by Maddy Barone
“Olivia?” he ground out. “Do you know this pup?”
“I— I— Well, I…”
Since she was only a step behind the man, Kit risked a quick glance at his stuttering mate. Her face was pale, her eyes huge as they stared at him.
“Yes or no, Olivia?” the man demanded.
“Well, Uncle Hawk, um, I … No…Um,” she managed. “Sort of?”
Kit rushed to the next portion of his memorized speech. It wasn’t time for it yet, but his poor mate couldn’t seem to speak. “Sir, I met Miss Stensrud over a year ago in Colorado. I must confess to you that I was young and since I was raised in strict seclusion, I was inexperienced with societal expectations.” Kit had practiced that tongue twisting sentence over and over so he could speak it clearly. He wasn’t sure exactly what it meant, but Justin had convinced him it was the proper thing to say. “In my ignorance, I made a terrible error. I took Olivia, I mean Miss Stensrud, home with me without courting her or obtaining your —er, I mean her father’s permission first. I deeply regret that, and I hope that you will forgive my blunder.”
To one side, a very tall woman, as tall as he was himself, lifted one brow. “My, my,” she drawled. “You never said he was so handsome, Liv.”
The man slashed one hand out, eyes still glaring at Kit. “No.” The syllable was harsh and flat.
“No?” Kit echoed, heart sinking. “She’s my mate,” he insisted in a low, quiet voice.
The man leaned a little closer and sniffed deeply. “You don’t have a wolf. She’s not your mate.”
Kit put his shoulders back. “She is my mate. I’m not a wolf. I am mountain cat.”
One of the blond men beside Olivia spat, “I knew it!”
Kit went on to another bit of his memorized speech, and put as much humble sincerity into his voice as he could. “I know I did wrong. I’m sorry for it. I want Olivia to be my wife. I will love her for the rest of my life.”
“That’s gonna be short,” the man growled. “If you want to walk out that door right now, I’ll let you.”
His mate poked the man in the back. “Uncle Hawk, we live in the modern world! This is 2091, not 2021. It’s up to me who I marry. Within reason, of course,” she hurried to add. She glanced at him and his heart froze for a long moment while their gazes met and held.
“I don’t know about courting,” she said, still staring at him. “But I’d like to talk to him.”
The man she called uncle scowled even more darkly. “After supper is served, and the kitchen and seating floor are cleaned,” he said, reluctantly. “He can come then.”
Olivia’s smile trembled a bit. It did something to his stomach that Kit didn’t really understand, but it made him smile back. “The Plane Women’s Eatery,” she told him. “Supper is served from five o’clock until seven o’clock. Clean up takes about an hour. If you come at 8:15 we can sit and talk until nine o’clock.”
“And not a minute longer,” her uncle warned him. “And you won’t be alone either. Now leave.”
“Yes, sir,” he said respectfully. He would see his mate tonight. They would talk then. He smiled at her, trying to keep the joy bubbling up inside him from overtaking him. “Until tonight, Miss Stensrud.”
*
Uncle Hawk nodded to Nathan and told him to follow Kit, but Marty waved him back. “I’ll go,” he said.
Victoria stiffened in protest. “But lunch,” she began.
Marty glanced regretfully at the workroom. “Hate to miss that good food, but sometimes a man has to do what he has to do. Ray?”
“Yeah,” Ray grumbled. “Right behind you.”
The two Madison men went to the workroom to collect their coats and came back out. They left the store without another word, leaving Patia and Victoria looking miffed. Uncle Hawk told them all in his gravelly low voice to hurry up and get their drinks before the food got cold.
Olivia selected a root beer and took it back to the workroom. She grabbed a seat at the end of a table. As she expected, all the girls wanted to sit beside her and pump her for information.
Kit was here. Olivia had a hard time believing it. Had he really been searching for her, or was this meeting an accident?
