by V. A. Dold
“Take all the time you need. And remember, I’m here, too, if you need me to rescue you.”
Anna squared her shoulders. “Okay, let’s get this over with,” she said with a determined glint in her eye.
“They’re here!” Isaac cheered as they came through the door.
Cade gave his father a glower that would wilt a lesser man.
Isaac leaned in close. “Relax, this is going to be fun.”
Emma hustled from the dining room to greet them and pin goofy baby bootie name tags on their chests.
Cade growled as he pulled his off. “Hell, no, Mom. Every person here knows who I am. I don’t need a stupid name tag.”
“Fine, be a party pooper,” she pouted.
Anna graciously left hers where Emma had pinned it.
“The men are in the game room,” Isaac informed him as he led the way from the busy living room.
Emma played the perfect hostess and an hour later it was time to open gifts.
As Anna sat in a chair that suspiciously resembled a throne, Simon peeked into the room. “Mind if I crash for a minute?”
“Not at all,” Anna said grinning at her best friend’s mate and one of her favorite people.
“I know I was supposed to buy Cade a gift, and I did. But I also wanted to get something for you. This will make my niece more comfortable and give her momma a little peace and quiet.”
He disappeared for a second before he backed into the room carrying a large gift that was oddly shaped and creatively wrapped.
“Maybe you should open Simon’s first so he can go back to the men,” Rose suggested.
Anna scooted forward in her chair so she could reach it better to unwrap it. “Oh, Simon. Thank you! You’re an amazingly astute man. I’m going to use this a lot.”
It was the top of the line, My Little Lamb Platinum Edition Cradle 'n Swing. “Holy cow! They sure have improved these since Thomas and John were babies. No way! It plugs in? I used to have to crank the old one.”
“Only the best for my favorite niece.” Simon grinned.
Anna struggled to stand and hug Simon. “Thank you, so much.”
“You’re welcome. I guess I better go and give Cade his gift now.” He winked and left the room.
The rest of the gifts were the expected pretty dresses and frilly underpants.
In the game room, the men topped off their drinks and gathered around Cade to watch him open gifts.
He, too, was seated in a throne-like chair with a pile of gifts at his feet.
“Let’s see. This is from Stefan. Goddess help me.” The box contained a pink Hello Kitty tackle box and a tiny rod and reel. “Wow, that’s really cool. Thanks.”
“You don’t have to sound so surprised,” Stefan groused.
Several of the men had gone in together on a wooden playground set and the tools to build it. The first thing Simon did was read the directions to make sure it wasn’t going to be another nightmare. He leaned toward Cade and whispered, “We’re all good.”
The funniest gift was from his Uncle Charles, who gave him a twelve-gauge Remington shotgun and a box of shells to chase away his daughter’s future boyfriends.
Simon gave him the most adorable pink life jacket for the boat and pink camouflage for hunting.
When the last gift was opened, Isaac stood. “Cade, if you would follow me, your mother is meeting us with Anna in one of the guest rooms for our gift to you both.”
“All right.”
Cade followed his father with some of the curious men tagging along behind. Anna and his mother were already waiting outside the room. He went straight to his mate and wrapped an arm around her to whisper in her ear. “How are you doing? Are you getting tired?”
“No, I’m okay.”
“Close your eyes, and we will lead you in,” Emma instructed excitedly.
They walked a few feet into the room before Isaac and Emma stopped them.
“Okay, you can look now!”
Anna pulled her hands from her eyes and gasped. The most beautiful, intricately carved crib stood before her.
Cade grabbed her hand as his eyes bounced from the crib to the matching dresser.
“These are so beautiful,” Anna breathed.
“This is the set we all used as babies, isn’t it?” Cade reverently brushed a hand across the dresser.
Isaac clapped his son on the shoulder. “Yes, it is. Sadly, we didn’t have changing tables some two hundred years ago, so I have been making one. It should be done in about a week.”
Anna stared in awe. “You made these?”
“Yes, I carved them too. Two hundred years ago there wasn’t a lot to do in the evening but make furniture and babies,” Isaac chuckled.
Anna glanced at Emma. “These were the heirlooms you told me about, aren’t they?”
“Yes. There are a few other things, but those won’t be of use until she is a little older.”
Cade looked from his father to his mother. “We can’t accept these as gifts, but we will gladly use them.”
“Why ever not?” Emma cried.
“Because each of my brothers and their mates should have the chance to use them, too.”
“Oh, okay,” Emma smiled with her hand over her heart. “I thought you were going to reject them completely.”
“Sharing makes sense,” Isaac agreed with a proud smile beaming on his face. “You always were the fair and thoughtful child in the bunch.”
“Hopefully, Simon or Stefan won’t be far behind you in the family department.” Emma hinted.
“You keep your fertility charms away from El,” Stefan warned his mother. “I haven’t even won her over yet.”
Emma raised her hands in defeat, “Fine. I’ll leave you be. For now.” Then she eyed Simon and Rose, intent shining in her eyes.
Chapter Six
Cade considered the pile of gifts he and Anna had received.
That’s a lot of stuff.
