Treasured Find (Royal Pride Book 1) (15 page)

Chapter Twenty-One

Jazz tightened her grip on Seth’s hand and rubbed soothing circles into Levi’s palm. They each reacted differently to things, but both had the same fear—that the three adult shifters in the yard would kill them.

Hearing the reason why they were barricaded in the bedroom cut at her heart. Had she instilled such a profound fear into them? She hadn’t meant to. She’d only wanted them to tell her immediately if they sensed another shifter. It wasn’t as if she could tell the difference. Look at how she’d messed up with Rafe.

She’d tried everything she could think of to convince Seth and Levi that Rafe, Kade and Devin weren’t going to hurt them. After an hour of talking, she felt fairly certain her boys understood. It was the animals they housed that had doubts. Both boys told her how their cats paced inside them, but she couldn’t delay the inevitable any longer.

She peered out the small window at the top of the front door. Devin and Mr. Wilkins sat at the picnic table with Megan, a bag of cookies between them. The little girl studied Devin with open curiosity, no fear. At least one kid was handling the situation well.

Rafe and Kade stood several feet from the porch, talking. As if Rafe sensed her gaze on him, he turned his head. He offered her a small, comforting smile. He’d assured her they had plenty of practice in similar situations. She shouldn’t worry. Easy to say, hard to do. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and slowly released it.

She glanced at her kids. “Ready?”

They nodded.

This is it. Please, let it go well.
“Levi, get the door.”

The door swung open but nobody moved, inside or outside the house. Silence stretched until finally Rafe walked toward them. He approached cautiously, stopping at the porch stairs. He crouched and clasped his hands loosely between his thighs.

“Seth, Levi, my name’s Rafe.” He motioned behind him with a tilt of his head. “That’s Kade. He’s our alpha, the one who leads our pride. He might look tough, but don’t let it fool you. He’s a softie at heart, just doesn’t want to let the other pride leaders know.” He lowered his voice. “Can you keep his secret too?”

She peeked at her boys. Both frowned but neither responded. Rafe glanced between them. “He has another secret. Want to hear it?”

Levi nodded.

“He’s been known to cry at movies,” Rafe whispered.

She looked behind Rafe to Kade. Kade’s lip quivered as if he thought about smiling, but he cracked his jaw after a moment and pressed his thinned lips in a hard line. “Don’t listen to my idiot brother, boys. I have never shed a tear over any ridiculous movie.”

Rafe braced his body with a hand on the ground and peered over his shoulder. “Oh yeah? What about that dog movie? You know where the boy’s dog has rabies and—”

Kade’s brows scrunched. “
Old Yeller
?” He ran a hand over his skull. “I don’t think I’ve ever watched that movie.”

“Right.” Rafe looked at her boys who’d taken a couple of steps onto the porch and winked at them before facing Kade. “Or
Star Wars
with that carbonite scene and—”

“For the love of the gods, stop telling lies about me.” Kade crossed his arms and glowered at Rafe, but Peggy Sue chose that moment to bump his leg with her head, demanding a pet. Kade sighed but obliged the dog.

Seth slid his hand from her slackened grip and walked over to Rafe. He tugged on his shirt. Rafe glanced at him.

“It was
Empire Strikes Back
, not
Star Wars
.”

“Are you an expert then?”

Seth nodded. “We got their toys for our birthday this year.”

“You sharing?”

Seth peeked at Levi before meeting Rafe’s eyes. “We’re sharing.”

“Do you have any here?”

“Not any of the cool ones,” Levi answered. “We do have some memory matching cards, but…” Levi rubbed at the back of his neck.

“But what?”

Levi shrugged. “They’re for babies.”

“Babies?” Rafe raised a brow. “I have a memory matching app on my phone. Not
Star Wars
, though. It has different shapes with numbers on them.”

Seth tilted his head. “Why?”

Rafe thumped his chest. “My cats enjoy it. To them it’s like hunting. They’re very good at picking out details.”

Levi sat on the step next to Rafe. “Do they talk to you?”

“Ours don’t.” Seth took up a similar position on the other side of Rafe.

“No, they can’t talk, but they’ve learned ways to show me how they feel. They’ll smack their tails or nudge me. Sometimes they’ll growl or snarl if they’re mad.”

Seth rubbed his chest. “Or scratch. That hurts.”

“Sure does.” Rafe glanced between them. “Have you figured out how to walk in the field where they live? Not just look at it?”

Eager nods from both boys answered him.