Predictably, Victoria secured the seat beside her. Aunt Carla and Patia sat across the table from her. The inquisition was coming, but Olivia hoped food would delay it. Uncle Hawk was eating standing up, leaning a shoulder on the wall behind Olivia. Nathan was at one side of the door, with his dad, Red Wing, at the other. All three of the wolf warriors exuded an air of watchfulness. No, watchdogedness. If a stranger passed through that door, he might not live to go back out. Olivia felt like her shoulders were weighed down with lead. They were going to ask her questions that she didn’t want to answer, maybe couldn’t answer.
Victoria’s bowl of spaghetti was heaped full, and two garlic breadsticks balanced over the edge of the bowl. She twirled pasta masterfully around her fork and ate it with a hum of appreciation. After devouring half the bowl and one breadstick, she slowed down enough to nudge Olivia’s shoulder.
“So, that’s the crazy feline who stole you?”
Olivia took her time chewing her breadstick. “Yep.”
Her cousin looked at her for a long minute, her fork unmoving. “He doesn’t look all that scary,” she said with a thoughtful tone.
Olivia remembered when she’d first woken up in his cave. He had tried to rape her. He thought she wanted to have sex, and that her struggles were just a game. That had been scary. He did look young and boyish and handsome, but he was a mountain cat who didn’t understand the way civilized people lived. But she couldn’t say any of that. Uncle Hawk and Uncle Red Wing and Nathan could hear every word they said, and she knew they were already itching to kill Kit.
“It was scary when he first took me,” she admitted carefully. “But he didn’t hurt me.”
The Lupa from the den tapped a finger on the table to get her attention. “You be careful with him. He’s already shown what he is willing to do.”
“Yes, Aunt Carla,” Olivia replied respectfully. But she was remembering what he had said to Uncle Hawk. He had admitted he was wrong to steal her, but he loved her and wanted to court her. Was that the truth, or was he just saying what he thought they wanted to hear? Uncle Stone would be here in a few days. If Kit was still here, Stone could tell her if Kit was lying.
“Don’t worry, Aunt Carla,” Nathan said darkly. “Olivia won’t be alone for a minute with him.”
*
As he left the store and headed down the street, Kit felt like he was floating over the ice, not walking. He had found her! He had received permission to speak with his mate that very night. Excitement almost made him miss the fact he was being tailed. Only a block from the store, two men seized him and dragged him into a snow-filled alley.
“Who are you?” one man demanded, a hand around Kit’s throat slamming him into the brick wall at his back.
Kit studied the two men. It was the two blond men from the store. Cats, he was sure of it.
“I’m Kit. I’m only here to find Olivia Stensrud. I don’t want your territory. I didn’t know there was a pride here.”
The two men exchanged a glance. The one holding him growled and leaned close, eyes narrowed to slits. Had he been in his cat form his tail would have been lashing from side to side. “Where’s your pride?”
Kit hadn’t seen them in a year and a half. “New Mexico. Maybe Arizona. We winter down south and come north to Colorado in the summer. They’re not here. Just me.”
“Why are you here?” The other man bared his teeth. “What do you want?”
“My mate,” Kit answered simply. “Olivia Stensrud is my mate. I’ve come to court her.”
They exchanged another look. The hand clamped around his throat shifted to his shoulder. “I’m Marty. That’s Ray. My mother will want to meet you. Come with us.”
They didn’t give him a choice. The hand clamped so tightly over his shoulder was pressing on bone.
Kit didn’t struggle though. Of course the queen of this pride would need to give her consent to him being in her territory. How many cats did she rule over? And why hadn’t his pride ever heard of them? Kit wanted to ask, but neither of his escorts looked like they wanted to talk.
They walked to a part of town Kit hadn’t been to yet. It was surrounded by a stone wall guarded by armed men. They weren’t cats, though. No, they didn’t move with the same fluid grace of cats. One of the guards unbarred the gate to let them in, and they walked to a grand house. It was a fit home for a queen. His pride had never lived in a house, much less one like this. They went into a bedroom in the back of the house next to the kitchen.
