Page 21 of Tiger's Little Waif

“What’s he talking about?”

“I have no idea. When I left, I didn’t take anything of his. I even left him all the furnishings of the apartment. All I took was my clothes, my phone and laptop, and Gio. When he attacked me the night before I came here, he broke into the room I was living in and destroyed my clothes and laptop. He didn’t get Gio or my phone because they went with me everywhere. I don’t understand. We’ve been separated for more than a year, and the divorce was finalized the day before he attacked me. What could he possibly think I stole from him?”

Marshall pulled her into his chest and hugged her. She rested her head on his chest clung to him. Why wouldn’t the nightmare that had been her marriage end?

“You won’t be facing him tomorrow. You won’t ever have to face him again,” Marshall said before dropping a kiss on the top of her head. “From now on, your Papa will deal with this asshole who thinks he can upset you.”

“But …” she started, though she wasn’t sure she wanted to argue. But she also did not want Marshall to have to deal with her ex-husband.

From the sound of his voice on the phone, she could tell something was wrong with Dan. Seriously wrong. While he had always been unpredictable, from the sound of the phone message, it sounded like he’d moved over the top into cray-cray banana pants crazy land. She wasn’t sure whether having Marshall meet with him was such a good idea. She also knew talking him out of it would probably end up with her ass being lit on fire for defying him.

“I’ll go with you, Daddy,” she said as gently as she could. “I know you’ll keep me safe.”

While she would welcome his large physical presence to keep Dan from beating on her again as he had at their last meeting, she needed to face him and finish whatever it was he thought was between them. She also knew that if she were not there to call him on the lies, Dan would try to convince Marshall that she was a lying, cheating, whoring bitch who could not be trusted when it was the other way around. He had been the one to lie, cheat and whore around for more than half their marriage.

Marshall studied her for a moment, before taking a deep breath. He did not look happy, but she hoped he would give in when he saw how determined she was.

“We’ll discuss it later. For now, please finish setting up the buffet while I go have a word with Kodiak.”

“Yes, Chef.”

It wasn’t until later that she realized that Marshall had taken her phone with him.

Marshall wanted to go to the capital at once so he could track down the asshole who threatened his mate and rip his head off now. Though she seemed adamant about seeing her ex, he would do whatever needed to keep her away from the man.

Though they had not talked about her nightmares, he knew she woke up nearly every night. Instead of waking him, she would snuggle close and lie still. The bruise-like marks under her eyes told him that she had spent a lot of sleepless nights over the past few weeks. That was one of the reasons he rearranged the schedule so she could get as much baking done in the morning as she could. He then put her down for a nap, either at the cabin, or in his office, as many afternoons as he could manage.

The pilot was not hard to find. He was keeping an eye on the group of mates who had been tasked with providing a bit of entertainment during the graduation ceremony. Though they had known about it for weeks, they had never been able to agree on what to do during their time in the spotlight. Now, with the performance a few minutes away, they were panicking about what song they should sing.

“Hey, aren’t you supposed to be in the kitchen stressing out over whether or not you have enough food prepared for the reception?” Harrigan said as Marshall approached.

“I’ve got a favor to ask. Can you bring a couple of the guards into the city tomorrow morning? Shaw’s ex is demanding a meeting at noon, and I have a feeling it might be an ambush.”

Kodiak and Sullivan joined them. “What’s going on? Why aren’t you in the kitchen?”

Marshall made a face as the men did a poor job of teasing him about his propensity for overthinking the graduation buffet. After explaining what was going on, and playing several of the messages, Kodiak agreed that he and several of the other shifters would join them in the capital well before the time Shaw was to meet with her ex. In the meantime, the head of security would ask Jaxon to look into the man’s background to see if he could determine exactly what he wanted from Shaw.

“Thanks, guys,” Marshall said after they had come up with a tentative plan about keeping his mate safe.

“You’re family, Chef. You should know we protect our own. Especially when it comes to the mates,” Kodiak said before wandering away again.

Though he knew that to be true, he had always kept himself separate from the rest of Bratburg’s shifter population. For no other reason than tigers were solitary creatures and his position in the kitchen had given him that solitude. Now mated, Marshall realized he needed to spend more time with the other Bratburg Daddies so that Shaw could make friends with the other Little mates.

“We’ll be leaving for the capital about three,” Harrigan said. “Does that give you enough time to get everything taken care of?”

Marshall nodded. “Sailor offered to finish cleaning up anything we can’t get done.”

With that Marshall turned to leave. Though he knew Shaw could manage to put out the trays of finger foods and desserts they had spent the last two days making, he was the chef and felt he needed to be there to make sure.

Just before three that afternoon, he helped Shaw climb into the back of the helicopter before following her onboard. The kitchen was cleaned, the leftovers from the buffet had been divided up amongst the single shifters who did not cook, and the dining hall was locked up and would remain that way for the next three days.

Settling on the seat beside his mate, Marshall fastened her safety belt before securing his own. While air travel was not his favorite mode of transportation, it was faster and less of a hassle than borrowing someone’s truck and driving.

The two members of the Council who had flown out for the graduation climbed aboard last. After strapping in, they each pulled out a tablet and spent the entire flight with their faces buried in the screen. The hour flight was bumpy, and Marshall began to consider the wisdom of buying a truck of his own, so they didn’t have to fly back. The fact that he had not left the institute in years was beside the matter.

“Papa,” Shaw whispered in his ear after they had been in the air only a few minutes.

“Yes, waif?”

---