Page 27 of Titan’s Mate

“Yes. Colt and Remy made me watch it.” He did Hanks’ intensely frustrated ‘Woody’ voce from Toy Story. “You. Are. A. TOY!!!!!”

Mari laughed. Fuck, he loved her laugh. “No, not that one. Although, I do feel the need to point out to you that the toys in that movie were alive. They just didn’t let everyone know that. So maybe you shouldn’t be too judgy about me and Sebbie.”

She stroked Sebastian’s rubber head with one finger. “But I meant the one where he’s stuck on the island, with nothing but FedEx packages.”

“The one where he makes friends with a volleyball?” That made more sense. Kind of.

She shrugged, her dimples reappearing. “Everyone needs someone to talk to. And Sebastian even talks back.”

Shit, she did think the duck talked.

She held Sebastian up and squeezed him, making a squeaky noise.

Which made Titanlaugh, as he was sure she intended. He loved that she liked to mess with him. Between that, and her love of books and her lips and her boobs, she was probably the perfect woman.

Mari said, “If you did die, would you want to stay here, like Nick, or would you want to move on?”

He shrugged. “I never really thought about it. I just figured…” He broke off. He figured with no one to cross him over, the demons would take him, like he deserved.

He added, “But it would be fun as hell to be able to stay around and haunt the crew. Especially Remy.”

“Right?” Her eyes brightened. “I’m kind of bummed I can’t.” She petted Sebastian’s head some more. “But xióngmāo heaven should be nice too. Lots of bamboo shoots, and my gong-gong will be there.”

Titan took a deep breath to keep his voice from breaking. “I’m sure he will.”

She smiled gently, and snuggled into her pillow. “I hope so.”

Moments later, she was asleep.

He sat there for a while, just watching her, until the sadness became too much for him. He stood, thinking he’d go downstairs to the studio and work for awhile.

He couldn’t just leave her, though. He pulled the covers up a little, to make sure she didn’t get cold, and resisted the urge to brush that silky hair back.

He didn’t have the right to touch her, especially when she didn’t know about it. But his fingers hovered over her, anyway.

Unexpectedly, behind her, he got a vision of her animal. Shy, peeking out from behind a screen of green bamboo.

A white face with black circles of fur around her eyes, and black ears.

He began to smile. Xióngmāo must mean giant panda, he realized. As shifters they were known to be very rare—and wise.

The two of them watched each other for a few minutes. He wanted to tell her not to be afraid, that he would protect Mari—protect both of them. He opened his mouth and then the words came to him, like a whisper in his mind. Don’t be afraid.

As if she were protecting him.

There was a ghostly rustle of bamboo, and then she was gone. But he could feel her eyes, still on him, and her touch on his soul.

Don’t be afraid. Everything will be all right.

Chapter 12

The next morning Titan let Mari sleep in while he went down to the main house to start breakfast. He didn’t like leaving Brock alone too much—Brock said he was all right and he was used to it, but really he was better when there were people around.

He got lost inside his own head too much, and then his wolf went wild. Titan knew what that was like.

A few minutes after he put the coffee on, he saw Brock, in wolf form, loping down the hill from the woods.

He looked exhausted, like he’d been running all night. Running from things that couldn’t be escaped, most likely.