“Mom thinks we’re daydreaming and yells at us to pay attention,” Levi informed him.

“And when I’m talking to you or you’re supposed to be doing something, you can’t be lost in your own world.” She couldn’t help defending herself. She didn’t want Rafe to think she was a bad mother.

Rafe glanced at her and grinned, then focused on Levi. “Well, she’s right. It’s not good to get lost inside ourselves. If we spend too much time in our animals’ world, we forget that we’re people too.”

Seth glanced at the ground, and Levi peeked over his shoulder, an apology in his gaze. She gave him a small nod.

“But for short visits it’s okay, even necessary.” Rafe waited until Seth looked up. “We can soothe them so they don’t lash out at us when they get frustrated. Trying petting them. Talk to them.”

“But I thought you said they can’t talk to us.” Levi’s narrowed gaze challenged Rafe.

“They can’t, but we can talk to them.”

Levi frowned. “I don’t understand.”

Rafe motioned to the Rottweilers sitting near Megan. “Do you talk to the dogs?”

“Yes,” they both said.

“And I bet they respond a lot of the time too?”

Seth and Levi nodded.

“It’s our tone of voice and our body language that clues them in to what we’re trying to express to them, not our words, but I’m positive mine have come to associate certain words with actions and my moods. They learn, and”—Rafe glanced between the boys—“once they get a little older, they’ll start to show you pictures.”

“Pictures?” Both boys asked at the same time.

Rafe nodded. “It’s not easy for them, but they’ll work together and use our memories to pick out images to express themselves. Say my cats miss one of my brothers. If they want me to go to him, they’ll shove his image into mind.” He grinned. “Sometimes repeatedly until I give in.”

“That’s cool! Can you help us teach them to do that?” Seth asked.

Rafe ruffled his hair. “Sure thing, kid.”

Jazz would bet money that there was a huge smile on her face. She didn’t care. Rafe was amazing with kids. She could easily picture him with his own.

With ours.

And… it was best she cut off that train of thought before it could take root, except she feared it already had.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Jazz’s house looked exactly how she’d left it yesterday. The grass was calf-high because the lawn mower had broken. The siding needed to be scraped and painted. Same with the porch. Cars with blue tarps were stored in the field alongside the garage. And boxes of car parts were piled near the door to be carried up to the loft for storage.

Everything looked the same, yet her life had taken an unexpected turn overnight. None of the concerns that had bothered her yesterday seemed important, not when there was a crazy shifter on the loose who had set his sights on her family. She’d always lived with the worry of attracting the wrong kind of attention. It was why she lived in near seclusion.

Cindy had hit it on the mark the other night. Her life revolved around Seth, Levi and her garage. And why wouldn’t it? Everything she needed had been right here.

Or had she been fooling herself?

She peeked at Rafe’s profile. Maybe she didn’t have to face life alone. Maybe the man she’d always wanted was the one right in front of her, the one who wasn’t really a man, but who’d captured her attentions. He’d tempted her from the minute she saw him. Even after learning he was a shifter, she still desired him.

The car hit a bump and dragged her out of her inner musing. Her relationship with Rafe wasn’t the most important concern at the moment. Her family’s safety was her top priority. The problem was, the longer she thought about it, the harder it was to keep the two issues separate. Rafe had a tie to both—the threat to her heart and her life.

Rafe parked in the grass. “Stay here until I can check out the house and the outer buildings. I want to make sure it’s safe before the others arrive.”

She knew that was the plan. Her boys, along with Megan and Josh, would make the trip over to her place after a couple more of Rafe’s brothers showed up. She’d agreed it was best and had planned to use the drive over to talk to Rafe about Jon. Her wandering thoughts had stopped her.

Watching Kade, Devin and Rafe interact with the kids all morning had saddled her with guilt. For five years, she’d feared running into another shifter. The ones who’d kidnapped her were beyond sick. She hadn’t realized how much until they’d ushered her—gagged and in chains—into their “medical center” and tossed her into a cell next to Seth and Levi’s mother.

The three men who’d played memory matching games and shared milk and cookies with her boys didn’t fit her view of shifters. Nothing about Rafe did, actually. Attentive and loving described him, not depraved and cruel. It was for those reasons she’d agreed to leave her kids with Kade and Devin.

She trusted them.

“Hey?” Rafe covered her hand with his. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, just lost in thought.”

They were alone. It’d be a good hour or two until everyone arrived. She could tell Rafe the story of how she got her boys. She wanted to get it off her chest.

