16
Andi
Yawning, she stretched her muscles as the early morning light seemed to fill the room.
How did I forget to close the damn curtains? she asked herself.
Because our mate distracted us, her panther answered.
Mate… Shit!
Andi turned her head to see Ridge lying in the bed behind her. In her bed. And for a moment, she just stared at him, watching him sleep. It was hard to believe that she’d found her mate.
Sexy mate, her panther purred.
Andi agreed. Ridge was definitely sexy. Like a walking wet dream. And he was hers. From now until… well, forever. There would never be another for either of them. Soul mates, as humans liked to call it. Andi was still shocked to know that she had someone who would always put her above everything else. However, even knowing all of that was true, it didn’t stop the panic she felt.
Climbing out of bed, careful not to wake him, she hurried over to her closet and dressed. Nudity wasn’t an issue for most shifters, but they also grew up in this world. For Andi, it wasn’t so normal and even though Ridge was her mate, she wasn’t ready for him to see her completely bare. Not in the light of day.
Quietly walking into the kitchen, she opened the fridge and looked inside. Would he be hungry when he woke up?
Good idea, her panther said. Feed him.
Andi didn’t know how to cook, but she could at least try. After all, Ridge had taken care of her last night and gotten Salvation to help her.
Pulling some eggs from the top shelf and some bacon, she closed the door and started to gather the pans she needed. Trying to be as silent as possible, Andi busied herself with making Ridge breakfast.
Cracking the egg over the pan, Andi cussed. “Shit!” she grumbled, quickly picking out the pieces of shell that had broken off into the egg. As the edges started to turn white, she looked for something to flip them with.
Ugh! she said to herself. This was a bad idea.
No! Our mate will enjoy it.
Andi didn’t think so. She was making a mess of things. Finally finding a spatula, she tried to flip the egg, but it was stuck. She couldn’t get it off the bottom of the pan. Instead of freaking out, she decided to scramble them. It was the best she could do.
Glancing at the bacon sizzling in the other pan, she used a fork to flip the slices over. At least that’s going right, she thought. Pulling the first batch from the pan, she set them on a paper towel and added some more to the hot pan.
Smoke billowed up and Andi found herself frantically waving it away. Flipping the switch overhead, she turned on the fan and hoped the smoke would blow elsewhere instead of into her face.
Andi removed one egg from the pan and added another. But this time, she just mashed it up instead of trying to keep it whole. It went much better than her first attempt and she started to feel more confident in her cooking skills.
I can do this!
See? her panther stated. You got this.
However, it wasn’t long before all hell broke loose. Smoked filled the air as the smoke detector started screaming out a loud, high-pitch noise. Andi grabbed a dish towel and ran over to the alarm and waved it frantically.
“What the fuck?”
She jumped at the rough sound of Ridge’s voice. “I’m so sorry.”
“What’s on fire?”
“Nothing.”
Ridge quickly walked over to her, causing Andi to step out of his way. She watched as he reached up, pulled the cover off the smoke detector, and popped the battery out it.
Andi sighed.
With her ears ringing, she rushed into the kitchen to finish breakfast, but as she got to the stove, she noticed that it wasn’t just the bacon smoking. The eggs were now burnt, and the bacon was charred, black.
“Shit!”
“What are you doing?” Ridge asked, walking up behind her.
“Making breakfast,” she replied like it was obvious.
“I take it, it isn’t going well?”
Andi turned around to stare at him with narrowed eyes, but the look on Ridge’s face had her biting her lower lip. She could tell that he was fighting off laughter.
“It’s not funny!” She smacked his chest.
“Of course not.” He coughed to hide his laugh.
“Jerk.” Andi pouted.
Ridge reached around her to turn off the burners and remove the pans from the heat. Coughing, he fanned the air around them.
Andi wanted to stay irritated, but she couldn’t. As a coughing fit wracked through Ridge, Andi couldn’t help but giggle.
“Oh, you think this is funny?” he asked, turning on her.
“A little bit,” she replied, waving away the smoke.
Ridge took a step toward her. Andi stepped back.
“Don’t run, kitten,” he warned.
“I’m not.” She raised her head high.
“Good.”
But as Ridge lunged for her, Andi moved farther away. “You’ll have to be quicker than that,” she said, her voice mimicking the insurance commercial that regularly played on the TV.
17
Ridge
He nodded.
Inside, his leopard was readying himself for the chase. Mentally, Ridge could see the animal was ready to pounce. It wanted to play.
Mate wants to play, too. His cat purred.
Ridge internally rolled his eyes at the animal. Purring, really? Why couldn’t he have gotten a normal leopard? At least those bastards couldn’t purr.
I resent that remark, the leopard protested.
I’m sure.
Ridge smiled at Andi, deciding to ignore his animal. “Go grab a bag,” he instructed. “We’ll stop for breakfast before heading out to my place.”
“Why are we going to your place?” Andi asked, not moving.
“Because you need to learn to control your animal,” Ridge replied. “Not the other way around.”
“And we can’t do that here?”
“No.” Ridge shook his head. “Too many humans around.”
Walking over to his jeans, he picked them up off the floor and slid them up his legs. Noticing that Andi still hadn’t moved, he froze.
“What’s wrong?” he asked her.
“I just…”
At her hesitation, Ridge walked over to her and lightly grabbed her shoulders. Massaging the muscles, he asked again,
