Page 28 of Blade

“It’s not…okay…part of it is the cat thing.” Lying about that wouldn’t be believable. “It hasn’t been that long since I realized you were a person in there. But there’s also the magic thing and worrying about you and…and my family is insane and are really going to struggle with this.”

Like make a rug out of him kind of struggling.

When Blade’s head cocked, I sighed. “We’re going to put them on the backburner too. I’m currently avoiding them and have gone low contact, so we don’t have to worry about it.”

I didn’t think he’d been trying to kill me, but guns didn’t just go off randomly no matter what the internet seemed to think.

“I’ve met shifters before and even some Bigfoot. I understand inside you can think like a person as long as magic isn’t fucking things up.” A year or so ago this would’ve been much harder to deal with. “We do have a few things to figure out before you can explain to me what being mates means to your people.”

The general idea seemed to run through all of the monster and even general paranormal world, but I don’t think I’d ever met a panther shifter.

“I also need to get to know you better before we jump into an important topic like that.” I didn’t even know if he liked the burgers I’d picked up earlier. “So I promise I’m not just burying my head in the sand about it.”

That time when he licked my cheek it felt like he was telling me he understood. Even if it was me reading into it too much, I leaned against him and took a deep breath. “This day hasn’t gone like I expected at all, but I’m glad you saved me.”

Now it was time to save him, though, so we were going to figure out our options and see what he wanted to do.

Eventually.

One letter at a time was going to be painful and Blade’s sigh as he turned back to the tablet said we were probably on the same page on that part.

“We’ll figure it out.”

Hopefully.

CHAPTER 10

BLADE

“I’m sorry.”My mate looked pained and shifted in his seat. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”

He kept saying he wasn’t burying his head in the sand but he looked like that was what he’d rather be doing. Thankfully, he pushed through it after I’d finally asked him about how long it’d been, with just some wiggling and sighing. “From what I’ve read in the newspaper, the ranger was telling the truth. They’ve been looking for you all this time, though, I don’t know if that helps.”

Taking a shaky breath, my mate’s eyes welled up with tears. “I don’t know what to say and I can’t even begin to guess what you’re feeling.”

Nothing.

I was blessedly blank at the moment.

It made reality seem strange, but I was thinking clearly enough to understand he was telling the truth as far as he knew it.

“Facts.” Wiping his tears away, he sat straighter. “I can give you facts. The rumors about you started in 1953 and the first articles about you started appearing in local papers right about that same time, although different sources give slightly different dates.”

I’d want to read those at some point, but for now I wanted to focus on looking forward.

“You were seen a few times early on by local farmers and that’s when the rumors really picked up.” Taking another breath, talking made him steadier. “There were a few attempts to hunt you down but most of those seemed to have basically been a bunch of armed frat boys. Stupid and dangerous, but not able to do anything helpful.”

At least they hadn’t gotten lucky.

“After a while they stopped searching publicly, but if we believe the ranger, the local magical community kept looking for you so that they could fix this.” Petting my head, my mate tried to look happy but faking it was hard for him. “It’s growing on me but you seem confident that you were more handsome back then.”

Yes.

Making sure he knew this was not how I looked was one of the first things I’d typed out on his magic typewriter.

Seventy years.

Trying to look flirty, he shrugged and smiled. “I don’t know if I believe it, but I’m curious enough to be open-minded.”