Shifters used the word mated like humans used married. If Talen was married, that would explain his not being there when she woke or the lack of messages.
She drew her brows down as her anger rose. “I don’t want your friend. And he didn’t need to send you to let me down easy. I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”
She started marching away, fury building to the point she saw red. By the time she reached Gerri, she was glad to leave the planet. One good night of sex had been sent to hell. Why had Talen not left enough alone? He had to send a jerk to make sure she knew she’d been nothing but a booty call. What an asshole.
* * *
Cassie’s alarm clock rang in her ear. She cracked one eye open and then flipped onto her back. She was exhausted. Two days of being in bed had done nothing for her. She’d been so tired, she called in sick, telling Gerri she thought the travel had been tougher on her than she’d realized.
Her cell phone rang and she groaned. She tossed a hand at the bedside table and grabbed her cell phone, squinting at the too bright screen.
“Ivy,” she mumbled, pressing the answer button. “Ivy, what’s up?”
“You sound like death, Cassie. What’s going on?” There was worry in Ivy’s voice and if she weren’t so exhausted she might try to pacify her cousin. As it was, she had a hard enough time keeping her eyes open.
“I’m sick. I think I caught something during my travel with Gerri.” She could barely get the words out, her throat felt sandpaper dry.
“I’m in town. Uncle Ricardo wondered if you were okay since you’re not answering his calls. He’s worried about you.” Ivy snorted. “Enough that he sent me in the jet to check on you.” Ivy mumbled something and told someone who Cassie assumed was the driver to take her to Cassie’s place. “I’ll be there soon. I’m going to take care of you. Sleep. I got the keys to get in your place,” Ivy said.
“Thanks. Bring food. I’m famished.”
Ivy laughed and hung up.
FIFTEEN
The next time Cassie woke was to the growling of her stomach and the need to go to the bathroom. She sat up groggily and pushed the tangled mass of hair away from her face.
She could hear Ivy in the kitchen walking around and talking to someone else.
“I’ve checked her temperature,” Ivy said. “She doesn’t have a fever, but she’s very pale.”
“What do you think is wrong?” Ivan asked.
Cassie frowned. She didn’t realize Ivan had come along with Ivy.
“I don’t know. She’s been running herself ragged with working and stressing her negative bank account. She’s probably got low iron or something and is feeling the effects of all this now.”
Cassie nodded. That was true and very possible. Perhaps she was just anemic and needed to get some vitamins. Easily fixed.
“This isn’t like her. She’s always been very strong,” Ivan stated with a hint of frustration. “I don’t like knowing she’s sick. Not this sick. I’ve got business to attend to, but Massimo and I will be in town in a few days. If she gets worse let me know and we’ll come up sooner.”
“I will take care of her. I’m sure if she rests she will be fine. Not thinking of work or her bank account might do her some good,” Ivy told him. “Now let me get back to cooking.”
Ivan laughed. “You cooked?”
“What’s so funny? I know how.”
“You’d rather survive on take-out than to actually do it,” he said. “She must be really sick.”
“I made her chicken soup. I figured it’s the safest thing. Plus, if she’s got some kind of cold or virus, this won’t hit her stomach as hard.”
Cassie made a face. What she really wanted was a steak. A nice, juicy steak and homemade rolls. Maybe mashed potatoes and cornbread. Oh, and pie. Apple pie. And biscuits. Yeah, biscuits drizzled in honey. Wait, what? Honey? She wasn’t a honey eater, but the idea of honey sounded so good she couldn’t ignore it.
She picked up the phone and opened her delivery app to order take out. A local restaurant made whatever she wanted as long as she paid the extra fee for delivery. She’d stopped using them recently so she wouldn’t spend money on things she didn’t need, but she craved their food at that moment and her stomach was in control.
Having ordered her food, she slid out of bed and groaned at how tired she still felt. She went into the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror. Instead of looking sick, she looked great. What the hell?
