by Zoe Chant
Virginia raised one eyebrow at her.
“Okay, it kind of is,” Hayley confessed. “But seriously, all the discomfort and everything…it’s worth it. You forget it all, the instant you have your baby in your arms.”
“Truly?” Virginia didn’t sound her usual polished, self-confident self. Her brown eyes begged for reassurance. “You aren’t just saying that?”
Hayley put her hand over Virginia’s, squeezing a little. “Let’s put it this way. When I had Danny, I was on my own, flat broke, having to take any temp work I could get just to keep a roof over our heads. I had no sleep, no money, no partner, and no support at all. And if I could go back in time…I would do it all again. In a heartbeat.”
Virginia squeezed back, the calm strength returning to her face. “Thank you,” she said sincerely.
“Now I feel like a complete wuss.” Connie folded her arms, glaring down into her drink. “I wish I was as brave you two.”
As brave as you two? Hayley couldn’t imagine being thought of in the same category as brilliant, bold Virginia. “Hey, you fly vintage fighter planes for a living. I teach little kids. Which one of us is the brave one again?”
“You,” Connie said promptly. “I’d rather face a tornado than a class of thirty children. I’m terrified of having to cope with even one kid. Let alone the whole herd that Chase wants.”
“Well, fourteen does sound a little excessive.” Hayley grinned at her.
“Oh, he really wants four. It’s just more fun to pretend that I don’t know that. He can be very inventive when he’s trying to get his own way.” Connie bit her lip. “I do want kids, I think. It’s just…my mom passed away when I was little, and my dad isn’t exactly the best parental role model. I’m so scared that I might turn out to be a terrible mother.”
“I’m still terrified that I’m a terrible mother,” Hayley said ruefully. “You aren’t alone in that. And I think you’d be a great mom. Chase will make a great dad, too. Danny likes both of you a lot.”
“He’s such a sweet kid.” Connie sighed. “If I could be certain that mine would turn out half as well, I wouldn’t be nearly so worried. Rose,” she turned to the woman tending the bar, who was cleaning glasses nearby, “what do you think?”
Hayley was a little startled by this unexpected appeal to the pub owner…but then Rose glanced up, and she understood. Even half-concealed behind the feathery carnival mask, Rose had the kindest, wisest face she’d ever seen. She could only have been in her mid-forties, but she possessed a sort of deep, unhurried calm that made her seem ageless. In a strange way, she reminded Hayley of Ash—the same sense of hidden power, tightly leashed.
“I think that you should never let fear stand in the way of your heart’s desire,” Rose said to Connie…but her eyes flicked briefly to Hayley. She had an odd sense that Rose was aiming the statement at her, just as much as Connie.
“That’s the problem, I don’t know if it is my heart’s desire.” Connie looked hopefully across the bar at Rose. “Can you tell for me, Rose? I mean, you can see mate bonds, after all. Can you see other sorts of things in people’s hearts too? Like, how maternal someone is?”
Rose laughed. “I can see some things, true, but not that. But I don’t need special powers to know that you’re going to make a fine mother. You have enough love in your heart to nurture an entire brood of children.” She dropped her voice a little. “Your own mother made sure of that.”
Connie blinked rapidly, as if having to fight to hold back sudden tears. “Thanks, Rose,” she whispered. “That…that means a lot.”
“You can see mate bonds?” Hayley said to Rose, partly to give Connie a chance to recover her composure, but mainly just out of interest. “Really?”
Rose nodded in assent, her hands still busy cleaning glasses. “It’s one of the reasons shifters come here. I can instantly tell if I’ve met someone’s mate before, even if they’ve never met. I’ve matched up more than a few of my customers by now.”
“I wish you’d find your mate, Rose,” Virginia said. “It doesn’t seem fair that you’re still alone, when you’ve helped so many of us.”
“Ah, well. Just fate, I suppose.” Rose smiled, a little sadly. “I travelled the world when I was younger, searching, but never found him. Maybe he’ll walk through my door one of these days.”
Hayley bit back the question on the tip of her tongue, unsure whether it would be rude to ask what Rose’s animal was. She didn’t yet know enough about shifter ways to have a firm grasp on their unspoken rules of etiquette.
