Ros burst into tears.
Chapter Four
∞∞∞
Teagan was a man who liked a certain kind of order in his life. Sure, he could go a while without washing his truck or making the bed, but when you did the kind of work he did, seasonal, erratic and irregular in every way, being organized was a good thing. He knew where his tools were, his GPS kept him on the road and his eagle largely kept him (ha) grounded.
Life was supposed to follow suit. He’d do his work, he’d be a reliable member of his community, and if he was lucky, someday, he would meet his true mate. They’d look into each other’s eyes, they’d recognize each other, they’d kiss, and they’d live happily ever after. Simple.
Nowhere in the plan did it say he was going to meet his true mate while being attacked by a flock of fire condors, and there was absolutely no way to be prepared for the fact that she was going to burst into tears after their first kiss.
“Oh, Ros, no,” he murmured. “Oh, honey, no.”
He stroked her back in slow, firm circles, staying calm even as his eagle shrieked in protective fury.
Something hurt her! Something made her sad! Kill it!
It was no use explaining to his eagle that that wasn’t how humans usually solved problems, but as Ros kept crying, he had to admit it didn’t sound half-bad.
We’re calling that plan G,he told his eagle firmly.We’ll try a few other things first.
Only a few, though, he thought as he got her up and over to the couch. If she was crying about something really bad, killing whatever it was was probably on the table.
Teagan meant to get her settled on the couch and then get her some more water or whatever she needed, but Ros’s hand curled around the front of his shirt, hanging on with a desperation that hurt his heart. He couldn’t leave her alone, so instead he came to sit down next to her on the couch, bringing her close to him and putting his arm around her.
She was a soft and lovely weight against him even as she soaked the front of his shirt with tears, and he stroked her curly brown hair, telling her it was all right, it was all right, they were going to make it all right, so she should get this out of her system, and he would fix it, whatever was broken.
Ros sobbed as if her heart was breaking, but in surprisingly short order, her tears trickled to a halt, leaving her with soft hitching breaths and finally a long sigh.
“I got your shirt all wet,” she said first thing, and Teagan laughed.
“I promise you, it’s seen worse than some saltwater. You good for a second?”
“Yeah,” she said, sounding slightly chagrined at herself, and he ignored it as he went to get a clean towel from the kitchen. He soaked it in cool water before wringing it out, and he grabbed her forgotten glass of water as well. On his way back, he closed the blinds over the glass door, because beauty of nature or not, she probably didn’t need to get a glimpse of the fire condors having their meal.
“Oh God, thank you,” she said, taking the cloth and wiping her face.”Ugh, I probably look a mess.”
“You look beautiful,” he said without thinking, and then before she could get the idea he was into crying women, he hurriedly gave her her water, sitting down by her side.
“I’m sorry,” she said after a few minutes. “That was probably pretty intense for you.”
To be perfectly fair, all of this was pretty intense for him, and suddenly he wondered if it was intense for her as well. The true mate bond was a physiological thing as well as an emotional one, and if you weren’t ready for it and had in fact, never suspected its existence, laughing like mad and then crying as if your heart was broken would be a fair reaction.
“Well, watching large birds eat can also be pretty intense, so fair’s fair, I guess,” he said. “How are you feeling now?”
She started to answer right away, and he shook his head.
“Think about it for a second. You don’t have to tell me fine just because you’re worried about the waterworks.”
Her dark brows came together, and suddenly she was looking at him, really looking at him, and Teagan got a sudden dip in his stomach, almost the same feeling as when he was in his eagle form and went into a sharp dive. There was a kind of sharpness to her gaze as if she could take in everything he was and would be with a single look, and he could only pray that it was enough, thathewas enough.
“You really mean that,” she said, less a question than a declaration.
“For you, yeah. Always.”
It was too much and probably too weird for a man she had just met, but she nodded.
“I probably do owe you an explanation after all the –” She gestured, indicating the laughter, the tears, the kisses, probably the whole fire condor situation as well.