“What? Not before you look at my books, surely,” Fiona protested. “You promised you would, you know,” she added reproachfully.
Sadie sighed. “Yes, I guess I did. It’s just been a long day. But all right—I’ll take a quick peek. Where do you keep them?”
“Back here, my dear.” Fiona motioned for her to come around the counter.
Sadie followed her around into a back storeroom of sorts. If she’d thought the front of the pharmacy was cluttered, it was nothing compared to the back, which looked like a hoarder of epic proportions and very strange tastes lived there.
Shelves and cabinets were overflowing with all kinds of dried herbs, jars, and bottles filled with colorful liquids. There were piles of animal bones, hooves, claws, and antlers in different heaps and large, dusty books stacked on almost every available surface.
The room looked like the mind of a mad alchemist but Fiona seemed completely at home in it, weaving around the different piles and leaving Sadie to trail after her.
“Back here.” Fiona led her to a small, surprisingly neat desk at the very back corner of the large room. “I try to keep my workspace uncluttered,” she remarked, obviously seeing the surprise on Sadie’s face. “Even though all my different materials take up a lot of space.” She sighed. “I wish I had a young person to help me catalog all of it—I’m kept so busy mixing and compounding medicines I barely have time for anything else.”
“That must be . . . difficult.” Sadie settled herself at the desk. “Your books?”
“Here they are.” Fiona produced a tiny silver key hung on a long chain around her neck and unlocked one of the desk drawers. Then she took out a large black ledger and laid it on the desk. “See what you can make of that. I do my best but come tax time, nothing seems to add up.”
Indeed, it didn’t. Just looking at the straggling columns of numbers with multiple blotches and scribbles made Sadie’s aching head hurt even worse. It appeared that Fiona ordered her exotic ingredients from around the world and many of the amounts in the book were listed in yuan, dinars, pounds, euros, pesos, lire, kronor, and rupees, not to mention a few currencies Sadie didn’t even recognize.
“I’m sorry,” she said at last, after paging through the book and trying to make heads or tails of it. “But this is going to take some time, and it’s getting late. Do you mind if I start fresh tomorrow?”
“Of course dear, just come over and get the books first thing tomorrow morning, and you can work on them in your office.” Fiona smiled brightly at her.
“Thank you.” Sadie smiled back gratefully. Despite the crazy state of Fiona’s books, at least she now had one client. It made her day seem less terrible, even if only by a little. She stood up from the small desk and her head throbbed.
Sadie put a hand to her temple and swayed on her feet. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had such a bad headache.
“Oh my—are you all right?” Fiona looked concerned.
“I just have the worst headache right now,” Sadie rubbed her forehead with the heel of her hand. “Do you think I could get some ibuprofen before I go?”
“Oh my dear—ibuprofen won’t help with that headache.” Fiona shook her head and made a tsking sound. “But I know just what will—come with me.”
She led Sadie back up to the front of the pharmacy and handed her a plain plastic bottle filled with green-and-brown pills.
“Are these some kind of, um, new headache cure?” Sadie looked at them uncertainly. No matter how grateful she was to Fiona for being her one and only client, she still wasn’t sure she trusted the eccentric woman enough to take medicine she’d made up out of all the strange ingredients she’d seen in the back room of the Cougarville Chemist.
“Oh my no—they aren’t for you to take!” Fiona looked shocked at the idea. “No, my dear—these are for your neighbor, Mathis.”
“What?” Sadie stared at the green-and-brown pills blankly. “But . . . if they’re his medicine, why did you give them to me?”
“Why, so you could bring them to him of course. You will, won’t you? Please do a favor for an old lady.” As she spoke the words, Fiona suddenly seemed elderly and frail, though Sadie would have sworn she was ageless just a moment ago.
“I don’t know,” she said doubtfully. “I mean Mathis . . . he doesn’t seem to like me very much.” Although at least he hadn’t attacked her or eyed her like she was a prime cut of beef, like nearly every other adult male she’d met in town so far.
