Panther's Passion (Veteran Shifters Book 3) by Zoe Chant (1)

Prologue: Stella

Dawn broke silently over Glacier National Park. Stella sighed as the sun peeked through the mountains. Closing her sketchbook over a drawing of the shadowed mountain peaks, she pushed herself to her feet. It was time to to leave her little forest getaway and go to work.

Stella and her daughter Eva had been living by Glacier Park for just over a month now, back in Stella’s childhood home. Stella’s sister Lynn had—

—well, Lynn hadn’t taken them in, exactly. Stella had inherited half of the house from their grandmother. She had as much right to live there as Lynn did.

But Lynn had been the one to get Stella and Eva from her ex-boyfriend Todd’s house. Lynn had brought them back home, and Lynn and her mate and her friends had scared Todd’s wolf pack away.

Lynn had been the big sister, like she always was.

Stella, meanwhile, was doing her best to be as responsible as Lynn was, and part of that was having a regular job waiting tables at Oliver’s, the local diner.

Back when Eva was a baby, Stella had tried waitressing at Oliver’s for a while. But she’d been too flighty, back in her twenties, to work long hours on her feet and come home to a wailing child. Resentment had built up in her, and she’d missed too much work. Eventually, she’d found an out-of-town boyfriend and left without a backward glance, bringing Eva with her.

Of course, the boyfriend had been no-good, and the opportunities he’d promised had dried up. But it had taken her a long, long time to learn that men’s promises were like the sunrise: bewitching, endlessly repeating, but gone in an instant.

Now, in her forties, she still chafed at being told what to do, still got frustrated with tedious jobs. But she was older. She couldn’t justify shirking responsibilities just by saying, oh, I’m a free spirit, I can’t be tied down!

As much as she still sometimes wanted to.

So she worked at Oliver’s, she showed up on time, she did as she was told. She tried to enjoy it—making friends with her coworkers, chatting with the customers, getting to know tourists, sighing wistfully over all the exotic places they’d come from.

Well, that last one was somewhat bittersweet.

But she managed it, partly by keeping her daughter firmly in first priority. Eva was about to start her senior year in high school, and she was thinking about college. Stella was so proud she could burst—Eva would be the first one in their family to go to college.

Of course, Stella didn’t have the money to pay for an expensive school, and probably never would. But maybe if she worked her butt off at the diner, and lived at home with Lynn and Lynn’s mate Ken, she could get enough saved up to pay for something local. Part of something local.

Eva was a brilliant student, so she’d probably get financial aid.

And meanwhile, Stella would kick herself for not thinking about this earlier. She was terrible at planning ahead, always had been.

She shifted into her lynx form to run back down through the forest. That was something that was nice about living at home again—not every town was like where Stella and Lynn had grown up. Shifters were an open secret around here. Especially out in the forest, you never had to worry about being caught.

The run felt good, exertion burning through her lynx’s limbs. She pretended just for a second that she was running off to the horizon, seeking out unknown lands, and that she wouldn’t stop until she found happiness.

Then she came back to herself. Stop it. You’re happy.

She had a good job, a comfortable home, and family all around her. Her daughter was excited to start school. Her sister loved and supported her. She lived practically on top of one of the most beautiful parks in the world, for crying out loud! Every time she sat down to draw the landscape, it was like breathing in pure magic.

If all of that wasn’t happiness, what was?

She didn’t know. All of her life, she’d been looking for something, unable to stay in one place, and she’d never figured out what it was.

Stella shifted back to human in the forest just beyond the house, and sighed. If this wasn’t happiness, it was close enough.

And it was bringing Eva what she needed, and that was the most important thing.

Stella got herself ready for work in the silent house. Lynn was probably already gone; her wilderness guide business went from before dawn until after dusk in these summer months. Ken, Lynn’s mate, was out for several days doing some kind of environmental survey for his job. Eva was a teenager: still asleep.

Eva had a summer job at the local coffee shop, and Stella was struck, as always, by how different they were: Eva was always on time, never seemed to have a problem with the hours. Her least favorite part of the job was having to talk to all of the customers. Stella thought that if she didn’t have customers to chat with, she’d probably go crazy.

She got into her old clunker of a car, said a brief prayer, and turned the key. It started, thank God, and off she went to another day at work.

She parked in her usual spot, and took a deep breath. This is normal, she reminded herself. A normal job that normal people have. If you don’t like it, too bad for you.

She got out of the car—

“Stella!”

—and nearly jumped out of her skin.

Todd came forward from where he’d been standing behind his pickup. She hadn’t noticed it at all when she pulled in, too occupied with her thoughts.

“Todd,” she said nervously. “What are you doing here?” She’d seen her ex-boyfriend here and there since Lynn and Ken and their friends had helped drive him and his pack off of their property. He always had an excuse for being in town, though. Going to the Park for the day, had to pick up something they didn’t sell in his teeny tiny town, some kind of reason.

Now, though, he just took another step forward, his eyes fixed on her. “I had to see you.”

Stella took a step back. “We broke up, Todd, remember? We don’t see each other anymore.”

Todd shook his head. “I can’t stand being apart from you, Stella.”

Well, that was—a problem. “I’m sorry, Todd.” Stella got it. She’d felt it—that clawing desire, that need to be with a man all the time, always near him, always with his attention on her. “It’ll fade with time, I promise.” It always did.

“No, it won’t,” Todd said. “It’s been a month, and I still feel it. I need you. Come back home, Stella.”

It was funny. Usually Stella would be tempted by an offer like that. She’d fallen for this sort of thing before. Seeing so much emotion, so much passion, all directed at her...it was a weakness of hers.

But maybe she was getting too old for it, because this time, she wasn’t tempted. Or maybe Todd had crossed too many lines when they’d broken up. Taken the bad boy image too far, frightened Stella too much.

She’d been scared for Eva’s safety, in that house, with Todd’s pack. And Todd hadn’t done anything to keep his buddies in line.

“I’m not putting my daughter in danger again,” she told him. “You couldn’t keep her safe, so I have to do it myself. Go home, Todd.”

“I won’t let them in anymore,” he promised.

Men’s promises. So bright, so brief. “No, Todd,” she said firmly, and started walking towards the diner.

He hurried after her. “I’m not going to leave.”

That sent a little bit of a chill through her. She tried to shake it off. Sure, it had been scary getting away from his pack, but that had been the pack, not Todd himself. Todd wasn’t scary.

“Well, we’re not open yet, so you’ll have to wait outside,” she told him, and unlocked the door, leaving him waiting.

Inside, she took a deep breath, and tried to forget about it. He’d get bored and leave.

***

Todd did not get bored and leave.

He sat in a booth, nursing a cup of coffee, and his eyes followed her. Stella ignored him as best she could, laughing it off with her coworkers—look, I’m irresistible! Most of them bought it, though Pauline, older and sharper than most of them, was giving Todd the evil eye all shift. For once, Stella was glad of a busy day with a lot of tasks to take care of.

At the end of her shift, he followed her out to the parking lot.

“No, Todd.” She felt like she was disciplining a puppy.

“Just one date,” he said. “One date. Let me remind you what it was like.”

When she was younger, she might’ve said yes just to get it over with, thinking that she could go on the date and he’d see that it really was over. But she was older and wiser now. One date did not mean one date.

“I have to go home,” she told him. “And you can’t follow me there—remember what happened last time?”

“You’ll see,” he said. He had a desperate tone to her voice that she didn’t like, and she hurried to her car. “I’m not going away!”

She said a prayer and turned the key. It started, thank God, and she pulled away as quickly as possible.

He didn’t follow her. But she hadn’t been sure whether he would or not, and that didn’t bode well at all.

When she got home, Eva was sprawled out in the living room, watching Doctor Who on their grandmother’s old television. “Hi, Mom.”

“Hi, baby.” Stella came over to give her a kiss on the forehead. “Is this a good episode?”

Eva nodded vigorously and started explaining about how the aliens on the screen were from the distant future, and the Doctor and the redheaded girl were about to make friends with them, except it was all going to go terribly wrong.

Stella listened, frowning. “I’ll never understand how you can watch these over and over again. Why, when you already know what’s going to happen?”

“Because it’s so good, Mom, you seriously don’t get it. Sit down and watch with me, you’ll see.”

Eva tugged on her arm, reminding Stella of when she’d been much younger, and Stella smiled. “Let me go change out of my uniform, and I’ll watch.”

“Really? Awesome! I’ll just go back to the beginning...”

Stella tried to protest that it didn’t matter, but Eva wasn’t hearing it, and finally she went to change out of her uniform and come back and watch the full episode.

Stella had never been that interested in sci-fi, or much into TV shows in general. But sitting in the warm living room with her daughter, curled up on the couch while Eva chattered about the characters on the screen, was just the antidote that she needed for the tension that had gathered at the back of her neck while Todd was talking to her.

After a couple of episodes, Lynn arrived home, Ken coming in after her. Stella gave Eva a hug, stood up and went to greet her sister.

“Hey,” she said. “Want to talk about what we’re going to throw together for dinner?” They all took turns cooking, although Ken was probably the best at it.

“In a minute.” Lynn’s face was serious, and Stella found herself automatically bracing for whatever was coming.

Lynn continued, “Nina mentioned to me that one of her friends from the diner was worried about you today.”

Stella blinked. Nina was Lynn’s assistant at her guide business, but when she’d first come to town, Nina had had Stella’s job as a waitress. She was still friends with some of the other servers.

And apparently, she’d been talking to them about Stella. Stella felt a little sick at the idea—she’d been so sure that she’d projected careless unconcern about Todd. What had given away the fact that she was actually worried?

“Why?” she managed.

Lynn bit her lip. “They said that there was a man there all day, watching you. Stella, was it one of the wolves? Was it Todd?”

Stella was caught by a sudden, fierce wish that she could just lie. Tell Lynn it was nothing, and have her believe it. She’d never liked the idea of her big sister running her life, and it was bad enough that Lynn had had to save her from Todd’s friends once already.

But lying about it would just be dumb. “Yes. It was Todd.”

But then Lynn surprised her. “I don’t want to interfere if you think you’re okay,” she said. “If you’re not worried, that’s fine. I’m not going to tell you what to do.”

Stella stared at her.

Lynn’s cheeks pinked slightly, and she said with a hint of defensiveness, “I’m trying to be better. I trust you to run your own life. I just want you to know that if you do need help, it’s here.”

It was weird. If Lynn had insisted, if she’d told Stella It’s not safe, or You have to let me do something, Stella would have argued.

She knew she would have. She would have seen it as babying, and she wouldn’t have been able to help herself.

But this—this trust. The way Lynn was stepping back, letting Stella make the decision on her own. Like she was an adult, and not the eternal rebellious teenage little sister.

It made her want to ask for help.

“I’m not...I’m not very worried,” she said finally. “Maybe this was just a last-ditch attempt to get me back, and he’ll give up after today.”

“But?” Lynn asked, leaning forward.

“But if he keeps it up...it would be nice to have help.” The words felt foreign in her mouth. She never asked Lynn for help unless it was the absolute last option available to her.

For so long, she’d been sure that coming to Lynn for help was just giving her big sister the opportunity to lord it over her, show how much more competent and together she was than Stella.

But right now, Lynn wasn’t doing any of that. Her face had softened with compassion, and after a moment of hesitation, she leaned forward and gave Stella a hug. Stella’s eyebrows almost hit her hairline as she hugged back. Lynn wasn’t really a hugger.

Maybe having a mate was softening her up.

“Thank you,” Lynn said finally, pulling back from the hug.

Stella frowned. “Thank you for what? You’re offering to help me.”

Lynn met her eyes, her gaze serious. “Thank you for trusting me to do it. That means a lot to me.”

Stella felt an unexpected lump in her throat. This wasn’t right. Lynn’s help was supposed to make her defensive and mad, not...touched.

It looked like things really were changing. “Thank you,” she said. “For trusting me.”

Lynn smiled. “My pleasure. Now,” and suddenly she was normal, businesslike Lynn again. Stella had to admit she was a little relieved. “Keep me updated on the situation, and if it looks like there’s a real problem, Ken or I can come talk to him. Or, if you think it’s serious, Ken can call in his old Marine buddy Nate. Nate runs a security agency, and he’ll definitely know what to do to keep you safe.”

A former Marine who was a security professional? Stella pictured some ramrod-straight, crusty old judgmental man. “I hope we won’t have to go that far.”

***

One Month Later: Nate

Slowly, former Staff Sergeant Nathaniel Sanders slid down in his office chair. When he reached the point where if he slumped any further, he’d fall off the chair underneath his desk, he forced himself to stop.

“Sir, you know that’s not going to get you out of doing the paperwork.” Connie stood in his doorway, one eyebrow raised.

Nate tilted his head back and stared at her. “Please allow me to pretend. Just for a short minute.”

Connie gave him a long look, then ostentatiously held up her wrist, looking down at her watch. She waited.

Nate sighed. Yes, all right, he was being juvenile, and Connie had every right to stand there like a schoolmarm counting through a time-out. In just a second, he’d sit up, remind himself that he was a professional and professionals had to take care of paperwork, and get back to work.

Just a second. And for that second, he could just imagine a new job, something that would take him out into the field, away from his desk and his office and his paperwork...

“Time, sir.” Connie’s voice brought him back to himself. He took a deep breath, sat up, and summoned his professional voice.

“What’s next?”

Connie set the forms in front of him. It was an enormous stack of paper. Security agencies generated a hell of a lot of forms.

Nate stared down at them. “How much would I have to be paying you for you to do all of this instead of me?”

“A lot more than you do, sir.” Connie’s voice was amused.

“That’s what I figured. I don’t suppose there’s any sort of security crisis out there that would require me to leap into the field immediately?”

Connie shook her head. “No, sir.”

“Great. Paperwork it is, then.” Nate picked up a pen and started in, while Connie left to go do her job without any further boss-related distractions.

Briefly, he entertained the fantasy of retiring. It was something he thought about a lot, and he had more than enough financial resources to do it, but he’d never been able to pull the trigger.

The problem was, he didn’t want to retire. He liked working security. He liked figuring out tricky problems; he liked troubleshooting; and he really liked being better than the guys who were trying to steal, harm, or otherwise mess things up.

He didn’t like being management. And that was the problem.

He’d built this agency from the ground up, and now it was his, and he wasn’t about to abandon it just because he was bored with the paperwork.

But the agency was now big enough that as the top man, he did nothing but paperwork. He’d hired enough good people that there were plenty of younger specialists to put into the field, deal with the nitty-gritty on-the-ground problems. And meanwhile, there was no one else up at his level, with the experience and understanding to handle the staff- and legal- and administrative-level stuff.

Well, except Connie. She’d been his assistant from day one. Maybe he could retire and just leave the entire business to her.

But he didn’t even want to be retired. What would he do all day? No, that wasn’t the solution.

So he pulled himself together and plowed through all the paperwork. It was his job, and he’d committed to doing it, and he had a whole agency of people depending on him to do it.

He’d been in the Marines, after all. He knew all about doing tedious work because he’d committed to something larger than himself.

When all the forms were done, it was time for emails. Emails could be more fun than forms, because there were actual people on the other end. Inevitably, there’d still be some tedium, but it was at least a step up.

And today, there was even something totally unexpected in his inbox—an email from Ken Turner, one of his old platoon buddies from the Marines.

He’d been keeping in better touch with the guys since they’d all met up at their old Gunnery Sergeant’s wedding. Cal worked as a park ranger at Glacier National Park, which Nate had to admit was one of the most beautiful places he’d ever been. Ken must have agreed with him on that, at least, because Nate had heard through the grapevine that Ken had moved out there recently.

It was a move that made sense for Ken, because the man worked as an environmental science researcher. Nate himself would never want to be all alone, away from any human civilization, in the forest for days on end.

Even his panther didn’t quite like that idea. Run through the forest, was his panther’s response to that. Then meet up with pack.

We don’t have a pack, Nate reminded his panther absently. We’ve got friends. We make new friends a lot.

New lady friends, his panther pointed out.

