Vivian dropped to her knees in front of me, and I offered her my hands. She took them in her hands, then rubbed her face against them, as Cherry and Zane had done. Elizabeth hadn't offered a greeting, and it was an insult. The others weren't my leopards, but she was. And she'd deliberately snubbed me. It was the first time in front of company. I didn't usually insist on it, because I didn't like Elizabeth touching me, but I watched Caleb's face as Vivian rose from her greeting. He'd noticed the oversight.
"How you doing, Vivian?"
"A real Nimir-Ra wouldn't have to ask," Elizabeth said.
I squeezed Vivian's hands and helped her stand. "Are you going to help us rescue Gregory, or just be a big pain in the ass?" I asked Elizabeth.
"I want Gregory safe," she said.
"Then shut the f**k up."
She started to say something, and Cherry gripped her arm. "That's enough, Elizabeth."
"You're not dominant to me," Elizabeth said.
"I'm trying to be your friend," Cherry said.
"You want me to leave her alone?"
"Please," Cherry said.
"Fine," Elizabeth said. She turned back to Nathaniel. "I can smell fresh blood on you, Nathaniel." She put her arms on either side of his neck, hands clasped together, her body pressed the length of his, moving Cherry back. "You finally find someone to top you?"
"Yes," he said.
"Who?" Cherry asked.
"We really don't have time for this," I said. "We need to get to the lupanar."
Merle had to add his two cents worth. "The only reason that Elizabeth treats you the way she does is that you let her. Disobedience must be punished immediately, or the power structure cannot survive--much like your local Ulfric and his pack."
"I control my leopards," I said.
Elizabeth laughed, planting a big kiss on Nathaniel's forehead and leaving a red lipstick print behind. "He f**ked someone tonight, when he'd been forbidden to be with anyone without pard approval. And you're going to let that slide, too. You are so weak."
I took a deep breath and let it out. "He didn't f**k anyone tonight."
Caleb had joined the others crawling around Nathaniel. He plunged his face into Nathaniel's groin. Elizabeth moved back so he could do it. "I smell sperm, but not pu**y." This after I knew that Nathaniel had washed thoroughly. Caleb stood, and Elizabeth moved back. He put his hand behind Nathaniel's neck and moved their faces together as if they were going to kiss, but he stopped just short of their lips touching. "I don't smell pu**y here either. I don't think he had sex."
Zane raised Nathaniel's shirt as far as he could reach from his knees, then stood pushing the shirt up to Nathaniel's neck. The bite marks were almost black in the starlight. There was a bite mark on almost every inch of his back; the edges didn't touch, but I hadn't missed much. It made me blush.
Vivian looked at me, and I realized that she could probably smell the blood rushing to my cheeks.
Zane said, "He might not have had sex, but he had something."
Caleb came around to gaze at Nathaniel's na**d back. "Someone had fun."
"Look at this," Elizabeth said. She drew them around to the front and the bite mark around his nipple. They ran their fingers over it, and Zane pulled Nathaniel's shirt off and threw it on the hood of the nearest car. Everyone but Merle, Gina, and Vivian swarmed Nathaniel, touching the wounds with fingers, hands, and tongues. Nathaniel's head went back, eyes closed, and I knew he wasn't exactly having a bad time, but ...
"That's enough," I said.
Elizabeth pulled Nathaniel's shorts down, and I got a glimpse of just how not-unhappy he was.
I yelled, "That's enough!"
Elizabeth turned on her knees, her hands on his butt. "Whoever did this could have just as easily done more damage. They could have cut him up bad, and he would have let them do it. Wouldn't you have, Nathaniel?"
"I would have let her do anything she wanted," he said.
Shit.
"You can't let him do this," Cherry said, standing and coming to me. "You can't let him skate on this, Anita. Or the next time whoever she is might just kill him."
"She won't kill him," I said.
"You know who it is?" she asked.
I nodded.
"Why didn't you say so?" Merle asked.
I took a deep breath and blew it out. "Because I'm not comfortable with it yet. But that's my problem not Nathaniel's." I held my hand out to him. "Nathaniel."
He pulled his shorts up so he could walk and came to me, squeezing my hand as he took it. I put him behind me, the line of our bodies touching. Physical contact was a way of saying he was under my protection. "I marked him."
Elizabeth laughed still on her knees. "I know he's your favorite, but I never thought you'd outright lie for him."
"At least some of you can smell it if I lie. I marked his body, my teeth marks."
"Your anxiety level has been high since we got here. I can't tell if you're lying," Merle said. "And if I can't tell, then no one else here is alpha enough to be sure."
"It's gotten so that your scent doesn't change when you lie," Cherry said.
I'd heard of lying with your eyes, but never with your scent. "I didn't know you could do that, lie with your smell."
"I think lying just doesn't make you anxious anymore," she said.
Oh. "Being a sociopath does have its benefits," I said.
Caleb crawled towards us, in that gliding crawl the leopards could do. It was inhumanly graceful. He came close enough to put his face against my leg. I let him, because I figured that they'd get around to smelling me if I claimed Nathaniel. I just hadn't planned on it being one of Micah's cats first.
"He does have her scent on his skin."
"They sleep in the same bed most nights," Elizabeth said. She was on her feet, hadn't even snagged her hose.
Caleb rubbed his face against my leg. "She smells of wolf and ... vampire." He gazed up at me. "Did you do your Ulfric and your master last night? Is that why Nathaniel doesn't smell like pu**y, because there wasn't a hole left for him?"
I'd tried to keep my version of an open mind, but I decided then and there that I didn't like Caleb. "The pard has a right to question who Nathaniel sleeps with, because he doesn't have good judgment. None of you have the right to question me."
Caleb moved in one of those too-fast-to-see motions and shoved his face into my groin, hard enough that it almost hurt. I pulled the Browning without thinking about it and had it pressed against his skull before I realized it. Faster than normal--even for me.
Caleb raised his head back so that his forehead was pressed against the end of the gun. He stared up at me. "You don't smell like dick. Don't tell me you had at least three men with you in a bed and nobody got to f**k you."
"Caleb, I'm really beginning not to like you."
He grinned. "But you won't shoot me, because that would make Micah mad."
"You're right, I shouldn't have pulled the gun. I'm just not used to being able to draw a gun before I have time to think about it."
"I've never seen you move that fast," Zane said.
I shrugged. "Benefits of the change, I guess." I put the Browning back. I wasn't going to shoot him for just being obnoxious.
Caleb rested his cheek against my thigh, and I let him. My struggling would just amuse him, and he was behaving himself, relatively speaking.
Vivian touched my arm. "Are you really going to be one of us?"
'We'll know in about two weeks," I said.
"I am sorry," she said.
I smiled at her. "Thanks."
"You didn't top Nathaniel," Elizabeth said. "You're too squeamish to use teeth on him like that."
I looked at her, and I let the darkness fill my eyes that was my own version of a beast. The look that said just how far down the well I'd fallen. "I'm not as squeamish as I used to be, Elizabeth. You might want to remember that."
"No," she said, "no, you're protecting him. He's been teacher's pet since day one. You're just afraid of what Micah will do. Afraid of what a real Nimir-Raj will do to him now that he's disobeyed a direct order." She stalked over to us. "And you should be afraid, Anita, you should be very afraid, because Micah's strong, strong the way Gabriel was strong. He doesn't flinch."