Chase Me Read Online Free

it, she should have insisted on an explanation. And now Lukas had a puzzled expression on his face. He’d picked it up too.
    “Hey.” Chico emerged from the cabin licking Cheetos dust from his fingers. “What’s it gonna be?”
    Lorin sighed. She had to bleed off some of the excess energy her confinement had created, and they all knew it. Sex with Rafe—sex with any of them—wasn’t an option.
    “I’ll fight you,” Lukas repeated.
    Lorin seriously considered his offer. She’d get in a few good licks before he defeated her, and whapping Lukas upside the head even once had definite appeal. Nah. When she sparred with Lukas, she had to fight defensively; he was just too physically dominant. Today, she didn’t want to think that much. She just wanted to beat on something.
    Lorin extended her clenched fist to Chico. The werewolf grinned and bopped it with his own. “Bring it on.”
    ***
     
    Gabe bumped along the rutted dirt path someone had mistakenly informed him was a road, wincing when something scraped the undercarriage of his Beemer. He hadn’t seen a sign of civilization since taking a left at the ramshackle watering hole squatting by the intersection where the asphalt ended and the gravel began.
    He should have stopped at Tubby’s Municipal Liquor Store when he’d had the chance, because this road was going to drive him to drink. He’d canceled a date for this—a setup by his brother, sure, but it was an authentic date, his first since his diagnosis—hell, the first since he and Kayla had broken up half a year ago. He’d scored reservations at a great downtown restaurant, and had orchestra seats for the latest Broadway touring show. He was under no illusion that Elyssa had bondmate potential; she was gorgeous, fun, and wasn’t looking for anything serious. As Gideon had said, Gabe had to get back in the saddle somehow. But when Elliott Sebastiani had asked him to handle this epic shit-storm personally, in that oh-so-charismatic tone that made him feel like the most capable person in the world? Yeah, he’d caved. Even with possible sex on the agenda, he’d caved.
    One more thing to blame Lorin Schlessinger for.
    Bright sunlight dimmed to shadow as he drove into a tunnel created by pine trees taller than telephone poles. As he removed his clip-on sunglasses, a rogue branch swished along his passenger side, undoubtedly drooling sap on his new car’s paint job.
    “Shit.” He hadn’t even reached his destination yet, and this was already the assignment from hell. Dead bugs spattered his windshield, nearly obscuring his vision after an ill-advised attempt to swipe them away with the windshield wipers. And this was just the beginning. Once he got to his destination, he’d experience all the joys of camping. Mosquitoes. Ticks. Frost warnings and wilting heat.
    Lorin Schlessinger.
    Gabe sighed heavily. Elliott Sebastiani owed him—big-time.
    Mood now mine-shaft dark, Gabe thought about acceptable ways to make Elliott pay. A budget increase? An equipment upgrade for the Metallurgy lab? Hazard pay? A sabbatical, as soon as Alka returned from hers? The upcoming months were going to be absolute bloody hell. He knew this as well as he knew his parents’ itinerary, or the melting point of gold.
    Regardless of Elliott’s vote of confidence, he really wasn’t comfortable being away from Sebastiani Labs for the entire summer, even with technology keeping him in regular touch with his team. He was still getting up the learning curve on his new responsibilities. Lorin, previously his peer on the org chart, was now reporting to him. He didn’t know if there was any truth to the rumor that Lorin had been offered the position first. If she had, she’d declined it—and it was just as well. Her administrative skills were atrocious.
    But this? Gabe whistled under his breath. The Valkyrie Princess had gotten herself into some deep shit this time. Elliott was completely right to insist on more direct supervision, but