On her way where?
“Vlad, I have a job. I can’t just run off. And won’t your brothers just track me down? What’s the point? I’ll be safer here with a lot of ammunition and the help and support of my parents.”
“You’re risking Zoe’s life staying here. You don’t know what my brothers are capable of.” He wouldn’t quite meet her gaze.
There was something he wasn’t telling her. “Spill. What have you left out?”
He sighed. “My brothers aren’t the only threat. They aren’t the only ones who think like my father. There are a bunch of tigers as fanatical as my dad. Not all of them were killed when he was. Not even close.”
The news surprised her. “Your dad is dead?” She knew Vlad and his father didn’t get along—she’d learned that when she and Vlad were a couple—but losing his father had to hurt. She’d be devastated.
“He was killed by one of the tigers who rescued Nila from him. He would have been put to death by the elders anyway. He’d killed humans, which is an automatic death sentence.”
“Elders?”
“Our governing body.”
She was curious enough to ask more, but she didn’t have time for it now. She needed him gone. Then she had to decide how best to protect Zoe. If she ran, she’d have no way of knowing when it was safe to return. She’d be in unfamiliar territory. And she’d be away from her parents if she needed their help.
“I’ll tell you all about the shifter world later,” he interrupted her thoughts, “when you and Zoe are safe.”
“We’re safe. I just need some guns.” She went back to strategizing ways to protect Zoe. If Vlad’s brothers were like him, she was facing some serious trouble. But it would be easier to defend from home. She couldn’t tell Vlad that, though. He’d just keep coming back. She didn’t want to see him anymore, and she certainly didn’t want Zoe around him. She willfully ignored the fact that Zoe might be a shapeshifter and without Vlad her pain could continue. Rose would take care of that too…somehow.
“Rose.” Vlad launched off the couch, circled it, and started pacing.
Back and forth, back and forth. To her astonishment, his movements reminded her of tigers in zoos. She sat up straighter in her seat.
“Rose, it’s more than my brothers, though they’re the reason I’m here now. Zoe needs to learn to shift. And she can’t do that in your backyard. She shouldn’t do it here, where anyone might see it. We need to keep her protected, and isolated, while she learns to control her other half.”
He’d brought up the exact thing she was trying to pretend wasn’t an issue. She was still hoping Zoe could just learn how to stop the pain without having to do…what Vlad had done. But what if he was right and she had to do that? “What will happen if Zoe doesn’t learn to shift? What if she suppresses it? Will the pain get worse?”
“Likely. But beyond that, I’m not sure. She’s unique. Even though Nila’s also a hybrid, she can’t shift, so she made it to adulthood without ever even knowing she was half tiger. Ordinary tiger shifters learn to do this when they’re two years old. They’re surrounded by it and don’t consider suppressing it. So I honestly don’t know what might happen to her if she does try to prevent the shift permanently. I’m not sure she can.”
“There has to be—” she started, but Vlad cut her off with a raised hand when his cellphone rang.
He pulled the phone out of his pants pocket, checked the caller ID, and frowned as he answered. “Yes?”
She stood, readying to send him on his way as soon as he hung up. She had some planning to do and he was a distraction. The shifter thing… She’d worry about it once she was sure Zoe was safe.
He listened for a moment, then cursed. “Thanks.” And he hung up. “All three of my brothers were just spotted at the airport. They’ll be here soon. We have to go.”
Before she could respond, she heard a sweet little voice from the hallway. “Mommy? What’s going on?”
Chapter Three
Rose rushed to her daughter, covering her panic with a smile. “Are you okay now, baby? Any more pain?”
She shook her head, glanced at Vlad, then back at Rose and whispered in that very loud kid whisper, “Who’s he, Mommy?”
“This is Vlad. He’s a…friend of mommy’s from before you were born.” God, with everything else, she hadn’t even begun to think how she’d tell Zoe that Vlad was her father. If she’d tell her. She’d prefer he just disappear again and leave them alone. Then she wouldn’t have to explain any of this to her daughter. A cowardly response, but there it was. Vlad complicated things. He’d brought trouble to her door. And while he’d helped Zoe, he’d also thrown Rose’s world upside down with all the shapeshifter talk, with his very presence. She didn’t want to deal with any of it, or him.