Nate frowned to himself. Lately, there’d been more and more rumbles of dissatisfaction while Nate was out on dates with women. He’d always dated around, and his panther had always seemed happy to seek out company and physical gratification. But these days, his panther was just as likely to see a woman and ask, Is she for our pack?

Or, more often, look her over and decide, She’s not pack.

It was definitely making dating less fun, that was for sure.

But when Nate opened the email from Ken, his panther sat up and took notice. He’s pack, came the pleased rumble.

He was pack, Nate corrected. Back when they’d been in the Service together, that had been the closest thing to pack that Nate had ever experienced.

He missed it sometimes. Although he didn’t miss active duty. He’d been proud to serve his country, but he was definitely too old to be crouched behind a Humvee taking fire.

The content of Ken’s email drove thoughts of the past clean out of his mind, though.

Ken’s new mate, the one he’d moved to Glacier Park for, had a sister. And the sister’s ex-boyfriend was stalking her.

We could use your expertise, Ken wrote. We scared off his pack a couple months ago, and they haven’t been back, but this guy just won’t leave off. He hasn’t done anything illegal, so we can’t call the police, and if we shift and give him a scare, he just runs away and then finds Stella sometime when we aren’t around. It’s frustrating as hell, thinking that I can’t protect my family, but neither Lynn nor I can be around Stella twenty-four-seven—she wouldn’t allow it even if we offered to take time off work.

Plus, Stella has a seventeen-year-old daughter, and we’re all a little worried for her safety in this, too. Could you come give your professional assessment of the situation, maybe assign Stella some protection until it dies down? I’ll pay you for your time, no problem.

Nate frowned at the screen, and immediately opened up a reply.

I’ll be there ASAP. You better have the nicest guest suite available for me. I’ll be kind and forget that you offered me payment. If I remembered that a fellow platoon member had done that, I’d have to be mortally insulted.

He sent the email, rose from his desk, and went out to see Connie with a new energy and determination in his step.

“Guess what.”

Connie regarded him. “From the expression on your face, I’m guessing there’s some kind of security crisis out there that’s requiring you to leap into the field immediately.”

“Got it in one. An old friend needs my help.” His incipient grin faded as he thought about what the problem actually was. “His sister-in-law’s being stalked by her ex-boyfriend. It sounds like she’s having a hard time going about her life. And she has a daughter who might be in danger, too.”

All humor faded from Connie’s expression. “Then get out there,” she said.

Nate nodded firmly. “You’ll hold down the fort for me?”

“I always do.”

Of course she would. He’d rely on Connie to carry the agency through any crisis at all, in his absence. “Can’t say when I’ll be back.”

“Take as long as you need to get rid of that asshole,” she said.

“I surely will.” Nate turned for the door, his mind already racing ahead to Glacier Park.

No innocent woman was going to be harassed and frightened on his watch.

***

Stella

The Park was just as beautiful in the evening as it was in the early morning. Stella surveyed the gorgeous peaks and smiled to herself. Sometimes it was hard to remember why she'd ever wanted to leave this place.

Of course, when she was in town, surrounded by the same people she'd known all her life, going to the same stores and driving the same roads, the reasons came back to her.

“Mom, let's go!” Eva was twenty yards ahead, looking around, bouncing a little in place.

Stella smiled to herself. Eva had gone through a phase, when she was fifteen or so, where she didn't want to shift at all, just stay inside with the TV and the computer. Stella had been utterly bewildered—why wouldn't a person want to take advantage of the ability to run through the forest as a lynx? It just didn't make sense.

Of course, she'd done a lot of things that didn't make sense when she was a teenager.

But now that Eva was almost eighteen, she seemed to be coming out of her little Internet hole and remembering that the outdoors existed. Lynn had suggested that Stella show Eva around the Park, because the last time they'd lived this close to Glacier, Eva had been little.

“Okay, race you to the tree line!” Stella told her daughter, and shifted and took off.

“Hey!” Eva's laughing protest caught up with her as she ran. But it didn't take long for Eva's smaller lynx form to catch up with her, and pretty soon they were running together, caught up in the joy of pushing their shifter bodes to their very impressive limit.

Stella loved using her body to its best abilities. Shifting and running felt like the very pinnacle of existence, sometimes, like there was nothing more to strive for than the burn of exertion, the panting of breath, the sharp quality of the air around them. It felt transcendent.

And doing it with her daughter beside her was even better.

They reached the tree line in a panting rush, and flopped down on the rocks together to catch their breath. Then Eva wanted to explore.

Stella smiled to herself and settled in for a wonderful evening.

***

It was hours later, the sun below the horizon and the stars beginning to come out, when they got back to the edge of the Park. Eva had shifted to human a ways back, because she wanted to talk about all the things they'd seen.

“And the smells, Mom—it's so weird how the smells are totally different when you're shifted, isn't it? I don't even have words to talk about what things smell like as a lynx. I wonder if anyone's written any of this stuff down. Hey Mom, do you know if anyone's written any—”

“Stella.”

Eva stopped talking with a little gasp. They were almost at the house; Stella could see it now, about half a mile off. And coming out of the trees right next to them was Todd.

“I told you to stop this,” Stella said, as steadily as she could. She kept walking. It wasn't like Todd didn't know where they lived, and the closer she could get to the house, the more comfortable she'd be.

“I can't, Stella,” Todd said, almost sadly. “I just can't.”

Stella hadn't expected any other answer. It had been over a month now, and Todd hadn't listened anytime she'd told him to get the hell away. He didn't seem capable of listening to anything that came out of her mouth. She'd been expecting him to show up at the house for a while now, and she'd been dreading it.

Yesterday, she'd even swallowed her pride and told Lynn that it was probably time to call up Ken's friend with the security agency. Any consideration of pride and independence had run out. She just wanted it to stop.

Eva had sidled up next to Stella's side, eyeing Todd suspiciously. “Stop what?” she asked. “Have you been bothering my mom?”

The hint of protectiveness in Eva's voice made Stella's chest hurt. Eva shouldn't be protective of her. “It's not a problem, honey,” she told Eva. “He's just been a little annoying, that's all.”

“Annoying?” Todd came towards them, anger starting to show through.

Maybe that had been a mistake.

“After what we had, you're calling me annoying? I love you, and that's annoying?” His voice rose. “What sort of heartless—”

“Stop this, Todd!” Stella said sharply, speeding up and tugging Eva after her. “I told you to leave!”

“I'm not leaving.” He was staring at Stella with a disturbing intensity. “You chase me off, I'll just come back.” He came closer.

Stella didn't want to run, because she was sure that he'd just chase them, and she didn't want to take the chance that he might be faster. She sped up, but stayed at a walk, keeping herself between Todd and Eva. “Please just go.”

“The lady told you to go.”

There was a frozen moment as everyone processed the sound of a new voice.

A man stepped out from the darkened forest. He was tall and broad, and moved with a casual grace that suggested he was either an athlete or a shifter. Or both. His features were strong and his expression was grim.

“Um,” Stella said. “Hello.”

He turned to her and gave a serious look. “Are you all right, miss?”

He had a Southern accent. No one around here had a Southern accent—they were practically at the Canadian border.

“Yes. Thank you,” Stella said faintly.

The man had turned back to Todd, and his voice hardened again. “I won't tell you again. The lady told you to go, so it's time for you to go.”

Todd backed up a couple of steps. “This won't stop me,” he said to Stella. “I know you have all these people around telling you lies about me, telling you I'm a bad influence, that you shouldn't take me back. But I'm going to prove that they're wrong about me, you'll see.” He turned, without looking at the other man, and shifted into his wolf form, loping away into the trees.

Stella let out a shaky breath. Then she turned to the newcomer. “Thank you,” she repeated.

It was almost hard to force the words out. Because on the one hand, she was grateful that he’d made Todd leave—especially since Eva was with her.

But on the other hand, why could some random man drive him away, when Stella’s own words had no effect at all? It was so incredibly frustrating.

“Believe me, it was my pleasure,” said the man grimly. “You’re all right? You’re both all right?” His eyes flicked back and forth from Stella to Eva.

“We’re fine,” Stella insisted. “He didn’t do anything but took.”

The man exhaled audibly. “Sounds like that was enough.” He took a step forward. “Excuse my manners—I’m Nate.” He held out his hand.

“Stella.” She shook, and had to hold back a sudden inhale at the spark she felt when they touched. His hand was warm, roughly calloused, and big, with long fingers, and the way it enveloped hers was—what was she thinking? She motioned to her daughter. “This is Eva.”

He turned to Eva, and Stella let out a silent breath of relief. This was not the time to be fixating on a new man.

Eva shook his hand shyly. She was close enough to Stella that their shoulders were bumping. Stella reached out and tugged her even closer, an arm around her shoulders. “You okay, baby?”

“I’m fine.” But her voice was quiet, not her usual strident tone.

“Hello, Eva,” their new defender said in a friendly voice, “I’m a friend of Ken’s. I run a company that works to keep people safe when they’re in situations like this, where someone won’t leave them alone.”

Oh. So this was Ken’s old Marine buddy. Stella gave him a longer look.

“I have a lot of experience at this. I’m going to make sure this goes away, and that this guy won’t bother you or your mom anymore. Okay?”

“Okay.” Eva was almost silent now. Stella was suddenly and deeply furious at Todd for making her daughter sound like that.

Nate looked back at her. “Okay?”

Stella nodded once. “Can’t happen fast enough.”

Nate’s mouth quirked in a smile. “I absolutely concur. How about we get back to the house?”

So they all walked back together, Eva sticking close, Nate a few steps ahead. Stella wondered if he was doing that on purpose, to act as a guard. But then what if Todd came up behind them?

She shook that idea off. Todd hadn’t done anything violent, hadn’t even threatened to. The only thing they’d called Nate in for was to keep him from hanging around and being creepy. If he had been violent, then they could have gone to the police. So there was nothing to worry about.

Hopefully.

When they reached the house, Stella pushed Eva forward, sending her through the door ahead of her, and then followed. Nate had hung back, she realized, doing the same thing she had done for Eva: making sure they were safe before he was.

She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Normally Stella chafed at the idea of restriction, of anyone tracking her movements or telling her what to do. It was what had made her relationship with Lynn so difficult over the years, and what made it so frustrating to work as a waitress.

But there was also a kind of warmth in knowing that someone was going to be there if something happened.

And it was only temporary, of course. Once Todd was taken care of, life would go back to normal.

Lynn and Ken were out, so Stella led Nate into the living room. “Would you like anything? Coffee, water, beer...” She tried to remember what they had in the fridge. None of them were the greatest at keeping the kitchen stocked. Stella was too forgetful, Lynn was too used to stockpiling one person’s worth of ready-to-eat food, and Ken was away too often.

But Nate shook his head. “Nothing for me, thanks. I’d like to sit down with you and talk through the situation, if you have some time.”

Stella nodded. “Of course. I’m sorry no one was here to meet you...”

Nate waved that off. “I just grabbed the first flight there was. Didn’t want anyone to rearrange their schedules for me. Do you want me to give Ken a call, confirm that I am who I say I am?” He held up his phone, his eyes serious.

“Oh, I didn’t even think,” Stella said blankly. “Who would try to impersonate...? No, there’s no need for that.”

Eva was frowning at him. “On TV, people always say that when they are trying to impersonate someone. So that everyone will think they’re on the level.”

Nate grinned, his eyes sparkling. They were a warm brown color—everything about him was warm, almost honey-colored: his eyes, his tanned skin, his blond-streaked hair. “Good, a suspicious mind. That’ll keep you safe. Here, I’m calling now.” He dialed, hitting speakerphone so that they could all hear.

A second later, Ken’s voice was unmistakable. “Are you in town already?”

“Sure am,” Nate drawled. “At the house with your sister-in-law and her daughter right now. Already frightened the target off outside.”

The target. It sounded intimidatingly...military. Although he had been a Marine with Ken, so that made sense.

Ken was so lighthearted, funny and charming, that Stella tended to forget he’d ever been a military man. She had the sense that with Nate, it would be harder to forget.

“Damn,” Ken said. “Glad I called you in. I’m in town right now, I’ll be home soon, and you can let me know what I can do for support.”

“Will do.” Nate ended the call and looked at Eva. “Now you can be confident that I am who I say I am, and good on you for making me prove it.”

Eva was still giving him a suspicious look. But Stella suspected it was the more normal teenage look of I can’t tell if you’re talking down to me, rather than you might be an intruder. Finally, she looked over at Stella. “I’m going to head upstairs, if you don’t need me for anything.”

Stella glanced at Nate. “I don’t think we do. Tonight was the first time you’d seen Todd around here since this all started.”

“Then there’s no need for any debriefing,” Nate confirmed. “I’ll just sit down with your mom and talk the situation over. But if you have any questions about anything, or if you’re worried about something happening, I’m happy to talk things over.”

“Sure.” With that promising monosyllable, Eva disappeared up the stairs.

Stella sighed, looking after her. “She’s usually friendlier. I think she’s freaked out.”

“Not surprising. I would be, in her place.”

Surprised at his warm tone, Stella glanced up at him. In her experience, men weren’t that tolerant of sullen teenagers. But Nate smiled at her and said kindly, “I hope we can make sure that she doesn’t have to be freaked out any longer. And neither do you.”

Stella was hesitantly, tentatively, starting to hope so too.

***

Nate

Nate followed Stella—the client—Ms. Davidson—into the front room.

He had to work out what to call her. Ordinarily he’d call the person he was protecting by their title. But if he’d just met Ken’s sister-in-law socially, he’d have called her by her first name.

And Stella was just there, ringing through his mind like a bell, ready to be used.

She sat on a couch, light and graceful. He’d been struck already by how like a dancer she moved, and how the long fall of her hair and the flowy skirt she wore enhanced the effect.

She probably did it on purpose, to catch people’s attention. Right? Except right now, her shoulders were tight with anxiety and she kept looking over her shoulder, checking the door, glancing at the stairs where her daughter had disappeared. She didn’t seem interested in catching anyone’s attention right now.

With effort, Nate dragged his brain back on track. He wasn’t usually this distractible. “Ms. Davidson—”

“Oh, Stella, please!” she interrupted immediately. “Calling me Ms. Davidson makes me feel like I’m as old and staid as my sister.”

Nate noted her phrasing. Usually people used parents in that sort of protest, not siblings. “Stella, then.” The name came out a little too slowly, felt too much like he was caressing it with his voice.

Jesus, he needed to pull himself together. “Stella, first I want you to understand that I’m committed to keeping you and your daughter safe. Ken asked me to come assess the situation, and I can tell you just from what I saw outside that it’ll be a good idea for me to stick around for a little while, get an idea of how this guy works, see if we can’t get him to leave you alone.”

“Thank you.” Stella’s hands were twisting in her lap. Nate was struck by the—insane—urge to go sit next to her on the couch and take those hands in his.

Client, he reminded himself. Client, client. Usually he didn’t think twice about making a move on a pretty woman, but that was in social situations. He’d never had to remind himself to be appropriately professional before.

“Now, why don’t you tell me about your history with this man? The more information I have, the better I can do my job.” He kept his voice warm and calm. He wanted her to feel safe talking about something that might be difficult to remember.

“Well, Todd and I were in a relationship,” Stella said first. “I guess that was stupid. Dating someone like that.”

“This sort of behavior often doesn’t start full-blast,” Nate objected gently. “I’m sure he seemed like a good choice at first.”

She stared at her hands. “He did. He was fun, and thoughtful, and he paid a lot of attention to me. He didn’t mind that I had a daughter, although I guess he never really engaged with Eva that much. He was a shifter, so that was nice—we didn’t have to hide that part of our lives from him.”

Ken must have told her that Nate was a shifter, too. He wondered what type of animal Stella and Eva were. Right now, Stella reminded him of some kind of rare bird, beautiful and delicate, but looks didn’t always communicate shifter type very well.

Stella was tensing up again, her shoulders rising, her hands clenching. “We were living with him for a while,” she said in a low voice. “My lease was up and I didn’t—I didn’t have very much money. And I thought it would be good.”

