Forever Is Not Enough [Council Enforcers 2] (Siren Publishing Classic)

over to the loveseat and pulled her down beside him. It felt good to show his mate off. For someone who had been so adamant about never having a mate, he could barely remember back to the time before he’d met Jacqueline. If he had known then what he knew now, Ben would have combed the earth searching for her. He kissed her forehead as Mitch finally came through the door, fully dressed.
    “Let’s get this over with. My mate is about to take a nap, and I wouldn’t mind joining her since mine was rudely interrupted.” Mitch glared over at Ben.
    He had a feeling Mitch’s nap involved a lot more than just going to sleep with his mate. “Is that what they’re calling it these days? In that case, let’s proceed,” Ben joked. “I wouldn’t mind taking a nap with my mate as well.”
    The grunt from Mitch was exactly what Ben had expected. “Are we any closer to finding out where the asshole is hiding? Maybe we can take the fight to him.”
    “No,” Mitch answered. “The man owns multiple properties all over the world. At this point, unless he offers us an invite to his front door, it’s going to be pretty much impossible to find him.”
    Ben agreed, but he hated to sit and wait on Percival to come to them. He had a feeling that as long as the man sent his minions to do his dirty work for him, they were going to be waiting a long time.
    “Okay, we all agree the attack was just the first wave. I called the council and let them know what happened,” Mitch said. “They wanted to send out more enforcers to help, but I told them no. We don’t know if there are still people on the council working for Percival, so I trust no one but the people already in this house. We can handle our own.”
    Ben agreed. Everyone he trusted to guard his back was already in the room with him. They didn’t need the extra help. “Something tells me they won’t be so loud when they come back. They will try to sneak up on us. I can set charges around the perimeter and farther into the woods. It’ll weed a few out and let us know they’re coming at the same time.”
    Mitch nodded before turning to Ryan. “Once those charges have gone off, I need you and Ben up on the roof with the rifles. They won’t be expecting guns, so if you use a silencer, you can pick them off one by one.”
    Ben thought Mitch’s idea was a good one. Most shifters despised guns, preferring to fight with tooth and claw. It would take them a while to figure out their pack was getting gunned down and where it was coming from.
    Mitch continued. “If any of the rogues make it past that, then they will have Ken and me waiting for them in shifted form.”
    Ben felt sorry for any rogue that made it that far. There would only be little pieces to scrape up by the time Mitch and Ken were done with them.
    “What about Tessa and me? What are we supposed to do?” Jacqi asked quietly.
    Ben felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up at the thought of his mate putting herself in danger. “You won’t be doing anything. You’ll be in the safe room, along with Tessa and Nico.”
    “Surely there is something I can do. I want to help. The only reason my father is coming here is because of me and what I did. I just can’t sit back and let you all risk your lives for me.”
    Ben turned to Ken. “Have you found anything on Jacqi’s mother?”
    “No,” Ken rumbled. “It’s like the woman never existed. I need more information if I’m going to continue to search. What I have now just isn’t enough.”
    “Then that’s what you can do, little mate. While you’re working on finding the cure, you can be thinking of anything that can help Ken find out who your mother was. I know you were young, but anything you can remember, no matter how silly it seems, could help.”
    “I can do that, but that isn’t the kind of help I was offering and you know it.”Jacqi frowned at him. “I can’t just sit back and watch while you guys risk your lives for me.”
    Ben looked over at Mitch, who nodded, signaling the meeting was over. Lifting Jacqi in his arms, he carried her out of the office and straight up the stairs to the room they had been sharing. He needed to have a talk with his little mate about her idea that she could put herself in unnecessary danger. Once in the room, he sat on the bed with her in his lap, not ready to let her go just yet.
    “I already know what you’re going to say,” Jacqi said, her face determined. “Could you at least listen to my