Blood. All his life it had been pounded into his brain. Blood made a family, a long line of DNA that connected him to ancestors who the history books talked about.
But here was a whole life laid out in faded pictures and knickknacks, and suddenly it was so lovely to Rafe. Hiram’s history didn’t span Europe. It was all about a lifetime spent in Bliss. It was about a world of friends who became family. They didn’t need blood. Hell, half the time they didn’t really have anything in common with the singular exception of where they lived, but somehow it had worked for Hiram.
Because he’d been open. Because he’d made his decision and he hadn’t looked back. He’d moved forward. He’d forged his own life, his own path.
Wasn’t that all a father could ask for his child?
Rafe sat back and allowed a wealth of history to play in his brain.
Chapter Fourteen:
Leo, Shelley, and Wolf
Leo needed a drink. Or five. But he was pretty sure he should stay away from the tonic, because in about three minutes he was going to be brutally dehydrated. This afternoon seemed to never end. He would glance at his watch, but he’d left it behind with his clothes.
He pulled the flap on the sweat lodge and steam threatened to overtake him. He crawled through anyway, his eyes blinded momentarily by the intense heat.
Leo made it through the steam and found the sitting area. He sat back on the small bench Mel had thoughtfully provided. In the center of the lodge was a small fire and a bunch of rocks over the fire. Mel had a bucket next to him. He took the ladle from the bucket and doused the rocks with water, sending heat into the already humid air.
“Welcome, my spiritual sons.”
God, he wished his “spirit dad” had some clothes on.
Wolf leaned over and whispered. “You know for a skinny dude, he’s got an awfully big—”
Leo elbowed Wolf. He was so not going there. He did not want to know what his momma saw in Mel. “Thank you for hosting this get-together.”
He couldn’t call it a party. A party wasn’t a bunch of naked dudes drinking rotgut whiskey while only Julian and Jack maintained their dignity. It was more like hell.
Mel smiled. “It’s my pleasure. Your friends seem real nice. Except that Julian fella. He’s got the look of a hunter about him. There are natural alien hunters in the world, you know. Born to protect our Earth. I think I should talk to him about taking up the fight.”
“You should totally do that,” Wolf said encouragingly.
Wolf loved the surreal.
Leo loved reality. “I think Julian is really busy with his businesses. Mel, we wanted to talk to you about something else.”
Mel nodded. “I figured you would. That’s why I wanted us to spend some time in the sweat lodge. This is a place for men. Now, I know you don’t have a daddy around to talk to you, so your momma asked me to explain some things to you.”
“Actually, that’s what we wanted to ask you about.”
“Sex is nothing to be afraid of, boys,” Mel said with a grave seriousness.
“Oh, god,” Wolf whispered, his eyes going wide. “We’re going to get the sex talk.”
“You see, when you marry a woman, she’s going to expect certain things of you, including physical affection. I want to make sure you boys understand how to bring a human woman to pleasure. It’s different than what your alien instincts will tell you. Women have different parts than men. I brought some magazines to show you.”
Leo held out a hand. He was so not going to sit in a tent with Mel and look at seventies porn magazines. “We know about sex.”
“God, you’re no fun,” Wolf grumbled.
Mel nodded sagely. “I tried to tell Cassidy that you two probably understood, but she was real insistent that you were both pure.”
“Mel, I’ve been married before,” Leo pointed out.
“Oh, well, then you understand.”
“But I’m totally pure,” Wolf said quickly. “I could really use some pointers.”
“You’ve fucked your way through half of Southern Colorado. I don’t even want to know what you did overseas.” He wasn’t going to indulge his brother’s deep love of the surreal. “Mel, we do need your help, though it’s not with sex.”
Mel sat forward. “Alien issues?”
Leo managed to not scream. Maybe he should switch his efforts from Max to Mel. “No, family issues, though it turns my stomach to call that man family.”
Mel’s eyes narrowed. “Are you talking about Robert?”
Well, at least they were off the aliens. “Yes.”
“If you’re thinking about reuniting with your father, I’m going to ask you to reconsider. I know you missed having a daddy, but he’s no good.”
Well, Mel proved he could be sane from time to time. “I don’t want to have anything to do with the bastard. He found me, not the other way around.”
Mel’s eyes closed briefly. “If he’s back then he wants money. You should know he’s going to try to blackmail you. Whatever he comes at you with, just tell him no and I’ll take care of the situation. You boys don’t have to worry about anything. Just concentrate on your wedding.”
“He’s done this to Ma before?” How much had his mother kept from him?
“Every now and then he gets out of jail and he comes looking for cash. When you two were kids, he would threaten to have her institutionalized so she would lose custody unless she gave him everything she had. She would save up money for years at a time, and he would walk in and take it all because she didn’t have anyone to lean on.”
“I’m going to kill the fucker.” Wolf practically growled beside him.
“No you are not because if anything happened to either one of you, your momma would lay down and die. She spent her whole life protecting you.”
“Did he hit her?”
“Yeah,” Mel said, taking a deep chug off his water bottle. At least Leo hoped that was water.
