Page 30 of Tempest

“Yup. Good luck, big guy.” She headed for a different door than where Cash had come in, glancing back at Ore. “When you start getting some memories back, come and see me. I think I’ll be able to help find the rest once your mind gives us the roadmap.”

He nodded, not saying anything as she stepped out of the room and into what he assumed was the kitchen, closing a swinging door behind her. Once it was just the two of them, Ore had the urge to flee. The room, the house—maybe even the territory.

He felt… stupid. For days, he and Cash had spent nearly every moment together. While Cash wasn’t the chattiest person in the world, he’d shared things with Ore, like the story about his parents the night before. Not to mention the fact that they slept together each night.

Ore had thought those things meant something.

He was such a fool.

Cash prowled forward, closing the distance between them. Ore wanted to move back, but he refused to shrink away. He wasn’t some prey animal to Cash’s predator. Lifting his chin, he met that faintly glowing gaze.

“You don’t have to explain,” he said tightly. “I understand.”

“No, you don’t,” Cash growled at him. “If it were just up to me, I’d tell you, Ore. You have to know that.”

He wanted to believe that was true, but theprotect the packexcuse didn’t really work. “I thought that was true, but this Caden person isn’t even a part of this pack, and you’re still refusing to tell me about him.” He shrugged, trying to look less upset than he truly was, though he knew his scent had to still be spewing his emotions everywhere. “So no, I don’t think you’d tell me. I’m surprised you’ve shared anything with me since you trust me so little.”

Cash’s teeth ground together. “He’s Liam’s family. That makes him off-limits.”

“It’s not like it’s a secret!” Ore exploded, waving a hand toward the kitchen door. “Fern knows about it. You obviously know. This isn’t some deep, dark secret only the family knows about to protect him. You just don’t wantmeto know. You don’t trustmewith the information.”

“Ore—”

“Let’s just go,” he said, all his anger from before already starting to drain away. It hurt that he would trust Cash with his life, but the panther didn’t feel the same. “You can just drop me at the Alpha House. I’ll wait out the rest of my amnesia there.”

Cash darted forward, and Ore jerked back, his instincts pointing out that cats ate birds all the time. His back hit the wall, but Cash kept coming until there was only an inch of air left between them. His body filled with a syrupy heat as he craned his head back to look up, and up, and up into Cash’s face.

“That’s not happening, little bit,” he rumbled, planting his forearms on the wall above Ore’s head. “You don’t fly away the second you get pissed at me.”

Ore tried to slow his breathing, his pulse thumping in his ears. “You hurt my feelings.”

“I know,” he said, leaning down and running his nose up the side of his face. “I’m sorry. I know you aren’t some spy, but until you get your memories back, Ican’tshare certain things with you. It doesn’t matter how I feel. I have to protect my pack.”

Ore swallowed. “How do you feel?”

A soft noise filled the air around them, almost too quiet for Ore’s ears to pick up. It took him a second to realize what it was, and then his damn heart melted, all his frustration and bruised feelings drifting away.

Cash was purring. Forhim.

“Terrified, little bit. You terrify me in the most exhilarating way possible.”

“I’ll only be fifteen minutes,” Ore pleaded, giving Cash his best smile.

His big cat pressed his lips together in that way that meant he wanted to smile but didn’t want Ore to know how adorable he found him. “Fifteen, and then home.”

Home.

Ore nodded and raced inside the bookstore, floating on a cloud of happiness. Cash’s words from Fern’s house were still echoing in his ears, and he couldn’t wait to see if he could get him to purr for him again. Maybe without Fern listening from the next room. The wink she’d thrown him as they’d gotten ready to leave had made him blush like a teenager.

He knew all their problems weren’t magically solved just because heterrifiedthe big, bad Enforcer, but they didn’t feel as scary as they had before their cozy little chat. He didn’t have answers to any of his questions, but he felt less alone than he had before.

Because he was Cash’slittle bit.

Sighing happily, he nearly skipped through the store, looking for the romance section. The woman behind the counter smiled at him, so he waved but didn’t stop. He wondered if she was the owner. She looked like she was in her forties or fifties, despite her graying hair being braided into pigtails. Big square pink glasses took up most of her face and matched her lipstick perfectly.

He saw a man in his sixties in the historical fiction section—yuck—and a guy his own age bent over to check some books near the bottom along the back wall of the whole store that made up the Research and Spellwork area. On the far side of the store, he finally found the shelves dedicated to romance novels and began searching for something to occupy him in the afternoons when Cash was usually busy on the phone or his computer with pack stuff.

Cash was next door getting something to drink and would want to go as soon as he was finished, so Ore knew he didn’t have time to read the backs of all of the books. Instead, he searched for authors he knew and picked a few to look at more closely.

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