“Drink,” Ridge said when the cold bottle was placed in front of her. “I’m sure you need it.”
His eyes followed the bottle to her lips, and he had to clear his throat to keep a groan from slipping through. Suddenly, his mind was filled with images of other things she could wrap her lips around.
“So,” Lux said loudly, pulling Ridge from his thoughts.
“Yeah.” He took a huge pull from his bottle.
He needed to get himself in check. Ridge had never been the type that led with his dick and with everything that just happened, he wasn’t going to start now.
“Want to tell me what happened?” Lux asked, looking at Andi.
Ridge wanted to speak up, defend her, but he clenched his jaw and allowed her to speak for herself. Women liked that, right?
Mentally, he saw his leopard shrug its shoulders.
Taking another pull from his beer, he listened as Andi relayed her perspective on the events that led up to her transitioning in the clubhouse. Which, by the rules, was a no-no.
“They were in the middle of a brawl.” He heard her explain. “Shit was breaking. So, I hurried over to try to break it up. The more crap they break, the harder my job is to do at the end of the night.”
Ridge understood that. Being the bartender at the club, Andi would have had to stay after to clean up their mess.
“I was tired, and irritated,” she confessed.
“So, you decided to let your cat out to play?” Lux asked. The sharp edge to his tone had Ridge’s leopard on alert.
“That was an accident,” Andi replied. “I never shift when others are near. The panther was only trying to protect me.”
“So, it forced the change?” Lux questioned.
Andi nodded.
Lux turned back and made eye contact with Ridge. He knew what Lux was thinking – Andi didn’t have full control of her animal. Under no circumstances should the cat have been able to force a change. That should have been Andi’s choice – always.
“Speaking of your panther,” Lux added. “How is it none of us were able to detect it?”
Andi looked down at her beer bottle and shrugged. “I’ve learned to mask my scent,” she quietly admitted.
“Mask your scent?” Ridge and Lux said in unison.
“I can hide it.”
“But why?” Ridge asked.
Why would his mate want to hide? It didn’t make sense to him.
“When you’ve had a life like mine,” Andi said, looking back over her shoulder at him. “You do whatever you can to adapt.”
“What do you mean?” Lux asked.
“I grew up in foster care,” Andi replied. “Imagine a human's surprise when they see a girl turn into a cat.”
“What?” Lux’s brows came down and a scowl covered his face. “Why the fuck were you in foster care?”
“I’m assuming for the same reason every other kid was there.” Andi shrugged. “Unwanted.”
Lux looked back at Ridge, again.
That would be something he would need to explore because shifters did not leave their young; especially not with humans. With our society still hidden from the world, it was an unwritten rule. If for some reason, Andi’s parents couldn’t care for her, then she should have been given to another member in her community. However, Ridge knew it was widely known that panthers were normally solitary creatures.
That doesn’t explain her being given to humans, his leopard said.
No, it doesn’t.
Other shifter families would have taken her in. Like humans, many struggled with infertility, too. Truly, humans and shifters weren’t that different in the area of life struggles.
But, what if… his leopard trailed off.
Ridge didn’t need the animal to finish its thought, because he was wondering the same thing. What if something happened to her parents?
Ridge decided to voice his suspicion. “Do you know what happened to your parents?”
Andi turned to look at him. She shrugged her shoulders. “All I was ever told was that they died. Why?”
“It’s unusual for a shifter to abandon their young,” Lux answered. “And it’s a huge no-no for them to give their child over to a human.”
“Right.” Ridge nodded. “How is a human, who knows nothing about our world, going to teach a child how to shift? How to control the animal so the animal doesn’t learn to control the human?”
“I learned.” Andi took a pull from her beer.
“If that were true,” Lux replied. “Then your animal wouldn’t have been able to force a change.”
Andi’s face fell.
Ridge didn’t like the look of sadness on her face, but he needed to her realize that she still had a lot to learn. He would teach her, of course. But it would be a long road.
Lux finished off his beer and stood. Turning to Ridge, he said, “I’ll leave her training to you.”
Ridge nodded.
“Training?” Andi asked.
“Yes.” It wasn’t a suggestion; Lux was giving an order and Ridge would make sure it was followed. “You want to stay, then you learn to control the animal. If not, you can go.”
And with that, Lux walked away.
Ridge’s leopard hissed. Our mate isn’t going anywhere.
Then we teach her.
Ridge would do everything in his power to help Andi gain control over her cat. He had a feeling, by the time they were finished, she would hate him. Learning to gain power over such an animal wasn’t easy. It took years of teachings to achieve. Something Andi’s parents should have taught her right along with crawling, speaking, learning to eat with a spoon, and wiping her own ass. By adulthood, Andi and her animal should have been of one mind, one body. However, after witnessing her interaction with Salvation, and hearing her side of events, Ridge knew that was not the case.
“Let’s go.”
Ridge turned her chair and started for the door, not even waiting to make sure she followed. As his mate, she would have to step into line.
