this world alone. When my Robert died, I knew I could never love another man. He was too good, you see. He had my whole heart from the time I was sixteen, and he took me to the movies. He had even brought his older sister as a chaperon to make sure I was comfortable. It was my first real date, and I never looked back. Has Shaw brought you out on a proper date?”
Poppy inhaled deeply, letting the air fill her completely. He had. Twice. But that had been before Poppy had learned everything Shaw had done. Did it still count? She wasn’t sure, but Poppy didn’t want to be responsible for breaking the old woman’s heart.
“He has. He’s wonderful, really. You did a good job with him. He’s a prince.”
Nana beamed with pride. “I knew it.”
Shaw chose that particular moment to walk into the kitchen with a large tan suitcase in his arms. “I’ve packed all of your favorite shirts, your slippers, and a few books. Your vitamins and all of your medicines are in here, too. Your favorite picture of Pops is in here, too, with the red picture album. I couldn’t find the case for your glasses. It wasn’t in its usual spot.”
“I moved it to the living room yesterday. I wanted to take a nap on the couch.”
Poppy watched the rest of the exchange. She tried to keep her heart out of it, but it was hard. Shaw was sweet with his Nana, and the way he knew just about everything about her meds and all her favorite things that she would insist on bringing with her. Who he was in that particular moment felt more real than the lying thief she had seen him as over the last few days, after the attack and while he recuperated.
He’s still our mate, her panther pointed out. He’s a good person, he just made some bad calls.
That could be the truth of it. Poppy knew that people could do very dangerous things when they felt trapped and powerless. She had been lucky that her uncle had never figured out she had changed her major back in college. Had she been caught in the lie; her entire life would have been different. She had taken a chance, and it had panned out. It worked out for her in the best possible way, especially now that she was doing the only job she could ever see herself doing.
Shaw had taken a chance. Done something completely outrageous in the hopes of fixing years and years of wrongs.
It hadn’t panned out.
It had actually gone as shitty as possible. He had died, after all. The only reason why he was still alive was because he had been pumped full of shifter serum and shifter blood.
Poppy’s own actions were nowhere near the same scale, but she had taken her uncle’s money with the promise of completing a business degree. A false pretense was a lie. It was cheating and deceitful. She knew she had to rein in her judgment of Shaw. Especially now that she was seeing just how poorly her family were treating their tenants.
If Poppy had been so lucky as to know her grandmother, and she had been living in a shitty apartment complex that was being rundown and ignored by the owners, Poppy knew she would have wanted revenge, too.
With Nana’s things packed and ready to go, it took only a few minutes to clean up her meal and lock up the apartment. As they left, both Shaw and Poppy kept looking over their shoulders, concerned that they might be attacked by the Cains. Thankfully, Nick’s crew wasn’t too far. They tailed them all the way back out of town and to the nursing home where Poppy worked.
Nana grumbled loudly during the drive, but she got quiet when she saw the large, pale-stoned building of the care home. It sat on a vast lawn, with a few extensive gardens, a series of porch swings, and even a small pond where ducks and swans were lazily lounging. It was picturesque and inviting.
“This will do,” Nana announced as they parked the car.
Poppy couldn’t hide her smile. She was proud of the establishment where she worked. It offered the best care, and the policy firmly believed that time outside in the fresh air, where the patients could roam around some nature, kept the brain and body alive and young for longer. Even the patients who could no longer walk could be found being