“Oh…well…” She shouldn’t do this. She should ride her snowmobile right back to her cabin and get back to fixing the damage the Old Tarian did to it the night they’d kidnapped her, maybe drink a beer, watch her favorite Alaska shows, and hit the hay. Early. Because she definitely wouldn’t be lying in bed, thinking about how it felt to have her arms around such a solid, burly man. Rose cleared her throat. “I can’t just leave my snowmobile here. I have responsibilities and—”
“Gray, can you take Rose’s snowmobile back up to the big house when your shift is over?”
Gray nodded and smiled big enough that Rose could see his dimples. Dangit. That was a yes, and when Gray waggled his eyebrows like he knew things about things, Rose traded her smile for a frown. There went her excuse. Now, how was she supposed to keep her heart safe from this…this…ramblin’ man?
Talon was wearing a silly grin as he said, “Don’t worry, Rose. It’s not a date.”
She swallowed a growl and stomped around the security bar that Gray hadn’t lifted yet and directly to the passenger’s side door of the very attractive vehicle. One yank on the door handle, and the driver enlightened her, “It’s locked.” She wanted to claw him. No shit, it was locked. Why was Talon still smiling like that? And Gray. Males were obnoxious. Rose lifted her chin higher and waited. Impatiently. They couldn’t see her foot tapping, but she was sure she was beating a divot in the snow with the toe of her boot.
“Can you let the lady in while I sign the paperwork,” Talon murmured. “I don’t want her getting cold.”
Driver Mc-driverson rolled his eyes and huffed a sigh like a brat teenager and crawled inside, popped the lock on her door, then scampered back out. Smart man. She really did feel about fourteen percent violent all of a sudden.
The car smelled like leather, oil, cleaner, and the piney wood-scented air freshener that hung from the rearview mirror. It was pristine inside. Rose touched the white leather stripe that ran down the driver’s seat and now only felt about five percent violent as her inner lioness looked around Talon’s den. Because that’s what this was, right? He didn’t put down roots, but he took care of his car. This was home for him. This and Emerald. Not a place.
Talon was talking low to the delivery man and Gray, signing some paperwork on a clipboard. She twisted in the seat and read the labels written on the boxes stacked in the back seat.
Kitchen.
Bedroom.
Memories.
Emerald’s Baby Stuff.
A car and four boxes.
“Is this your whole life?” she asked Talon as he slid behind the wheel.
With a frown, he cast the boxes a quick glance and turned the key. The engine roared to life, the seat rumbling under her. Oh, hello.
“It’s the important parts of my life. It made it easy to pack up and go if I didn’t attach to material things.”
“Why did you do this, Talon?”
“Do what?” he asked, reversing the car past the tow truck the delivery man had unloaded the Chevelle from.
“Train yourself to live on the move.”
She didn’t miss the wince on his face as he threw the stick shift into first gear. He was still hurting. With a sigh as he hit the open road, he said, “Because I wanted to keep Mariah and Emerald safe. And being rogue isn’t like what you think, Rose. There’s not free territory out there that isn’t claimed by some Crew or another. If we found some space, after a while, a Crew would move in and push us out or ask us to pledge. Or stalk us. You think the Tarians just let us go free when we ran from here? They’re hunters who don’t let anything or anyone go. They lost the family they could shit on the most when they had a bad day. The ones they could blame for any bad luck. You didn’t have a submissive cub, Rose. And your grandson, Grim, sure as hell wasn’t submissive either. I remember how you were. You and your mate. You were both tough as nails. We ran the night we thought Leon killed Ronin. He called that meeting and said they would be culling the submissives. I was a Tarian long enough to know what that meant, and I wasn’t going to let them kill my daughter. Learning to live on the move? It was the easiest decision in the world. Tonight, I watched my daughter laughing and loving her mate, happy…safe…home. That’s the life I dreamed of for her, but we had to wait for it to all work itself out.”
Rose swallowed hard. “I feel like I should apologize.”
“Apologize?” he asked, casting her a quick frown as he shifted gears.
