Chapter Fourteen #2
Mars rolled his eyes closed and inhaled a long breath. Through gritted teeth, he said, “Would you and Laramie like to drink a beer with us?”
“I want to,” Laramie said, raising her hand like she was a second-grade student with the right answer. “I need a drink after this crazy day.”
“Let’s go,” Ren said. “If we start walking, they might follow. Or they might fight. It’s still kind of up in the air.”
Laramie fell into step with Ren and cast a glance back at Stellan. “Are you coming?”
****
“Are you coming?”
Stellan just stared at Laramie as she walked away with this cheeky smile on her lips.
She was so damn pretty in her little cut-off jean shorts, and hiking boots and her skintight royal blue tank top that sometimes lifted high enough so he could see a sliver of her stomach if she lifted her hands in the air.
Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail that bounced this way and that with her gait, and when she turned back around to say something to Ren, he got struck by the moment.
She’d just seen his tiger.
She’d really seen him.
She’d seen him, and he hadn’t wanted to hunt her, and he hadn’t worried about her getting scared and running. He’d just gotten protective of her and wanted to be right by her side. Up until the point where he panicked because he felt like his fight with Mars was way too close to his mate.
His mate.
Mate.
“She’s got you all tied up in knots,” Mars said from beside him.
“Does not.”
Mars huffed a laugh and shook his head and started following the girls. “Whatever you say, man.”
And yeah, yeah, Stellan had heard the lie in his own voice as well.
He winced and lifted the edge of his shirt. At least the claw marks were already sealed shut and healing. They would be sore for a day or so and probably bruise for a few hours as they worked through the scarring phase.
Bright side, Mars’s shirt was soaked in blood too.
Served him right for sneaking up on them in Stellan’s favorite spot.
Idiot should’ve known better. Stellan had marked that territory for years.
That section of the creek belonged to his animal.
And Laramie. She could have everything. If she asked for Utah, he would mark and defend the whole damn state for her.
Up ahead, Laramie had stopped at the sliding barn doors, waiting for him. She wore this pretty, inviting smile, and she was buzzing with happiness. He could tell.
She just didn’t get scared off, that one.
The stretch of his answering smile was still so strange for him. He couldn’t remember smiling this much ever. Not in the after. After he’d died. After he’d been reborn as this…this…thing.
She was bringing his humanity back, wasn’t she?
He strode toward her and reveled in the fact that she didn’t disappear inside when he was close enough. She waited to touch him. She waited with a hand stretched out, so she could clutch onto his shirt and lift up on her tiptoes and wait for him to kiss her.
God, what was this feeling? He would do anything for her. Be anything for her.
He cupped the back of her neck and pulled her in, kissed her, tasted her. Consumed her like she consumed him.
Mars was right.
She had him all tied up in knots, and he didn’t even want to escape.
Laramie’s arms slipped around his shoulders, and she melted against him even more. God, this feeling. This feeling.
He slid his hands to her waist and squeezed gently. He wished he could take her back into the RV and fuck her senseless, but stupid Mars was cracking open beers for them right now. He could hear it.
“Later,” he promised her as he eased out of the kiss.
“Oh, I know,” she murmured, her eyes sparking with wickedness. She was perfect.
He swatted her gently on her perfect ass as she turned and led him into the cavernous barn.
“Whoa, what’s that?” she asked, pointing to the cage against the back wall. It looked like a jail cell with its metal bars that stretched from floor to ceiling.
“It’s a sanctuary,” he told her.
She looked at it with her head cocked, and a disturbed look on her face, and he knew he needed to do better at explaining.
“It was for me when I didn’t have much control.”
“And me, when I didn’t have enough control too,” Mars said. That was weird. Mars had said it like he was taking the edge off of Stellan’s admission. “Dame’s been in there a time or two also.”
“What? When?” Stellan asked, trying to rack his brain.
“When you got pissed at him and locked him in there.”
“Oh yeah.” Stellan grinned. “I forgot about that.”
“Monsters,” Laramie said, but he could tell she was teasing. Her eyes were dancing with humor. Pretty woman.
Ren had pulled some camp chairs into a loose circle around a tub of shop trash and handed Laramie a canned margarita. Stellan usually stayed on the outskirts of hangouts like this but today felt different. He wanted to be near Laramie.