Fiona looked up at her with those large, dark eyes.
“Please, Sadie dear. I promised him I’d bring them to him myself but my lumbago is acting up terribly.” She put a hand to her lower back. “A storm must be coming soon—my spine always lets me know when there’s a big one on the way.”
“Well . . .” Sadie really didn’t want to do this particular errand—confronting her huge, menacing next-door neighbor so wasn’t on her wish list right now, especially with her head pounding and her stomach growling.
But when Fiona looked at her like that, somehow she felt she couldn’t say no.
“All right,” she said reluctantly. “If you’re sure he won’t get upset at me for handling his meds. I mean, isn’t it a breach of privacy or something like that?”
“Oh, everybody knows everybody else’s business in Cougarville.” Fiona made a shooing gesture with one bangled and beringed hand. Now that Sadie had agreed to do the errand, she had straightened up and was looking as ageless as ever. “Go on—it’ll be okay.”
Sadie sighed unhappily.
“All right. I’ll drop them off on my way home and see you tomorrow.”
“Thank you, dear. I knew I could count on you.” Fiona smiled. “And now if you don’t mind, I need to do a little tidying up before I leave for the night.”
She ushered Sadie out of the shop. It wasn’t until the door was shut and locked behind her that Sadie realized she still hadn’t gotten anything for her headache.
Mathis frowned as he turned the thick rib eye he was cooking for his supper on the indoor gas grill built into his stove. Some people thought herbivores only ate rabbit food and that was true—when they were in their Shifted forms. But as a man, he liked a good steak and baked potato as much as the carnivore Shifters did.
Everything was almost done but his mind wasn’t really on eating. Mostly because he couldn’t get the curvy little Juvie from next door out of his head.
You gave her location to the worst male in town, a small, accusing voice whispered in the back of his head. Hell, you practically handed her to Keller on a silver platter.
She’ll be all right, he argued with the voice uneasily. I told Keller to back off and I put her under my protection.
Right—and look how great you’re doing protecting her, the voice pointed out. She’s back there alone in town, just down the street from the fucking Cougar’s Den. For all you know, Keller’s already got her and you’re just cooking supper like it’s no big deal.
The little voice made a compelling case. What was he doing here, going about his normal business when Sadie might be hurt or in trouble? Of course he still didn’t like her, but he had a moral obligation to follow up on his vow of protection.
With a muffled curse, he plated the steak and turned off the grill and the oven, where he had a large potato baking. He was just going to have to go check on her—his conscience wouldn’t let him rest until he did.
He headed for the door, grabbing his jacket along the way—it was getting chilly at night now that autumn was really setting in. Normally that was a good thing—Shifting in cold weather hurt less than Shifting in the heat, although it was pretty damn painful no matter when you did it. But this year the colder temperature marked the beginning of his rut and if those damn pills Fiona gave him didn’t help anymore—
His thought was interrupted when he opened the carved oak panel of his front door and saw Sadie standing there, her hand raised as if to knock.
She looked awful.
<
br /> Not that she wasn’t still beautiful but her formerly rosy cheeks were nearly gray and her big brown eyes when she turned them up to him were filled with pain. Even her maddening scent was muted and dull.
“Hi,” she said listlessly, when he looked down at her. She really was a tiny little thing—or maybe she just seemed like that to him because he was so big. Most everyone seemed little to Mathis.
“Sadie?” he said, frowning. “What are you doing here?” He hung his jacket back on the peg by the door and looked at her, anxious despite himself.
“I’m supposed to . . .” She rubbed her temple with one hand, wincing as though she was in pain. “Supposed to give you these,” she finished, holding up a familiar-looking bottle. “From Fiona.”
“You didn’t have to do that—I could’ve gotten them myself,” he protested, taking the bottle and putting it on the small table by the door.
“Yes, I did. She . . . made me promise. She—”
Before she could finish her sentence, Sadie’s eyes rolled up in her head and she collapsed.
