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Stella
Sittinginthechairacross the table from him, Stella ran her toes along the inside of Trick’s thigh until she reached his cock. Even after the blowjob she gave him fifteen minutes before, he was hard for her. Was she driving the man crazy? Yes. Did she intend to keep doing it until he fucked her over the table? Also, yes. But at the same time, she needed to learn more about shifters and try to change her way of thinking of them.
She caressed his length with her toes and asked, “So, which of your parents is a shifter? Since you were born one, I imagine one of your parents is also a shifter.”
Trick cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. Scooping up another bite of the delicious pot pies he had made them, he replied, “Both of them. They are both bears, which means my mom runs the family. Although, she would probably run the family even if she was human. That woman’s a force.”
Stella smiled. “Yeah?”
After a whistle, Trick took a bite and nodded. Once he chewed and swallowed, he continued, “She keeps us six kids in line with a look. Hell, three of us are Howlers, and that has no effect on her. She’d dress us down in front of the whole damn club if we got out of line.”
“You have five siblings?”
He looked over at her. “Eat.” He just stared at her until she lifted her fork and took a bite into her mouth, then he continued, “Yeah. Brute, Rock, Me, Jasmine, Imani, and James.”
“Rock?” She wasn’t sure how to ask the question she wanted to ask without sounding like a dumb white woman, but as usual, her intelligent mate knew exactly what she was thinking.
“Yeah, he’s a bit… paler than the rest of us.” He chuckled. “Obviously, he’s not biologically their child, but he showed up one day and never really left. I’m as close to him as I am to any of my other siblings.”
“When you referred to him as your brother, I thought you just meant because of the club,” she admitted.
“Well, that just makes us closer, but he’s been my brother for as long as I can remember. He had shit parents, and there was no way Mama Nia was going to let a child go hungry or wear dirty clothes. Eventually, he just stayed over. Then Dad put bunk beds in Brute’s room and bought another dresser. To be honest, I don’t think Rock’s mom even realized he wasn’t coming home at night.”
“That’s… sad.”
Trick shrugged. “He wasn’t without a mom. Mama Nia treated him just like the rest of us. He had chores. He had love. He had a spot at the table for dinners and game nights.”
“That’s why you’re Uncle T to his daughter.”
He made eye contact with her again. “I’m Uncle T because I earned that title, but yeah, that’s my niece. Don’t matter to me that she’s a tiger shifter, just like it don’t matter to me that Rock’s human. Family’s family.”
“So, it’s Rock’s ex who was the shifter?”
Trick nodded, but there was a sadness in his eyes. “Lace was a tiger shifter. She’s also the perfect example that shifters are just people with extra abilities. For all the enhanced senses and healing abilities, Lace fell into addiction. Just because we can do things that humans can’t doesn’t mean we’re less… human, if that makes sense.”
Stella was pretty sure she understood what he was trying to tell her, but she asked, “Do you trust me yet with what those abilities are?”
After setting his fork down on his plate, he sighed and answered, “The usual stuff. Better vision, especially at night. Better hearing. We’re much faster. We heal super-fast. We listen to our instincts more than humans, but that’s just the animal part of us taking over. My bear will sense things before I do, and my bear doesn’t get bogged down with social expectations or pleasantries. He knows what he wants, and he pushes me to go for them. When we’re in danger, he alerts me. When our mate is hurting, he throws a damn fit for me to fix it.”
Blinking in surprise, Stella took in what he said. His bear threw fits over her? “Me?”
Trick nodded and gave a half-smile. “He’s quite obsessed with you.” He picked up his beer bottle and took a drink. “He would tear the world apart to protect you. The question is… what would you do to protect him?”
Stella swallowed down the emotions rising in her throat. She couldn’t remember the last time she had someone or something that devoted to her. In the service? Maybe. Yet, that didn’t last long. She was discharged before she made many connections.
“I… I want to believe what you’re saying. I just… It’s going to take a minute for me to sift through what I know and what is real.”
He gave a nod and reached under the table. She felt his hand wrap around her foot and give it a brief massage. “We’ll work through it… a little bit each day.”
“And you’ll answer my questions?”
He hiked a brow. “Have I refused to answer any of your questions today?”
“No.”
“New start. I’m putting my trust in you, Stiletto. Those weren’t just words I said.”
Staring into his dark brown eyes, Stella felt another brick of her protection crumble to dust.