“But?” Nate kept his voice as quiet and encouraging as he possibly could. He wasn’t sure he even wanted to hear the next part, but it was his job to know.

And whatever it was, Stella had had to live through it.

“His pack kept coming over,” Stella said quietly. “They were—rowdy, and they got into fights with each other sometimes, and it was pretty clear that they were into some illegal things. None of them held down regular jobs or anything, but they always seemed to have money. And they’d harass me, sometimes, when Todd wasn’t around. And then even sometimes when he was, and he’d kind of—protest a little bit, but never enough to make anyone stop.”

She was silent for a long minute. Nate prompted, “And then?”

“And then they started making comments about Eva,” Stella said, her voice almost silent. “How she was growing up. And I knew I had to get out of there. There was one night—they were drinking, and I didn’t know what they were going to do. My car was in the shop, and I’d been waiting to get it fixed before I left, but it wasn’t going to be soon enough. So I called Lynn. And she and Ken came to get us, and—well, the pack didn’t want us to leave.” She blinked rapidly.

Nate tried to picture it: a woman alone with her daughter, no indication of any self-defense skills, in a house with...how many men? And all of them shifters. “It sounds terrifying,” he said softly.

Stella nodded, blinking rapidly. She took a careful breath, though, and no tears appeared; her voice was stronger when she said, “Ken got into a fight with them, and it was over so fast. They had no idea what hit them. But Todd wasn’t...he wasn’t interested in fighting, he just didn’t want me to leave. But Ken was there, so it was okay. We got out. The pack was embarrassed, though, so they tried to show up and get revenge—but Ken called in Colonel Hanes and his mate.”

“Colonel Hanes,” Nate said, startled. “He’s living here, too?”

Stella nodded. “You didn’t know? I guess he’s probably not on Facebook or anything.”

Nate had to chuckle a little at the thought of Colonel Wilson Hanes on Facebook. “Nope. Ken keeps in touch when he’s at a computer, but the Colonel’s pretty reticent.”

“Well, he found his mate here, at a wedding earlier this year.”

Nate had been at that wedding. Come to think of it, he remembered the Colonel talking to that pretty woman he’d met—mother of one of Cal’s pack, he thought. Mavis? That had been her name. The Colonel had seemed pretty eager to keep her away from a bunch of single retired Marines, at that. “Well, I’ll be.” He shook his head, then forced his attention back to the matter at hand. Again. “So he and his mate helped you hold off Todd’s pack.”

Stella nodded. “When they saw that Colonel Hanes and Mavis were snow leopards, they were too worried to come back. There’s a big snow leopard pack in Glacier Park.”

“Cal’s pack,” Nate clarified.

Stella nodded. “I—don’t know them very well. I mean, Mavis’ daughter Nina works with Lynn, and I’ve met her a couple of times, she’s very nice. And the pack seems really close. Colonel Hanes suggested to me once that maybe we should try to bring them in and help if Todd really became a problem, but...”

“But?” Nate pressed.

“They’ve all got demanding jobs, and a couple have little babies too,” Stella said. “And I didn’t know when this would end. I wasn’t about to make them set up some kind of...free bodyguarding service for me. And since Ken knew a professional, that seemed best.” She bit her lip. “Although Ken said you wouldn’t let us pay you. That seems wrong.”

“Wrong would be charging my friend for doing me a favor by letting me escape the pile of paperwork in my office,” Nate said, purposefully keeping his tone light. “I’m happy to be here.”

“Well—thank you, anyway,” Stella said. “If there’s anything I can do to help you out in return, please tell me.”

“I will,” Nate promised, although in reality he’d probably chew his own arm off before letting a distressed single mother put herself out to help him with anything. “Back to Todd, now. What happened next?”

“Well, I thought he might be gone for good after we scared his pack off,” Stella said. “But a month ago or so, he started just...showing up in town. At first, he’d have an excuse for why he was there, but eventually he’d just come into my work and sit and watch me.” She shivered.

Nate was struck once again by the urge to go sit by her on the couch. He quashed it ruthlessly. Professionalism. “What do you do?”

“I’m a waitress at Oliver’s. The local diner.”

There was a certain dejection to how she said it that made Nate think that she wasn’t happy with her job. But that wasn’t his business, surely.

“So there’s nothing to stop him coming in and sitting down.”

Stella shook her head. “He’ll just get a cup of coffee and sit for hours. The other servers are good about never making me take his table, but he’s just there, watching...and then he’ll follow me out when my shift changes, say all these things to me...”

“What sort of things?”

She wrapped her arms around herself. “That we’re meant to be together, that he’s never going to give up, that he can’t stand the idea of being without me. He hasn’t made any threats or done anything violent, but...”

“You’re right to be worried,” Nate said, keeping his voice calm and matter-of-fact. “I don’t want to frighten you, and maybe this isn’t the case with Todd, but these situations can escalate, and it’s much better to call for help now, before anything happens. This way we can make sure nothing does.”

Stella nodded, looking miserable. She looked up from her hands, meeting his eyes—maybe for the first time in the conversation? Nate was struck immediately by their clear golden-topaz color. He’d never seen anything like it. “How do we do that?”

How do we—of course, the job. “For now, we watch and wait. This kind of stalker can be infuriating, sometimes, because he avoids direct confrontation and he hasn’t done anything illegal. But from what I saw outside, he seems careless. He’ll slip up eventually and do something we can put him away for.”

“Like what?” Stella asked.

She was worried about what might happen. “Breaking and entering, violence, something like that,” Nate said quietly. “Listen to me, Stella.”

Finally, finally, he gave into his instincts and stood, crossing the room to sit on the couch with her. She turned toward him immediately, and when he reached for her hands, she gave them to him right away.

She was trusting, he thought. Open and honest, ready to give up the whole, hard story without any protest. Reaching out her hands without any hesitation.

He was going to protect that trust. Keep it safe and intact, so that she wouldn’t have to worry about giving it away in the future.

“No matter what Todd does, or threatens to do, I’m going to be right here,” he said, looking her straight in those beautiful topaz eyes. “You don’t have to worry about what he might do.” He smiled. “I can promise you that that man is no match for me.”

She smiled back, tentative but with that same trusting beauty. “I can believe that.”

“Good. Believe it.” He squeezed her hands once, then reluctantly let go. “Now, I’ll sleep down here tonight—this couch looks comfy enough.”

Her eyes widened. “You shouldn’t—we have a guest room—well, it’s my grandmother’s old room, and we never actually have guests, but it’s a nice room with a real bed...”

Nate shook his head firmly. “I’d rather be down here on the ground floor in case anything happens. That’s the only staircase, right?” He nodded in the direction of the one Eva had gone up.

“It is, but...”

“But I’d rather be here, where I can put myself between an intruder and the rest of the house, than upstairs where I’d be too far removed. Okay?”

Stella bit her lip, but nodded. “All right. But let me show you the bathrooms and the kitchen and so on—please do make yourself at home.”

She led him on a quick tour, getting him blankets and pillows for the couch in the process, and he built a careful mental map of the house in his mind. It wasn’t secure at all, of course, because there was usually no reason for a residential home to be an intruder-proof fortress. But fortunately all the bedrooms were upstairs, and from what he’d seen of the outside, there wasn’t an easy way to scale the walls.

Unless someone were a shifter that could fly or climb. But Todd was a wolf, so that wasn’t likely to be a problem.

When he’d seen the whole place, he gave Stella a smile. “Don’t let me get in the way of your evening,” he said. “I’ll set myself up downstairs and stay out of your hair.”

Stella started to protest, then visibly stopped herself. “Of course,” she said. “You want to do your job.”

That wasn’t what Nate had meant at all—he wanted Stella to feel free to go about her life, get ready for bed or talk to her daughter or whatever she wanted, without worrying about hostessing. But before he could correct her, she went on.

“I’m not usually this—” Her hands fluttered. “I feel like I can’t make any decisions. Normally I’m more capable, I promise.”

“Don’t apologize,” Nate said quietly. “You’re scared. And that’s something that affects your brain. All of the fight-or-flight chemicals are in overdrive right now, and that makes it hard to pull back and do any complex thinking. It happens to everybody—doesn’t matter if they’re a little kid or a big strong man.”

That last made her smile. “Like you?”

“Like me,” he confirmed. “I have experience with situations like this, and tools to deal with them. But if it was something else, something I was totally unfamiliar with, I’d be scared too, and I’d know that I wasn’t going to be thinking clearly. It’s okay.”

Stella took a deep breath, which Nate could have told her was one of the best techniques for dealing with fear anyway, and said, “Okay. That makes sense.”

“Go try to relax,” he said gently. “I’ll be here.”

She nodded, hesitated, and then turned and went upstairs. His eyes were caught, once again, by how gracefully she moved.

Then he shook himself and went to go make up the couch.

He heard a car pull up as he was finishing, and tensed—but then relaxed as he recognized Ken’s voice. From the tone, he was making a joke. A woman’s low laughter followed, and then they were opening the front door and coming inside.

Nate went to meet them. The sight of Ken,grinning and pulling him in for a back-slapping hug, was a surprising hit of warmth. Nate had only seen him in person the once in the last few years, at Cal’s wedding, and he’d already forgotten how much Ken’s cheerful, energetic presence could improve the mood in a room.

When Ken let him go, he turned to the woman with him, holding out his hand. “Nate Sanders,” he said.

Ken’s mate was short and stocky, with a strong handshake and a no-nonsense tone to her voice. “Good to meet you.”

She didn’t resemble Stella as much as Nate might have expected, except in the eyes—they had that same striking topaz color. But Lynn’s were sharp and thoughtful, rather than Stella’s open, vulnerable look. This was a woman to respect, Nate thought. She’d be more than a match for Ken, he was sure.

“Thanks for coming out,” Ken told him. “I really appreciate it.”

Nate waved a hand. “You're doing me a favor. I'm really hurting for fieldwork these days, now that I'm stuck as management.”

Ken grinned. “What a hard life. Being your own boss, running a successful company, having all these people working for you...it's a modern tragedy.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Nate laughed. “But still, doing some actual protection work is a good break. I've got myself set up down here for tonight, and tomorrow we can go over what other security measures we might want to take with the house.”

Lynn frowned. “You mean like alarms and so on?”

“That, although I'm particularly interested in getting some cameras set up. What we really want is to get this guy removed from the picture, and the easiest way to do that is prove that he's done something he can be arrested for. Then he won't be our problem any longer. And that'll be easier if we can collect evidence, which means video.”

Ken nodded. “Makes sense.”

“All right,” Lynn said, a bit reluctantly. “I hate the idea of turning my grandmother's home into some kind of...fortress.”

Nate smiled internally at the echoing of his earlier thoughts, but kept his expression serious. “The equipment will be minimal, I promise. And we can make the setup temporary. No need for any renovations or anything like that.”

Lynn nodded. “If it's going to keep Stella safe, we should do it.” She glanced around. “Where is Stella?”

“I sent her upstairs to get some rest,” Nate said. “She and Eva were both kind of freaked out after seeing Todd earlier.”

Lynn's eyebrows rose. “And she listened?”

Nate frowned. “Sure. She was tired and scared. I think she's reassured to know there'll be someone down here watching out for everyone.”

Lynn shook her head, eyebrows still up. “I'm impressed she listened to you. I keep trying to get her to agree to let me go with her places, call the Colonel or Cal or someone, and she always insists she's totally fine, nothing's wrong. It was an uphill battle just to get her to agree to call you.”

That was...interesting. Nate hadn't gotten the impression of stubbornness at all. The way Stella had acted with him, frightened but trusting, was totally different.

“Maybe she's just too scared,” Ken said quietly, squeezing Lynn's shoulder.

Lynn closed her eyes. “Yeah. I wish I could've taken care of this for her.”

Nate was surprised at how touched he felt, seeing this example of a protective big sister. He was an only child, and he'd never thought too hard about what it might be like to have an older sibling.

Ken nudged her. “Yeah, but if you took care of it for her, then she'd have to pretend to resent you for it, and you'd have to pretend that she should've been able to handle it herself, and...”

Lynn punched him in the arm, half-laughing. “Stop it. We're getting better.”

“You are. But you gotta admit I'm a little bit right.”

Nate watched the exchange, fascinated. This sibling relationship clearly had a complicated history, and he found himself weirdly curious about Lynn and Stella’s past.

“Fine, you're right,” Lynn grumbled. “Let's leave Nate to go to sleep.”

Ken leaned in and kissed her temple. “That's code for ‘get your butt upstairs now,’” he confided to Nate.

“Oh,” said Lynn, “was I not clear enough? Get your butt upstairs, now.” But she was grinning, and so was Ken.

“Duty calls,” Ken said, and grabbed Nate's shoulder, shaking it with that same rough affection he'd hugged with. “Good to see you, man.”

“Same. Nice to meet you, Lynn,” Nate said.

Lynn nodded. “Good to have you here,” she said, and tugged Ken out of the room behind her.

Nate watched them go with a feeling he eventually identified as...wistfulness.

He'd never thought much about having a mate. He was happy playing the field—a different woman every time he went out kept the variety going in his life. He couldn't stand boredom, always needed to be moving around, experiencing new things. Dating had been the same.

But for some reason, the sight of Ken and Lynn together, comfortable and happy, awakened some kind of basic longing in him.

Good to have a mate, his panther growled.

We'd get bored, Nate pointed out. Do you want the same woman telling us to get our butt upstairs in the same house every night?

That's not our mate, his panther pointed out.

Well, all right. Maybe his mate would be different, if he had one.

But he didn't. And at forty-six, he was pretty sure it was too late for him to find one. Ken had gotten lucky, but Nate was just as happy with his life as it was.

His panther rumbled, dissatisfied, but didn't contribute any more opinions. Nate turned to the couch. Time to get some sleep while things were quiet.

***

Stella

Stella heard the conversation as Lynn and Ken got home, and thought that she should probably go downstairs, join in.

But she just...she didn't want to. She was so tired of pretending that nothing was wrong, she was fine. It had been a crazy kind of relief, to let all that go with Nate, just give up the effort and let herself be scared, be upset, be silly and fidgety and nervous. The quiet confidence he'd projected, the way he hadn't tried to judge, just help...it had made it easy.

But if she was with Lynn and Ken, she'd have to decide whether to show them how she felt, or start up the masquerade again. And she didn't have the energy to decide that right now.

So instead, she knocked on Eva's door. “Honey? Can I come in?”

“Sure.”

She slipped inside. Eva was curled up fully-dressed on her bed, with her phone in her hand. Stella sat down next to her. “How are you doing?”

“Fine.”

“Can you set your phone down for a second?” Stella asked her, as gently as she could.

There was a long moment where she wasn't sure if Eva would listen, and then finally the phone was tucked under a pillow—Stella didn't miss the fact that Eva never let her see the screen, and wondered what sort of crazy Internet stuff she was looking at, or who she might be having a text conversation with.

But that wasn't why she was here. “I'm sorry you had to be scared earlier,” she said.

Eva shook her head. “He's not after me, Mom. He's after you. What happens if he does something crazy?”

“That's why we have Nate,” Stella pointed out. She was suddenly so, so glad that she'd agreed to let Ken call him. Forget how relieved she was for herself, just the ability to reassure Eva was a blessing. “He's going to keep us both safe.”

Eva narrowed her eyes. “He better.”

“He will.” Stella was surprised to realized that she believed what she’d was saying.

She’d spent the last month terrified that there was no real way to get Todd to stop. Intimidation didn’t work. Telling him to get lost didn’t work. There was nothing for the police to do, since he hadn’t done anything illegal. Stella wasn’t about to try and do anything violent, or ask anyone else to do the same. So there hadn’t seemed to be any road out of the status quo, except for hoping that someday he’d get bored and stop.

And wouldn’t escalate.

But now...now nothing had really changed, had it? Except that Nate seemed confident that they could take care of the problem, and that confidence had infected her, somehow.

