Panther's Passion (Veteran Shifters 3)

Stella took a deep breath, which Nate could have told her was one of the best techniques for dealing with fear anyway, and said, “Okay. That makes sense.”

“Go try to relax,” he said gently. “I’ll be here.”

She nodded, hesitated, and then turned and went upstairs. His eyes were caught, once again, by how gracefully she moved.

Then he shook himself and went to go make up the couch.

He heard a car pull up as he was finishing, and tensed—but then relaxed as he recognized Ken’s voice. From the tone, he was making a joke. A woman’s low laughter followed, and then they were opening the front door and coming inside.

Nate went to meet them. The sight of Ken,grinning and pulling him in for a back-slapping hug, was a surprising hit of warmth. Nate had only seen him in person the once in the last few years, at Cal’s wedding, and he’d already forgotten how much Ken’s cheerful, energetic presence could improve the mood in a room.

When Ken let him go, he turned to the woman with him, holding out his hand. “Nate Sanders,” he said.

Ken’s mate was short and stocky, with a strong handshake and a no-nonsense tone to her voice. “Good to meet you.”

She didn’t resemble Stella as much as Nate might have expected, except in the eyes—they had that same striking topaz color. But Lynn’s were sharp and thoughtful, rather than Stella’s open, vulnerable look. This was a woman to respect, Nate thought. She’d be more than a match for Ken, he was sure.

“Thanks for coming out,” Ken told him. “I really appreciate it.”

Nate waved a hand. “You're doing me a favor. I'm really hurting for fieldwork these days, now that I'm stuck as management.”

Ken grinned. “What a hard life. Being your own boss, running a successful company, having all these people working for you...it's a modern tragedy.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Nate laughed. “But still, doing some actual protection work is a good break. I've got myself set up down here for tonight, and tomorrow we can go over what other security measures we might want to take with the house.”

Lynn frowned. “You mean like alarms and so on?”

“That, although I'm particularly interested in getting some cameras set up. What we really want is to get this guy removed from the picture, and the easiest way to do that is prove that he's done something he can be arrested for. Then he won't be our problem any longer. And that'll be easier if we can collect evidence, which means video.”

Ken nodded. “Makes sense.”

“All right,” Lynn said, a bit reluctantly. “I hate the idea of turning my grandmother's home into some kind of...fortress.”

Nate smiled internally at the echoing of his earlier tho

ughts, but kept his expression serious. “The equipment will be minimal, I promise. And we can make the setup temporary. No need for any renovations or anything like that.”

Lynn nodded. “If it's going to keep Stella safe, we should do it.” She glanced around. “Where is Stella?”

“I sent her upstairs to get some rest,” Nate said. “She and Eva were both kind of freaked out after seeing Todd earlier.”

Lynn's eyebrows rose. “And she listened?”

Nate frowned. “Sure. She was tired and scared. I think she's reassured to know there'll be someone down here watching out for everyone.”

Lynn shook her head, eyebrows still up. “I'm impressed she listened to you. I keep trying to get her to agree to let me go with her places, call the Colonel or Cal or someone, and she always insists she's totally fine, nothing's wrong. It was an uphill battle just to get her to agree to call you.”

That was...interesting. Nate hadn't gotten the impression of stubbornness at all. The way Stella had acted with him, frightened but trusting, was totally different.

“Maybe she's just too scared,” Ken said quietly, squeezing Lynn's shoulder.

Lynn closed her eyes. “Yeah. I wish I could've taken care of this for her.”

Nate was surprised at how touched he felt, seeing this example of a protective big sister. He was an only child, and he'd never thought too hard about what it might be like to have an older sibling.

Ken nudged her. “Yeah, but if you took care of it for her, then she'd have to pretend to resent you for it, and you'd have to pretend that she should've been able to handle it herself, and...”

Lynn punched him in the arm, half-laughing. “Stop it. We're getting better.”