She had learned enough, though, to know that a shifter’s power came from their inner beast. Griff’s perceptiveness came from his eagle, while his innate ability to command came from his lion. But what on earth could give Rose the sort of power that she had?
Rose glanced at her sidelong, a teasing smile tugging at her lips. “I can feel your curiosity from here. Go on. Guess.”
From Virginia and Connie’s grins, they already knew. Hayley narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing the bartender. Rose might look soft and round, but the elegance in the way she held herself would have made a prima ballerina green with envy. Even just polishing glasses, there was a breathtaking grace to every movement of her delicate hands.
Something strong, but not dangerous. Not a predator. Something calm and graceful. And…something that symbolizes devotion? Something that mates for life, and pines away if that love is lost…
The graceful curve of Rose’s neck and the long, shimmering black feathers on her mask gave her away. “You’re a swan!”
“Not many get that right. You’ve got good eyes.” Rose tilted her head a little, her expression enigmatic behind her mask. “Sharp eyes are a good match to an eagle. But you need courage if you’re going to match a lion. Especially when his own courage falters.”
“Griff, falter?” Hayley wasn’t sure whether to laugh or take offence at the idea. “I don’t think Griff’s ever been afraid of anything in his entire life.”
“Up until recently, I’d have agreed with you.” Rose looked at something over Hayley’s shoulder. “But not anymore. You might want to ask him about that.”
“Hayley.” She spun round at Griff’s voice, right behind her. He was looking grim. “We’ve got a potential problem. Reiner’s here.”
“Reiner? Here?” Hayley couldn’t imagine Reiner voluntarily coming to a Halloween party. He’d always looked down his nose at the holiday, calling it a ‘vulgar American perversion of ancient traditions.’ “Why?”
“I don’t know, but we have to try to head him off.” Griff took her hand, helping her down from the bar stool. “There are too many people who know me here.”
She gasped as she realized the danger. “Someone could let your secret slip.”
Connie cocked her head to one side, lips moving soundlessly for a moment. “Chase is improvising a very, very long joke outside,” she said, and Hayley realized that she’d been communicating telepathically with her mate. “But he says to hurry, because Reiner doesn’t look like he’s going to wait for the punchline.”
Virginia’s expression went a little unfocussed as well. A moment later, Dai’s tall form cut through the crowd toward them.
“Virginia says you might need some backup,” the dragon shifter said to Griff. In his Anglo-Saxon warrior costume, he looked more than ready to step onto a battlefield.
“No fighting on my premises, boys,” Rose said warningly. “All shifters are welcome, as long as they behave themselves. I won’t have anyone acting like this is their personal territory. Not even Alpha Team.”
“I’m sorry, Rose, but I can’t just let Reiner come in here and start chatting,” Griff growled. “You don’t understand. I can’t let him find out what I really am.”
“You’re trying to wear too many masks. It might do you good for some of them to slip.” Rose gave him a level look. “I mean it, Griff. My house, my rules. You do not have the right to decide who enters here.”
“You will r
espect Ms. Swanmay,” said Ash, making Hayley jump. She hadn’t even noticed him standing quietly behind Griff. For such a powerful shifter, the Phoenix had a remarkable ability to make himself blend into the background.
Frustrated growls rumbled in both Griff and Dai’s chests, but they didn’t try to argue with their Commander. “Let’s see if we can peacefully persuade Reiner to go somewhere else, then,” Griff said, not sounding optimistic. “Otherwise we’re going to have to somehow ride herd on him all night.”
“Or just get Chase to annoy him so much that he throws the first punch,” Dai murmured. He briefly touched Virginia’s bare arm, love and worry clear even in just that small gesture. “Stay here. Just in case.”
With a quick, apologetic wave of farewell to Virginia and Connie, Hayley followed the two men out of the pub. Gooseflesh pimpled on her arms as she stepped out into the night. It felt much colder after the warmth inside.
Reiner was looking both bewildered and besieged, with Danny clinging onto one of his hands and Chase onto his other sleeve. The trio were encircled by the pack of shifter kids, all apparently hanging onto Chase’s every word as he rattled nonsense at top speed.
