Lone Wolf (16 page)

“Nope.” He made an attempt to smile. “I’ve got no one to be returned to, so there’s no point in me getting in line.”

Renee stared, her eyes glowing. Swallowing audibly, she took a deep breath before she spoke. “Since you don’t, I was wondering if, that is, I mean, maybe you’d like to live with me? We could be each other’s family.”

A shifter raised by a vamp? Beck saw several others of his kind about to protest and glared them down. Marika did the same with the vampires. Maybe the time had come for them all to adjust their perceptions of other species.

“Live with you?” Eli stared up at her, looking both frightened and exhilarated, all at once. “Are you sure?”

Renee nodded fiercely, her eyes suspiciously bright. “I promise I’ll make sure you’re schooled in the ways of the Pack.”

At those words, several of the shifters relaxed, smiling and nodding. The vampires, though they didn’t look happy, resumed their normal, blasé expressions.

Renee was the exception. She didn’t move. Face hopeful, she intently watched the boy, waiting for him to decide with a combination of anticipation and fear.

They stared at each other, and then, with a glad cry, Eli ran to her, wrapping his arms around her legs and holding on tight.

Smoothing his hair, Renee gave Beck a brilliant smile. “I took the risk,” she said. “And got what I most wanted. Now it’s your turn.”

His turn? Blind panic flashed through him as everyone turned to eye him, including Marika. The question in her beautiful eyes made him want to kiss her, hard and fast and deep, but from the corner of his eye he saw Simon motioning him over, one hand on a tall, thin boy’s shoulder.

“Later,” he mouthed, before going to assist his friend.

Dazed at the rapid turn of events, Marika held her precious child close and struggled to hang on to her shredded self-control.

Huntress she might be, but right now in this moment in time, she was a mother first. And her baby girl was all that mattered.

Her baby girl…and Beck. The father of her child and her mate.

Renee had told him it was his turn to take a risk. She wondered what that had been all about.

Holding Dani tight, she watched him with Simon and the children. Though she searched his beloved face for an answer, she found nothing.

Later, after the children had been loaded into the chopper to go to El Paso, Beck rejoined Marika. Dani had fallen asleep in her mother’s arms. Marika had wrapped her in a blanket and was letting her doze.

For a moment Beck gazed down at his sleeping daughter, his expression hidden. When he turned his head to look at Marika, the bleakness in his eyes made her ache.

“Simon found Addie,” he told her, sounding remote. “She was transferred to a hospital in El Paso in severe respiratory distress.”

Small talk, small talk. She could do that. “What’s wrong with her?”

“She had pneumonia. But she’s all better now. I talked to her and Addie’s made a complete recovery. Simon’s having her flown home tomorrow.”

He should have sounded happy, relieved, or something. Anything would have been preferable to this detached, robotic man.

Peering up at him, she wondered if he’d gone into shock. She thought of Renee’s words and decided to repeat them back to him.

“It’s your turn to take a risk.”

His eyes flashed. Pain or sorrow, or some other deep emotion. What, she couldn’t say.

“How do you know that?” His face still looked the same, almost vampirelike in its complete and utter lack of expression.

Though she felt a flash of recognition—how well she knew that form of retreating—she refused to back down.

This was too important. Every Vampire Huntress knew once the hunt had been started, it had to continue.

To do any less was more than foolish. It was death.

Something of her thoughts must have shown in her face. Beck smiled. “I’ve never been a coward,” he said. “But this, I want this so badly. I honestly don’t know how I’ll feel if—” He stopped, bowing his head to gaze at their daughter.

“If?” she prodded gently, ninety-nine percent sure she knew what he was about to say. So many times she’d told him she didn’t want him around, and never once realized she was lying to herself and to him. He had the right to know—and love—their daughter.

Now would be the time to rectify her mistake. “It’s okay, Beck. I’d really like you to be a part of Dani’s life.”

“What about yours?” he rasped.

“Mine?” Momentarily confused, she didn’t know what else to say or do, so she resorted to her vampire stoniness.

Then he raised his head, and his eyes blazed with so much emotion, she crumbled. Gasping, humbled, she suddenly realized what he was trying to say.

“You want
me?
” She had to ask, had to be sure.

“You—and Dani—are everything I’ve always wanted….” His voice broke, as if he found it difficult to say what he wanted to say.

For one horrifying moment, she thought he was trying to tell her goodbye. Foolish woman, she chided herself.

Then he looked at her, letting her see the love plain on his face, and she knew she was wrong. Completely, utterly wrong. Thank the goddess.

Again he glanced at their little girl, a half smile playing on his lips, before taking both her hands in his.

“I should have done this the first time,” he muttered. “So many wasted years.”

Then, dropping to one knee in front of her, he kissed both her hands, his mouth lingering.

“Marika, I can’t live without you. Will you do me the honor of—”

Before he could finish, she dropped down with him, so they’d be equal.

“You don’t even have to ask,” she said, then sealed the bargain with a kiss.

ISBN: 978-1-4268-7960-9

LONE WOLF

Copyright © 2011 by Karen Whiddon

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