by Zoe Chant
Lincoln didn’t look up at her as he buckled his jeans. “You said I didn’t have to go home – so I’m going to sit outside in my truck, and make sure you’re safe.”
Faye felt like she couldn’t possibly have heard him correctly. “You’re what?”
“You heard me.”
Faye stared at him as he pulled on his shirt and began buttoning it up. “All right,” she said finally. “Maybe I did. But I’m sure you’re joking.”
“I’m not.”
Anger rose in her chest. How dare he treat me like I’m a child?
“Fine!” she snapped, finally at the very end of her patience. “Go and sleep in your truck, then – and I hope you have a very nice night.”
Lincoln didn’t answer her, and she turned her back on him, crossing her arms. She did not want to look at him right now – firstly because she was so incredibly angry with him, and secondly because she couldn’t stand the sight of his gorgeous body being slowly covered up by clothing. It seemed like a crime. If she watched it for a second longer, she’d lose control of herself and go rip his shirt right off his chest.
She didn’t dare turn around again until she heard the front door close.
Chapter Five
Lincoln
Lincoln was startled out of his contemplative stare by the sound of a knock on his truck window.
He started, his lion immediately leaping forward with its teeth bared, but when he looked up, it realized it was only his nephew, Mason, the sheriff of Clearwater County, looking at him quizzically through the glass.
“Lincoln? What’re you doing out here?”
Lincoln scowled a little as he rolled down the window. The very last thing he felt like doing right now was talking – and especially not to another shifter of his pride, who’d be able to sense something wasn’t right with him immediately.
His lion was on edge, pacing and growling, and wondering why he wasn’t with his mate right now – it had sensed she might be in need of help, and it didn’t sit well with it to be out here while she was in there. Even through a closed door, the invisible thread that ran between them, connecting their hearts, remained strong.
This is a young man’s game, Lincoln thought, a little bitterly. He was too old to be dealing with such strong emotions at this time in his life – when everything was settled and he was too set in his ways to change.
“What I’m doing here is my business, Mason,” Lincoln said, his voice a low growl. “It doesn’t concern you.”
Mason looked a little taken aback at Lincoln’s harsh words. In the past, they hadn’t always seen eye to eye – especially when Mason had decided to run for sheriff, and then had taken a human as his mate. But things had settled down between them, and Lincoln loved him like a son. He’d come to realize what an asset Mason’s mate, Charity, was to the pride as well – and more than that, he adored their daughter, Faith, the first-born cub in a new generation of their pride. She was two and a half now and rambunctious as hell, with dark red hair like her mother and green eyes like her dad.
“Well, now I’m just curious,” Mason said, smiling, and obviously trying to diffuse the tension a little.
But Lincoln was in no mood for this. He’d just had an argument with the only woman he’d ever been in true love with – the mate he’d been separated from for years, without even knowing she was his mate.
And now that we’re finally together, she won’t let me protect her like I should be… like an alpha needs to protect his mate…
“Are you questioning your alpha?” Lincoln snarled, clenching his fist as he turned to stare Mason straight in the eye. “Is that what you’re doing?”
Mason immediately straightened, his muscles tensing, eyes narrowing. Mason’s parents, before they had died, had brought him up with a free hand – too free, Lincoln had often thought in the past – and once he was old enough, Mason had traveled a lot, and spent time away from the pride. Lincoln knew Mason respected the pride hierarchy, but he also wouldn’t back down from an argument.
“No,” Mason said carefully. “I was just asking. I didn’t realize it was such a sensitive topic.”
Lincoln narrowed his eyes, feeling his lion beginning to get riled. “And I told you, this is absolutely none of your –”
“Mason? What’s going on?”
At the sound of Charity’s voice from behind his nephew’s shoulder, all the tension suddenly left the air, like a balloon being pricked by a needle. Mason, looking sheepish, turned to glance behind him.
“It’s nothing, honey,” Mason said quickly.
Charity appeared next to him at the car window, Faith in her arms. The little girl’s big green eyes were darting about curiously, her chubby fingers wedged into her mouth.
“Don’t give me that,” Charity said, irritated. “I’m not stupid. If you two want to duke it out as to who’s the bigger, scarier lion, you can do it some other time. Right now, I’m hungry. And so is she.” Charity hoisted her daughter a little higher on her hip. “Look, she’s eating her fingers already. Do you want to be responsible for that?”
At the sight of Faith, Lincoln felt his lion calm down immediately, relaxing and closing its jaws. He swallowed, reining in his anger. He didn’t want to fight with Mason, but he was on edge, and his instincts as an alpha were pushing him toward aggression.
But he still wasn’t about to apologize.
“Your mate’s right, Mason,” he said gruffly. “You two should go eat, if that’s why you’re in town.”
“Hello?” Charity said. “I’m right here. You can say my name. Maybe even say hello.”
Lincoln glanced at Charity’s face. Her eyebrow was arched, and she was studying him carefully. She’d always been intuitive – more than he’d ever thought any human could be. And it had only increased since she’d given birth to Faith.