“Shit!” Moving with faster-than-human speed, Mathis caught her. She was light as feather in his arms and he lifted her carefully, cradling her against his chest.
Then he stood there on his doorstep, uncertain of what to do. He couldn’t very well take her back to her place and just leave her there. Should he take her to the hospital? But the North Carolina branch of the VA Medical Center was ten miles past Cougarville on the outskirts of Asheville, which was the closest city of any size in the area.
Sadie stirred and moaned softly, then turned her cheek into his chest and breathed deeply, almost as if she was inhaling his scent.
Mathis frowned. Well, at least she was breathing—that was good. He’d taken a CPR course but it had been well over ten years ago and he didn’t remember much except you were supposed to do the chest compressions to the rhythm of “Staying Alive.”
Well, you can’t just stand there holding her, the little voice in his head pointed out. And if you’re not going to take her to the ER, you need to bring her in out of the cold.
True. Reluctantly, Mathis turned sideways so he wouldn’t bump anything and carried the unconscious Sadie into his cabin. He kicked the door shut behind him and made his way to the brown leather couch in the living room. There was a fire crackling in the fireplace, making the room toasty despite the chilly wind whipping outside.
He started to lay her down on the couch but when he tried to move her away from his body, she made soft, protesting sounds and clung to his plaid shirt, nuzzling her face against his chest.
She must be cold—she feels my warmth, Mathis thought. Indeed, the little Juvie’s skin was like ice—she seemed chilled to the bone. Probably because for some reason, she wasn’t wearing the navy peacoat she’d had on earlier. She was dressed in just a thin white blouse and a gray skirt and heels.
Mathis settled on the couch, still holding her against him. He didn’t like it, he told himself—not one bit. But he’d given his word to protect her and part of that was keeping her warm so she didn’t freeze to death. Between his body heat and the warmth radiating from the fire she would no doubt wake up soon—he hoped.
Since she was still unconscious, he felt free to really study her—her face anyway. Her luscious body he’d already seen that morning. The thought made him uncomfortably hard and he shifted on the couch, trying to make some room. Damn it, if this little Juvie didn’t hurry up and get herself mated soon, he was going to have to invest in roomier jeans!
Trying to concentrate on what he saw instead of what he remembered, he studied her, noting how delicate her bone structure was. Her dark lashes were like long, bristly fans against her pale cheeks and her mouth was a full, innocent pink. She’d told Fiona that she was forty, yet she looked to be ten years younger than Mathis, not ten years older, which was doubtless the Rejuvenation process at work.
Why had she come here and what was she doing here alone without a mate to protect her? He hoped she was being careful about where she went. If she wandered around town in the state she was in now, most of the women of Cougarville weren’t going to be too happy with her. The scent of Rejuvenation made a female damn near irresistible, to the point where any male who wasn’t an Alpha with enough strength to control his urges was liable to go crazy around her. Mathis felt half crazy around the little Juvie himself and he was as Alpha as they came. Of course, his rut coming on didn’t help things any.
She’s warm enough now. I should let her go—should put her down. And I should take some of the new anti-rut pills Fiona made me.
But he didn’t want to put her down. He couldn’t stop looking at her. From her lovely face to her curvy body, Sadie Becker was intensely feminine and she seemed to fit perfectly in his arms.
God, she’s gorgeous.
Unable to help himself, Mathis brushed just the tips of his fingers across her high, delicate cheekbone. Her skin was like satin.
Sadie stirred and moaned softly. Then her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at him.
Seven
Sadie couldn’t understand what was happening. Where was she? What was it that smelled so good? And why was Mathis Blackwell holding her in his lap and looking down at her so intently?
He was still ginormous but he looked less intimidating somehow in the firelight. It softened his harsh features and made his dark green eyes—the color of pine needles—look almost gentle. Even his close-clipped beard and unruly black hair seemed less wild. Or maybe it was just the way he was looking at her that made the difference—for the first time since she’d seen him, the huge man wasn’t scowling.
