Zane laughed and slapped Danny on the back. “Looks like you could use a dip in the cold creek to settle things down.”
“Fine, teach me how to swim,” Danny relented.
“Strip down, and we’ll get started,” Cam added.
“Why do I even bother putting clothes on around here?” Danny asked. “One of you is always trying to get me to take them off.”
“You’re getting pretty used to being naked,” Cam observed.
“I’ve never really been that modest,” Danny explained as he stripped out of his clothes. “At least, this will give me something to do while Quinn cools down.”
“What exactly did you do to my cousin?” Zane asked with a wicked grin.
“Dumbass probably told Quinn he wanted to go with us,” Cam said with a snort.
Danny looked down at his toes.
Zane looked at him like he was an idiot. “How’d that work out for you?”
“About as well as you’d guess,” Danny said with a sigh.
“Lucky for you, Quinn doesn’t usually hold a grudge,” Zane said.
“You can trust Zane’s experience,” Cam added. “He’s pretty good at pissing Quinn off.”
“That, I don’t doubt for a second,” Danny said with a laugh. “Now, teach me how to swim.”
Chapter Forty
After an hour in the creek, they’d given up on swimming. It seemed Danny wasn’t meant to swim, or maybe Cam and Zane weren’t very good teachers. Either way, they’d opted to lounge around and do nothing instead.
It was strange how used to the shifters Danny had become. When he’d decided to lie down on a bed of leaves to think after his failed attempts to swim, he’d thought nothing of it when Cam and Zane had joined him. Zane’s head was resting on Danny’s stomach as he hugged Danny’s thigh. Cam was doing more to keep his distance, but he still had one hand on Danny’s arm. The only reason Danny had put his shorts on was that the water had been really cold. Maybe it was his years around a wood nymph that made him so comfortable with touch. It could also be that he was experiencing the same need for touch lately.
“Do you think it’s the shifter blood?” he asked.
Zane looked up sleepily. “Making you let us touch your sexy body?” He stroked Danny’s thigh and made a purring noise.
Danny chuckled. “You really are a pain in the ass.”
“Yeah, but you just can’t beat it out of him,” Cam said. “Believe me. I’ve tried many times.”
“You love me this way,” Zane said with a pout.
“True,” Danny agreed, because he really had grown fonder of Zane since meeting him. “I’ve been wondering if your blood is what’s making me find comfort in cuddling with you jack asses.”
“You’ve always liked having me touch you,” Zane said, rubbing lazy circles on Danny’s belly.
Danny started to argue but caught himself. “You’re right,” he said. “I guess I never really thought about it before, but when I’m stressed, I do like being touched.”
“You should have been born a shifter,” Cam said.
“Bet you’d be fun to hunt with,” Zane added.
“Let’s do it!” Danny said, sliding out from under Zane to stand.
“Hunt?” Cam asked.
“Yeah,” Danny said. “Simon goes with Layla, so why can’t I go with you?”
Cam stood and shrugged. “No reason I can think of. You’re fast enough to keep up with us, if we slow it down a little.”
Danny just shook his head. Cam knew he was fast enough to keep up with them, but the shifter would never admit it. “I could use a good run right about now.”
“Sounds like fun,” Zane said, still lounging on the ground. “But something tells me you aren’t going running.”
“He’s right. It’s gonna be pretty hard to run with two broken legs,” Layla practically snarled.
Danny wasn’t surprise to find her standing behind him. He’d heard her and Simon coming. Turning to face Layla, Danny flashed his best carefree grin. “Hey, Pixie!”
Layla groaned. “Don’t call me that or I really will break your legs.”
Simon wrapped his arms around Layla from behind. “Calm down, Layla.” He was staring at Danny. He’d clearly noticed the change. Had Layla not been so distracted with her threats to cause him bodily injury, she would have noticed his fangs when he’d smiled.
