Nicolas stepped back into the kitchen and immediately threw plastic wrap over his pie dough and slung it back into the fridge. Cheli was taking the pears out of the oven, and she looked at him curiously, but he paid her no mind. His thoughts were elsewhere.
His mate! His mate. He kept rolling the word around in his mind. He'd been told that all shifters had a true mate out there somewhere: someone who could complete them. He didn't know what it meant to be completed by someone, but he knew that he was in love already. The woman out there was beautiful and brave... he knew that just by watching her, standing her ground in an unfamiliar place, not pretending to be someone she wasn't, and not apologizing.
He walked over to the bread baskets and plucked a cutting board off the rack on the nearby shelves. Then, with a flourish of a bread knife, he set to work.
Slices of rare roast beef went onto a strip of ciabatta, topped with arugula and shards of sharp white cheddar and shavings of fresh horseradish. After a moment's consideration, he decided open-faced finger sandwiches would be best. More of a chance to show off the ingredients, and less to fill up on.
He'd been so enchanted he hadn't even learned her name.
"Boss?" Cheli asked, walking over to see him curl gravlax on a circle of pumpernickel, and top it with a dollop of crème fraîche and a sprig of fresh dill.
"Mm," he hummed in answer.
His inner jaguar was driving him. It was going to bring food to his mate, and she would be pleased. Sure, it might want to take to the hills and hunt, but if finger sandwiches were what it had to work with, it would still be satisfied.
And Nicolas would ride the high of his jaguar's drive and the high of the new mate-bond, and do his work well.
The raw, wild power of his animal side met the sophisticated intelligence of his human nature, and the magic which bound them together made him more than the sum of his parts.
As a human, he was inclined to more love and devotion than any animal jaguar, and the mating bond that came from being a shifter made him crave his mate as a man might crave air. And the animal within him brought the bright life-or-death clarity of every moment to his senses.
Cheli laughed a little. "Hoo boy, it's an occasion, isn't it?" she asked. She was always perceptive: Nicolas wondered sometimes if it came of being a prey animal. She was well-attuned to the energy in the air around her, and she pulled down a baguette and sliced a medallion without needing to be prompted. "Just carnivore food, or some veggie options too?"
"Both." And the more the merrier. He imagined himself setting down the tray in front of his mate, watching her taste the offerings, watching pleasure cross her face. His jaguar answered with a rush of desire so powerful it almost knocked him off-balance.
He imagined himself in his jaguar form, leaving rabbits and peccaries and fish lying lovingly on her pillow, and he laughed at the image. No, he thought, adding an artful spray of red radish sprouts to one of the finger sandwiches. Better that I let the human side handle this.
Still, his jaguar was purring contentedly.
Between himself and Cheli, he had a neat little wooden tray arranged and garnished in no time. Cheli gave him a grin and a swat on the shoulder as he carried it out into the dining room.
His mate had chosen a table off to the corner, near the windows. She was looking out at the passing cars with a slight frown creasing the skin between her eyebrows. Nico's jaguar rumbled: he'd do anything to erase those worry-lines.
"A sampler," he announced, and laid the tray before her with a flourish.
She turned, taking in the spread with wide eyes. "Oh, wow," she breathed. "They're like little works of art."
He and his jaguar both puffed up a little with pride.
"Please," he said. "Go on, taste them."
She picked one up carefully, cradling it in her fingers like she didn't want a single leaf to shift out of place as she brought it to her mouth. Then she bit in, and he got to watch the expressions play across her face. Uncertainty, curiosity, attentiveness as the flavors and textures presented themselves to her. Then, finally, what he was waiting for: sheer pleasure.
"Oh," she said. "That was wonderful."
"I never asked your name," Nico said, as she picked up another little sandwich.
She gave a shy smile, and glanced away. "Mandy," she said. "Um, Amanda Baynett. But call me Mandy."
"Mandy," he said. The name fit into his mouth like music. "What are you looking for, in Los Cazadores? Ah, I mean... I'm sorry, it's a local saying. What brings you here?"
There were so many other questions he wanted to ask her. But he had been watching her eyes when they met his. He could see one thing: she didn't react to him the way that he reacted to her. She was shy and uncertain towards him.
She didn't feel the mate-bond.
That happened sometimes, he knew. A mate-bond didn't go in just one direction, but sometimes one person could feel it less strongly. Humans, who didn't have the power to shift, were notoriously poor at sensing it.
