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He cupped the back of her neck and pulled her close. Growling low in his throat, he tugged her head back and rubbed his face across the right side of her throat and then the left. He marked the right side a second time, but his tiger’s chuff of satisfaction died when Hedra pushed him away.
“Stop it, Boone.”
He growled, and she frowned at him. “Don’t you growl at me.”
His tiger whined in misery at Hedra’s rejection of their marking and retreated so far that Boone could only feel a hint of his presence.
Jealousy and shame warring inside him, he said, “Fuck. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” she said. “I’m not yours to mark.”
“I know,” he said. “I have no excuse for doing it and won’t do it again.”
He hated the thick silence between them and the smell of her disappointment in him. After a moment, she sighed, and her tense body relaxed. “I’m not interested in him.”
“He’s interested in you. I could smell it,” Boone said.
She just stared at him, and he couldn’t resist saying, “I heard him ask you out.”
Fuck, he sounded like a whiny kid.
“Of course he did. I’m amazing,” Hedra said and then winked at him.
He huffed out a laugh before taking a deep breath. “Jesus, you must think I’m a real asshole.”
“I don’t,” she said. “But Jerome has done wonders with your nan in the last week and a half. She can even get out of bed by herself now, so maybe you wanna rein in the growling and your ‘Hedra’s my toy to play with’ behaviour so he doesn’t quit on us.”
“I know you’re not mine,” he said quickly.
“Does your tiger?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Are you sure about that?”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing, never mind,” she said.
He hesitated. “Are you going to date him?”
“I literally just told you I wasn’t interested in Jerome,” she said, her annoyance evident.
“Fuck, sorry.” He just kept screwing this the fuck up.
“I’m not going to date Jerome, but,” she glanced behind her at the doorway, “your nan is dating someone.”
He blinked at her as the absurdity of her statement brought his tiger out of hiding. “I… what?”
“The leopard shifter in the living room,” Hedra said. “He’s your nan’s new boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend… what… how… when?” he sputtered.
“She met him online through a dating app for shifters over sixty,” Hedra said. “They’ve been talking for weeks, and she decided it was time to meet in person. I had no idea until his son brought him over this afternoon. He and Althea have been inseparable ever since.”
Boone staggered to a chair and sat in it with a heavy thud. “This is not happening.”
She grinned and grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge before sitting next to him and handing one to him. “Oh, it’s happening.”
