by E A Price
“So, is Elise enjoying her honeymoon?”
“She, ah…” Mary frowned. “How did you know she's on her honeymoon?”
Surely Elise would have told her if she was in contact with Neal. As nice as he was, Elise used to always complain about him in college. She disliked that he organized all-night parties for his fellow computer game aficionados. She thought he was a nerd and never liked him encouraging his fellow ‘nerds’ to hang around their dorm.
“I follow her on social media.”
“Oh.” Mary twitched uneasily. She knew Elise was very into that kind of thing – always snapping and posting pictures of whatever she was up to, but it was not something Mary would ever risk for herself.
“Yeah, you must be lonely without her.”
“What?”
“You two live together, right?”
“How did you…” Elise was assiduous about not mentioning Mary anywhere in any of her posts.
“I mean, Elise doesn’t mention it, but I know you do. Like when she took photos of those coconut pineapple muffins she made. I know that Elise is allergic to coconut but remembered that you loved it.”
Neal beamed at her, completely oblivious to the dread brewing within her, unaware of how creepy he sounded. But then everyone sounded creepy to her. Even the mailman when he told her it was nice to see her again. How well did she really know Neal? He had always been nice to her in college, so kind and helpful given what was happening to her. She’d never looked at him with anything but trust, but maybe…
“I have to go,” she almost yelled at him.
Neal flinched, but he didn’t lose his smile. “Sure, since I’m back in town let me know if you want to hang out or something.”
“Yep!” She was already running out the store.
“But you don’t have my number…”
“Okay!”
Mary ran all the way home and didn’t stop until she was safely behind her own front door with its seven locks and various bolts. She panted and dropped to the floor. Dear lord, she needed to do more regular exercise if she was planning on doing that again.
Maybe she was overreacting. Maybe she was just paranoid. She wanted to talk to Elise, to get a little reassurance, but even if she could she wasn’t going to – Elise deserved some time away.
No, instead she would call Detective Hotsler. He wasn’t Elise, but he was better than no one.
*
Tomas growled as he listened to the cacophony of noise coming from inside the house - yep, just another regular dinner in his household. There was the sound of breaking glass and some loud guffaws. His jaguar paced restlessly. He should be used to this by now, but no, he still felt like an outsider even with his own family. He had always been the odd one out, even at School - the strange one who didn’t talk much and always ate lunch alone.
He had never been a social or popular animal – he and his beast liked the quiet. Liked being alone. Being around others riled him. Even being around his brothers bothered him. They were their usual obnoxious selves again, so Tomas had left the dinner table, taking most of the chicken with him to their general annoyance. That had been swiftly devoured, and now Tomas was staring into the night, considering whether a run as his beast would help soothe his frayed nerves. It wasn’t just his brothers bothering him. Tonight he had other things to worry over. Not that he was worried – more like nervously excited.
His jaguar snarled as another crash sounded inside the house. Moments later his father, Ray, came out of the house chuckling. He always found his rotten younger sons hilarious.
“Ah, there you are, boy. You keep running out on dinner like this you’ll be away to a shadow.”
He barked in laughter and slapped Tomas on the shoulder. Yes, it had always been a joke about how Tomas had never seemed to stop growing. The leap prime was a big guy, but Tomas was bigger. Standing at six feet eight he was head and shoulders above most of his leap mates. Ray was on the smaller side for a male jaguar, and it appeared that his brothers took after him, too. Tomas was a freak of nature in his house – something his brothers enjoyed teasing him about. They considered that the reason he wasn’t particularly smart was because he was so big and his brain couldn’t cope with controlling such a large body. They told him that on a regular basis.
Ray took out a pack of cigarettes and promptly lit one. Tomas pursed his mouth. His mom had asthma and was very sensitive to things like smoke. She had asked his dad to quit over and over but he wouldn’t. Though at least he was taking his smoking outside the house – not something he had done for any of his mom’s previous pregnancies.
“You ready for tomorrow?” asked his dad.
Ah, that was why he was outside – he wanted to talk.
“Yes,” replied Tomas.
Tomorrow, as per the dictates of the leap laws, he could go down to Los Lobos and find himself a mate to bring back. Course he was ready, he’d been thinking of this since he turned nineteen, since his first admittedly disappointing foray with women. His jaguar had been waiting for his mate for six years, and he would not be denied any longer.
“Ready to find your mate?”
“Definitely.”
He was ready to find a female to be his and his alone. Mine.
Ray flicked some ash off the end of his cigarette. “Ready to bring a good little mate back here to us?”
Tomas looked at his father while his jaguar let out a sharp yowl. What was this ‘us’ business?
“Your mother is overwhelmed,” explained Ray. “She needs help.”
“I’m not bringing back a maid,” grumbled Tomas.
Ray shrugged. “Just make sure you find one who’s able to take care of our family.”
“You’re joking?” scoffed Tomas.
“Of course not, your family comes first. We need someone who can cook, clean, sew…”
“I’m not finding a mate to be a slave.”