“I…” Rose blew out a breath and tried again. “I made a snap judgement, but your life was completely different than I imagined. The judgmental old bitty in me thought less of you for running. For roaming. For keeping your mate and Emerald on the move all those years. But you didn’t do it for selfish reasons, did you? You lived a harder life so that Emerald had a chance at surviving. And look what you did. Look where you got her.” Rose relaxed back against the creaking leather seat and looked out the window, smiled at the man in the moon hanging low in the sky in front of them, illuminating the road ahead. “You’re a good man and a good dad. Any wandering habits you picked up in all those years of moving…who am I to judge? Perhaps I should’ve made that same decision for Grim. Perhaps you were the one in the right. Perhaps I should’ve worked harder to save my grandson from being tormented into a monster in the Tarian Pride.” She rolled her head against the seat and smiled at him, crossed her arms over her chest to ward of the cold. “Perhaps standing my ground made me the weak one and running made you the brave one.”
“Hmmm,” Talon murmured. “Or perhaps there was no right or wrong way. Perhaps we just had to make the decisions we thought were best at the time. I heard about your grandson. Sure, the council made the Reaper in him, but he’s head of a Crew now and paired up with a love match. He came here to help Ronin get Emerald back. Him and his Crew. They’re loyal to him, and he has a friend in the Red Dragon, too. He ain’t doin’ too bad, Rose. You did just fine with that one.” His smile in the dim blue moonlight loosened the tight sensation that had constricted her chest. “When you get to our age, there is so much history behind us. So much story. And I don’t know if it’s the same for you, but I can lie awake every night and regret, overthink, and remember. And I have to pull myself back to the here and now because I’m not done yet.” He tossed her a wink. “And you ain’t either. Not even close, ya wildcat.”
Rose snorted and barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes like the delivery driver had done. “Wildcat, huh? I eat boring fiber cereal for breakfast and take about a dozen vitamins and medications every morning. I get a senior citizen discount on movie tickets, and I’m getting arthritis in my hands so I can’t do the things I used to and—”
“And you just went to war and whooped some dominant male lions’ asses.”
Shocked, Rose let her mouth plop open. “How did you…?”
“Oh, I asked around about you.” He changed gears and gunned it on a straightaway.
The squeak that fell from Rose’s lips was mortifying. She left her stomach clear back there on the road somewhere, and Talon wasn’t slowing down. He hit another gear, and Rose clutched the seatbelt, prepared to bellow, “Good lord, let me live!” But right then, Talon let off the gas and the car slowed to a not-so-terrifying speed.
“Wildcats don’t squeak,” she said in a very small voice.
Talon chuckled and slipped his hand from the gearshift to her thigh. He squeezed it once and told her, “It was the cutest damn squeak I’ve ever heard.”
“I’m a cougar,” she blurted out.
Her cheeks felt like they lit on fire, so she pressed her cold palms there to cool the heat.
“Pretty sure you’re a lioness. I saw you Change when I was here before, and unless you’ve been part of some gnarly experiments, I’m pretty sure you can’t switch shifter animals right in the middle of your life.”
“No…I mean…” Oh, God, how did she say this without further embarrassing herself? “You’re young, Talon. And I’m…”
“I swear to God if you say ‘old,’ I’m going to pull this car over and make you walk back.” He said it with a smile in his voice, but she dared a look at his face just to make sure his dark brown eyes were dancing. They were. “How old do you think I am?” he asked her.
“Don’t tell me! I don’t want to know.”
Talon belted out a laugh. “Why not?”
He was teasing her, and enough was enough. She was embarrassed. Embarrassed! She didn’t let men affect her like this. Never. She was above this and much too aloof to encourage his laughing at her.
“Turn here,” she said, pointing at a mailbox. Or what would’ve been a mailbox if the Old Tarian Pride hadn’t run it over with one of their ridiculous SUVs they’d souped up like they were preparing for the damn zombie apocalypse.
Talon slowed and turned onto the gravel driveway. “Is this where you live, or am I just turning around?”
“I’m up the road a ways. I can pick up my snowmobile tomorrow. I’m suddenly tired. You wouldn’t understand because you aren’t old.”