“Okay, dude.” Ellie’s voice dropped. Her mother mode had been activated and she was no longer going to play nice. Nolan would have laughed if leopards were capable. “You need to get out of my way. I plan on spending my New Year’s Eve with my son. If you want my number to order baked goods, you can ask the kitchen staff here. Other than that, move.”
She reached for the door and jerked it, smacking the man. Nolan paused, waiting for the man to get the picture and retreat. But, he didn’t. Instead, Nolan heard outrage.
“Now, you don’t have to be a bitch. All I wanted was a date, you ungrateful…”
Nolan didn’t let the man finish his sentence. He leapt out of his hiding place, claws unsheathed. His big paws slammed into the man’s chest. Claws raked over his reflective vest and down to his flesh. The man cried out, falling back.
Ellie took the chance to slam the door shut. Her heart hammered inside her chest and she was breathing too fast.
Nolan settled down onto her lap, half on her and half on the floor of the van, while she turned over the ignition. Outside the window, the man looked down at his chest in confusion. It seemed the truth hadn’t sunk in yet.
The van lurched over a hump of snow and slid toward the road ahead. Ellie’s hands shook on the wheel, so Nolan rested his leopard head against her stomach, letting a low purr radiate from his body. Slowly, her heart rate went back to normal and her hands steadied.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Ellie said. He could hear there was another clause, but she let it die on her tongue.
While he might have embarrassed her, Nolan knew it’d been necessary. The man might not have hurt his mate, but Nolan wasn’t about to take that chance. She meant everything to him and she would have to deal with it if she had to explain a wild cat in her van every now and then.
Nolan settled down in the space between the seats with a mixture of satisfaction and concern. He wished he had been in his human form so he could have looked the man in the eye while he forced him to back away. He wanted to see the fear in the man’s eyes and know he would never try it again, not with Ellie or another woman.
These feelings, the desire to hurt others stemmed from another source. It wasn’t pure violence, he realized. Nolan wanted to protect, and he found that outlet in his job. When people came to him, hurt and broken on the inside, a powerful force rose through him, one that demanded he do something to help.
Head on his paws, he looked up at the strong woman sitting ramrod straight in the driver’s seat. Her muscled arms pulled her close to the wheel and her eyes never strayed from the road. He didn’t have to protect her, but he wanted to. The thought made him happy. He rested his head against her thigh and let his eyes drift shut.
Chapter Seventeen
Ellie glanced down at the cat beside her.
That was her first mistake. Her hands followed the direction of her gaze and drifted to the right. The van followed and hit the edge of the road. Thick slush gripped the wheels and she lost control. Her head jerked up just in time to see the van lurch into a steep ravine.
Trees blurred past them. The van bounced violently over rocks and rubble. Ellie couldn’t help the scream that escaped her. Past the window, the ravine dropped off into a cliff. If they didn’t move, the van and everyone inside would go over the precipice. She had no way of knowing how far the drop would be, but she knew it wasn’t good.
Last minute, she jerked the steering wheel to the left and hoped for the best. The van twisted to the side, but didn’t stop sliding. She could no longer see the approaching overhang, their impending deaths. Ellie reached out and pulled the leopard close, fingers tightening in his fur.
Then, the van stopped. Her head snapped forward and her stomach rolled like a stormy ocean. Nolan slipped from her grip and slammed against the seat beside her. Trembling from adrenaline and fear, Ellie let go of the steering wheel. Outside the now cracked windshield, a thin tree held the van by its nose. She guessed another held it in the back like two fingers keeping them from going over the edge.
She shoved her door open and Nolan leapt out, shaking his tense muscles loose after his cat paws landed in the snow. Ellie let out a breath of relief when they heard a crack echo around them. Her heart skipped a beat. Outside the windshield, the thin tree holding the front end of the van bent and struggled against its weight.
Frantically, she reached for her seat belt. The van dropped, inch, then another. She couldn’t hear anything over the thunder of her heart in her ears. The belt was stuck, no matter how furiously she struggled against it.
