Brandi (15 page)

Gareth reached across the distance between them and yanked her to him by her shirt. His mouth covering hers was essential to maintaining his sanity. He nibbled and sucked her bottom lip between his teeth before he turned her loose. It reminded him of her fangs dropping… which reminded him of why she was worth this trouble.

Her total lack of protest about his aggressive action sealed his commitment almost as soundly as a mating bite would have. No matter what happened, they would face it together. He’d worry about fearing the whole father thing when he had to. Until then he would just try to keep in their potential mother’s good graces until she got a freaking clue.

“Thanks for being a good sport,” Brandi said, settling back and fastening her seat.

His seatbelt clicking into place was all that kept him from yanking her into his lap and making his decision to claim her a reality.

***

The second hour into their trip, Gareth watched Brandi’s head nod a couple times until she stopped fighting her exhaustion. The seat reclined and seconds later the woman was totally under.

How many times had he seen her instantly sleep after sex the same way? She dropped off quickly when tired and woke up swiftly when she needed to. A lifetime spent fighting for your life tended to do that to a person. He’d only stopped doing it himself about five years ago. His wolf was always vigilant, but his human side was getting tired of looking over his shoulder. Both parts of his nature battled inside him when bodily consciousness was required.

His gaze moved from Brandi to the back seat where he found a pair of blue eyes studying him silently. Gareth inclined his head in a nod, letting the boy know he’d been caught. The boy pushed his body upright in the seat until he was sitting. The kid’s courage had his mouth twitching.

Reaching over, the kid shook the girl next to him awake. Minutes ago, he had been using her hip as a pillow. Gareth watched her serious brown gaze focus on him as she too sat up. He waved and tried to offer a smile to reassure her. It turned into a real one when she reached over and slapped the second boy hard on the arm.

“Was that really necessary?” Gareth asked her.

“Yes. He doesn’t like to wake up,” she explained.

“I don’t blame him,” Gareth said, wondering how sharp normal four year olds were. These three had nearly perfect speech and thought processes.

“Are you taking us back?” the first boy demanded.

“Back where?” Gareth demanded in return. “If you mean to the lab, the answer is no. If you mean back to the children’s home, that answer is no as well. What would you say if I told you that you’re going to be adopted?”

Gareth winced when the girl reached over and smacked the second boy a second time even harder. She had put some real force behind the second slap. The abuse recipient came out of his nap spitting mad and dive bombing her with a fist raised to hit. The first boy reached across her front and pushed hard on the second boy’s head to keep the fist from connecting.

Gareth covered his mouth to keep from laughing over what obviously was a well rehearsed wake up routine. These three were a lot like the Calder boys. He had a feeling Jesse and Marilyn were going to really enjoy them.

“Who’s going to adopt us?” the first boy demanded.

“Adopt us? We’re getting parents?” the second boy exclaimed, his eyes wide as they swung to look at Gareth.

Gareth smiled when the girl shushed him and pointed to Brandi, who was somehow still sleeping. He shook his head. Any other time, she’d come up swinging herself… like the second boy had. He tuned back into their arguing just in time to catch the most interesting part of their debate.

“I told you she was going to be our mother. That’s what Grandpa Crane said. I like her,” the girl said wistfully. “I think she’s pretty.”

Gareth drew in a breath and let it out. He covered his mouth to hide his surprise and his grin. Brandi
was
pretty. More importantly, she was sexy in the most honest way he’d ever discovered in a female. He had never told Brandi how she looked to him because he had been worried about her reaction. How crazy was that? He was afraid to tell his mate he found her beautiful.

“Is this really true?” the first boy demanded.

Gareth shrugged. Until Brandi arrived at that conclusion herself, it was an unknown.

“I honestly don’t know what’s going on. Maybe this trip is sort of a trial for us all. Will you like us? Will we like you? Will we have to put you three in some Alaskian jail to keep you from hurting yourself or others? Will you be able to behave until we get back from some business we have to take care of before we can really sort this all out?”

To his continued amazement, the three of them laughed at his joking. It was like they understood every word and the sarcasm it carried.

“I guess if she’s our mother… that makes you our father,” the first boy declared.

Gareth felt the boy’s gaze traveling up and down him, assessing his worth.

“I’m not sure what it makes me… yet. Sometimes Brandi doesn’t like me very much. Her word for what I am might not be a nice one.”

He saw the first boy shrug. “I know. I saw you fighting. I was up on the top of the jungle gym and I heard you growling. Grrrrrrrr… you grabbed her and pulled her face to yours. Then I saw her teeth come down. I thought for sure she was going to eat you. I waited and waited, but all you did was talk.”

Gareth burst out laughing. He couldn’t help himself. Brandi slept on despite the noise he and the children were making. He started wondering if Sheldon had drugged her too.

“You’re right. I thought she was going to eat me too. That’s why I threatened to spank her if she did. I walked away because I was too mad to talk to her rationally.”

The three of them clapped hands over their mouths.

“And I would have spanked her if she’d tried to hurt me… because I’m a very mean man,” Gareth warned. He grinned when they exchanged looks around their hands and started laughing.

“No you’re not… not really. I think you’d make an okay daddy,” the girl declared.

Gareth saw the boys look at her like she was nuts. “Really?” he repeated, too stunned to deny it. “What about you two? What do you think?”

“Maybe. Are you a wolf?” the second boy asked.

Gareth nodded.

“Are you a
big
wolf?” the first boy demanded.

Gareth shrugged. “Some think I am.”

