Page 49 of Tiger Born

“By a lot.”

“Why is she with you?”

Dame shrugged. “That I haven’t had the chance to figure it out because you keep fucking it up.”

“I can tell you’re tired.”

Dame nodded and picked at the crust of his sandwich. “I’ve been tired for a while.”

“I tried to get her to shoot me,” Stellan said, running his hand through his messy, dark hair.

“She did shoot you. I watched her pull the bullet from your back. It went through your chest. You’re lucky it didn’t hit your heart.”

“No, I mean before.” Stellan scratched his short beard and stood. He walked over to the cage door and leaned on the bars.

“No more tricks,” Dame said, checking the locks again.

“I feel fine right now.”

“Your tiger is tricky.”

“Yeah, well it feels like my tiger is tired.” Stellan was staring off into space with a slight frown on his face. “Did she really pull a bullet from me?”

“Yep.”

“Well, that’s kind of cool. Can you ask her if I can keep it?”

The chair creaked as Dame leaned back in it. “You want me to ask Misty a favor? For you?”

Stellan pursed his lips and shook his head. “Never mind.”

Something felt strange in here.

The air wasn’t heavy. Stellan didn’t smell sick like he usually did. Inside of him, Dame’s tiger wasn’t riled up at all in response to the dominant monster Stellan housed inside of him.

“What’s your game?”

Stellan shrugged up one shoulder. “I think I’m just tired. I probably need some food too.”

Suspicious, Dame checked the floor around the cage to make sure there wasn’t a cattle prod or any other kind of weapon in reach. The floor was clean. Dame took his plate and got within arm’s reach of the cage and offered it to him.

“What kind of sandwich is it?”

“Turkey.”

“You know I need more protein than that. I don’t feel right.”

“You can start with that while I make you food,” Dame gritted out, irritated. He should let his rotten carcass starve.

“Thanks,” Stellan muttered, reaching through the bars to take the plate.

Dame grabbed his forearm hard and watched his eyes. There wasn’t even a speck of gold there as Stellan gritted out, “What are you doing?”

Dame released him and backed away, watching his eyes for the color change.

Something was off.

Unannounced touch was a big trigger for Stellan’s animal, but he hadn’t even reacted. Maybe he was just hurt and recovering from the fight.