More than a Cheetah (Shifty Book 6) Read online

  I had never seen someone look at me tenderly, at least not since I said goodbye to my parents. Ten years was a long time to go without that emotion, and I was still entirely clueless as to what I should do in response.

  “There’s no rush for us. No time limit, no set date. We just get to be us, together.” He said.

  Gosh, his words were beautiful.

  Seriously, there was money for him in the poetry field.

  Then again, he had plenty of money.

  We had plenty of money.

  Yeah that was weird to think about too.

  Sorry, I’m being distracting again. Right.

  I didn’t know how to respond, for, I don’t know, the nineteenth time in twenty-four hours. I didn’t have words to match his, I didn’t have anything beautiful to tell him back.

  But I did have feelings. Wow, did I have feelings. Feelings that were overwhelming me and everything I knew. I wanted to tell Haiden everything I’d been through, I wanted to explain to him the ache that I had felt since losing my parents ten years ago. I wanted tell him how I’d suffered, and I wanted to tell him the way I had never felt smart enough after living with my aunt and uncle.

  More than any of that, I wanted to let him in. I wanted Haiden to understand me. I didn’t want him to be Haiden Day, I wanted him to be my Haiden. My soulmate, my missing piece, the man who would be my family and tell me the things that my aunt and uncle never had.

  I wanted him to understand me, and I wanted him to love me.

  And, I wanted to understand and love him in return.

  Heaven knows that I already did. Twenty-four hours, and I already loved that man.

  I couldn’t even begin to comprehend how that worked.

  So I didn’t reply. I didn’t tell him the thoughts that whirled around my brain like some destructive hurricane-slash-sunset that made me feel good but worried but thrilled all at the same time.

  Instead, I stepped closer to him. I put my sweaty, nervous hands and arms around his neck.

  And then I kissed the living daylights out of Haiden Day.

  Yep, another pun, but this one is a kissing pun. I should totally get double points for that.

  Then again, I wouldn’t have even considered trading that kiss for any number of points. My kiss was worth way more than a pun, although, let’s be real.

  You can never have too many puns.

  Chapter 10

  After a trip to the store for everything we needed to furnish the kitchen (it was strange not having to worry about how much the cart full of stuff would cost), Haiden started organizing his stuff.

  Since I had just one suitcase, which took only three minutes to unpack, I called Brooke.

  “Hey.” Brooke sounded like she had tried to be cheerful but failed miserably. I grimaced for her; her sickness really sucked.

  “You okay?” I checked.

  “Oh, I’m great.” I heard a door shut and then some wood creak. “I’m sitting on a splintering wooden stair—the one my feet are on is broken—and my stomach has been murdering me since 4 AM. Plus, I miss you.” She sighed. “Being on my feet all day really sucks.” She added.

  “I’m sorry.” I frowned. “You could just tell Kennedy you need to come back early. We’re furnishing the university tomorrow, and it’s probably going to take longer than everyone expects. We ordered a crap ton of furniture.”

  “She needs help.” Brooke said. She paused, and I knew she must be feeling really sick. Nothing could kill her energy except the sickness every now and again. “What am I going to do in that house all by myself? I swear, J, I’m going to die.” Brooke sounded serious, but I knew she was at least partially joking.

  “You’re not going to die. Your prince charming will show up soon.” I tried to cheer her up, though we both knew trying to guess when her mate would come was a joke. Women had zero control over finding their soulmates.

  We literally had to sit on our butts and just wait for him to make an appearance. Yeah, that was a little sucky, but it was just a fact of shifter life.

  “I hope you’re right.” Brooke’s voice was quiet, and I could hear the desperation in it.

  She acted strong in front of everyone, she pretended that the sickness didn’t bother her and couldn’t shake her, but I knew the truth.

  Brooke was struggling, and she was struggling a lot. I knew that as soon as her mate showed up, things would be different for her, but she needed to hold out until then. Considering everything she was facing, that in itself would be a challenge.