Well, he’d always wondered why his parents had split. His mother wouldn’t talk about it, preferring to discuss alien invasions when he brought the subject up. He’d had a couple of theories. He’d always worried that she’d driven him away with her special brand of crazy, but now he was pretty sure he knew the truth and it made him love his mother so much more. “She took it until the day he hit me.”
“Leo?”
It was a dream he’d had since childhood, but now he realized it was more like a memory. His father standing over him, a shadowy figure with no real substance. His mother screaming and then telling him everything would be all right.
His mother had been stronger than he’d ever given her credit for.
“You made her strong, Leonardo. Her love for you and Wolfgang made her real strong, and you have to honor that by staying away from the bastard. It’s what she fought all her life to do. She gave up everything so you wouldn’t have to know the truth about the man who calls himself your father.”
“Shit.” Wolf let his head drop to his hands. “How could we not have known about this? Chase told me about the police report, but I didn’t think it was so bad. She only filed the one.”
Leo hadn’t seen the report Chase had compiled for Julian a few years back. When he’d come out of the main building feeling completely vulnerable because his junk was hanging out, he’d found Chase and Wolf discussing the facts of the case. It hadn’t surprised him that Julian already knew everything. His boss would never hold shit like that against him. But hearing it from someone so close to his ma somehow made it more real. “Mel, we can’t let him hurt her anymore. We’re not children. It’s time we took care of her.”
“No.”
“You can’t just say no.”
“I sure can. Your mother belongs to me now, and this situation is something for me to take care of. And I am serious about that.”
If he knew Mel, Mel would probably handle the situation by calling aliens down on the asshole. “I don’t want Ma to know he’s here.”
“Sh
e won’t. I’ll take care of it before the wedding. Don’t worry about it.” He sat back. “Now, are you sure you two know about orgasms? Because they’re very important to women. They get real nasty when they haven’t had one in a long time. And the women around here have guns. They ain’t afraid to use them on a selfish son of a bitch.”
“Mel, you can’t just throw that information out there.” They needed to talk about this.
One of Mel’s surprisingly muscular shoulders shrugged. He actually didn’t look as skinny out of his normal coveralls. “Sure I can because I have it handled. Don’t you go worrying about it. I told him what would happen if he came back.”
“He’s come around since we grew up?”
“Sure. He got out after doing a stretch for bilking old ladies out of their social security checks. It was right after Wolf had come home from the Navy, and Cassidy was real worried about him. Robert threatened to reconnect with his poor injured kid.”
“I wasn’t so injured I couldn’t have shot the shit in the face.”
Wolf had been a little lost after his injuries cost him his SEAL career. Leo knew exactly why Robert’s threat would have scared his mother. Wolf had been vulnerable, looking for something to make his life meaningful. A good con artist could potentially have worked Wolf over. “Did Ma pay him off?”
“Nah.” Mel waved that thought off. “She came to me. She wasn’t alone this time, and she was smart enough to not try to hide it from me. She knew I would take care of the problem for her.”
“Okay, well, he never contacted me, so I have to assume you did something,” Wolf said.
“Sure, I did. I sent the fucker back to jail. He was on parole. I made sure he missed a parole meeting. While he was my guest, we talked about a couple of things, including what would happen if he ever approached my woman again. It looks like I really should have been more detailed about my threats. Cassidy says I get too focused on one thing and forget about how important the details can be.”
“You distracted him so he couldn’t get to his meeting with his parole officer?”
Mel shook his head. “Oh, no. He was real insistent about making that appointment. So I tied him up and we had a nice long talk. But I’m not a horrible son of a bitch. I also told him about the alien invasion. This time I’m just going to let the fuckers take him, if you know what I mean.”
Mel was crazy, and that was kind of cool. Maybe Mel and Julian had more in common than either would admit.
“You totally kidnapped him,” Wolf said, respect plain in his voice.
“Nah, not according to some very carefully selected alibi witnesses. And there were plenty of people at Hell on Wheels who saw him drinking. That Sawyer fellow is a good man no matter what Nate says. He’s been real nice to our whole hunter society. He also sets up a real nice sweat lodge.”
Leo laughed. He’d spent time being worried about his mother and crazy Mel and it turned out that crazy Mel took damn fine care of her. He looked over at his brother. “What do you think?”
Wolf smiled, wiping a hand across his hair. “I think we’re getting married tomorrow and we should trust our Ma to know what she wants.”
And she wanted Mel. Mel had been the one standing beside her and taking care of her. Leo turned to him and gave him a deferential nod. “Thank you for taking care of this, Mel.”
Wolf held out a hand. “Thank you.”
Mel shook it. “That’s real nice, boys, but I’ll always take care of your momma. I love her. I’ve loved her since I saw her across the crowded medical examination room the aliens were holding us in. She was so beautiful in the stark white lights. You see, they think they can blind you with those lights, but we hunters have trained ourselves to be able to see through it.”
Mel started in on how he’d met their ma on an alien research ship.
And Leo forced himself to listen because sanity, he’d learned, was sometimes in the eye of the beholder.
And his mother had more than earned his respect and love and tolerance.
If he could show her that by accepting her nutty, loving, protective boyfriend, then Mel had just become family.
