Four-Letter Words Evans, Gabrielle (best detective novels of all time .TXT) 📖

The eldest Braddock had apparently decided that he wanted a werewolf of his own, leaving Raven as the only one not otherwise engaged at the moment. Unfortunately, the Enforcer wasn’t doing a damn thing to help, and his laughter was beginning to grate on Zasha’s nerves.

“Raven, do something!”

“What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know. Something. Don’t just stand there.”

“Purr,” Thane commented as he slowly traced his bottom lip with his tongue. Abandoning his seduction of Zasha, Thane practically leapt to Raven’s side. “And just who are you?” He insinuated himself even closer, rocking his hips suggestively as he dry humped the vampire like a bitch in heat. “I don’t think you’ve yet had the pleasure of meeting me.”

Raven tried to push the guy off him, but Thane was persistent. “Is he for real?” the Enforcer demanded.

Zasha didn’t have time to decide if he was amused or jealous before an ear-splitting howl rose up on the wind, cutting through the night and echoing off the canyon walls. It seemed Kieran had reached his breaking point, bursting from his clothes as his beast came roaring to the surface. A single shake of his arm sent his brothers sailing through the air, and in the next heartbeat, three hundred pounds of pissed off, possessive werewolf tackled Lynk like a professional linebacker.

October’s expression twisted into a mask of fury as he stomped through the sand, reaching Raith in just a few strides and grabbing a handful of his mate’s hair. Without further preliminaries he bent the witch over backward, embedding his fangs into Raith’s throat with a snarl.

Torren hadn’t given up in his pursuit of the werewolf, Parker, but for the time being, he also wasn’t a threat. More to the point, he didn’t have a mate present who would flip his shit and rip out someone’s carotid artery.

That just left Thane.

Returning his attention to his lover, Zasha found it was no longer a decision between rage and amusement. Rage had definitely won.

Thane’s hands were everywhere, groping every part of Raven he could reach. His lips puckered, and he leaned forward, coming much too close to the Enforcer’s mouth for Zasha’s liking, and to make it worse, Raven wasn’t do a fucking thing to stop it.

Pinching the cartilage of Thane’s ear between thumb and forefinger, he twisted hard, forcing his mate down on his knees. “Ow!” Thane yelped, rubbing at his abused ear. “What the hell?”

“I’ll deal with you in a minute.” White-hot fury coursed through him, and a filmy red haze settled over his vision. “As for you.”

“Me?” Raven stumbled back a couple of steps, looking left and right, clearly searching for an escape route. “What did I do?”

“Nothing,” Zasha growled as he stalked closer. “That’s exactly the problem. You didn’t do a damn thing. Would you have let him kiss you?”

“What? No!” His hands came up in front of him defensively. “Now, wait a minute, Zasha. I think you need to calm down.”

The last statement rubbed Zasha all kinds of wrong. “I need to calm down? I need to calm down? You practically had your hand down my mate’s pants, and I’m the one who needs to fucking calm down?”

“I didn’t do anything!” Raven yelled. “I didn’t even touch him.”

The logical voice in Zasha’s head knew this, but that little bastard had been gagged and shoved into a deep, dark well. He didn’t want to be logical. He didn’t want to think rationally, give everyone the benefit of the doubt, or show forgiveness. For once, he wanted to let his emotions rule him, to get pissed off and actually do something about it.

A two-handed shove to the vampire’s chest made him stumble back another few steps, and a hard jab to his midsection knocked him to the ground with a grunt. Zasha might be small, but he was still a vampire with a supernatural strength. “Stay away from my mate, Raven.”

“Yeah,” Raven groaned. “Got it. Stay far away.”

Spinning on his heels, Zasha jabbed a finger in Thane’s face. “You.”

“Yes?” Thane batted his long lashes and grinned from ear to ear. “You know I like it rough.”

Gods, the man was incorrigible, and only part of it had to do with the damn enchantment he was under. “Get up.”

“Yes, boss me around.” He took his sweet time about it, but Thane eventually gained his feet. “What will you do with me now?”

“I’m going to find better ways to occupy that smart mouth,” Zasha answered, echoing Thane’s words from a few days prior. Then he fisted the collar of his lover’s black T-shirt and jerked him forward, crushing their mouths together in a hard, demanding kiss.

Drowning in the taste of his mate, Zasha didn’t know how long the kiss went on, but eventually, something began to change. Thane’s mouth softened, his muscles relaxed, and his right arm came around Zasha’s waist, pulling him into a tight embrace.

“Hey, you,” Thane mumbled against Zasha’s swollen lips. “Come here often?”

He was still being a smart-ass, but his tone was playful, less cocky, and there was a level of emotion in his voice that Zasha hadn’t realized he’d missed until it was gone. “Hey back,” he whispered.

Thane lifted his head, peering at Raven over Zasha’s shoulder. “Did I do that?”

“No.” Zasha glanced back at his friend and chuckled. “I did.”

“Well, I’m sure he deserved it.”

“He did. We have other problems, though.” Turning Thane around, Zasha pointed to where Torren was still trying to rub his dick against anything that would stand still long enough. “What do we do about that?”

The other Braddocks were fine, and Zasha assumed it had something to do with the power of the mating bond. Unfortunately, Torren didn’t have his Infinity there to lift the charm. As Thane listened to him explain all of this, his eyebrows rose to his hairline, and he nodded several times.

“I have an idea.” Pulling his cell phone from his pocket, he dialed quickly as he hurried toward his brother. Then he pressed the device to