“Who would like to help haul these to my house?” Cade asked the men who were uncomfortably hanging on the fringes of the party.
“I will” and “I’d love to” rang out multiple times as the men scrambled to get out of the house.
Emma chuckled as the men left for Cade and Anna’s. “Men are such chickens. Gather a few women in a room and they panic.”
The other women laughed with her.
Anna laughed and nodded. “I’ve noticed that strange phenomena many times over the years.”
“How are they ever going to handle the gathering next month?” Cade’s cousin, Krystal asked.
“That should be quite amusing,” El’s Grand’Mere Meme added as she entered from the dining room with a slice of cake on her plate.
Krystal moved closer to Anna so they could chat. With so many women in the house, the volume was a little too high for talking from across the room. “I wanted to let you know Julia planned to be here today, but she had a bartender call with an emergency.”
“I understand, things like that happen,” Anna smiled graciously at Cade’s beautiful cousin. “I hope she’ll be able to come to the gathering. I’d love to meet her.”
“I’m sure she’ll be there,” Krystal insisted, then she said more quietly, “My mother would have an attack if she didn’t show up to meet all the available males.”
“Your mother is interesting. That’s for sure.” Anna laughed trying to lighten Krystal’s unexpected turn in demeanor.
“Yeah, she is that,” Krystal mumbled.
A month later
Anna was rocking in the new rocking chair she and Cade purchased for the nursery. Rhythmically, she rubbed her ever-swelling belly as she softly sang a lullaby. She smiled and giggled quietly. She knew her daughter loved that particular song because she kicked up a storm every time she sang the chorus.
Cade grinned as he joined her. “What are you doing, cher?”
“Rocking our daughter. She seems
to enjoy the motion, and it lets me get off my feet for a few minutes. Not that I can see my feet.”
“Stop fussing about your baby belly,” he mock-growled as he rubbed her tummy and kissed her. “You’re gorgeous, and based on my books, that baby bump is just the right size.”
“You’re so good for my ego,” she whispered in between kisses.
“Are you ready to head over to the gathering? I noticed several people have already arrived.”
“Sure.”
Cade took her hand and helped her stand. He kissed her knuckles and tucked her hand into the crook of his arm. He was very proud of his mate and was looking forward to showing her off again. Some of the shifters coming today hadn’t seen them since their wedding, and they would want to congratulate them on the impending addition to the Royal family.
They had been greeting their guests for over an hour when Anna noticed her son Thomas staring at a beautiful blonde. “Babe, who is that woman?” She pointed toward Cade’s nasty aunt.
“The blonde with my aunt, Lucinda?”
“Yes, who is she?”
“That’s Julia, she is another one of my cousins and owns The Backwater Bar and Grill.”
“She sure is pretty. Thomas seems to think so, too.”
“Thomas? What do you mean?” Cade frowned and craned his neck to look for Thomas in the crowd. “I’m pretty sure they haven’t met yet.”
“Look.” She pointed at the raised deck Thomas was posted on above the gathering. “He hasn’t taken his eyes off her.”
“Huh, interesting.” Then he spotted his mother watching the exchange between Julia and Thomas. Her expression was one of complete satisfaction. Something was up.
Anna glanced toward Thomas every time there was a break in arrivals. Sometimes he was scanning the crowd and at other times he was focused on Julia. She had never seen him behave so strangely.
The party was in full swing when Stefan and his new mate, El, were married on the stage, and the pack celebrated with a traditional run in the forest. As she and Cade rejoined the dance floor, it was blatantly clear, that something was happening between Thomas and Julia. They swayed together in the shadows near the edge of the dance floor, oblivious to the rest of the guests.
“I’m pretty sure Julia is Thomas’s mate,” Cade whispered in her ear as he breathed her in and kissed her neck.
“Do you really think so? He has been acting very odd all night.”
“I’ll talk to Thomas at the meeting tomorrow morning. Maybe we’ll have a chat about mates.”
“You can try to get him to talk. He might not open up, though. He’s very reluctant to get involved with a woman.”
“That’s exactly why I need to explain to him that if he has the mating signs, it’s useless to fight it.”
“If they are mates, we need to be as supportive as possible. The situation with Stefan and El scared the heck out of me. I honestly thought he was going to hurt himself.”
Cade scowled for a moment. “We all did. Thankfully, they worked it out.”
She moaned as Cade laved her mating mark. “I thought you said no more sex since I hit the seven-month mark because it might hurt the baby?”
“For your information, I’m caressing my mate, not making love to her.”
Anna sang softly to herself as she folded baby clothes. It had been a month since the gathering and Anna couldn’t be happier. Thomas and Julia had returned from the French Quarter as mates, and her due date was only four weeks away. Not that her daughter was going to pay attention to what the doctor said. Plus, if history served as an example, she would be two weeks late.
She wasn’t going to let that dampen her mood. One of her sons was happily mated, and she had a daughter-in-law she adored. Life was good.
“Anna!” Cade yelled desperately through the house.
“Cade? What’s wrong?” she called from the laundry room.
