“Never happened. Only with you.”
“What do we do now?”
He smiled, wanting to hold her like this forever, but then the car pulled to a stop, and Edward cut the engine.
“I don’t think I can get into that gown again,” Jade murmured against Rafe’s chest.
“Believe me, no way do I want you to put it back on. We’ll shift. Edward will get our things.”
She groaned. “Somehow I was thinking this would be more private.”
Rafe laughed, then helped her up as Edward slammed his door.
“Is he coming to open the door for us?” she asked.
“No. Not until I let him know it’s safe to do so.”
Both of them shifted, and Rafe howled. Not in a way that said he wanted Edward to open the door for them, but in a way that said he was one damn sexually satisfied wolf.
Jade bit him lightly on the shoulder, and if he had been in his human form, he would have laughed.
He barked at her in joyful glee before Edward opened the car door for them. They bolted out and raced for the wolf door.
“Congratulations!” Edward called out and laughed.
Once inside, they heard Edward pulling the limo into the garage. Rafe and Jade ran down the hall to the master bedroom suite, alternately biting and nipping at each other. Inside the room, Rafe pushed the door shut with his paws, then turned to see Jade lying in wait, ready to tackle him—he thought. Instead, she leaped on the bed. By the time he jumped on top of the mattress, she was on the floor again, waiting for him, lying down, her head and ears perked. Around and around they went until he caught her at last and pinned her with his wolf body. She shifted and laughed. He licked a breast with his wolf’s tongue and then shifted too.
With the house quiet and no sign of Aidan and Toby’s imminent return, it was time for Rafe to make love to his mate again.
* * *
Jade hadn’t been sure if Rafe had intended to ravish her in the limo, but what a truly wonderful and unique experience it had been, one she wanted to do again in the future. After playing as wolves, their wild sides needing to celebrate the match as much as their human sides, they’d made glorious love again. Now, it was time to get back to reality and make sure her son got off to bed all right. Rafe only smiled and kissed her, saying he would be ready for her when she returned. She’d mated one hot-blooded wolf and loved him for it.
She loved being with Rafe and didn’t want to leave him, but she needed to see to Toby when he arrived home. She loved Aidan and the rest of the men who had kept him entertained while she and Rafe had their special time together.
When she reached Toby’s room, Aidan smiled and congratulated her again.
“Thanks, Aidan, for everything.”
“We had a grand time. Didn’t we, Toby?”
“We did,” Toby said.
“I’m glad you all had fun.”
“Night, Toby, Jade,” Aidan said.
“Night,” they both replied.
Jade started removing Toby’s clothes, letting him pick his pj’s for the night. He chose the stegosaurus ones, but when she went to tug on his shirt, he shook his head.
“Boys don’t wear pj tops,” he said.
“Who said?”
“Daddy and Uncle Aidan don’t. They just wear bottoms.”
She sighed. “That’s because they don’t have really cool shirts for grown-up men. If they had ones as neat as yours, they’d wear them too.”
“I can share,” Toby said.
She laughed and pulled on his shirt, then hugged him close on the big, red, cushy chair she’d gotten for his room. “They would be way too big for your shirts. But thank you for offering. So, what did Uncle Aidan take you to do today?”
Toby was so sleepy that he snuggled with her like when he was a baby. “Fun, Mommy. Got strawberry ice cream. Uncle Aidan had chocolate mint like you like. Uncle Sebastian had a chocolate milk shake. Then we saw the Turtles. Uncle Aidan and Sebastian said we were going camping. Never been camping. When can we go?”
“At the end of the new moon.” She’d been teaching him about the phases of the moon and how they would affect him. “We want you to be able to run as a wolf when we go.” She carried him to bed and tucked him in, then brought over the calendar showing the phases of the moon and pointed to the day. Each night, they would talk about the phases, and she handed him his sheet of wolf cub stickers to put on the calendar. One for each day, except during the new moon and the few days before and after it. She, and others like her who had wolf roots for centuries in their ancestry, could shift at any time.
