Ready to Bear by Ivy Sinclair Page A

replied. The rhetorical question held no mirth in it.
    “I’m a friend,” he said. Although I want to be something more if you’ll let me. Those words were only in his head. Thankfully he managed to keep them from emerging out loud. That was guaranteed to scare the shit out of her and ensure he’d never see her again. “You seem like you could use one of those tonight.”
    She looked up at him with those dazzling green eyes, and he thought he saw something there before it disappeared. “Thanks.”
    He knew that his face broke out into a goofy grin then when she didn’t fight him anymore. “C’mon.” He gently guided her toward the door where Alex waited for them. The darkened look of confusion on the boy’s face was another flag that no matter what he thought, he was coming off too strong given the situation. Billy wanted to groan. Of course, as soon as he would find a woman he desired, he’d have to deal with not one over-possessive brother but two. It was just his luck.
    “Thanks, kid,” Billy said as they passed him into the stairwell. He backed off a few inches to give Thea room to maneuver down the narrow staircase. He would have preferred to carry her again, but he knew that would be too forward. He was going to have to take things slowly with her. For one thing, she was human and probably didn’t believe in anything like the immediate, irresistible sense you felt when you meet the one who is supposed to be your mate. For another, she lived over a thousand miles away from the place he called home. Last, but not least, she was the sister, albeit through marriage, of one of the biggest political pains in the ass to his clan. The situation was nothing but complicated.
    As he and Thea made their way out onto the street, Billy saw that the street was still clustered with dozens of cars. Even if they managed to flag a taxi down, they’d be stuck in traffic forever. “Is there a better place to find a ride?”
    “Over on twelfth,” Alex said.
    “How do you know that?” Thea asked. Alex was already making a beat in the opposite direction and given his pace, they were going to have a hard time keeping up with him.
    “I can see him,” Billy said. “You don’t need to rush.”
    “I can’t believe him!” Thea said in a harsh voice.
    “He’s just a kid,” Billy started, but she interrupted him.
    “Not Alex. Eric. He was a complete asshole to you.”
    Billy was surprised. It gave him hope that perhaps Thea had more than a passing interest in him as well. Plus, he knew that her anger at her stepbrother was serving to keep her mind off of other, far darker, things. Those things Billy didn’t think Thea was ready to deal with yet.
    “I got the feeling that’s the way your brother operates the majority of the time.” Billy doubted that he and Eric would ever see eye to eye. It would become far worse if Eric realized that he had feelings for Thea.
    “Stepbrother,” she corrected. “That’s not how you treat someone who just did your family a solid.”
    Billy hid his smile in a hard grunt. She sounded cute trying on the slang that she had likely picked up from Alex.
    “Shifters can be pretty territorial.” That was really the understatement of the year. “What I represent as a member of Lukas’s clan is a threat to them and what they’ve built here. I don’t mean them any harm, and I’m certainly not trying to stir up any trouble.” Billy didn’t go into the fact that at some point, those intentions might have to change. Lukas wasn’t going to let them go on ignoring him forever. As soon as he was settled in with his family, Billy had a feeling the Greyelf alpha was going to attack his vision with a vengeance, and God help anyone who got in his way.
    “When is that going to stop being an excuse?” Thea said.
    Billy stopped short and inadvertently caused her to pitch forward when her body continued its forward momentum. Billy caught her easily before she fell. The Lopers, the clan of lion