Figure of Speech
Page 33

“You sure you like it? Tabby wants to approve it.” She winced. “Im. Improve.”
“I love it.” He was quiet for a moment, but she couldn’t move to see why. “Is that…my Wolf?”
“Wha?” Tabby had started Jim’s Wolf already?
“Yup. Surprise, Chloe!” Tabby allowed Chloe to sit up long enough to look at Tabby’s cell phone. On the screen was an image of a gray wolf. Jim’s Wolf. “Did you think I wouldn’t nab a pic for you?”
“Thank you.” Chloe sniffled, hoping she wasn’t about to start bawling like a baby. She put her forehead down on the headrest, trying to hide how red her cheeks had become.
Jim leaned over and whispered something to Tabby before kissing the top of Chloe’s head once more. “I’m going to have a word with Ryan real fast before I have to head back to work. Stay here. Ryan will take you to my place before going home with Glory. All right?”
Chloe gave him a thumbs-up, but most of her attention was on the half-heard whispers between Tabby and Jim.
What had he meant by “play”?
“Any news yet?” Jim couldn’t see Chloe from the back room, but he could hear the quiet chatter as she and Tabby spoke softly to one another. The scent of her blood was making his Wolf restless, but the knowledge that Tabby was inking his image on Chloe’s skin made him shiver with a possessiveness he’d never known before.
She was his, body and soul. Now he just needed to make sure her heart was his as well.
Tabby was doing a marvelous job. The play-bow his wolf was doing in front of her blushing little kitsune made him smile.
“From Cheetah-boy? Not yet.” Ryan scowled at something on his screen, muttering something about…manure overages? As a veterinarian Jim often found himself in shitty situations, but he’d never had to account for them on a spreadsheet before.
“So our buddy Francois hasn’t managed to get ahold of whoever it was that almost made Barney shit petunias?”
“Language,” Ryan muttered absently. “And no. Neither of them will tell me.” Ryan sat back with a sigh. “Listen, Barney and Francois have both decided to keep my Hunter status hush-hush. They want me off the Senate books.”
“Because of Chloe.” Now it was Jim’s turn to scowl. “They probably already know.”
Ryan nodded. “I agree, but keeping me a nonsanctioned Hunter means that very few of them know.”
“And that might flush out whoever’s been watching Chloe?” Jim would have to do something about the security around his home. If both Spencer and Chloe were there, he wanted to make sure they were both safe from ravaging shifters.
“Exactly.”
“Huh. It’s stupid enough it might work.” Jim tapped his finger on the tabletop. “I wanted to ask you or Julian something.”
“Hmm?” Ryan stretched with a grunt.
“It’s about my brother.”
“I’m sorry.” Ryan’s expression became pained. “No, turning him into a shifter won’t cure him.”
Jim sighed. “I thought so.”
“It’s not like in books or movies. Whatever illnesses or injuries we have as humans carry over into our shifter selves. It’s why the Poconos Pack Luna still has a limp, or Sheri is still legally blind. If you had, say, diabetes when you were changed, you’d be a diabetic Wolf.”
Jim nodded. Ryan’s remorse over his inability to help was far too obvious in his voice and face for Jim to disbelieve him. “I’m still thinking of asking someone to change him. Spencer and Chloe are the only family I have left, and I want to share this with him.”
“Wait. First off, the moment you mated my sister you got the entire Bunsun-Williams clan as family.”
Jim stared at Ryan, then shuddered dramatically. He’d seen the “clan” in the diner before, wreaking havoc. The poor waitress hadn’t known whether or not to join in or run for the hills. “Oy.”
Ryan laughed. “Let’s talk to Max and Emma first, see how they would want to handle it.” Ryan held up his hand when Jim started to protest. “It’s how things work, Jim. This is Max and Emma’s territory, not the Bunsun-Williams territory. They get final say.”
“I don’t think they’d say no.” Glory stepped into the back room, making sure the curtain was shut behind her. “They’re pretty easygoing about that sort of thing.”
Jim nodded. He trusted Emma’s judgment. “Emma’s met Spencer. She seemed to like him.”
“If Emma liked him I really don’t think it will be an issue. In fact, she might offer to have him become a Puma.” Glory pulled a couple of sandwiches from the fridge, handing one to her mate before sitting next to Ryan. “Some Packs or Prides would turn him away because of the wheelchair, but I don’t think the Halle Pride would.”
“Or the Poconos Pack?” Jim remembered Emma and Max’s wedding, and the large, redheaded man who’d married Belinda Carlisle. Rick Lowell was a scary-ass man, but Jim doubted he’d have any trouble accepting Spencer into his Pack.
“Speaking of which, we need to have Rick formally induct you into his Pack. Tabby keeps poking Alex about that.” Ryan sounded uninterested, but to a Bear, there was no such thing as a Pack or Pride. They, like Foxes, lived in family groups, where the head of the family was the unofficial “Alpha”.
Jim, as a Wolf, should have felt that something was missing, something he desperately needed. Instead, he felt fine. There was no desperate need to belong, no howling desire for an Alpha. His Wolf was content just the way it was. “It’s okay. I’m fine.”
“Not your fault, Jim.” Ryan took a humongous bite of his sandwich.
Before Jim could correct him Glory added her two cents. “Ryan’s right. You got bit protecting us. No Pack would diss you for that.” Glory patted his hand in a gesture that was probably meant to be reassuring. Unfortunately, she hadn’t quite gotten used to the extra strength her Grizzly gave her.
Jim picked up his demolished hand and cradled it to his chest. “Ow.”
Instead of apologizing, Glory grinned. “Told ya SG stood for Super Glory.”
Ryan widened his eyes and shook his head no.
Jim waved his hand feebly in front of Glory. “I need this to fix kittens and puppies, you evil kitten-slaying woman!”