of the other bears in his Clan. I followed their line of sight to the end of the aisle.

  “Are you kidding me?” Eden’s soft outrage came from next to me.

  The fucker from the fields was here. When I had dropped Eden off for my payment of kidnapping her, a second group had shown up. And this fucker was the leader of the crew. I had dropped his ass faster than you could say, “Fuck.”

  “Brady?”

  “What the fuck do you want?” I growled, flashing ever growing canines. My anger rose when Eden said her ex-boyfriend’s name. The Kodiak bear shifter wasn’t huge—he was average height for a bear shifter—but his forgettable face was about to get pounded in if he didn’t leave immediately.

  “Brady, I demand you go home.” Eden’s father stood up; the command of an Alpha washed over the crowd. Everyone besides my side of the wedding was affected. Brady looked hesitant but determined to stay even against his Alpha’s command.

  The idiot took a step down the aisle, eyes on Eden.

  “You were promised to me. I was going to be the next Alpha of our crew, but you had to go and fuck it up with this asshole.” Brady kept running his mouth and I was splitting at the seams. If he thought he had any claim on my girl, I would show him otherwise.

  “Leave, Brady. You are no longer part of my crew. Any chances of you becoming an Alpha has been stripped. Get the hell out of here or he will kill you,” Eden’s father spoke again. He stood now, his anger radiating off of him, feeding my dragon’s hatred for the man down the aisle.

  “She’s mine!” Brady yelled, and the veins in his neck throbbed with his anger.

  Moss stood up from his place on my side of the crowd. His eyes swirled with power that matched my own. He tilted his head toward the imbecile.

  I stepped forward, ready to pounce on Brady, wanting to rip his head from his shoulders. It was bad enough that he interrupted our day but now he was putting a claim on my mate. Moss took a step forward and shook his head at me. I took a step back when his unnatural eyes flashed with whatever beast resided inside of him.

  Fucker was scary even if I didn’t want to admit that. Moss went farther down the aisle and Brady growled at him. The closer Moss got the more power pulsed from him. Eden tugged at my hand, and I wrapped my arm around her shoulders.

  Chapter 3

  Winnie

  “Oh my! Shit is about to go down!” I whispered, practically wiggling where I stood. Quinn shot me a look as if to tell me to stop but I couldn’t contain my excitement. Moss was going to kick some major ass! And Moss was more of a stick in the mud than my own mate. Loved him dearly, but Quinn could use a couple whiskeys dow
n the gullet.

  “Winifred,” Quinn hissed my name. My own cat purred at his reaction; she was way too like me sometimes and enjoyed irritating our mate. Moss walked down the aisle, looking more terrifying than any of the three men standing next to me. A shiver went down my spine as Moss seemed to get bigger the farther he walked down the aisle. Power of a dominant pressed against me, and even my good humor started to wiggle down. Yeah, Moss was a big, bad, scary dude when he needed to be. Dominic stopped trying to go after the raving idiot and stood next to his mate.

  Eden was the only human in our little group and we all felt overly protective of her, even my stuffy mate. Quinn’s tiger made an appearance in his eyes a couple times while Brady yelled at the couple. I thought for sure Dominic was going to lose it when Brady tried to put a claim on Eden. The idiot eventually shut up when Moss got close enough.

  “Fight! Fight! Fight!” I whisper-yelled. Mazy snorted, holding back her laughter, and Quinn flashed those baby blues at me. He was pissed and his tiger was annoyed. I could see the promise of a deliciously sexy punishment coming my way later. My cat preened at thought. Her fur rubbed against my skin. Stupid boy, he should know better than to get her all riled up.

  “Winifred,” he said, more sternly this time.

  I stuck my tongue out at him as we watched Moss. He strode up to Brady. Brady wasn’t a small guy but he looked dwarfed by Moss’s height and width. The man had to have grown a half a foot since he walked down the aisle to shut Brady up. Brady’s face went pale and eventually he dropped his gaze to the ground and tilted his chin away, exposing his neck. Without a word, Moss steered the fool from the ceremony. Brady didn’t speak another word, his silence more grating than his string of curses and demands.

  They disappeared from sight and a tiny kernel of fear popped in my belly. I would not want to be Brady right now. Nope, no way Jose.

  After a few more moments of complete silence the priest cleared his throat, gathering all our attentions again. The couple finished their ceremony, and Dominic swooped Eden in his arms, placing a very possessive kiss on her lips then one on the base of her neck. She glowed with happiness even with the tiny hiccup.