by Tl Reeve
A bit of Caden relaxed as he sat there. “Thanks.” He didn’t know what else to say. “I have one more thing I need to talk to you about. I planned on doing it yesterday, but everything went sideways.”
Kalkin returned to his chair. “Shoot.”
“I gave Rapier the plans for Dani’s Place.”
“Did you?” Kalkin cocked a brow. “I didn’t hear about a brawl in the sheriff’s department.”
“Don’t be an asshole,” Caden chided. “I need to buy the parcel of land behind the orphanage. Rapier said he would extend the house or build a secondary house out there for the psychic kids.”
“This going to be a surprise?”
“Rapier said they could have it finished around the same time as the orphanage. Maybe a couple of weeks difference, but it’ll get done.” He shrugged. “I thought I would tell her about it after I finally mated her properly.”
Kalkin nodded. “I’ll get the realty agent on it. Speaking of which, we need to have the trailer park torn down.”
He’d already thought about the same. “Yeah, the city should be the one to do it. We have a couple of families there. I don’t know why or how, but they are. If we go in there and just bull doze the place, we could hurt someone.” Plus, he wanted a look around. If there were any clues about Emmitt and his disappearance, Caden had a gut feeling the truth lay within the wasteland of trailers.
“There is a meeting Monday night. I believe we should both be there to explain to the council why it would be advantageous to them to get rid of the eyesore.”
The sooner the better.
* * * *
The sound of a car door slamming had Danielle looking up from the stove top, where she was currently scrubbing the hell out of a non-existent spot. The second Caden left with Kal, Dani found herself in a pensive mood. Thankfully, both boys seemed oblivious to her cleaning binge, and more interested in hanging out on the floor, playing.
The first floor of the house sparkled. A hint of lemon filled the room every time a slight breeze flowed through the open windows.
Danielle had been determined to not think about Caden and ‘the kiss’ they shared. She’d only end up berating herself for being stupid and weak, allowing him to take such liberties with everything he had done, or rather hadn’t done, over the past year. Keeley was going to rip her a new asshole. She could already hear her younger sister telling her how freaking stupid she was. Like honestly, did her sister think she needed input from the peanut gallery.
She threw the sponge in the sink before removing her rubber gloves. A quick glance at the clock on the microwave showed she only had forty-five minutes before Jace would be showing up to babysit the boys. After last night, she had to check on Crow, make sure all of the healing she’d helped stimulate held and continued through the night, allowing the boy a bit of comfort he deserved.
Nevertheless, Jace was early. It didn’t surprise her. He often stopped by to check in on her or to play with the boys. The second time Jace had done it, she’d been at Keeley’s house. Jace seemingly picked up where he left off with Aiden and Nicolas. Keeley, had none of it. She lifted Jace from the ground and threw him into a chair. The look on his face had been priceless. Surprise mixed with fear.
“What the fuck, Jace. You can play with your nephews and your niece, but you can’t care for your son?” Keeley mentally smacked him upside the head. “You have a son who needs you, jackass!” Her sister rarely cursed in front of any of the children, but when she did, everyone stood back.
Keeley stretched her hand out, waiting for the baseball bat she kept in the umbrella tin to float over to her, like some mythical god, or goddess in this case. She raised the bat as though she meant to hit Jace with it, when Kalkin pushed into the house.
“Stop it, Keeley!”
Her sister frowned. “He deserves it!”
“I don’t disagree, but you’re going to push him away, not get him to do your bidding.” Kalkin took the Louisville Slugger out of her hands. “Apologize, my mate.”
A small smile tugged at Danielle’s lips remembering the way her sister muttered her apology to her mated brother. For a few weeks, Jace stayed away. Danielle didn’t blame him. She also couldn’t blame her sister. When life settled, she was going to have another conversation with Keeley about Jace’s situation. It couldn’t continue as it was. It wasn’t healthy for either Jace or his son. Together she and Keeley could figure it out.
The knock on the screen door pulled her from her musings. Jace didn’t knock. Not ever. “Let me guess, you smell Caden, don’t you?” Danielle laughed to herself as she crossed to the door. She stopped short when she saw the large shifter standing outside her house.
