The Golden Griffin's Baby (Shifter Dads, #3)

by Chant, Zoe

  Eventually, he winged his way back home—to the house, he hastily corrected; the mistake made sense because he’d grown up there, of course, not because he was thinking of Lila’s house as his own home.

  Lila was still asleep. Flynn wanted her to have all the sleep in the world, get so much rest that she’d be pink and smiling and full of energy.

  His phone vibrated: Lachlan texting to see if he could bring the kids back. Flynn glanced at the clock—oh boy, it was getting on towards dinnertime.

  Sure, he texted back, and went to investigate the kitchen.

  Lila had gotten so flustered when he’d cooked for them yesterday. She’d been a single mom for a year; how long had it been since someone had cooked her dinner? Had her flighty husband ever even cooked for them, or had it all fallen to her?

  There was enough in the fridge to throw a simple stir-fry together, so Flynn did some quick chopping, set things up to be ready to cook whenever the kids showed up, and went to make himself useful somewhere else. What needed cleaning? The bathroom? The bathroom.

  If there was one thing being in the military taught you, it was how to keep things neat and clean—at least if you’d had a sergeant like Flynn’s. He got the bathroom shining and lemon-scented by the time there was a knock at the door.

  “Flynn!” Sophia ran in and hugged his legs. “You’re still here!”

  “Of course I’m still here, kiddo. Where would I go?”

  “Back to your house,” she said, in a duh voice.

  “I promise I won’t go back to my house without talking to you first, okay?” he said to her. “No need to worry.”

  “Okay,” she said, satisfied.

  Flynn looked up to see Lachlan giving him an odd look. “What?”

  “Nothing. Just—nothing.” Lachlan was holding Grant, who looked at Flynn and reached out his arms.

  Flynn tried to suppress the bloom of warmth in his chest at the baby’s affection. Flynn was just a little more familiar than Lachlan, that was all.

  Still, there was something wonderful about a baby who wanted you more than a stranger. Flynn took Grant into his arms and settled him on his hip. “Hey, kiddo,” he said. “You have a good day?”

  “He took a good nap and ate plenty of lunch,” Lachlan said. “Couple of diaper changes. Here’s their stuff.” He held out the diaper bag, and Flynn took it.

  “Thanks for doing this,” he said.

  Lachlan looked past Flynn’s shoulder. “She okay?”

  Flynn nodded. “Taking a nap. She’ll be fine.”

  Lachlan got that odd look again. This time, Flynn decided not to question it—he had a feeling he might know what it meant.

  “Anyway, thanks for taking them, I really appreciate it. See you later.”

  “Sure,” Lachlan said slowly. “Later. Malachi wants a town meeting soon.”

  “Sure thing. Keep me posted.” Flynn shut the door in his brother’s face without much remorse. Lachlan could be way too damn perceptive sometimes, and he didn’t need any unasked-for advice from his baby brother.

  “Flynn!” Sophia shouted from the living room. “Let’s play!”

  “Okay, sweetheart,” he said, heading back in. “Maybe a quiet game, huh? Your mom’s taking a nap.”

  Sophia wrinkled her nose. “Again? She’s taking so many naps!”

  “She’s pretty tired,” Flynn said. “So let’s be quiet and let her sleep. What’s a good quiet game?”

  Sophia thought for a bit. Then she lit up. “Tea party!”

  “Sounds great.” Flynn hoped. One thing about having a little brother and a nephew instead of a sister or a niece: he’d never been to a tea party before.

  They set up in the living room. Sophia had a little play tea set, and to Flynn’s relief, she was satisfied with pretend tea and plastic pretend foods, rather than insisting on anything real. They put dolls and stuffed animals around the coffee table, and Sophia carefully laid out all the tea things. Flynn kept Grant on his hip, since the baby seemed content there, and helped.

  When everything was set up, they arranged themselves around the coffee table. The stuffed animals were all along the long sides, and Sophia was at one end, and Flynn at the other. He settled Grant in his lap, a warm weight, and handed him a plastic bunch of grapes to play with.