Beside her, a leopard’s roar morphed into that of a man’s. Claws swiped at the belt holding her in place. A louder crack vibrated through her bones. The tree broke and the van skidded forward.
“No,” a man’s voice howled. Hands grabbed her, and her body lifted free of the seat as the van slid away.
It disappeared over the ledge without her. Relief was a cold wash over her skin. The man holding her gripped her tight, his own body trembling as he stared blankly at the broken tree.
Unable to speak, Ellie wrapped her arms around Nolan’s neck.
“Oh, you’re butt naked,” was all she could manage to say.
He laughed into her hair, half sobbing at the same time. “I nearly lost you.”
All because she had looked away for a moment. Her fingers tightened on Nolan. Without him, she would have gone over that ledge with the van and likely would have become a splat in a deeper ravine. Without him… she would be nothing.
He set her on her feet, but she didn’t move far. Earlier, she’d been quick to turn him away. He revealed a life of violence, blood spilt for money, but she hadn’t looked deeper at the situation. Nolan also confessed that his job was to help the hurt. He made threatening people go away, just like he had with Adam.
There had been moments when Ellie wondered of the time when Adam had told her to get rid of someone – had he actually meant Casper? The thought made her blood freeze. If Nolan hadn’t been there to help her, what would the situation have become? She didn’t want to think about what Adam might have done to her or her son.
“I’m an asshole,” Ellie said, unable to look away from the ledge.
Nolan snorted, a gesture he probably picked up from her. “I would say Merry Christmas, I saved your life, but I also got you a real present.”
“You what?” she spun on him, jaw dropping.
He smiled, sweet and mysterious, obvious he wasn’t about to tell her what he’d gotten her. Guilt was a punch to the stomach. She hadn’t gotten him anything, clinging to the bitter voice inside of her. The voice was long gone, but it was far too late to run out and buy him something.
“I thought you didn’t believe in Christmas,” she asked, slyly.
“I think a certain baker may have changed my mind.”
He turned away and started his trek back toward the road. Not only were they stranded in the mountains without a vehicle but Nolan was very clearly naked. She shouldn’t have been surprised that the cold didn’t bother him. He was a were-snow leopard. Was that even a term they used, she wondered?
She followed him after digging her phone from her pocket. There was no signal in the mountains, no way to call emergency services. Once she caught up with Nolan, she slipped out of her jacket and threw it to him. She was broad enough and his shoulders were slim enough that it should have fit him. Plus, it was long enough to cover certain… bits.
He looked down at the offered jacket, probably in an attempt to refuse it until she pointed out what was exposed for the world to see. How was she going to explain the naked man?
“Could you change again?”
Nolan shook his head. “Not this quickly. Not unless it was a dire emergency. This is just slightly awkward. Not really an emergency.”
“You’re so modest,” Ellie said with clear sarcasm.
He cocked a brow at her, but they passed the time with the silly banter. Each step forward making her chest warm and a smile spread
across her face. Nolan hadn’t changed, he was still the man who loved their son, the man who saved her twice from predatory men, and once saved her life.
Once they reached the base of the mountain, the road winding toward town, Ellie got a signal. She called a taxi, having to offer the reluctant driver a free rum cake just to get him to come out to them. When he arrived was a different story altogether. It was another cake to get the driver to keep his mouth shut about Nolan’s predicament. Thankfully, the man had a spare set of sweats in the trunk and gladly offered them up. The clothes might have smelled faintly of gasoline and exhaust fumes, but it was something.
Chapter Eighteen
The taxi slid to a stop in the slush outside Ellie’s house. Christmas decorations twinkled on the porch, lights glittering like stars and glinting off the metallic bulbs Casper had picked out two years ago. Ellie’s heart thumped inside her chest. When she’d left, Casper had sat in the window and watched her leave with sadness in his eyes.