She turned toward him. “I want to talk to you.”

“So do I. I have many things to share with you.”

The seriousness of his tone gave her pause. “What about?”

He glanced at where his hand covered hers. “This. That. The future.”

Her breath caught. “The future? As in
our
future?”

“Yes.” He laid his fingertips against her cheek. “Our very
long
future.”

So he was also thinking about them as a couple. Growing old together. She grinned. She couldn’t help it. “Oh.”

He matched her smile. “Be back in a couple of minutes. Scream if you need me, but I don’t think Jon will strike here, not after learning we’re on to him. He’ll either have run or he’s planning his next move.”

His words didn’t exactly comfort her, but his tone did. He’d protect her and her family. His determination rang true.

“Okay.”

He locked her door, then jogged toward the barn.

She followed his retreating back with her gaze until he disappeared inside before closing her eyes. The moment of solitude was a godsend. Her emotions had been through the wringer over the past few days, but the couple of hours since she’d woken had left her shaky. Her family’s safety had a lot to do with it, but so did Rafe.

She couldn’t stop thinking about him and how it felt to be on the receiving end of his passion. Sex had never ruled her before. With Rafe, it did. The memory of his powerful body blanketing hers was ingrained on her mind. If she closed her eyes, she could almost feel his hands on her body, arousing her.

She squirmed in her seat, and her breath rushed out.

An hour. Two at the most. After the rest of his family arrived, Rafe would be occupied with them, planning how to take out Jon. She’d be on the sidelines. As much as she wanted to be a part of what was being done to protect her family, she needed space from the carnal needs consuming her.

The car door opened.

She jumped. “Rafe.”

“Everything looks safe. No sign of Jon.”

“That’s good to know.”

“Will you show me around before the others get here?”

His gaze drifted from her face to her chest. He licked his lips, and her lower belly warmed. The immediate sexual response to the simple gesture reinforced her earlier thoughts. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get sex or Rafe off her mind.

But we need to talk. About the past
and
the future.

“Sure. How about I give you the tour of my garage? I’m really happy with how my latest car is turning out.” And it was far from her bed.

“Great. I’d love to see it.”

Before she knew it, they were at her garage, an old barn her pappy had converted over forty years ago. It housed Classic Wyns, the restoration shop she’d taken over after he died. Being a mechanic wasn’t exactly what she’d planned to do with her life.

The
fancy
Physics degree she’d been so proud to get had gone to waste. Cindy had been right about that, but Jazz had found she liked working with her hands and being in charge of herself. It was all about looking for the good in things. It wasn’t always easy, but she tried.

“What’s on the upper floor?” Rafe asked.

She glanced at the stairs on the outside of the building. How many times had she dragged herself up them over the summers she’d been home from college? She grinned at the memories of her carefree pre-mother years. “An apartment. I lived there on and off after high school and right after I moved home with the boys. Now it’s my office.”

“Let’s check it out.”

Lust gave his words a deep timbre. She cut him a quick look. The hunger stamped on his face matched his tone. He’d devour her the minute they were alone.

“Rafe, I—”

“No arguments. You promised to give me a tour.”

“But let’s start downstairs, then I’ll take you to my garden.” She tugged him toward the lower door.

Rafe gave her bottom a swat.

She squeaked, and covered her stinging ass with her hand. “Rafe!”

“Upstairs. Now.”

His lust-hazed gaze and commanding tone stopped whatever argument she thought to give. He rubbed her butt cheek, then urged her up the stairs.

Both the screen and regular doors were slammed shut behind them, and the lock clicked.

“I think—”

“Don’t think.” He pulled her against him. “Feel.”

Not giving her a chance to say anything else, he kissed her, stealing her breath and her sanity. His hungered groan left her weakened, and the sweeping strokes of his tongue tore her control to shreds.

She closed her eyes and did exactly as he’d commanded. She focused on Rafe—how it felt to be in his arms.

He swept his hands over her back. Kissed her harder. He wanted to lose himself in her. He didn’t have to tell her that. Every commanding thrust of his tongue, the hungry sounds he made and the way he held her, as if he never wanted to let her go, told her exactly what he craved—her.

Wrapped in his embrace with his scent surrounding her and making her crazy, she couldn’t deny him. She squeezed him tighter and gave herself to him. It was impossible not to. A simple glance in her direction, and her breathing quickened. But when he touched her…kissed her…she was lost.

