Chapter 3
Lily nodded though she began to panic inside.
If Sailor was her mate, and her Daddy, how would she ever finish her mission for the governor?
Going undercover and digging up dirt on Bratburg Institute was the only reason she’d been sent here.
Once she finished this assignment she would be sent on another, far away from Bratburg.
Though she’d known the man only a few minutes, Lily could feel the pull between them. An attraction she’d never felt before. For anyone. If she could figure out how to quit her assignment, she’d be tempted to stay to see if there could be something more than just hormones between them.
But how? She had a life and a job back at the capital. She couldn’t just walk away from everything she’d worked for since graduating college to stay here with Sailor. Could she?
Her Little side nodded emphatically and shouted, Yes, let’s move here forever! while her adult side shook her head and looked disappointed that Lily would even consider anything so out of character. After all, she was the textbook definition of a responsible grownup.
Pulling in a deep breath, Lily asked the one question she needed an answer to, though she really would rather stay here with Sailor.
“Where exactly is the rest of the Institute?”
“It’s about a half-mile from here,” Sailor said waving vaguely over his shoulder. “Now eat your lunch. After we fill your tummy, you’ll lay down and take a nap.”
She wanted to argue with his plan, but lunch and a nap sounded wonderful. She hadn’t slept well since accepting this assignment. She never did while on a mission and riding on a bus or waiting in bus stations had not been conducive to resting either.
While she rested, she would figure out how to get Sailor to take her to the Institute. She needed to gather the necessary intel for the governor. Though she still thought he was crazy, she was paid to do a job. She’d never failed to accomplish a mission before and refused to screw this one up.
Joining Sailor at the table, she stared at the huge sandwich filled with several types of lunchmeat and cheeses, alongside slices of apple and a pile of raw vegetables.
She wrinkled her nose at the vegetables, but did not make any derogatory comments about the broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots all mixed together.
She hated vegetables. Especially green ones. And cauliflower was as bad as broccoli. Little white trees that were only good when covered with so much cheese sauce she couldn’t taste the flavor of the vegetable itself.
“Thank you,” she whispered, trying to remain polite.
She focused on the sandwich, eating slowly so maybe Sailor would not notice she had not touched the rest of her meal.
“I don’t have any ranch dressing, but I do have Thousand Island. Would you like some dressing to dip your veggies in? Would that make them more palatable?”
Lily shivered involuntarily before nodding. “Dressing might help. But do I have to eat the vegetables? They’re yucky.”
Hearing her tone, she could tell that she was slipping into her Little headspace. Apparently Sailor noticed too.
He rose from the table and retrieved a bottle from the refrigerator. Opening the bottle, he squirted a small pool of the peachy-orange dressing onto the center of her plate before sitting down again. “Yes, you have to eat the vegetables. They’re good for you. Are you allergic to any foods?”
“Yeah, vegetables,” she said, her bottom lip poking out in a pout.
Her quick, snarky response earned her a smirk and a chuckle. “Somehow I doubt that.”
He finished both of his sandwiches by the time she’d eaten half of hers.
She decided she should choke down the vegetables before she ate the rest of her sandwich, saving the apples for last. Making faces, she ate the various vegetables, unwilling to admit that covering them with the dressing did help disguise the yuckiness somewhat.
What surprised her most was her reaction to Sailor’s praise when he said, “Good girl,” once she swallowed down the last carrot.
Her pussy clenched as a happy shiver raced through her. She’d always been a praise whore, and apparently her body responded even stronger to Sailor’s words.
Could there be something to his claim that she was his mate?
“Can I have candy for dessert?” she asked, even though she still had half a sandwich left uneaten.
Sailor smiled at her and looked pointedly at her plate. “Finish the sandwich and apple slices, and we’ll see.”
Lily looked down and made a face. She couldn’t explain why her Little side had chosen that moment to surge forward, but she didn’t want to eat the rest of what was on her plate.
She wanted candy. Preferably chocolate. And she did not want to wait until she finished her lunch or took a nap or whatever other conditions Sailor put on her getting a treat.
Most of all, she needed to get away from him and away from this cabin. She needed to get to Bratburg so she could start the mission, do her job, and get back to the capital where things made sense.
