“I can’t marry you, Steele. I’m not like you.” He laughed and told her that’s what appealed to him the most. “I mean, I’m not rich; I have no idea how to be rich. And I’m not human.”
“I don’t care.” She had a feeling that he didn’t either. “We’re going to be married as soon as possible. Today, if you’ll have me. I’ve made arrangements for a quick ceremony, and later we’ll have a huge bash.”
“No bash.” He smiled. “I didn’t say yes. I just said no bash. And I want you to think about this. What if you get sick of me? I mean, I’m not really a nice person.”
“I love you.” She wanted to growl at him, but he opened the little box and pulled out the ring. “I had this made for you when you were resting. I wanted you to have something as special as you are.”
The ring was gorgeous. The large blue diamond was surrounded by smaller white ones. The band was wide and thick, and she saw that it was engraved. When she asked for it, he handed it to her, and she could see that the engraving was actually words.
“I’ve dreamed of loving you all my life. And I will dream of your love when I have left this world for another.”
She looked at him and smiled. The tears, happy tears, were flowing from her eyes as she pulled him to her. “Yes, I’ll marry you. I love you so very much.”
“I love you as well.” He kissed her again and pulled away. “Today? Will you marry me today?”
“Yes.”
Chapter 8
Steele paced the little room and tried his best not to run. He’d been there all of ten minutes and he felt as if the walls were closing in on him. He was going to see his mother. And whatever she had to say to him, he wasn’t going to believe a word out of her mouth.
“Will you please sit down?” Kari had said that to him four times now and every time, he did as she’d commanded. It had been a request the first time, a gentle reminder the second, and now it was just a snap. “You do know that she can’t hurt you any longer, right? That so long as we’re in the room with her, she’s going to be on the other side of some kind of barrier.”
“No. No she won’t. They said that she’ll be in the room with us and a guard. They think…for some reason they think she might try to hurt us.” He looked around the room again. “She’s hurt me enough, and here I am letting her do it again.”
“She won’t hurt you. I’ll tear her throat out if she tries.” Steele knew that she wasn’t kidding either. “If you get up again, I’m going to tie you to that chair. And trust me, it won’t be as enjoyable as you think it might be.”
Steele scooted back in the chair, not even realizing that he’d been about to get up again. Christ, what the hell was he doing here? He knew that he’d told Kari he’d do anything she wanted, but this was bordering on punishment.
“Did I ever tell you how I was changed?” He looked at her, confused. “Into a panther. Did I tell you how I managed to be changed into one?”
“No. I know that you didn’t get much in the way of training.” She nodded and smiled at him. “And I’m thinking that it was against your will.”
“No. And yes. I didn’t get any because the guy who did this to me ran off and never returned. I suppose that was what he did. I remember him saying that he wanted an army of female cats to wait on him hand and foot. The three other women with me in the cell the first few days, they didn’t survive the change. It’s very hard on people when they aren’t in good shape to begin with.” Steele leaned back and watched her as she started her tale. “There were nine of us that worked the bar. Not the one I was in when you saw me, but one on a college campus. I was taking some classes, just general stuff to try and figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.”
“Did you figure it out?” She grinned at him. “I’m assuming that you did. And what, pray tell, did you decide on?”
“I was going to be a student.” They both laughed, and he realized it was just what he needed. When she smiled at him again, he could see the sadness in her eyes. “But he did hurt me when he took us. He hurt all of us, the ones that didn’t die. There were…I don’t know for sure how many of us there were, but there were six women in my cell. We were all…I guess you could say we were all in varying stages of age.”
“You mean children too?” She nodded. “And none of you had given him permission? I think there’s a law about that. I’m sure that Ray would know something about it.”