Page 3 of Courted by the Sabertooth (Mori’s Mementos #3)

Nic

Moonscale London

The sun was barely out, and leaves fell against my window.

I was nursing a coffee after being out late the night before.

Then I had to take a late night international business call.

Whoever said owning a cosmetics company was glamourous was a big, fat liar.

Whoever said exes were easy to get rid of were even fatter liars.

Jon’s desperate eyes haunted me. I had loved that bastard.

I had loved him with every fiber of my being – every last fucking bit of my soul.

That joke was on me, and my mother was right.

Love didn’t exist for folks like us. It didn’t matter that up until last year I didn’t even work at the company.

While I had interned while in college, I didn’t work there on the payroll before that.

I worked at a salon up until my mum got sick with wing cancer and had a close call with her door showing up.

Then we rushed around getting me in place to take over for her so that the business she sweated over her whole life didn’t fall to shambles the moment she was gone.

Only, through the grace of healers, she survived and managed to keep most of her infected left wing.

The salon had replaced me almost immediately after my decades of working there.

So, I stayed on at Shiny Butt Cosmetics.

The cheeky name got the occasional eyeroll, but dragons loved their shinys. Especially if they could wear them.

I gulped down the last of my coffee and stuck the mug back under the little spout.

While the next cup brewed, I headed out to get the paper.

That was another recent addition to my life.

When I worked at the salon I didn’t bother to keep up with current affairs unless the word ‘war’ was involved.

Now, I devoured the newspaper every morning with my second cup of coffee.

I opened the door and stretched as the early morning air filled my lungs.

Not so long ago, I’d be crawling into bed about now to sleep for a few hours before crashing into work at noon.

I scooped up the newspaper for it to fly out of my hand.

Underneath was something furry. I squinted and squatted down thinking that Bitzy, the neighbor’s elderly ragdoll cat, had brought me another mouse.

Ever since I moved back home, she’d become obsessed with trying to give me little ‘treats.’ Only this wasn’t a mouse, and it probably wasn’t a hunting token from Bitzy, either unless she learned to hunt very large and very fast prey.

No cheetah would sit there and let her chew off a forepaw. I hoped not---

The world went black and then something hard crashed into my face.

I woke up with my mother fanning me with the newspaper.

Everything hurt and it took me a few seconds to realize why I was laying sprawled out on the grass in front of the stoop gasping for air.

My ear still rang, and it felt like I headbutted the sidewalk several times.

“Come on, Nic. Wake up. We have to discuss this before we call the guards.”

Her eyes were narrowed on me as if she just knew that Jon had something to do with this. He was a cheetah but wasn’t the lovesick sort to carve off his own body part to get my attention. It likely wasn’t his paw at all.

“Guards?” I croaked.

“When someone delivers your ex’s hand to your front doorstep you call the guards. Hell, you call Medwin Moonscale. Now, I know you don’t like talking about him but we’re having this conversation.”

Mom wore her long strawberry patterned nightgown that hung low enough for the hem to drag across the bottom of her bare feet with each wave of the newspaper.

“Do you owe anyone money because of him?” she asked. “You tell me now and we’ll take care of it before we call anyone. I don’t want your hand to be the next one on the doorstep.”

“Why do you think it’s Jon’s?” I croaked, ignoring her stupid questions.

“Because I sniffed it, ducky. That was once attached to the bastard.”

I cringed, squeezing back tears. What had he done after I flew off? Had someone really cut off his hand because he couldn’t get the cash together?

“Now, I love you, but if you don’t start answering my questions, the neighbors are going to have quite the show of me beating you round the ears with this newspaper. Do you owe anyone money?”

“No,” I shook my head. “I didn’t know the bullshit he was involved with until he came clean and then I broke up with him.”

“Are you telling me the truth?” she asked, her eyes shifting to that of her dragoness.

“Yes, mum! For the love of Frost on a biscuit! You think you’d be more concerned with me smashing my face into the sidewalk!”

“You have a hard head, or you’d be dead by now. As long as you’re telling me the truth, we can fix this,” she said again, dropping the newspaper to the ground next to me.

“I am!” I groaned and my head throbbed.