Ellie didn’t know if she could handle the betrayal she expected to see, but she shoved the door open and emerged into the chilly winter air. Nolan appeared by her side and she reached out, grasping her hand and squeezing. He gave her a wide-eyed look filled with confusion.
“We should get inside,” Nolan said, his voice low enough that only Ellie could hear. “It’s too quiet. I’m afraid Casper might have, you know, changed.”
Her thumping heart surged into her throat as she spun toward him.
He gave her a tight-lipped smile instead of an apology and pulled her toward the door. As he tugged her, she reached for the phone in her pocket. Now that she had signal, she found a multitude of messages waiting for her and her stomach lurched at the sight of them. Fumbling, she raced up the steps and ripped open her own door.
Her mother called out Casper’s name and a sickening feeling washed through Ellie. Had they figured it out? Had they seen what her child had become?
Grace appeared in the kitchen and caught sight of her daughter, her face twisting with a mix of emotions as she grabbed Ellie’s hands. There was an apology in her eyes that the woman couldn’t seem to put voice to.
It was Ellie’s father, the tall man that peeked around the corner that revealed what was going on. “We can’t find that little turd of a son you made.”
Ellie choked on her laugh, fear making her chest tight. She cast a sidelong glance at Nolan beside her. His smile was grim, but he nodded and turned away from them. Just before he turned away, she caught sight of the flare of his nostrils. Nolan would quickly sniff out Casper.
She hoped.
“You didn’t open any doors or windows?” Ellie asked nervously, her heart rate in overdrive while her mind went in every possible direction. Casper could have climbed out an open window or opened an unlocked door on his own.
But, Grace shook her head. “I’ve checked all the windows. None of the screens are gone.”
Ellie twisted. The front door had been unlocked. She threw the door open and ran out onto the lawn, eyes wildly searching in every direction. Her hand over her heart, she willed it to steady. Casper couldn’t be that far, could he?
But, even as she thought it, she saw Nolan come around the side of the house, trudging through the snow with worry on his face. Her stomach lurched. She nearly bent over double as fear made the contents of her stomach rise.
“No,” Grace muttered. “Casper was asking where the two of you were all day, but I never thought he’d go looking for you.”
Nolan paused near a patch of snow. Ellie crept closer, aware of how he used his body to block the snow. A set of small cat prints, too large to be a housecat, pattered across the white expanse.
Ellie met Nolan’s eyes.
Casper had experienced his first change. Alone. Ellie’s hand rose to her throat while bile burned it. Her eyes searched the neighborhood. Where could Casper have gone? How far could the four-year-old have gotten on four paws?
Another thought crossed her mind. What would happen if someone found a small snow leopard running around town? Would they assume Casper was a kitten? Would they call Animal Services?
Ellie wanted to scream, but she couldn’t let her parents know just how wrong the situation was. She couldn’t tell them about Nolan, about his secret. They would run from her, from their grandson, and never return.
“Hey,” Nolan whispered into her hair, pulling Ellie into his body and wrapping his arms around her. “Everything will be alright. Just look.”
Her head snapped up. There was a wry smile on Nolan’s face that didn’t belong there in this dire situation, but she followed his gaze and found a small spot of white and gray trembling beneath the porch.
Ellie nearly cried out in relief. A set of yellow and green eyes met hers, wide and pleading as a meow broke the silence.
“Oh, baby,” Ellie whispered.
Nolan crept toward the opening in the side of the porch, kneeling in the icy snow.
“What the hell?” Grace asked, descending the stairs to figure out what Nolan was doing. When she saw the kitten beneath the porch, confusion and anger overtook the woman’s face. She spun on her daughter.
Ellie froze. She should have ushered her mother into the house, should have forced her attention elsewhere. But, Grace yelled at her, telling her daughter that her priorities were in the wrong place. Grace yelled that they needed to call the police. That they should have the neighborhood out searching for Casper.
But, finally unable to take any more of her mother, Ellie put her hands on the woman’s shoulders and spun her around. She shoved Grace toward the steps and ushered her back into the house before telling her to stay there.
