“He not people. He a boy.” She spoke with the tone of someone stating something so obvious that to even ask about it was ridiculous.
Rose had to suppress a chuckle. She glanced at Vlad.
His brows were raised. “What are you teaching her?”
“I have no idea where she got that idea.” She faced Zoe again. “Honey, Grandpa is a boy and he’s people.”
She frowned and considered that. “You change to a tiger, Mommy? Why you never show me?”
“No, I can’t do it, but Vlad and I think you can.”
“Why me and not you?”
Rose pursed her lips. That was a much more complicated question to answer. “You’re special, baby,” she finally said. “You’re like Vlad.”
Zoe eyes got very wide. “Cool.” She said the single word as an awed exhale.
Once again, her reaction both baffled and pleased Rose. She looked at Vlad.
He shrugged. “Three-year-olds.”
“How can I be a tiger?” Zoe asked.
“Well,” Vlad took over, “I’ve got a friend coming who is going to help teach you. Would you like that?”
Zoe actually paused to consider, her face screwed up in a frown. After all her enthusiasm, her taking a moment to really think about if she wanted to learn or not was another surprise to Rose.
After swinging her legs and considering her options, Zoe finally said, “Yes. I wanna be tiger.”
“Okay,” Rose said. “Then we’ll start your lessons as soon as we can.”
“It hurted?” she asked Vlad.
“Nope. Feels like stretching.”
“Will my ’sodes be bad for it?”
Rose pulled Zoe into a hug. “Actually, baby, we think if you learn to be a tiger you won’t get any more episodes.”
“Really?” She blinked large eyes up at Rose.
“We hope.”
“You gonna learn to be tiger, Mommy?”
Rose smiled. “Wish I could. But I’m not special like you.”
“You still special, Mommy.”
“Thank you, baby.”
They spent the rest of the evening talking about tigers. By the time Zoe went to bed, she’d peppered Vlad with so many questions, Rose couldn’t remember half of them.
One thing was for sure, though. Her baby wasn’t afraid of the tigers, at least not yet. That went a huge way toward alleviating Rose’s worry.
Now they just had to teach her to shift—and hope she didn’t get hurt.
*****
“Well that went better than I expected it to,” Vlad said as he walked into the kitchen.
Rose stood at the sink, rinsing dishes from dinner and putting them into the dishwasher. “I can’t believe she thought that was fun. I’ve been so worried she’d be terrified.”
“Three-year-olds,” he said.
She smiled over her shoulder at him then went back to the dishes. “She’s asleep?”
“Finally. I think having a pet tiger to play with gave her a second wind.”
“That and her two-hour nap this afternoon. I’m surprised we got her to sleep before midnight.”
Vlad tried his best to stay near the door, but Rose’s scent drew him. She smelled delicious. He went as far as the counter near the sink, then forced himself to stop with several feet still between them. After all the worry over Zoe through the afternoon, he’d let his guard drop with Rose and now all he could think about was burying his face against her neck and breathing her in.
She paused when he got close, then went back to cleaning.
“You need any help?” He had no real excuse to be here. He just didn’t want to go to bed yet. At least, not without her.
Don’t push, he warned himself. She was in enough turmoil with what was happening to Zoe. He knew that. He knew their relationship should wait. But his tiger thought waiting was a terrible idea.
“No thanks. You don’t have to stay up with me,” she said. “I’m going to sleep as soon as these are done.”
“Not really tired yet.” He edged closer. He couldn’t help it. He wanted to feel her heat. The scent of her desire eased into the air and he closed his eyes a moment to savor it.
“Any word on your brothers?” she asked.
The change in topic should have dampened his amorous feelings. It didn’t. All it did was spark protective instincts that urged him to hold her close and keep her safe. “They aren’t heading this way. That’s good.”
“Have they given up?”
He wanted to say yes. He wanted to assure her she was safe now. He didn’t think she’d appreciate the lie though. “No. Yuri’s been running searches into Zoe’s medical history.” He just got that bit of news tonight after putting his daughter to bed.