That was reasonable, Stella told herself. Nate was a professional. Ken, who’d been the one to organize how they’d driven off the rest of Todd’s pack, was confident in his abilities. It was okay to trust that Nate could take care of the problem.

She thought. She hoped.

Anyway...Eva didn’t need to see her worrying about any of this. She put on a smile. “So, how’s the college search going? Any good ideas?”

Eva sighed. “It’s hard to think about that when I’m wondering if Todd’s going to be climbing in the windows tonight, Mom.”

“Hey, Nate’s sleeping downstairs,” Stella said firmly. “He’s a badass Marine combat veteran. He probably wakes up if a mosquito sneezes by the window, much less Todd falling over the sill and landing in a heap in the kitchen.”

That made Eva giggle.

“So, college?” Stella prompted.

Eva shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, MIT would be really awesome. Or Caltech. But they’re super hard to get into.”

And expensive, Stella was sure. She was going to have to do some research on the Internet about how much good colleges really cost—tens of thousands of dollars, she knew, but beyond that it was a bit fuzzy.

“I bet you’ll blow the competition out of the water,” she said softly, smoothing Eva’s hair back from her forehead.

Eva wrinkled her nose. “Mom. You don’t even know who the competition is.”

“I know you,” Stella said. “You’re probably the smartest person I’ve ever met. You’re going to blow their tiny minds.”

Eva started giggling. “Mom. You’re ridiculous.”

“Don’t doubt me.” Stella made her best wise face. “I know things.”

Eva shook her head, still giggling. “Goodnight, Mom.”

She leaned in and kissed Eva’s forehead. She smelled clean and good, like comfort and home. “Goodnight, honey.”

Stella closed Eva’s door softly behind her and thought about that. MIT was in Massachusetts. Caltech was...southern California, she thought? They were both far, far away from northern Montana.

Eva was going to go away, somewhere far from Stella. That hadn’t quite sunk in yet—Stella had been picturing her in some other Montana city, maybe somewhere they’d lived before. Maybe Stella could get another waitressing job there, and they could save money by having Eva live at home.

And that still might happen, Stella told herself. Maybe Eva wouldn’t get into where she wanted to go, or she wouldn’t get enough financial aid and it would just be too expensive.

But now that Stella knew what her daughter wanted, she was determined that it would be possible...somehow. She’d make it possible. She’d work two jobs, she’d ask Lynn and Ken to buy her out of the house or give her a loan or something...

And then Eva would leave.

Stella took a long, painful breath.

It was right, she reminded herself. After all, she’d left home, and she hadn’t even been going to college, just starting out wandering and exploring. With a series of varyingly worthless boyfriends.

But it hurt to think about.

Stella went to her own room and closed the door. So much had happened in just the last couple of hours. She felt raw and vulnerable, like the world was full of spikes and she kept running into them as she tried to move forward, looking to the horizon and wondering why everything hurt so much.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself, she thought firmly. She reached for her notebook and pencil.

Drawing almost always made her feel better. She’d focus on something positive, and become so immersed in it that she forgot about all of the negative feelings. Or she’d just draw, and realize that whatever had been bothering her had come out on the paper, and it lived there now, instead of inside her own head.

So she drew.

And what took shape was Nate Sanders’ face.

His serious, determined face, with that confident expression that said that nothing was going to mess with anyone on his watch. No give to his mouth, but those blue eyes were warm and smiling, looking right at Stella and telling her, It’s safe.

The words echoed through her head in that Southern drawl, the one that had calmed her down, made her believe everything really would be okay. Nate had sat downstairs looking at her with those gorgeous eyes, reassuring her with that liquid-chocolate voice, and Stella had wanted to melt into his arms.

Stella stared down at that face, feeling warmth flush through her, and thought, oh no.

Men had always been Stella’s besetting sin. She met a new man, and suddenly a world of possibilities seemed to spiral outward—what they could do together, where they could go, the fun they could have.

This felt different, though. Usually, she knew that she was making a mistake, or at least she knew that she was throwing herself into something that could go wrong. Nate didn’t feel like that at all.

But Stella couldn’t let herself make the same mistake she always made. So he was an attractive man. So what.

The most important thing was for him to do his job, protect their family—protect Eva—and he couldn’t do that if Stella was throwing herself at him.

She closed the notebook firmly. Drawing hadn’t helped as much as it usually did, and her thoughts were a swirling mess, but she was going to stick to her new life resolution and use some willpower instead of just letting herself drift. It was time to go to sleep so that she could get up and go to work tomorrow, so that she could make money, so that Eva could go to college.

Stella got up and turned off the light with firm resolve. She lay down, and waited for sleep.

But willpower only went so far, and it wasn’t long before she knew she was in for a night of listening to the sounds of the house and waiting for morning to come.

***

Nate

Nate woke with the sun.

He’d slept lightly, cataloging unfamiliar sounds, slowly becoming used to the way the house settled and the noises of the forest outside. A few more nights here, and he’d be able to sleep soundly through any normal sounds, but wake instantly if something was out of place.

He’d heard someone creeping down the stairs, an hour or more ago. He’d marked it, but hadn’t considered it to be a threat, since there hadn’t been any evidence of someone coming in from outside. Besides, the footsteps were too light to be a man’s.

Now, he got up and went into the kitchen, following the smell of coffee. Sitting at the counter, cradling a mug in her hands, was Stella.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Morning.” Nate came into the kitchen. “Is that coffee for everyone?”

“Help yourself,” she said. “Although Ken’s led me to believe that Marines don’t need a weakness like caffeine addiction.”

“Ken’s right,” Nate said ruefully. “But I’ve gotten too used to it being available everywhere.” He followed Stella’s gaze to the cabinet with the mugs, and picked the one with a picture of Montana on it.

He settled into the stool next to Stella. “So listen. I don’t want my presence to be any hindrance for you. You can just go about your day as normal, and I’ll come with you, and assess any issues that might arise. If it seems like anything’s a particular problem, we can talk about whether it might be a better idea for you to change any of your routines, but for now, nothing should be different.”

Stella took a long drink of coffee. She looked tired, Nate thought. Had she slept badly because she was worried about what Todd might do? Because there was a strange man sleeping in her house? Or did she just get insomnia sometimes?

It was probably none of his business, even if he wanted to ask her about it. He could frame it as a security question. Sleepless people made poor decisions, reacted differently to threats, right?

Quit it, he told himself firmly. There was a fine line between gathering intelligence he needed to do his job, and prying into people’s affairs just to satisfy his own curiosity. Stella didn’t need him sticking his nose into her private business, not when she already had one man who wouldn’t leave her alone.

“Are you sure you should be sticking with me?” Stella said finally, staring down into her mug. “Maybe Eva would be the better person to protect. Just in case.”

“If you’re concerned about your daughter’s safety, we should bring in a second person to cover her as well,” Nate said firmly. “From what I’ve seen, you’re the primary target of Todd’s interest. Do you have any reason to think that Eva is in danger?”

Stella let out a long sigh. “No,” she said finally. “Todd’s never been very interested in her. Even when we were together, he mostly just ignored her. Which I probably should’ve taken as a bad sign and broken up with him before any of this happened.”

“Hey,” Nate said, getting her attention. “Listen to me. None of what Todd is doing is your fault. You didn’t do anything to make it happen, and you’re not responsible for anything he does. His actions are on him. Plenty of guys get broken up with, cry into their beer for a while, and go on with their lives. The fact that he chose to stalk you instead? That’s his own responsibility and any consequences are completely, one-hundred-percent on him.”

Stella’s eyes were wide and startled. As he spoke, he could see tears rising in them.

When he finished, though, she blinked them away, turning her head, and saving him from the decision of whether he should offer to comfort her or maintain a professional distance.

“I just—” She shook her head. “I’ve always tried so hard to live life without regrets. But somehow...it’s harder than it used to be. That’s all.”

“I’m with you there,” Nate said with total honesty.

She lifted her head, and smiled, the tears gone. “Okay. You’re right, I don’t actually think Eva’s in any danger from Todd. I just worry about her because I’m her mother.”

“That’s only right,” Nate assured her.

“So then, I suppose we should start getting ready for work.” Stella’s voice had firmed, the fragility fading away.

Nate took his cue from her. “Let’s get to it.”

But he had to wonder if those tears were truly gone, or if she’d just put a brave face on over them.

***

Stella

Having Nate sitting at the diner was a totally different experience from having Todd there.

He hadn’t come in right away. When Stella had gotten to work, ready to open up, Nate had said he’d stay out in the parking lot, check out all the entrances and exits, investigate the surrounding territory. Stella had imagined him prowling around, maybe shifting—what kind of shifter was he? She was dying to know.

And ordinarily, she’d throw manners and shifter custom to the wind and just ask. If he’d been any other man, she would have already.

But she wasn’t treating him like any other man. She was treating him like someone who had a real, important job to do. So she kept her mouth shut, and imagined.

After he’d investigated all the terrain, though—whatever form he’d been in when he did it—he’d come in and sat down at one of their small, two-person tables, back out of the way in a corner. Which also afforded him a good view of the door and all the windows, Stella had to notice.

“Don’t mind me,” he’d said. “And if it gets busy enough that you’d rather have the table for another customer, just let me know, and I’ll take up a post outside.”

He’d ordered breakfast, but even when he ate, his eyes were alert. Stella had no trouble believing that if there was any hint of trouble, his eggs would be abandoned and he’d be between her and Todd without a second thought.

It felt...safe.

Nice.

It was weird. Stella had always hated it when people tried to protect her—Lynn, their grandmother, the occasional boyfriend. She chafed under it, yearned to get away from whatever it was they wanted her to do. It felt stifling and limiting.

But with Nate...maybe it really was just that he was a professional doing his job.

Maybe it was more than that, though. As she put together breakfast orders, she thought about how he was acting. He talked to her about what Todd had been doing. He asked her what her usual schedule was. He told her what he'd be doing.

But there wasn't any sense that he was—frustrated with her. That he thought she was doing anything wrong. He'd said in so many words that this wasn't her fault. And he wasn't trying to change her behavior at all.

That was as much down to her as him, Stella had to admit. When she'd been younger, she'd done a lot of dumb, reckless stuff. She understood why Lynn, their grandmother, and even the occasional boyfriend had tried to calm her down, get her to make better choices.

Stella hated being controlled. She always had. She needed to find her own way and make her own choices.

And often, that had meant making mistakes, and suffering consequences. Consequences that other people had foreseen. She'd made her peace with that a long time ago: if she wanted to be free, she couldn't be safe.

Feeling safe and free was something she'd always figured was impossible.

But...now she was wondering.

It was just silly speculation though, of course. Nate was going to see this whole Todd business through, and then go back to wherever his security agency was based, and Stella would still be here, waitressing and desperately hoping that Eva could go to whatever college she most wanted.

But it was an interesting idea. A strange idea. An idea that filled her with a wistful kind of hope.

***

Nate

Nate was having a weird day.

From the outside, it didn't look weird at all. He was at a protectee's place of work. The fact that it was a diner made everything very convenient: there was no need for stealth on this job, so he could just park himself at a table, drink a cup of coffee, and stay on the alert.

He'd done this exact thing a hundred times. Set himself up where there was danger, wait for an incident, watch a client go about their day. Nothing weird about it.

The weird part was all inside his head.

It was part of his job to mark all of the people who came and went. Nate had all of the diner employees' faces memorized, and was paying attention to when anyone said their names. He'd noticed everyone who came in and out. Normally, he'd pay a little extra attention to the pretty women. If he noticed one who was single, he might think about asking her out later on, when he wasn't on duty. Traveling so much for work meant that he could have plenty of one-night dates with good-looking, intelligent, fascinating women, and that was how he liked it: he met lots of people, learned interesting things about them, indulged in some physical pleasure, and went on his way. It was almost a habit by now.

But that part of his brain just...wasn't engaging today.

He wouldn't have made any moves, not with the client right there. The most he would've done would've been an extra spark in his smile when he made eye contact.

But he didn't even want to.

A couple of the waitresses were pretty. There'd been a very attractive woman in the party of six who'd come in for breakfast. But Nate had felt...nothing. No stirring of interest, no desire to see what they might be doing later on.

And if that wasn't enough, he was having a hard time doing his job because he didn't want to take his eyes off the freaking client.

Keeping an eye on Stella was important, but watching the exits was equally as important, as was keeping track of who was coming and going in the building. Nate was used to that being instinct, no need to think about it or make himself do it.

But he kept having to drag his eyes away from Stella's graceful form as she slid plates onto tables. He kept being distracted by her silvery laugh echoing through the dining area as she joked around with another server. He kept watching as her expression lightened every time she met someone else's eyes, before falling back into a pensive, slightly worried frown when she thought no one was looking.

Stella, Nate was realizing, was good at projecting unconcern. He was beginning to understand why Lynn and Ken hadn't seemed worried about her state of mind, last night. He heard her joking about how in-demand she was when someone asked her about a different man hanging out and keeping an eye on her.

Based on how she’d been with him, he would've bet money that she was too nervous about Todd to joke.

But with the customers, and even with her coworkers, she was behaving as though it was all a silly game. She tossed her hair, rolled her eyes, laughed and laughed. She pantomimed unconcern, or boredom. She danced over to the tables and flirted with the customers.

It was like watching a performance. A very good performance. Nate wondered how much energy it took her to keep it up, and why she thought it was necessary.

He wanted to pull her aside and tell her that it was okay to be upset and worried. That her coworkers would surely understand. That people would want to help, and not—judge her for being afraid, or whatever it was she was worried about.

But, of course, that wasn't his business at all. She wasn't interfering with Nate's job by pretending that she wasn't taking the whole thing seriously. If she'd really thought it was a joke or a game, that would've been a different story...but Nate had seen her last night, had talked to her this morning, and he knew that she was taking it as seriously as a person could.

So he shouldn’t care.

But he did.

It was just weird.

***

Stella

It was a long, long day at work. But Nate's presence at his table, silent and watchful, was comforting. Stella glanced over at him often, reminding herself that he was there, and it gave her energy every time.

Often, he was looking back, and when he was, he'd give her a small nod. Every time, it warmed her somewhere deep in her chest. Made her lynx purr.

Like him, her lynx thought. Like him very much.

Agreed, Stella thought back.

It was funny. Her lynx usually didn't react like that with men—usually she either ignored them, or got on board with Stella's physical desire. They were both happy to climb a man like a tree, but her lynx usually stopped there. She hardly ever paid attention to them.

Well, that was just another sign that Nate was a really good man. A cut above the guys Stella usually dated.

On her break, she hesitated over what to do, before finally just giving in and joining Nate at his table with her lunch. “Is it okay if I sit with you? Or do you need to pay attention?”

Nate shook his head, smiling. “If you're here, I'm paying plenty of attention.”

Stella blushed. “Okay, well—I brought you a sandwich. On me.”

Nate took the plate, but said, “I can pay for my food. I'm taking up a table all day long, I might as well make it worth it.”

“Are you kidding?” Stella said. “I don't even know how much this kind of personal protection would usually run, but I bet it's more than a turkey club and a Coke.”

Nate glanced down at his lunch. “Well. I suppose it is more than a turkey club and Coke, yes.”

“So go ahead and eat.” Stella sat down across from him.

“Thanks,” he said in surrender, and they focused on their food for a few minutes. Until something occurred to Stella.

“I'm not taking you away from real work, am I?” The idea sprang fully-formed into her head, and suddenly it seemed like she must be. “Are there paying customers that you should be protecting?”

Nate shook his head immediately. “No, no. I'm just management these days. My team are all out on jobs, and I was just back in the office taking care of all the paperwork. It's a relief to get out, believe me.”

Stella cautiously decided to accept that. “Okay. And the paperwork is okay to wait? You're not going to run into any kind of...payroll problems, or what-have-you?” She had only the vaguest idea of how businesses were run, she had to admit. She'd never lasted long in any kind of office job.

“No, my assistant can take care of it for a little while. Connie. She's very competent—could do my job, probably. Probably better than I could.” He sighed.