“Good. Now, you stay there. I’ll phone the medics. Try to stay green and throw up if you have to. They’re more likely to believe you if you do.”

“But I didn’t do it!” I groaned.

“I know that, but they always suspect the ex, ducky. Just lay there and let me sort this out,” she frowned.

So much for my second cup of coffee. Little did I know that when I opened the door to grab my morning Moonscale Times that a hospital trip was in my future. The medics beat the guards to the site and kept shining their little lights in my eyes and asking me to follow their fingers.

“Have you had a cheetah this morning? Have you had a call about a cheetah?” I kept asking each of them, but they all ignored me as if I’d lost my mind. My mother wasn’t any help because she kept telling me to tell them how I fainted and hit my head.

“He’s always had such a delicate disposition,” she said, grabbing the muscley bicep of the youngest medic and giving it a discrete squeeze.

“So do I. I’m in remission from cancer and my poor son was taken in by this guy who wanted all his money.

” She teared up and for a moment, I feared she was actually having a breakdown. No. She was laying it on thick.

“She has such little faith in us,” my dragon mumbled. “She thinks we had something to do with it.”

One of the medics had the bright idea for mom to pull up the doorbell footage on her phone while they loaded me up onto whatever those rolly type stretchers were called. He dropped the phone two seconds after pressing play and the senior medic swore under his breath at him.

“Mum has that affect on people,” I said, flashing him a commiserating grin.

“Boss,” the young medic with muscley arms and a nametag that read ‘Vey’ said, snatching his boss’s attention. “You’re gonna wanna see this. It’s some bloody giant cat.”

“The fucker wasn’t lying?” The older medic slipped the f-bomb out and immediately apologized to my mother as all the medics gathered around her phone.

She winked at me as if she’d orchestrated it all.

The guards showed up while they were all gathered around her phone.

They confiscated it and someone radioed in to Clarence Moonscale too, but I didn’t get to stick around and find out what happened.

I was loaded up into the ambulance like bread shoved unceremoniously into a disco-topped breadbox.

“Who was telling the truth?” I asked the senior medic while trying to see his name tag.

Saying someone’s name in conversation often made them pay attention. Only he moved around the back of the rig so much that I didn’t find it out until we were almost at the Moonscale Memorial Hospital and he still hadn’t answered my question.

“Arrow, who was telling the truth?” I asked when I finally caught a glimpse of it.

“Kid, I feel bad for you, I do. I remember how many times we were called to the house for your mom. That’s why Vey has a soft spot for her.

We thought we’d have to zip up her door so to speak.

I’m happy she’s still here. We don’t always get happy endings to cases, but I can’t tell you that.

There’s an ongoing investigation. Once you’re cleared by a scan and a healer, Clarence is gonna want to speak with you too,” he said, meeting my gaze with his dark brown eyes.

“So, if you need to get your story together do it before they finish up with you.”

“Why does everyone think I need to get my story together?” I groaned.

“He broke your heart. You wouldn’t be the first jaded omega to take their pound of flesh.

I wouldn’t even blame you if you did. All I’m saying is get it together – if you need to don’t be afraid to ask for a legal counsel – if you need to.

I’m not saying you do. I’m just saying if I were you and I needed to, I’d ask.

Your family probably has someone on speed dial, right? ”

“Yeah,” I nodded, thinking of Rozel Hemmings, a chubby raccoon shifter who had recently taken over his father’s law firm.

“She’ll probably call him for you, but if she doesn’t, you make sure to, if you need to.

I’m a medic, not a lawyer, but sometimes people forget they have rights.

Also, if the guards or anyone gets testy, push the nurse button and ask for Nurse Mimi.

She’s as old as dirt and hates when people hassle people just trying to get well. ”

“Thanks, Arrow,” I managed a smile I didn’t feel. “You really can’t tell me if you’ve been called out for a cheetah?”

“It’s not worth my career, kiddo.”

I sniffed trying to figure out what, if anything, Arrow shifted into but like most medical personnel he slathered himself in pheromone blocker spray. He smelled like a peach cobbler. He made me hungry but didn’t do a damn thing to calm the worry pulsating at the back of my throat.