  “So, let’s be happy. What is it like, living with the sexiest painter on the planet?” Brooke’s voice cheered up, though I could tell it took a lot of effort. Talking more about her sickness would only make her hurt more.

  “I’ve only lived with him for one day, so I’m not sure yet.” I told her, then glanced behind me. Haiden had music playing as he sorted his stuff, but I still couldn’t just say out loud everything I was thinking. “But as soon as you’re back, let’s go out for pancakes.” I dropped it, our big keyword, the one we had planned for years.

  That wasn’t the first time we’d ever used it, but I couldn’t help but grin.

  “Ooh, pancakes? Girl, I can’t wait for all the details.” Brooke laughed. She knew full and well what pancakes meant. It was a simple way to say that we had news but couldn’t say it until we went somewhere else, usually somewhere together.

  It had come in handy during college, when our roommates were doing atrocious things and we didn’t want them to know the actual important details of our lives.

  “Yeah, they’ll taste good.” I bit my lip, trying to suppress that grin.

  “Like Haiden’s mouth?” Brooke teased me, and I laughed out loud.

  Glancing back to make sure he hadn’t noticed, I saw Haiden’s head sticking out of the bedroom door. He had a wry smile on his face, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he had somehow heard the whole conversation. But that was ridiculous.

  “Yeah, that good.” I tried to keep my answer vague and G-rated so he wouldn’t be onto me. “You should tell Kennedy you need to come back a few days earlier. She could handle three or four days, and plenty of guides should be trained by then.” I suggested.

  “We’ll see. I do have a bunch of work to do. I’ve got nineteen messages that were sent to my phone, which means the secretaries couldn’t answer their questions.” Brooke sighed. “It would be really nice if I didn’t feel quite so sick.”

  “Dang. You got this.” I promised.

  “I hope. I’ll let you get back to your Haiden time, but have enough fun for the both of us, kay?” Brooke said.

  “Okay. Talk to you tomorrow.” I said.

  “Love you, J.”

  “Love you too.” I hung up the phone.

  I sort of hoped Haiden hadn’t heard me tell Brooke I loved her, or any of the other shifty girls for that matter. I hadn’t even thought about saying that to him, since we’d only known each other for like, a day, just one Haiden Day.

  Okay, okay, I’ll stop with the puns.

  If I can.

  Anyway, I wasn’t ready to drop the love bomb on Haiden. I couldn’t love someone after just one day, I couldn’t be that deep into a relationship in twenty-four hours.

  Love didn’t just appear in one day, after all.

  Right?

  After hanging up the phone, I went back into our room—mine and Haiden’s room. Yeah, that was weird to accept. It was our room, not my room. Sitting down on the bed, I watched Haiden walk across the room to put something in the closet and then walk back across to put a few things in the bathroom.

  “You designed the university?” Haiden checked.

  “Yep.” I nodded once.

  “Did you want to give me a tour of it?” he asked. “I’d like to see the way your ideas came out.” He told me.

  “Sure.” I nodded. It was strange, I didn’t feel worried to show him my work. I had designed buildings that I loved, and a lot of other people loved them too.


  I had wanted to be an architect for years, but now that I was one, I was perfectly happy with my plans to work as a professor instead. I knew how to do school, it was real life that I wasn’t sure how to handle.

  Haiden finished putting everything away a few minutes later, and then we drove to the campus. We passed a few massive grizzly bears who were running security, and I waved at Beau when we parked in the area I always parked in. I was a frequent flier at Shifty University.

  I pointed out the first few buildings, then went on with the drive. Since it was January, the snow was too thick to walk through. Plus it was freezing outside, and who wanted to walk around in the cold?

  The driving tour took about thirty minutes, and then I parked in front of the main office building.

  “So, that’s Shifty University.” I shrugged, leaning back against the seat to relax a little. Driving while explaining was a little rough.

  “What classes are you teaching? Architecture classes?” Haiden checked.

