The older man’s expression changed to one of almost sympathy. “You have had unpleasant dealings with it?”
“I heard your son, last night, ask if I was a rogue. I believe it is a term you use to identify a shifter who is...” He sought a word strong enough to capture the meaning.
“Dangerous,” Fridrik supplied.
Javier nodded. “The snow leopard is a rogue.”
Burke got up, poured Javier another cup of coffee and brought a basket of muffins to the table from the counter. “Help yourself.”
Javier accepted the coffee but ignored the muffins.
“Is this snow leopard the reason you travel alone now?” Fridrik asked after Javier had taken a long drink and set his mug on the table.
The caffeine was beginning to work its magic, and the heaviness seemed to ascend from his eyelids.
“Yes,” was all he was willing to say.
The elders looked on him not with sympathy but understanding. He acknowledged their silence with a slight nod. “You have a large family. I did not know that there were such units of shifters. Until two years ago, I thought Juan and I were the only two in the world. My mother died giving birth to Juan and myself, and our fathers were police officers. Both were killed in the line of duty when we were teenagers. I found journals from my grandfathers that charted our family history, and I might have some cousins somewhere, but I was never able to locate them. They are dead for all I know.”
“Our line was all but decimated in Europe,” Burke said. “Two male cousins fled and wound up here during the gold rush. Not until our mate, though, were there more than two children born at a time.
Our wife gave us seven healthy children, and now they have begun to have children of their own.”
“And where is she now?”
“She died a few years ago,” Fridrik said.
Javier closed his eyes against the pain. So fresh, yet so old.
“You have not been able to let her go, yet, have you, son?”
The agony of loss tore at his heart as he shook his head. “How...how do you do that?”
“You realize that you are not the one who is gone from this earth. You must go on living to keep her alive in your memory.”
Javier glanced at the long table, old and scarred yet obviously lovingly polished. Though they’d lost their mate, these men had reasons to go on living. Children, grandchildren. All things Javier would never experience. All of the things Durchenko had stolen from him.
He lowered his casted leg to the floor and reached for the crutches. “If you’ll excuse me, sirs. My strength is still not what it should be.”
“Of course. Answer one question though,” Burke said.
Javier got to his feet and waited, resting on the crutches.
“You say you’re in finance now, but what did you do before?”
“I was in the Mexican Army’s
Both Burke and Fridrik nodded. “Rest. Dinner is served at six. We hope you’ll join us.”
“Thank you,” Javier said, realizing they had accepted him into their home and no longer worried he’d cause harm to them or their family. “Again, I am in your debt.”
Fugly snarled at Heidi when Beth passed the dog off to her so she could grab her purse and grocery bag from the back seat of the Land Rover.
“Oh, hush your fuss,” Heidi admonished, but Fugly kept up with the chest-rumbling grumble. “I can’t believe you brought it home. The guys are never going to let you live this down.”
Beth closed the car door with a bump of her hip. “He’s mine, and that’s that. They don’t like it?
They can leave.”
Like that would ever happen. Heidi followed Beth into the house. “Hi, Dad,” she said to Fridrik who was getting a cup of coffee when they entered the kitchen.
“Hello, ladies.” He peeked into Beth’s grocery bag.
Beth playfully slapped his hand away from a bag of trail mix—Fridrik’s weakness. “I’ll put some in a bowl for you in a minute.”
“What’s that?” Burke came into the room, a scowl on his face as he stared at Fugly.
“That’s my dog,” Beth said, taking Fugly from Heidi’s arm. The dog grew silent as soon as it was away from Heidi. “He’s moving in with us.”
Fridrik made a silly face of disgust. “Why? Looks like bear bait to me.”
“Dad!”
Heidi laughed. “I told you...”
“What’s its name?” Burke held his hand out to the dog to let it scent him.
“Fugly,” Heidi told him. “Kel and Reidar named it.”
“Him, not it,” Beth corrected.
“Name fits.” Fridrik took the dog from Beth. Fugly didn’t seem to have a problem with anyone but Heidi.
“Whatever. I’m going to check on Javier.”
“He came out for a while, had coffee with us,” Burke said.
Heidi stopped in the doorway and turned back, raising an eyebrow. “And he’s still alive, I assume?”
Burke smiled. “He was fine last we saw him.”
With a hidden sigh of relief, Heidi went down the hall to her room. She knocked lightly before opening the door and found Javier doing pushups against the wall, balanced on his good foot.
“I guess you’re feeling better?”
He stopped and turned, his face damp with sweat. Her heart nearly stopped, then seemed to jump right out of her chest. He’d been handsome before. Shaved and wearing clothes that fit him, he was drop-dead gorgeous.
Without a word, he grabbed the crutches and hobbled back to bed. His lips were pressed tight, his jaw clenched.
“You’re hurting,” she said as she took the crutches from him and leaned them against the wall.
“You didn’t take your pills today.” They still sat on the tray with the empty breakfast dishes.
He lifted his leg onto the bed and sagged against the pillows. “They make my mind weak. I do not like them.”
“A body heals better when it rests. Not when it does pushups.”
His scowl was fierce. “I am not used to taking so long to heal.”
“It’s only been a couple of days, Javier. Give yourself time.” She leaned over to check the cast, looking for any sign that his wound was bleeding beneath it.
“Three cracked ribs didn’t take so long.”
She turned her head to look at his face. “When did you have cracked ribs?”
Again he pressed his lips together—this time, it was obvious, to silence himself.
“Why won’t you tell me anything about yourself?” Heidi sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, resting her hand on his strong, unbroken thigh.
Javier sucked in a breath, the muscle beneath her hand tensing. When she glanced down, there was no mistaking the hard-on tenting his shorts. It wasn’t something the man could hide no matter what clothing he wore.
Heidi snatched her hand off him and stood. “I...uh...”
“