When he saw the queen, he was shocked. There was still fire in her faded blue eyes, but her body, lying in a bed loaded with blankets, was emaciated and weak. It was hard to tell her age, but if Marty were her son, she couldn’t be as old as she looked. There was an odor of illness in the air. The man called Ray bent over her, calling her Grandma and kissing her cheek. He whispered in her ear so low that Kit couldn’t hear. The queen nodded a few times and beckoned to Marty to come closer. He called her Mom. Finally the men straightened and the queen pointed at him.
“You, come here. What is your name?”
“I’m Kit,” he said simply.
“I am Darlene Madison. My son, Martin.” She nodded to the man who had gripped his throat in the alley. “And Raymond, my grandson. Ray, get the boy a chair to sit on. I’m getting a crick in my neck looking up at him.”
As he sat in the straight-backed kitchen chair, Kit looked around. There was plenty of comfort here. It was nothing like the caves he had spent his life in. Was this how other prides lived?
“Tell me about yourself,” the queen commanded. “Why are you here?”
“I have come for my mate. Olivia Stensrud is my mate. I want to court her and marry her.” He hesitated. “I didn’t know there was a pride here. I apologize if I offended.”
Darlene examined him with surprisingly sharp eyes. “You have a pride?”
He looked down at his hands. “I used to.”
“Were they killed?”
A sense of loss seeped into him. “No.” He concentrated on his joy in finding his mate. “How many are in this pride?”
She ignored his question. “Where does your pride live? How many are you?”
Kit answered as honestly as he could. “We travel from place to place, depending on where the hunting is best. We— They don’t travel this far east.” He told them how many mature males there were, and about Tricia, Juanita, and Maria, and the juveniles.
Marty cut in. “They? Not ‘we’?”
Pain bloomed in Kit’s chest, a familiar ache when he thought of his pride. He ignored it. “I am here. They are not.”
Old and ill she might be, but Kit was sure the queen saw more than her menfolk did. He was grateful when she moved the conversation to a different topic. “Wherever did you meet Olivia Stensrud?” she asked.
His mind went back to that day. Knowing Kit was feeling restless and angry, Devlin had invited him to go for a run. The two of them had raced each other over the hills and through mountain streams, around boulders and over cliffs. He remembered thinking that they were coming too close to where humans lived when he scented horse. Perched atop a rocky overhang, he watched the human female walk along a faint path. Something inside him shook itself awake at the sight of her. At the time, he hadn’t recognized his emotions. He’d thought they were anger and disgust, but when he dropped down before her, her scent went straight to his heart. Mate, he’d thought. This human female with her long slender legs and pale blond hair was his mate.
“Not far from her ranch,” he replied to the queen’s question. “More than a year ago.”
“And you waited that long to follow her? Why didn’t you come earlier?”
“I had to learn more about how humans behaved.” He struggled with how much to say, and decided to be cautious. “The pride stays to themselves and live the way that seems right to them, but they’re not civilized. Olivia needs a civilized mate.”
Ray and Martin listened with intense interest. “So,” said Marty at last, “you don’t live near any other humans? You don’t even know any humans?”
“I do now.” He wanted to ask questions too, like did all the cats in her pride live in this big house, and where were the other queens? But he didn’t want to be disrespectful. “May I stay in your territory? I swear I won’t make trouble. I only want to win my mate.”
There was silence for a few minutes. “You can stay,” Darlene said. “There are only a few rules. You can’t turn cat in public. You can’t tell anyone that we are cats.”
Her eyes lost their fire and she fell asleep. Kit stared at her. The grandfather of Justin’s mate had often fallen asleep in the middle of conversations in the month before he died. Was she on the edge of death also? He shifted his gaze to the other men, feeling pity for their coming loss.
Marty led him out of the queen’s bedroom to the kitchen. Ray followed. Kit looked between them. From what he’d learned from Justin and his mate, an uncle was older than a nephew, but these two looked to be about the same age. Maybe he’d gotten that wrong, though.
“Where are you staying?” Marty asked.
“I’ve rented a bed at a bunkhouse.”
“Good,” said Ray rudely. “Because you’re not staying here.”
Footsteps sounded outside the kitchen, and another man, older than Ray and Marty, but resembling both of them, came in. He froze for a split second when he saw Kit, then his eyes shimmered cat gold.