“Oh, my Goddess. I was afraid something had happened to you.”
She frowned at his terrified expression. “Why would anything happen to me? You’re not making sense.”
“Someone vandalized Julia’s bar and destroyed her house. All I could think of was getting to you. Our enemy is striking at the family again, and it scares the hell out of me.”
“Oh, no! That’s terrible.”
“The men are helping with clearing out the wreckage today and there is going to be a swamper hunt tomorrow. It looks like they are the ones who attacked her place.”
“Are you sure it’s safe to chase them in their territory? I can’t have anything happening to you either.”
“There will be a lot of us, and Etienne is joining the hunt as well. We will be fine.”
Just then the phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Hello, cher. How are you feeling today?”
“I feel great, Emma. But Cade just told me about what happened at Julia’s.”
“Isaac told me as well. That’s why I’m calling. The ladies are planning to help Julia wash down the bar while the men go on their crazy hunt. Would you like to join us? I don’t expect you to scrub a floor, but I figured you would want to be there for moral support.”
“You’re right. I would. Let me talk to Cade about it. If he agrees, I’ll be there.”
“If I see you at the dock in the morning, I’ll know you’re joining us. But please, don’t feel pressured to come along if you aren’t up to it.”
“Thank you for inviting me. Give Isaac a kiss, and have a great night.”
“My pleasure, cher. Goodnight.”
“What did my mother want?” Cade asked suspiciously. From what he had heard, he was sure he wasn’t going to like it.
“The ladies are going to the bar tomorrow to help Julia clean, and she invited me to join them.”
Cade turned as white as a sheet. “Hell, no!”
Anna frowned, hands on her hips. “Why not?”
“I need you to be where I know you will be safe,” he argued.
“Okay, let’s think about that. If all the men are on this swamper hunt, where am I safer: at home unprotected, or with five badass shifter females at the bar?”
Cade ran his fingers through his hair, pacing like a caged animal. “I don’t like it.”
“What do you suggest?”
Cade’s wolf was clawing at him and had him growling. “I wish Jack and Michael could be out in daylight.”
“Yes, that would solve the problem if it were an option.”
“If I weren’t expected to join the swamper hunt tomorrow as the crowned prince, I would stay home with you. But, I can’t. Protocol dictates I protect my people.” He grumbled to himself and paced across the room again. “As much as I hate to admit it, you’re right. You will be safer with the women.”
She met him in the center of the room and gave him a kiss. “Thank you. Emma plans to have me sitting in a chair and only providing moral support. How much trouble can I get into?”
Cade didn’t answer. He just rolled his eyes and laughed.
“Hey,” she swatted his chest playfully, “Don’t laugh at me.”
“I can’t help it when you say such outlandish things,” he teased grinning as he caught her wrist and kissed her soundly.
“If you are done picking on me, we should practice the breathing I learned in class. Since you are my focal point, it’s hard to do it without you.”
Cade excitedly led her to the bed. “Good idea. I also read about some relaxation techniques I want to try on you.” “Relaxation techniques? Is that what you’re calling it now?”
“Get your mind out of the gutter, woman.” He laughed, but his eyes were glowing with heat. “I’m serious.”
“Why do I not believe you?” she asked as she followed him to the bed.
“Because you want my body,” he teased her playfully. “But truthfully, the books I’m reading are very helpful, and I want to try a couple of the suggestions.”
The next morning
Anna chatted with Julia on the dock. The men were getting their boats ready, and they would be leaving in a matter of minutes.
“How badly was the bar damaged, Julia?”
“Everything inside was destroyed except the actual bar and the stage,” Julia said as tears filled her eyes.
“I’m so sorry, hun.” Anna put an arm around Julia’s shoulders.
“Thank you,” she sniffled and stiffened her spine.
“You don’t have to be strong around me, Julia. Cry if you want to.”
“No,” she shook her head, “tears won’t change a thing.”
Anna nodded and dropped the subject. She wouldn’t push Julia to express her feelings if she didn’t want to.
“Good morning, cher,” Emma greeted her as she stopped next to her and Julia. “I see Cade let you out of the house.”
“I pointed out I would be safer with five shifter women than home alone. He agreed.” Anna grinned.
“Impressive.” Emma chuckled. “You really have his number.”
“I bow to a master,” Julia laughed, admiration for her mother-in-law growing.
“Thank you, thank you very much,” Anna said in her best Elvis voice as El and Rose joined them.
Thomas saw the last of the women had arrived. “Okay, let’s go.”
“We’ll meet you there,” Cade called back to Thomas.
As the last watercraft in the group, he could take his time. Anna rolled her eyes as he drove their boat barely above an idle. He completely ignored her irritation. He was determined to provide his extremely pregnant mate with a smooth ride. The idea of her going into labor scared the devil out of him. He had learned a lot from the books he’d purchased and even more from online videos, but he would rather have his mate deliver their daughter in a hospital and not on a boat.
The air was fresh and the sun warm. She would focus on that rather than Cade’s overprotective tendencies.
Stefan laughed as Cade helped Anna onto the pier. “Nice of you to join us.”