Given Reid was a Kodiak bear, it wasn’t hard to imagine even another predator backing down. “You calmed her down and brought her here.”
Reid snorted. “If only it were that easy. I almost lost an eye our first meeting. It took me two weeks of bribing Rilee with food and talking out loud to no reply before she finally met me face to face without taking a swipe. The only reason I managed to get her out of that park was because the conservation authority caught up to her and shot her. Which, I will add, didn’t make her more amenable to my aid, but given she passed out, I was able to do what needed to be done.”
“Which explains how she ended up here, but not how she ended up in those woods out of her mind in the first place.”
Reid scrubbed his face. “This is the part that’s ugly. She’s only told me tiny bits of her story. The basic outline being she got captured while in her cat shape.”
“A lynx, which is rare and probably a coup for any zoo, private or not.”
“Private. When she woke up, she found herself in a cage, the resident of a menagerie owned by a poacher.”
“Fucking assholes.” All shifters were aware of and hated them. It was why most of them eschewed firearms, because of the casual nature of the killing. However, changing times meant they’d had to change too. In a battle, rushing headlong at a guy aiming a gun was dumb.
“It gets worse than just being a slave in a cage. The man who caught her was a sadist. And he knew what she was. He tried to force her to shift.”
“Force… She was tortured?” The revelation was a sucker-punch.
“Yes, but I never had her relive the details. I couldn’t, not when she still suffers nightmares from the experience. When she stayed with me, she used to wake in utter terror a few times a night.”
His heart clenched. “She escaped, obviously.”
“She did. Eventually.” Said softly and dread filled Mateo’s stomach.
“How long was she his prisoner?”
“Five years. She was captured just after her eighteenth birthday.”
“Five…” The length of time boggled the mind. It also explained even more about her. Having spent a few months incarcerated in prisons here and there because of some of his activities, he could sympathize. It was then he clued in though. “Wait, if she refused to shift, then she spent those five years as her cat.”
Reed nodded. “It’s a wonder she retained any of her humanity.”
It also explained why she didn’t feel comfortable in a town surrounded by people, but at the same time, she shouldn’t let her past condemn her to a life alone. Problem being, how to get close to her?
When he got his next care package from his mamma, he had an idea. With a pack strapped to his back, he set off on foot to pay her a visit, this time watching for traps.
Only to have her sneak up on him again!
Chapter 6
Rilee cocked her gun, knowing the sound would alert him. “What are you doing?”
“I brought you a present.”
“On foot?”
But not sneaking. He sauntered down the path, without a care in the world. “The snow machines are noisy. I like listening to nature.” A reply she could find no argument with.
“You wasted your time. I don’t want a present.”
“Not just any present. My mother’s secret sauce.
“Which I don’t need.”
He guffawed. “Says someone who’s obviously never tasted it. Trust me when I say you’ve never had better Bolognese.”
“Maybe I don’t like red sauce on my stuff.”
“Probably because you never tried Mamma’s,” he boasted.
“Are you seriously here to harass me about eating your mom’s dumb sauce?”
“Harass? Never. Although I am offended you called the sauce dumb. It is the ambrosia that with one bite will empty everything in your head.”
“So eating it will make me dumb?” She eyed him and smirked. “Explains a lot.” A gun in hand made her bold. That and living in Kodiak Point for years. Brave enough to even pull a tiger’s tail.
Many a guy would have freaked that she’d insulted him. Mateo? The dimple deepened as he laughed. “You mock, and you are skeptical, but I shall prove my words by making you dinner.”
Let him come inside, where he would once more consume all the space and render her hyper aware of him? “No.” She moved away from him, having already said too much. She wasn’t one to have conversations or string more than a few sentences together at a time.
Although, of late, her visits in town had involved more people. She’d even spent the night at Reid’s place a few times recently, offering to babysit so they could go out. She’d spent an evening binge-watching shows on streaming services.
Could it be she was finally ready to live among people again?
Mateo kept pace, not at all deterred. “Don’t be so hasty. What if I told you I brought flour and eggs so I can make the pasta from scratch?”
She eyed him, his massive size, that dimple in his cheek, and tried to imagine him elbow deep in dough. “You can make pasta?”
“Since I was knee high, and I can show you how.”
“Why would I bother when it’s easier to dump some packaged stuff into a pot of boiling water?”
He actually shuddered. “Don’t let my mother hear you say that. She’s been known to go on for hours about a certain orange pasta on the market that’s super popular with folks.”
“I love that stuff!” she exclaimed.
He groaned. “Oh, bella, please, you have to let me show you what real pasta tastes like.”
There was something about him that made her light inside and brought a smile to her lips. And therein lay the danger. What if she forgot for a moment and let him get close?
Would he betray her?
Even if he didn’t, what if he flirted with her and she freaked out? Next time he touched her, what if she did shoot?
Or started screaming?
She couldn’t have said which was worse. Best to ensure it never happened.
“What part of I like to be alone did you not grasp?”
“How can you be sure you prefer it if you’ve never tried my company?” He didn’t give up.
“This is harassment.”
“This is me asking you to give me a chance because I’ve got a gut feeling we’re meant for each other.”
A sharp pang, a desire for it to be true, hit her. Then reality rushed in. “What makes you think you’re so special?”
“I’m glad you asked. I am very good looking.”
“Passable,” she said, lying through her teeth.
“Have a most excellent personality.”
“According to who?”
“My mother. She also says I have the sweetest, roundest, yummy cheeks.”
Before she could stop herself, she found herself saying. “Your cheeks are not even close to chubby. Maybe you need to eat more.”
He choked. “I eat more than enough, I assure you. And don’t let my mother ever hear you say I look hungry. She feeds me too much as it is. See.” He lifted his shirt to show her a belly that, while not defined, looked strong and flat.