Page 34 of Tiger Betrayal

“Yes. She knew right away. Those first few weeks were a blur. We woke up to something awful inside of us. Hungry. Had to clean up our own carnage in the garage. Had to go through our first Changes with no Maker to tell us what was happening. I called her and told her.”

“What did she do?”

“She stayed with him. She said we weren’t going to ruin another one of her relationships. She blamed us for what he did.”

Chills rippled up her spine. Evil was present in his history. Evil had been present when he’d been made into a Cat, and then understanding had been withheld by a parent who was supposed to protect him. “Oh my gosh, Stellan.” After everything, their mother had still chosen him, even though he’d tried to kill her sons. And still, Stellan had hung a picture of her in his hallway.

Laramie had never known loyalty like this existed. She would also never be able to understand the depths of the damage that had been done to Stellan.

Stellan leaned his shoulder on the door frame and offered his profile to her. “He was a tiger.”

“Tiger,” she whispered. “You’re a tiger?”

A slow nod was her answer.

Chills, chills, chills. His eyes made so much sense now as she recalled pictures of tigers she’d seen over the years.

“What is in your journal?” he asked so low, she almost missed it.

“My journal?” she repeated, confused for a second before she remembered the sketch he’d made of her in the library. “It’s my mom’s.”

Stellan reached behind her, hooking his strong arm around her waist and pulled her down, until her body curled around his, and her head lay comfortably in his lap, right there in the doorway of his RV. He stroked her hair from her face. “Why do you have your mom’s journal?”

She’d already been tearing up, but at the thought of talking about it, she had to squeeze her eyes tightly closed to ward off the ache in her heart. “Is this the trade?” she asked.

“I want to know everything about you. I want you to know everything about me. Good and bad.”

“Good and bad,” she whispered, wondering how the hell she would be able to get through this conversation. “My mom and dad were so in love,” she told him. “They were magic. They had this way of lighting up the room and making anyone around them feel love. And then he died when I was younger, and it was me and my mom and our memories of him. And hers were…well…beautiful. I always wanted a love story like theirs.” She swallowed hard. “And then she died too, and I found the journal, and it details that time in her life when she fell in love with my dad, and I don’t know. I feel close to them again when I visit the same places they existed together. As close as I can. Since she passed, I feel like I’m in orbit and I can’t get my legs under me.”

“She was a good mom?” he asked quietly, stroking her hair.

A tear slid from the outer corner of her eye and down her cheek as she nodded. “She was perfect. I wish you could’ve met her.”

“Maybe it’s best she didn’t meet me.”

“Oh, I don’t think so. I think she would’ve liked you.”

He studied her face and stroked a line down her jaw. “I can tell you are telling the truth. You believe that.”

“I think you would’ve felt her goodness and wanted to protect it.”

His gold eyes darted to her, and a slight smile took the very corners of his lips. “Sometimes I think you can see me.”

“Scary for you?” she guessed.

“Terrifying.”

“I go to the places my parents visited, and I talk to them, and I sketch it, and tape it to the back of her journal entry. I moved here to do this. They went to college here, and met here, and being where they were makes me feel anchored. It makes me feel happy.”

He was nodding slowly, eyes on her hair as he stroked it, thoughtful expression on his handsome face. “Sometime can I go with you?”

Laramie couldn’t help her emotional smile. Thickly, she whispered, “Sure.”

“Yeah?”

“Next up is Memory Grove.”

“I know that park.”