BlindHeat by Nara Malone Read Free Book Online Page B

light. “Living in a house
with a pack of Pantherian wolves made Oliver nervous.”
    Jake pursed his lips, scratched at his beard. “And how did
that nervousness reveal itself?” Jake knew him too well. But Marcus knew Jake
better. The body of a giant but the heart of a marshmallow. Jake was drawn by
the innocent trust of the tiny scrap of fur. He’d moved closer. Marcus offered
again and this time Jake cupped the bunny in his palm. Oliver looked more the
size of a honey bun in Jake’s big hand.
    Marcus tucked his hands in his jacket pockets and moved away
before he began his answer to Jake’s question. “He’s exceptionally bright and
gifted. I don’t think Ben quite appreciated his talents.”
    Jake looked up, one eyebrow cocked, waiting for more.
    “He’s not a teleporter.” Rabbits that could vanish and
reappear in a different location at will were not terribly popular as pets and
Marcus had a hard time finding homes for the litter he’d rescued. The pockets
of Pantherian males living among humans didn’t want to risk exposure, but they
were the only reasonable adoption option. Taking them back to Pantheria would
open a fierce political debate—as long as the governing council didn’t know
about his rescue missions, they couldn’t forbid them.
    Marcus moved the carcass of a computer tower from a chair to
the workbench beside it and sat before sliding a glance Jake’s way. “He chewed
things, electrical cord, shoelaces.”
    Of course, cord-chewing rabbits and computer shops weren’t
an ideal combination…
    Instead of the rejection Marcus had expected, Jake’s hand
tightened protectively around the bunny, a sheltering curve of fingers. The
little one wriggled his ears when the movement rolled him back to his belly,
but nestled there, unafraid. “They probably didn’t give him enough attention. He
hasn’t chewed anything here.”
    Jake’s shop was littered with the innards of a variety of
electronic devices. Open cases spewed cables and circuit boards. A few showed
signs of life through a spinning fan or blinking light. Marcus was tempted to
ask how Jake could tell the bunny had kicked his cable-nibbling habit, but
decided to shut up while he was ahead. Meantime, Jake was doing a fine job of
painting himself into the corner of becoming Oliver’s permanent caregiver.
    “When we’re in human form the rabbits still appear to sense
our true nature. Oliver’s afraid of the wolves but not me. I can understand
that, rabbits would not have an instinctive aversion to Yeti, as they would for
a tiger. Why isn’t he afraid of you?”
    Marcus shrugged and said, “I think he’s most comfortable
with you.”
    He didn’t say he’d wondered the same thing himself when
Lilly, the rabbit he’d pressed on his son’s family, had been nervous around the
two males but not their mate, Marie. Marcus assumed individual personalities
had more to do with that than species. The other explanation—that Marcus’ core
nature was a bit fuzzy—wasn’t something he could share with Jake. Only one
Pantherian had known of Marcus’ ability to shift into the form of any
Pantherian subspecies—Sharizad. The female had taken Marcus, a foundling, into
the safekeeping of her nursery of newborns and raised him as hers, keeping the
secret of his true origins even from her mates.
    “No one must know,” she said when she’d catch him at his
unique brand of self-expression, multi-shapeshifting, as a child. “The council
would never allow you to stay here if they knew. For your sake. For mine. No
one must know.” She’d passed from this life into the next realm centuries ago.
Unwanted memories crowded at the edge of his awareness. Marcus changed the
subject.
    “I still haven’t learned what happened to Hella. If her
kittens possess any strange abilities like the rabbits, we need to find them
before those talents start manifesting.”
    “Hopefully, that won’t be until they are around six months
old. We may have some time