His snorted. “Not a slave, just… someone who knows her place – and that is in the home taking care of the cubs and looking after the men.”
Tomas scowled at his father. His mate would be his – he was not picking someone based on whether they could darn a sock or not!
“What if I find someone who doesn’t want to do those things?”
One who didn’t want to be treated as a free maid to his ungrateful and lazy brothers?
Ray gave him a hard look. “Make sure you find a female who does.”
Tomas was about to snarl at him when his father added, “Your mother tires herself out because she loves her family and wants to take care of them. What’s better than a woman like that?”
He watched his father silently stub out his cigarette and return to the house. Tomas let out a long exasperated breath. Sure, he loved his mother, he just thought she was kind of… foolish for idolizing Ray the way she did, and letting her younger sons walk all over her. But no, he did love her.
His jaguar wasn’t very happy about this, but what was he going to do? Quiz potential mates about how good their pot roasts are? What female in their right mind would want to be free labor for his awful family? As if finding a mate wasn’t already tough enough.
The excitement about going to Los Lobos was slowly becoming dread.
Three
Detective Hotsler gave Mary a reassuring smile. He always made her feel at ease. It had taken her a while to get used to him, to be able to talk to him while looking him in the eye, but after ten years, she could finally do it.
It helped that he was about twenty years older than her. Elise joked about him being hot – and he was good looking – but Mary saw him more like a kindly father figure. Not like her father who was as warm and cuddly as a glacier, but like the father she had always wanted - kind but not afraid to be stern.
The detective checked her locks and asked her about her security, asked her if she had been contacted recently. No, she hadn’t – it had been a nice break for her not to receive those ugly notes and threats. Her nervousness about doin
g absolutely anything or going anywhere hadn’t abated, but not having to read those words was still nice.
“I think he may have gone,” she said tremulously.
Hotsler gave her a steely look. “We can’t be too careful where your security is concerned.”
She once ran into the detective while he was taking his two daughters to the cinema. He had been a bit put out to see her – not liking to mix work with his home life – but on seeing how this big, gruff guy was with two little girls dressed as princesses, it made her like him more, made her trust him, and that was not an easy thing for her. She started thinking of him as a father after that day – he comforted her in a way her father never had.
“Last time we talked you said Elise would be moving out of here soon.”
Mary nodded gloomily. That would be happening when she got back from honeymoon.
“You gonna be able to keep up the rent on your own?”
She doubted it. Even if she still had a full-time job, she couldn’t afford it. Elise always paid the lion’s share of everything, and she doubted Brick would want her to continue doing so after she moved out – even if Mary knew Elise would offer.
“I don’t think so. I’ll need to move.”
Hotsler nodded and made a note on his pad. “Let me know the buildings you may be interested in, and I’ll look into the security they have.”
It was one of the reasons she liked the building she was in. Everyone needed a code to get in, and a doorman was on duty twenty-four seven. As much as it had scared her at first, they had a vampire doorman some of the time. But truly, knowing that Calvin – yes, that was his real name – was downstairs guarding her at night made her feel better. There was no way anyone would get past Calvin. She and Elise had moved around a lot over the years because her stalker always managed to find her and find a way to get into her apartment to leave ‘gifts.’ But, he hadn’t managed to get into her current apartment… yet.
She would need to downsize to a smaller place because there was no way she would consider a new roommate. No way would she be able to trust a stranger. She could always move home to her parents but that just brought up a whole other heap of issues. The first being her parents who thought she was the spawn of Satan, and the second being her stalker who took offense whenever she tried to leave the city even for a couple of days.
“Has anyone been acting oddly around you?”
Mary hesitated. She almost didn’t, but then she told him about running into Neal and how uncomfortable he made her.
Hotsler pursed his lips, flipping back through his notepad. “I’ll check him out, but we cleared him back when you got the first note.”
“You did?” News to her he was ever a suspect.
“Sure, we checked out all the males in your dorm.”
“Oh. I probably overreacted then.” Mary forced herself to laugh, but really she was cringing at herself for behaving the way she did.
“I’ll run a check on him,” said the detective, though she was sure he was just humoring her.
Mary cleared her throat. “I actually wanted to ask you about something else…”
She trailed off, and he looked at her expectantly. She snuggled a little deeper into her trusty old cardigan and decided it was best just to blurt it out. Hopefully, he’d shut it down, and she could at least tell Elise she tried.
“Elise wants me to try speed dating. She bought me this coupon for a speed dating event, and it’s about to run out.”
Hotsler pursed his lips slightly in disapproval. “I don’t want to tell you that you can’t date,” he started.
Mary inwardly sagged in relief. Good. She liked where this was going. Tell her it was a bad idea and she could rip up the damn coupon.
“So when you go just make sure you’re careful about what you say. Don’t tell anyone where you live. If you want to contact any of them after, you take their number not the other way around.”
“Ah, what?”
That was definitely not what she was expecting him to say.
Hotsler smiled indulgently. “My eldest daughter’s about ready to date. I don’t want to stand in her way any more than I do yours. But like her, I want you to stay safe.”
