Then she was in Rafe’s arms poolside, listening to the waves crashing onto the shore, the breeze whipping about them, and smelling the fresh sea air. She loved it here. She loved him. Loved the way he’d taken her and her son in, no matter what the consequence. He was dealing with all of this as if he really was Toby’s father, and he’d always been married to Jade.
Rafe didn’t ask her how things were going with Toby because he knew she wouldn’t have left the boy if she was having trouble with him shifting. She put on a smile for everyone, but she was afraid they would realize she was still concerned about her son.
“Do you want to dance?” Rafe asked her privately.
She appreciated his sensitivity. “I’d love to.”
The “ballroom” was a large tiled room with a bar on one wall, floral arrangements all around the room, some ornate bench seating, and a live band against another wall. The music was playing as they walked in, a few couples dancing, but when Rafe led Jade into the room, the musicians started playing a waltz, and Rafe held her close as he moved her across the floor.
Every experience was new with him—dancing like this, holding him close, loving him, his face turned down to kiss her. It wasn’t a show for anyone there, but just a wolfish way to say she and he belonged together, that he loved her and was glad she was now part of his life.
She felt his heat, his arousal, his pheromones wafting to her, enticing her own to join in the medley. She smiled up at him, his eyes already darkened with desire, and she was certain hers were too. “Do you think it would be too unseemly if we slipped away before everyone left for the night?”
“They’ll understand that we’re newlyweds all over again and we need some time alone.”
“Which means they’ll leave soon?”
He smiled down at her. “Free food, drinks, and entertainment? Sebastian will clear them out before long. Don’t you want to dance? I like the way you’re rubbing up against me, stirring up things.”
She nuzzled his neck and nipped at his earlobe. “You won’t be able to walk to the bedroom.”
He nuzzled her cheek and whispered against her ear, “Nothing would stop me from carrying you right to bed and finishing the moves there.”
“What about Toby?”
“After we have our time, you can join him in his room, or he can join us in ours.”
“You sure you don’t mind?”
“No. Packs sleep together. There’s nothing unnatural about it. He’ll learn to shift and be comfortable with it, but while he’s going through this in the beginning, he needs all the loving acceptance he can get.”
“Thanks, Rafe. I didn’t want to leave you every night.”
“Ditto, honey.”
When they finished dancing, the guests began to thank them for a lovely time and then departed. When the last one was gone, Sebastian and Edward made sure no one was still there while Rafe and Jade hurried to check on Toby. They smiled when Rafe opened the door and saw Aidan sound asleep on top of the wolf comforter, Toby still in his wolf form, his head resting on Aidan’s arm as if it were a pillow.
“Come on, Jade. As long as they’re fine, let’s get some sleep.”
She looked up at him, a slight smile on her lips. He leaned down and kissed her, then left his brother and Toby to sleep, shutting the door. “Among other things,” he said.
“Did we pull everything off okay?” she asked. “I was afraid when Toby acted so strangely that they’d be wondering what was going on.”
“They understood he’s not used to being around big crowds of adults like this, and you weren’t with him either. They adored you.”
“Except for the women who were upset that you no longer are in the market for a wife.”
“As if I was ever in the market for one of them.”
“I hate to mention it now, but I got so many orders for both lines of clothing that I’m going to need to hire some help. But only wolves, if you have any idea where to find any.”
“That pack that we know of in Montana? They’ve got a whole lot of pack members. Maybe you could see if any of them sew.”
“Okay, I’ll do that.”
After their wild day and night, they made love, and then they cuddled until Jade fell sound asleep. Rafe had planned to check on Toby, but between the long day of festivities, the quiet of the house, and making love to his sexy mate, he fell asleep with Jade wrapped in his arms.
Until a yipping, barking, growling, and howling made him untangle himself from Jade, jump out of bed, throw on a pair of briefs, and grab his gun. Jade was out of bed in an instant, but she didn’t have a gun and shifted into her protective she-wolf.