Marty jerked a thumb. “Eddie, meet Kit. Kit, meet Eddie, my brother and the mayor of Kearney. Kit is visiting while he tries to woo Olivia Stensrud. Mom is okay with him staying in town.”
Eddie relaxed a little. He even offered his hand in the human mode of greeting. “Nice to meet you.”
This must be the First Male of the pride here. Kit shook his hand. “How do you do?”
“Fine.” Eddie’s eyes went back to blue green, and held a hint of amazement. “You’re a cat. Are there more of you?”
“Not here. You sound surprised.”
“I’ve never met another cat except my family.”
Now Kit was surprised. “Really?”
“Really. Mom’s father was a cat, but he was killed when she was a child. And his whole pride was murdered years before that, leaving only him. So it’s always been just us.”
Familiarity dropped over Kit, weighting his shoulders with sorrow. “Nearly all the adults in my pride were killed just before I was born.”
All three of them looked at each other with sober faces. They all had something in common.
“That’s why we don’t talk about who we are,” Eddie said quietly. “We don’t want anyone coming after us.”
“Olivia knows,” Kit said. “And her father and brothers do too.”
“About you,” Ray countered. “Not about us.”
“Most of the older wolves know about us,” Eddie corrected, “but I don’t think they’ve shared the information with their children.” He looked down at his wrist. “Sorry I have to run, but Jasper Packard’s mare is foaling. It was good to meet you, Kit. Good luck with Miss Stensrud. Walk him out, Mart.”
This was a strange pride. The important thing was that they accepted his presence. Kit watched the First Male leave before turning to Marty and Ray. “Thank you. I won’t be any trouble to you.”
“Good. I’ll take you to the gate.”
Marty walked with him to the gate in the fence and stuck his hand out to shake. “Like Eddie said, good luck.”
Kit shook the hand. “Can I ask you a question? In my pride, all of us were brothers, no matter which female gave birth to us. But I’ve learned that humans think brothers are only those born of the same mother and father.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“And uncles are brothers of the father or mother.”
Marty gri
nned. “Yeah, that’s right too. You’re wondering about me and Ray?”
Kit nodded.
“I was born late to my parents. Eddie is my brother. He was already married when I was born. In fact, he and Lisa were expecting when I was born. So Ray is my nephew, but we’re so close in age that he’s more like a brother, really.”
Kit sighed. Human familial relationships were confusing. “Got it.”
“Maybe someday we’ll be cousins,” Marty said, shaking his hand. “Good luck with your courting.”
How would they be cousins? He really didn’t understand the human kinship rules. He waved and turned away, turning his thoughts to the rest of what Marty said. Courting. Now, that was a better topic for his thoughts to linger on. Kit walked back to the bunkhouse with eager steps. Tonight he would speak with Olivia. Teresa had told him to have a few neutral conversational topics ready for every situation. What things could he talk to Olivia about tonight? He knew what he wanted to talk about, but his overwhelming desire to have her for his mate wasn’t neutral. The weather? He couldn’t care less about the weather. He was more interested in her, but that was too personal. Teresa had said so. He thought some more. He could ask how she liked living in Kearney. And about the name of the place she was living. He’d never heard of a place called the Plane Women’s Eatery. If there were a story behind the name, would she tell it to him? He would think about it and be ready to provide neutral conversation. Tonight, he couldn’t give her menfolk any reason to deny him. He would be on his best behavior and then they couldn’t deny him the chance to court Olivia.
Chapter Ten
At ten minutes before eight o’clock, Olivia finished her work in the Eatery. She rushed upstairs to the room she shared with Victoria to wash her face and comb her hair. The Plane Women’s House was an old apartment building. Most of the apartments were two or three bedrooms, occupied by a mated pair and their children. At her parents’ request, Hawk and Renee stood as her surrogate parents during her stay here. They put both of their adult sons into one bedroom and offered her the newly vacated bedroom. She had the room to herself until last October, when Victoria arrived from the Clan to stay in Kearney for the winter. Hawk In Flight had assumed responsibility for both of them.
