by Zoe Chant
Because she would’ve been afraid.
Well, she wasn’t afraid anymore.
She went downstairs—slowly, paying attention, and ready to shift and run if she had to, but purposefully.
She thought she knew what she’d find.
There was a crash. Stella bolted the rest of the way and almost tripped as she burst into a scene of utter chaos.
Todd had broken in, all right. But he hadn't come alone.
Stella had thought that they'd scared Todd's wolf pack away, last time. But he must have done something to convince them to come along, because there were three—four—five of them here, and Carlos and Nate were caught up in a full-on brawl.
Everyone was in human form, for now. Stella held back, staying on the stairs. She didn't know how to fight, and even her lynx form was too small to be really effective if everyone else shifted.
Nate, on the other hand, clearly knew exactly what he was doing.
He and Carlos were standing facing away from each other. Todd was yelling something—staying back from the very fight he’d started, Stella noticed; why hadn't she ever realized what a coward he was?—and three of his buddies rushed Nate all at once.
Nate ducked smoothly under a wild roundhouse punch, and caught one of the men with a solid blow to the solar plexus. He fell back, groaning. The other two lashed out simultaneously, but Nate suddenly wasn't there—he'd shifted! His panther form was well below their blows, and they were teeteringly off-balance for a second. One of them actually clipped the other one with his fist.
Nate shifted back in a flash, rather than staying as a panther and attacking with his teeth and claws. Stella was glad. A fight with the shifted wolves would be serious and damaging, and she didn’t want Nate to get hurt.
Not that it looked like there was any danger of that, actually.
A quick movement that Stella couldn't follow, and one of the wolves was staggering back, his hands to his throat. Nate turned slowly to face the remaining pack member, whose name Stella vaguely remembered as Ryan.
Ryan called over his shoulder, while keeping careful eyes on Nate, “Todd, get your useless goddamn ass over here. You said this would be easy!”
Carlos, meanwhile, had dispatched the wolf he'd been fighting with, and had turned to stand at Nate's shoulder.
“I thought it would be,” Todd growled. “The sister and her boyfriend are out tonight, there weren't any stupid snow leopards around at all—”
“Clearly there's someone around.” Ryan glared at Nate. “I'm gonna teach you a lesson.”
“Sure you are,” Nate said easily.
In a flash of movement, Ryan leapt at him, shifting in midair. Stella gasped at the sight of the teeth appearing, claws lengthening, all headed straight for Nate—
Who somehow seemed to catch the wolf and toss him backwards, with only his bare human hands. Ryan slammed into the wall behind Nate. Stella had a moment to be grateful for their old house's solid construction as he crashed to a stop and slid down to the floor, groaning.
“None of you ever studied any real fighting techniques, did you?” Nate asked conversationally. “Using your opponent's weight against him is rule number one. Do you want to try again?”
There was a long pause as Ryan slowly picked himself up and shifted back to human. “Goddammit,” he said. “Todd, you brainless idiot. We're getting out of here.”
The rest of the pack groaned agreement. Nate watched them go, making no move to stop them stomping out the back door that they'd broken into.
But he caught Todd by the collar before he could join them. “You,” he said, “aren't going anywhere.” He nodded to Carlos, who came forward and caught Todd in a tight hold. Nate took a step back and faced him.
“Breaking and entering,” Nate said in a low voice. “What were you planning to do, Todd?”
“I need to see Stella,” Todd was saying.
Stella came all the way down off the stairs and stepped forward. “Here I am.”
Nate caught her eye, and glanced subtly upward. Stella saw the webcam perched on top of a shelf.
“Stella, I can get you away from this guy,” Todd was pleading. “I just want to help you.”
Stella took a step forward, and spoke loudly and clearly. “Listen to me, Todd. I don’t want you here. I don’t want you following me. I don’t want you around. I definitely don’t want you and your pack breaking into my house and attacking my friends! Do you understand?”