Lincoln avoided her eyes – but it was too late. She knew something was up. And if there was one thing Lincoln had learned about Charity, it was that she wasn’t the type to let something rest.
“Mason, could you take Faith for a moment?” she asked, passing the little girl to her mate. “I just want to have a quick chat to your uncle.”
Mason took Faith from her arms without a word. It was nice to know, Lincoln thought, that there was at least someone who could get his nephew to do something without turning it into an argument.
Once he was gone, Charity leaned forward, resting her arms on the open window of the truck. “You wanna talk about this?”
Lincoln felt his lip curling involuntarily. His immediate reaction was to reject the offer: alphas didn’t talk about things. Especially not one of his age – hell, if he hadn’t figured out how to fix his own problems by now, then what good was he?
“No,” he said. “I don’t.”
Charity stared at him for a long moment. “It doesn’t have to be like this, Lincoln. I thought being part of the pride was about relying on each other. Trusting each other.”
That’s not for alphas, Lincoln thought. Sure, an alpha had to trust and rely on his pride, but that was for safety – protection. But it went both ways. If an alpha was weak, there was no reason for his pride to put its trust in him. Letting them know he had a problem he wasn’t sure how to deal with on his own was not something any alpha should ever have to do.
Not even if that problem was how to deal with finally having found his mate.
“You go on and enjoy your evening out, Charity,” he said finally. “I know you –”
He was cut off as he detected a flicker of light from the window of the mansion behind him, casting its glow into the interior of the car.
He turned his head swiftly, his lion on full alert – only to see Faye’s dark, curvaceous silhouette standing in the window, a lamp in her hand, looking out into the street.
Lincoln swallowed heavily, recalling how those curves had felt under his hands – how warm she had been, and how she had tasted just as he’d somehow always known she would, sweet and delicate.
Then, she was gone. She’d clearly only been checking if his car was still there, but as soon as she’d seen it, Faye had swept the old blanket she had pinned up as a curtain back into place and disappeared. The impression of her form was still marked indelibly on Lincoln’s mind, however, and he continued to stare at the space she’d been standing, unwilling or unable to look away.
It was only after a moment that he remembered Charity standing there by the car, and he tore his eyes away from the window as quickly as he could. But it was too late. Even though Faye had only stood there for a moment, Charity had seen her – and she’d seen the way Lincoln had reacted to her. When he turned to look her in the eye, he could see that she knew.
“Lincoln…” Charity started to say, before he cut her off with a shake of his head.
“I know you mean well, but this isn’t the time,” he said, his voice feeling rough in his throat. “And no, I still don’t want to discuss this.”
Charity was quiet. Then she sighed, soft and quiet. “Okay, Lincoln. I get it. And I won’t bother you. But… well, if I could give you just one piece of advice…”
Lincoln looked away. He had a feeling Charity was going to tell him what she had to say no matter whether he wanted to hear it or not.
“If she’s said she wants space, give it to her. Believe me – I know your lion may not like it. You think I haven’t had to tell Mason to quit bothering me sometimes, especially since we had Faith?” She shook her head. “But you really can’t sit out here all night. Give her space, and let her figure it out on her own time.”
Lincoln felt like an idiot. Here he was, being lectured about how to deal with his mate by a woman young enough to be his daughter, and who wasn’t even a shifter! If his own father could’ve see him now, he would have shaken his head in disgust.
But those were the old days.
The thought came to Lincoln’s mind unbidden.
There’s some things that shouldn’t change, he argued with it stubbornly. An alpha protects what’s his. Nothing gets in the way of that.
As if she’d read his mind, Charity said, “You won’t be abandoning her. You’d just be doing what she asked. She’s safe. And if something did happen, you’d know. Right?”
Lincoln didn’t answer. He felt more conflicted than he ever had before in his life. He knew he had to respect Faye’s wishes – she was his mate, and everything in him only wanted to make her happy. But at the same time, his powerful drive to protect her was a force to be reckoned with.
“Think about it. All right?”
With that, Charity leaned over and gave his arm a quick squeeze. Then she stepped away from the cabin of the truck, walking back to where her mate was waiting on the opposite curb, their cub in his arms.
He briefly heard Mason saying, “Well, what the hell was that about?” and Charity telling him to mind his own business, before their voices faded into the dusk.
Lincoln sat in the truck, feeling more indecisive than he ever had before in his life. He was used to making up his mind quickly, and then acting on his decision. It was what he’d been brought up to do – there was no time for lollygagging when the pride or one of its members might be in trouble.
So make a choice, he told himself, gritting his teeth. And decide what kind of mate you want to be. You already know how to be an alpha. Now you have to figure out how to be a mate – and not only that, but a mate to a human.
Reaching out, Lincoln gripped the steering wheel in one hand, and twisted the keys in the ignition with the other. His lion, frustrated, growled in his chest, asking him just where the hell he thought he was going.