Hell, he thought he was doing her a favor.
“But are you sure…”
“Use the car service I recommended to take you there and back – they’ll keep you safe on your journey. The event should be full of people, make sure you’re never alone.”
Mary nodded, a little dazed and disappointed. Looks like he wasn’t going to forbid her from going anywhere.
Hotsler got up to leave and checked her door locks again for good measure.
“I’m going away on vacation for the next week starting tomorrow. If you need anything – anything at all - call Sergeant Jones at my precinct. He knows you, and he’ll help you.”
Mary frowned. “Not Detective Rogers?”
Obviously, Hotsler had been on vacation numerous times over the years, and whenever he did, he told her to contact his partner – Rogers. She’d known Rogers as long as Hotsler but wasn’t as familiar with him. He was a nice enough guy, though a little younger and not as fatherly as Hotsler.
Hotsler’s smile dimmed slightly. “He’s… on vacation too.”
That was probably a euphemism for something else, but Mary never pried into other people’s business. She had her own problems to worry about.
They said their goodbyes, and after he left, Mary rubbed her cheeks while staring at the speed dating coupon.
Well, she might as well go and get it over with – she didn’t want to face Elise’s wrath. Besides, one night out couldn’t hurt, could it?
*
It was their first night in Los Lobos, and Tomas was feeling more than a little underwhelmed. His jaguar huffed in agreement.
Including him, there were four males from the leap currently on the prowl for their mates. He, Lorenzo and Diego had all turned twenty-five in the past year, so were finally old enough to take the trip. But Antonio was in his thirties and had done this quite a few times before. That combined with Antonio’s gruff unenthusiastic attitude did not bode well.
He watched as Antonio drank at the bar while Lorenzo and Diego flirted with a couple of women. Tomas was on his own, drinking a coke and trying to pretend he was invisible. Not an easy feat for someone as large as him.
A young woman wearing a huge smile and very little else winked at him. Tomas looked away and pretended he didn’t see.
His jaguar paced, wanting to leave. It was too hot and stuffy, and the club was stuffed with too many people. None of the women interested him; none of them elicited a response from his beast. Their noxious perfumes offended him. He wanted to go, to run, to get away from everyone.
Tomas had always been big and quiet, and the other guys teased him about it all the time. How on earth was he supposed to get a female? He couldn’t do this; he couldn’t flirt and talk to these women – what on earth would he say?!
Diego and Lorenzo seemed quite enthralled by the women in the club, but Tomas clammed up whenever one of them dared approach him. Speaking of…
The winking woman was making her way to him, just as Antonio appeared at his elbow, passing him another coke. He didn’t dislike beer, but he already had enough trouble communicating on his own – alcohol wouldn’t make him smarter.
“Hey there,” said the winker.
Tomas grunted. His beast sneered. She smelled strongly of another male. Either a boyfriend or given the paleness of her skin on her ring finger, a husband.
“I’ve been watching you all night,” she cooed.
Tomas grunted. They had only been there an hour.
“I’ve never seen you here before. You new in town?”
“Ah…”
“Buy me a drink?”
She brushed up against him, and he froze, staring down at her. Irritation flickered in her eyes. She tossed her head to look at Antonio.
“Is he slow, or something
?” she asked disdainfully. “Do we have a Forrest Gump situation here?”
Antonio curled his upper lip, showing her a fang and let out a mini snarl. The woman rolled her eyes and sauntered away, throwing out the words, “Your loss,” over her shoulder.
Antonio snorted but didn’t say anything. Tomas just felt relief at her leaving; even the slow comment didn’t bother him that much – he’d heard it time and time again. Maybe if she was a male, he might be pissed, but no, he just didn’t know what to say to women – even when they were insulting him!
To say he didn’t have much experience with women was like saying water was a little wet. He had never really been attracted to a female. He was thrilled when he turned nineteen and was allowed to go down to the town. With the lack of females in the leap, before being allowed to mate, the males often found partners down in town – women just looking for a little fun. Tomas had actually been a little excited the first time he went down there. The other males all looked forward to it, all bragged about their conquests, but for Tomas, it had all been so… disappointing.
Tomas could not find any woman to entice him to talk to her never mind anything else. So, after a few depressing visits, he gave up. Now, he had no idea how to talk to women. Sure there was Valentina in the leap – she was the only jaguar female his age. But he grew up with her, and he had no trouble growling at her. The other women in the leap were all young kids or mated – he felt the same about them as he did his mother – he could talk to women like his mother. But other women - single women - were another matter entirely.
His jaguar had been hoping it would be easy. He would just wander on down to Los Lobos and bam! There, he would meet his mate, and he would instantly know she was the one for him.
“Hey there, cutie.”
Tomas blinked as another woman approached him. She was wearing a lot more clothing than the previous female, but the saucy look on her face was no less worrying.
“Can I get you a drink?”
Tomas clammed up. No, that wasn’t true – he was always clammed up. She just made him even clammier. She was gazing up at him with hungry eyes.