Passion, desire, lust—nothing else mattered.

The truth resounded in her soul. It should frighten her, probably would if his hands weren’t on her body, but at the moment, all she wanted was to answer his demand.

She linked her arms around him, dug her nails into his muscles and held on while he twined their tongues. Sharp teeth scraped her lips and the tang of blood filled her mouth. She jerked.

The pain faded in the next moment, and his hungered groan whipped through her. She went lax in his arms. He lifted her limp body. Her legs dangled a moment before she wrapped them around his waist.

The move opened her to him, bringing the hard ridge of his erection to her core. She ground against his trapped cock and memories of the night before washed over her. Shifter or not, she wanted to feel his hard length inside her, thrusting and taking her to heaven.

He was the only man who could. She never wanted to lose him.

Keep him forever. He’s mine.

The possessive thought that settled in her heart yanked her back to reality. Never had she had such a strong reaction to a man, as if she’d fight for him. Literally. At the moment, she’d attack any woman who thought to take him from her.

She broke the kiss and studied him—the shifter she’d taken into her body the previous night. He was a walking wet dream, so damn gorgeous her heart skipped a beat. She wanted to hold him close, but the thoughts running through her head weren’t normal.

“Rafe, why?” She wasn’t sure what she was asking him. Why he wanted her so badly. Why she was suddenly consumed by possessiveness. Or why she felt desperate for his cock.

“Because we need this.” Rafe pressed his mouth to her ear. “The physical contact, the reminder of what we shared last night, the knowledge that we’ve found each other.” He licked the edge of her ear and exhaled a warm breath, making her wet skin tingle. “Put your trust in me. Let me take care of you. Make you feel good.”

She wanted him to take care of her. Command her. Make her soar.

Instead of answering with words, she kissed him as deeply as he had her. She led the melding of their mouths for a moment, long enough to tease the tiny fangs she’d felt earlier into descending. She tentatively stroked one. Rafe held still while she explored each sharp tooth but took the control back before she could deepen the kiss.

He skimmed his fingertips over her hips, along her waist and under her shirt to tease the edge of her breast. The barely there swipes hardened her nipples, leaving her eager and anticipating his next move. She wanted Rafe to touch her breasts. Suck on her nipples. Make her come as he had the night before.

She pushed her heavy breasts into his chest, needing the pressure to ease the tingling his wandering fingers ignited, but he abandoned his tormenting caresses.

He dropped his hands to her waist and lifted her onto his bent leg, shoving her skirt out of the way. She inched her bottom forward and rubbed against his hard thigh. Sparks ignited and spread from her clit to her womb. Her body came alive. Maybe it was the experience of being in Rafe’s arms once before, but she craved his touch. Nothing had ever felt better.

She gripped a handful of his hair and pulled him closer. He moaned and changed the angle of their kiss. Their teeth banged. She moved faster over his leg and the pressure on her cleft made her hotter. Wild.

Her back met the door. With his body pinning hers to the hard surface, he resumed his teasing exploration. The roughened edges of his fingertips swept up her side. He tugged her shirt higher with the move, pulling his mouth off hers only long enough to yank the top over her head.

She wanted to beg him to fuck her. The ache deep inside her grew unbearable. She couldn’t. His kiss barely allowed her to breathe, and his hands on her body left her crazed.

He shoved her skirt higher and caressed her ass before dipping his fingers into her wetness. With the first stroke of his thumb over her opening, she whimpered.

She turned her head, breaking their kiss. “Rafe, please.”

Churning amber eyes locked on to hers. She stared transfixed at the blue and brown specks swirling in the waves of liquid gold. Set off by the whites of his eyes, the glowing golden brown was mesmerizing. Realization struck. That was why he’d kept the lights off at the hotel. To hide his eyes. His passion.

“I want you.” He curled his fingers around her panties and tugged. She jerked, and the sound of ripping cloth met her ears. He swirled his fingers in her dripping center. “Now. Can’t wait.”

He set her back on her feet long enough to yank his jeans down. They got hooked on his boots. He flexed his hand, exposing his sharpened nails, and sliced his pants instead of untangling them.

His claws disappeared, sliding back into his fingers, then he lifted her and dropped her on to his cock. He swallowed her shocked cry.

She was wet, more than ready for him, but she was tight. With his hands on her waist, he moved her, grinding her on his cock while short upward thrusts drove his shaft deeper. He had to work his way in—if his grunts and groans were any indication, he loved it.