Chapter 4

Rex wouldn’t tell Ada, but he was nervous as hell having her out in public. She was on the run from her old clan, and someone could be looking for her at that very moment. Her clan was located an hour and a half from Olive Branch, and that short of a distance didn’t put enough room between her and the O’Kelly clan. As far as Rex was concerned, being on the same planet as Robert O’Kelly was too close to Ada.

The problem was…he couldn’t deny her a meal out. She’d been so happy once she had put on her new clothes and shoes, and when he reaffirmed her request of a simple burger, her eyes had lit up like he was handing her the world.

They entered the diner and took a seat in the back booth. Even though he was going to take her out in public, Rex knew better than to go into a heavily populated area. The diner out on the old highway leading to Memphis was going to have to do. Plus, it was the place where Tessa had been working when she’d met Drake, and their old family friend, Gaia, owned it.

“Hey, Rex,” Gaia greeted as she approached the table. Her green eyes sparkled when they landed on Ada. “Who do we have here?”

“Gaia, this is Ada,” he introduced. “Ada, this is Gaia. She was close friends with my mother.”

“It’s very nice to meet you, Ada,” Gaia replied, holding out her hand. Rex relaxed when Ada shook her hand and made pleasantries. “What will you have today?”

“Hamburger and fries, please,” Ada said, not even looking at the menu.

“Same,” Rex mimicked, then tacked on, “But make it two.”

He was hungry, and it was getting to be past noon. Rex wanted to spend as much time with Ada as he could. The beast inside him wanted to run again, but he wanted her by his side. The more time he was around her, the more her mating scent called to him. Touching her was still out of the picture, but he could do little things to make her smile.

“Would you like to run with me tonight?” he asked as Gaia walked away.

“I would like that,” Ada replied.

“Our land is secure,” he promised, sensing a little fear coming from her. The scent tickled his nose, and he didn’t like it. “I won’t let anyone harm you.”

“I don’t think they’ll find me,” she whispered, trying to keep her voice low. “My scent from Hickory Flat to here should all be washed away by now.”

“You never know, Ada,” he warned. “They could show up anywhere.”

“I’ve thought about that,” she agreed. “They have no rights to me, and they cannot force me to return to the clan.”

“Do you think the male from Montana will try to claim you?” he half growled, covering up the sound with a cough when an elderly lady two tables over looked in their direction.

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “It’s been three months since he was supposed to arrive to take me back with him. I’m sure he doesn’t care. I was a purchase to him. Robert sold me like livestock, Rex. It’s no secret I would’ve been treated no better.”

“The thought of you being sold makes me violent,” he replied, feeling his beast push at his skin. Ada’s eyes widened as his shifted. He closed them and took a deep breath, willing his beast to calm down. It took a few seconds before the bear rested in his mind and his eyes returned to his normal brown.

Gaia arrived with their food and left them to eat. Ada hummed as she took the first bite. “Food tastes so much better after not having any for so long.”

“Whatever you’re craving, I’ll make sure you have it,” he vowed.

“Thank you,” she blushed. “I’m sorry. I get excited about the dumbest things.”

“It’s not dumb,” he scolded, shaking his head. “You like what you like, and don’t ever apologize for being yourself.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever really been myself,” she wondered aloud. “I’ve always done what was asked of me, and I stayed on the straight and narrow, hoping Robert wouldn’t kick me out of the clan because I had no family.”

“I want you to find yourself, Ada,” Rex said, taking a bite of his burger. He watched as her eyes went dim while she escaped into her own head. He could almost see the wheels turning as she came up with a plan. “What’s going on in your head?”

“I want to do something with my hands,” she giggled. “Well, I helped the elders with the gardens in our clan. I enjoyed it. I don’t think I want to do anything else.”

“You’re going to fit in just fine,” he laughed.

“Why?” she frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“Oh, yeah,” he said, feeling like the biggest dumbass. “We never told you what we do.”

“No, we haven’t gotten to that part,” she stated.

“My brothers and I are farmers,” he announced. “We own about three thousand acres of farmland outside the city limits.”

“Seriously?” she gasped, her eyes lighting up with his words. “I mean, I figured you had some type of farming business because of the machinery I saw outside of the barn when we left the house, but honestly, I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

“How sheltered were you, Ada?” he asked, wiping his hands on a napkin. “I mean, Hickory Flat is out in the middle of nowhere, but I know there are farms out that way. Did you ever leave your land?”

“I wasn’t allowed to leave the land once I turned fifteen,” she scowled. “The men went to the store to gather supplies. We grew our own food, and what meat we did have was either hunted by the men or bought by Robert.”

“You have never lived,” he mumbled. She must’ve heard him, because Ada nodded and went back to eating her food.