He looked at her imploringly. A long time ago, that look might have made her sympathetic. A short time ago, it would have made her uncomfortable and scared.
Now, though, it only made her angry. He thought he could break in and attack, and then turn around and manipulate her like this? Forget it.
“I just want us to be together,” he whispered.
Stella thought carefully. “Todd,” she said, “if Carlos lets you go, will you go home and never come back?”
“I can’t leave you alone here, Stella!” he said urgently. “I’m not leaving while these guys are here!”
“Todd, this is my home,” she said. It was amazing how calm and reasonable she could sound, when inside she was absolutely furious. Nate’s presence by her side helped a lot. “You can’t stay here.”
“It could be our home,” he said stubbornly. “I’m not leaving until you see reason, Stella. You saw already that I can get in whenever I want. I’ll come back, I’ll bring more guys—”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” She felt her confidence building. She was suddenly certain, absolutely sure, that Todd wouldn’t be coming back after tonight.
As if he could sense that too, Todd’s face twisted into an ugly sneer. “You won’t get away from me,” he said, and lunged.
His body shivered and wavered, and suddenly there was a wolf in Carlos’ grip. The change in shape was enough to dislodge his hands, and then Todd was leaping for Stella—
But she wasn’t afraid. She didn’t have any doubt about what was going to happen next. She didn’t jump, scream, or even startle.
Because there was a panther between her and the wolf.
Todd howled in rage, but Nate snarled back, and it was almost comical, the way the wolf cringed away.
There was a flurry of movement behind her, and Eva appeared at Stella’s shoulder. “Mom, are you okay?” she panted. “How did he get in?”
“Broke the lock on the back door,” Carlos answered, as Todd seemed to realize that he was well and truly trapped, with Nate in front of him and Carlos behind him.
Stella still wasn’t afraid. She couldn’t imagine how she could be afraid, with Nate between her and danger, and with so many other people all ready to step in if there was any problem at all.
It was like a huge weight had finally lifted off of her shoulders. Todd couldn’t do anything to her anymore.
Todd seemed to realize that, too, because slowly, he sat back on his haunches. Then, with a shudder, he shifted back to human, looking slumped and pathetic.
Nate transformed a second later, and came back to stand with Stella. “Okay?”
She nodded, leaning against his broad warmth—not for comfort, really, but just for the joy of standing with her mate.
“Is that enough?” she asked. “For the cameras?”
“Is the sheriff a shifter?” Nate asked dubiously.
“She is,” Stella said. “If there’s any need to do anything legal with the footage, I bet she’ll cut out anything where anyone’s shown transforming.”
“Then absolutely,” Nate said. “We won’t even need the footage of the fight. Breaking and entering, threatening, confessing to stalking, trying to attack—there’s plenty. He’s not wiggling out of this one.”
“Good.”
Carlos had his phone out and was dialing. He spoke calmly to the person on the other end, and hung up. “Sheriff’s on her way.”
Stella let out her breath. “And let’s hope that’s the end of it.”
Nate pulled h
er into his arms. “It will be,” he murmured into her hair. “Now, our lives can really start.”
***
The next day, after breakfast, Nate gave Stella a kiss and held up his phone. “I’m going to go make a call,” he murmured.
Stella kissed back and watched him step outside, then curled her hands around her mug of tea. Eva was still asleep. After the sheriff had taken Todd away, Stella had spent a while reassuring her that it was all over. But Eva hadn’t wanted to go back to bed, so Stella had sat with her on the couch until her head slowly tipped over and she was breathing softly into Stella’s shoulder. When Stella had shaken her awake, she’d finally agreed to zombie her way back to bed.
Then Stella had curled up in Nate’s arms and drifted off to sleep, more easily than she ever would’ve anticipated after something like Todd’s intrusion. And dreamt of being warm and safe.
Now, she sat in her kitchen and watched Nate, out in the backyard, have what looked like a serious conversation on his phone. It took a while, and Stella was finished with her tea by the time he came back.