Her hair was shinier than usual and her brown skin glowed. Even her eyes sparkled. She’d never been sick and looked this good. She wasn’t sure if to be worried or excited.
She opted for a shower and more thoughts on the coming meal. Afterwards, she felt refreshed and much more awake. Her stomach still grumbled, but at least some of her energy appeared to have returned.
“Are you out of the shower?” she heard Ivy yell from the living room.
“Yes. I’ll be there in a second.”
“Good. I went down to the pharmacy at the corner and got you some vitamins.”
She towel dried her hair and slipped on pajamas. “Thanks.”
Ivy sat on a flowery blue sofa. It was Cassie’s favorite and her seat of choice when she was lying in the living room surfing the Internet. “You ordered food,” Ivy said accusingly. “I made you homemade soup.”
She smiled at the perfectly laid out food on the coffee table, taking up every inch of space. “I’m sorry, Ivy. I’m starving. I think some red meat might help if my iron is low.”
Ivy gasped, her brown eyes going wide. “I didn’t think of that.” She sat up suddenly and picked up a bottle lying next to her on the sofa, popped it open and handed Cassie two pills. “Here’s some vitamins. This should help you in the coming days get your energy levels back up.”
She sniffed the pills. “Are they supposed to smell so strong?”
“Strong how?” Ivy asked and brought the bottle to her nose. “I guess. It’s a multivitamin. Those things smell a bit.”
Cassie wrinkled her nose. “This one is powerful.”
“Oh, for god’s sakes, Cassie. Take the damn pills and let’s get you back to being your usual stressed out self.” Ivy winked and picked up a glass of iced tea.
Cassie dropped the pills in her mouth and took the tea from Ivy before she got a chance to drink it herself. Then she turned to the food and started putting meat and biscuits on a paper plate. “This smells so good.”
“I don’t know how you manage to get that little restaurant to make these things,” Ivy mumbled shoving a buttered biscuit into her mouth.
“Before I broke up with asshole, who shall never be named, I ordered out all the time,” she said with nostalgia. That was back when her finances were in order and she could do whatever she wanted with her money. Now she had to carefully work her way back to that cushion and healthy account of the past. Every time she thought about it, she wanted to kick her own ass for being so gullible.
“So how was that trip?” Ivy’s eyes lit with curiosity.
Cassie hadn’t told her about where she was going, just that she had somewhere to go. Though Ivy and Ivan were friends with a shifter, she didn’t know what Massimo knew of the other world and wasn’t sure it was okay to discuss with anyone.
“The trip was okay.” She drizzled honey on a still-warm biscuit and took a bite. Her stomach sighed in happiness. This was what she’d been dying for. Now she didn’t feel so bad she’d ordered a dozen biscuits when she never ate more than two. The first one was gone within a second. She went through the same process with another and glanced up to see Ivy’s brows high. “What?”
“A little hungry, are we?”
She grinned. “I barely ate the entire time I was gone. So I guess this is my body’s way of making up.” At least she hoped it was, or she had more weight problems to consider.
Ivy nodded in agreement. “You’re probably right. Plus you barely ate when you were at your dad’s house. I noticed, but didn’t wan
t to say anything.”
Her appetite had gone to hell for the duration of the trip. Veronica played the pregnant woman in need of pampering card well and she wasn’t even showing yet. Apparently she was like one month along or something.
“Veronica just gets to me sometimes,” she admitted. “She’s so spoiled. Which is strange because my father always taught me not to be that way. When she does her whole ‘I need someone to carry my handbag’ bit, it grates on me.”
Ivy frowned and continued eating. “I don’t know why. Your dad has been with her for a few years now. She’s not a complete jerk, just a pampered woman used to being treated like a princess. If your dad didn’t cater to her bullshit, she wouldn’t be the way she is.”
That was true. Her father had been the one indulging Veronica like she couldn’t do a thing on her own. “I’m still surprised over that.”
“Why?” Ivy asked.
“What do you mean why? My dad never did that with me. He made me take care of myself at all times.”