Shit.
“Hey, Rapier.” Dani waved him in, after opening the door. She swallowed hard, unsure what she should say to the big lion. For the first time, she felt awkward around him.
“Cookie,” he replied. “Got a second?”
“For you? Always,” she said, rubbing her hands down her cotton-covered thighs. “Can I get you something cold to drink?”
“Nah, I’m good.” He strolled over to where Nic and Aiden played.
Danielle couldn’t help but smile when Nic squealed in delight when Rapier tickled his belly and said hello to Aiden. “He’s shifted recently.”
“How—”
Rapier returned to her side, his nostrils flared as he surveyed the room. “I can smell the wildness on him, the scent of his wolf mixed with his human scent.”
Danielle nodded. Caden hadn’t mentioned his scent changing. Maybe it wasn’t a big deal. “This morning.” She wasn’t sure how to tell Rapier about Caden spending the night at the house. It had been platonic, of course, but Rapier wouldn’t know.
She gave a silent snort.
Except for them kissing.
“We should talk,” he stated, standing to face her.
“Uh, sure.”
Rapier walked over to the kitchen island where two chairs were tucked under the countertop. He pulled one out and sat, leaning his forearms on the counter.
Danielle followed once she made sure both boys were content. Nicolas rubbed his eyes with his chubby fist, fighting his nap. “Give me a second.” She picked him up off the play mat and carried him upstairs. She rubbed her cheek against his, willing him to sleep before laying him in his crib. His eyes drifted closed and a soft sigh passed his lips. She brushed a kiss across his forehead then made her way downstairs. Aiden, while she put Nicolas down for his nap, went to play in his toy room. She smiled. Aiden only spent time in the room when his baby brother wasn’t around.
“What did you want to talk about?” Her hand trembled as she took a seat beside Rapier. Waves of sadness rolled off of him as he sat there. Guilt ate at her. She folded her hands in front of her, hating the fact she caused him any distress.
“Caden’s been here,” he said.
“Yes.” Danielle understood full well what she’d been doing with Rapier. It wasn’t right of her, nor was it fair to him. At all. She liked Rapier. He had been nothing but kind to her when she was at her lowest. Giving her attention, making a big deal out of seeing her and the boys. “He stayed over last night, to help me with the boys.”
Rapier chuckled. “The little asshole’s scent marked you again. This time it’s stronger.”
“No, he didn’t.”
“Yeah, Cookie, he did. Actually, the bastard must’ve been up half the night marking the perimeter of the house.” Rapier leaned back on his stool, smiling like a loon.
Marking? Wait, did he mean what she thought he meant?
“It reeks. Can’t say I blame him though.” Rapier rubbed at the back of his neck. “If it was me, I wouldn’t have wasted my energies pissing around the house. I’d have finished the mating.”
“We’re not mates,” she lied, fighting to keep any expression off her face.
Rapier gave her a cocky smirk and didn’t say another word. He stared at her, almost willing to deny what both of the
m knew, but she refused to acknowledge. Damn it, she hated the fact shifters could smell the slightest mistruth. It was nerve-racking.
“Not fully, no, you’re not. He hasn’t marked you, yet. I suspect it’ll be sooner, rather than later.”
“Rapier—”
“Had a conversation with Kalkin the other day. He brought it to my attention you might be lacking in understanding how shifter mating works.”
“I figured out they mated for life, like their counterparts. I’m not clueless about the mating habits of wolves,” she assured him.
Being a vet had some benefits. Keeley and she often spoke about the wonder of wild animal mating habits. It would only make sense wolf shifters would experience the same phenomena. She couldn’t speak for the other types of shifters, and she never bothered to ask.
He smiled. “You are, Cookie, otherwise you’d know we couldn’t take our relationship further than friendship. Once you’re mated, even partially, there is only one person in the world for you. For you it’s Caden…” Sadness and soul-wrenching pain rolled off of Rapier.
“I’m sorry. I led you on,” she confessed, unsure on how to proceed with him.
