I have to tell her, Nicolas thought. Mandy was cuddled up against him, drifting. His jaguar was purring inside of him. He'd fed her, he'd made love to her, and she still didn't know what she was to him. That alone was almost unbearable.
But how do I explain it to her? he wondered.
Mandy didn't look like she was ready for him to jump from the bed and turn into an animal. And without knowing about shifters, how could she understand the mating bond?
Nicolas traced the curve of her generous shoulder, reveling in the way she felt under his hand. So warm, soft, strong. She looked like she was slipping into sleep, but her luggage in the corner of the room suggested that she had just come from a day of travel. A long plane flight, a plate of good food, and amazing sex could drop someone straight into a pleasant doze.
At least, he hoped it had been amazing for her. It had been for him.
He kneaded his fingers lightly into the muscles of her shoulders, and she made a contented noise and snuggled closer. On impulse, he said, "Do you know how Los Cazadores was founded?"
She moved a little, and blinked at him. She wore a faint confusion on her face, and he smiled.
"No," she said. "I don't think it was in any of the brochures."
"Hmm. They usually don't put it in the brochures, no," he said. "There was a family of slaves who ran away from the plantations where they were held. They crossed the South and the Southwestern desert, they crossed the mountains, and when they came here, they lay down and said that it was the end of the continent, and this was where they would stand. If anyone hunted them to the coast, they would turn and hunt the hunters. Do you know how they survived that long journey through the wilderness?"
Mandy shook her head. "How?"
"The family had a gift. They could turn into lions."
Mandy laughed, and rested her forehead against his chest. "That's a charming folk tale."
Nicolas' heart sank. "People in Los Cazadores believe it," he said. "There's magic in the world, Mandy."
Mandy made a little noise. It seemed to be her way of saying, I won't contradict your religion, even if I know it isn't true.
We'll have to show her, his jaguar said. Do it now. She'll have to believe that.
I don't want to frighten her, Nicolas thought. Maybe the tomorrow, when she wasn't half-asleep and drifting. He could take her aside, and ask to show her something, and ask her to believe in him, and tell her not to be afraid...
He held her while she drifted into sleep. The air in the studio cooled as the sun went down outside, and he reached down and pulled up one of the plush blankets folded neatly in the under-bed drawers. He tucked it around them both, then slept.
He usually slept lightly. This night, though, he sank like a stone into a warm, velvet darkness, everything made right by the presence of his mate. He woke, as he usually did, before the sun, and Mandy was still sleeping pressed against him.
He didn't want to leave the bed. But down below, the deli was waiting for him to open it.
It will be all right, he thought, trying to convince himself. I won't be far away.
His jaguar valued its ability to roam, and valued independence in a mate. So long as, no matter how far they roamed, they would roam back together again. She's in our territory, it said. So long as she was sleeping here, his jaguar knew it could find her.
Nico's human side, though, wanted to stay with her. But his human side was also afraid of crowding her, afraid of frightening her off by being too close, too familiar. And he did have responsibilities, as much as he would have liked to brush them all aside.
He pulled himself out of the bed without waking Mandy, and tucked a light quilt over the blanket so she wouldn't get cold. Then he folded her clothing and laid it out on the bedside table, and wrote a little note: Good morning! Sorry I had to leave to open the deli. Come down for breakfast, I'll find something that you'll love. I had a wonderful night.
He thought for a moment, and then drew a little heart with the impressions of toe pads and claws around it.
If he knew when she would wake up, he could bring her breakfast in bed. Instead, he decided to come back up with a few little nibbles to entice her. And maybe he could get someone else to take over opening the deli for a few days, while he found the right words to convince Mandy to stay.
In the mean time, though, he had work to do.