Stella frowned. “Well...if you'd rather be out in the field, and she could do your job...why don't you pay her to do your job?”

Probably it was more complicated than that. But it had been like a black cloud had just appeared over his head at the very thought of all his paperwork. It was obvious he didn't like it.

Nate laughed a little. “I wish. But—well, I built this company from the ground up. I feel some responsibility for it. Besides, I wouldn't actually want to go back to full-time fieldwork at my age. I'm getting to the point where it's smarter to let the young, fit guys do all the running around and getting shot at.”

Stella eyed him. “You look pretty fit.” He did: lean and muscular, with a hint of gray in his hair, but no indication of being slow or creaky at all. He was probably around her age or a bit older—mid-forties, maybe?—but she had no doubt that he could outrun and outfight plenty of guys in their twenties.

His blue eyes snapped up to meet hers. Oops, that had been a little flirty.

“I mean,” she said hastily, “you wouldn't have volunteered for this job if you couldn't do it, right? I bet you're just fine in the field.”

He tilted his head, looking at her with a contemplative expression. Stella wasn't sure what to make of it.

“You're right,” he said finally. “I suppose...I've had enough of making my living through violence. I like doing the puzzle side of things. On-site inspections, revamping people's security procedures, tightening places up when they're expecting break-ins or attempts at corporate espionage. If I could only do that...well, maybe.”

Stella hoped he'd think it over. If he really had built his whole security company from the ground up like he said, he deserved to be doing whatever job he wanted to. Especially if it was as successful as Ken seemed to think it was. After all, what was the point of doing it at all, if you didn't get what you wanted at the end of it?

Of course, it wasn't any of her business. And really, she didn't know a thing about running a company, so probably it was a lot more complicated than she realized.

The conversation stuck with her as she went about her day, though. For some reason, she didn't like the idea that Nate wasn't happy in his work.

Probably just because she was stuck with kind of a crappy job.

The day eventually did end, though, and Stella got to put away her apron and breathe out a long breath, happy for the chance to get away from taking orders and pretending everything was just fine. Nate stood as she came out, and walked ahead of her to the exit.

“No Todd yet today,” she commented as he opened the door and glanced out.

“Let me check the parking lot,” Nate cautioned, and so Stella waited at the door while he stepped outside.

In a second, he was back. “There's a black Ford pickup in the parking lot with a man in it,” he reported. “I can't see his face, but from what I remember from last night, he matches Todd's coloring and build.”

“That's him.” Stella let out a breath. “Waiting for me in the parking lot. Great.”

“We can handle this a couple of ways,” Nate said. “I can get your car for you, meet you around back. Or we could walk out together, show him that you're not alone anymore—”

“That one,” Stella said immediately. “Let's do that.”

Just yesterday, she would've jumped at the chance to have someone meet her with her car anywhere that Todd wasn't. But now that Nate was here...

Nate nodded seriously. “All right. In that case, you should know that stalkers often escalate if they think the object of their attention is with someone else. It's best not to let him assume we're together.”

“I thought we wanted him to escalate,” Stella pointed out. “So he'd do something we could take to the police.”

“Your safety comes first,” Nate countered.

Stella thought about a furious Todd thinking she'd jumped ship to someone new. It made her shiver a little. “Okay.” Her voice was smaller.

“Stella.” Nate waited until she made eye contact. “Even if he assumes that, even if he does try something he hasn't done before, I'm right here and I'm going to take care of it. But we can still do the other plan, and get you out of here without him seeing you.”

Stella took a deep breath and shook her head. “No. I want to stick with this.”

Nate smiled warmly. “Okay. Let's go, then. Stay close, and if he makes any sudden movements, fall back and let me deal with it.”

Stella nodded and followed him out.

The second he saw her, Todd hopped out of his truck and came over. “Stella, you—who is this guy?” He stopped short at the sight of Nate, an ugly expression on his face.

“This is Nate,” Stella said. “You met him last night, remember?”

“You've got a new boyfriend?” Todd asked. “What the hell, Stella? I'm over here, telling you I love you, bringing you presents, blowing off my guys for you—and you just throw this in my face?”

“Hey.” Nate’s stepped forward, his face grim. “I’m not Stella’s boyfriend. I’m her bodyguard. You’ve been terrorizing her for weeks, and it needs to stop.”

Todd’s face contorted in an almost comical astonishment. “What the hell?” he asked. He looked back at Stella. “Seriously, this asshole is your new boyfriend?”

Stella glanced from Nate back to Todd. “He's not my boyfriend,” she said finally. Reluctantly.

There was a second, though, where she'd let herself indulge the little fantasy that Nate was her boyfriend. Here to tell Todd to get lost, that Stella was worth more than he was, all that stupid teenager stuff.

She didn't need any of that, though, because Nate was already here to tell Todd to get lost, even without the boyfriend part.

“I don't believe you,” Todd said. “He's with you last night and this morning? No way. I can't fucking believe this.”

“Stay away from Stella from now on,” Nate said forcefully. “She doesn’t want you around, you’re scaring her, and now I’m here to make sure you keep your distance.” He dropped a hand on Stella’s shoulder and said, “Keep walking,” in a low voice. They made their way over to Stella's car with Todd trailing behind.

“Who are you, anyway? I haven't seen you around before. Some out-of-town punk? A city guy? You're better than this, Stella—”

Okay, maybe she didn’t need to have a boyfriend around to make this point. “No,” she snapped at him. “I’m better than this. I’m not going to take you back just because you’re stalking me, Todd. That’s not romantic. That’s scary.”

“I would never hurt you, Stella.” His voice was utterly sincere.

“You did hurt me.” They were almost at her car. A few more steps... “And now I don’t want to be with you anymore. That’s how it works. Get lost.”

“You heard the lady,” Nate said roughly.

“Never.” Todd’s voice was filled with conviction. “Just you wait—you’ll see how useless this guy is. You’ll understand that he can’t love you the way I do. How long have you even known him?”

At the car, thank God. She got in the driver’s side without thinking, and then wondered if she should’ve let Nate drive—but he was in the passenger’s side, saying, “Go.”

It started, hallelujah, and she went, leaving Todd behind. Her hands were white-knuckling the steering wheel, but it didn’t matter, because they were gone.

It took ten blocks before she was able to let her breath out, let her shoulders down. “Well,” she said.

Nate was watching her. She glanced over, saw his eyes dart back to the back windshield—checking if Todd was following them—but then come back to her. “Are you all right?” he asked quietly.

“I’m just fine!” Stella said automatically, and then caught herself. “Well—no.”

“Can I ask why you do that?” His voice was still quiet, completely nonthreatening. Stella involuntarily found herself comparing it to Todd’s desperate, demanding tone.

“Do what?” she asked.

“Pretend you’re not afraid.”

Stella shrank from the accusation. “I don’t!”

“All right.”

He said it easily, calmly. No passive-aggressive tone, no penetrating look. He just acknowledged what she’d said—even though it was clearly, obviously a lie—and settled back into his seat.

And so, paradoxically, Stella found herself wanting to explain. Someone pressing her for the truth would’ve made her feel cornered, trapped, but this felt like a sudden opening-up. A gift of space, where the truth could live and it might be all right.

“I’ve always said—no regrets,” she told him, her voice unsteady.

Nate nodded. “I remember.”

“And I meant it. I still mean it. Life’s too short to waste time regretting what’s already happened. But I made a lot of dumb choices when I was younger, and a lot of people—teachers, my grandmother, Lynn—wanted me to regret them.”

“So you feel like you can’t show it,” Nate said, with dawning understanding.

Stella nodded miserably, focusing on the road. “I really don’t regret a lot of the things that I’ve done. Leaving town at a young age, meeting all the people I’ve met, having Eva even though I was not in a good situation to raise a baby at the time...it’s been my life. I wouldn’t want anyone else’s life. And so I guess I’m in the habit of telling everyone, ‘Eff you, I’m fine!’ Even if I’m not fine.”

“It’s all right to be afraid,” Nate said softly. “And it doesn’t even have to mean that you regret being with Todd. I don’t know what it was like with him, before.”

Stella sighed. “He was so sweet. So attentive. I thought it was too good to be true, almost, and I guess it was.” She remembered the beginning, when he’d showered her with presents and kisses and little gestures—the sort of thing that a lot of men were too self-absorbed to do. She hadn’t even considered that it might be a red flag.

“I wish I knew,” she said on a long breath. “I wish to God there was some way, with a man, to tell when you started out: This guy will be good. Even if it doesn’t last forever. It doesn’t have to! I just want to know if it’ll be something that I won’t even want to regret.”

Too many of her relationships had required her mantra: No regrets. And yes, a lot of the time she’d come out of them stronger, wiser, tougher—but what if she didn’t have to? What if she came out of a relationship a better person because she’d been with someone good, rather than someone...not?

“I don’t know the answer to that one,” said Nate. He sounded thoughtful, like he was really considering it. “I don’t really—get involved. I date, but it’s always casual. I make it clear up front,” he added hastily, like he was concerned Stella might think he was a liar who held women on a string.

That was cute, and Stella had to hide a little smile, despite the seriousness of the whole conversation.

“I wish I could do that,” she told him. “I used to envision myself as this glamorous woman, breaking hearts all over the world, picking men up and enjoying myself, and then dropping them when I got bored.” She laughed at her younger self. “But I get too invested. I feel too much. Even if they’re really, really not worth it. But I suppose that’s better than going around deliberately breaking hearts, like I thought would be cool when I was seventeen.”

“Oh, man,” Nate said. “When I was seventeen...” He trailed off.

“What?” Stella asked. “You can’t just leave me hanging.”

“I suppose I wanted—something like what I have. A good military career, a job that makes a nice pile of money while letting me meet lots of women.”

“You don’t sound too triumphant, for someone who’s actually fulfilled his seventeen-year-old dreams,” Stella tested.

“I guess my seventeen-year-old self didn’t have it all figured out after all. Who’d have guessed that?” Nate flashed a grin.

“Don’t tell Eva,” Stella advised. “She thinks she understands exactly what she wants.”

Nate laughed. Stella restrained herself from asking, So what do you want, other than what you have? Nate had deflected once, and she could do him the favor of not pressing for answers, just like he hadn’t pressed her.

“Anyway,” she said. “Maybe you’re right, and I should quit pretending I’m not afraid. Only an idiot wouldn’t be afraid in this situation, anyway. I just get so caught up in thinking people are judging my choices.”

“No one I’ve met so far has sounded like they judge your choices,” Nate said. “I certainly don’t.”

Stella pulled the car into the driveway of the house, parked, and looked over at him. “You’re different,” she said speculatively. “I don’t know why. I didn’t even want to pretend with you. Not from the second we met.”

Nate met her eyes, and there was a long, long moment where neither of them said anything, just looked at each other. Stella felt caught by his gaze, her breath coming faster, her lynx waking up in her chest.

Danger, danger! An alarm bell seemed to ring inside of her, and she reacted too quickly, fumbling for the door handle, tripping her way out of the car, and trotting up the walk to the house.

Cowardly, maybe. But she had to get away from the growing feeling that this time, she had met a good man.

And he was off-limits.

Inside, she almost ran into Lynn, who reached out her hands to steady Stella. “Whoa, hey,” her sister said, half-laughing. “Everything okay?”

Stella started to give her an airy, Oh yes, fine—but fresh from the conversation with Nate, she made herself take a deep breath and say, “Todd was waiting in the parking lot at work. It...it freaked me out a little.”

Lynn’s eyes went wide. “Oh, no—is everything okay?” Her eyes shifted to a spot behind Stella’s shoulder, and she turned to see Nate coming into the house after her.

“Nothing physical happened,” Nate assured Lynn. “Just a lot of words.”

Lynn looked back to Stella. “What’d he say?” Her voice was fierce.

“Just...a lot of stupid stuff.” Stella didn’t want to go over it all again. Hearing it once was bad enough. “It sucks.” Her voice was small.

Lynn pulled her into a hug. Stella felt her eyes go wide—this was the second time in two days. Lynn had never been a touchy-feely person. Stella was the total opposite, and she could remember being a little kid, clinging onto Lynn with both hands while Lynn protested and tried to escape.

Well, no escaping here. Lynn held her close, her solid strength seeming to rejuvenate Stella somehow, give her more air to breathe and more warmth to sustain her.

After what felt like a long, long time, Lynn pulled back and smiled at her. “Ken and I thought we might shift and go for a run,” she said. “Do you want to come along?” Her eyes flickered back beyond Stella’s shoulder again. “If that’s all right.”

“I’ve got no reason to think it wouldn’t be,” Nate said comfortably.

Stella thought about getting out into the clean, crisp air of the mountains, running together with her family. “That sounds wonderful,” she said, heartfelt. “Is Eva home? Maybe she wants to go, too.”

“She’s upstairs,” Lynn confirmed.

Eva, it turned it, did actually want to go, which Stella considered a minor miracle. It was great to see her looking up from her technology more often; Stella had gotten so used to having to surgically remove her from her phone.

But now, she thought about it for a second, and then asked, “Is Nate coming along?”

“Yep,” Stella said, and then a thought occurred to her. “I guess he’ll shift, too, so we’ll get to see what kind of shifter he is.”

Eva grinned. “Sure, I’ll come.”

So they all gathered in the backyard. Ken and Lynn were already shifted, the lion and the lynx together. Nate tossed Stella a grin, and then his eyes got that faraway look that Stella sometimes saw in other shifters right before they changed.

Then he shivered and blurred, and there in the place where he’d been was a panther.

A panther. Stella had never seen one in person before—never met anyone who’d even known a panther shifter.

His fur was so black it took on a blue sheen in the sunlight. Muscles rippled over his form as he padded over to her, one ear twitching as a bird took off from a nearby tree. Stella’s breath caught at the compact strength in his movements. It was clear to her that at any moment, if a threat appeared, Nate could be at its throat, and it would stand absolutely no chance.

She reached out before she realized what she was doing. It wasn’t polite, wasn’t good shifter manners, not while he was shifted and she was still human. But she couldn’t seem to stop herself from trying to touch.

And he responded, padding over to her, and leaning into her touch. She slid her fingers through his fur, feeling the warmth and coiled power beneath her hand.

This was what was protecting her. This creature of grace and strength. His claws flexed as she rubbed his neck, and she shivered.

Then she pulled her hand back, concentrated for a second, and shifted as well.

In her lynx’s body, Nate’s form suddenly seemed huge. Lynxes were among the smaller big cats—Lynn had always had a larger, more powerful shifted form, but Stella was on the average side. She wasn’t anything to compare to a panther.

As they started out—Stella keeping a habitual eye on Eva, although Eva didn’t need anyone’s supervision at this point—Nate hung back, keeping up the rear while Ken and Lynn led the way. Stella and Eva were between everyone, in the center of the group. Protected.

It was nice. Although at last, Stella could feel that old contrary independence asserting itself: she wanted to break free and run unencumbered through the forest, leaping without any concern from rock to tree to ledge.

With some effort, she stuffed the instinct back down. It wasn’t a hardship to run with this group, after all. Her family.

And once they got further away from the house, into the mountains where Todd would have no reason to be, she’d be free to do whatever she wanted to do.

For now, she trotted along at Eva’s side and tried to keep from glancing back at Nate every five minutes.

She just wanted to see. He moved with such a sense of restraint. It was different from Ken, the lion, who ambled along with the smaller cats as though he was just pleased to be keeping an easy, lazy pace. Nate was...measured. Purposeful. Like he was waiting for the moment when he’d explode into motion.

Stella didn’t want to miss it.

Slowly, they moved further into the mountains. After a little while, Eva picked up the pace, running forward impatiently to take a spot alongside Ken and Lynn. Ken gave her a grin, lazy, with his tongue hanging out, and ran ahead, leaving Eva to chase after him.

Stella took that as a cue. She glanced back at Nate, who was watching the impromptu game of tag, and twitched an ear.

His attention was immediately on her. She held his gaze for one long, deliberate moment—and then darted away.

He was after her immediately. She’d been right—he was a whirlwind of motion, blowing past her in a blue-black blur, landing hard and solid right in front of her.