He snorted. “Nah, you didn’t, Cookie. I knew going in, we’d only be friends. I flirted with you to fuck with Caden. Hopin’ he’d eventually pull his head out of his ass and see what he had. I’m happy for you.”
“I feel your pain,” she admitted.
“Not at you. Not at not having a relationship with you.”
It hit her then and she felt like a tool, never seeing the lengths he went to in hiding his own grief. She’d blamed it on being so up in her own misery the last year, she never saw his. “You already have a mate.”
He nodded.
“I’m a horrible…friend,” she said. “I never suspected.”
The corner of his lips tipped up. “It’s a secret I’ve been good at hiding. Just told Kal the other day. I would have told you, eventually, when things were settled between you and Caden.”
“How long?” Her curiosity got the best of her.
“Ten years,” he said, his voice filled with dejection and heartbreak.
“How’d she die?” Danielle hated the issue of pressing a very painful situation.
Rapier gave a disheartened laugh. “She’s not dead, Cookie.”
“Oh…I’d assumed…” She didn’t know what to say to him anymore. Other than, “I’m so sorry, Rapier.” Without any hesitation, or thought, she simply wrapped her arms around him, giving him a warm, healing hug.
“Stop it,” he fussed. “You’re going to weaken yourself.”
“Do you want to talk about her?”
“Not particularly,” Rapier groused. “I came here to talk about you. Not my fucked-up love life.”
It hurt him too much to speak about her. Discomfort rolled off him in waves, stronger than when she first opened to him. Dani did what she did best, helping to ease it away. “Fair enough.” She sent one last pulse of healing energy to him. “By the way, I know my limits and can always help a friend. Particularly one in any pain.”
“Jesus,” he grumbled.
“Shhh,” she said.
Rapier growled. “If I wasn’t in love with my mate, Cookie, swear to fuck, I could’ve loved you.”
“The feeling is mutual,” she divulged.
“So, you’re saying you love the mutt?” Rapier winked at her.
Danielle huffed. Things with Caden were far from resolved. It’d take time and a helluva lot of effort on both their parts to get where they were before Simon spewed his hate-filled lies. Caden had made the first step, Danielle needed to make the next one. Her biggest concern was figuring out how to forgive Caden. She prayed time did, in fact, heal all wounds.
“Ah…Fuck. Sorry,” a familiar voice said from the back door. It was followed by the screen door slamming against the frame, interrupted their hug fest.
Danielle removed her arms around Rapier, stepping back while wearily watching Jace, who was glaring at a grinning Rapier.
“Nothing to be sorry about. Cookie was just giving me a hug,” Rapier bragged, giving no shits at the look of disgust on Jace’s face. “You might want to give it a try. Makes you feel like a brand-new shifter.”
“I came by early, thinking you might need time to get ready before leaving,” Jace said, ignoring Rapier.
No big surprise there. Jace had been slow to warm up to the Dryer Pride leader. She suspected, although never confirmed, it might have something to do with her friendship with the lion Alpha. Rafertys were nothing if not loyal.
Caden might have had his head up his ass for the last year with regards to her, but he was Nicolas and Aiden’s father, her mate and Jace’s older brother. It meant Jace would protect her against everyone, even his brother if need be.
The boys didn’t need any more stress in their lives. For their sakes, she hoped the two shifters refrained from a pissing match in her kitchen. She’d call Kalkin in a heartbeat, letting the Sheriff/Alpha deal with them. “Nic is sleeping. Aiden is in the playroom.”
Would Jace tell Caden what he saw when he stepped into her house? Should she even care? A part of her did. Hopefully, Jace would be discreet and keep what he saw between them. Danielle wouldn’t survive another verbal lashing from Caden. The last couple had been vicious, and his hateful words had torn strips from her. Leaving her in an emotional wasteland devoid of feelings, except when it came to her boys.
Rapier eyed her intently. “We good here, Cookie?”
Jace’s face twisted again.
“Yeah, we are,” she said, realizing a weight she hadn’t known she carried lifted from her shoulders.
“Good.” Rapier gave her a kiss on her forehead then left without saying bye to Jace.
“What time are you leaving?” Jace turned to her the second the door slammed shut.