Also, he smelled amazing—like cedar and musk and warm, masculine spice. It was hard to be frightened of anyone who smelled so good you just wanted to breathe them in forever. Sadie had a vague memory of doing just that—pressing her face to his plaid lumberjack shirt and inhaling deeply—but that must have been a dream, right?
If so, she wished it was a dream she could keep dreaming. His broad, hard chest against her side was strangely comforting and the biceps under her head felt like warm, flexible steel.
But as intriguing as the situation was, she couldn’t lounge around in his arms forever—she barely knew the man.
Sadie started to get up but he wouldn’t let her.
“Just be still.” His deep voice seemed to vibrate through her entire body, both stern and concerned at the same time. “You fainted right on my doorstep. Scared the ever-loving hell outta me.”
“I did?” Sadie put a hand to her forehead, trying to remember. She’d been driving home with her temples throbbing, feeling like her brain might burst from the pain. She’d wanted badly to go to her own snug little cabin, take some medicine, and lie down but somehow she couldn’t. The memory of Fiona’s large dark eyes compelled her to keep driving. When she came to the fork in the pitted dirt road that separated her driveway from Mathis’s, she took the left-hand road instead of the right, heading to her neighbor’s home, not her own.
I’ll just drop off the pills and come right back, she remembered telling herself. Then she had a vague memory of staggering to Mathis’s front door and raising her hand to knock . . . but nothing else.
“You did,” he confirmed, frowning. “Why the hell did you come here if you felt so bad?”
Sadie frowned back. “I was doing Fiona a favor, dropping off your pills—whatever they’re for.” She wriggled in his lap, trying to sit up again and felt something hard and hot and absolutely huge pressing against her ass. “Oh, my God! Apparently not for erectile dysfunction,” she blurted out.
His cheeks glowed a dull red with embarrassment.
“Sorry about that but you should know why I’m like this. I can’t help it, being so close to you the way you are. No man could.”
Before she could ask what in the world he was talking about, he helped her off his lap so quickly Sadie got dizzy.
“Whoa!” She clutched at the arm of the couch with one hand and put
the other to her spinning head. At least her headache had backed off some, she noted, though she could still feel a dull throbbing in her temples that promised it might decide to come back in full force later on.
“Sorry,” Mathis growled again, not sounding sorry at all. “Look, I know what this looks like but I tried to put you down—I really did! Only you held on to my shirt and wouldn’t let go. And you were cold—chilled to the bone. I decided to hold you until you warmed up.”
Sadie was unexpectedly touched by his explanation. Though he seemed gruff and unapproachable on the outside, apparently her taciturn neighbor had a marshmallow for a heart.
“All right,” she said. “I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have . . . said what I said. I’ve just had a really rough day and, well . . . you and I sort of got off on the wrong foot.”
Mathis snorted. “You can say that again.”
“Yeah, well . . .” She still wasn’t sure why he’d been so angry with her earlier in the pharmacy or why he wasn’t now. And it seemed rude and awkward to ask. “I guess I should go now that you have your pills. Uh, you do have them, don’t you?”
“I put ’em down when I caught you,” he said gruffly.
“Okay, well . . .” Before she could think of a polite way to extricate herself from the awkward situation, Sadie’s stomach gave a huge, gurgling growl. “Oh my God!” She clutched at her midsection in embarrassment. “I’m so sorry—I haven’t eaten all day. That’s probably why I fainted—low blood sugar.”
“You haven’t?” He frowned disapprovingly. “That’s no damn good—why would you do something like that? You on one of those crazy diets?”
“What? No—I mean, not exactly.” Despite the fact that the little pooch at her belly was now gone, Sadie’s hips and ass had always been bigger than she liked. So while she wasn’t really on a diet, she was never really off one either.
“Good.” He looked her up and down, his forest-green eyes flickering over her curves. “Because you don’t need to be. So don’t starve yourself.”
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