Claiming Their Royal Mate: Part One by Andie Devaux Page A

out a window, but something inside of her—the part that was continuously horny, lately—was also feeling pretty violent. It came out at the weirdest times, and it took every ounce of her self-control not to lash out. Probably she needed to go see her doctor about a new birth control or something. Out of whack hormones were likely the cause of her wild emotions.
    Not that Owen was helping. He’d chased off two of her dates in the last month. Not by doing anything she could call him out for. No, he was too subtle for that. He’d just drop in to borrow sugar—when she’d never once seen the man bake. Or he’d say he thought he’d smelled gas coming from her apartment, and wanted to check. Then he’d glower in a way that made her dates run for the hills.
    And then he started showing up at her apartment when she was feeling particularly…needy.
    “Surely you wouldn’t want to see me injured.” His nose flared again, as if he couldn’t get enough of her smell. It was seriously disturbing.
    Even more disturbing was the sudden wetness between her legs and the tension coiling in her belly. She really needed to get some if a man she didn’t even like could get her engine revving by smelling her. “I wouldn’t bet on that.”
    “You’ll be happy I’m around, Daniella. Very soon.”
    She tried to shove past him, but he moved out of her way before they touched, quick for such a large man. Part of her regretted the lack of contact, but the rest of her thought that part was batshit crazy.
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    T hrough narrowed eyes , Owen Shaw watched Daniella walk away. Her shapely hips swayed as she walked, and the scent surrounding her was nearly irresistible to him. As it would be to any of their kind who got within a few hundred feet of her. She had to be claimed. Soon.
    If only to keep her safe.
    After Daniella disappeared from his view, he hurried back to his apartment to watch her make her way to the back parking lot. He would have offered to take the bags, but she would have reacted the same way she did when he offered to do anything for her—with barely concealed irritation.
    It was his own fault, for getting close to her. But it had seemed like the easiest way to watch over her until the heat took hold. And he had to admit, he liked her company. She was easy to laugh with, and utterly silly behind closed doors. Or she had been, when he’d allowed himself to spend time with her. Now, she mostly stared daggers and sniped at him. He couldn’t blame her.
    His own reaction to her was to blame. Her rising heat had brought on him a wave of lust, the likes of which he’d never dealt with before. Not that he hadn’t been around women in heat before—although usually only ones in the beginning clutches of it since they were soon whisked away to private locations by their mates or a male willing to father children soon after. But none of those women had called to him the way Daniella did. As Erick’s second, many would have gladly taken him to father their children, but he’d resisted.
    He’d always wanted a real mate. And something inside of him refused to settle for having children in any other way.
    Weretigers lived a somewhat cloistered life. His people lived in the Colorado Rockies, keeping their small clan out of the way of humans, and away from the city life that appealed most to their greatest threat—the vampires. But their cabins dotted a large territory, so it wasn’t difficult for a pair to get away from the population when a female’s heat hit. That distance kept fights for the right to claim females to a minimum, and quelled the tempers that flared in the men around them as they vied for dominance.
    But getting away right now wasn’t an option for him.
    Resisting Daniella had been difficult when she’d simply been a beautiful woman with curves to die for, but now it was impossible.
    So he did his best asshole impression—not difficult, considering his dick was hard half the time with no relief in sight, and