Page 34 of Murder Mittens

I pondered climbing into my daddy’s truck, cuddling with my yarn, and taking a nap with my sewing machine. “What happened to being nice to me? Why are you being mean, Uncle Henry?”

“I am being nice. I’m going to get your new phone out of the house once your father subdues your brothers and it’s safe to take your sewing machine inside. I’m going to be even nicer and tell them I can verify Sebastian’s skills with a sewing machine, and that he’s done repairs to my suits while at work. This is annoying, because I’m supposed to be helping with the beating, not verifying my little niece ensnared a decent lycanthrope in her trap. I’m also disturbed. How on Earth did you meet him? More importantly, how on Earth did you actually lure him into your daddy’s truck?”

“I needed that big truck to hold that lion’s ego and pride.”

My uncle grinned at me. “That’s my girl.”

The lion ignored me, gracing my uncle with his attention. “She was in a coffee shop by herself, and an asshole made a scene because he’s not man enough to handle a few scars. So while he shamed all men, I tried to make up for his lack of grace, buying her a hot chocolate topped with catnip.”

He had purchased a hot chocolate for me, and I couldn’t remember if it had been spiked with pixie dust or catnip, but I’d almost managed to erase the memory of that damned lycanthrope wolf who’d smelled a single female and discovered my face terrified him. “Fucking wolves!” I yowled, although my complaint was drowned out by my squabbling family.

“I’m sorry, Harri. I know how much you hate the flinching.”

I pointed at Sebastian. “All I do is piss him off, and when I piss him off enough, he roars for me. I love the roars, Uncle Henry. He even gets right in my face when he does it.”

“I will expose your purring habit,” the lion warned.

I gasped. “You wouldn’t!”

“I really will. How nothing gets you purring faster than a good roar.”

Ruthless male with his excellent sense of hearing. “It was just a few purrs.”

“I bet I can make you purr right now with one roar.”

I bet he could, too. “What happened to not roaring from frustration?”

“I would be roaring my satisfaction over having frustrated you.”

My uncle closed the tailgate and leaned against my father’s truck. “He’s cornered you, Harri. You may as well just confess.”

“Fine. When he roars, I purr. And I goad him into roaring so I can get my purring in. We’ve been doing this for years. I like his roars. They’re just everything a roar should be. It just happens I finally had a reason to bring him home. And yes, I am planning on dragging him to the spa with me. Would I really choose Cincinnati over Hawaii without a good reason?” Something crashed in the general direction of the house, and I sighed. “I don’t know what they broke, but they really can’t afford to break even more furniture being idiots.”

“Okay, I’ll concede this. I should have put some more thought into why you were picking Cincinnati. A week long stay at a spa for the purpose of enjoying time with someone not in the family is sensible.”

Huh. Either my uncle was dumber than he looked, or he thought I put a great deal more effort and planning into my non-existent sex life. With some luck and help from a certain lion, soon-to-be energetic sex life punctuated with roars and purrs. “Exactly. And I might take a second week to fully enjoy myself.”

My uncle glanced at Sebastian. “Are you even going to be able to get two weeks off? The last I checked, they had you dancing all over the country without a day off in sight.”

“I have been told I need to stop pining over a cantankerous feline and do something about the situation. And I got kicked out of my office for a while. I have some light work to do as time allows. I’ve also been put in charge of handling a few nasty bounties, but I’m the handler rather than the hunter on those. The hunter I’m handling has a reputation.”

“You got the new one, didn’t you?” Uncle Henry shook his head while rolling his eyes. “When they work you to death, put a good word in for me.”

Well, that had gone better than I had anticipated. Rather than expose myself as the lucky bounty hunter with the promotion and a job worth talking about, I kept my mouth closed. One day, I would confess my sins… about the same time I came home without a scarred face. With luck, by Christmas.

It depended on Sebastian’s blood type and how long it took me to take out the bastard killing women through the violent removal of their reproductive organs.

I really hated Jack the Ripper copycats, especially when they targeted women with scarred faces. One day, maybe people wouldn’t view a woman’s beauty as the rent she paid to exist.

That would be a nice day.

Rather than annoy everyone in hearing distance with my opinion, upsetting them as I wanted a face that didn’t make the kittens cry, I practiced staying quiet. Staying quiet kept my family from grumping over how I couldn’t just ‘accept my scars’ or ‘try not to worry about my face’ in my day-to-day life.

I needed to thank Sebastian later for understanding that I wanted to get rid of my scars because I didn’t want to continue going through life scaring the kittens and dealing with people flinching when they saw my face.

“I’ll do you one better. I’ll toss one of the stable hunters your way. He’s a tier up from the one I was just given to handle, so he’ll bring you in good change, and he is pretty hands off. It should raise your percentage by a few points without overworking you. However, he can be needy.”

“What do you mean by needy?”