Page 24 of Blade

Asking what he meant would have to wait, but what wasn’t confusing was how comfortable my mate was in the trailer. His body relaxed and even his heart rate slowed as he sat down at a small table. “I just realized I don’t think I told that ranger my name and I didn’t have to pay anything to get in, so he has no way of knowing who I am.”

I remembered enough of the strange interaction to know that was a good thing. Large parts were confusing or foggy, but he’d been dangerous and had misled my mate. Whatever he’d shot me with could’ve made me attack my mate.

Mates were to be protected.

No matter what kind of magic he possessed, he should’ve known that.

“That’s one thing off the list of things to worry about. It’s time to take care of you even though you seem less confused and murdery.” Something made him smile wider as I shifted closer to the table. “This isn’t nearly as scary as I thought it’d be.”

Good?

What would be scary?

I might’ve been stuck for some reason but I was his mate and he knew that because he’d talked about that with the ranger, hadn’t he?

“Okay, our snack.” My mate reached into a bag and pulled out what I realized were burgers. They were odd looking too, but as he started unwrapping them, my stomach decided odd was fine. “I’ll work on a bigger meal before too long but I didn’t think you should wait.”

Waiting sounded terrible, but he was right, the small burgers were just a tease to my empty stomach. But my mate was human and I knew he needed to eat as well, so when he tried to give me the last hamburger, I pushed it back toward him and huffed.

He giggled and reached over to stroke my head again. “You’re so sweet. I already ate in the car as we drove back. You just slept through it.”

Ah.

Knowing my mate was fine, I ate the last in one bite and stretched until I was braced on the table and the back of my mate’s chair. He pretended to push me away but he was laughing and shaking his head again. “You’re going to squish me.”

The trailer was small and he was cuddly.

He also liked running his hands over me and clearly needed more attention than I’d been giving him.

“We’re going to have to talk about you constantly sitting on me.” He seemed to think that was reasonable but squeaked again as I sat back and bit onto his shirt to pull him toward me. “Teeth. Watch out for the teeth.”

I told him what I thought of that and he laughed at my huff. “You’re so dramatic. Fine. I’m moving.”

Slowly.

“How are you this bossy when you can’t even talk?”

Magic.

“What are you doing? Stop herding me. You’re not a dog.”

That was rude.

So was his laughter.

“Fine. I’ll get in bed.” My mate was dramatic as he pulled his shoes off and flopped back on the surprisingly large bed at the back of the trailer. “Happy now?”

Yes.

Stretching out over him to make sure he stayed safe, I pushed my head under his hand and wanted to smile when hehuffed that time. “Murder kitty wants pets. Yes. I’m slow but not stupid.”

My mate was very smart…but he was confusing.

He was also tired and needed to give me attention, so I let him run his hands over me as he started talking about lunch and something called a drive-thru and many other random things that made no sense until he finally dozed off.

From what I could remember, I was confident that keeping my mate safe was going to be a full-time job, but making sure he got enough attention seemed like it was going to be just as important.

A mate’s job was never done, but I was up for the task.