“Why do I smell that leopard here?”
She spun, coming face to chest with a solid body. “Do you move like a ghost?” He was almost a giant, it shouldn’t be possible for him to move without making a noise, especially when he was shaking the damn forest only moments before.
“When I want, yes,” he answered. “Now answer my question. Why is the scent of that leopard...everywhere but not on you?” He inhaled, bringing his head to her shoulder. “You smell delicious.
“Yo, you’re invading my personal space, buddy.” She should’ve stepped away or pushed him back. She did neither of those things. Instead she tilted her head further to the side, giving him better access. Good heaven above, was that his tongue rasping along her shoulder? Yes, yes it was, and oh my gawd, it was amazing. Her dirty mind imagined how it would feel if he trailed that softish appendage between her thighs.
“My female,” he rumbled.
“You’re making me crazy.” Her cat was a hussy; that was all there was to it. She lifted her hands, running them through the hair that was no longer tied back since he’d shifted. It really was a sin for him to ever contain it. Wait, what? How did he turn her into this needy female when she was supposed to be getting her stuff and getting gone before Ridge stormed in and tossed her out? “We can’t do this. Ridge will be here with a half a dozen enforcers to make me leave or kill us.”
Thadd lifted his head, towering over Torrance. His scent had changed. “I will decimate them all,” he vowed.
She remembered what he’d said to Zelda about his Pride. “I don’t want you to hurt Ridge or Ridge to hurt you. Let’s just go.” Where they would go was a mystery. Cats needed a Pride, but she looked into his still glowing blue eyes and knew she’d follow him anywhere.
“My Crew will accept you.”
Chapter Five
Thadd watched Torrance gather things from her room. He took a suitcase from her even though she said she could magic it out to her truck. “Don’t expend your energy, upendo.” With his ears trained toward the outside, he listened for her Pride, or former Pride. The fact they hadn’t shown up was alarming. His vision appeared again while he took the three bags she’d packed out to her truck. While she’d been packing, he loaded his bike into the back, happy to have found she had the things he needed to secure it. Of course, that was probably because she traveled with her own bike.
A whistling, almost as if something was coming from the sky at a high rate of speed, had him looking up. He was never so happy he had cat like reflexes as he was when the large black object nearly fell on him, bouncing on two tires before it came to rest on its stand. “Well damn.” He ran his hand over his jaw, looking from the bike to her truck where his bike sat. Logistically they both could fit. It would be tight, but he’d make it work. Hefting the smaller crotch rocket up, he sat it inside the back, working to secure it so it didn’t get damaged.
“Ps. You’re welcome, kitty.”
The disembodied voice he would recognize anywhere, even though she had clearly tried to make herself sound spooky. “Thank you, Zelda.”
He tugged a final time on the strap, making sure Torrance’s bike wasn’t going to move, satisfied both their bikes would make the long trip back to Texas.
“She’s going to need training, so she doesn’t blow shit up.” A card floated down to land in his hand. “Like I said, I’m the motherhumping shifter whisperer. Have her give me a call when you’re settled.”
He looked at the card, hiding his grin as he flicked the little rectangle against his opposite palm. “I will. Now shoo, I got shit to do.”
A breeze kicked up like a mini tornado then it was gone. He went back inside, finding Torrance sitting on the floor by her bed with a box in her lap, tears leaking from her eyes. Thadd sat down next to her, lifting her onto his thighs. “What’s wrong?”
She held herself stiff for a few seconds, her quiet sobs breaking his heart. Thadd was about to order her to tell him when she lifted dark brown eyes up to his. “I’m leaving the only family I’ve ever known. The only place I’ve ever called home. Ridge has been my protector, my brother, my everything since forever.” She sniffed, tears making her eyes look even darker.
Thadd pulled her closer, his hand sliding up her back in soothing motions. Shit, he’d lost everything when he was fifteen, leaving his Pride in tatters. Yeah, the lion he’d thought was his father still stood holding his half-brother, but the rest of the males in his Pride were dead, killed by his beast. He’d felt no remorse for what he’d done, not even when he’d looked around at the females as they’d sobbed at their loss of loved ones. None of them had raised a paw to save his mother. When their males, which he used that term loosely, had their turn with his mother, defiling her in front of the entire Pride before ripping her apart limb-from-limb like it was their right. The females had all turned their backs. Fucking worthless.
That day, Thabiti had died, and Thaddeus had been born while he’d held what was left of his mother, her head in his lap.
