“They all smell like animals to me.”
“We stopped taking the meds almost a month ago when supplies stopped coming in. One of the misfits pissed Clayton off, so he punished us all by depriving us of deliveries. This island is a beast to live on without outside help. Harlan and the others decided they needed their animals to survive this place in case deliveries get patchy again. Some of us can Change already. And trust me when I say I won’t live through what’s coming. I’m the only female on the island.”
“Fuck,” Tobias gritted out. He couldn’t even imagine what the others would do to her if Harlan was already acting like this. Was he crying on the porch? Yep, and now he was chanting, “She’s mine. She’s mine,” in a deranged voice.
“Bite me, and I’ll spend the rest of my days helping you and your family. It’s a fair trade.”
“I don’t want cubs. That should be out in the open right now.”
“Why not?”
“Because of…hibernation.”
She arched her eyebrows and gave him a significant look. “I’m going to take hibernation off the table if you’ll let me. I want cubs. Doesn’t have to be this year, but I’ve always wanted a family. I didn’t have a shot of that here. Didn’t want it, but I’ve thought about this, and you should know going in it’s what I’ll want with you.”
“But you’re asking for a family with me, Vera. Me. You don’t even know me. I could be abusive or a shit father, and I’ll definitely be a shit mate.”
“Will you protect me if someone tries to hurt me?”
Tobias sighed and stared at her for a long time, then nodded once.
“Will you ever lift your hand to me?”
He shook his head. That one was easy. He would never hurt a woman.
“Good.” She handed him a thin stack of papers with handwriting scribbled across it. The contract was simple and straightforward. Vera would come up with the medicine to stop hibernation and, in exchange, Tobias would be her mate and protector. He did scratch out the number of cubs though and penciled in 1 eventually in shaky scrawl. He couldn’t believe he was doing this, but the contract would be null and void if Vera failed to deliver on the cure, and as stupid as it was to build hope like Link had done, Vera wasn’t going at this hibernation problem like a witch. She was some backwoods scientist whose every word about the cure had sounded honest. She wasn’t lying about this, and for a shot at securing a solution to their hibernation problem, well…he’d do just about anything—including hiring himself out as a mate.
Sex, and no emotional strings, and he could just leave Vera somewhere safe to play with her test tubes while he ran his deliveries, so how much would he really see her? As little as he wanted. This could work.
With a sigh that tapered off in a growl, Tobias signed his name along the bottom. Vera sagged against his knee, smelling of potent relief, and now she was shaking. What a confounding woman. She’d been so confident when she spoke earlier, funny even, but she’d been hiding how nervous she’d really been.
Pity nagged at him. Harlan was cussing a string of obscenities outside, all aimed at her, and Tobias imagined she must feel desperate to escape this place. He had been here less than an hour and had been itching to leave the entire time.
“How long have you been here, Vera?” he asked softly.
She swallowed audibly and tried to smile, but it faltered off her face. “Three years.”
His chest hurt to think about a woman putting up with this for so long. To avoid his bear shredding him from the inside out, he needed action. Tobias stood and took her purple bag from her. “Do you have everything? We won’t be coming back here again.”
Vera’s face crumpled, and her pretty blue eyes rimmed with tears. What had he said wrong? He stared at her, too panicked to ask in case it made her cry harder.
She laughed thickly when she looked up at his face. “You look terrified.”
“You’re leaking.”
“I’m happy you said we won’t come back.”
“You’re crying because you’re happy?” Shit, females were confusing.
Vera sagged against him and wrapped her arms around his waist. And now she was leaking those happy tears onto his shirt as he stood frozen, arms out. Unsure of what to do, he patted her roughly on top of her head.
“Geez, Silver,” she murmured, easing back as she frowned at his chest. She poked him right by his nipple. Wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, she looked up at him and grinned. “Come on, McBeefcake. Let’s make tracks before Harlan hits his stride.”
“His stride?”
“Usually after the crying and cursing comes the fighting.”
Chapter Three