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“Great, you’re bonding.” Serenity rolls her eyes.
I lose track of the conversation because the food is placed in front of us and all I can think about is the explosion on my tongue. An average person can lose sight of the treat food can be, unless you never have it.
Jesus, I could come just from the rich flavor of the steak. I slather butter all over the potato.
I clean my plate in record time and sit back with a pleasured sigh, thankful for the delicious food and for the fact that my jeans didn’t bust open. That’s when I notice the silence. I look around the table to the shocked faces and look back down my cheeks on fire.
“I want to fuck you so bad,” Elijah says, making my head fly up. “That was sexy as fuck. Kitty Cat, the noises,” he groans, his hand on his chest.
The waitress buzzes by to pick up my empty plate. Elijah scoots back, picks up his hat, and puts it on his knee.
“You think I say inappropriate things,” Ryker snorts, thumbing his hand at Elijah.
“You do this all the time.” Serenity shakes her head. “He does all the time,” she tells me. “You get used to it. You don’t have to be embarrassed.”
“There's nothing wrong with saying what you mean,” Ryker says. He stares behind us. “Right now, I have to ask, why is there a fucking rabbit speed-walking towards us?”
My chair almost tips over when I catch the scent of her as I turn. I take a few shaky steps forward. My mind is racing. This is the first time anyone from the places I’ve lived has ever seen me again. No one has ever sought me out.
“Sally,” I whisper. Her shoulder-length blonde hair is blowing behind her, as she practically runs toward us. Sally has never told me her age. As shifters, we age slowly and live a very long time. If I had to guess, she must be in her nineties, but she looks forty at most.
“Who is Sally?” Elijah asks as we watch her advance on us.
“She is the woman who helped me escape the last time. She was the cook at the diner where I worked,” I explained. She is the only one I trusted with my real name. She barely stops before she reaches me, giving me a hug.
“Girl, you are hard to track down, even though I knew the plan.” She pushes me back, her hands gripping my shoulders. “Fuck, you look good.”
“Sally, what the hell are you doing here? How did you find me?”
“I followed the plan. But then the plan must have gone off the rails. I know your scent,” she shrugs. “What I didn’t expect is for you to be cozied up to a table, perfectly fine with vampires and another cheetah.” She looks at Elijah. “Hey, cowboy.” She winks at him. “Where did you find this one? He’s super cute.”
I would never call Elijah super cute. “Sally, this is Elijah. He’s my mate.”
“Holy shit, that’s handy. Does he know about your trouble?”
“Yes.”
“I like him. He didn’t run away,” she cackles. “Don’t wrinkle that handsome nose, vampire. I don’t want to hear any jokes about rabbits. I haven’t taken a shower in days,” she snaps at Ryker.
“I didn’t say anything. But now that you brought it up, I was going to refer to the smell of smoke.”
“Oh, well, that's because I was in a fire,” she states.
“What?” I gasp.
“The diner burned down. That asshole lit the fuse. Grant showed up. He didn’t believe I didn’t know where you were, so he decided to burn it down with me in it.” She ignores my cursing and looks back at Elijah. “I don’t enjoy being roasted. I don’t enjoy my life’s work being turned into nothing but ashes.”
“I bet not,” Elijah says dryly.
“Nobody likes roasted rabbit,” Ryker mutters into his glass. Serenity smacks his arm.
“I escaped through the crawl space, tracked you, and here I am. I need a bath, some food and a good night's sleep.” She turns and drags over a chair. She helps herself to a piece of bread. “I figured you needed my help, and I needed to warn you. I assumed I would be too late since he was ahead of me and it wasn’t the plan to stop here. I didn’t know you already found some powerful allies.”
“So, you led him straight to Saylor?” Elijah asks harshly.
“Of course not. Did you miss the part I said he was ahead of me? He led me. I drove part of the way, my legs are little, I couldn’t run the whole time,” she scoffs. “The vehicle dimmed my scent.”
I shake myself and slowly sit. “You saw Grant,” I whisper. “He hurt you?”