Rafe headed for the door, wanting her to stay behind until he saw what the matter was, but he couldn’t make her stay here, not when her son was having fits about something.
A shot rang out, and then another.
Damn it to hell and back! “Stay back,” he warned Jade. If bullets were flying, it was too dangerous for her.
But a wolf could run a lot faster than a man, and she shot off for her son’s bedroom before Rafe could catch up. Now he wished he’d just turned wolf.
Edward was pinned down in his bedroom, shooting at his assailant. Jade dove into her son’s room, and chaos ruled as a man screamed out in pain.
By the time Rafe reached Toby’s room, he found an enraged she-wolf at a dead’s man’s throat, a gun lying on the floor beside him. Toby was running back and forth, anxious and upset. “Stay here,” Rafe said to both Jade and Toby, quickly checking his brother, who was dead to the world but still breathing.
Rafe shut Toby’s bedroom door and hurried to Edward’s room, but there was no sign of Edward or anyone else.
“Two men managed to escape through the gate to the beach,” Edward shouted, hurrying back to see if Toby and Aidan were all right. Thankfully, Edward didn’t have a scratch on him.
“Check the rest of the house,” Rafe said. “Looks like one of them gave Aidan a knockout drug. Toby’s upset. Jade killed the other man.”
“Okay. Checking the rest of the house to make sure it’s secure,” Edward said.
Sebastian joined them, gun in hand. “What the hell happened?”
“Three men must have pretended to be waitstaff when serving the food. Maybe the drinks. The dead one and the others who were in the house left no scent, so we didn’t smell them,” Edward called out to them as he began searching everywhere, including closets this time. “They’re wearing the same tuxes as everyone else who was serving the meals.”
“Probably hid in closets while you and Sebastian were checking the house before we went to sleep.” Rafe tried to wake his brother, shaking Aidan’s shoulder as Jade woofed at her son.
Toby nuzzled her in greeting, his tail wagging slightly, and then she led him out of the room.
Aidan stirred.
“Hey, buddy,” Rafe said, “wake up. You’ve been drugged.”
“What the hell,” Aidan said. His speech was slurred, and he couldn’t seem to focus.
“What can I get you to help you snap out of this?”
“What did they give me?”
“How the hell would I know? You’re the doctor.”
Aidan smiled weakly.
Rafe felt a bit of relief.
“Kenneth and his men?” Aidan asked.
“I’m sure of it. We won’t know until Jade shifts and can tell us. As a wolf, she killed the man in the bedroom. No ID on him.”
Aidan groaned. “I suppose you want me to help dispose of the body.”
“No. Edward will call it in and have a disposal crew take care of him.”
“How’s Toby?”
“Not sure. Jade’s taking care of him in our bedroom.”
“Go be with them. I’m fine.”
Rafe wanted to check on them, but he didn’t want to leave his brother if he began to take a turn for the worse.
“They just knocked me out, but I’m coming to. Just go. I’m fine. Do what you need to do
.”
“All right. Holler out if you need anything. I’ll have Sebastian sit with you until you’re more yourself.”
“Okay.”
Rafe headed for the door, glanced back at Aidan, and frowned when he saw his brother close his eyes and go back to sleep.
“I got this,” Sebastian said, joining Rafe. “Go check on your wife and son.”
Even though Rafe had referred to Jade and Toby as such all evening, it hadn’t really sunk in until Sebastian said it. “Thanks. If Aidan doesn’t wake up in half an hour, wake him.”
“Will do, Boss.”
“Thanks.” Rafe strode toward the other part of the house and saw Edward shake his head.
“No one broke in. The place is all clear. I’ve called already to get some men out here to do a cleanup. And others are searching the area for any of the men who ran off.”
“Okay, good show.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t get there quicker. They must have known where everyone was for the night, waited until we were asleep, and injected your brother with something to knock him out. Guess they didn’t expect Toby to make a racket and wake everyone. Turns out he was the best bodyguard in the house.”