  “No.” I shook my head. “I haven’t worked in the field long enough to actually teach those classes. I’ll be shadowing another architecture professor before I teach.” I explained. “This semester, I’m teaching cheetah classes. The first is just basics, and the second is about cheetah shifter history.”

  “Cool.” Haiden nodded.

  “Yeah, it’ll be fun.” I agreed. “Next semester, I might decide to teach a basic math class or two. I’ve always done well in math.”

  “We make for an interesting pair, don’t we?” Haiden smile. “The artist and the architect.”

  “Yeah, I don’t understand it.” I shrugged.

  My words weren’t entirely true. I understood plenty. I could see the way our differences complimented each other, and it was already obvious that Haiden was a good match for me.

  What I didn’t understand, however, was why he needed me. Did he need me? He said he wanted me, but did he need me?

  I wanted to feel important to Haiden, I wanted to feel like he needed me. I’d always been the shifter girl, but to him, I wanted to be the girl that made him feel complete.

  “We’ll figure it out.” Haiden was so calm about it, like it would just happen. Then again, everything else had. My nightmare had happened, him calming me down and showing me his paintings had happened. Him being one of the first people to really see me, that had happened too.

  So, while my brain told me it would never work out between us, that we had come from different worlds and were too different to love each other, my heart was a different story. My heart insisted again and again that Haiden and I were meant to be.

  I had never been good at following my heart over my head, though, so I pushed those thoughts away and reminded myself that we’d only known each other for a day. That wasn’t nearly enough time to fall for someone, nor was it enough time to know for sure that we were right for each other.

  Still, my pesky heart reminded me that we were two halves of one soul.

  When two people are literally made for each other, how could you measure love in hours or days?

  Yeah, I didn’t want to think about it.

  Chapter 11

  When we got back to the house/apartment—okay, I’m going to call it the house from now on even though technically it’s not a house— I made dinner while Haiden set up his art studio. The music played while I was dancing, using the spoon as a microphone to sing along.

  I stirred the potatoes into the soup, adding garlic salt for flavor. When the song broke out into the chorus, I swiveled my hips. How could I resist jamming out to the music?

  “Looking good.” Haiden said.

  I spun around, holding the wooden spoon out as a weapon in front of me. Haiden wore a smirk, leaning back in a chair at the table.

  “Don’t stare at people, that’s creepy.” I glared at him for a second before turning back around to stir the soup.

  “Sorry.” Haiden apologized. “I didn’t want to disturb you.” He said.

  “Too late.” I muttered.

  He came to stand next to me in the kitchen.

  “Thanks for making dinner. I’d offer to help, but I’d ruin it.”

  “No problem.” I shrugged, turning the music down on my phone. “I like to cook, it’s relaxing.” I told him.

  The soup was just about finished, so twenty minutes later, we were done with both eating and cleaning. We watched the second Harry Potter movie after that, and by the time it was over, it was 10 PM.

  “I’m going to paint, if that’s okay with you.” Haiden said, after shutting off the TV.

  “Yeah, sure.” I nodded.

  He pressed a kiss to my forehead and then disappeared inside his art studio, leaving me with my computer.

  That reminded me… I needed to go back and get the rest of my stuff from my house. Brooke’s house, I guess, since I moved. Tomorrow, I’d have to do it.

  Anyway, I grabbed my computer and sat on the couch. It was comfy, but not too comfy. That was how I liked it, because comfy couches always put me to sleep when I didn’t want to be asleep.

  I worked on my lecture/lesson plans until Haiden emerged from his studio.

  “You’re still awake?” Haiden raised his eyebrows.

  “Yeah.” I rubbed at the corner of my eye, checking what time it was for the first time since sitting down with the computer. It was 1:30 AM. “Whoa. I didn’t realize how late it was.” I shook my head. The work had woken me up, I guess, because I wasn’t even tired.