Chapter Fifteen:
Stef and Jen
Jen stared at her sleeping husband and wondered why she asked a man to do anything. She’d asked them to bring him in and help her get him tied down. It was a simple operation. No fuss. No muss. There were two Harper twins and only one Stef. It should have been easy.
They had shot him with a tranq gun. That was their brilliant solution. To shoot him. With drugs.
And then they’d tossed him in the back of Rye’s truck. Naked.
She was so going to give Holly and Rachel an earful about their dumbass husbands. There wasn’t a brain among the four of them. Next time she would just call the women together. Marie would have been humane about bringing Stef in. Maybe.
But she had a decision to make and she needed to do it before he woke up.
She stared at her gorgeous husband. He was tied to the bed, his arms and legs spread. Every inch of his tanned skin was on display. How long had it been since she’d just stared at him like the work of art he was?
She tugged at the silk straps of her nightgown. She’d been surprised to discover that there was a whole line of sexy maternity nighties out there, but the one time she’d been brave enough to wear it, Stef had wrapped a robe around her because he didn’t want her to be cold.
He was still the perfect man she’d married and she…wasn’t.
Her gray-eyed boy. God, she loved him. And he was going to be so mad at her.
Maybe she hadn’t thought this through.
“Jennifer?”
Her heart skipped a beat. “Stefan.”
She hated the fact that she was so nervous. He was her husband. They were married. She shouldn’t be nervous about trying to sleep with her husband.
“Would you like to explain to me why the doc shot me and my friends dragged my naked body home and apparently tied me to the bed?” His head had come up and those glorious gray eyes were arctic as he stared at her.
She actually swallowed. She could blame it on pregnancy brain. Yes, that’s what she would do. Hormones. Lots of hormones. “Well, I didn’t expect them to shoot you. I merely asked for Max and Rye to bring you here and tie you up. I guess I didn’t think about the fact that you would be naked, though I really do like the view.”
Maybe flattery would help.
“Why?”
That should be apparent. “Come on, Stef.”
“Jennifer, I asked you a question. I intend to have the answer, so unless you are going to keep me tied up here for the rest of our lives, or you’re planning on playing out a Lifetime movie, I would suggest you begin your explanation. Every second you delay is another set of very nasty punishments I come up with. You should understand, my love, that these punishments are not erotic little treats for you.”
Shit. Well, she’d wanted her Dom back. It looked like he was in the house and he was pissed. Honesty was called for. “I wanted to get your attention, Stef.”
“Consider my attention wholly focused on you.”
She’d forgotten how intimidating he could be. He hadn’t used that dark chocolate voice of his on her in forever. He hadn’t stared at her with pure dominance on his face since he’d discovered she was pregnant. She had to take a deep breath, and not simply because she was nervous. Her pussy had tightened the minute he looked at her. This wasn’t simply her husband. This was her Dom, and she wanted him.
With shaking hands she pushed at the straps of her gown. “I love you, Stef.”
“You have an odd way of showing it, Jennifer.” He wasn’t giving an inch, and she couldn’t tell a thing from his eyes except that he was angry.
“You didn’t leave me a choice. If I didn’t make a stand now, how long would it take? It could be another three or four weeks before I have this baby. Sometimes first babies are late. And then it’s six weeks after that before I can have sex. I don’t want
to wait another two or three months to be with my husband.”
“And rather than asking me to make love to you, you chose to take away control.”
God, how did he know how to put things in the worst possible light. Her gown slipped down, her breasts on display now, but Stef kept his eyes on her face. She felt her skin flush with embarrassment, but she wasn’t giving up yet. She couldn’t.
She reached out and touched his leg, running her hand up the powerful muscles there. “I wanted to play. We haven’t played in so very long. I don’t know how much time we’ll have once the baby is born. I don’t want to lose this part of our lives.”
His face was like granite. “You lost it the moment you chose to put me in this position. What is in our contract, wife?”
“This is about more than a contract.” Her voice was shaky because she was losing him.
His words came out clipped and sharp. “You said you wanted to play. Our play is defined by that contract, or are we just going to throw everything away because you’ve decided you want something? Is that how this works now? Our contract is meaningless because Jennifer Talbot isn’t getting what she thinks she deserves? That gives you the right to humiliate your Dom?”
“You tied me up before. I didn’t feel humiliated.”
“I asked you. Everything was consensual. Putting me in this position is not consensual. Having my friends go after me was not consensual.”
Tears blurred her eyes. She hadn’t meant to humiliate him. She’d meant to show him just how much she wanted him. She’d meant to show him that she would fight for them.
But he didn’t want her. She pulled the straps of her gown up and reached for her robe. She would cover herself properly. He didn’t like her body now. She knew she should be angry, but the dull ache that filled her crowded out everything else.
“I’ll have you out in a second.” She pulled on the ties Rye had made, tugging until his feet were free. She moved to his hands, and he was out of the bonds in moments.
She wouldn’t look at him, couldn’t. She simply got up and found his robe. She laid it out on the bed. “I’m going to get dressed. Rachel and Callie have been handling the party for me. I think I’m just going to go to my room. I’m very tired.”