Secret Babies of the Wolves (Box Set), page 2
“Sure,” I replied. After all, Luke couldn’t take up my whole evening. But this meant I would definitely have to tell him what was going on. Oh well.
“Good. And, uh, we’re at my parents’ place,” she added, her smile slipping a little. “Just so you know.”
We? She didn’t get married while I was gone, did she? “Got it. I’ll see you tonight, then. Eight o’clock?”
She wrinkled her nose, “Might be too late. Let’s say seven.” Before I could ask how it was too late, she added, “You really should get back to your patrols now.”
“Right. Yeah.” I forced myself to stop following her and left with another hat-tip. I’d wandered so far from my patrol route I’d have to book it to finish on time. It would’ve been so much easier if I could’ve just shifted, but that wasn’t exactly an option. I would have to do it soon, though. My wolf had gotten twice as active and loud in my head since seeing Dani again. And we both hated the idea that she was seeing someone, even more the idea of meeting him.
I was restless the rest of the day, jumping at shadows, looking for something to take out all this sudden energy on. No such luck. I would just have to find some free time to let my beast run wild later. There was a section of the preserve, about 3,000 acres, that was off-limits for the most part, meant for the purposes of isolating and protecting the wildlife that lived there. My pack had been using it for years as a place to blow off steam in wolf form when necessary. Later.
…
After work, I drove out to my cousin Luke’s house. It wasn’t far from the Vasquez ranch, so we would have plenty of time to talk before I had to meet Dani. When I got up the driveway to the two-story house, I had to step over a kid’s bike to reach the door. Immediately when I knocked, I could hear commotion from inside, feet pounding across the floor and two young voices I recognized.
Luke’s wife, Camilla, opened the door and welcomed me in with a smile and a hug. She was a tiny thing, so I had to bend down pretty far to meet her.
“It’s good to see you, Noah. Luke is just—” she started to greet me but I didn’t get to hear the rest, because her two boys tackled me, trying to knock me to the ground. Apparently five years wasn’t long enough for Matt and Todd to forget their lifelong goal of beating me in a fight.
“Hey!” I snapped, wrestling them off so I could deal with them one at a time. Matt was still only nine, so he was pretty easy to manage, but at fourteen, Todd was actually starting to be a nuisance. “If you two think I can’t still whip—oof!”
Todd landed a pretty solid blow to my stomach and laughed, “You get soft at college, Uncle Noah?”
“All right, that’s it,” I grabbed the little shit in a headlock, his mop of red hair the only thing visible as he tried to get away. When Matt leapt at me again, I caught him and hefted him over my shoulder. “Nice try, you two, but you’ve still got some growing to do.” They both struggled harder until Luke’s voice interrupted.
“Do I need to separate you three?” he asked as he came down the stairs. At about 6’ 4” and half again as wide as me, he was imposing enough to stop the fight with just a word.
“More like you need to get control of your pups,” I let them both go since I knew their dad’s presence would be enough to stop the roughhousing. They were both visibly disappointed but didn’t try to attack me again.
“Oh, they’ll get you someday,” Luke assured me, giving me a firm slap on the back. “Good to see you.”
“Likewise.” And I meant it. I had plenty of cousins, but Luke had always been the closest I had to a brother.
“All right, you two,” Camilla said, addressing the boys with her hands on her hips. “You had your little sneak attack. Now it’s homework time.” They grumbled but headed back upstairs without argument. “And you two have some catching up to do, I’m sure. Go on outside and I’ll come get you when dinner’s ready.”
“You sure you don’t need any help?” I asked, even though I knew what her answer would be.
“Oh hush, I’m fine. Go on,” she shooed us out onto the back porch, and Luke thanked her with a quick peck on the lips.
“So?” he said, taking one of the solid wood deck chairs as she headed back inside. “Culture shock hit you yet?”
