She said it so matter-of-factly, but my eyes went wide, my eyebrows shooting up to my hairline. I couldn’t tell if she was being literal or not, but still, what a gesture.
“Wow, I don’t know what to say.”
“You need not say anything. Your actions have spoken. You returned one we thought lost, and we will never forget that. We are the oldDinè,and we do not forget kindness.”
I took the necklace with trembling hands. The woman gave me one more brief nod before she was enveloped in a thick cloudof steam. A moment later, she took to the sky in her magnificent eagle form.
Huh. Word really was getting around.
I didn’t know what to think about the whole situation, and to be honest, I was quite touched. Tomatoes momentarily abandoned, I hurried inside to find Leo and tell him what happened. I was pretty sure he would be just as amazed as I was, if not more so considering how ingrained he was in the shifter community.
But as soon as I got in the door, a deep, rumbling voice I could feel through the floorboards distracted me. It was the kind of voice that went viral on streaming channels for being so masculine and foreboding. But hearing it wasn’t what made me stop, rather it was the words themselves that had me frozen in my tracks.
“Yeah, you’re just a cute guy, aren’t you? Just a little, cute guy. Look at these fuzzy, widdle ears. Look at your fuzzy, widdle face. I could just eat you up, but then the world would be so much less cute, wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t it? Yeah, you know it would! You know that you are the cutiest of patootiest, yes, youarrreeee.”
That might have actually been the most adorable thing I’d ever heard. I hurried around the corner of the kitchen to see a truly giant of a man sitting in the living room with Ricky, America, and Leo.
He was sitting on the floor, his legs splayed out, taking up half of the space, and between the trunks of his thighs was none other than Goober himself, who was clearly having the time of his life as the giant enthusiastically stroked the Maine Coon’s back.
“Hello there,” I said, trying not to laugh at the sheer camp of it all. Considering it was the first time I was meeting the man, I didn’t want him to think that I was making fun of him. I wasdelighted at someone so blatantly loving on one of my cats, as well as the completely goofy look my big, old cat had on his very contented face.
Granted, Goober didn’t look all that big between the legs of the man who was fawning over him. God, the stranger had to be nearly seven feet tall.
Still, as pleasant as I tried to keep my tone, the man blushed crimson when he saw me. “Ah, are you the mother?”
Some people hated when pet parents refer to themselves as parents, or their charges as fur babies, but that single sentence from the man told me he was one of my kind. A dyed-in-the-wool, true animal lover. Not someone who was preachy about it or who used animals for moral grandstanding, but genuinely enjoying the company and personalities of all sorts of critters.
“I am,” I answered with a smile. “That’s my precious Goober you’ve got there. He loves back scratches and booty pats. And you are?”
The man stood, and yip, he really was seven feet tall. Holy halibut, what did his family feed him?
“I am Gichigami, but most of my friends call me Chiga. I heard from one of my old connections that you and your band of friends here have a huge lead on the assholes who have been kidnapping shifters and other folks. I know it’s a long shot, but my niece vanished without a trace two years ago. She went on a walk and never came back. Figured I could lend a hand, and worse comes to worse, I end up helping a lot of strangers.”
His voice was even deeper and more rumbling now that I was in the same room, and it carried a gravitas that was echoed in his dark, brown eyes. If I had to guess, he was at least part Native, which made me wonder how many of the shifters were Indigenous and how many came over from Europe on boats. I imagined almost every wolf shifter family that had been around for more than a hundred years had to have been some form ofNative, otherwise a full moon on the boat in the middle of the ocean would have been awkward for everyone around. Although Leo had explained to me that wolf shifters weren’t forced to transform during the full moon, he had said it made everything far more heightened, and their caloric needs increased even further, which probably would have led to quite negative reactions to the strict rations of maritime vessels back in the day.
“We appreciate that,” I said, and goodness, it was really beginning to feel like my house was the headquarters in the middle of a secret war. Never in a million years had I imagined helping a wounded wolf in the middle of the forest would lead to a growing organization of almost fifty magical folks all conspiring to hunt down two serial killers and end their tyranny. It really was the stuff of fantasy novels. “What kind of connection? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“He means Alicia,” Leo answered absentmindedly as he looked over the map pinned to the wall. I did wish that I had a nice table they could all sit at, but that was in the kitchen, and we needed it for meals. Besides, I liked that the kitchen was a communal space and didn’t really want to turn it into a war room. “He’s a mercenary. He’s worked with her several times.”
“A mercenary?” I echoed, feeling a little embarrassed. “So, you’re like a professional? Hope you don’t mind that we’re a bunch of amateurs. We’ve kind of been flying by the seat of our pants for most of this.”
Chiga looked relieved, as if he’d been afraid I would judge him from his work. To be honest, I had no idea really what being a mercenary entailed, so I didn’t have an opinion on it. Besides, I figured the important thing was that both he and Alicia were pretty adamant about helping, and we could use all the loyal hands we could get.
“Considering you’ve taken down three of the brothers, I don’t think I have room to judge anything. I’m happy to help howeverI can. But in the meantime…” It was quite an interesting thing to watch such a strapping giant of a man blush a bright, cheery pink. “I have a couple of cat harnesses in the car, and I’d love to take your little guy here on a bit of a walk. I’m supposed to FaceTime my fiancé back home, and I know he’d get a huge kick out of getting to see this cutie patootie get to play around in nature a bit.”
Well, that was about the last thing I expected. No one had ever asked to take one of my cats on a walk before. I’d been tempted to try myself, but when I looked online at cat harnesses that were truly secure for a feline, I’d tamped that urge down. Those things cost an arm and a leg. I could have made one myself, but there were some things I didn’t want to DIY.
“Are you absolutely sure he wouldn’t be able to get out of it?”
“One hundred percent. I have seven cats at home, including a sphinx, and none of them have ever been able to get out of the harness.”
Seven? Oh yeah, this man was a cat lover if there ever was one. Secretly, I kind of hoped he’d stick around. I had a soft spot for gentle giants, as well as people I could fangirl over cats with. Even though there were about fifty in my bit of the property, there was never such a thing as too many friends.
Especially too many friends who loved cats.
“All right, I trust you. I’m sure Goober will love it.”
“Perfect! I’ll be right back.”