“So then the actress says to the Bishop-” Chase broke off as Griff and Dai strode up. He let go of Reiner with a relieved sigh. “Oh, thank God. I really wasn’t sure how I was going to finish that in a way suitable for young, eavesdropping ears. Come on kids, who wants to go get something to drink?”
Griff set his feet, facing the lion shifter head on as Chase herded the kids safely into the pub. Dai took up position at his shoulder, green eyes narrowed behind his helmet.
“What are you doing here, Reiner?” Griff said bluntly. His fists were bunched, muscles tense and ready despite Rose’s warning. “I’m not having you spoil Danny’s Halloween. If you’re looking to start trouble, do it some other time.”
Reiner’s hand tightened on Danny’s. “I’m here because my son wants me here.”
“I told Daddy to come,” Danny piped up cheerfully. Hayley was relieved that he didn’t seem to have picked up on the hostile undercurrents. “I want him to share Halloween too.”
Hayley’s heart broke at his innocence, even as she wanted to throttle him for setting this up without running it past her first. “That’s very sweet of you, honey, but, um…I don’t think Daddy likes dancing and dressing up and all that kind of thing.”
Reiner bristled. “If my son wants me to dance, then I will dance,” he announced grimly. He looked like he’d have much preferred it if Danny had asked him to eat a nice heaping plate of worms.
“It’s okay, Daddy. I know you don’t like dancing.” Danny beamed up at Reiner. “I don’t, either. But Mommy does, so I thought maybe she and Mr. Griff could do that while you and me could go be lions instead. Because you said that your Daddy always took you out hunting at Halloween, so I want to do that with you too. Would that be okay, Mr. Griff?”
Griff blinked at him, looking as taken aback by this speech as Hayley was. “Ah…I think you’d better ask your ma.”
“Um…” Hayley remembered something that Griff had mentioned about traditional shifter Halloween customs. “Exactly what kind of hunting, Reiner?”
Reiner’s shoulders stiffened in offense. “I’m not going to take him hunting humans, if that’s what you’re asking. Deer or rabbits will have to do.” His gaze slid down her costume. “Real rabbits.”
Hayley wasn’t desperately thrilled by the prospect of her gentle boy sinking his teeth into some poor little bunny, but there was no denying that Danny was. He hopped up and down with eagerness, his face alight with anticipation.
“Please, Mommy?” he begged. “Pleeeeeease? I promise I’ll eat it all up, every last bit.”
Is that supposed to help? Shuddering with revulsion, Hayley shot a pleading look at Griff. He shrugged apologetically.
“We are lions, at heart,” he murmured into her ear. “Let him go. It will mean a lot to both of them, and I think we can trust Reiner this much, at least. In any case, I’ll know through the pride-bond if Danny gets upset for any reason, and Chase can always take us straight to them.”
Hayley sighed, giving in. “All right,” she said reluctantly. “You can go.”
“Yaaaaay!” Danny flung his arms around her. “You’re the best mommy ever!”
Hayley hugged him back, wishing that she never had to let him go. “Just make sure you stay away from roads and, and people and everything, okay?”
Reiner put a possessive hand on Danny’s shoulder. “I will make sure my son stays safe.”
“See that you do,” growled Griff, with a flex of alpha power in his voice. Reiner gave him a resentful glare, but jerked his chin in a nod.
“Mommy,” Danny said thoughtfully, letting go of her and taking Reiner’s hand instead. “We’re probably going to be up real late. Maybe I should sleep over at Daddy’s. Is that okay?”
Absolutely not! Hayley wanted to yell. But Reiner was staring down at Danny with such a thunderstruck look, like a man who’d just been given a present he hadn’t even known he’d wanted, that the words died on her tongue. “Well…but you haven’t got pajamas or a toothbrush or anything.”
“Lions don’t need pajamas or toothbrushes,” Danny said confidently. “Do they, Daddy?”
“They do if they want to keep their fangs, lad,” Griff rumbled before Reiner could speak. “Real lions don’t eat chocolate, but from the look of your face the same isn’t true of you.”