“Yeah, a little,” I laughed as I took a seat. “I’ve only been back a few days, but every time I look up, I notice something else that’s different. And I run into people who used to know me all over the place.” Even at work, apparently. The conversation paused briefly as Camilla came back out to hand each of us a beer, always happy to play the hostess.
“You’ll get used to it again,” Luke said as he took a drink. Then he looked me up and down critically. “I guess since you’re here alone, you didn’t meet anyone out there.” My smile disappeared all at once.
“No,” I said flatly. He asked like it was such a simple thing to just go out and find your mate. He and Camilla had found each other when he was twenty-two, and they’d been happily together ever since. There I was, thirty-one, still with no idea who I was meant to be with.
Well. My wolf argued against that. He insisted he knew, we both already knew, who my mate was, and I was just refusing to act on it. As if Luke had heard it too, he asked casually, “You seen Dani yet?”
I took a long swig of my beer before answering. “For a minute at work. Yeah. I’m, uh, I’m actually supposed to be having dinner with her tonight,” I admitted, bracing myself for his anger. But this time, it was the quiet kind.
“Huh. Here I thought you’d be having dinner with us,” His tone was casual, but I could practically feel the irritation coming off him in waves.
“I didn’t realize that was part of the invitation.”
He scoffed, “Yeah, you definitely have some settling in to do.” Another few seconds passed in silence, both of us drinking to avoid talking, before he finally said what I was expecting. “You know it can’t be her, Noah.”
“I know.” We’d had this conversation a million times already, and even though I knew everything he was going to tell me, it didn’t change how I felt. Part of the reason I’d chosen a college so far away was in the hopes that distance from her would force me to move on. I’d met a few shifter girls in Minnesota who were willing to overlook the fact that I was from a southwest pack—instead of northern like them—but my wolf never howled for any of them the way he did for Dani.
“She’s human,” Luke reminded me.”
“I know.”
“And we can’t be with humans because…?”
“Because if they find out what we are, they’ll throw us in zoos or try to dissect us,” I was repeating everything I had been taught as a child, the reason our shifting had to be kept an absolute secret from anyone who wasn’t one of us. “And for some reason you think Dani would turn on us like that.”
“I think it’s a risk we can’t take,” Luke agreed. “You know it too, deep down. You might care about her—hell, you might even love her. But she’s still not the one.”
“Yeah.” All things I’d heard before, either from him or from his parents, the leaders of our pack. And hearing it again wasn’t improving my mood. I took another healthy drink. “I get it, okay? I’m not trying to make anything happen between us. Am I at least allowed to be her friend?”
“If you can leave it at that, I guess.”
“Great. Then can we talk about something else?”
Even though he probably wanted to lecture me some more, he must have seen how much the conversation was bothering me. “Sure.”
“Do you know who Nicky is?” I asked, looking up at him. His eyes went wide for a second, and then he looked away with a badly-hidden smile, amused for some reason I didn’t understand.
“Yeah, I know.”
“But you’re not gonna tell me?”
“You’re having dinner at Dani’s place tonight? I’m sure you’ll get to meet him.”
3
Dani
I was still a little distracted when I got back to the Visitor Center, absentmindedly doffing my hat and wandering slowly into my office. Maggie noticed when I got in and came to meet me. “I’d say that was closer to two hours,” she clucked, arms crossed, but she must’ve seen how lost I was. “Something wrong?”
“Did you know Noah was coming back?” I asked, looking up at her accusingly. She knew more about staffing and such than I did, at least.
“Noah Wright? I knew he was coming back sometime, but—are you saying he’s here? You saw him out there?” Her blue eyes lit up with delight as I nodded. “Well, isn’t that nice? Was he out looking for you? I can’t think why else he’d be wandering the preserve.”
“He’s working here. As a ranger,” I was still having a hard time accepting it myself. “You really didn’t know?”
“Sugar, if I had, I wouldn’t have been able to keep quiet about it. I don’t know why you’re not more excited! This could mean a lot of good for you. And Nicky.”
