“If you’re lonely, maybe you should move into town. Find yourself a girlfriend.”
“I have no wish for a friend.” Matteo abruptly stood up and crossed the room. When he reached the cedar chest next to his bed, he lifted the lid and placed a folded quilt on the floor. Then he set a pair of tiny shoes on top of it before pulling out a pair of boots. After returning the shoes and blanket back to the cedar chest, he strode over to the table and set the boots in front of me.
“These should fit you.”
I lifted a tan boot and felt the padded lining. They had thick treads for hiking, but they were too small to be his.
“I can give you thick socks if they’re too big. It’s not good to have your feet sliding around in a boot, but you’ll need these. You can burn your flimsy shoes in the fireplace.”
I unlaced my sneakers and set them aside. “These are practical in the city for running.”
“And those are practical in the mountains for surviving,” he countered, easing back into his chair.
I slid my foot into the boot, and it fit nicely. “Whose are these?”
“They once belonged to a remarkable woman.” He gazed pensively into the kitchen.
I put on the second boot. “She left you?”
“Not by choice.”
I sensed a story. “Did she die?”
“Yes.”
“So you locked yourself away in the woods as punishment?”
He shifted sideways in his chair, propping one elbow on the table. “My kindred spirit is gone. What is the purpose of my life without the other half of my soul?”
I walked around and tested out the boots. “Maybe your purpose is to help me out. I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I’m on a mission. Those lions are after children, and you don’t want to know what they plan to do to them.”
Matteo’s golden eyes flashed up, and they were volcanic.
“If you help me, you’ll be helping those kids.”
“Why would you bring young out here?”
I was used to the nuances of Chitah lingo. Many referred to children as young. The trouble was, I couldn’t give him a straight answer, so I rubbed at a mud stain on my sweatshirt.
His nose twitched. “Secrets. Everyone has them. Even me.” Matteo traveled to the kitchen. He filled a kettle with water and set it on the woodstove, which was still hot from the bread he had baked that was still cooling on the counter. The black pipe funneled the smoke up through the roof. “There’s a place in these woods they take little ones. Is that where you’re going?”
I swallowed hard. He knew about it?Nobodywas supposed to know about it.
“I smell your doubt, female.” He removed two cups from the cupboard. “I’ve seen them taking children to this place. I never scented malice, so I didn’t interfere. Not my business.” Matteo stood up and pulled tea bags from a box. “Perhaps the fates brought us together for a reason.”
I sat in my chair to face him and crossed my legs. “What do you know about those kids?”
“Nothing,” he replied, watching the kettle. “The world moves around me like mechanical parts moving inside a clock. I’m not part of that clock anymore. I’m just the man sitting in the hall, staring at the face and watching the time pass with every swing of the pendulum.”
I’d felt that way before, and it was a dark place to be. The isolation had almost destroyed me. If Viktor hadn’t come along, I don’t know what kind of monster I would have become.
A handsome smile crossed his expression.
“What’s that look about?” I asked, curious.
“I’m not around people much. Only when I do simple trading with a Shifter a few miles from here. I suppose I’ve forgotten what it’s like to be in a room with a person and scent their constantly changing emotions. You say nothing, but you say everything.”
Steam blew from the spout on the kettle, and just as it whistled, Matteo lifted it off the stove and filled the cups.