“I know an all-night store near my place,” Reiner said to Griff. For once, he didn’t sound arrogant. His expression was more vulnerable than she’d ever seen before, still half-dazed with wonder. “I could pick up the basics, just for tonight. And I’ll drop him back off by nine tomorrow morning. I swear on my family name.”
Hayley would have preferred it if Reiner had acted as though she had the final say, rather than Griff, but maybe that would have been one miracle too many. She nodded at Griff, very slightly.
“Very well.” He gave Reiner a stern—but not aggressive—look. “Don’t make me regret this.”
“Oh, Mr. Griff,” Danny said, turning back as Reiner started to lead him away. His brown eyes were wide and guileless. “Make sure Mommy isn’t lonely, okay? She’s never had to sleep without me there. She might get scared of the dark without a lion around.”
Hayley’s mouth hung open. So did Griff’s.
“And to think you told me I was incompetent in matters of romance,” Dai murmured as Danny skipped off. The dragon shifter clapped a hand on Griff’s shoulder, a broad smirk spreading across his face. “Congratulations, my friend. You’ve just been set up by a five-year-old.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Griff
“Are you really sure Danny’s still all right?” Hayley asked anxiously as they turned into her driveway.
“Aye, truly,” Griff replied, for the tenth time on the long, otherwise silent walk back to her house. He could feel the cub’s excitement through the pride-bond, like a small sparkling firework at the back of his mind. “He’s having a grand time. Probably the best Halloween of his entire life.”
Bitter jealousy gnawed at his bones. He was Danny’s alpha. He should be taking Danny on his first hunt. Griff would have given his right arm to be able to do that for him.
But would you give up your eagle? whispered a tiny, private thought, so deep even his animals couldn’t hear. For just the chance of being able to be a true alpha lion for Danny? Would you truly burn away half your heritage?
He still didn’t know if, at the bitter end, he’d be able to force himself to do it. If it was just the choice between that or death, he wouldn’t even have considered it. But if it was the choice between Ash’s fire, or Reiner taking Danny…
“I’m so sorry for spoiling your Halloween, Griff.” Hayley fumbled in her purse for her house keys. “I just wasn’t in the mood to stay at the party. I’ll be okay now, if you want to head back to rejoin your friends.”
“To tell the truth, I’m not really in the mood for a party myself.” Griff tried to muster a casual smile. “I think I’ll just head home too.”
No, rumbled his lion. Its eyes gleamed in his mind, hot and predatory. The pride is happy on the hunt, occupied elsewhere. Now it is time to stalk and claim our prize.
The moon is full and the winds are wild, his eagle murmured. It is not a night to be alone in the nest.
Griff clenched his jaw, trying to ignore his beasts’ whispers. He noticed that Hayley had hesitated at the open door, biting her lip as she stared into the dark corridor. “Something wrong?”
“The house is just so…quiet,” she said, softly. “So empty.”
Before Griff could respond, she squared her shoulders. Light blazed as she flicked the switch, turning on the hall lamp. She turned back to him with a wan, forced smile. “Just being silly. I haven’t spent a night on my own since Danny was born. It’ll, it’ll be nice to have some time to myself.”
Her bottom lip was trembling, ever so slightly. “Hayley,” Griff said gently. “Do you want me to stay?”
“No, no, no!” Her head swung in emphatic arcs of denial, even as every line of her body screamed yes! “I wouldn’t—that wouldn’t be fair to you. I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“It’s no trouble.” Griff forestalled any further argument by stepping in and closing the door behind himself. “This way, if you wake up in the night and are at all worried about Danny, you can just ask me to check the pride-bond for you.”
Yes, purred his lion. We will be right at her back, all night…
No we won’t. Out loud, Griff said, “It’s not like I haven’t spent a night on your sofa before, after all.”
“Oh, you don’t have to sleep on the sofa!” He could tell just how relieved Hayley was by the way that she didn’t try to talk him out of staying. “You can sleep in my bed, if you want.”
Griff cleared his throat, fighting down a surge of lust at the idea. “Ah. Now that would be trouble.”