Jade pointed on the calendar to the picture of the new moon. “The waxing crescent has already begun, and you’ll see a sliver of a crescent growing bigger every day. We can’t be sure when you’ll feel like shifting or can shift. Tessa, the lady taking pictures at the wedding, said that she can’t turn during the few days before, during, or after the new moon. Which is why we had the wedding during this phase. Do you feel like you need to shift before it happens?”
He nodded, his eyes heavily lidded.
She read him a bedtime story, and then she kissed him good night.
“Can I be a wolf tomorrow?” he asked.
She sighed, figuring he’d missed the point. “If you can shift. You might not be able to for a couple more days.” She really hoped he wouldn’t be able to so they’d have more time to take him places, safe in the knowledge he couldn’t shift by accident. “But yes, you can, if you stay inside. Wolves that aren’t shifters like us don’t live here,” she reminded him. “If people see you running as a wolf, they might shoot you.” Not that they would. They’d most likely grab him and put him in a wolf reserve or a zoo because he was a cute little wolf pup.
“I’d scare everyone to pieces,” Toby said, nodding, repeating Edward’s warning to him.
She smiled, loving the guys because they were all so good about helping to teach Toby. She realized that though they hadn’t been one before, everyone who worked for Rafe was now acting like they were part of a pack—and Rafe and she were leading it. She never would have believed it would happen like this, but it was all because of the natural instinct to protect Toby. She found it endearing and comforting. “Yes, you would. We can never let anyone know that we can turn into beautiful wolves. So you have to stay inside whenever you’re a wolf. No going out on the patio.” Not that anyone could see him, as short as he was when he was a wolf. She still didn’t want him outside…just in case.
“Except at night, if there are no lights on, we can run on the beach as wolves.”
“Yes.”
“I like being a wolf.”
She smiled. “I’m glad, Toby. Good night, honey.”
“Night, Mommy.”
“Love you.”
“Love you so much.” He yawned and rolled over on his tummy to go to sleep, Buddy and Dino on either side of him.
She kissed him on the head, then left the room, shutting the door behind her.
“Want to watch a movie in bed?” Rafe asked her from the living room, standing up from the couch where he’d been watching the news while he waited for her to return.
She thought he would be sleeping. She appreciated that he had waited up for her. She wrapped her arms around him. “Sure. Do you want some popcorn?”
“Yeah. I’ll get us some water.”
“Do you know where everyone is?”
“Aidan is taking a shower. He’s going to watch something on TV in here so he can keep an eye on things. He’ll switch with Edward after he gets some sleep. The other two bodyguards are spelling each other. One is down on the grounds out front, checking things out. Sebastian retired to his place.”
“Okay, good. Butter on your popcorn?”
“Lots of it, and nice and salty.”
She smiled, and after a few minutes, they were settled in the bedroom to watch a spy thriller. She had thrown on a pj shorts set, and he was wearing boxers, but she didn’t think that would las
t long when he began slipping his hands under her top to caress her breasts, his mouth nuzzling her ear.
She was about to set the bowl of popcorn on the bedside table so she could turn around and get Rafe back when she thought she heard the patio door open but not shut.
“Aidan is watching Toby, right?” she asked, but she was already getting off the bed, setting the bowl of popcorn on the table, and heading for the bedroom door. She knew Toby would be sleeping. He never got up when he was so tired, and he’d sleep soundly through the night. Unless he woke with a bad nightmare.
“Supposed to be. He was just going to take a shower.” Rafe hurried after her.
Aidan came out of his bedroom wearing pj shorts and looking puzzled that Jade and Rafe were rushing out of their bedroom as if something was horribly wrong. “Toby’s asleep, isn’t he?”
“He was, but the back door’s wide open.” Jade ran for Toby’s room and found the door open. His bedcovers were tossed aside. He was gone. “Not here!” she called out, already trying to push back the urge to panic.
She ran toward the back patio, but Rafe had already reached it, turned on the lights, and was looking in the pool. “Not here!”
