Cat of a Different Color: Halle Pumas, Book 3 (3 page)

“Or me,” Adrian piped up, squeezing Sheri’s hand reassuringly. He let up immediately when he saw her wince, but refused to let go.

“Or Adrian.” Max nodded. “Under no circumstances, other than threat to your kits, are you to approach Parker in any way. He runs with about three other wolves. That may or may not have changed. I’ll contact the Pack in the Pocono’s and see if they’ll help. Last I heard the Pack leader was isolationist, so we may be on our own on this.”

“I’ll help,” Belinda said. “There are places she may need to go to that a man can’t go. I’ll go with her.”

“Well, she’s not the Curana so she should be safe,” one of the females muttered.

“Excuse me?”

Adrian shuddered at the ice in Emma’s voice as the Pride’s Curana took offense at the woman’s tone. A thin mist surrounded her, a serious indication of just how pissed off she was. “Do you doubt my word that Belinda Campbell had nothing to do with the attack on Rebecca Yaeger?”

Uh-oh, them’s fightin’ words
. If the woman knew what was good for her she’d back down and apologize immediately. Adrian watched as several of the women winced and drew away from the offending member of the Pride.

“No, Curana.” The woman bowed her head in submission.

“Good.” Emma looked around at the other members of the Pride. “I expect this nonsense to stop. Belinda has proven to both Rebecca and me that she had absolutely nothing to do with Olivia’s attack on Rebecca. Punishing her for Olivia’s actions is wrong, and I expect better of my Pridemates. Understood?”

Adrian watched as Max positioned himself squarely next to his mate, a cool warning in his eyes for anyone who would challenge her. To challenge Emma was to challenge Max, and not a single male in the room believed himself capable of defeating the Alpha. When the Betas ranged themselves right next to the Alphas and added their glares the argument was pretty much over.

Murmurs of assent drifted through the room and the Alphas relaxed. “Sheri will be working part-time at Wallflowers, starting tomorrow,” Emma added in a warmer tone of voice.

“She can move into Becky’s apartment, it’s right above the store,” Simon said, his arm going once more around his mate.

Becky looked up at him. “She can? What about the person who’s currently living there?”

“I thought she could move in with me. You don’t mind, do you?” Simon grinned down at his mate, and Adrian had to hide a smile. The rest of the people in the room didn’t even bother. A few went so far as to chuckle as Becky grunted in response.

“I like my apartment.”

“It would be easier on Sheri and you’d be doing a very nice thing for a new friend.”

Becky sighed. “That was a low blow, Simon.”

“Plus my feet get cold at night.”

“Oh, well, we can’t have your feet getting cold, can we, Garfield?”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Simon grinned as the room exploded into laughter.

That little bit of laughter helped ease the tensions in the room. People settled in comfortably to discuss how best to help Sheri while getting to know the newest Pride member. Adrian was never very far from her side, and surprisingly neither was Belinda. The two women seemed to hit it off. He sat back and watched as they laughed together over something, then made plans to go to lunch the following day after Sheri got off work. He felt some of his own tension ease; his mate would be safe with Belinda. He’d hit Max up for the full story tomorrow.

Chapter Three

“Go ahead. Ask.” Sheri tried not to grin as Belinda put her sandwich down and leaned in on both elbows, looking both curious and guilty.

“What’s it like being an albino?” Belinda asked quietly.

She sighed as she put her sandwich down. She wasn’t offended. She’d gotten used to correcting people, but it still bothered her that people asked. “I really hate that word.”

“Why?”

She’d been waiting for someone to ask her that question since yesterday at the Pride meeting, but Belinda was the first one to work up the courage. The two women were sitting in Kelly’s Diner eating hamburgers and fries and totally blowing their diets. It was one of the nicest afternoons she’d had in a long time. It was nice to have a friend again. She hoped they weren’t about to ruin that.

“I’m a person with albinism. Saying I’m an albino is like saying I have a communicable disease, like calling someone a leper. It’s a condition I live with, not who I am.”

“But it’s no worse than calling me a blonde or blondie.”

“I doubt that.” She laughed. “Think about the stereotype of the ‘albino’. We’re always the evil one who’s out to do some nasty stuff to some poor innocent who doesn’t know that the albino is evil. And nobody stares at you just because you’re blonde.”

There was a moment of silence. “Okay,” Belinda finally drawled. “Tell me a blonde joke.”

Sheri paused with the burger halfway to her mouth, her head tilted as she tried to catch the other woman’s expression.

“How about this one? A redhead walks into the doctor’s office and says, ‘Doc, it hurts wherever I touch myself.’ The doc has her touch everywhere on her body, and sure enough, she screams every time she does. The doc asks if she’s a natural blonde; stop me if you know the punch line?”

She blushed; she
had
heard this one before, and had laughed as loudly as her friends had.

“The doc says, ‘I thought so; your finger is broken.’”

