He heard footsteps on the stairs, and his heart raced. But the footsteps sounded too heavy to be Stacey’s. And then the door opened.
“Oh hell.” He groaned when Miles walked in. The cat’s hair was still blue, which would have been funny if Dean wasn’t aching, frustrated and pissed off that Stacey hadn’t visited him.
Miles glared. “I just wanted to thank you.”
“While growling?”
“For saving my sister’s life.”
Dean squirmed in discomfort. He could lie to himself all he wanted, but at the end of the day, she’d killed Lex while he’d been unconscious. “She saved herself.”
“That’s bullshit. You nearly died keeping them away from her. She knows it, and I know it. We owe you.”
“Fuck that. She doesn’t owe me shit.” How the hell could the woman think she owed him anything? Mates cared for one another. They didn’t bargain or charge each other for help.
“Wait. She doesn’t owe you, but I do?”
“Tell you what, Blue.” He took a perverse sense of pleasure seeing Miles clamp his jaw tight. “You forget about the hair and we’ll call it even.”
“Hard to forget when the dye won’t wash out.”
“Just use the counteragent under my sink. Grady or Burke could have told you it’s there.” Let them deal with Miles. It was the least they could do for their poor, unloved little brother. “I’ve used the same dye on them a time or two growing up.”
“Yeah?” Miles narrowed his eyes.
“Monty too. He knew about it.” Not really, but the wolf laughed every time he saw Dean, and Dean didn’t like it.
“I’ll deal with Monty too. If I can find him. The wolf is hard to pin down.”
But not too gone to send Dean a bouquet of flowers and a note that read, To Mr. Stacey Bermin: Congratulations on winning sucker of the year award. The bastard.
Dean hadn’t claimed Stacey yet. And he needed to in the worst way. He felt her inside him, as if a part of her had bonded to him already. He hoped she’d started the process, but he couldn’t tell. He needed to see her again to know, but the blasted woman remained incommunicado.
“Where the hell is your sister?” he blurted, unable to hold back.
Miles smirked. “Which one?”
“Stacey. Where is Stacey?”
“Probably packing. With the threat gone, we’re going home. Lex is dead and his traitors rounded up—well, except for Quince.” Miles frowned.
“But the others are okay, right?” While he and Stacey had been dealing with cats and Hunters, Monty and Quince’s guys had fought their own battle. A few dickheads from Miami had tried to tangle with Burke, but he’d made short work of them. Grady and Gabby, apparently, were one hell of a team. And Joel, thankfully, had gotten to knock some heads together too, which made the bear happy.
So everyone was cheerful except for Dean. “Wait a minute. Packing? Going home?” His heart raced. Panic hit him from head to toe. “She hasn’t come to see me once!”
Miles sighed and sat on the edge of the bed. He patted Dean’s knee, right over a tender bruise that was taking forever to heal.
“Fuck. Cut it out.” Dean grimaced. “What do you mean she’s packing? You can’t go!”
“Oh?” Miles blinked. “You want me to stay? I knew this enmity had to be of my own making. Dean, I feel so close to you right now. How about a hug?”
“Damn it. Get off me, you moron.” He shoved Miles away, annoyed to see the blue-haired idiot laughing at him. “I’m talking about Stacey. She’s mine.”
“Yours?”
He should have been having this discussion with Miss Priss, but maybe he could enlist Miles to stop her from leaving. “I mated her.”
“You don’t smell like her.”
“We had sex. A lot. We have to get married.”
“Not in this day and age. I want my sister happy, not stuck with some bumpkin because she enjoyed herself once.”
“More than once,” Dean muttered. “You don’t understand. She’s inside me.”
“My sister lives inside her designs, so it stands to reason she’d live inside her friends and family as well. She’s a part of all of us, Dean,” Miles said kindly. And Miles was never kind.
“Look, you sorry ass. She’s mine. I love her, I’m mating her, and that damn shrew better get her ass in here or she’s going to be sorry!”
He’d never yelled so loudly in his life, but Dean was a man on the edge. In pain, horny, missing Stacey like crazy and worried to death she’d slip out of his grasp before he could make that final connection bonding them permanently.
“Stacey Bermin. My sister. You think you love my sister?”
“Unfortunately, yeah.” Dean lay back against the bed, feeling dizzy. He’d strained something when he sat up too fast. Fuck. He needed out of this bed, to get to her before she disappeared again.
“But why?”
“Because she’s bitchy, uppity, kind of mean and pretty. She loves with her whole heart, and she’s the biggest liar I know.” How could he not love a woman who conned people with every breath? A conceited princess with no heart? Hell no. She was just a woman afraid of being alone, who didn’t know how to connect with people without saying the wrong thing.
“A liar? My sister?” Miles looked confused. “We are talking about Stacey and not Joy, right?”
“Joy came to see me. I’m talking about the obnoxious one, the blond bimbo who should have been taking care of me, like a proper mate.” He tried to get up again, but this time Miles held him down.
“Easy there, Tex.”
“This is Montana, dickhead. Who the hell are you calling Tex?”
Miles sighed. “Okay, Mr. Literal. Where do you think you’re going?”
“To find Stacey.”
“To do what, exactly?”
Dean just grinned.
“For God’s sake, you can barely walk.” Miles rubbed his eyes. “Let’s say you find her. What do you think is going to happen once you declare yourself? Do you expect her to move in here and have a litter of kittens to go with the pride’s growing brood?”
Dean scowled. “She loves me back, you know. She’s just too damn scared to handle me. Knows I won’t bend to her every whim, and she’s not sure what to do about it. But I know her. We’ll check out Miami together and do what she needs to. I’m flexible. I can tolerate a lot for the right woman.” And it was her.
Stacey Bermin, the only female he hadn’t been bored with after a few dates. The sole feline he wanted with his last breath, whom he considered more important than all the pranks, camp outs and women in the world. He couldn’t believe she’d been right under his nose all this time. For her he’d do anything. But he had to find her first.
“You truly amaze me, Chastell.” Miles shook his head. The bastard looked good in blue, go figure. “Stacey is currently packing in her cabin. We have plane tickets. Our departure is in two more days. So I suggest you heal as quickly as possible and get yourself packed. We’ll be ready to roll.” He frowned. “When did you see Joy last, anyway?”
“Yesterday. She poked her head in, saw I was fine, then darted out of here before I could say boo.”
“Shit.”
“Miles?”
“I have to go. If you see her again, sit on her and yell for me. That girl has some explaining to do.”
Dean could barely handle thinking about one Bermin female. Now Joy was in trouble? He shouldn’t have been surprised. But what to do about Stacey? She had a right to be upset that he hadn’t done more to protect her. She’d saved herself, made her own money and had her own life down in Miami. What the hell did Dean think he could give her that she couldn’t get from someone else, somewhere else?