Page 11 of Tiger Born

“Well, now you have. I need meat. Is that a root cellar?” he asked, looking over her shoulder.

“I told you, my Uncle Tim is a prepper.”

It was as if Dame had lost consciousness completely when he’d been talking to her about her stupid ex. He hadn’t even registered his surroundings. Whoa, that was so weird and unlike him. Usually, his tiger noted every detail of every room he was in. Here, it was as if he’d morphed to this place in the kitchen. That was dangerous.

“What kind of sedatives did you say you gave me?”

“I didn’t look at your penis,” she said suddenly.

Should he tell her he could hear lies? “Sounds very medical when you call it a penis.”

“Well, I don’t know what you’ve named it.”

“What…I’ve…what?”

“All of you men name your penises, right?”

He held up his hand and winced. “Stop calling it a penis.”

“Shaft? Genitalia?”

“Ew. Let’s call it a dick, okay? And who do you know that is a grown man who has named his dick?” Realization struck him. “Wait, let me guess? Dr. Fuckboy?”

Misty pursed her lips and he knew he’d guessed it.

“Well, now I have to know what he named it.”

“Magnus,” she said.

He cocked his head and arched an eyebrow.

Softly, she said, “But now that I accidentally saw your dick, I think he should’ve named it Minimus.”

A laugh belted out of him, and he doubled over in pain. “Ow!”

“I’m sorry I accidentally saw it and I’m also sorry I accidentally lied about it.”

“Accidentally, huh?” he asked, pulling open one of the deep freezers along the far wall. Her Uncle Tim had three there. This guy was interesting. This one was full of wild caught salmon, looked like. The next was full of beef. Jackpot.

“You need red meat?” she asked.

“Lots of it. I’m not feeling so good.”

“Sit,” she said, pointing to the four-seater table across the large kitchen.

“I can cook it. I’ll pay your uncle back for anything we eat.”

“He won’t let you. Park it.” She jammed her finger harder at the table.

Stern and stubborn little thing.

He did feel pretty horrible though, and he was swaying again. She’d already had to drag his carcass into a car and then got him into that basement and then made him a nest, so he could help her out and stop passing out by listening to the nurse’s instructions.

As she dug containers and a foil-covered plate from the fridge, she said, “Hey remember that one time last night you stabbed a tiger’s paw as he was trying to kill me?”

Aw fuck, he’d forgotten about that. Stellan’s tiger would probably be limping for a while after that. “I was half-delirious. The details, they do escape me.”

“You were passed out in a little crumpled pile bleeding out on my back seat, and then bam, you were poured over me in the front seat with my knife slitting right between the second and third knuckle. You completely severed a tendon, for sure.”