Stellan offered his hand while she lowered down to a blue chair and then settled into his own.
He pulled the metal arm of her chair until she sat right next to him, and he was sure Mars was going to make fun of him, but he didn’t.
Mars had done the same thing with Ren’s chair and wasn’t paying attention to him at all.
Okay.
Dame and Misty were both working today, but this was kind of nice—hanging with Mars and Ren.
Usually, they were all in a big group. Dame and Misty would drift in here eventually, when they got home, but Stellan settled into the two hours of just absorbing the easy conversation between Laramie, and Mars and Ren.
Laramie could carry conversation with anyone. He liked that about her. He’d watched her through the service window sometimes when she was talking to customers and loved the way her face got all animated when she talked. Now, she was smiling so much, and it was hard to look away from her.
He really would do anything for her. Someday he was going to find a way to make her understand that. He would prove to her that she was always safe and would never have to feel uncertain about her place in the world ever again.
“You really don’t mind that we Change?” he asked suddenly, interrupting her and Ren’s conversation about favorite music.
Laramie drew her knees up to her chest and angled them toward Stellan. “You told me what you were already.”
“Yeah, but you saw it. You saw us.”
“I read werewolf books, remember?”
“Umm, which ones?” Ren asked.
“You read?” Laramie asked hopefully.
“I read dark romance. I’m open to werewolves though.”
Laramie’s grin transformed her entire face. “I don’t know if you’re ready for this conversation.”
“How about on a girl’s day, we go to a bookstore, and you can school me on what books to get, and then we can go to a record store, and I’ll point out a few records that will change your entire life?”
“I’m in.”
“I want to go on girl’s day,” Stellan muttered.
“Fine,” Ren said. “You boys can carry all our bags of stuff we buy. You can’t talk about burps or balls or anything gross the entire day though.”
Stellan frowned. “What do you talk about on girl’s day then?”
“You’ll see. You will be a pro before you know it,” Laramie assured him.
He could carry a lot of bags if it meant he got to be around Laramie.
She reached over and pulled up the hem of his shirt, exposing his claw marks. “I think I should clean this up.”
“We don’t get infections,” he told her.
“Oh. Well, that’s awesome. You have a lot of dried blood on you though.”
“So does he,” Stellan said, pointing at his brother.
Mars was taking a healthy sip of his beer. His shirt was stiff from it.
“Is this what you do? You fight and bleed each other and just leave it there?”
Stellan shrugged. “I don’t think about it here.”
Laramie’s eyes softened. “Because this is your safe place?”
He wished he could pull her into his lap again, like he’d done in the doorway of the RV. Even with his arm slung over her bent legs, she still seemed too far away. “It’s just a place where we don’t have to think about what would be strange to humans.”
Laramie nodded. “I can understand that.”
And she could understand. Stellan could tell. Maybe he needed to look into these werewolf books she read.
Usually, he could only force himself to be around the others for a half an hour, tops, but today he found himself relaxing.
There was something about Laramie that calmed his entire system down.
The tiger inside of him just watched her, watched her surroundings, and as long as she was safe and happy, he stayed quiet.
Normally, Stellan was pretending he was normal for short lengths of time and then removing himself to get a breather before he would come back and pretend to be normal for a few minutes again.
Like his animal wasn’t looking at everyone around him like prey.
But not now. Not with Laramie. He kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but inside of him, the tiger had a job to do. Make sure Laramie was good.
He sat there by this little tub of trash with three people for two hours with no urge to get up and take a breather. He tested it too. He talked more and more. He contributed to the conversation, and still…his tiger remained silent.
“You good?” Mars asked.
Stellan looked over at his brother and realized he was talking to him. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You’ve been staring at that trash bin for five minutes.”
“Do I seem okay to you?” Stellan asked.
“Man, you don’t have to snap at me. I was just checking if you’re good.”
“No, I’m being serious. Do I seem normal?”
Mars frowned and looked from Ren, to Laramie, and back to Stellan. “Yes?”
Stellan ducked his gaze so they couldn’t see the smile that surprised his face. He could feel Laramie watching him. He could feel her attention.
Laramie didn’t say a word, just reached over and pulled his hand to her lips, pressed a kiss there and then intertwined her fingers in his. “You’re doing good.” And then she asked Ren where she was from and directed their attention away from him.