“I don’t want to calm down,” Layla snapped but didn’t pull away from Simon. “This asshole has had plenty of time to come back to us. Instead, he’s chosen to stay here. I’m his best friend, yet he stays here with them.” Layla gestured to Cam and Zane.
“It’s not that simple,” Danny said. He caught sight of Quinn standing about twenty feet away, looking at him like she wasn’t sure if she should approach or not. The expression on her face held a strange mix of emotions, and he was pretty sure one of those was jealousy.
“I should go,” Quinn said with a forced smile before quickly taking off.
“She is pissed at you, vampire,” Zane said from the ground.
Layla finally looked at him and scented the air. Her face drained of all color. “What did they do to you?” she asked quietly.
While Danny knew he owed Layla an explanation, Quinn was his priority. “I’ll be back,” Danny said and ran past an astonished Layla.
“Quinn!” Danny shouted. Thankfully, she stopped. He stood about five feet from her because he wasn’t entirely sure how she’d react to him coming after her. Quinn hadn’t exactly been happy when she’d left him that morning, and she didn’t seem thrilled with him now. At least, that was his guess as to why her back was still turned to him. “Please don’t run from me.”
She hesitated for a moment, and he thought she was going to turn toward him. Instead, she started walking again without responding to his plea. Her leisurely pace pissed him off. The logical part of his brain said she was keeping her pace slow to avoid triggering his instinct to chase her. Still, she could just turn around and talk to him. Danny inhaled deeply and felt the ache in his fangs shoot all the way to his cock. If a leisurely pace was meant to prevent him from reacting this way, it was failing miserably. Then again, this was pretty much how he always reacted to Quinn’s presence.
“Stop following me, Danny,” she all but growled at him.
“The only way that’ll happen is if you stop running from me,” he challenged.
That had the desired reaction. Quinn turned with a haughty flip of her head. “Running? From you? I hardly think I need to run from you.”
Danny chuckled, more from pure joy than amusement. This woman challenged him at every turn, and he fucking loved it. “Are you trying to flirt with me, beautiful?” he asked.
Quinn looked like she was ready to smack the hell out him, which was exactly what he was hoping she’d do because he knew damn well where any fight between them would lead.
“Danny,” Layla said, reminding him of his audience. “You should probably back down,” she said in a soothing voice.
Danny snorted. “Not gonna happen. Quinn doesn’t really want me to back down anyway. She likes it when I chase her.”
“Arrogant prick,” Quinn muttered under her breath.
“You know he’s right, little kit,” Cam said.
“Yeah, you gotta smell their arousal,” Zane chimed in eagerly.
Danny glared at Zane over his shoulder. As much as he liked the shifter, he still had moments where he wanted to beat the hell out of him. The only thing holding him back was the knowledge that Zane would love the opportunity to fight him, and it would give Quinn a chance to run again.
“As annoying as that observation is, he’s right,” Danny said. “You don’t need to worry so much, Layla.”
“Wait!” Quinn said, suddenly completely focused on Layla. “You’re Layla? The half-shifter?”
Simon moved up beside Layla to put a protective arm around her. Clearly, he was concerned that Quinn was going to look down on Layla because of her human half.
/>
“Calm down, Si,” Danny said. “Quinn’s been dying to meet Layla.”
“My father was human,” Quinn explained and then frowned. “Actually, I guess that’s not true. I’ve just been saying it for a long time. Anyway, my father wasn’t a shifter, and you’re the only other half-shifter I’ve ever met.”
Layla glared at Cam and Zane. That was kind of her thing. “I thought you said your father didn’t put up with half-breeds,” she said accusingly.
Cam shrugged. “Normally, he doesn’t. Quinn’s an exception because her mother was his sister, so he felt obligated to take care of Quinn after her mother was killed.”
“Lucky me,” Quinn muttered.
Zane laughed. “It’s not that bad around here.”
“Maybe for you,” Danny snapped. “I get that you and your brothers aren’t assholes to Quinn, but most of the other shifters are.”
“It’ll improve after she has her first change,” Cam said.