  “Okay,” Sophia said importantly. “I’m the queen, and you’re the king. Grant’s the prince. And this is our court!”

  She proudly introduced all of the stuffed animals, who were dukes and duchesses and ambassadors, a word that Sophia could almost pronounce correctly. And, of course, because it was Sophia, one of them was the court assassin.

  “In disguise,” she said in a whisper.

  “Okay,” Flynn whispered back. “I won’t tell.”

  Sophia nodded. “Only you and me know! Grant doesn’t know, he’s too little.”

  “Got it.”

  Then the tea was poured, a careful affair involving the plastic teapot’s spout being dipped into all the plastic teacups, as well as the upside-down stacking blocks that were serving as cups for a few of the stuffed animals, since they didn’t have enough cups for everyone.

  Then they sipped their pretend tea. Flynn realized he didn’t know what a tea party entailed, other than this.

  Although this—watching Sophia concentrate on lifting the dainty cup to her lips, while Grant snuggled up against his chest—was pretty good.

  “How are you handling your subjects, my queen?” he asked Sophia. “Are there any disputes you need to settle?”

  “What’s a dispute?”

  “An argument. Do we need to...” What was a good dispute for a five-year-old queen to judge? “...help anyone share?”

  “Yes,” Sophia decided. “Bear and Rhino are having a hard time sharing.”

  So they settled into the nitty-gritty of taking turns, and the tea party progressed—until the assassin decided to show her true colors.

  Then everything got a tiny bit wilder, but it was still an extremely enjoyable tea party, from Flynn’s limited experience.

  Chapter 9: Lila

  Lila woke up slowly, feeling suffused with a sense of well-being. Her entire body thrummed with happiness, in a way that she didn’t think she’d ever felt before.

  The closest she could come up with was how she’d felt after giving birth, but this wasn’t the same—less total exhaustion, for one thing. No, she just felt good. Euphoric.

  She sat up, looking around for Flynn. No sign of him, which was disappointing—but then she heard voice drifting up from the ground floor. Sophia, demanding something. Flynn, quieter and amused-sounding.

  Lila relaxed. Flynn was with the kids, of course. That’s right, they’d been over at Lachlan’s—he must have dropped them off, and Flynn had started playing with them rather than wake her up.

  He was so sweet. She just couldn’t understand why he thought he’d be a bad father.

  Or, well, she could. Childhood impressions of what was right and what was wrong could linger for a long, long time. Lila’s understanding of what happiness was—a husband and kids, as fast as possible—had led to a marriage that she’d rushed right into without thinking too hard about whether it was the best choice.

  She didn’t regret it—because of the kids, of course, but also because she’d loved Michael and she wouldn’t want to never have been with him, had those years together. But in retrospect, it had been pretty dumb to marry him without learning a little more about how lion shapeshifters went about their lives.

  But no: she’d had a fantasy about a husband, and when a literal fantasy husband had presented himself, she’d thrown herself right into something she didn’t understand at all.

  Flynn, on the other hand, had—what was the negative version of a fantasy? A nightmare? A nightmare about a large, terrifying male authority. An angry father, a punishing father, and a woman and a child who were afraid and alone.

  And he’d do anything to avoid making it a reality. And he couldn’t see by being
himself, he’d made the nightmare impossible.

  His rumbling laugh drifted upstairs, with Sophia’s higher-pitched giggle trailing behind. Grant’s happy baby laugh started up, too, and Lila smiled helplessly to herself. Grant would laugh when other people were laughing, even when he couldn’t possibly have understood what was funny. It was one of her favorite things to see, when her baby was just—happy that other people were happy. Laughing because they were.

  Lila was startled out of her thoughts by the buzz of her phone. She picked it up and saw a text message from Elizabeth.

  Thought any more about what we talked about?

  Lila stared down at it. She could still feel the echo of what she’d felt this morning—anger and renewed grief, fear and worry about what was going to happen.

  But for some reason, it didn’t have the anchor in her that it had had. It was there, but underneath it was that soul-deep well-being. The feeling that even though terrible things had happened, everything really was going to be all right.

