Sunglasses at Night (Claws Clause 3)

Ugh. It would’ve been so much easier if he demanded it of her. She could’ve snapped at him to drop it, then given him a mindblowing BJ to take the sting out of her words. That way it would’ve been fun for both of them.

Instead, as he continued to stroke her gently, careful, so careful with his dangerous black claws, Tabby closed her mouth, pressing a tight-lipped kiss to his pale chest before pushing herself up with a grunt and an oof.

“Okay. I’ll tell you because either way one of us is going to be distracted, and you made a good point last night when you said that, in this bed, it’s just the two of us. The message on my phone? It was from Boone.”

Though Tabby understood why Adam needed to wear his mirrored shades around the clock, she wished the sun didn’t burn his eyes so. Once he’d been turned for a few years, it wouldn’t be so bad. Older vamps could often go without the trademark shades. For now, though, she just marveled at the way he felt comfortable enough to remove them while sharing her bed because, as she peered through the darkened room at him, she realized she was even better at reading his facial expressions when she could see those gorgeous silver peepers of his.

It tickled her all the way to her toes to see the flash of annoyance he normally would’ve been able to hide as he said flatly, “Your handler, right?”

Oh. He didn’t like hearing about Boone at all, did he?

At some point she should probably tell him that he had nothing to be jealous over. Because Boone was her mother’s older brother, they had different last names; only the inner circle of the Society knew that they were so closely related. As the head of the Society, Boone was careful to guard Tabby. Luckily, that was one secret Tabby had never had a problem keeping.

If this thing brewing between them became more serious, she’d eventually have to bring Adam home with her. First, though, she needed to finish up with Grayson and, somehow, talk Adam into no longer going out to hunt on his own until she got her case all squared away. As far as Tabby knew, there had never been an actual Nightwalker slayer in the Society’s history, but she’d be willing to put her ass on the line to help him get a license. Maybe even sponsor him into the Society. She’d seen him fight, and she watched him turn his falchion on himself countless times to check for the tell-tale ruby-red glow.

Adam was a good man. Even if he was a dead one.

“Yeah,” she said at last. Pack first, she told herself. Close the big case so that Boone overlooks the one Nightwalker you let go. “My handler. Actually, he’s kind of this bigwig in the Society. He had an idea that, now that Bowers got involved, maybe we should contact the local pack.”

Local… the Eastern Pack was one of the largest and most diverse packs in the country. Made up of hundreds—if not thousands—of predatory shifters, there were wolves, bears, and big cats. Everyone knew about them—and rightfully feared them.

In the fifty years since Paras were forced out in the open, the slayers had been able to stay behind the curtain, remain a vague, yet very real threat to the paranormal races. But how much longer would that secrecy last? Sure, it was the code, but with a pack like that one on their side, the slayers could still be elite hunters with a shifter army providing cover for them.

Too bad the Alpha said no.

Right?

There was something in the way that Adam was watching her. He didn’t brush off Boone’s idea, but he didn’t say anything else about it, either.

So she continued.

“He tried to contact the Beta, the Alpha, even the former Alpha a couple of times. No dice. Even with Grayson turning into a paranormal hotspot, the pack closed ranks, keeping to their territory. He just sent me a message that the lead’s a dead-end. Pack declines to help.” With a huff, she leaned back against her pillow. “I don’t get it. The good guys are supposed to stick together. The one time the slayers try to work with Paras, prove we’re not really the bogeymen they think we are, and we get the doors slammed in our face. This sucks.”

“Let me get this straight,” murmured Adam, inching closer to her. She could feel his length prod the side of her hip. “You’re annoyed because the pack won’t talk to you.” He was already hard, and she was ready to tell him to just drop the convo and grab the condoms when he added, “Is that all?”

She squinted over at him. “What do you mean, ‘is that all’?”

Tabby was shocked to hear that Adam had an in with the Eastern Pack. And, yeah, he guessed it sounded impressive that the man he made deliveries for was the Beta, and he knew the Alpha.

When she asked him how, he told her the truth—at least, he told her a portion of the truth. How he was the Grayson PD liaison who partnered with a pack representative last winter to create the task force that went after the killer Nightwalker gang.

That explained his close relationship with Colt.

He just… he didn’t tell her how he knew Maddox Wolfe.

It didn’t seem right. Laying in her bed, her cinnamon scent wrapped all over him, her taste on his mouth, and his cock ready and raring for a second round… it didn’t seem right to bring up his contentious relationship with the wolf shifter—or Eva.

Now that he was pulling up into the warded cul de sac in Wolf’s Creek where Eva lived with her beast of a mate, he realized he should probably be a little more honest, a little more open with Tabby so that she knew what she was walking into.

Wolfe was aware that they were coming. Adam knew that for sure. Even if he hadn’t made a quick call to Evangeline before he agreed to bring Tabby over, Wolfe’s instincts were nearly unmatched. Adam figured that’s what made him the Alpha, the head shifter that controlled the Eastern Pack now that he’d pushed his father, Terrence, out of the role. He was born and bred to be bigger, stronger, faster, and more dangerous than any other predatory shifter on the east coast.

And that was before he spent three years in the Cage, mourning a mate who had never really died.

No doubt in his mind, Wolfe knew the second Adam’s coupe rolled past the invisible lines of Wolfe’s territory.

He found the rustic two-story house backed up to the woods easily. After all, this wasn’t the first time he’d come to see Eva at home.

He parked at the curb, not wanting to be too overly familiar by pulling into the driveway. As soon as he killed the engine, Tabby peeked out through the passenger’s side window, pointing at the house.