So, his mate was human. When he was younger and more hotheaded, he might have been disappointed by the thought. But sitting here across from Mandy, he only kept noticing the things about her that he loved already.
The little creases of surprise and joy in the fine skin around her eyes. The quiet noises she made as she encountered something she'd never tasted before. The unassuming dignity with which she moved her generous body.
Still, he was uncertain. Humans who didn't know about the mate-bond were often humans who didn't know about shifters, either. And how was he supposed to tell her about either one? Would she think he was insane? A liar? A pick-up artist of a particularly inventive stripe? Would she spook, thinking he was coming on too strong?
He couldn't bear the thought of it. But he also couldn't bear to let her think he was just a sandwich-maker who was good with tourists.
What brings you to Los Cazadores was a good enough question while he searched for a way to say what was in his heart.
Mandy looked bemused for a moment, and then answered the second, much safer, question. "My daughter brought me out here, actually."
Nico's heart stuttered. Did she have a husband already? But she was traveling alone...
"She sent me on vacation," Mandy said. "We could never afford vacations when she was growing up, but she's gotten this new job... it's so incredible! She's still in college, and she's already making more than I ever did. She's so brilliant."
She had so much pride in her voice. Nico was swept up into it: of course, his mate must raise brilliant children. It was the natural order of things. But the pit of fear was still in his stomach. "Did she send her father with you?" he asked.
A cloud passed over Mandy's face, and he re-thought his words quickly.
"I'm sorry; I'm being too familiar."
"No, it's not that," Mandy said. She wasn't meeting his eyes. "I just haven't spoken to her father since I was sixteen." She blushed, and Nico's heart thumped heavily. Not in fear this time, but in anger. Having his mate promised to someone else could have driven him to despair, but to hear that his mate had been abandoned? His jaguar didn't know whether it would challenge this unknown man over Mandy or rip him to shreds for not giving her her due. "Neither of us were ready to have children. But he could run away from it. Well, it's his loss. I love my daughter more than anything."
I love you more than anything, Nico thought. He added a vast, nurturing strength to the list of things about Mandy he was in love with already.
"Where are you staying?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I don't know yet. I was going to come out here and take a look. Maybe somewhere by the beach."
"Hmm," he said. "There are some good places by the beach, but most of them are overpriced tourist traps. But let me make you an offer." The plan fell together quickly. "There's a studio apartment just above this deli," he said. "I lived there for the first three years after I bought the building. I've been thinking of renting it out, but..."
But he hadn't felt like learning all the bureaucracy involved in becoming a landlord. And the rent from one studio apartment didn't seem like it would be worth the hassle and expense of hiring a property manager. So it sat up there, cool and empty, a reminder of long, lonely nights trying to put his deli together. A reminder of long, lonely nights in general.
She looked at him, and he held himself still and calm. Too fast, he thought. Too much.
His jaguar retorted, You should have her in your territory. It's only right.
Mandy swallowed, and asked, "Um, how much would it be?"
"What were you looking to spend?" he asked, though his jaguar rumbled at the idea of charging her anything. Steady, Nico told himself. We can't scare her away. "It's never made me any money. Anything you paid at all would be fair in comparison. I will match your budget, whatever it is."
She looked skeptical, and a shade cynical. Suspecting that he was bluffing, probably. "Twenty a night," she said, her voice suddenly challenging. Money was a sore spot with her, he thought. She was probably trying to get him to stand up and walk away in disgust once he realized that she wasn't a rich California tourist. Twenty a night would barely cover a camping reservation in the woods across Highway One. It couldn't really have been what she'd been planning on spending anywhere.
"Done," he said, immediately. "Twenty dollars a night. It's yours for as long as you care to stay."
Mandy looked shocked. She opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly Cheli appeared at the side of their table. She could move surprisingly swiftly and quietly when she wanted to. Or maybe Nico had been too caught up in Mandy to notice her approach.
"On the house," she said, and laid an elegant dessert plate with one of the Poires en Cage on the table before Mandy. She'd dusted it with powdered sugar, and put a graceful scoop of vanilla ice cream to the side. She gave Nico a wink as she disappeared back into the kitchen.
Mandy blushed, looking down at the pear in its pastry cage. She picked up her fork, and sliced off a little piece from the side.
Maybe not a perfect first move, Nico thought, but she'll stay here.
Here in our territory, his inner jaguar agreed. Here with us.