“Ah sheot, not you too.”
Her heart was beating too hard, too fast. The blues and greens became every color of the rainbow with sparkles floating around Ridge. “What do you mean?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder at the stranger.
He pointed at her fingers. “That.”
Belatedly realizing she still didn’t know his name. “What the hell is your name?”
His lips tilted up in a smile that surely had every female this side of Earth melting. “My name is Thaddeus Winchester. Pleased to meet you, Torrance Jackson.” He held his hand out, waiting for her to take it.
She looked from his smiling face to his large palm. If what they say about hand size and dick size were true, then nope, he was not getting his gigantitron penis anywhere near her itty bitty paneeny.
“Why do I smell fear on you?” He inhaled again. “Why are you scared of me? Of all the beings in this world, you’re the safest. I would never hurt you.”
Torrance shook her head. “You have zero clue, buddy.”
“Thadd, my friends call me Thadd. You can call me bahati if you’d like,” he said with a grin.
She heard Ridge grumble, but her focus was on Thadd and his sexy accent. He’d said those words before in his native language but hadn’t elaborated. Now she wondered what that meant. Being the scaredy cat she was, she didn’t ask.
“It means lucky man. Oh, you should tell the one behind me I will not be as nice to him as I was to the first two,” he growled.
This time when he spoke, he flicked his fingers, showing claws that glinted in the sun. Like...metal. She thought of her odd sensation earlier of being watched and the flash of something silver she’d assumed was a hunter’s rifle. Could it have been him? She blinked. Surely her eyes were playing tricks on her. Shifters didn’t have metal claws; that was only in the movies.
“I sent him to get her bike.” Ridge flicked his wrist in the direction her bike had sailed.
The mention of her precious ride reminded her of what she’d done. However, she was a little lost on who or what Ridge was talking about until it clicked. The other shifter who’d been trying to sneak up on the yummy male. All their Crew were leopards except her. Well technically a panther was part of the same grouping as leopards.
“Oh goddess, my LS-218.” Although she didn’t want to think of the damage, she still didn’t make a move toward Miko, the leopard Ridge had sent to retrieve it for him.
“I can’t believe you’re not more worried about that fucking machine than you are. This can only mean one of two things.” Ridge moved closer, lowering his head in alpha mode.
Her fingers twitched by her sides, freezing him in place.
“What the fuck, Tor?” he growled.
She looked at him before turning to stare at the others who’d gathered around them. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
Ridge jerked his upper body but couldn’t move his feet. “Release me,” he ordered.
“I...I don’t know how,” she cried, tears welling in her eyes.
They were standing on the outskirts of town where anyone could see them, even the human residents, yet she’d somehow frozen Ridge and the others where they stood.
A large hand landed on her shoulder, making her jump. “Easy, upendo. All you need to do is calm down and think they are free. Wiggle your fingers and think you want them free, yes?”
She inhaled deeply, thinking exactly as he’d said. Ridge and the others were released from whatever hold she’d had on them so quickly they all fell forward, barely catching themselves from falling on their faces with catlike grace. “I’m so sorry, Ridge. I don’t know what I did or how I did it.” She moved forward, only to stop as the males she’d grown up with all took a collective step backward. Fear, anger, and a little trepidation marked their faces where before she’d always seen love, acceptance, and friendship. It hurt. It hurt worse than she’d ever thought possible.
“Come here,” Thadd said, tugging her into his side. “She is not to be feared, assholes. Whatever she did, she’s still the same female she’s always been to you.”
Ridge lifted his lip in a snarl. “She’s never held me against my will.”
“No, but I bet you’ve held others against their will, right, Alpha?” Thadd asked.
Torrance turned away from the Pride who had always welcomed her. The ones who had taken in the orphaned cub with no family. Those same eyes that had looked upon her with kindness before, were glaring at her as if she were a stranger, or worse, a danger. “Take me away from here, please.”
“You sure about that?”
Her stranger asked the question, but her panther was already swinging her leg over his seat. Well, the human was, but it was her cat that was closer to the surface. “Yes,” she said, keeping her chin tucked to her chest. She couldn’t look at Ridge and see the distrust in his face.
“Tor, don’t do this. We need to talk.”
“Get me out of here,” she begged Thadd.
His big bike roared to life after he slid on in front of her. She buried her face against his back, wrapping her arms around him as far as she could reach not shocked to find she couldn’t actually reach all the way around. He revved the engine once, twice, grinning a little before he eased off the brake, allowing the bike to shoot them forward. The last thing she heard was Ridge yelling at her to stay. Her fingers wiggled, ensuring their bikes couldn’t chase them down. How she was doing it she wasn’t sure, but there was something growing inside her that was not like her panther. The feline purred as if it had been waiting for her to acknowledge the other part of herself. A door opened in her mind as Thadd rode down the
