And boy, that made things quite difficult. Not only were the two of them student and teacher, which made Leah off-bounds, but what made things even more complicated was that his beast howled at him to look his best for her.
Josh tugged the t-shirt down, as he knew that his beast could be quite an ass when he wanted to be.
You are one to say that; you should have done it on your own—she is our reina, and you should have taken proper care of her—
Pulling on the mental barricade, Josh shut his beast down. He knew that the beast could be quite a fussy thing, but this was the first time he was seeing him in his full form. His beast didn't shut up for a second ever since they found their mate, and this only made that girl even more dangerous.
If he dared to let his feelings slip or even thought of acting on them, there was a good chance that he would lose everything that he and his brothers had worked hard for. His only task was to straighten Leah King, make her fit to survive in the world and then let her go back to her stepmother; as for the rest, he didn't care about anything else. He just needed to protect what was important to him.
The three of them headed out of the shop, and Jeremy glanced at the building behind them; something flashed in his eyes, and a second later, a burst of flames engulfed the front door of the shop.
"Jeremy," Xavier glanced at the man behind him, his eyes filled with disapproval.
"What?" Jeremy shrugged as he followed after Xavier. "They were the ones who filed a report for insurance to the council. It will be troublesome if they were to fail in getting something in return."
"You are a teacher." Xavier hissed at the man, looking like he was about to lose his temper, but then again, the man always looked like he was close to an edge, like a junkie.
Jeremy rolled his eyes. "I didn't know that took away the right to show my feelings. Jeez."
He then turned to look at Josh and said to him, "Where do we need to go?"
Lifting his nose against the summer breeze, he stalked forward, scenting what was going on in the wind. The breeze was cool, but the air smelled hot. It smelled like burning fox fur, smoke, and food cooking across the street.
But he ignored those scents and let his body be tugged forward by that one scent which made his blood boil with lust, anger and trepidation. It was something sweet and something ancient that called to him, like how the moon pulled the tides toward it.
And soon Josh felt something stir within him, and Josh junior—of course, he was speaking about his length and not his goose. That citrus scent naturally belonged to their reina.
"This way," he spoke in a gruff tone to his brothers. "We are close." A slow frown appeared between his brows. "And she is weak, really weak."
**
When Leah woke up, she felt as if all her bones had turned into a puddle of nothing but mush. She slowly got to her feet and arched her arms over her head when something shifted in the air. She stiffened, feeling a bit hesitant as she turned to look behind her. She didn't hear anything, but her ears started to feel itchy, and her heart was now thundering in her chest.
"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty."
Panic surged in her heart, and Leah flashed into her human form. She scampered to her feet and looked around her surroundings wildly. She couldn't see them yet, but Leah knew that they were close. She immediately hid in the shadows and pulled her shields on, which helped her camouflage with the surroundings.
Leah knew that they were her mates, but at the same time, she didn't trust them enough to let her guard down, which made it impossible for her to sense them in the same way a reina would be able to sense her mates.
"Leah King." Professor Josh didn't even bother to hide the fact that he was looking for her and that he had arrived in the forest to look for her. Maybe he knew that she might not be able to escape from them this time around, and Leah knew that they were right in thinking so.
How did they find me so quickly? She wondered worriedly.
"Leah, come out. We know you are in there—now quit being a naughty troublemaker and follow us back."
Professor Josh's voice was like a sweet caress to her spine, and she could feel heat pool between her legs. Leah sucked in a breath and tried to calm down her thumping heart. She was still as a statue, but her muscles were quivering with anticipation. Tsk. that annoying mate bond. Her beast was writhing inside of her, eager and pining for the one who was looking for her. That silly old thing didn't even know that if those men caught her, then they would certainly not let them leave.
Her freedom would then be equivalent to that of a caged canary.
But they were her mates.
What a tragic situation. Any reina would have been joyous to find that she had found her mates, and yet here she was hiding from her own mates because they were going to entrap her. And yet she desired them. Leah was embarrassed to admit it but she craved them as much as any reina would crave her mates. So much so that even though she knew that they were going to drag her down to her hell, she was still willing to run toward them, forgetting about everything else.
But she didn't. Because she knew that she couldn't let them have her.
It was as if every instinct of her body was telling her that she needed to run…or maybe worse, hide. Because if they caught her, things won't be pretty anymore.
And Leah was determined not to be caught. She had finally escaped from her stepmother and the pack that had treated her like she was nothing —she was finally done with that shit and had no desire to jump into another fire pit.