“When Keeley decides to get her ass over here,” Dani said, leaning back against the countertop, crossing her arms. “What’s your problem with Rapier?”
Jace snorted. “Other than the fact he continues to sniff around your skirts, knowing who and what Caden is to you...Absolutely nothing.”
“He has a mate,” Danielle blurted. If Kalkin knew, at some point he’d trickle the information down to his siblings.
“Bullshit. No man with a mate would show that much interest in you, Dani,” Jace countered.
A day or two ago his words might have hurt her feelings. No longer. Dani smiled. “He did it to piss your stupid ass brother off. It seemed to work. Maybe…just maybe I should pass his technique on to Loraine. Or, perhaps Blake. I should introduce them. Oh, it’ll be so much fun.”
Jace went pale.
“Yoo-hoo! I’m here.” Keeley arrived only moments after Rapier left. “I’m a little early.” Her younger’s sister gaze darted between her and Jace. “Everything okay? Did I miss something?”
Jace cleared his throat. “You missed a lot. Seems Caden spent the night, marked both the house and your sister as his. Rapier just left, after I stepped in on your sister hugging him, and him giving her a good-bye kiss.”
Keeley’s eyes widen, giving her an accusing look. “Caden spent the night?”
“How the hell do you focus on Caden spending the night and not Rapier hugging or kissing her?” Jace barked.
“Rapier didn’t play hide the pickle with my sister or turn his back on her when she needed him the most. Leaving her to recover from serious wounds, with a pup in the NICU and a toddler,” Keeley sneered.
Dani held up her hands in an attempt to stop the tirade she knew her sister would spew. Keeley meant well, but Dani was a big girl and could handle herself. “Nothing happened with Caden. He simply watched the boys, so I could sleep. Alone.”
Jace snorted. “You reek of him.”
“Which one? Rapier?” Keeley’s hazel-eyes sparkled with mischief.
“Caden,” Jace said.
“Damn,” Keeley said, her voice heavy with disappointment.
“Rapier has a mate,” Danielle stated.
“Wait. What!” Keeley crossed her arms in a pose Danielle recognized immediately. She chuckled. Her baby sister was starting to emulate her mate more and more with each day. She supposed it came with being the Alpha female. “Why the fuck was he always teasing and flirting with you?”
“He did it to screw with Caden’s head,” Jace interjected.
Keeley dropped her stance, a smile turning the corner of her lips up. “Well alright. He’s forgiven for leading you on then.”
Figures her sister would absolve Rapier once she found out he was doing it to mess with Caden. They had a common perceived enemy. Caden Raferty.
“I told Jace it was a brilliant idea. One I might advise Loraine or even Blake to use on a certain Raferty we all know.” Danielle pointed to Jace.
Keeley rubbed her hands together. “I think Saber would be a perfect choice. He’s a mighty fine specimen.”
Jace growled at Keeley.
Her sister winked at him.
“Keep it up, and I’ll inform Kalkin how you feel about that Dryer coyote,” Jace warned.
“Pfft.” Keeley cocked her hip in defiance. “Go ahead. I’m not worried about it.”
“Till he spanks your ass,” Jace lobbed back.
Danielle took it as her cue to go say goodbye to her boys before heading out with her sister. She smiled, hearing the two of them bickering back and forth. Crisis averted. For the time being at least.
With Keeley focused on Jace and his issues with Loraine, Danielle understood the second they were in the car, Keeley would read her the riot act. Call her a fool and demand answers on why she had allowed Caden to stay the night.
Danielle didn’t have all the right answers for the moment, but what she did have was her own intuition. Even if Jace ran off and told Caden, she’d grown stronger in her convictions. She’d never allow him to berate her ever again.
Chapter Nine
“You have to tell me everything now,” Keeley said, as they took a seat on the patio outside the diner. “What happened between you and Rapier?”
Nothing. Well, something. Danielle thought so, anyway. However, it’d all been a ruse. On her part mostly, but Rapier’s too. He did it to goad Caden, and she’d done it to prove to everyone she’d moved on. She’d also used him as her crutch, so she didn’t have to face the truth or even crawl out of the hole she’d made for herself.