Sheri could hear Belinda take a sip of her soda. “A blonde was playing Trivial Pursuit one night with some friends. When it was her turn, she rolled the dice and landed on Science and Nature. Her question was, ‘If you’re in a vacuum and someone calls your name, can you hear it?’ The blonde thought for a moment and asked, ‘Is it on or off?’”

Sheri bit her lip to keep from laughing, but she had the feeling the other woman saw it.

“Or my personal favorite, what do you call three blondes in a Volkswagen? Farfromthinken.”

Sheri lost the battle against laughing, and was relieved when Belinda chuckled too.

“I have a Bachelor’s degree in Management with a minor in Finance, but because I look like a Kewpie doll people who have known me all my life treat me like I’m an idiot.”

Sheri could just make out the other woman’s shrug. “Sometimes that’s what life does to you, and sometimes it’s what you do to yourself. So I know some blonde jokes, and I laugh at blonde jokes, and I try to make the best of things by not letting other people’s opinions matter to me. It doesn’t always work, but I try.”

“Wow. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I guess what I’m trying to say is, don’t let the label bother you. If you do, you just wind up expending energy on something that doesn’t really matter in the long run. If I got mad at every blonde joke I heard I’d be mad an awful lot of the time.” Belinda leaned in close so Sheri could see her grin and whispered, “Or I’d be a redhead, worshiping at the shrine of Ms. Clairol.”

They were quiet as each of them ate a little. “Do you own your own business?”

“No,” Belinda answered with a sigh. “I worked at Noah’s as the hostess, and I planned on applying for the manager’s position…but that didn’t pan out. I’m pretty sure I can afford to open my own place, but I wanted to be able to put down experience in a management position on my loan papers. I don’t think I can qualify without it.”

Sheri could hear the pain in the other woman’s voice. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. The market sucks right now for opening the kind of business I want to run anyway.”

“What kind of business would that be?”

“Livia and I…we used to joke that we’d open up our own place. I wanted to open a bar and grill, and call it Blondie’s or something; she wanted a day spa.” Belinda shrugged. “It was one of the reasons I loved working at Noah’s. I love the restaurant business.”

“What happened with your job there?”

“I got fired.”

“Why?”

“Because people thought I was in league with Livia. She attacked Becky, injuring her pretty badly, during this year’s masquerade. Livia used the threat to Becky to try and get Emma to give her the Curana’s ring.”

“What?” Sheri couldn’t believe her ears. “Someone tried to use Becky to get to Emma?”

“Yup. I didn’t know anything about it until Simon carried Becky off to heal her and change her.”

“And claim her.”

“And claim her.” She could hear a different kind of pain in Belinda’s voice and wondered if the other woman had feelings for Simon. If she did, it was too bad; Simon was obviously devoted to his mate.

“But the ring—”

“Doesn’t make you the Curana, right? But if Emma handed it over—”

“She’d be seen as weak,” Sheri finished thoughtfully.

“Exactly. She’d be cat chow.”

Sheri laughed. She was going to like it here.

Adrian waited outside the diner and watched as the two women talked and laughed. Something in his heart eased as he watched her truly relax for the first time since he’d met her.

“Maybe if you stare hard enough her clothes will fall off by themselves.” Simon stepped into view and stared at the two women.

Adrian rolled his eyes. “She’s my mate.”

Simon grinned. “And if anyone is going to use their amazing cloth-ripping stare powers on her it’s going to be you?”

“Asshole.”

Simon flipped him off, and Adrian grinned.

“She seems to be settling right in,” Simon said, leaning against the brick wall of the diner.

“Yup.”

“Becky trusts Belinda.”

“And you don’t?” Adrian kept his eyes on the two women but his attention was on Simon.

“To a point, yes.”

“Do you trust Becky and Emma?”

Simon sighed. “Yes, damn it.” It sounded like he’d had, and lost, this argument already. Probably Becky had gotten to him and given him an earful. He decided to help reassure Simon. There were things he knew about Belinda that would shock Simon to his core.

Adrian nodded. “Have you ever been in Kelly’s when Belle’s in there?”

Simon looked at Adrian, one brow raised. “
Belle
?”

Adrian nodded. “That’s what they call Belinda in there. Belle.”

“No, I haven’t been in there when
Belle’s
been in there. Why?”

“She might surprise you.”

Simon snorted. “I dated the woman off and on for years; nothing she does would surprise me, unless it was to grow a second brain cell.”

“Really? Let’s go in.”

Adrian opened the door and pushed Simon in. Simon, surprisingly, allowed it.

“Hey, Belle!”

Simon’s eyebrows rose into his hair as Frank Kelly called Belinda’s name. Adrian grinned and waited. He already knew what was coming.

“Yes, Frank?”

“What do you do when a blonde throws a pin at you?”

“Run like hell, she’s got a grenade in her mouth.”

The entire diner laughed. “Hey, Belle,” one of the patrons called out. “He ever throw one at you that you didn’t know the punch line to?”

