Chapter 14 #4
“Red starts it.” I amended after one second.
“She still counts.” Malek countered, the corner of his mouth finally moving. Tavian made a quiet snorting sound farther up the trail.
“I liked being around you.” Malek continued before either of us could derail him again, his expression settling back into seriousness. “That started before either of them met you.”
Warmth crept through my chest before I could stop it. I looked toward Tavian mostly because maintaining eye contact with Malek had suddenly become difficult.
“Don’t use me as an escape.” Tavian caught the move immediately, pushing away from the tree with his amber eyes fixed on me. “I liked you because you make me laugh, you don’t scare easily, and you chased me through mud over a cloth.”
“You stole my lens cloth.” I reminded Tavian, grateful for the easier target.
“I was flirting.” Tavian defended himself with a shameless spread of both hands.
“You were a leopard.” I stared at Tavian.
“I had limited options.” Tavian replied, his grin widening.
A laugh almost escaped me. Unfortunately, that made perfect sense for him.
“And you?” I asked Luca after Tavian’s grin became unbearable, turning toward the only man who hadn’t made his answer difficult yet.
“You pay attention.” Luca answered as he adjusted the rolled cover beneath his arm, his expression softer than Tavian’s.
“You remember which animals are nesting where, which trees are fruiting, when something changes around you. You noticed every time Malek started favoring his injured side even though he thought he was hiding it.”
“That was not subtle.” I told Luca while glancing back toward Malek.
“It was to him.” Luca replied with a brief smile before his expression grew quieter. “You care about what you do. You want to understand things for yourself.”
Luca paused just long enough that I looked back at him.
“And you make places feel less empty.” Luca added softly, his green-gold eyes staying on mine.
That one landed harder than I expected. I focused on the trail and nudged a damp leaf aside with my boot, mostly because all three of them had apparently decided this morning was the correct time to say things I didn’t know what to do with.
They hadn’t assumed I wanted anything from them at all.
They were only telling me where their interest had been heading while I was still trying to reconcile three familiar leopards with the men standing around me now.
And, annoyingly, none of their reasons had anything to do with the fact that I was an Omega.
“So you actually want to see where this goes.” I looked between them, still trying to settle the idea into place. “With me.”
“If you’re open to it.” Luca answered beside me, his expression remaining calm instead of trying to push me toward an answer.
“We’re not asking you to decide anything standing in the middle of a muddy trail.” Malek added from behind me, his voice steady as he adjusted the bags against his shoulders.
“I’m personally hoping any future decision includes keeping Menace.” Tavian announced as he started walking again and glanced back over one shoulder, his grin finally returning in full.
“That nickname is always one bad decision away from disappearing.” I warned Tavian as I followed.
“You’d miss it.” Tavian replied with complete confidence, his amber eyes brightening.
“I’d finally know peace.” I told Tavian with a sweet smile that made him laugh and face forward again.
The conversation stayed with me after we started moving.
This wasn’t courtship—not yet. I hadn’t agreed to anything, and none of them had acted as though interest automatically gave them some claim on me.
But for the first time, I knew the food, the company, the constant presence, and the attention weren’t entirely one-sided anymore.
Malek had liked me when I was still calling him Cat and fussing over his bandages. Tavian had apparently decided stealing my lens cloth counted as flirting. Luca had quietly memorized where I kept everything and noticed just as much about me as I noticed about the forest.
They were interested in me.
That should have been much simpler to deal with than shapeshifting leopards and hidden magic.
It wasn’t.
A few minutes later, Tavian drifted closer while I stepped around a slick stretch of exposed roots. His shoulder nearly brushed mine before the warmth of his body registered beside me, followed by the citrus-and-spice edge of his scent.
I turned my head.
Tavian leaned toward my braid.
“Are you smelling my hair?” I asked Tavian slowly as I stopped in the middle of the trail and found his face less than a foot away.
“Yes.” Tavian admitted after taking one last deliberate breath, straightening without even attempting to look embarrassed.
“You could at least pretend you weren’t.” I suggested to Tavian while pulling my braid over the opposite shoulder.
“Why?” Tavian frowned slightly, his genuine confusion somehow making the behavior worse. “It smells good.”