He unbuckled his seatbelt and glanced at Fallon and Lars who were paying the drama in the rear of the plane no mind. He stood and put a finger over his mouth as he shifted. When he was on all fours, the kid’s eyes were round and big. He trotted carefully forward and ducked his head so they wouldn’t fear touching him. As he figured, the first boy—the brave one who did most of the challenging—reached out first and rubbed his nose without a thought to the possibility of losing a hand for it.

“Can you still hear us when you’re a wolf like this?” the boy asked in a whisper.

Gareth whined and rubbed his head against the boy’s stroking hand. The other two scrambled from their seat then to touch him as well. Next thing he knew he was whining louder because they were all three out of their seats and squeezing him very tightly. Now he knew how a dog felt to be loved too hard.

“We want to change into a wolf too. Can you teach us to do it?” the first boy asked softly.

There was so much longing in their faces, Gareth licked and nudged each of them until they laughed and climbed back into their flight seats. He backed up and shifted to human form again. They gasped as he landed on his feet during the last of the change. He eased back down and swiveled in his seat to face them.

“I don’t know that you will ever become a full wolf like me, but you each have the heart of one in you. Some wolves that fully change never have half as much wolf smarts as you three seem to have. Where we’re going, many of the people are full wolves. They can help you be the best you can possibly be, no matter what kind of wolf creature you become when you grow up. I didn’t shift until I was a teenager. My family was wondering if it was ever going to happen before it finally did.”

“Okay,” the first boy said, crossing his arms. “If I have to wait that long, you can be our father in the meantime. But we’re going to have to have some rules.”

“
Rules?
What kind of rules?” Gareth asked, wary of the brains inside their tiny heads.

“I don’t know yet. We won’t know until she decides whether or not to be our mother.”

Gareth saw him turn his gaze to sneak a look at Brandi still sleeping.

“After she decides, then we’ll talk about it. But there’s got to be rules if we stay. All real families have them.”

Gareth nodded and made a face. “Yes. I suppose that is true.”

“I’m tired. I’m going back to sleep,” the girl said, curling back up on the seat.

“Me too,” the second boy declared, curling up beside her.

“Aren’t you sleepy too?” Gareth asked, when the first boy rubbed his eyes. The drugs had caught up with them again.

“Yes… but somebody has to watch over these two. I’m the oldest.”

“By how much? A minute or two?” Gareth asked.

“Five months,” he said, yawning loudly.

Gareth noticed the other two were already sound asleep. The second boy was snoring. “I see. Well, that is much older. How about I watch over all three of you today? You’re going to want to be sharp when we get to Alaska. Think of all those real wolves you’re going to meet. You don’t want to be tired when you’re dealing with them, do you?”

“No,” he said, leaning sideways until he rested his cheek on the girl’s hip again. “It’s hard sometimes to be the oldest.”

Gareth nodded. “I’m sure it is. I won’t let anything happen to you all. You can trust me.”

“I never had one. Do fathers protect you when you sleep?” he asked.

Gareth’s mouth thinned as he nodded gravely. “Yes. They absolutely protect you when you sleep. Fathers protect their family all the time. You’re going to be a great one someday.”

“That’s what Grandpa Crane said,” he whispered, his eyes sliding closed.

Still stunned by their conversation, Gareth watched them all sleeping. His gaze drifted to Brandi. Then back to the children. He was trying to imagine how he could possibly deal with them in his life on a daily basis. The thousand questions. The wistful longings.

He remembered how tightly they had hugged his wolf and his chest tightened. What would it be like to be hugged that way in human form? No one in his recollection had ever needed him that much.

When his mind returned to the present, he pulled his phone out to contact the Calders.

Under the rumbling of the plane’s engines, he heard Fallon and Lars talking about how cold it was in Alaska and wondering if it was in bad taste for them to wear their fur coats around so many werewolves. When the many merits of buying new puffy parkas in Anchorage started being debated, Gareth sighed and closed his eyes.

Luckily the plane flew very fast and he was looking forward to landing. He needed a reprieve.

Chapter 11

Brandi woke feeling like a new woman, except for the three sets of eyes glued to her face.

“You sleep too long. Maybe it’s because you aren’t a real wolf,” a set of direct blue eyes informed her.

He got slapped for his comment by a brown-eyed girl. “She is too a real wolf. You said she has fangs… and we all heard her howling,” she declared.

Brandi raised her chair to its upright position. It locked her into a long inspection by a pair of blue eyes staring directly into hers. The kid never blinked, even when she narrowed her gaze. He had more poise and self-confidence than many of the drug lords she’d apprehended.

“She is a wolf… but I think she’s one like we are,” a set of hazel eyes announced.

Brandi let her gaze wander from child to child. “How old are you all? You’re supposed to be toddlers.”

“We are four, but haven’t been babies since Dr. Randall gave us special vitamins in our milk,” the girl explained. “We got smarter and smarter, and then he sent us to Grandpa Crane because we couldn’t turn into real wolves when he asked us to. He said he was very disappointed in us.”

Brandi told herself not to frown and not to react. It was impossible. The crazy bastard had fed these babies wolf hormones. “Well, you’re going to get to be kids again soon. No more special vitamins in your milk. No more Dr. Randalls. No more cages… I hope.”

“Can we see your fangs again?” blue-eyes asked.

“What fangs?” Brandi asked in return.

“I’d like to see them again too.”

Her irritated gaze swung to Gareth who appeared to be reading even though he’d interjected firmly into their conversation.
Was he wearing reading glasses?

“What are you reading? Looks like a book about farming.” She snorted when Gareth held up a trade paperback with a photo of a cow on the front. “Do you really need reading glasses?”