“Maybe.” It would definitely mean something for us. But exactly what was hard to tell. Frowning, getting lost in all the different possibilities, I sat down at my desk and chewed my lip.
“Dani. You are going to tell him, aren’t you?” Maggie asked, shutting the door so we could talk in private. It was sort of a sensitive subject, after all. “You know you have to. It’s only fair.”
“I don’t have to do anything,” I grumbled back at her, getting defensive by reflex when I was on such unfamiliar ground. “We’ve gotten along just fine without him for years. Why should we have to change anything now?”
“Because Nicky is his son too,” she scolded, “and he deserves to know it. Even you can’t be stubborn enough to deny that.”
No, I couldn’t. Of course I knew deep down that I had to tell Noah he was the father of my son. There was no question about it. But I also knew that telling him would make everything a hell of a lot more complicated between us, and thinking about that was intimidating.
“I’m going to tell him. I just have to figure out how,” I told Maggie, trying to tone down my prickly attitude since I knew she was right. “Noah’s supposed to come over for dinner tonight. He can meet Nicky, and afterwards I’ll tell him everything.”
“Good. And now that he’s back home for good, maybe y’all two can finally settle down like you should have years ago.” She left my office with a knowing grin, and I shook my head at her. Maggie had been trying to push me and Noah together for as long as I could remember, so it was no surprise that she was still at it. She had never approved of me keeping Nicky a secret from him, but I had my reasons.
It was a complete accident, after all. Even the sex itself wasn’t planned. A couple weeks before he left, Noah had asked to talk to me alone, told me he had some news and didn’t want me hearing it from anyone else. He met me at my place, just up the road from my parents’, and told me about his plans to leave. How he was going off to get his degree—not very common in a town full of ranchers—and wouldn’t be back for a while. “Years, probably,” he said. And he felt like I should know.
I was sort of in shock at first. Noah and I had seen each other nearly every single day for years. I’d gotten used to working by his side, having races from the fields back to the house, having him over for dinner with my parents a couple nights every week. The thought of all that being taken from me at once was hard to even comprehend. And I probably would’ve flipped my lid completely if he hadn’t kissed me. That threw me off even more.
The kiss was quick, short, over as soon as it started. He didn’t explain at all. Didn’t warn me first or apologize after. In fact, he seemed just as surprised as I was. His eyes stayed fixed on mine for a second, and he frowned like he was fighting with himself. After a few seconds’ hesitation, he kissed me again, a little softer, a little longer, sweet enough to light a fire in my chest. I grabbed a handful of his shirt to keep him from pulling away, licked his lips—and he broke. His arms wrapped tight around my waist, crushing my body against his, and he kissed me roughly, deeply, until I was standing on my toes to meet him.
I couldn’t deny I’d thought about this before. When I caught myself watching him work or I noticed the way his hips moved while he was riding. Or, when he caught my eye across the table at dinner and grinned at me. I’d thought about what it might be like to have those powerful hands all over me, to feel exactly how well his hips could move. But I figured he wasn’t interested. We were just friends, and he’d never tried anything. Until that night.
It happened right there against the kitchen wall, Noah pushing my shirt up to get his hands under it, then stripping my jeans so he could lift my leg and wrap it around his hip. He did ask before he went all the way, made sure I wanted it and he wasn’t pushing me. I managed to get out a breathless, desperate, “Yes!” And then another. And another. My fingers grasped at his hair. He left bite marks all over my neck and shoulders; I had to wear my hair down for the next week. It shocked me a little how good it felt to be with him. Not just sexually good but…natural. It felt right, somehow. He started to ask if he should pull out, and I told him if he stopped, I’d break his jaw. He didn’t argue.
And he had been gone for weeks by the time I realized I was pregnant. Dad was…not happy. He told me I should tell Noah what had happened, that he needed to come back and “take responsibility.” But it was no more his fault than it was mine. And he had plans, his degree, things he would have to drop completely if he had to come back and help me raise a kid. Besides, it was just a fling, just one time; it wasn’t like he was in love with me. No point forcing him to marry me over it. And I could do this on my own, couldn’t I? I’d have Mom and Maggie to help, even if Dad refused—which he didn’t. Once Nicky was born, Dad loved him and did everything he could to help take care of him.