Then Toby howled from the beach, a frightened pup howl.
“Ohmigod,” she said, throwing off her pj’s and shifting into her wolf, in protective mother mode. How could he have shifted? Was that why he had asked if it was all right if he turned into his wolf? But he shouldn’t be able to shift!
Rafe raced down the stairs and threw open the gate. Aidan was already on his phone, alerting everyone else of the trouble on the beach and to come at once.
Heart pounding, she sprinted down the stairs. When she reached the gate, she heard Rafe growling and saw his and Toby’s clothes. She knew Rafe had shifted and that his anger wasn’t directed at Toby but someone else.
It was twilight, the pinks and oranges of the setting sun casting a reflection on ribbons of clouds and whitecaps. Her kind could see at dusk, but it was still light enough that humans could still see the horizon.
Then she saw the big brown wolf—one of Kenneth’s henchmen—snarling at Rafe. Rafe’s fur stood on end to make him appear bigger, his lips pulled back, his own fiercely wicked canines on full display as he snarled.
Backed up against the stone wall, Toby was growling ferociously, looking small and unsure of himself. It was one thing for him to fight a man as a small wolf, but another to fight the big, aggressive male wolves. Why had he come out here on his own? Was he afraid she would be angry with him and tried to hide shifting from them by going outside? This was what she worried about—Toby having no control over his shifting and putting himself in danger.
Before Jade could run to him and guide him back in through the gate to safety, she heard a wolf running toward her in the sand, heard his heart beating rapidly, felt the heat of him, right before Kenneth attacked her.
Before she could react, she felt Kenneth’s heavy pounce on her back, the weight of a heavier male’s bones and muscles pressed against her, smelled his aggression, and knew his teeth would be tearing into her next. With her slighter build, she quickly bolted away from him to avoid being bitten. His teeth clanked as he missed her by inches.
As wild as any wolf could be that was protecting her pup, Jade rounded on her brother and viciously assaulted him back, snarling and growling, jaws snapping. She dodged his brutal attacks and jumped right back in, tearing into him again. All she could think about was that she’d never be safe. Toby would never be safe. She had to end this now.
Rafe was fighting two wolves now, and she saw four others waiting in the wings for a chance to kill them, or maybe serving as bodyguards in case more wolves came and tried to take out their leader. It wouldn’t do for them to be embroiled in a fight and not see others attacking Kenneth. At least they wouldn’t interfere with Kenneth fighting her. Not when he was their pack leader. And she was just a female.
Then she smelled new wolf scents and saw Aidan running on the beach to her aid, Sebastian and Edward right behind him. She hadn’t seen them before in wolf form, but she knew them by scent. She was thrilled, thinking she could rescue her son before he was injured or killed and return him safely to the house.
Smelling the new wolf scents, Kenneth glanced back. As soon as Aidan dashed for her, one of Kenneth’s men launched an attack against him. No one would be allowed to aid her. Looking smugly satisfied, Kenneth whipped around and smiled at her with his wicked canines on display, ready for blood. Her blood. When Kenneth attacked Jade again, she dodged away, but Toby raced forward to bite Kenneth, to protect her like Aidan had tried to.
No! Her heart nearly stopped. Kenneth wouldn’t hesitate to kill the pup!
Toby got hold of Kenneth’s leg and bit down—sharp puppy teeth could hurt and tear skin too—but Kenneth was too busy watching out for Jade’s stronger, bigger bite.
She kept after him too, trying to ensure he wouldn’t see the ankle biter attached to his hind leg and whip around to kill him. One bite from Kenneth’s powerful jaws and Toby would be dead.
She dove in to grab Kenneth’s foreleg and break it, but all she managed was a bite that broke the skin. He jumped away before she could really chomp hard, frustrating her. She had to get a good bite in to disable him, or he’d wear her out because of his size and power. He yelped and attacked her so savagely that she had to back out of the path of his canines again. The waves washed over her hind legs and then her forelegs, and she realized the way they’d been fighting, he’d maneuvered her into the water. Again, he snarled and barked, forcing her deeper.