SIXTEEN
“Yes and that taught you to be a strong woman. But maybe, and this is just my own fucked up opinion which might be totally off-mark, he doesn’t want to do that with his wife. Maybe he loves her to the point he just wants to treat her like his queen and give her everything.”
She hadn’t thought of that. It was a very definite possibility that her father just wanted to pamper his wife. Give her everything he felt she not only was used to, but deserved out of love.
“Are you going to tell me about your trip and stop deviating? Did you meet any interesting people?”
“Um…”
Ivy widened her eyes. She stopped the forkful of mashed potatoes by her lips. “Cassandra Lys Grimaldi! You better tell me what that ‘um’ stands for.”
“I met a guy,” she found herself saying. She hadn’t wanted to think of Talen, but her body was still buzzing from their night together. If she didn’t know better, she’d swear he stamped himself inside her like he claimed he would.
“Who? Where? Tell me everything!” Ivy’s words tripped over each other in her excitement.
“His name is Talen. Talen Arctos.”
“Wow. That’s such a strong and sexy name. Where the hell were you? Europe?”
She ignored the question and continued the story. “We had a night I can’t even describe. The things he did. The things he said. The way he touched me.” Oh, god, the way he touched her.
“Cassie, this is good,” Ivy squealed. “You met someone who got your mind off dickface. This is truly amazing. And you sound like he worked some magic on you in more ways than one. All that in three weeks.”
Cassie blinked out of her memories and glanced at Ivy. “Three weeks? We were gone three weeks?”
That couldn’t be possible. They’d been in Aurora for exactly three days. How in the world had three weeks gone by without her noticing?
“Yep. Three weeks. Well almost four to be exact, but who’s counting,” Ivy laughed.
She hadn’t realized there was such a huge time lapse between both planets.
“Did I hear you talking to Ivan earlier?”
Ivy nodded. “Yeah, on the phone. He’s worried about you, but now that I look at you in the light, I see my initial assessment is probably right. You must be exhausted because otherwise you look great. Not sick at all.”
She snorted and drowned another biscuit in honey. At this point she wasn’t bothering with any of the other sides. She wasn’t even going to think about how many she had eaten so far. “Thanks. He sounded so clear, though. I thought he was here with you.”
Ivy frowned and wiped her mouth and hands. “No. He was definitely on the phone.”
Must have been on speaker for Cassie to hear him from the bedroom. “So is he coming by?”
“He’s got a lot of work but I think in a few weeks you can expect them to show up here wanting to see how you’re doing.” Ivy grinned and put the dirty napkin on the empty paper plate she’d used. “I’ll probably be up here with them.”
“Awesome. We should all plan something fun to do.” Something that would get her mind off Talen.
“Yeah. Okay, now can we go back to you and Talen?” Ivy shifted in her seat to face her better.
Cassie swallowed the last of the biscuit she’d been eating and sipped on her tea. “What do you want to know?”
“What? What does he look like? Will you talk to him again? And more importantly, did he rock your world?”
“He was dressed up for the event we were at but underneath I could tell he is the plaid shirt and beer kind of guy who works with his hands.” He definitely worked those hands on her. “No, we won’t be seeing each other again.” Not after he sent that other guy to let her down easy. “And yes, he rocked my world, so hard.”
Ivy pouted. “Why wouldn’t you make an effort to see him again if he was so unforgettable?”
“It’s complicated.” Light years complicated.
“What is this, a Facebook status? The man isn’t married, is he?”
It was as good as. From what that guy said he already has a mate picked out or something. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“We don’t have to,” Ivy said, her lips tipping down. “I’m sorry. Let me clean this up and we can watch a movie.”
She nodded and leaned back on the sofa, her mind going back to Talen and his aggressive, dirty lovemaking. The memories assaulted her mind and she felt herself get wet thinking of his face between her legs. This wasn’t good. She needed to go back to work and distract herself from thoughts of the sexy shifter on a planet so far away, it might as well not exist.