Stella hung a right at the last second and leapt for a tree. A small one, one that could easily take a lynx’s weight but might bend under a panther’s. She scrambled up, ran out on a small branch, and crouched to spring across to the next tree, catching the trunk in her claws.

Fun! her lynx exulted. It’s been so long since we’ve run like this!

It was true. Stella had been coming out to watch the dawn in Glacier park several times a week for months. But it wasn’t like this. She’d go out as a human, with her sketchbook, and draw the trees and rocks. Or she’d shift and trot up to a good viewpoint, slow and steady.

And she always went alone.

This was something else.

She leapt from tree to tree until she was far away from the first one—maybe too far? She probably shouldn’t separate herself too much; people might worry.

Guiltily, she paused in the branches of a big pine and started eyeing the descent. Down to that branch, and then that one, and finally that one, and now she was jumping distance from the ground—

And a shadow detached itself from a bush and came up to the trunk, sitting on his haunches with, Stella was certain, a self-satisfied expression on his face.

Laughing to herself, Stella leapt to the ground. He’d kept up with her the whole way. She always lost other shifters like that. She was small and agile enough to just disappear into the upper reaches of the trees, leaving wolves, bears, and smaller shifters behind.

But not this man.

She settled on her haunches as he approached her, wondering what he’d do. He sat down in front of her and lifted a paw. Gravely, he touched it to her shoulder.

Tag, Stella thought.

And then suddenly he was gone.

Stella gave chase immediately. Her lynx growled in her chest, and she could feel the blood rushing in her veins, her breath coming fast, her paws thumping on the forest floor. Where was he?

She couldn't see him—he vanished into the shadows of the underbrush like he didn't exist at all—but she'd caught his scent. It was an earthy, seductive smell, something that suggested faraway forests and masculine energy. She inhaled and followed it.

Finally, she caught a flash of blackness against a patch of sunlight, and ran flat-out to catch it. He was gone by the time she got to the clearing where she'd seen him, but the scent lingered, and she raced along the path it marked.

There—scaling a ledge, straight up a rock face like it was a set of stairs. Stella dashed forward and leapt with all of her strength, catching the ledge with her claws and leaping again to land right beside him.

Gotcha, she thought with satisfaction. She didn't want to spare a paw from holding onto the rock face, so she leaned in and touched her nose to his shoulder. Tag, she thought, inhaling some more of that overwhelming scent.

He turned to face her, his eyes flickering over her body—checking see if she was all right? After a second, though, he kept going up, then paused and looked at her.

Clearly, she was meant to follow.

She scaled the rock after him. Not quite as fast, with her smaller limbs, but steady. Every few seconds he’d look back, and he slowed down after a bit to let her catch up.

When they both hauled themselves over the cliff edge, he flopped down in a patch of sunlight. It looked like tag was over, which was fine with Stella, because she was starting to get a little tired. She didn’t run like this every day.

Stella curled up next to him, enjoying the endless flexibility of her lynx’s body. Her eyes drifted closed. She was completely safe here—from Todd, from predators, from curious hikers, from anyone. Nate was right next to her, and she had no doubt that he’d see any threat miles before it actually arrived.

She could feel the body heat rising from his fur. That gorgeous scent curled around her, and she breathed in deep and closed her eyes.

***

Nate

Nate stayed absolutely still as Stella’s breathing evened out. He didn’t want to move and risk waking her. Not when he was fairly certain she’d had a sleepless night last night—and it probably wasn’t the only one in the last month.

When he was sure she was truly asleep, he stretched and turned to look at her, curled into a little ball next to him. He wanted to nose at her fur, wash her tufted ears, soothe her sleep, but he refrained.

Why not? his panther wanted to know. She smells so good.

And she did, but that was no excuse. He was on guard, and he was sure she’d been so quick to fall asleep because she knew he was there.

And that wasn’t even considering the fact that they had a professional relationship, and people in professional relationships didn’t wash each other’s ears. Even shifters.

Could this—this animalistic draw that he felt for Stella just be because they were both shifters? He hardly ever dated shifter women.

But it wasn’t like he never saw them. And he usually steered clear of them, in fact. He never wanted the woman—or Nate’s panther—to get the wrong idea and think that he was looking for a pack. Or a mate. Every so often, one of them would have an intriguing scent, but it was never something he had trouble ignoring.

But Stella...

This was a whole new side of her that he was seeing, out here. Not the honest vulnerability of their conversations, and not the carefully airy mask she projected around other people.

No, this was the person Nate suspected was underneath all of that. The person Stella meant when she talked about how she loved her freedom and scorned regrets. The person who could run wild through the mountains without a thought to anything but which tree she’d leap to next.

Her shifter form wasn’t anything he’d expected, either. He remembered first meeting her, and thinking that she was like a bird, all delicate and graceful, alighting on a seat as though it was a perch.

But the lynx fit her, too. Small and wild, able to get up to the tallest tree branch, scale the sheerest wall. Vulnerable, but not helpless. And beautiful—that tawny fur, those topaz eyes, the way she’d slipped through the tree branches like she was walking on solid ground.

He smiled inwardly, thinking of their game of tag. It had been a long, long time since he’d played like that. If he ever had. The rough-and-tumble games with his buddies back when he was a young Marine had been very different from this. He hadn’t been able to do more than softly touch his paw to her fur—and then he’d gotten that cool, delicate bump of her nose against his shoulder in return.

He’d have been able to catch her quick if he hadn’t been a bit concerned about bowing some of the smaller trees under his greater weight—he hadn’t wanted to accidentally knock her to the ground. But chasing her had been fun, and he’d almost regretting ending it.

But then running from her, knowing that she was behind him...he’d left himself vulnerable in ways that he wouldn’t have in any kind of serious pursuit, because, well, he’d wanted her to catch him.

And she had.

Nate watched her sleep for a while, overcome by a sort of fierce tenderness, a deep but vulnerable protective instinct that he’d never felt before. Inside his chest, his panther purred.

Eventually, Stella blinked and yawned. It was unbearably cute, like one of the kitten pictures from the Internet that Connie was always sending him.

Nate stretched, resisted the urge to nuzzle her awake—seriously, what was wrong with him?—and shifted to human.

Stella shook herself, licked a paw, and focused on him. After a long look from those bright topaz eyes, she blurred and shifted as well. “Mmm,” she said. “Sorry for falling asleep.”

Nate tried to conceal how much that low, satisfied, post-nap noise had affected him. “Don’t apologize. You must have been tired.”

Stella nodded, yawning. “I haven’t been sleeping too well.” She rubbed her eyes. “Should we get back?”

“If you want.”

Stella was looking out at the view from their little ledge. “Maybe in a few minutes,” she said finally. “Ken and Lynn will keep an eye on Eva. Not that she needs it.”

“She seems like a responsible kid.”

Stella nodded. “She’s more responsible than I am. She takes after Lynn more than me, I think—although Lynn was never into technology like Eva is. But the way she plans things, makes sure nothing’s going to go wrong before she makes a move...that’s Aunt Lynn through and through.”

“Must be nice not to have to worry about her,” Nate said tentatively.

Stella nodded slowly. “Yes, although—I don’t worry about her running wild, getting arrested or getting pregnant or into drugs or anything like that. But I worry sometimes that she’s too responsible. And that maybe it’s my fault, for not taking on that responsibility myself when she was little.”

“You don’t know that for sure,” Nate protested.

Stella sighed. “You didn’t know me when I was younger. I haven’t always been the greatest mom. Sometimes I feel like I’ve spent my entire life—so, her entire life—searching for a purpose. The right way to go.” She smiled a little, but there was a tinge of regret to it, too. “Eva had to get really good at being my navigator, because I was always the one who’d say, ‘This looks pretty, let’s take this turn and see where it goes!’ And then we were lost, but Eva would always study the map and get us back on track. Too much responsibility to put on your kid, I think.”

“Sounds like you make a good team, though,” Nate offered.

Stella smiled, and he could see the love for her daughter shining through. “We really do. She grounds me, makes me remember to plan for what’s ahead, and I’m always trying to lighten her up, make sure she enjoys the moment. When she’s doing exams, she stresses out so much, I always do something to make her laugh. Silly hats, or little notes with jokes on them, or one-minute dance party breaks.”

“One-minute dance party breaks?” Nate asked, laughing.

Stella nodded, keeping a serious face. “Dance parties are very important.” Then the smile broke through. “You can’t neglect your important dance party duties.”

“Of course not.” Nate played along. “Don’t want to offend the gods of the dance party.”

She laughed, bright and sparkling. “That’s good! Next exam period maybe I’ll make a little altar for the dance party gods.”

Nate shook his head, smiling. “Sounds like you’re a good mom. I wouldn’t worry.”

Stella grimaced. “I hope so. And then next year she’s going to go to college, and I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“She’s planning on college? Good for her,” Nate approved.

“Yeah, although—well, I guess I do know what I’ll do next year, which is work my butt off to make enough money to pay for it. Part of it. As much of it as I can. It’s the least I can do, after dragging her all over the state for her whole childhood.”

“Sounds like an adventure to me,” Nate said. “And no mom who’s planning to devote her life to earning money for her kid’s education should call herself a bad mother.”

Stella smiled at him. “That’s sweet. I guess...we all do our best.”

“Angels can’t do better,” Nate said automatically, and then paused.

Stella raised her eyebrows.

“That was my mother speaking through my mouth,” he muttered. “I don’t know where that came from. I haven’t thought of it in years.”

Stella smiled softly. “It’s a beautiful thought. Your mother must be a wise woman.”

“She was,” he said quietly. “She passed away when I was in high school.”

“What was she like?”

“Kind,” Nate said. “Very religious—church twice a week, she taught Sunday School, the whole nine yards. One of those people who just wanted to serve others.”

Stella nodded. “She sounds like a lot to live up to.”

“She’s the reason I joined the Marines,” Nate confided. “I thought—well, I thought that that was the best way for a man to serve. My horizons have expanded a little bit since then, but I’m still glad I did it.”

Stella bit her lip. “I’ve never been an advocate of violence,” she said quietly, “but I can see where the idea of sacrifice could make it...worthy.”

Nate nodded. “These days, I’m not such a fan of violence either. I work security in part to keep violence from happening, if possible. Any day I can prevent someone from getting hurt is a good day.”

“That is a worthy goal,” Stella said, heartfelt. She stood up, brushing herself off. “All this talk about my daughter is making want to get back to her. Are you ready?”

“Of course.” Nate thought he should point out that that was his question to ask, since he was here to follow her around and make sure she was safe, but he refrained. It felt like he’d be throwing a courtesy back in her face if he objected.

And he didn’t want to do anything that might hurt her feelings.

She shivered and shifted, and he followed suit, thinking that he was getting in deeper and deeper with this woman. The way she cared about her daughter...the way she tried so hard to meld her own flighty, adventurous nature with the need to be a responsible and caring mother. It tugged at something in his chest.

They ran in the general direction of their starting point. Nate kept his pace measured, so Stella could keep up, but was amused to see Stella’s character coming through even now—every few minutes, she’d veer off, and he’d see her checking out an interesting smell, an obstacle course of rocky outcroppings, a field of flowers.

He could absolutely believe that she’d gotten hopelessly lost in search of a beautiful view. He wondered what that was like, the ability to just throw oneself headlong into the moment. Chase after the thing that was the most beautiful, and enjoy the journey even if you didn’t get there.

Nate had always been too conscious of his duty to live his life like that. Although, he supposed, he’d indulged that side of himself in his dating life. Live in the moment and enjoy what’s beautiful really did apply to how he approached women.

Maybe it was time to expand that mindset to other things. Because it never would’ve occurred to him to go check out those rocks for anything other than security purposes, but he sure as hell enjoyed following Stella as she leapt from one to the other, her stubby tail upright with excitement and her ears twitching with glee.

Eventually, they caught the others’ scents, and Stella sped up, leading the way back. They found Ken and Lynn still lion and lynx, sunning themselves on a rock while Eva worked herself steadily up a series of rocky ledges.

Stella bounded after her daughter while Nate went to join Ken and his mate on the rocks. They lounged in companionable silence for a while, watching as Stella caught up with Eva, tagged her with her nose, and instigated another game of chase.

Nate reflected that if he hadn’t been working security for Stella, this would’ve been a disconcertingly domestic scene. Mom and daughter play while Aunt Lynn and Uncle Ken and...whoever Nate would be in this scenario...watch by the sidelines, everyone spending a summer day out in the wilderness together.

It was a strange idea. He tried to remember the last time he’d felt like he was part of any kind of family scene, and drew a blank. At work, he was always professional. He didn’t date seriously enough to ever meet a woman’s kids, if she had any. Some of his employees had children, and they’d bring them to any company barbecue and let them run around, but they were his employees, and he wasn’t Uncle Nate to any of their kids or anything like that.

Frankly, most of his employees seemed to be intimidated by him, at least a bit. Except Connie, which was pretty funny when he thought about it, because Connie was the only one who didn’t have a background in the military or law enforcement or some other kind of tough-stereotype field. But Connie took no shit from anyone.

Eventually, Eva seemed to get tired of running around. She shifted back, laughing and shaking her head, and went to go flop on the sunny rocks with the rest of them.

Stella, on the other hand, came darting in to tag Lynn. Lynn eyed her, and then leapt up in a burst of motion to race after her. Ken opened one eye, and then went back to snoozing, his big lion form spread out over twice his fair share of space.

Nate shifted back to keep Eva company. “Have fun chasing your mom?”

Eva rolled her eyes. “It’s like she never runs out of energy. I don’t get it. She’ll sit down for, like, four seconds, and then something shiny passes by the window, and she’s hopping up to check it out.”

Nate thought of the tired, drawn woman he’d met, and the determined way she’d squared her shoulders to face her ex-boyfriend, and his heart ached. He wanted Stella to have that back. “Sounds like life with her is never dull.”

Eva shook her head emphatically. “Nope, not for a second. You know I’ve lived in literally twenty different places in my life? That’s more than my age.”

“Was it hard?” Nate asked cautiously, thinking of Stella’s worries about not giving Eva a good childhood.

Eva considered. “I mean, sometimes. Hard to make friends. But most of the towns we lived in were so small that there weren’t any other nerds to be friends with, anyway.”

Nate had to smile at the way she unselfconsciously called herself a nerd. “Sounds rough.”

Eva nodded. “I think if we’d stayed in one place too long, it would’ve been hard in a different way. There were some schools that were so full of airhead jerks...I have no idea how I would’ve survived years and years with them. And I have plenty of Internet friends, and it doesn’t matter where I live for that.”

“Internet...friends.” Nate wondered if he should be concerned about that.

Of course, Eva wasn’t his daughter, so it wasn’t his place to be concerned. But...still.

Eva nodded vigorously. “Oh, yeah. Like, Doctor Who fandom? It’s huge. I have online watch parties with a couple of people every week, and there’s all these great people on Tumblr who do fanart and fanfiction and have all these cool creative ideas...”

“I don’t know what half of those words mean,” Nate said, half-laughing. “Fanart? Fanfiction?”

“Where you write stories about characters in books or movies or TV shows that you like,” Eva said earnestly. “Or draw pictures or comics about them. Like, what if these sci-fi characters all worked at a coffee shop? Or what if characters from one show met the characters from a different show?”

Well, that wasn’t the sort of thing he’d been concerned about at all. “These are people your age who do all this?” he tried.

Eva rolled her eyes. “What, you think the Internet is full of creepy old guys? I mean—it is, I guess, but this isn’t the nineties. There’s plenty of Internet for everyone.”

She said the nineties as though it was basically the Bronze Age. Nate had to admit that the Internet wasn’t really his area of expertise. He had a couple of computer security guys working for him, and they handled anything virtual.

And Eva seemed like a smart kid, with plenty of self-assurance. He’d trust her to know what she was talking about.

Not that it was any of his business. Because Eva was Stella’s daughter, not his.

Right.

