Chapter Seven
Jackie felt a little uncomfortable when Hugh stood and started for the door. He wasn’t sure he wanted the man to leave. He had been kind of a buffer between Jackie and Boone, and Jackie wasn’t sure what would happen if Hugh left.
“Kye and Neumus are expecting me home for dinner, and they get antsy if I’m not there,” Hugh explained. “If you have any questions, call me. I’d be happy to answer them. Boone can give you my number.”
Jackie glanced toward Boone. “You’re staying?”
“I can go if you want me to,” Boone replied. “But I’d like to stay, if that’s okay with you.”
Jackie bit his lip as he considered it.
“I want a chance to get to know you, Jackie, but I don’t want to do anything that will make you uncomfortable,” Boone explained. “So, you tell me what you’d like to do. I won’t get mad or upset. We can take this as slow as you need us to.”
Jackie drew in a breath, catching a hint of strong musk. Something else, something earthy and spicy, tickled his nose, but he couldn’t place it. “Would you like to stay for lunch?”
“Yes.” Boone smiled. “I’d like that very much.”
Okay, then. He could do this. It was just lunch…with a lion shifter.
Oh fuck.
“It’s against our nature for a shifter to hurt his mate, Jackie,” Hugh said. “Boone would feel every bit of pain he caused you. It would destroy him. It’s ingrained in shifters to always care for and protect their mates.”
Jackie sent Hugh a small smile. The theory of mates sounded good. The reality not so much. He had no idea how much of Hugh’s words were true. The man was a shifter, after all. Jackie’s experience with them as a species had not been that good. He wasn’t sure what to believe.
But as he turned to look at Boone, he sure knew he wanted to. The man was mouthwateringly gorgeous. Jackie would like nothing more than to shout to the world that Boone belonged to him, especially after the things he’d been through his entire life, both from humans and from shifters.
Liking soft, silky clothes and colorful makeup had not made him a lot of friends. For a long time, he’d tried to hide the things he desired behind closed doors and beneath heavy layers of clothing.
It wasn’t until his father took him aside and talked to him about being true to himself that he decided the world could go hang itself. He was going to be who he was, and anyone who didn’t like it could hit the door.
He missed his father.
“So.” Jackie closed the door behind Hugh and then smiled at Boone. “What would you like for lunch?”
Boone smiled back. “Meat.”
Jackie chuckled, some of the tension leaving his shoulders. “Wouldn’t you die if I said I was a vegetarian?”
Boone’s eyes rounded. “You’re not, are you?”
“No, but I had you worried there for a minute, didn’t I?”
Boone shrugged. “We would have found a way to compromise.”
Jackie cocked his head as he stared at the earnest expression on the big man’s face. “You really mean that, don’t you?”
“It’s what mates do.”
Huh.
“Look.” Boone brushed a hand over the top of his head. “I grew up in a really fucked-up pride. It was everything you’re terrified of. My alpha, who was also my father, was a rat bastard. He took my mother from me, he took my pride from me, and he almost took my life. From the moment I took my first breath until my brothers and I were able to escape, I lived in hell.”
Jackie’s heart broke at the anguish he could hear in Boone’s voice. His father had never been anything but supportive of him his entire life. He couldn’t imagine not having that. “What happened to him?”
“My brother Trevor killed him when the bastard was trying to kill another brother. He was originally sent to shifter prison and my brother Otto took over the pride, but he escaped and came after us. That’s when Trevor killed him.”
“Oh, Boone.”