  “Do you want a snack?” Haiden checked, as he walked into the kitchen. I saved the document I was typing in, then closed my computer and stood up. I had to stretch; geez, my muscles were tired of being in the same place for so long.

  “Sure.” I nodded.

  Haiden tossed me a pack of fruit snacks, then came to sit next to me on the couch.

  “I haven’t had these since I was like six.” I smiled wryly, remembering my mom using fruit snacks to keep me quiet when we went to pack meetings and things. Those were the good old days, when cheetah shifters weren’t so afraid.

  “Really?” Haiden shook his head. “My grandma always had some. When she passed on, I had to keep the tradition.”

  “What was her name?” I asked, popping a fruit snack into my mouth.

  “Rosie.” Haiden smiled.

  “What was she like?” I wondered. I couldn’t help myself, I wanted to understand the woman who had raised Haiden. If I could understand her, maybe I would understand him better.

  “She was incredible.” He admitted. “Grandma was the real artist. She saw beauty in everything and everyone, and she let them know that she saw it. She was never afraid of being herself or helping others do the same.”

  “Do you miss her?” I asked, my words quiet.

  “Every day.” Haiden whispered.

  I put a hand on his leg, and he put his hand on top of mine.

  “What about your parents?” He changed the subject.

  “Um,” I swallowed. I didn’t tell people about my parents. Saying it out loud, talking about the people who had raised me and loved me and treated me so well… That was hard. They were gone, and with their absence came my aunt and uncle.

  “What were their names?” Haiden must’ve caught on to my hesitation. Names were easy, names were something anyone could do.

  “Miles and Willow.” I said. My voice was barely over a whisper, I couldn’t stand to say it louder. “They were the leaders of our pack. They convinced people that there was strength in numbers, they managed to get cheetahs to work together, and the people in the pack loved them.” I closed my eyes, and the images raced through my mind.

  The memories of that night, of the blood—there was so much blood.

  Water began gathering in my eyes, and I shook my head. I couldn’t cry in front of Haiden—what if it scared him?

  “They saved the rest of the pack. When the hunters came, after the shifter announcement, my parents gave everyone else time to run. I was hiding in the closet.”
I shook my head again. I couldn’t say anything else, I couldn’t rest on the memories.

  They hurt more than anything else ever had or ever could.

  “I’m sorry.” Haiden squeezed my hand as I tried to blink the tears back.

  “Me too.” I whispered, wiping away a tear that escaped. Haiden rested his arm over my shoulder, pulling himself closer and hugging me against him. I’d never been all that touchy, but having his body against mine was comforting. It felt good to have someone so close, to have him so close.

  “Want to see something cool?” Haiden checked. I was glad he changed the subject, and I nodded.

  He grabbed the TV remote and pressed a button. When he looked upward, I did too.

  A chunk of the roof slid open, revealing a starry sky above us.

  “Whoa.” I gaped. “We have a convertible house?”

  Haiden grinned at my words.

  “Yep.” He nodded.

  “That’s awesome.” I breathed, staring up at the stars over our heads.

  Haiden and I cuddled on the couch, both of us silent as we looked at the masterpiece that was the sky.

  “Sometimes I feel like I don’t deserve the success I’ve had.” Haiden finally whispered. “I look at the stars, or at the city lights at night, and I can’t help but wonder. Why do people buy paintings when the earth they stand on is the greatest piece of art in the world? Why do they pay for artwork when they could just look up and see something so much better?”

  “For the same reason people read books and watch TV probably.” I whispered back. “Because we want to escape. The world is beautiful, but it causes us pain. Art doesn’t hurt.” My mind went back to all the times I’d thrown books at the wall or ranted with Brooke about how heartbreaking it was to have lost one of our favorite characters.

  “Or maybe because we’re all just trying to survive another day, and art helps us do that.” Haiden sighed and brushed a piece of hair out of my face.

  I didn’t respond, just thinking about his words.

  Was it true? Were we all just trying to survive another day? Was art a coping method, did it help us survive?