SEVENTEEN
Talen waited in Alyx’s office, pacing the confines of the great library. He didn’t know what to do. She’d left. Gone. Sure it had taken him longer than expected to return after the fight in his offices, but he’d expected to return and find Cassie at the castle visiting with Bella and the babies, not gone from the room he’d known she’d been staying at. Nobody answered his questions.
The door to the library opened and Bella marched in. “Hi, Talen. I know we didn’t get much chance to speak at the ceremony. It’s nice to officially meet you.”
He nodded, watching her brow furrow as she spoke. This wasn’t good. “It’s nice to meet you too. Is Alyx not in?”
She shook her head. “He had to take his mother home. He prefers to do it himself. His father has not been well, so it was important she go back and take care of him.”
He lifted a hand and scratched the back of his head, bringing it over his face and finally meeting her gaze again. “Do you know where Cassie went?”
Bella stared at him for a quiet, tense moment and nodded. “I do, but I don’t think you’re going to like what I’ll say.”
“Where is she?” he asked, taking a step towards her and realizing he looked like a lunatic ready to shake the queen for information.
“She went home,” she said, her gaze unwavering. “To Earth.”
Shock froze him and rooted him to the spot. He didn’t understand what she meant. Why would Cassie leave when he’d claimed her? He told her she was his. Fuck, he’d gone as far as brand her, mate her, and leave his mark on her. Why would she leave?
“Was there some kind of emergency?” he asked, hoping maybe something had pulled her away but she’d be back soon.
Bella winced and shook her head. She sat on one of the chairs in Alyx’s office and motioned for him to sit as well. He dropped to a seat, his body cold from shock.
“No emergency. She and Gerri came for only three days. It was meant to be a short trip,” Bella told him. “You look like you’re going to be sick.”
“I don’t understand. She’s mine. She can’t leave.” The bear pushed under his skin, looking for release and wanting to tear the castle down.
Bella widened her eyes and leaned forward. “Calm down, Talen. You don’t understand Earth women. You can’t just tell them they’re yours.”
He gla
red at her, angry she was going against what he was saying. “She. Is. Mine.”
She rolled her eyes and grinned. “You can say that all you want, but the fact remains you don’t own her. She’s free to go, and she did.”
“I claimed her.”
Her brows flew up. “Did you tell her this?”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
She groaned and dropped her face on her hands, shaking it from side to side. Then she met his gaze. “You’re saying she’s your mate, right?”
He nodded, annoyed he had to repeat himself. Of course Cassie was his mate. She’d been the one from the first whiff he got of her scent. From the first moment their gazes met and his bear roared to sink his claws into her smooth caramel flesh. “The only one.”
“Look, you have to talk to her. She probably doesn’t understand that you claimed her. Hell, she probably doesn’t get that you mated her, because you didn’t bother to ask her if it was okay,” Bella said with a bite to her voice. “No offense, but you should always ask a woman if she wants to be your mate. You shouldn’t take the decision out of her hands. What you did was not right.”
“She’s my mate.”
“It doesn’t matter. She should be allowed to say yes or no to any proposition you have. For a human, mating is like marriage. And one does not just marry a woman without asking her. You propose and when she accepts, you get married or mated in your case.” She pursed her lips and twined her fingers together, her large canary diamond glinting against the chandelier light.
“So I am to get her? Bring her back?”
“Whoa, there, buddy!” Bella raised a hand. “You can’t force her back. She has to want to come back.”
He didn’t understand any of this. Cassie was his mate. He claimed her. They belonged to each other. They belonged together. How could she not see that?
“I have to bring her back,” he said matter-of-factly. “She’s mine.”
Bella sighed. “You still don’t get it, do you? She’s not your property. She’s a woman with her own thoughts and opinions and you can’t just tell her she’s coming with you like she’s a bag of laundry.”
Bearfoot and Pregnant: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Paranormal Dating Agency Book 10) Page 6