  So she picked up the phone, feeling calm and capable, and called Elizabeth.

  She picked up immediately. “Lila.”

  “I want to have a meeting,” Lila said. “In person. As soon as possible.”

  “I can be in Oak Ridge in two hours.”

  “I’ll see you at Lachlan’s Diner in two hours.” She didn’t give Elizabeth an opportunity to object, just hung up the phone.

  Lachlan’s was the opposite of neutral ground. There would be no way Victor could ambush her there, so the meeting would be safe. Lila took a deep breath and tried to suppress a smile. None of this was happy, but she felt secure in a way that she hadn’t in a long, long time. Like whatever happened, she could handle it.

  And she knew that it was due in no small part to the man downstairs.

  She didn’t know what—what they had done—was going to mean. Flynn’s insistence on his own unsuitability was worrying. Was he going to tell her it had been a one-time thing?

  God, she hoped not.

  Because she knew what she wanted. Along with the sense of firm well-being had come an equally firm knowledge that she wanted Flynn to stick around. As long as he could.

  Maybe even forever.

  That was a little terrifying, because really, they’d just met. But somehow, Lila felt like she knew him inside and out. Better than she’d even known Michael.

  And the way he was with the kids—

  She didn’t want to give him up.

  But she didn’t know how she was going to convince him that he should stay, that it would be better for them if he did.

  And to be honest, she wasn’t sure what he wanted. He’d talked about not being suitable for parenthood, but he hadn’t really come out and said what it was he personally wanted for his own life. And if what he wanted was to walk away, she’d have no way of stopping him.

  Lila sighed to herself. If only they could just—read each other’s minds. If she could know what he wanted. Cam said that sometimes she could tell what Lachlan was thinking or feeling, especially when they were physically close.

  But that was because she and Lachlan were magical, destined mates, and they had a fantasy-world connection.

  In the real world, people had to talk to each other with words. And no one was going to communicate while she was sitting up here in bed. Determinedly, Lila stood up and went to wash up and get dressed.

  ***

  Downstairs, she found Flynn and Sophia engaged in a tea party. Other parents might not have recognized it as a tea party, but Lila’s practiced eye picked out the plastic teacups scattered among the stuffed animals strewing the floor.

  “Heads up!” Flynn yelped as she came down the stairs. Lila threw up her hands just in time to catch a stuffed elephant as it came sailing through the air at her.

  She tucked it under her arm and came down the rest of the way. “What did this poor elephant do?”

  “Ran afoul of the court assassin, apparently,” Flynn said with a rueful smile. He had Grant on his hip and a stuffed dragon in his other hand. “Sorry about that. Sophia, let’s make sure no one’s standing in the way before we throw the animals, okay?”

  Sophia’s head popped out from behind a chair. “Sorry, Mommy,” she said. “Are you awake finally?”

  Lila smiled at her daughter. “I am awake finally. Sorry I slept so long.”

  “You’re taking so many naps,” Sophia said, disapproval evident in her voice. “Only babies take naps.”

  “Sometimes really tired grown-ups take them too, sweetheart,” Lila said. “Have you been having fun while I was napping?”

  Sophia nodded vigorously and launched into a somewhat confused explanation of what she’d done over at Lachlan’s place and also what she’d done with Flynn once she got home. Lila understood at least that she’d had a blast, which was all she really needed to know.

  “That’s great, kiddo,” she said. “I’m glad you had a good time. Can I have a hug, now that you’re back?”

  Sophia charged forward to give her a hug, and Lila closed her eyes at the feeling of small arms around her, thinking that this—her daughter hugging her, Flynn and the baby right next to them, the wreckage of a tea party all around them—was all she really wanted from her life.

  “You give the best hugs,” she told Sophia when they separated. Lila went to smooth Grant’s baby-soft hair and give him a kiss next.

  “You want to take him?” Flynn asked.

  Lila thought about it, but Grant’s head was resting on Flynn’s shoulder, his fingers in his mouth. She shook her head. “He looks happy where he is,” she said softly.

