Page 3 of Pixie Problems
I could tell he was amused, and I grinned at him. I think he and I would get along just fine.
“Yep. Clever of us little pixies, huh?”
He laughed.
“We raise and take care of all kinds of livestock: sheep, goats, dairy cows, chickens, a few horses, and half a dozen Australian Shepherds that keep our livestock in line. A while back we lost a dog and a few sheep. We thought, at first, that it was just a wild coyote that had gotten in. So we mended the fence, mourned the loss, but otherwise thought nothing of it. The next week it happened again. We lost another dog and a dairy cow.”
Finn's mouth had tightened into a straight line and I knew he was getting the feel for where this was going.
“Again, we thought a wild coyote. But this time, we assigned a ranch hand to the area with another dog.” I drew in a big breath. “He was savagely attacked.”
Finn cursed up a blue-streak, and I nodded. “Yeah, it was ugly.” I sighed. “We moved the sheep into a secondary barn and brought all the livestock in closer to the house, and then a few other hands and I took night shifts all the next week.” I shivered even though Finn had turned on the heater for me as soon as we'd gotten into the SUV. “I met Hux then. He's the alpha of a pack of coyotes near our ranch, and I guess times are lean for them. He's a terrible alpha, so the fact that he's running his pack into the ground isn't a surprise to me. He and a few others were cutting into our territory and killing our animals.”
I looked at the sheriff. “Now, I don't begrudge a man food, Sheriff, but he had other options; he just didn't want to take them. They scared our livestock, murdered our working dogs, and then, the night he met me, he got my scent, and from that moment on, has been a thorn in my side. He won't leave me alone.
“On the occasions I went into town, which wasn't much, he would have men following me. On the ranch I'd get that eyes-on-me feeling, but I could never find them. One of our hands is a panther shifter, and she could smell that they were in and out of our territory. The stalking got worse.” I clenched my fingers in my lap. “He would call my cell all the time. Sometimes he'd just breathe heavily; others he'd chat me up like we were the best of friends. I'd demand he stop calling me and change my number, but somehow he'd get the new number within a few days.
“I got a restraining order, but it was a joke because the town police would just give him a few stern words, and then let him go whenever he violated it. All the hands and my family started carrying guns all the time. Eating, sleeping, didn’t matter. We kept a gun near us. My family started getting threatening letters. In the letters Hux said that they were keeping me from him, and that he was going to send his pack after them.”
My throat tightened. I didn't have many family members left, just my gran and gramps and a few aunts, uncles and cousins, but that had been the straw that broke the camel's back.
“So you left, hoping he would leave your family alone.”
I nodded.
Finn shifted then patted my hand and put his hand back on the steering wheel. I was mindlessly taking in the cute little town as we passed shops and adorably colorful homes.
I might carry a gun and ride a motorcycle, but color made me secretly happy. I didn't wear much of it in my clothing, only occasionally, but it made my heart hurt less to see the coziness of Moonhaven Cove. I laughed as we passed a flower shop. “Pushing Daisies?”
His lips twitched and he shrugged. “What can I say? We have town pride. All the businesses are owned by paranormals, and they like to have fun with their business names.”
I laughed at another one. “The Tea Hobbit?”
“They're actually looking for a server at the moment. Owner likes to employ pixies.”
I filed that information away. It would take a while to get my apothecary shop off the ground, and in the meantime a server position at a tea shop just might suit me.
We arrived at the station, and we quickly moved into the warm and dry office building. The Sheriff's Office was a large brick building in the middle of town, probably for ease of access. I almost nodded in approval. Whoever had laid out this town did it in a way that made sense. At least, from what I'd been able to see from a quick drive through it.
Finn's actual office was medium in size, with a big window, a bookshelf, and a large desk. His bookshelf surprised me. I don't know why I was expecting mysteries and detective novels, but I had to blink twice at the full row of romance novels. Not the steamy kind, I noted, but the sweet kind. He had other rows of different genres such as fantasy and gaslamp, but his romance section was byfarthe largest. I think my heart knew, right then, that Finn was going to become a good friend. You know how you just know, sometimes? You get good vibes from someone? I was getting them from the sheriff.
He saw what my eyes were focused on and turned red around the collar of his police uniform. I sized him up now that we were out of the rain, and my brain had caught up enough to notice that he was uncommonly handsome, in a rugged kind of way. He had golden blond hair and green eyes with a yellow ring around them that were stunning because they were luminescent in certain lights or shadows like cat’s eyes. He was lean but he looked strong. He was all alpha, with the typical alpha gruffness, but I could tell he was a good man.
I was puzzled by the green eyes. My Insight was telling me he was a feline shifter, and I was guessing lion, king of his pride. “Aren't you a lion shifter?”
“Yes?”
“Lions don't have green eyes.”
He looked a little uncomfortable, and I almost wanted to retract the question. I knew better than anyone not to ask nosy questions and to keep my thoughts to myself.
“My ancestors seemed especially attracted to panther shifters.”
Ah. Well, that would do it. I wondered if his fur was dark in shifted form? The first black lion?
“And no I don't have black fur,” he said, trying not to laugh.
“Am I that easy to read?”