Ellie went to stand beside Nolan, crouching in the snow to peer at her confused child below. “Oh, you’re a beautiful cat, baby.”
Nolan stole the moment, the cover her body provided, to change. Casper watched with curious eyes as the man’s form slowly shifted into a much larger snow leopard. Nolan shook his new fur and dropped to crawl beneath the house with Casper.
“How am I supposed to explain this to mom?” Ellie asked, her laughter caught in her throat. She was just relieved to find her son. The change must have confused and scared Casper and so he had hidden.
Watching Nolan crawl beneath the porch, comforting cat sounds coming from him as his muzzle twitched, warmed her heart in ways she hadn’t expected. Casper cried out and pushed back, pressing his body against the foundation of the house. The sound nearly broke her heart, but Nolan had it under control. With one big paw, he pushed Casper toward him and picked up the kitten by the scruff of his neck with his teeth before backing out of the small hole.
Casper cried in Nolan’s grasp, but he was otherwise safe. As a family, they retreated to the back yard where Nolan dropped the kitten in the snow. It was strange to think that ball of fur was her child, but, amazingly, she saw the resemblances. She saw Casper’s gentle eyes in that face and his exuberant nature in the way he picked himself off the ground.
“What the hell?” Grace spilled out the back door, seemingly unable to stay out of things. Her mouth was agape when she saw a snow leopard lazily lying in the snow.
Nolan looked up at her and let out a sound somewhere between a purr and a growl, making Grace shudder and stop. Grace looked to her daughter for explanation, eyes begging for sanity.
Ellie sighed. “Can we do this inside at least? I don’t need the whole neighborhood knowing our lives.”
Nolan made a sound of agreement before lifting himself from the ground. Beside him, Casper was curling into a ball, his eyes slowly drifting shut. The combination of the first shift and the subsequent fear must have drained him. Ellie bent to retrieve her child, realizing he weighed more than she’d thought.
“Lead the way, Nolan.”
The leopard bounded toward the door. Grace’s eyes shot open. Ellie could only hope she was wrong about her mother. There was no hiding what this was, no lying.
***
Ellie set Casper dow
n on the couch, her fingers dragging over his fur. She’d missed her child fiercely. Seeing him like… this would be an adjustment, but it wasn’t one she hated. Nolan was here to help him understand what he was. She bit her lower lip, remembering the night before. Nolan was there for so much more.
She looked to the big cat stretched out at the base of the Christmas tree, lights glowing above him, and felt her heart warm. Earlier, she’d been furious at him. He’d lied by omission and the truth scared her, but Ellie couldn’t help if it wasn’t her reluctance to love again that had prompted her to push him back.
Nolan had only ever shown her and Casper love and affection. He’d protected them the only way he knew how, already fiercely dedicated to the both of them. If anything, he was the man she would have dreamed for herself. She was dumb for pushing him away. She could only hope he would take her back after what she’d done.
“I need an explanation. Now,” Grace demanded.
Ellie’s father followed behind her, scratching his head and looking down at the cats with confusion. It was clear he was perplexed by the situation. Ellie even caught him pinching himself every now and then.
Grace realized she’d walked too close to the leopard beneath the tree and leapt back, throwing her daughter a pleading glance.
“He won’t bite, mom.”
“You called it Nolan. Why did you do that?”
“Because that is Nolan,” Ellie said plainly. “It came as quite the shock to me, too. He showed me not long after he appeared on my doorstep.”
“Don’t lie. It’s uncouth.” Grace made sure she kept her distance from the cat on the floor. “Why would you pull a prank like this after disappearing for a whole night?”
Ellie’s shoulders sank, and she fought back a sigh. “We couldn’t get out of the mountains because of the snow. Hell, we barely made it home. The van is totaled.”
“Totaled?” her father howled.
Ellie gestured to the cat on the floor. “Nolan saved my life today.”
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