ShiftinDirty-ElizaGayle by Eliza Gayle Page B

going to make her sleep sitting in a chair? What’d you do, keep her up all night?”  
    Everyone started snickering like they were a bunch of teens sitting around after a long night of partying and getting drunk, making Gage roll his eyes.  
    Instead of chastising them all for being children, he shifted his gorgeous mate into his arms and pulled her to his chest.
    “What’s going on?” She asked groggily.
    “I’m taking you to bed, darling.”
    More incorrigible snickering came from the peanut gallery.
    “Don’t wanna,” she mumbled. “Not tired.”
    “Uh huh.” Ignoring her feeble protest, Gage walked her up the stairs and into his bedroom. There he laid her out on the bed and removed what clothing he dared.  
    “Gage?”
    “Mmmhmm?” After pulling off her shoes and socks, he unfastened her jeans and tugged them down her long legs. At the sight of her soft thighs he wondered if he’d made a mistake. How was he supposed to get any sleep with all that silky flesh rubbing up against him?
    “I like your family,” she whispered.
    “I’m glad. I kind of like them too.”
    “Even the scary one...”
    Gage stifled a laugh as he removed his clothes and slid under the covers next to his mate, pulling her tight against him. Bhric could be scary, but he was a great leader and obsessively protective of those he called family. He had confidence that when they made it to the other side of this crisis, Sienna would fit right in.  
    If he could keep her alive that long…

Chapter Ten

    Sienna frowned as another gorgeous man approached her, this one in a white lab coat, with yet another empty vial to fill with her blood.  
    After being awakened by Gage with a promising kiss and both his hands up her shirt, she’d been pulled from the warmth of his big bed and drug here. To some secret shifter lab from the looks of it. They called it their doctor’s office.  
    “Last one I promise.” He wrapped the tourniquet around her arm and pressed the needle to her bulging vein. “I just want to make sure I have everything I need so I don’t have to ask you to do this again.”
    “Why do I get the feeling that’s a little unrealistic?”
    He smiled down at her, his eyes lighting up. “Too smart for your own good.  
      “What are you going to do with all this blood anyway?” Gage interrupted the exchange between her and the doc.  
    “I have to run a series of tests in the hopes of determining whether your DNA is compatible with your mates.
    “I really wish everyone would quit calling me his mate. I have a name. And I haven’t come close to deciding on what I think of this mate nonsense.”
    Simon smiled and continued. “Compatible with Sienna.”
    “What makes you so sure that this is even possible?”
    The doctor pressed a band aid to her arm and placed the last test tube in the rack near the door. “I’ve been studying genetics for decades. It’s kind of a hobby of mine. In more recent years I’ve been trying to use that knowledge to come up with a solution for shifter fertility issues.”
    “Let me guess. You think mixing non shifter DNA with shifter DNA may give you what you’re looking for.”
    He nodded. “It’s possible. Not many babies have been born in decades and most of those have come from cross breeding shifters.”
    Gage touched her arm. “Something the ruling councils take a hard line against. But that’s a story for another time.”
    “You still haven’t told me why you think this will work with humans,” she said.
    “That’s because I don’t think you’re the first human to breed with a shifter.”
    “Whoa.” she held up her hands. “First everyone insists on calling me his mate and now we’re talking about breeding. I’m a human woman with needs and desires, not some brooding mare to be used in experiments.”
    “That wasn’t what I was thinking at all. But I am here in a professional capacity and my job is to find something that will make the council think twice about