Rafe smiled a little. “He’s got a good start on being one of us.” But he worried how the boy had taken seeing his mother kill the man in her wolf form when he’d never seen her like that before. Then again, Toby could smell her and that would have told him just who she was.
He strode toward the bedroom and found Jade curled up in bed as a wolf with her son. He loved the image and would remember them like this forever. She raised her head and eyed him. He wished they could talk, but Toby was eyeing him too and this seemed to be the beginning of teaching him about how the other half of them lived. Rafe yanked off his clothes and shifted while both his mate and son watched, then he loped over to the bed. Rafe put his big wolf paws on the mattress so he could get closer and let Toby smell him and know it was still just him. Toby stayed with his mom, but he nosed Rafe’s muzzle in greeting. That intimacy between a cub and an adult was heartening.
Rafe’s next move was to jump on top of the bed without scaring Toby and curl up with them. He was a big wolf, and he was afraid Toby might be frightened. But Jade wouldn’t be, and her reaction should help to convince Toby that Rafe was nobody to fear.
Hoping this wouldn’t backfire, because Rafe didn’t want to make any mistakes with this, he jumped up on the bed. To Rafe’s surprise, Toby stood and greeted him again, his tail wagging, and Rafe’s heart lifted with relief. He licked Toby’s face, then settled down next to Jade. Toby watched the two of them as Rafe rested his head over her side, and then Toby curled up on the other side of her and placed his head on her side just below Rafe’s. Rafe was amused. The gesture was a show of possession, and he agreed. Jade belonged equally to both of them.
Chapter 17
Rafe was snuggling with Jade under the covers as humans when he realized it was getting to be light out and Toby was no longer in bed with them. Rafe threw aside the covers, ready to panic when he heard Toby’s high-pitched voice saying, “Yeah, Uncle Aidan, I wanna go swimming.”
Rafe relaxed.
“With your swim trunks on this time, and you wait for me to get dressed, or no more swimming for a week.”
Rafe smiled. He hadn’t expected his brother to play with Toby so much. Maybe Aidan was doing so because he would be returning to his lab work now that the ball was over and he didn’t need to wait to turn Toby during the first of the new moon. But with Kenneth’s men breaking in—Rafe needed to confirm with Jade that’s who had been in the house—he feared that Kenneth would still be after his brother.
“Can I sit by the pool until you’re ready?” Toby asked.
“No,” Aidan said sternly.
Smiling, Rafe shook his head and said to Jade, “I’m having alarms set on all the doors so if Toby leaves, we’ll know it.”
“Good.” Jade sighed against his chest.
Edward said, “I’ve got my coffee. I’ll take him out.”
“I thought Edward was supposed to be the nanny,” Jade said, kissing Rafe.
“Sounds like Aidan is enjoying his role as Toby’s uncle for the time being.”
“I didn’t notice when Toby left the room this morning. Did you?”
“No. I guess we were both so tired.” Rafe began getting dressed, needing to see if everything was taken care of in Toby’s room and the hall where the rounds had struck the walls and doorjamb. “Were the men in the house part of Kenneth’s pack? And was he with them?”
“The one I killed wasn’t part of Kenneth’s pack. I didn’t smell his scent or the others’, and I didn’t see them. I hadn’t wanted to kill him in front of Toby, but he was getting ready to shoot him and I had to stop him.”
“I understand, Jade. You had to do what you had to do. Toby doesn’t seem to be traumatized by it. I suspect Aidan has talked to him some this morning, now that Toby’s back to being human.”
“I wonder how long that will last.”
“New moon is in another day. Then he won’t be able to shift and we’ll have the wedding and that’ll be settled. I’m going to check on everything. I need to sign some papers for a real estate purchase, and I need to check in with the men who have Lizzie.”
“I can’t believe my brother is still trying to get ahold of Aidan. Don’t you think that’s what he was doing, drugging him? Except Toby thwarted them?”
“Yeah. They would have drugged Toby if they’d wanted just to grab him. They must have had only enough of a dose to knock Aidan out.”