“Tavian.” Luca warned him gently from my other side, although the amusement around his eyes ruined most of the reprimand.
“What?” Tavian defended himself to Luca with one hand spread between us. “She asked.”
“I asked if you were doing it. I did not ask for commentary.” I corrected Tavian as I resumed walking and kept my braid safely on the opposite shoulder.
“Still smells good.” Tavian informed me from several steps behind, completely unapologetic. I ignored him, mostly because the glands beneath my jaw had reacted the second he leaned close and Tavian absolutely did not need to know how much.
Several minutes later, the trail widened enough for Malek to move past me. He shifted one of the bags to his opposite shoulder as he went, and the side of his jaw brushed once along the strap crossing my chest.
I stopped.
The contact had lasted barely a second, but cedar strengthened immediately around me. Malek took another step before realizing I wasn’t following and turned back.
“Did you just scent-mark my camera bag?” I asked Malek as I lifted the strap between two fingers and stared at him.
“No.” Malek denied it after glancing toward the strap with an impressively neutral expression.
“You rubbed your jaw on it.” I reminded Malek, keeping my eyes fixed on him.
“I adjusted the strap.” Malek claimed as he shifted the bags on his shoulders.
“With your face.” I pointed out to Malek.
“It was twisted.” Malek defended himself, his expression staying perfectly straight.
“It was not.” I told Malek, narrowing my eyes. Malek held my stare without answering.
“Cat.” I warned him, putting enough emphasis into the nickname that Tavian immediately burst out laughing behind me.
“Fine.” Malek conceded as the corner of his mouth finally betrayed him, turning back toward the trail as though admitting guilt ended the discussion. I watched him walk away for several seconds before looking at Luca.
“What exactly did he just do?” I asked Luca, motioning toward Malek’s back and then the strap that now smelled noticeably more like cedar.
“Mostly put his scent on something you carry.” Luca explained as he stepped beside me, faint amusement still warming his face. “Shifters do that with people we’re comfortable with. Clothes, blankets, belongings.”
“So it can just be affection?” I asked Luca while adjusting the strap against my chest, aware of the new scent each time the fabric shifted.
“Or reassurance.” Luca nodded as he stepped over a shallow groove in the trail. “It gets more intimate when it’s your skin, especially close to your glands.”
“That part I understand.” I told Luca, resisting the sudden urge to touch either side of my neck simply because he had mentioned them.
“I figured.” Luca replied with a small smile before letting the subject drop instead of explaining biology I already knew.
That was enough scent education for one morning, especially with cedar clinging to the strap across my chest and Tavian close enough that every shift of humid air brought citrus from somewhere behind me.
I tried not to think too hard about the fact that I liked both.
The route became more familiar as we neared the areas regularly used by the station. Small signs of humans returned one at a time—an old marker tied high around one tree, a branch cut cleanly instead of broken, the faint shape of yesterday’s boot print pressed into a muddy stretch of trail.
The change was subtle, but all three men noticed it immediately.
Malek stopped first. Tavian’s teasing expression disappeared as he scanned the trail ahead, while Luca shifted the tarp beneath one arm and listened for several seconds.
“This is where we stop.” Luca told me quietly as he nodded toward the human-used route. I looked at the collection of bags still hanging from Malek.
“You need to give those back before you become a leopard.” I told Malek while holding both hands toward him.
“I can take one.” Tavian offered automatically as he reached toward the largest bag.
“You are also about to become a leopard.” I reminded Tavian, staring at his extended hand until it stopped halfway there.
“Right.” Tavian lowered his arm again, his mouth twitching. “That creates a problem.”
Luca laughed under his breath while helping redistribute the lighter gear. I hadn’t realized how much of my equipment they’d been carrying until the full weight settled back onto my shoulders and pulled against the waist strap.
I adjusted the load automatically, shifting one case higher. Malek noticed immediately.
“I can take them farther.” Malek offered, his jaw tightening slightly as he glanced toward the station trail.
“No.” I refused Malek while tightening the straps until everything sat where it was supposed to. “Mara watched me leave with this gear. I’m not walking back without half of it and inventing a story about how it got there.”
Malek studied the bags for another second, visibly unhappy with the answer but unable to argue with the logic.
He didn’t try.