His otters continued to dance around, crawling between Tony’s legs and all around him. He chased them and batted at them, not unlike a house cat. All he needed was to get Tony a big box and the image would be complete. Pip let out a sigh and settled back against the wall. He was sure he’d have been rescued by now. Even though the Big Bad had pretty much told him his mate would never find him, Pip had been sure his knight in shining armor would come through the door, all big and muscly and drool-worthy. He’d scoop Pip up in his arms and get him out of this room. What Pip wouldn’t give to see the sun again. And he wanted to call his mom. And even his big brother.
Tony ambled over to him and plopped down across his legs. Pip let out an oomph as his only friend for the past several months settled against him.
“Sorry, buddy. Just a little melancholy today. I really thought he’d find me by now, you know?”
Tony licked a stripe up his neck, his tongue rough and scratchy.
“Ow. Cut it out. You know my skin is delicate! Tongue burn is disgusting.”
Tony settled back against Pip’s legs. He called his magic back, and the otters disappeared. Pip settled in for another long and boring day, trying not to lose hope. He’d managed to whine long and loud enough to get a new batch of books from his keepers. They thought they were being funny when they dropped off a bag of old romance novels, but Pip had been delighted. He’d been stealing romance novels from his mom’s collection since he was old enough to understand what a boner was. And so what if the books didn’t have hot guy-on-guy action? Like he cared. He could lose himself in a world of love and happily ever afters. It was exactly what he needed. If they’d really wanted to stick it to him, they’d have brought a bunch of horror novels or something. Like his life hadn’t already become enough of a horror without them adding to it.
He grabbed one of the romance novels off the stack and opened it, preparing to read out loud to Tony for a while as he’d taken to doing every day. He honestly wasn’t even sure Tony understood. There were moments when he seemed like he did. But he’d never shifted, and Pip didn’t think any shifter could stay in his animal form for as long as Tony had. Then again, what did he know? And it wasn’t like Tony actually ate anything. He’d tried to share his food with him more than once, but Tony just stared at it like it was the most horrible thing he’d ever seen and closed his eyes. No food, no water, and well, not to put a disgusting spin on things, but no poop either. He’d beenreallyconcerned about having to clean up tiger poop those first few days. But nope. Nothing. There was definitely something special about Tony.
After Pip read the first few pages which introduced a really rakish duke who was determined to find the perfect, well-mannered, boring bride, Tony twitched. There really wasn’t another way to describe it. One second, he had a lapful of sleepy tiger and the next, Tony wasaware. His entire body had gone from relaxed toat attention, even though he hadn’t actually moved.
“Tony?”
Something was happening. Pip could feel it. He gave Tony a shove, and Tony actually moved for him, standing and crowding Pip back against the wall. He crouched behind Tony’s larger form. There really wasn’t any other place for him to hide, and honestly, Tony had been quite the deterrent to the minions who were looking after him. One guy who’d had the bright idea to try and get handsy while delivering Pip his dinner had ended up with his arm snapped in Tony’s jaws. Pip still heard echoes of the guy’s scream in his ears.
The door opened, and a big giant of a man with yellow eyes stood in the doorway.
And Pip knew he’d met his destiny.
“You came!”
Pip ran from his spot and leapt into the stranger’s arms. He peppered around a thousand kisses over his face. It took him until a thousand and one to realize his savior was frozen in place.
“Um, hi.” Pip lifted his head and stared into dreamy yellow eyes that honestly seemed a little confused.
“Hi,” another voice said.
Pip hadn’t realized they weren’t alone.
He looked over his mate’s shoulder— because this guyhad to bePip’s mate. He was everything he’d ever daydreamed about— and found another guy standing there. He was young, and really hot in that boy-next-door kind of way. And he was wearing really cool armor.
Wait.
Armor.
As in, knight-in-shining?
“Uh-oh.”
But before he could worry about his mistake, Tony made a sound he’d never actually heard the tiger make before, and then the cute guy was down, buried beneath five hundred pounds of tiger and getting his face licked off.
The big guy holding Pip dropped him like a hot potato.
“Sawyer!”
Tony snarled when the guy moved, and that was a sound Pip was very familiar with.
“Antonius McClaw Portman! Stop that right now.”
Tony looked up at him, clearly annoyed at Pip’s tone.
“What have I told you about delicate human skin? Cut it out!”
Tony snarled out a complaint.