“Nope,” Belle replied proudly.

“I’ll get you one day, Belle!” Frank laughed.

“And my little dog, too?”

More laughter. Adrian could see Simon’s shock as he pushed the man back out the door. “See?”

“The only time I ever saw her was with her upper-crust friends,” Simon said. “She didn’t act like that around them.”

“Of course not, they would have kicked her out of the country club,” Adrian replied. He set up against the wall again and stared into the diner, watching Sheri and Belle eat. “Besides, everyone knew why you went out with Belinda, and it wasn’t for her conversation.”

Simon winced. “She didn’t act that way around me, either.”

Adrian nodded. “She gave you what she thought you wanted.”

“A blonde bimbo,” Simon said thoughtfully.

“I hate to make you feel even worse, but as far as I can tell she never dated anyone
but
you.”

Simon winced again. “Gee, thanks.”

Adrian shrugged. “I don’t know if she thought you were her mate or what, but when she finds him she’ll know. Until then, I think Sheri’s safe with Belle.”

“Okay,” Simon agreed with a sigh. “I’ll trust her.”

***

“Spill.” Adrian stared hard at his friend and partner, crossing his arms as he blocked the way out of the office. They’d just finished closing for the day and were the only ones left in the practice.

“Excuse me?” Max’s blue eyes glittered gold for a moment, sensing Adrian’s challenge.

Adrian sighed. “She’s my mate, Max. How would you feel if Emma was threatened?” Max’s low growl answered that question. “So tell me. What am I facing here?”

Max sighed and pushed his hand through his hair. “Rudy Parker is a sick fuck. He tried to mount her as a wolf. When that didn’t work, he bit her. If she hadn’t torn free she’d be Pack now instead of Pride.”

“That kind of thing happens pretty fast, I thought. How did she get away before he managed it?”

Max shrugged. “I have no idea. All I remember is her shoulder was torn all to hell and gone, and a chunk was missing.”

Adrian’s growl slipped out. “He took a chunk of her shoulder?”

Max nodded. “It’s why the scarring is pretty bad there. Even the Magic Puma Potion couldn’t heal it.”

Adrian snorted a laugh, his eyes returning to their normal dark brown. “Magic Puma Potion?”

“Becky’s words, not mine.”

“She would know.” Adrian started to pace. “Okay, he tried to rape her, she managed to get away before he changed her, and he’s been chasing her ever since. That about sum it up?”

Max nodded slowly.

“What are you leaving out?”

“She got away intact because she left before the abuse got too bad. She knows how dangerous he is now, though, and if he finds out the two of you are mates he’ll do everything he can to take you down.”

“I can handle him.”

Max shook his head. “He won’t come at you alone. He’ll use his Pack, and Puma versus a Wolf Pack…”

“Puma loses.” Adrian stopped pacing and stared blankly at the wall, his mind racing. “We need to keep the Pride around us, then.”

“Sheri won’t be alone; Simon’s been detailed to watch over her when she’s out and about. Belinda, Becky and Emma will stick with her whenever possible.”

“And I’ll be with her at night.”

“If you can convince her of that.”

“You doubt me?” Adrian grinned at Max, confident in his ability to seduce his mate.

“She’ll try to push you away in order to protect you. To be honest, I was surprised when she finally contacted us again and asked to join our Pride. The invitation’s been open since I bit her.”

“Which means things are probably worse than she’s telling,” Adrian muttered, every protective instinct flaring to life. The urge to go to her, pick her pretty ass up and cart her home to his den where she’d be safe was nearly overwhelming.

“Yup.”

“You okay with Emma doing guard duty?”

Max’s grin was feral, and his eyes flashed to gold. “That son of a bitch touches my mate—hell, breathes on her wrong—I’ll force-feed him his balls.”

Adrian nodded, muscles tensed as Max’s power rolled through the room. The need to protect was even stronger in the face of his Alpha’s unconscious call. “If Emma doesn’t do it first?”

Max’s grin relaxed, and Adrian relaxed with him. “She broke a man’s nose once.”

“I know.”

“You know?”

“Yeah, the whole town knew.”

Max blinked. “So why didn’t I know?”

Adrian shrugged. “Why would you? You weren’t in town when it happened, and no one knew she’d turn out to be your mate.”

Max blew out a breath. “The argument I had with that woman to get the story out of her… Okay. Never mind,” he snarled as Adrian grinned. “You see if you can get Sheri to spill the rest of the story.”

“No problem.” Adrian turned to leave the office and saw one of the wedding gown pictures Emma had pinned to the bulletin board. He stopped with a grin. “By the way, can you pass on a message to Emma?”

“Sure, what is it?”

The curiosity in Max’s voice nearly caused him to laugh. “Can you tell her that there aren’t enough swimsuit pictures in here? If you guys are going to the Caribbean for your honeymoon, she’ll need to pick out a bikini.”