***

Stella

The run did a lot to make Stella feel better. The run, and the nap...and that conversation with Nate. He was so—so unlike any guy she’d ever known. Strong and kind, in a way that she hadn’t known could go together.

She’d always had the impression that either a guy was manly and strong, which meant that he was kind of a jerk sometimes, or he was sweet and kind, which meant that he was also sort of a wuss.

So even though Nate was only here for a little while, and he was going to go on back to run his security company and travel the world protecting people, she could still be grateful he’d been here at all, to teach her that.

Because a new resolve was rising in her: Stella wasn’t going to date any more jerks. Or any more wusses, because often they turned out to be jerks in their own way. Their own, whiny way.

Nope. The next boyfriend she had was going to have real strength of character. And if she didn’t meet any guys like that, well, she wasn’t going to have any more boyfriends.

It was funny. Once upon a time, that idea would’ve thrown her into a panic. But now...it made her sad, but she wasn’t freaking out at the thought of missing out on the finest men the state of Montana had to offer. Those fish could stay in the sea, because Stella had more important things to worry about right here at home.

And Nate was making her question the whole idea of what a boyfriend was for, anyway, so she might as well stay single until she figured it out.

Or just get with Nate.

Stella shook that thought off impatiently. Sure, he was strong, thoughtful, kind, smart, interesting, and so hot she felt like she should warn passing kids not to get too close in case they burned their fingers—but—

But he was working. This was all a job for him, nothing more. And when he was done, he’d go back home, and Stella didn’t need to embarrass them both by hurling herself at him, crying, Take me with you! when he left.

Besides, she needed to stay here, at her job, and keep working to get money for Eva to go to college.

You always do this, she told herself severely. You fall for any handsome man who crosses your path. Don’t do it again, not with this man. He’s too good for your serial monogamy.

She pushed down the inner voice that was shouting, But this is different! She knew herself better than that.

And you can shut up, too, she added to her lynx, who was growling objections deep in her chest.

***

That night, Stella managed to fall asleep fairly quickly. All that running around had been good for more than just fun.

She dreamed about Todd coming to the house. He was a bird shifter, somehow, and showed up at the window, pecking and pecking, and Stella somehow couldn't stop herself from standing up and going to let him in.

Once she did, though, he transformed into a man again, and she realized what she'd done and had to run away. She ran through the house, looking for Nate, but the house had turned into this crazy funhouse mansion, and she dashed from room to room but never seemed to get anywhere. She knew Nate was there, downstairs in the front room, sleeping on the couch, and all she had to do was go find him—but every time she went through a door, it just led to more rooms, and she couldn't find the stairs. And Todd was behind her the whole time, gaining and gaining—

She woke up with a gasp.

Her heart was pounding in her chest, and her breaths rasped in her ears. Fear pulsed through her, making her tremble.

It was just a dream.

Just a dream. But she couldn't make herself lie down again. The window seemed sinister, like an open door out into the night. The house seemed to stretch infinitely around her.

She'd just go get a glass of water. Remind herself that the stairs were exactly where she’d left them, and the house was a familiar haven, not a terrifying maze.

Stella got up, padding silently out into the hall in her tank top and pajama pants. Her feet remembered all the creaky boards, and she slipped down the stairs without making a noise. Every step reassured her: this was the house where she'd grown up, and nothing and no one was in here except for the people who were welcome.

She got to the kitchen and took out a glass, and was about to fill it up when she felt...something. A warmth somewhere behind her.

She turned around, and Nate was standing in the doorway.

Stella didn't jump, didn't feel startled. She'd known he'd be there. And seeing him washed the last of the nightmare away.

“Hi,” she said. “Did I wake you? I'm sorry.”

“Not a problem,” he said easily. “It's my job to know when people are moving around at night. And you were very quiet.”

“Well,” she said, and then stopped. She didn't want him to leave, but it wouldn't be very nice to keep him standing here at—she checked the microwave—two-thirty-three in the morning. “Nothing's wrong. No need for rescuing or anything. You can go back to sleep.”

He hesitated in the door, fingers tapping the frame, looking at her with those penetrating eyes. It was dim in the kitchen, so she shouldn't have been able to see their color at all, but somehow there was still a flash of blue visible.

“Are you all right?” he asked finally.

Stella looked away. Filled up the water glass. “Why do you ask?”

He was quiet for long enough that she looked back. He had a strange expression on his face, faraway and thoughtful. “I don't know,” he said. “You seem...unsettled. Did something happen?”

Well, this was embarrassing. Stella thought about lying, or just putting him off somehow, but that blue gaze didn’t want to let her.

So she admitted, a little shamefaced, “Nothing really happened. I had a nightmare, that’s all.”

She wasn’t expecting him to make fun of her for it—unlike some of her exes, Nate was way too classy and kind to do something like that—but she’d thought that he would relax. Like, oh, good, there’s nothing actually wrong.

Instead, his brow furrowed with concern and he took a couple of steps forward. “A nightmare? Are you okay?”

“I—I’m fine.” Stella stumbled over her answer in surprise. “You know. It wasn’t real. Everything’s fine, everyone’s safe.”

His face softened, and he took another step. “Was it Todd?”

Stella hesitated, and then nodded. “He got in—I let him in—and then he was chasing me, and I was looking for you, but the house was enormous and I couldn’t get to the stairs.” She let out a little self-deprecating laugh. “You know. Standard nightmare fare. It’s not that big a deal.”

But he looked troubled. “It’s not right that you don’t feel safe in your own house,” he said. “You know, most of my clients are companies. I’m usually keeping someone’s place of work safe. Often from corporate espionage, or plain old theft. And there’s usually a lot of money involved, which makes it seem more important than it really is. But this—Stella, you being afraid of your home being invaded by a man who should have cared for you—this is a big deal.”

Stella bit her lip, swallowing back the sudden tears that were threatening. Why were his words touching her so deeply? Like they reached into her chest and caught some heavy sadness that had been in there for so long she’d forgotten it was there.

“I think,” she said on a quiet breath, “I think I’m—tired of not being safe.”

The words felt like they were ripping something away. This was a secret that had been building inside her for a long, long time.

“I always wanted adventure. I still do. I’ve never wanted a boring life. Lynn...Lynn would be content to live in this house for the rest of her days, tramping through the Park with tourists, seeing the same people in town. Eating out at Oliver’s. That’s never been my dream.”

She blinked hard. “But I think the price is too high! I don’t have much money. When I was twenty, I was happy to hop a Greyhound and see where it took me, to go off with a boy who had a nice smile and see what we could find together. But the other side of that is—you end up in a city you don’t know, with no job. The boy could hurt you, or lie to you. Or get you pregnant and abandon you the second he finds out.”

At that, Nate came forward the last long strides, so quickly she almost didn’t process what was happening until he’d pulled her into an embrace.

Stella melted. Any resolve she’d had to stay away from this man disappeared instantly, and she pressed herself against his long, lean body and let herself be wrapped up in his warm, strong arms.

His hands clenched tight at her back, and Stella relaxed into his grip, knowing deep in her soul that this was safety, right here. Her lynx purred.

A second later, it was all snatched away.

Nate let her go just as quickly as he’d grabbed hold of her, almost stumbling as he backed several steps away. His blue eyes were wide and wild. “I apologize.” His words were sharp, staccato. “That was the most unprofessional—I shouldn’t have touched you without your permission. I won’t do it again.”

Stella felt cold. Her thoughts were slow, crawling into her head after the internal cry of No, don’t go! faded into the background. She wanted to protest, to tell him that it was completely fine, that he shouldn’t be apologizing.

But he was right. It was unprofessional. And he’d been operating out of sympathy, it was clear. He felt sorry for her—he’d been giving her a comforting hug.

And she’d latched onto him like he was her last hope of heaven. He’d probably pulled back once he realized how she’d plastered her entire body to his, like they were lovers instead of a—a security professional and a client.

So she didn’t ask him to please just do that again. Instead, she mustered up every ounce of self-control she had, and said, “It’s all right,” in a steady, even voice. “Thank you. I was just a little...overwhelmed.”

“No, I think that was me,” he said wryly, and Stella thought, wait, what?

But he kept going before she could really process what that might mean. “Do you want to come sit with me in the front room? Until you’re ready to go back to sleep, anyway. It might make you feel safer.”

Stella leapt on the chance to keep talking, to stay near this warm, comforting presence, instead of going up to her cold, sweat-damp sheets. “That would be lovely. Oh, but you must want to go back to sleep yourself. Sorry, I can’t be that selfish.”

Nate shook his head. “No, no. Now that I’m up, I’ll be up for a while. Can’t help it. You’d be keeping me company.”

Well, in that case...”All right. I’ll make tea.”

His teeth flashed in a grin. “Sounds wonderful.”

She hadn’t expected him to want any. Most men she knew disdained tea as an old lady drink. Maybe he was just being polite. “Or something else? A beer?”

But he shook his head, still smiling. “I like tea. It’s soothing. Reminds me of my mom.”

His mom the church lady. There would have been a lot of tea in his house, growing up, if Stella knew her church ladies.

Stella went and started the water boiling, looked through the cabinets for the chamomile.

“I remember my grandmother doing this, when I was young,” she said, not knowing where the impulse to speak had come from. “Everything's in exactly the same place as it was then.”

“Your sister kept everything as it was, then?” Nate asked.

Stella smiled to herself. “Almost everything. Lynn likes things to be predictable, and she likes tradition. And she loved our grandmother so much. Her bedroom's still untouched, upstairs.”

“It must have been hard when she died,” Nate said, halfway to a question.

Stella nodded. “Harder for Lynn. We were both sad—she was the only real parent we had, growing up. Our dad left, and our mom died when I was a baby, so. And I grieved. It felt like the foundation of the world had been taken away. But for Lynn, it was almost like her entire world was gone. She wasn't sure what to do, without Grandmother around.” She smiled a little. “But I knew what to do. Grandmother wanted us to be happy. She wanted me to adventure—to be safe, but to experience the world. And so I did.”

The water was starting to boil, and Stella took the kettle off the heat before it could start to whistle and wake up the whole house. She poured tea into the two mugs, and held one out to Nate.

He took it—Stella was startled to see how small it looked in his big hand—and led the way back to the front room, turned on the light. Drew the curtains, so that no one would be able to look in and see them.

He paused at the couch, made up with its blankets and pillows, and then sat down decisively. Stella considered taking a chair for about half a second before she sat down next to him.

The blankets made the couch, an old and somewhat ornate piece of furniture, cozier than she'd ever thought of it before. The cheerful yellow lamplight, the steaming hot tea in her hands, and the presence of Nate next to her, warm and alive, all worked to dispel any lingering chill from the nightmare. Stella relaxed into the couch and smiled.

“So what adventure would you go on next?” Nate asked, settling himself into the opposite side. “If practicalities were no object at all.”

“Oh,” Stella sighed. “If I didn't have to worry about money, if Eva could take time off school and just come with me? I'd travel the world.”

A smile spread over Nate's face. “Anywhere in specific?”

“Everywhere!” Stella said, grinning. “The only foreign country I've ever been to is Canada, and that's right next door to Glacier. I'd love to see—oh, anything. Singapore, Dubai, Peru, Vienna. Morocco. New Zealand. Moscow. Thailand. The Great Wall of China. All of it.” And draw it all. She had books and books full of Montana mountains, and nothing else. She wanted to go somewhere where she didn’t even know what colors to use to paint the landscape.

“That's a tall order,” Nate said seriously.

“Oh, I know. I don't think it'll happen anytime soon. But maybe someday. After Eva's out of college.”

“Does she know where she's going to go?”

Stella sighed again, but this time it wasn't the blissful sigh of imagination. It was reality sinking back in. “Right now her dream is MIT. And she's so smart, I'm sure she'll get in. But I don't even want to think about how expensive it'll be. I can't afford something like that.”

“She could probably get loans,” Nate said tentatively.

“It would still be the same amount of money to pay off,” Stella said. “I—I work as a waitress. I can't make anything like that.”

“If she graduates from MIT, I bet she could get a job that paid well enough to take care of it on her own,” Nate pointed out.

Stella clutched her tea. “But—I'm her mom. I'm supposed to be able to do it. I want to do it.”

“Well, maybe she'll get a full tuition scholarship and you won't have to worry about it at all,” Nate said.

Stella laughed. “I hope so. If anyone deserves it, it's her. And I don't ever want to tell her that no, she has to go to a little, cheap school because that's all her mom can afford.” She sighed. “She deserves better. Even if it's going to take her thousands of miles away.”

“Do you have more adventures planned for when she's gone?” Nate asked, sipping his tea, blue eyes crinkling over the top of the mug. “Right now, it seems like you're holding off for her sake.”

Stella shook her head. “No, I'm going to be working my butt off for tuition money, remember? I can do that for four years. God forbid she decides to go to graduate school, though.”

Nate shook his head. “Stella, I can't believe you'd ever think you aren't a good enough mom. Sitting here, it seems like all you care about is that Eva be happy.”

“That's the first thing I care about,” Stella corrected. “There are other things. Just...that one's first.”

“You're making me wish I had children,” Nate said quietly. “I don't know what it's like to care about another person in such an—all-consuming way.” He smiled a little. “Although I don't know how well I'd handle the crying and hand-holding and time-outs and so on. I had enough of that sort of thing dealing with Marine recruits.”

He said it so deadpan that Stella didn't realize it was a joke at first. Then she burst out laughing. “Eva's always been a really good kid,” she managed. “I mean, there was some whining and time-outs, because there is for every kid, but she was always really easy. Even now.”

“She's almost the age of a Marine recruit, and I can tell you she's head and shoulders above a lot of eighteen-year-olds I knew, in terms of maturity,” Nate said thoughtfully.

“I don't think she'd make it in the Marines, though,” Stella said. “Too independent.”

Nate was quiet for a long minute, and then he said, “I'm glad. I wouldn't want to think of her putting herself in danger, over there. MIT's a much better choice.”

Stella's heart was seized with something difficult to describe, at that. Nate being protective of Eva...it was like he'd reached straight into her chest.

Suddenly unable to bear the distance between them, she scooted over on the couch a bit. Just to be a little nearer.

“What about you?” she asked impulsively. “If practicality were no object. What sort of adventure would you go on?”

She’d startled him, she could see. His brows came together, and he thought about it for a long time.

“Travel sounds pretty good,” he said finally. “I like your answer.”

“But haven’t you been all over the world already?” Stella asked.

“I’m always working when I travel,” Nate said ruefully. “I never go around seeing the sights. I look at everything tactically. A nice building—well, what are the entrance and exit points? What are its vulnerabilities? What would be the safest place to store something valuable, and how would you protect bystanders who lived or worked there? I’m never thinking about the architecture or the history of it.”

“That’s a shame.” Stella was struck by the sadness of it—so many opportunities, so much experience, but it was all in the service of others, and all with the heavy thought of wrongdoing weighing it down. “Maybe you could take a vacation sometime soon, travel somewhere just for fun.”

“Maybe,” Nate said slowly. “I don’t know where I’d go. I’d have to think about it.” He smiled at her. “Maybe I could ask you what you think would be best.”

“Oh, but there’s so many choices! Maybe you could go to Cambodia and see the temples there? Or—what about Machu Picchu? Although if you’re going to see pyramids, really, you should definitely go to Egypt. Although...” Stella trailed off, because Nate was laughing.

“You know, none of those are places you named the first time around?” he asked. “How many exploration destinations do you have floating around in your head?”

“At any given time, it could be different,” she admitted. “When I was bored in school as a kid, I used to read National Geographic inside my textbooks, and think about going to all the fantastic places they talked about.”

Nate’s eyebrows flew up. “National Geographic, huh. Weird kind of rebellion.”

Stella laughed. “I know! Once a teacher caught me and said, Well, at least you’re learning.”

“But you never got out of the country?” Nate asked quietly.

That brought her back down. “I was saving up,” she said. “I’d kicked it all around the US since I was nineteen, hitchhiking and Greyhounding and dating guys who were heading somewhere interesting. I’d settled down and gotten a cashier job, and I was keeping it boring, living with my boyfriend, and saving all my money, because I was—we were—going to backpack down through Mexico into Central America, see how far we could get. But then...”