“Eat, little flower,” Sailor urged as he picked up his plate and moved to the sink.
As soon as he began running the water into the sink, Lily stood and ran. She was two steps out the door when a thick arm wrapped around her middle and pulled her into a hard body.
“Where do you think you’re going, little flower?” Sailor growled into her ear as he lifted her up and carried her back into the cabin.
“I have to get to Bratburg.”
She wiggled and tried to free herself from his hold. When he wrapped his other arm around her as well, it was clear that she wasn’t going anywhere until he decided to let her go.
“Why?” His voice was soft in her ear, but she could feel the iron in his tone.
She sucked in a breath but shook her head. “I can’t tell you.”
Sailor knew she was lying, though he could also tell that she believed her words as the truth.
After years in the military and then living on the streets, he’d learned to read people in seconds.
Though they’d been together for only two hours, he knew in his bones that Lily Knight was the woman, the Little girl, meant just for him.
She was his life-mate.
Carrying her back to the chair she’d just bolted out of, Sailor set her down before pushing it up to the table again. “Finish eating your lunch or there will be serious consequences.”
When she peeked over her shoulder at him with wide eyes, he kept his expression stern. “Consequences? What kind of consequences?”
“The kind that will have you wishing that you’d finished your sandwich and taken a nap without trying to run away.”
Sailor planted his feet slightly apart and crossed his arms over his chest, prepared for anything. What he didn’t expect was for her to huff a sigh before turning around, picking up her sandwich, and viciously biting into it.
When she cleaned her plate a few minutes later, he took it to the sink and washed it while she remained at the table. When the dishes were done, he returned to her side and held out a hand. She looked up at him for a moment before laying her hand in his and standing.
Without a word, he led her into the bedroom. “Take off your shoes, socks and pants and get under the covers,” he instructed.
While she did that, he went to get her gorilla stuffie. As he moved around the main room, he listened to her movements in the bedroom.
He heard the twin thuds of sneakers hitting the floor, the rustle of clothes as she shed them, and finally the squeak of one spring that proved she was crawling into bed. He counted to ten, allowing her to get comfortable under the covers before he stepped into the room.
“Good girl,” he said as he walked over to the bed and handed her the stuffed gorilla.
“Percy,” she said on a contented sigh. She pulled her friend under the covers and smiled up at Sailor. “Thanks. This is a really comfortable bed.”
“I think so. Now I want you to take a good long nap. We’ll talk more when you wake up.”
“And then you’ll take me to Bratburg?” she asked and then yawned widely.
“We’ll see,” he answered, trying to stay noncommittal while knowing there was no way he would take her to the Institute until he’d fully claimed her as his mate.
He hated lying to her, but until she told him why she was so determined to get to the main campus of the Institute, he needed to keep her here. It wasn’t just because she was his mate.
He also had a duty to protect the Institute. He may have only been at Bratburg a few months, but he felt a connection to the shifters who lived, worked, and found their mates at Bratburg. And now he was one of them.
Bending over the bed, he brushed a kiss on her forehead.
“Sweet dreams,” he whispered, not surprised to see her eyes were drifting closed already.
“Night-night,” she murmured as she snuggled deeper into the covers.
With a smile, Sailor left her to her dreams and headed to the main room of the cabin, pulling the door half closed so he could hear her when she woke up again.
Seeing her backpack on the floor by the front door, he decided to poke through it to see if he could find answers before calling the big guns in.
Carrying it to the table, Sailor carefully went through the main compartment and then all of the pockets.
Other than a couple changes of clothing, and the most basic toiletries, there wasn’t anything remarkable to find.
Her wallet held a hundred and twenty-seven dollars in different denominations, a driver’s license, and a single bank card.
Both cards showed names that matched the name she’d given him.
There was something about the backpack, and the woman, that had the hair at the back of his neck standing on end, warning him of danger. He just couldn’t figure out why.
It was time to call in someone more suited for getting answers from lying Little girls.
Digging his phone from his red messenger bag, he stepped out onto the porch to make the call so he wouldn’t wake her. Since he didn’t use technology often, it took a couple tries for him to get into the phone and make the call.
When Kodiak Furr, the head of the security team answered, Sailor said simply, “I need to see you. Can you come to my cabin, please? And bring the boss.”