“If I have my first change,” Quinn argued. “Everyone told me there was no chance of me changing. Until I heard about Layla, I figured I was going to be sent away after my twenty-seventh birthday.”
“What the hell?” Layla asked angrily. “Who would do something like that?”
“My father would never have let that happen,” Cam insisted.
“Yeah,” Zane agreed. “After having only sons, I think our father really likes having a female around.”
Danny’s brow furrowed. “You told me you have a sister. You said she’d love me if I was a shifter.”
“I was referring to Quinn. I think of Quinn as a sister since my father raised her,” Zane explained and then grinned. “Guess she likes you even if you’re a vampire.”
Layla cringed, and Danny knew this was bothering her. They’d been friends for most of their lives, and she clearly wanted to offer him comfort, but she wasn’t sure what to do.
“So, that’s why you wanted to meet me,” Layla said, trying to focus on Quinn rather than Danny being a vampire. “You wanted to see if it was possible for you to build a life here after you turn twenty-seven?”
Quinn nodded. “I even went to your settlement to meet you. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find you, and then I got distracted by Danny.”
“How exactly did Danny distract you?” Simon asked with a smirk.
Danny glared at Simon.
“Leave him alone,” Layla told Simon. “Danny’s not the type to jump into bed with a random woman. Danny’s a good guy, even if I do want to smack him for worrying me.”
Quinn bristled, and Danny kind of liked how pissed she looked. It certainly worked to his benefit that she was jealous of his relationship with Layla. Naturally, he recognized how juvenile that made him, but he didn’t care. No one had ever accused him of being the most mature person in the group.
“Stop looking so smug,” Quinn said with a shake of her head, and he was glad she was starting to look slightly less annoyed.
Danny grinned at her. “Can’t help it. I like seeing my mate look possessive.”
“Mate?” Layla nearly screeched. “You haven’t even been gone two weeks. How can you have a mate?”
“I have not agreed to be your mate,” Quinn said, ignoring Layla’s question.
“Liar,” Zane accused.
“You stay out of this,” Quinn ordered, which she had to know would only encourage Zane to behave badly.
“I’m just trying to help,” Zane insisted.
“Layla can’t be the only half-shifter to change at twenty-seven,” Simon said, and Danny gave him a grateful smile for moving away from the mate subject. In hindsight, it had been a bad idea to bring that up.
“As far as we knew, half-shifters couldn’t change,” Cam explained. “That’s been pretty stressful for Quinn as she gets closer to twenty-seven.”
“Layla’s right. It’s pretty fucked up that you would send someone away because of that,” Simon muttered.
“I agree,” Cam said. “In fact, I’m pretty sure my father even agrees it’s wrong, but we have a lot of shifters living here who can be very cruel. When this rule was made, there was a human community that took in the half-shifters. This was back in Canada. The half-shifters were welcomed there, and it was safer for them to live among humans anyway.”
“Probably also easier for our father that way,” Zane added dryly.
Cam just shrugged. “Anyway, learning you could shift was a huge surprise.”
“You didn’t seem surprised that I’d changed,” Layla challenged him.
Zane shrugged. “We could tell you were in heat,” he explained. “That only happens to shifters who change. Besides, you didn’t tell us you weren’t a full shifter the first time we met, so we just assumed you were. Once we learned you were half human, we told Quinn. Now, we’re all waiting to see if she changes when she turns twenty-seven in the next couple of years.”
“What the hell is going on here?”
Danny saw Max stomping toward them, looking ready to tear someone’s head off. Then again, Max tended to look that way when he was in a good mood.
“You brought another dirty bloodsucker into my territory?” he roared.
“Hey!” Danny said, pretending to be offended, even though his lips were twitching. Despite Max’s words, Danny knew Max liked him.
“And a female I don’t know?” Max asked, ignoring Danny’s indignation. “How is it that there is a female lynx in this area who is not under my protection?”
Simon took a menacing step forward. “Layla is mine.”
