“Now, why don’t you tell me about your history with this man? The more information I have, the better I can do my job.” He kept his voice warm and calm. He wanted her to feel safe talking about something that might be difficult to remember.
“Well, Todd and I were in a relationship,” Stella said first. “I guess that was stupid. Dating someone like that.”
“This sort of behavior often doesn’t start full-blast,” Nate objected gently. “I’m sure he seemed like a good choice at first.”
She stared at her hands. “He did. He was fun, and thoughtful, and he paid a lot of attention to me. He didn’t mind that I had a daughter, although I guess he never really engaged with Eva that much. He was a shifter, so that was nice—we didn’t have to hide that part of our lives from him.”
Ken must have told her that Nate was a shifter, too. He wondered what type of animal Stella and Eva were. Right now, Stella reminded him of some kind of rare bird, beautiful and delicate, but looks didn’t always communicate shifter type very well.
Stella was tensing up again, her shoulders rising, her hands clenching. “We were living with him for a while,” she said in a low voice. “My lease was up and I didn’t—I didn’t have very much money. And I thought it would be good.”
“But?” Nate kept his voice as quiet and encouraging as he possibly could. He wasn’t sure he even wanted to hear the next part, but it was his job to know.
And whatever it was, Stella had had to live through it.
“His pack kept coming over,” Stella said quietly. “They were—rowdy, and they got into fights with each other sometimes, and it was pretty clear that they were into some illegal things. None of them held down regular jobs or anything, but they always seemed to have money. And they’d harass me, sometimes, when Todd wasn’t around. And then even sometimes when he was, and he’d kind of—protest a little bit, but never enough to make anyone stop.”
She was silent for a long minute. Nate prompted, “And then?”
“And then they started making comments about Eva,” Stella said, her voice almost silent. “How she was growing up. And I knew I had to get out of there. There was one night—they were drinking, and I didn’t know what they were going to do. My car was in the shop, and I’d been waiting to get it fixed before I left, but it wasn’t going to be soon enough. So I called Lynn. And she and Ken came to get us, and—well, the pack didn’t want us to leave.” She blinked rapidly.
Nate tried to picture it: a woman alone with her daughter, no indication of any self-defense skills, in a house with...how many men? And all of them shifters. “It sounds terrifying,” he said softly.
Stella nodded, blinking rapidly. She took a careful breath, though, and no tears appeared; her voice was stronger when she said, “Ken got into a fight with them, and it was over so fast. They had no idea what hit them. But Todd wasn’t...he wasn’t interested in fighting, he just didn’t want me to leave. But Ken was there, so it was okay. We got out. The pack was embarrassed, though, so they tried to show up and get revenge—but Ken called in Colonel Hanes and his mate.”
“Colonel Hanes,” Nate said, startled. “He’s living here, too?”
Stella nodded. “You didn’t know? I guess he’s probably not on Facebook or anything.”
Nate had to chuckle a little at the thought of Colonel Wilson Hanes on Facebook. “Nope. Ken keeps in touch when he’s at a computer, but the Colonel’s pretty reticent.”
“Well, he found his mate here, at a wedding earlier this year.”
Nate had been at that wedding. Come to think of it, he remembered the Colonel talking to that pretty woman he’d met—mother of one of Cal’s pack, he thought. Mavis? That had been her name. The Colonel had seemed pretty eager to keep her away from a bunch of single retired Marines, at that. “Well, I’ll be.” He shook his head, then forced his attention back to the matter at hand. Again. “So he and his mate helped you hold off Todd’s pack.”
Stella nodded. “When they saw that Colonel Hanes and Mavis were snow leopards, they were too worried to come back. There’s a big snow leopard pack in Glacier Park.”
“Cal’s pack,” Nate clarified.
Stella nodded. “I—don’t know them very well. I mean, Mavis’ daughter Nina works with Lynn, and I’ve met her a couple of times, she’s very nice. And the pack seems really close. Colonel Hanes suggested to me once that maybe we should try to bring them in and help if Todd really became a problem, but...”
“But?” Nate pressed.
“They’ve all got demanding jobs, and a couple have little babies too,” Stella said. “And I didn’t know when this would end. I wasn’t about to make them set up some kind of...free bodyguarding service for me. And since Ken knew a professional, that seemed best.” She bit her lip. “Although Ken said you wouldn’t let us pay you. That seems wrong.”
“Wrong would be charging my friend for doing me a favor by letting me escape the pile of paperwork in my office,” Nate said, purposefully keeping his tone light. “I’m happy to be here.”
“Well—thank you, anyway,” Stella said. “If there’s anything I can do to help you out in return, please tell me.”
“I will,” Nate promised, although in reality he’d probably chew his own arm off before letting a distressed single mother put herself out to help him with anything. “Back to Todd, now. What happened next?”
“Well, I thought he might be gone for good after we scared his pack off,” Stella said. “But a month ago or so, he started just...showing up in town. At first, he’d have an excuse for why he was there, but eventually he’d just come into my work and sit and watch me.” She shivered.
Nate was struck once again by the urge to go sit by her on the couch. He quashed it ruthlessly. Professionalism. “What do you do?”
“I’m a waitress at Oliver’s. The
local diner.”