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I unbuckled my seat belt and met him at his door. “Are you bringing him in with you?” I asked, nodding to the stuffy he was still holding.
“Huh?” He glanced down, then did a double take like he was just realizing he had something in his hands. “Uh, no. That’s okay.” He slid out of the seat and set the otter down.
“Let’s make this quick.”
“Yeah.” Felix put his hands into his pockets, his eyes lighting up when he felt the drives he’d stashed there earlier. “Hey, do you have a computer?”
I smiled wide. “I think I have something even better. I’ll show you when we get home.”
CHAPTER
FOUR
FELIX
Home.
I considered the word as we shopped, Nero insisting I buy way too much when we didn’t know how much of my actual stuff could be salvaged.
A shudder raced down my spine. Would I even want it knowing whatever criminals were after me had touched it?
I doubted it.
Nero’s hand on my leg brought me out of my thoughts, and I realized we’d stopped. Dappled light danced across the dashboard, and I looked out the window to see we were surrounded by trees. The edges of a house were visible beyond the small forest, and from where we’d parked, I could see the ocean and, in the distance, the Olympic Mountains.
“This is where you live?”
Nero shrugged. “How much do you know about orca shifters?”
“Not much.”
He sighed, then got out of the car, grabbing the bags from Target and coming around to open my door once again.
“I can get it.”
“I know, but I like to do it.” It was honestly kind of nice having someone take care of me in such a small way.
He led the way toward the house, which stole my breath when it came into view. The house was, in a word, massive. The warm red brick was accented with lighter stonework, and the house stretched at least three stories. A huge oak front door was flanked by stained glass windows. It was the largest house I’d ever seen in person, and I stood gawking until Nero doubled back and took my hand.
“It’s just a house.”
I scoffed. “This is not just a house. This is a mansion. No. Anestate.”
He tapped in a code on the front door and pushed it open, tossing his car keys into a bowl on an elaborate twisted metal and dark wood side table just inside the door and dropping the bags. I reluctantly set Otto, my stuffed otter that had survived the carnage at my apartment, on the table too, trying not to wince at how out of place it looked.
Stepping into the foyer was like traveling back in time, the wide wood trim and black-and-white marble checkerboard tiles reminding me of a time long gone. A grand staircase with wrought iron balusters wound up to the second floor. I felt too small and too dirty after a day spent sitting on the shitty carpet in the hallway of my apartment building to be in such an opulent space.
Nero crossed the room, moving farther into the house, and I followed, even as I kept my eyes on the huge crystal chandelier overhead.
The foyer opened into a gigantic kitchen that was more warm wood and expensive marble.
“Are you thirsty?” he asked, his hand already on the door of an industrial-sized and no doubt top-of-the-line refrigerator. “Itwas Cal’s week to shop, so I’m guessing we have water, some sort of cheap beer, orange juice, and maybe a soda.”
I shook my head. “I’m good.” My fingers traced along the decorative edge of the huge island in the center of the room, and Nero circled it, standing across from me and leaning back against the cabinets behind him. Nero had taken off his leather jacket and hung it on a hook by the door, and when he crossed his arms in the tight black T-shirt he had on underneath, the move did amazing things for his biceps. I caught a glimpse of the edge of a tattoo. And despite the long day, my mouth watered. Now that we were alone, I was almost desperate to get my hands on my mate. But something tugged at the back of my mind, pulling my head out of the gutter. “What were you saying before? About orca shifters?”
He smiled, and it made my heart melt. “Oh, right. This is my grandmother’s house, though my brothers and I live here. Orca shifters live in matrilineal groups, usually with their oldest living female relative.”
“So your parents live here too?”
