Link.
Tobias lifted his gaze to the panting fox as an idea began to take shape. He couldn’t do this alone. Not here. He needed a safe place to go with her. A place where she could roam and get ahold of herself and settle down. The only problem was, she couldn’t travel to Galena the way she was. Not feral and in such a destructive mood. She couldn’t destroy his plane. That was their income and the way he would be able to provide for her.
Gritting his teeth, Tobias packed up everything that was salvageable and snatched the pillow case off the remaining pillow. As soon as he approached her with it, her eyes went wide, and she backed as far into the corner as she could.
Bewildered, he looked down at the case in his hands, and it dawned on him. Jonathan had shoved her in a sack.
“Fuck,” he gritted out, throwing the case onto the bed.
He sat as near to her as she allowed and relaxed against the wall. This couldn’t be rushed, not if he wanted this to be easy on Vera.
She attacked again but had lost her fury. It was done out of fear this time, and she ducked back to the corner before she pierced his skin with her teeth. She did the same three more times, each one shorter than the last before she slunk back to the wall.
Tobias scooted closer. “I don’t know if you can understand me, but the man who did this to you won’t ever hurt you again. I found him.”
Vera’s head snapped up, ears erect, then down, then erect again. Recognition flashed across her pretty gold eyes. Ah, there she was.
“I wrote in the letter that I had an errand to run, and Jonathan Greene was that errand.”
Vera slunk closer, then lowered to her belly five feet away from him.
Tobias swallowed hard. “I counted the scars on your arms last night. Seventeen. Seventeen bites, and my bear demanded a fair trade from Jonathan Greene as retribution for the pain he caused you. He wasn’t as strong as you are.”
Vera slunk forward another few feet, just within reach. She shook now, as if she was afraid to be so close.
Tobias dipped his voice to a whisper. “He’ll never hurt you again, mate. He won’t hurt anyone. You’re safe.”
Vera pulled her lips over her teeth for just a moment before she belly-crawled closer and rested her chin on his open palm.
Tobias smiled at his brave Vera. “That’s right. I’m yours.”
When he patted his leg lightly, she flinched, but then crawled carefully into his lap where he ran his hand down the length of her spine, smoothing her raised hackles.
They sat like that for hours, cuddled against the wall, learning to trust each other, but still, she wasn’t able to Change back. Likely, she didn’t know how. She’d been out of control with every shift, and then before she’d gotten to know her animal, she’d started suppressing her. Vera was going to have to learn to be a shifter, and it would be a long, hard road, but he knew she could do it.
His mate was fearless.
****
When Tobias landed his plane on the runway outside of Galena, Link was waiting near his green SUV, arms crossed over his chest, looking impatient.
Tobias cut the engine and grabbed the luggage, then moved out of the way so Vera could jump out of the door and onto the ground beside his feet. That was a big mistake.
She took off at a dead sprint for Link, and he barely got his hands in the way to block a dick bite when she latched on.
“Don’t hurt her!” Tobias ordered, bolting for them.
Link flung her off, and she went at him again, but Tobias plucked her off the ground by the scruff of her neck.
“What the hell, man?” Link yelled, flinging red droplets from his bleeding hand to the ground.
Tobias shoved past the snarling werewolf to load the package and luggage into the back of Link’s ride, clutching Vera’s scruff as he worked. She kept up her snarling and whipped her legs around, but Tobias wasn’t letting go. “This is Vera.”
“Fantastic, but your pet fox isn’t gettin’ in my Bronco. And thanks for calling me back, you dick.”
With an irritated sigh, Tobias turned to him and said, “I’m sorry I didn’t call you back. I suck at phones, you know this, and she isn’t a pet fox.” He pulled the neck of his thermal sweater aside, exposing the already healed bite-mark she’d given him. “Vera Masterson is my new mate.”
Link’s eyes went round, but he gave no other reaction. He could’ve been an ice sculpture if Tobias didn’t see him breathing and if his hand wasn’t streaming red onto the grass.
“Vera, this is Lincoln McCall.”
She snarled louder, teeth bared as she glared at Link.
“I think she’s ready to go,” Tobias said helpfully.
Link growled and shook his head hard. Crazy McCall.
“How…?” was all Link asked before Tobias sat in the passenger’s seat and shut the door.