At least they’d assumed that Camden was a loner rather than part of a pride. Pallas cats had no intention of coming out of the shifter closet and posed as humans. “Why?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I discreetly took a photo of the human and passed it onto River,” he added, referring to a member of the pride who worked for the police. “He ran a background check on him that came up clean. We’d figured he might be a journalist or something, but he works at a pawn shop and by all appearances has nothing to do with shifters or anti-shifter extremists. It could just be that he was simply curious. Still, I don’t like it. I didn’t want to put you in his sights in case there was something shady going on.”
“You didn’t have Camden question him? It would have looked weird if you or any of your other pride-mates-posing-as-humans did, but not the tiger.”
“We thought about having Camden nab the guy, but then he stopped coming around. We haven’t seen anything of the human over the last four days.”
“You could have just told me. Why didn’t you?”
He stroked her hip. “You know why.”
“I do. But I want you to say it, because then you can’t give me grief when I say the same to you after you fire all kinds of questions at me about my own situation.”
He sighed. “I didn’t want to worry you when there was every chance that there was no real need for anyone to worry,” he admitted. “I intended to tell you once I had all the facts.”
“Yeah, I know what that’s like.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Now it’s my turn to ask questions. What exactly did Macy say to you?”
Feeling her claws pricking the inside of her fingertips, Blair replied, “That you were sleeping with her. That it had been going on for six months, and that you’d bedded other females before her while waiting for me to grow up.”
A growl rattled in his chest. “You didn’t believe her,” he sensed.
“Of course I didn’t.”
“What else did she say?”
“Quite a few things. She said you weren’t sure if you wanted to claim me; that you were having doubts because of the age gap. She called me naïve and gullible for assuming that I had what it took to be Beta female. She then went on to criticize my figure, proclaiming that I wasn’t curvy enough for your tastes.
“Believe it or not, she also bashed my breed while on bush dog territory, declaring that we’d put off any male just by being what we are. She then said she didn’t believe you’d claim me because, in her opinion, you needed a real woman—not a young girl who wouldn’t have a clue how to satisfy the needs of a man like you. That was the point at which I knocked her clean out, so I’m not sure if she had anything else to say.”
His mouth tightening, he curled her hair behind her ear. “You know everything she said was utter bullshit, right?”
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. And you’d be lacking a spleen.”
One corner of his mouth kicked up. “That’s my girl. What did you do after knocking her clean out?”
“Had some fun, of course,” Blair expanded, relaying all she’d done.
His smile widened. “You went right for the ego, huh.”
“It was only fair. She went for mine, trying to play on whatever insecurities she thought I might have. It didn’t work, though, because I don’t worry that my age bothers you or that I’m not perfectly capable of acting as Beta female. Nor do I ponder over whether I have enough curves to rev your engines. Coming at me like that was a waste of her time.”
He rubbed the back of his head. “I can’t understand why she did it.”
“It could have been a jealousy thing. I mean, you did used to sleep with her. It was before I came along, I know, but still.”
He squinted. “And how is it you know about that?”
“I saw her once when I was sixteen. I was with Elle at the time—she was taking me to see a movie. We bumped into Macy, who asked Elle how you were and made a few comments that suggested you used to shake the sheets with her.” Blair’s animal had wanted to bite her ear clean off. “Elle confirmed it for me but made it clear that you hadn’t touched any woman since finding me. I believed her.”
“Elle never mentioned it to me. Neither did you.”
“At that point, I was used to crossing paths with women from your past. I mean, some are even part of the pride. None ever bitched at me, came to my territory, or actively sought me out. Honestly … I think my mother might have put Macy up to it. I don’t want that to be the case. But as much as I like to tell myself that Macy probably did it out of jealousy, I really didn’t get the sense that she was holding a candle for you or anything.”