Fearing Toby would drown in the ocean if he tried to follow her, she barked at him to let go. But he was her son, tenaciously hanging on to Kenneth’s leg, trying to help her. She loved him, wanting in the worst way for him to back off.
Kenneth lunged at her again, and she turned to avoid him. She nearly fell when the water began to pull out, unbalancing her with its strong tow. Toby must have let go at that point, thank God.
Thinking he was getting the best of her, Kenneth jumped in after her. She was in deeper water, up to her chest now, and he was taller and heavier so he had the advantage. Heart pounding, she couldn’t help but worry about Toby and the draw of the deepening water while trying to concentrate on her brother’s snapping jaws.
To her horror, she lost sight of Toby just as she realized she’d backed into a rip current and was being sucked out to sea…along with her brother.
She prayed Toby was still on shore in the shallow water, not too deep where he would be pulled in with them. All wolves could swim, but he was so little, and having never been in the ocean, he could easily panic, wear out, and drown.
Then she saw Rafe bounding into the ocean after her, his mouth and fur bloodied, his eyes glistening with menace. He leaped as far as he could with a powerful wolf’s jump and was dragged out with them. He was only a few feet from Kenneth, who was trying to catch up to her. She prayed Rafe could reach Kenneth before he tore into her again. Yet, she wished with all her heart that Rafe had stayed on shore to protect Toby.
With a male’s powerful paddling strokes, Kenneth drew nearer, his eyes narrowed on her, his expression one of killing rage.
She thought Kenneth meant to drown her.
Reserving her strength, she let the current carry her out more than half a mile, fighting the panic that Toby could be in the water too. She realized that when Rafe had been with her in the rip current the first time, she’d felt safe, but not now, out here in the dark, a long way from shore. And she knew Kenneth would be bleeding in the water, calling all sharks in the vicinity to come for supper.
Her brother continued to swim toward her, and she prayed Rafe would catch up. She knew she couldn’t fight a much bigger wolf in the deep water.
She turned, trying to swim parallel to shore as the rip current’s strength began to dwindle. She didn’t want to stay out in the ocean any longer than necessary, and she desperately had to make sure Toby was okay
. She felt something bump her back and had a panic attack, thinking it was a shark, but it was just as bad. Her brother put his paw on her back, pushing her down, like a drowning swimmer trying to use her as his flotation device. She tried to turn to bite him, but she saw a fin glide by and gulped a mouthful of sea water.
Rafe was close, but the shark and her brother were closer.
Chapter 19
Aidan quickly killed the wolf he had been fighting, moving toward the water the whole time, frantic to reach Toby. The cub was in the water, his mom and dad pulled out with Kenneth, and Aidan was afraid the little fellow would be swept out too.
Toby was running in the shallow water, barking, pausing to observe his mother being pulled out with the current, lifting his snout and smelling the air for her, then howling.
His heart thundering, Aidan raced to reach him in time as the pup headed into the deeper water, frantic his parents were leaving him behind.
Aidan barked at him to come into shore, but it was too late. Toby was caught up in the rip current. Aidan couldn’t see Jade, Rafe, or her brother in the dark swells. All his focus now remained on his nephew.
At a run, he leaped for him, sailing through the air and landing fifteen feet into the water, only half a foot away from Toby. Aidan swam to him and grabbed the pup by the scruff of the neck, but he couldn’t swim to shore against the strong rip current. They were being dragged out like the others had been. Aidan still couldn’t see them in the dark waters. He hoped Kenneth had drowned. He prayed Jade and Rafe were still treading water somewhere or swimming toward shore down the beach.
Then he thought he heard a growling way out in the water, but all he could do was try to keep Toby’s head above water. The pup never would have made it on his own.
Something bumped against his leg, and Aidan nearly had a heart attack, unable to see what was beside him in the water. Could be a big fish, he told himself. Or a shark.
He tried to turn horizontal to the beach, hoping Jade and Rafe had done the same.