  Flynn’s face did something that looked half-tender, half-painful. Lila kissed Grant’s forehead, then kissed Flynn’s cheek. His stubble was rough against her lips and made her flush with remembered pleasure. “How about I get dinner started?” she asked, distracting herself.

  “Oh, I was going to—”

  “You cooked last night,” Lila said firmly. “I think we have enough for a stir-fry tonight.”

  Flynn nodded. “We—you do, I checked earlier.”

  Lila caught that slip, and it heartened her. “I’ll go get started, then, if you’re okay keeping the kids entertained a little longer.”

  “Sure am.”

  Lila hesitated, not sure if she should wait to say anything about this, but it didn’t feel right to keep a secret. “I’m meeting with Elizabeth at Lachlan’s diner in a couple hours,” she said. “We just spoke on the phone.”

  Flynn’s breath hissed inward.

  “I’m going to get dinner started,” Lila said, and fled to the kitchen.

  Maybe it was a bit of a cowardly retreat, but she knew how Flynn felt about potential danger, and she wanted to give him a few minutes to get used to the idea that this was happening before they talked about it.

  Because they were going to talk about it, and Lila was going to explain how safe it was, and ask Flynn to respect her decision on this. And she was sure, somehow, that he would.

  But maybe it would be better to give him a few minutes to get used to the idea.

  ***

  Lila found out that Flynn had chopped up a bunch of veggies for her already, thus cutting the amount of work in half. She rolled her eyes and made dinner, listening with half an ear to the sounds of Flynn and the kids in the other room, trying not to think about what it would be like to have this every night.

  When the food was ready, she called everyone in. Like last night, it was such a freaking beautiful domestic scene, Grant in his high chair and Sophia in her booster seat, and Flynn and Lila giving them appropriately-sized portions, a plastic fork for Sophia and baby-sized amounts straight on the tray for Grant.

  They sat down, and Flynn took a deep breath and said, “I’m glad you’re meeting with Elizabeth.”

  Lila let out her breath. “Good. Thank you.”

  “I want to be sure it’s all—” His eyes flicked to Sophia, concentrating on spearing a bit of chicken with her
fork. “Secure,” he settled on. “Can I call the guys, make sure that there are plenty of people there, just in case?”

  Lila nodded, relaxing even more. “Yes,” she said. “Yes. Thank you.”

  “Okay,” he said. “Good. And—the kids—”

  “Will you stay with them?” she asked quickly. “I just think—if Victor knew that I—what if—”

  She didn’t want to say it with them sitting right there. What if he tries to kidnap them while I’m at a meeting? Who can I leave them with who will keep them safe?

  For her, right now, there was only one real answer.

  Flynn looked at the kids, and then looked at her. His face was pained. “What if I brought them into town?” he asked finally. “To Lachlan’s, or Malachi’s place. So they’ll be with me and safe, but we’ll be nearby.”

  He didn’t want to leave her to go alone, and he didn’t want to leave the kids with someone else. Lila’s heart clenched.

  She nodded. “That sounds—that sounds good,” she said. “Hey, Sophia, how about a sleepover with Aidan tonight?”

  Sophia looked up, her face dawning with joy. “Really?” she asked.

  “Really and truly,” Lila said. Sophia hadn’t quite reached the age of sleepovers with friends before they moved to Oak Ridge, and they didn’t have family with kids who were close enough to stay overnight. Sophia had talked wistfully about sleepovers before, but she’d never had one.

  “Sleepover,” she said now, in tones of awe. “A sleepover!”

  Well, it was good that someone was excited about tonight.

  ***

  Flynn called the sheriff and his brother and confirmed that the diner would be well-populated with Oak Ridge dragons during the meeting. Then they got dinner finished and cleaned up, the kids bundled into pajamas, and a couple of bags packed, in record time. Without thinking, Lila held up her hand for a high-five when they were ready with ten minutes to spare.

  Flynn slapped her palm without hesitation, and Lila felt that same clench to her heart. The one that said, This, I want this, I want nothing else but this.