“Eva,” Nate guessed.

Stella nodded. “Eva. I didn’t figure it out until I was a few months along. And my boyfriend couldn’t handle the news at all. He said he was going on the trip with me or without me, and when I said I wasn’t going to have a baby in the wilds of Peru, he just...left. Quit his job, took everything he thought was valuable, and disappeared.”

The pain and anger had dulled over the years, but it still made her fists clench. “So I was all alone and pregnant, and I had a decision to make. And that was the beginning of putting Eva first. I took all my money that I’d saved, and I moved back home, so Eva could be born with a solid roof over her head and plenty of food and clothes and whatever she needed.”

Nate set his tea aside and reached out. He seemed to have forgotten his aversion to touching from the kitchen, and Stella knew she should probably remind him, so that he didn’t regret any unprofessional contact again...but she couldn’t quite summon the strength. Instead, she reached her hand out, too, and shivered at the slight shock when they touched. He twined his fingers with hers and held on tight. The memory of Eva’s father seemed to fade away until it was almost nothing.

“Once she got old enough to be in school, I started moving around more again,” Stella continued, “because...I had to. I couldn’t stay here any longer. Lynn was a lot more sanctimonious then, and I was surrounded by all the people I’d grown up with, all the guys I’d made dumb decisions with, and I just had to get out. But I never traveled as far as I had when I was young. Mostly I stayed in Montana. It’s beautiful here, and there’s a lot to see.” She shrugged. “But I never had that sense of purpose I’d had when I was younger.”

There’d been a lot of aimless drifting, clutching Eva to her side and wondering what on God’s earth it was that she wanted. That she could have.

Nate's hand tightened on hers. He was so warm, and his hand was rough but his grip was gentle. Stella just wanted to let herself go, fall sideways until she was lying against him, close her eyes and soak him in.

“I can't imagine the sort of bravery that took.” His voice was suffused with emotion.

Stella frowned at him. “You were in the Marines. You went overseas and got shot at. I think you understand bravery.”

He shook his head. “That's a different kind of bravery. Everyone's afraid for their lives, sure...but none of us were alone. We knew the Corps was behind us. We knew our brother Marines were beside us. One thing you never are in the Marines is alone...whether you want to be or not.” His eyes crinkled a little.

Then he sobered. “But there's some things...some things I think that only women can really understand. Being alone and pregnant is one. That takes a sort of bravery that I've never had to muster.”

Stella couldn't help but smile, feeling warmed now by more than his body. “I never thought I'd out-badass a Marine.”

“Believe it,” Nate said with an answering smile. “And you came through. You raised a wonderful girl.”

Stella's smile grew as she thought of her daughter. “That's on her as much as it is on me.”

Nate shook his head, still smiling, and raised their joined hands to his lips. He kissed her knuckles.

Stella shivered.

Nate's eyes caught the movement. She could see his attention snap into focus. His pupils dilated.

The warmth that had filled her body began to turn to heat. Her cheeks flushed, and the muscles in her lower stomach tightened. Could he feel this, too?

Deliberately, he bent his head and kissed her hand again. Softly, but slowly. Stella made a small sound.

Just as deliberately, she disentangled their fingers, and when her hand was free, brushed her thumb over his lower lip.

He inhaled audibly. Stella could see the tension in his body, tight like a wire, all of it focused on her.

Ours, her lynx growled. He's ours. See how he looks at us? See how he wants us?

And finally, Stella had to acknowledge that her lynx was right.

So she leaned forward, her eyes fixed on Nate's. Right before their lips touched, her eyes drifted closed, and when their mouths brushed together, she sighed with desire.

There was a shining, perfect moment when they were both just hovering together, barely touching, feeling each other's body heat. Aware of the potential that hung in the air.

Then Nate caught her in his arms and kissed her hard.

Stella shuddered. His hands were tight on her waist, his mouth hot and demanding. Like he'd been holding himself back so carefully, and now that he'd let go, he couldn't contain himself.

She kissed him back. All hesitance had disappeared as desire came roaring through her body, her lynx wild in her chest, the same thought thudding through them both: Mine, mine, mine.

Forget any belief that she couldn't have him. Any thoughts that he was too good for her, that he had a life far away. Screw that. Stella dug her fingers in, held on, and let any thoughts of the future go. For now, for right now—this man was hers.

They kissed until her breath came short and her fingers were tingling. His tongue slid into her mouth, and she opened for it with a moan. She pushed forward, insistent, until he spread his big hands over her hips and lifted her right into his lap.

And then, oh, she could feel him hardening underneath her. Right between her legs, where she wanted him the most. She kissed him fiercely, biting at his lip while her clit throbbed.

He tore his mouth away and panted for breath, his eyes devouring her. “God,” he said. His voice sounded wrecked already. “God, you’re gorgeous. The things I want to do to you—”

“Do them.” Stella kissed his mouth again. “Do all of them.”

He growled and pulled her close again, fingers biting down. There was something about seeing Nate like this—Nate, who was easygoing and always in control, who was safe and kind and conscientious. Seeing him wild-eyed with desire, overwhelmed with need, for her—

It inflamed her, made her wild in turn. She rocked on his lap, chasing the thrill of sensation that arced through her when her clit rubbed against his erection just right. He groaned and thrust up. She could feel his cock jerk through the thin flannel of his pants.

“Clothes off,” he said into her mouth. “Off now.”

He stripped her tank top up over her head; she had to let go of him to raise her arms and get it off, and she hated every second she wasn’t holding on to him. But then he wanted to lean back and look at her.

She caught her breath, seeing his eyes glaze over as her chest heaved. “You too,” she insisted, pulling at his T-shirt.

He sat forward so she could yank it up and off of him, and then she was caught by the sight of his chest, leanly muscled, with salt-and-pepper chest hair. She spread her palms over his pecs, catching a nipple between two fingers. He made a low noise, and then he was cupping her breasts in his big, rough hands. She closed her eyes.

And then one of his hands trailed down, fingers tracing delicately over her stomach. Stella smiled without opening her eyes, and waited.

The fingers dipped down under the waistband of her pajama pants. The elastic gave him plenty of room, and soon his whole hand was down there. Stella leaned back to give him room—his other hand caught her around the waist, letting her arch her back and lift her hips without being in any danger of falling.

He cupped her mound, massaging lightly through her panties. Stella panted hotly, pushing her hips up into his hand. She was slick with wetness, the fabric of her underwear soaking through as he rubbed her clit through it. “Come on,” she whispered, “come on, come on.”

He groaned and pulled his hand back—Stella gasped in protest at the loss of sensation—and then slid it under the waistband of her panties. And then his fingers were pressing right up against her clit, thank God, right where she needed them. His touch was firm but unpredictable; first here, then there, then somewhere else. Stella wiggled against him, looking for more.

He gave it to her. Sliding his hand down the length of her clit—she let out a moan, then clapped a hand over her mouth, remembering that they weren't alone in the house—he slid one of those long, capable fingers right inside her, while his thumb rubbed circles over the base of her clit. Stella's muscles clenched hard around him, her head thrown back, all of her weight on his other hand, pressed against her lower back. She dragged in air, her mouth open, moving her hips in circles against his hand.

She could feel the orgasm building inside her. “Don't stop, don't stop—”

“I won't stop,” he said, no hesitation. He kept the pressure up, the circling of his thumb, the slow thrust of his finger in and out. At the last moment, Stella opened her eyes.

He was watching her like she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Their eyes locked, and Stella shuddered and came.

Nate kept his hand moving all through her spasms, dragging the orgasm out until her muscles were weakly clenching and shuddering and she wasn't sure if the jerking twitches of sensation were aftershocks or the ramp-up to another climax.

“Okay,” she managed breathlessly, “it's time for pants to come off.”

Nate laughed. “Sounds like a plan.” He pulled his hand away. Stella had to bite her lip to keep from protesting, reminding herself that she'd suggested this.

His whole hand was wet. He glanced up at her, a twinkle in his eye, and then brought it to his mouth. Stella sucked in a quick breath as she watched him lick it clean.

“You taste good,” he said when he was done. His voice was deep with desire.

“Oh. Good.” Her own voice was high and breathy. “Pants,” she reminded them both.

“Right.” He took hold of her hips and lifted her effortlessly off his lap—Stella made a startled noise; she was a generously-curved woman, and while she wasn't insecure about it, she wasn't used to men being strong enough to just toss her around like it was nothing.

He set her down in front of him, keeping his hands on her hips until it was clear that her legs would, in fact, support her. Stella breathed deep and steadied her muscles, then stripped her pants and underwear off, leaving them in a damp heap on the floor.

Then she raised her eyebrows at Nate, who was unapologetically watching her naked body.

He grinned, looking almost boyish for a moment, and then lifted his hips and ditched his own pajama pants. He was commando underneath, and Stella was treated to the sight of a very, very impressive hard-on, flushed with blood and curving up toward her. Her mouth watered.

But before she could decide to drop to her knees right here in front of the couch, Nate was pulling her back onto his lap. He kissed her deeply—tasting salt-sweet with her own flavor, which sent another flush of heat through her body—and settled her right where she wanted to be.

She kissed back, sliding her hips along his length, getting him wet. He groaned, and then muffled the noise in her shoulder, biting down for a long moment. Stella shuddered.

Then he lifted his head and said, “Ready?”

Stella nodded, her breath speeding up. “Five minutes ago.”

He laughed a little, and then lifted her up again. Stella reached down, wanting to feel his cock in her hand. He made a low noise as she positioned him, which turned into a long, sustained groan as she sank slowly down onto him.

“Oh, God,” he said finally. “Oh, that's good. Stella, you're—”

But whatever she was got lost in his indrawn breath as she seated herself fully on him. His head tipped back onto the back of the couch. Stella closed her eyes and let herself adjust to the feeling of him inside her. He was big, and felt bigger like this, pressing so deep. Her inner muscles rippled with pleasure.

Then she started to move. Slowly at first, little shifts of her hips, barely lifting up at all. And then a little faster, his hands clenched against her, rising up a little more. God, he felt good, thick and heavy inside her, touching places that felt like they'd been loveless and aching for years.

As she started really thrusting, he lifted his hips to meet her, coming together in a slick slide, pleasure sparking. Again, and again, his movements tapping her clit each time, making her clench and moan. He moaned with her, kissing along her neck on the downthrust, reaching for her when she lifted again, hauling her back down. Thrusting deep into her, their thighs sliding against each other, sweaty and desperate.

Stella lost the rhythm as the pleasure started to overwhelm her. She ground down against him, loathe to lift up and away, wanting the pressure on her clit and the feeling of his tip so deep inside her. His arms came around her and he bit her ear. “I'm going to flip us,” he murmured. “Ready?”

She nodded desperately. “Yes, yes—”

He came up off the couch entirely, holding her tight and steady against him, and then the world whirled, and she was on her back on the couch cushions, and he was above her. He thrust in hard, deep and true, and Stella bit down on her hand to muffle a shriek.

The pleasure came over her in a wave. It was like nothing she'd ever felt before, as though the climax started in the pit of her stomach, but spread through her entire body, heating a spark inside her chest. It was like Nate's blue eyes, darkened with passion, were looking right into her. Like he was nestling himself inside her forever, instead of just...for now.

Stella reached for him, and he caught her close, moving with her, thrusting into her body, kissing her like he couldn't keep any part of him away from any part of her. She let herself go then, shaking and shuddering against him, pleasure carrying her up to a greater height than she’d ever reached before.

Slowly, slowly, she came back down. Nate was resting against her chest, catching his breath. Stella was struck by the sense that they were still joined—he wasn’t inside her anymore, but somehow it felt like he was.

And it felt good. Strong and safe, a comforting warmth deep within her. Stella watched him breath, his eyes softly closed, and felt a smile spreading helplessly across her face.

Warm and content, she let her own eyes drift shut.

***

Stella woke to the same feeling of contentment she’d felt when she fell asleep.

Hot on its heels was surprise. She hadn’t expected that.

Stella had had a lot of sex in her life. She’d had relationship sex, and breakup sex, and post-fight sex, and just-for-fun sex, and plenty of other kinds. And she knew what ‘bad decision with someone you shouldn’t have slept with’ sex should feel like. In the moment, it was fantastic. Irresistible.

But the next morning, the bad decision came back to haunt you. Always. She should’ve been feeling guilty as hell. After all, Nate had said that it was unprofessional to get close. He’d practically leapt away from her in the kitchen. She should’ve respected that, instead of deliberately cozying up to him on the couch like she had.

But she didn’t feel bad. She didn’t feel guilty at all. Instead, she felt...what was that?

A weird spark of warmth in her chest. A feeling of...completeness. Security. Connection.

Mmmm, her lynx purred. Yes. Finally. We’ve been so long alone, and now we aren’t any longer.

“Oh, shit!”

Stella scrambled out from under Nate, stumbling to her feet and away from the couch. Nate was instantly upright, his eyes going straight to her, no evidence of confusion or sleepiness.

“What is it?” he said tensely, coming towards her, looking her up and down. “What happened?” His eyes darted to the door, the windows. “What’s wrong?”

Stella stared at him. Naked, disheveled, handsome as all get-out, looking at her with protective concern. Wanting to make sure she was all right.

And despite herself, she felt a wave of possessiveness come over her at the sight of him. Like her entire being looked at him and thought, That’s mine.

“We’re mates,” she said faintly.

He blinked at her. Then he flushed red.

Stella took that as confirmation. “Did you know?”

“No!” he said quickly. “Not before. I realized it when we were...together.” He glanced down at the couch, where he’d laid her out and blown her mind just a few hours ago.

Stella tried not to melt a little when hearing this man, who by his own account was extremely experienced with women and dated casually all the time, struggle through using a vague euphemism for sex. And failed.

“I should’ve said something right away,” Nate continued, his posture straightening. “Or at least before we fell asleep. I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay,” Stella said faintly. She remembered the feeling of warm happiness she’d drifted off to sleep with. She hadn’t wanted to disturb it for anything. “I understand.” She looked around the room, as though the next step was waiting for her in a corner somewhere. It wasn’t, of course, so she looked back at Nate, and was startled all over again by his naked, handsome glory. “So what...does this mean? For us?”

“Well,” Nate said slowly, “what do you want it to mean?”

“I don’t know!” Stella could feel the edges of panic starting to move in around the warm feeling in her chest, the old sense of what do I want, I don’t know what I want. “I’ve never had a mate before!”

That made him laugh a little; Stella was struck by the dual feelings of wanting to laugh with him, and wanting to punch him for not taking this seriously.

“Neither have I,” he said. “So I guess we’re making it up as we go along. Unless you want to ask your sister.”

Stella pictured Lynn’s little life, going to work in the Park and then coming home every day to the same house where she’d grown up, settling in with Ken and then getting up the next day to do it all over again. She shuddered. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Okay,” Nate said, calm and measured. “So then we figure it out ourselves.”

“I’m not a we,” Stella said blankly. She’d never been in a forever relationship before. She might’ve thought about it back with Eva’s dad, but that had been so long ago that it had faded into the mists of time and tired, residual anger.

Since then, the only person she’d been really, truly committed to was Eva. She didn’t know how to mold her entire life around another adult’s.

Especially if she wasn’t getting a choice.

“I don’t think I can do this.” Stella backed toward the door, and then remembered that she wasn’t wearing any clothes. She snatched up her pajamas, and quickly got into her pants, her tank top. She saw her panties lying on the floor and grabbed them, stuffing them into her pocket. “I have to go. I can’t—I don’t know—I have to go.”

“Stella—” Nate’s voice echoed after her as she slipped out the door. She thought about running upstairs, but that felt like she’d be trapping herself. It wasn’t like he didn’t know where her room was.

So she stepped out the back door, her feet soaking in the morning dew, and shifted. She’d run like this, somewhere no one could catch her, and she’d figure everything out once she’d gotten away.

***