I’ll admit it was a little scary at first. I had some complications during the pregnancy for reasons no doctor could really seem to explain, bad enough that I needed a hysterectomy right after Nicky was born. Everyone was real apologetic while they were telling me I wouldn’t be able to get pregnant again, but he was all I cared about. He was safe and healthy and beautiful, and as soon as I laid eyes on him, he was my everything.
Despite all my first-time-parent screw-ups, even now that I was raising him alone, my boy still managed to be the happiest, sweetest, most optimistic child I’d ever met. Anyone would be lucky to have him in their life. And Maggie was right: Noah deserved that chance.
…
After forcing myself through a few more hours of work, even more impatient and antsy now, I finally got to head out for the highlight of my day. The drive from the preserve into town was a good forty minutes, but I liked the familiarity of the route. First the untouched forest around the preserve, then a handful of ranches and farms I knew by name, people my parents had always done business with. I knew the town itself like the back of my hand as well.
Palo Verde was a small town, home to only about 20,000 people. But it was just that: home. The people living there were practical, hardworking, not interested in making the town famous or “putting us on the map.” It was a quiet place made up of family-owned businesses and neighbors always willing to help their neighbors.
For example, the woman running the daycare center where I dropped Nicky off every weekday morning used to babysit—me—for my parents when I was little. The daycare itself had only been around for the past three years or so, but it was a lot easier than trying to find a sitter every day, so it had been doing well. When I got there, the kids were all playing in the fenced back yard, completely immune to the summer heat, and Nicky was no exception. But when he saw me get out of my truck and head up to the yard, he immediately dropped whatever game he had going and ran to meet me at the gate.
“Mama!” he called, practically jumping into my arms, and I laughed as I swung him up onto my hip.
“Hey, baby,” I planted a kiss on his cheek and pushed his thick black hair away from his eyes. The same loose black curls that haloed Noah’s head, I noticed, after seeing him again; it was hard to miss how much Nicky resembled him. Brushing that thought away, I instead asked him, “Did you have fun today?”
“Yes, ma’am. I made this,” he stuck his hand up in front of my face, showing he was wearing a little bracelet made out of string and wooden alphabet beads.
“You did?” I took his wrist to look closer at the bracelet. “What does it say?”
“It doesn’t say anything. It can’t talk,” he teased with a wide grin.
“Okay, smart aleck,” I agreed, tickling him briefly as punishment. “What does it spell?”
“It spells Nicky!” he squealed, squirming in my arms. The daycare’s owner, Miss Kelly, came over to the gate to greet me with a smile.
“Have you two been working on your letters at home?” she asked. “A lot of kids can’t spell their whole first and last name yet, but Nicky’s got his down. And ‘Vasquez’ isn’t an easy one to sound out.”
“Neither is ‘Nicholas.’ But we’ve been practicing some.” A lot of that “practice” was him watching rodeos and livestock shows with the captions turned on, but I figured if it was helping him get ahead, there was no sense knocking it. “We have some errands to run, so we should probably get going. Was there anything else?”
“No, he was great, as usual,” Miss Kelly said, gently ruffling Nicky’s hair. “I’m going to miss him when he heads off to pre-k next month. But I’m sure he’ll do great there too.”
Nicky gave her and his friends an enthusiastic wave with both hands, nearly wriggling out of my arms as I carried him back to the truck. I helped him into his booster seat and tried to buckle him in, but he insisted on doing it himself. As I got into my seat up front, I told him, “We’re having company for dinner tonight.”
“Who?” he asked. “Is it Jacob? Is it Miguel?”
“No, not one of the ranch hands. He’s a friend of mine from years ago, back when you were still in the stars. His name is Noah. I think you’re gonna like him.”