Danny figured Simon must have lost his mind to say something that stupid. It was probably the right move when dealing with Max, but Layla was not the type to put up with that kind of macho posturing.
“He didn’t ask,” Layla snapped.
Max laughed. “I like her! She’s got attitude.” Then he turned to Simon. “As for you, I should probably just kill you so she can find an appropriate mate.”
Simon opened his mouth, but Layla turned toward him with a warning glare. “If you tell him I’m yours one more time, I will hurt you.”
At least, Simon had the good sense to look sheepish.
“Listen to your female,” Max advised Simon. “You don’t want to start a fight in my territory.”
“Enough!” Quinn practically shouted. “I seriously cannot take any more of this.”
“Calm down,” Max said in a placating tone.
“I will not calm down,” Quinn said, and Danny could see she was about to lose it. He’d hoped she was over being mad at him, but it appeared she wasn’t.
While Danny knew he should be trying to find a way to soothe Quinn, he was getting really turned on by the whole thing. Feisty women had always been his thing, and becoming a vampire apparently amped up his desire for women with attitude by about a hundred times.
“Don’t even think about it,” Quinn ground out slowly, which is when Danny realized he’d been advancing on her. She was right; this was not the time for sex, but that realization did nothing to convince his body to settle down.
“Give the woman some space, Danny,” Layla warned.
“Or what?” he asked with the same teasing camaraderie they’d shared as children.
“Or I’ll toss your ass in the creek,” Layla warned.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Cam said.
“Yeah, he almost drowned when we tossed him in there earlier,” Zane added.
“You tried to drown my mate?” Quinn asked angrily, spinning to face her cousins.
Danny might have taken that moment to point out that she’d called him her mate only minutes after saying she hadn’t agreed to be his mate, but things were getting kind of weird. A gentle breeze rustled the leaves in the trees before it grew in strength. The wind seemed to move forward until it danced at Quinn’s feet, swirling around her.
Max was the only one who didn’t seem completely shocked by what was happening. No, that wasn’t exactly true—Quinn seemed almost dazed, and Danny wasn’t su
re she realized what was happening.
“Quinn!” Max said with an authority that caught everyone’s attention.
She looked at him and blinked twice before the wind settled down. “What happened?” she asked in a shaky voice, and Danny gathered her against his side.
“Many mage can control the elements,” Max explained. “It would appear you are coming into some of your abilities from your father’s side.”
Danny could see both Layla and Simon wanted to ask more, but they wisely held their tongues.
“We’ll talk at my home. The last thing I need is an audience for this conversation,” Max said and stalked off without waiting for anyone to agree.
Chapter Forty-One
Danny bit back his grin while they all obediently trailed along behind Max. Some leaders just inspired others to follow them, and Max was one of those leaders. Before meeting him, Danny would have guessed it was fear that kept the other lynx shifters in line. Now, he realized it was more than that.
“I thought shifters usually walked around naked,” Simon remarked.
“Me too,” Danny said. “We never asked, so I guess they decided to let us make our own assumptions.”
“We don’t feel embarrassed when we’re naked,” Cam admitted. “It was kind of fun making some of you uncomfortable. We hid our clothes close by and approached you guys naked a few times.”
“Childish games,” Max grumbled from the front before turning to give Simon an apologetic look. “My sons don’t always act their ages. That’s especially true of these two,” he said, glaring at Cam and Zane.
Zane just grinned like he couldn't care less what Max thought. Danny suspected Cam didn’t care much what his father thought about his maturity either.
Once inside Max’s home, they had the illusion of privacy. If Danny had to guess, every shifter around was standing close enough to hear their conversation. “Any reason we’re having this talk in here?” he asked.
“Privacy,” Max grumbled.
“Everyone can hear us,” Danny reminded him.
Max just glared at him, so Danny figured he wasn’t going to get an explanation, but Max surprised him. “Everyone knows to move far from my home if I take anyone in here for a meeting.”
Shattered Restraint Page 19