He was smiling, so she smiled back. “Good call?”
Nate sat down next to her and took her hands. “Very good. I was talking to Connie, my assistant.”
“Oh?” Stella asked, curious. She didn’t know much about the day-to-day work Nate actually did for his business. “Work stuff?”
Nate nodded. “I was thinking about something you said to me a few days ago.”
Stella frowned. “What did I say?”
“I said that Connie could basically do my job for me, and you asked why I didn’t just pay her to do my job. At least the paperwork part of it.” Nate’s smile widened.
Stella felt her breath catch in her chest. “And?” she whispered.
“I just offered her a promotion,” he said. “From now on, she is going to be doing my job. We’re going to hire her an assistant to do her old job, and I’m going to be taking more of a...consulting role.”
“What does that mean, a consulting role?” Stella asked. She could feel hope rising in her chest.
Nate grinned. “It means I’ll be traveling around to take on trickier jobs, on my own schedule, when I think a job needs my expertise. It means I can otherwise live where I want, and Connie can email anything over that I really need to personally look at. It means that I can stay here, with you, and when I take a job, I can take a few extra days before or after, and we can see the sights together.”
Stella jumped him.
She hadn’t meant to be quite so sudden, but Nate easily caught her around the waist, laughing, and settled her in his lap. She kissed him fiercely. “Thank you,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “Don’t thank me. I don’t want you thinking I did this only for you. These days I’ve spent here in Glacier, with you and Eva, and Lynn and Ken, all in this house together...it’s the most like a pack I’ve ever found.”
Pack, Stella mouthed. She’d never thought of her and Lynn like that. But now that it was her and Lynn and Eva and Ken, and Nate...
Nate’s arms had tightened around her. “I always thought I didn’t want to settle down in one place,” he murmured. “But I never realized how it would feel to have...a home base. A real one. I want that with you.”
“I do, too,” Stella said wonderingly. A home base. From which they could go...wherever they wanted.
It was funny, to finally realize exactly what she wanted, only to discover that she already had it. Right here in her own home.
She kissed Nate again, warm and happy. “I love you,” she whispered.
He pulled her close. “Stella. I love you, too.”
Epilogue: Stella
“All packed?”
“Yup.” Stella pointed to the bags waiting by the bedroom door. “Everything but what I’ll need in the morning.”
“Including your ten thousand art supplies?”
Stella returned Nate’s grin. “Including those.”
Nate pulled her in and kissed her. “Good.”
In the morning, they were going to Belize.
Stella could hardly believe it was happening. Two decades ago, she’d wanted to do this, and her life had taken a sharp left turn. She’d thought that dream was lost, but...now it was here again. She felt like she might overflow with happiness.
“Hey, so,” she said to Nate, “it’s still too early to go to sleep, I think.”
He raised his eyebrows, smiling. “Is it? But we’ve already said all of our goodbyes and packed all our things. Whatever will we do with our time?”
“Hmmm, I don’t know.” Stella leaned forward and kissed him, drinking in his warm, masculine, familiar scent.
That was one of her favorite things about having Nate with her forever, for always. The way she was starting to learn him, to know him. Know what he smelled like when he was aroused, know how his eyes crinkled at the corners when he laughed...she couldn’t wait until they were finishing each other’s sentences all the time.
Stella pushed him towards the bed, and he went willingly, laughing softly. He let her strip off his clothes, and sprawled out naked before her, happy and warm and exactly what she needed.
It was amazing, how her life had changed since Todd had been arrested. Stella hadn’t fully understood how thoroughly the pall of fear had influenced her life. Looking back, she almost couldn’t believe how timid she’d become, how hesitant to try new things.
Now, it was like the color had come flooding back into her life. Everything was bright and exciting again. And the brightest and most exciting thing was Nate.