“No, I don’t think I have,” she said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

They finished their meal in silence, but Rex kept an eye on her while watching the diner. No one came in that looked suspicious. He needed to get a description of Robert O’Kelly so he and his brothers could be on alert.

Ada didn’t think they’d come for her, but he was certain they would at some point. If Robert or the rest of the clan came for her so they could sell her to the man from Montana, Rex vowed to kill anyone who stepped foot on their property. Ada was his mate, and although they hadn’t touched, he already knew he’d die to keep her safe.

By the time they reached the house, Ada couldn’t keep her eyes open. Rex came around the side of the truck and opened her door. She wanted to ask him to carry her in, but refrained. She was getting stronger, but it’d only been twenty-four hours since she’d been found.

Ada had dreamed about finding a patient mate for many years. She was only twenty-four, but for the last four years, she’d been touched by many men. Thankfully, none of them were a match for her, and none of them had demanded sex from her.

She was innocent in so many ways, but in others, she was an old soul. The elder females in the clan had tried to teach her the ways of a female shifter, telling her what to expect when she came of age and met her true mate.

Ada blushed as she entered the house. Rex was a large male, and she was so tiny. She remembered Martha and Peggy teasing her that she had to have been the runt of the litter when she was born. They didn’t mean anything hurtful by it, and it was a little joke between them as she worked to help them with the garden.

She knew how the mating worked, and had been told in detail one afternoon when she was eighteen and had finally worked up enough nerve to ask the older women. She and Anna Claire were shocked and a little embarrassed when the females informed them of what would happen when they touched their mates for the first time.

With Ada, that talk had stuck with her. It’d turned into dreams where she would be saved from the O’Kelly clan by a prince on the back of a white horse. He would slay Robert and take her away to live in his castle. Well, little did she know, the prince never came, and the princess had to save her damn self.

Rex was more than she ever dreamed of all those years ago, though. He may have not ridden in on a white horse to save her, but he had saved her in other ways. If they’d not found her in the woods, she would’ve starved to death.

“You okay?” Rex asked as he came up behind her. He was so close, she could feel his warmth. She closed her eyes and nodded, walking off toward his quarters.

“I’m going to shower,” she mumbled and tightened her hold on the bag that held all of her worldly belongings. Hell, it wasn’t like she had anything more than that when she was living with the O’Kelly clan. She was lucky to have clothes at all. When she’d fled, she only had what was on her back, and by the time she reached the fence marking the edge of the Morgan’s property, she had stripped off the torn material and shifted into her bear form to climb over.

She felt Rex following her to his room. He didn’t speak as they walked, but she could scent him, and she knew his mating scent was because of his concern. You could learn a lot about a male shifter by his eye color and the scent he gave off when around his mate.

Before she could open the door to his quarters, a large hand landed on the solid wood above her head. She immediately tucked her chin and took a deep breath. “Ada, you have to tell me what’s going on in your head. Otherwise, I will think the worst.”

“I had a moment where I was feeling sorry for myself,” she said softly, not moving from her position. God, he was so close to her. Rex’s lips were right at her ear, and she wanted to lean back. All she wanted to do was to feel his arms around her body, holding her tight. “It was only for a moment, Rex. I’m okay. Promise.”

“What can I do?” he asked, his voice only above a whisper, but she had heard him. She heard the desperation in his voice.

“I would give anything for you to hold me right now,” she mumbled and reached for the door handle, pushing it open wide. Rex cursed under his breath as she entered the room and walked straight into the adjoining bathroom to start her shower.

“I would give anything to take away the pain in your heart, Ada,” he said as he stood in the doorway to the bathroom. “But I will not touch you until you are stronger. I’m an honorable male who respects a female. If I touched you right now and we completed a mating we know will happen, I would be no better than the male who bought you.”

“I know,” she said, then closed the door.

If she dwelled on what he had said, she’d be in tears. Instead, she turned the shower on as hot as it would go and stepped inside. When she looked down at her body, she was surprised to see her hips were a little thicker than the night before. The muscles in her thighs were a little more defined.

She scrubbed her hair again, feeling a lot of her sadness and anxiety wash down the drain with the suds from the shampoo. By the time she had dried off and wrapped her hair in a towel, she was in better spirits.

“Better?” Rex asked as she entered the living area of his quarters.

“Yes, and I’m sorry,” she apologized.

“No need to be sorry,” he replied, then turned for the small kitchenette. When he turned around, he was holding two coffee mugs in his hands. “Hot cocoa?”

“With marshmallows?” she asked, hopeful.

“Of course,” he chuckled and exaggerated an eye roll.

She folded herself into the corner of the couch and took a sip while he turned on the television. They decided on another movie, and she finished her drink within the first fifteen minutes. She was asleep on the couch before the credits rolled.