Page 5 of The Russos

Moving from Anton’s lap to the seat next to him, making him grumble, and my mouth kicked up in a small smile at his disgruntlement. I ate while listening to the conversation around me.

Yesterday I’d arranged accommodation with a friend’s family who owned a camp in Livingstone. Today I would be working on accommodation in Kariba as well as booking a houseboat. I was happy that there was finally something that I could do for them.

“What are you up to today, baby girl?” Anton asks softly before continuing to tell me what he was doing today, “I’m waiting for Zane to arrive to go over everything with him for while we’re away.”

Finishing the last of my sandwich, I turn my head to him, “I’m going to book accommodation for Kariba and look into a houseboat for a weekend. Was there something else you needed me to do?”

Anton ran his hand down my back at my words and when I looked over at him, his eyes held a proud gleam, shaking his head no at my question.

“No, baby girl. Just wanted to know if you wanted to stick with me or if you’ll be happy using the phone in the office as it has better reception. Luca will be in the office with you if you need anything.”

“Okay. I’m happy to stay with Luca today. Is that okay?”

“It’s fine, Hannah. I won’t be far if you need me.”

Nodding, I finish my drink and get up to leave. Only to be pulled back by Anton.

Looking at him in surprise before a smile breaks out on my face at his next words, “Kiss, baby girl.”

Still smiling, I bend and press a kiss to his lips. It doesn’t last long, but after all this time, I feel a stirring of interest in something other than just comfort from him.

Anton senses the change, I can tell by the flare of his nostrils, but he doesn’t say anything just pats me on the arse and pushes me towards the house.

The rest of my day is arranging accommodation and booking a houseboat on Lake Kariba for a weekend. I figured that would be as long as any of those of the shifter variety would be able to handle being cooped up before tempers would fray.

I was excited to be getting away for a bit. I had a feeling it was going to do both Anton and I a world of good to get away from the stress that we’d lived with the last month. I know I was certainly ready to start getting on with my life.

I had no idea how much our lives were going to change over the next weeks. All for the better.

CHAPTER 6

ANTON

It had taken three days to ensure that all was set up for Zane before we’d left. We’d taken two of the Land Cruisers, Luca would drive one and I would drive the other. The human Miah was in the vehicle with Hannah and me, as she was the most comfortable around him.

The two wolves, Drake and Sam, were in the vehicle with Luca. The plan was to drive the four hours into the nearest town and catch up with Ava and Marie to check out their new nightclub, and I wanted to buy Hannah some clothes. She didn’t have much and what she did have was either from Julie or my shirts.

I’d made a bed for her on the back seat as I knew she’d not be able to stay awake for long. She’d smiled when she’d seen the nest of pillows and blankets that I’d heaped onto the seat and had quickly got in and wasted no time in snuggling down into them and closing her eyes, her chest rumbling with a deep purr, making me smile, yeah, her tiger wasn’t completely gone. We hadn’t left our farm before I could tell by the sound of her breathing that she was asleep.

Miah didn’t say much, but he kept glancing over his shoulder as if to make sure she was still breathing. I caught nothing from him but concern for an injured female.

He started when he caught me watching him, as he glanced back at my mate yet again. There were plenty of males out there that would have struck first and asked questions later, and I could see he knew that when he immediately held up his hands and said softly, “I’m not casing your mate, Anton. I’ve been friends with shifters long enough to know not to do that.”

“Okay,” I replied just as softly, before continuing. “Then tell me, what has you so fascinated by my mate?”

“Not fascinated, just trying to understand why someone would do what was done to her. And it’s not that I don’t understand the depravity of humans because I’ve seen some of the worst cases of abuse that you can during my time in the military. I just don’t understand how family could do that to her. All for money. I guess that’s what I’m struggling with. Money that wasn’t even theirs is what made them do this to her and now she suffers, even with them gone.”

I was silent for a bit, trying to think of how to answer him, but to be honest, I didn’t get it either. Even with the Moores and their father, it wasn’t until recently that he’d changed so much as to start lashing out physically, and it wasn’t for money. He was just a mean old bastard.

“I don’t know, Miah. Like you, I’ve seen some horrors, you don’t live where we live and not see it. I don’t get how family turns on family.

“We, the four families, are not related by blood and in the animal kingdom there is no way that leopards, wild dogs, hyenas, gorillas, and tigers would ever live in harmony. But we are afamily and any of us would lay our lives down for each other. I think some beings are just fundamentally broken, whether they are human or not.”

We drove on for a while in silence, each in our own thoughts before I asked, already knowing the answer, having got most of their background checks back, but I wanted to hear it from him. I wanted to hear how he spoke and felt about his family, “Do you have family?”

His face lit up in a grin, “Yeah, I have a sister. She’s younger than me by five years. She married a fireman in our hometown and is happy there. She keeps an eye on our parents and runs roughshod over her two boys.”

My mind eased, and I smiled at the love in his voice that he had for his family and wondered how a human had ended up in an all-shifter group, so I asked him, “How did you end up in the group you did?”