“Hello? Does anyone want to, oh, I don’t know, address me? Or shall I stand over here and look pretty while you divvy up my pu**y?”

Both men looked to her, shocked momentarily. Gabe fought back a laugh at her impertinence and bold words.

“I do apologize, Tracy. Is there anything you’d like to add or say?”

“Well, I do want to make it known that I am not on board with the way wolves think females are just there to sit in the background and look vacant and breed on. I have a degree in economics, you know.

And if we’re all going to be bonded, it’s good to get this all straight from the beginning.”

Gabe nodded. “I agree, actually. I wasn’t born a wolf. There are many human conventions that I still hold. And lucky for me, I happen to like strong females. I did not mean for my addressing Nick to seem that I was ignoring your input on this issue.”

“Tracy has such trouble expressing herself.” Nick’s voice was dry but his eyes were full of amused adoration and Gabe and Tracy both relaxed at the sight.

“Hmpf!” Tracy smirked at them both.

“And on that very articulate note, I will take this coffee into my office to work. And my headphones.”

Nick stood and went to Tracy, who stood up and went into his arms. “I love you,” he murmured into her hair, breathing her scent in and letting it calm him.

“I love you too. Are you sure you’re okay with this?” She tipped her head back and looked into his eyes.

He nodded. “The tri-bond is an old thing with us. Without it, you’d be lost to me and to yourself. I’m all right.” He turned to Gabe and they shook hands. “Take care of her. I am indebted to you for being our anchor.”

Gabe nodded. “It is my honor to do so.”

Nick grabbed the carafe of coffee, headed down the opposite hallway to his office and firmly shut his door.

Tracy turned to Gabe, suddenly shy. She held out her hand. “Shall we?”

He took it and the connection arced up their arms, bringing a gasp from both their lips.

She led him into the room and closed the door behind her, looking at him. God he was beautiful. He was

taller than Nick but not hard-bodied. A long torso and legs. The jeans he wore highlighted the power in the thighs that most werewolves had and it had always been one of the most appealing features on a man’s body to Tracy.

Salt-and-pepper sprinkled just a bit at the temples of his caramel-colored hair. It was short, professional, but not too short. Enough to run her fingers through. His eyes were deep brown, nearly black and he had the smallest hint of wrinkles around the outer corners. They were serious eyes but she’d noticed a twinkle of amusement in them from time to time. A streak of whimsy was a wonderful quality in a man with such a serious position.

He had a neatly trimmed mustache and beard that seemed to frame his lips. His lips were the only utterly soft thing about his face. She licked her own lips in response as her body reacted to the fleshy curve of his bottom lip.

She watched as he reached down and pulled his sweater up and over his head. His chest was impressive. Again, not hard muscle like Nick’s, Nick was a man whose body was a weapon, a tool in his job. Nick’s body was a killing machine. Gabe’s chest belonged to a man who kept himself well. It was nicely defined and more of that sexy salt-and-pepper spread over the chest hair and the arrow of hair around his navel and disappeared beneath his waistband.

“I’m incredibly flattered,” he murmured.

She couldn’t help but grin. “You should be. Because I’m beginning to entertain some really naughty thoughts about you.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-five. And you?”

“Forty-one. I’m a lot older than you are. I feel slightly perverted.”

She dropped the robe, letting it pool around her feet, the spill of royal blue silk like an expanse of sea.

“Okay, now I’m feeling a lot perverted.” He wondered if he’d ever actually been as hard as he was at that precise moment. How long had it been since a woman’s body had affected him so deeply? She was a whole lot of contradictions all rolled up into one really appealing package. The freckles gave her an almost pixieish look combined with that nose with the tiny upturn at the end. Her eyes were wide and bright and definitely filled with mischief. The green reminded him of moss.

Her br**sts were not large. He usually preferred large-breasted women, but her perky little barely B-cups made his mouth water. Those strawberry-pink ni**les with silver—platinum, he guessed, given their resistance to silver—rings dangling from them made him hot. No innocent miss there. No, those rings made him want to unleash the things he’d kept deep inside him for a very long time. He raked his eyes over the series of tattoos—words from the old language—down her body, over those long legs to the petite feet with those red-hot painted nails. She was a lot of things in one woman and that was incredibly beguiling.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said in the quietest of voices and she stood, rapt, as his hands went to the

buttons of his jeans and popped each one open. She wasn’t even sure she could blush, she was so spellbound by the sound as each button popped free and a tiny bit more of his body showed.

My! No underwear. Who’d have thought that a man like Gabe, who seemed all business, would be going commando? A shiver ran through her. He shoved the pants off and got rid of them and his shoes and socks.

They stood there facing each other, both naked and intensely aroused. Somewhere in the back of her mind she felt guilty for being this turned on by another male and it seemed odd to her that with the mate bond she could be so utterly devastated by his presence. She chalked it up to the whole anchor thing.