“But why would Kenneth still want him? I know my brother hasn’t given up the notion that Aidan’s research will be worth a lot of money, but why would he continue to risk grabbing him?”
“Hell, maybe it all has to do with the guy who wants your brother to pay off his gambling debts. Maybe Kenneth promised to turn over Aidan and his research to Grayton. Maybe both men are under the assumption that Aidan is worth more money than what Kenneth owed Grayton. If Aidan could come up with a cure. The price of having the same longevity as we had before? Priceless.”
“What are we going to do about it?”
“Talk to the kingpin. But I need to take care of some things around here first.”
“You’re actually going to talk to him?”
“Yeah. Face-to-face, not like your cowardly brother who takes a young boy hostage to tip the scales in his favor. It’s not going to be pretty. If Grayton has the notion he can use Aidan for his own designs, I doubt the man will give it up. Even if I explain that Aidan doesn’t have the cure and isn’t close to making one. Aidan will stay here. And I’ll have extra security set up. I’ll leave as soon as I can.” No way was Rafe going to allow anyone to test his resolve in this matter.
“What if Aidan doesn’t figure into this with Grayton? That my brother wasn’t intending to hand him over?”
“For one thing, I believe the idea that Aidan would suddenly have the cure and then be selling enough of it to pay off your brother’s debt is too far out. I think your brother knew that. I think the only way he could get off the hook with Grayton was to give him something that would pay him off with tons more interest. But, Kenneth had to grab Aidan first. Or I’m sure his life is forfeit. I doubt your brother has the resources to set up Aidan in a lab in secret somewhere so he can continue his research.”
She let out her breath and nodded. Rafe knew she worried about him. “I’ll be fine. I’ll have enough armed men with me to make sure of it.”
“I’ll be right out. I’m going to take another shower.”
“Maybe…I should take one too.”
She smiled. “Go. Check on Toby and do the rest of what you need to do. I’ll feel better knowing you’re checking on him after what happened last night.”
Rafe pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “You saying so means the world to me, honey. Thanks.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body
against his. “How could I have ever have gotten so lucky?”
“Fate.”
“My brother,” she said and grunted.
“No. Fate brought us together. We were meant to be together.” He kissed her and released her.
She smiled and kissed his cheek, then headed for the bathroom. “I want you back safe.”
“I intend to be.”
After Rafe checked Toby’s room and found it cleaned of any evidence of a killing, he noticed that the damage to the walls and Edward’s room still needing to be taken care of. Though no spent shell casings were lying about. Rafe found Toby playing basketball in the pool with Aidan, Edward on his cell as he oversaw the two of them.
“Somehow Aidan looks more like Toby’s nanny than you do,” Rafe said to Edward as he ended his call.
“I’m sure when Aidan leaves, I’ll have my hands full. But we’ll need another bodyguard up here to safeguard the family. George MacIntosh?”
“Yeah, he’d be good. Not sure how he is with kids, but that’ll work. And the work on the place?”
“Have a wolf coming over in half an hour. I made sure he’s someone we know,” Edward said. “But we did a sweep of the area to see if we could find any sign of the men or Kenneth and found the catering van ditched on the side of the road. The real caterers were bound and gagged, still sleeping off whatever Kenneth’s men must have given them. Hugh made sure they got back to their restaurant safely. Some of Kenneth’s men must have left after the ball to make it appear as though they were all leaving, and then a few stayed behind.”
“Hell.”
“Yeah, the security detail I had checking everyone out who came into the house said they all had proper IDs. Kenneth must have planned this from the beginning, as soon as he knew about the charity ball.”
“He’s good. I’ll give him that. I didn’t really think he could pull off something that well planned.” Rafe told Edward what he wanted to do about Grayton. “Arrange for the men who will accompany us and those who will safeguard my family. We’re going on a trip.”
Looking concerned, his face dark, brows knitted, Sebastian headed out to the patio. “Unless you give your private number out to someone, no one can contact you,” he said to Rafe. “Which means all calls to you come to me.”