She had an ongoing project where she was trying to learn every inch of his body. Tonight, she focused on his flat stomach, the lines of abs, salt-and-pepper hair tracing a line down to more interesting territory. She bent and kissed his hipbones, one after the other, and he groaned. The skin was thin there, sensitive, and she licked slowly inward.
Nate groaned low in his chest as she teased him with her tongue, tasting his inner thighs, his lower stomach...everywhere but where he wanted. “Stella—” he said in a strangled voice, and she finally gave in and took him into her mouth.
This was a part of his body that she hadn’t wasted any time learning, and she knew how to bring him right to the edge if she wanted. For now, though, she took her time, enjoying the taste of him, the way the scent of his arousal was thick and intoxicating, the velvet-soft skin under her tongue. She could feel wetness gathering between her legs, a heat building in the depths of her abdomen. She shifted in place, fighting the urge to slip a hand down and press against her clit. She wanted to focus on Nate.
Nate, though, had other ideas. As Stella pulled back and sucked fast and hard on the head of his cock, a move she knew drove him crazy, she tasted the first quick burst of salt on her tongue—and Nate’s hands closed on her shoulders, pulling her away and up.
“Hey,” she protested, laughing, but then he was kissing her hard, his hand sliding under her skirt, and she couldn’t bring herself to protest any further.
He stripped her dress over her head, dealing with her bra and panties with quick efficiency, and then paused. For a long minute, he just looked at her.
“What?” Stella asked quietly.
He shook his head slowly. “You’re just so beautiful. I love seeing you happy. I love making love to you. There’s nothing about you I don’t love.”
Emotion rose in her chest, filling her up and almost spilling out her eyes. “I love you,” she whispered.
He kissed her again, with a ferocity and depth that lit her on fire. Gasping, she clutched at him, wrapping herself around him, feeling his heat and his desire against her entire body.
Eventually, though, she wanted more. She twisted her hips, trying to communicate the message to Nate, and he tilted them so Stella was on her back, letting her thighs fall open, feeling his eyes on her like that gaze was tangible. Her nipples were hard points, her pussy slick and open. Wanting him.
Nate slid inside her in one lon
g, slick thrust. Stella arched her back in pleasure, reaching for him, needing to feel him close. He buried his face in her neck, panting, the rasp of stubble igniting the sensitive nerves, providing a sharp counterpoint to the deep pleasure she felt as he started to thrust.
Stella had never realized before how close two people could really get. When Nate was inside her, he aroused more than just physical pleasure. It was like she could feel their two souls combine, their animals entwine, as pleasure inflamed her and love overwhelmed her.
Nate groaned, “I love you—Stella—” as he sped up, driving into her with ragged breaths echoing between them. Stella caught his cheek and pulled him in for a kiss, breathing him in. His cock filled her with excruciating, exquisite pleasure, and she could feel the pulses of climax starting to build.
“Oh,” she heard herself saying involuntarily, “oh, oh—” and then orgasm ripped through her body, leaving her shuddering and moaning and wanting the moment to continue forever.
When she was finally able to catch her breath, Nate was poised on the edge—she could tell by the way his fingers dug in, the way his lip was caught between his teeth. His eyes were bright. “You’re so beautiful when you come,” he murmured.
Stella grinned happily. “You too,” she said, and started chasing the last weak aftershocks, clenching her muscles, lifting her hips. It was too much for him, and she reveled in the sight of her mate dissolving in pleasure, climaxing because of her, inside of her.
It took a while for them to catch their breath.
Eventually, they’d stretched out together under the covers, Stella pressed against Nate’s side. “You ready for tomorrow?” he asked.
“So, so ready.” Stella could feel her whole body yearning to get out, to see the world. “Part of me wishes Eva were coming with us,” she confessed.
“She has school.” Nate sounded a little wistful, too. “Maybe we can go somewhere over winter break, bring her with us then. And meanwhile, Ken and Lynn will take good care of her. Not that she needs it, she’s practically a grown woman.”
“And I suppose having a teenager around might cramp our style a bit,” Stella said thoughtfully.