Home, Lincoln told it, ignoring the beast as it bared its huge fangs, eyes narrowing in anger. It roared out its objection, tail lashing.
Not a discussion, he said to it as he steered the car away from the curb, before turning to drive out of town.
***
Lincoln didn’t sleep well that night. It was an unfamiliar feeling – and a frustrating one. He was used to sleeping deeply and well after a long, hard day of work on the ranch. His lion had been furious all night, keeping him awake with its growling and pacing. And then, there was his own, entirely human sense of unease: had he done the right thing by leaving Faye alone at the mansion? What if she’d needed him? What if she’d needed anything at all? Could he have been there in time?
He’d tossed and turned until the first pink streaks of dawn had colored the sky. It was about the time he usually got up anyway, so he’d hauled himself out of bed and into the shower, where he’d done his best to scrub his fatigue away with soap and cold water.
The cold water hadn’t just helped him with his tired eyes – other parts of him needed a good hosing down too. His half-hard erection was aching against his thigh, and the memory of Faye’s scent still seemed to fill his senses, even all these hours later. Heat filled him. He wanted nothing so much as to hold her in his arms, tell her she was safe, and say that he would never, ever let anything harm her ever again…
… But he also had to recognize that Faye was a grown woman with thoughts and feelings of her own, and an independent streak a mile wide. He’d always known that about her. It was one of the things he’d most admired about her, from the very first days of their childhood friendship.
Meeting her again now – when she was in the full flower of womanhood, her curves round, her eyes crinkled at the corners, her skin soft and sweet – she was more attractive to him than ever before.
Even the memory of her was enough to bring him to full hardness, despite the cold water, and Lincoln groaned, his blood feeling thick and heavy.
He felt ridiculous – he wasn’t some hormonal adolescent. He was a grown man, an alpha. But it was also true that he hadn’t felt the touch of a woman he loved in a very long time. It had been a part of himself that he had shut off after his wife had died – he was too busy raising his sons and nephew and running the ranch to even contemplate searching for his mate, or taking another wife.
The memory of Faye’s breath ghosting over his skin, her lips against his, and the way her body had felt when he’d first slipped inside her were vivid in his mind as he finally gave in to the inevitable, and took himself in his hand.
It felt good, of course, but it was nothing compared to how it had felt to be with Faye – but then, what could compare to finally making that perfect union with your fated mate? It wasn’t only the physical side of it: it was their bond, their connection, that made it so much better than anything else a shifter or his mate could experience. Everything about them had been in harmony, and it had been like nothing else he’d ever felt before.
Shutting off the water, Lincoln stepped out of the shower. Glancing at himself in the mirror, he saw how tired he looked, his sleepless night written all over his face. It didn’t matter – running a ranch meant never taking a day off, rain, hail, shine or sickness. A strong cup of coffee would have to do in place of sleep.
Heading down the hall and into the large, open plan kitchen and dining area, Lincoln was greeted by the smell of bacon, potato hash, eggs, sausage, cornbread – and of course, good, strong coffee. Shifters were hearty eaters anyway, but a long day of work needed a good breakfast.
Joe stood at the stove, flipping the eggs over easy as Lincoln came in. He glanced over his shoulder before nodding in greeting. It was their usual routine – a quiet morning breakfast together, before heading out into the day to begin their work. Until she’d gotten pregnant, Charity had often cooked breakfast before heading out to the diner she ran. But with her hands so full with little Faith, she’d passed the day-to-day running of the diner over to Sherri, one of her long-time waitresses, to be at home.
She’d also taken over doing the ranch accounting from Lincoln, which was a massive load off his shoulders. Charity, having run a business all her life, was a wizard with numbers, and she did it better and faster than he ever had anyway.
But with Charity doing the accounting and running around after an ac
tive toddler, the men of the ranch had been on their own as far as breakfast was concerned ever since Faith had learned how to walk – and with it, how to seemingly get into everything, no matter how baby-proof they’d tried to make it.
Lincoln knew he’d love her no matter what, but so far, all the signs pointed to Faith being a shifter. They would have to wait until she was a little older to know for sure, but she ran, climbed, and jumped faster and higher than any human two-year-old should be able to – well, according to Charity and Sasha, anyway. Lincoln, having only ever raised shifters, was in no position to make a comparison.
“Let me give you a hand with that, son,” he said, coming into the kitchen and picking up some of the stacked plates before taking them out to the large dining room table. Mason appeared only a moment later, yawning widely and stretching. He’d be joining them on the ranch today – he usually did on his days off, as a couple of extra hands never went astray, and Mason enjoyed the work.
Lincoln noticed his nephew shooting a curious glance his way as he passed him, but he ignored it. It wasn’t his place to explain himself. He wondered if Charity might have explained the situation, but he didn’t think so. Charity had more discretion than that, even if Mason was her mate.
The three of them sat down together at the table, tucking into the food in front of them, munching silently.
It was these times that Lincoln cherished the most with the boys he’d brought up. He wished his younger son, Casey, were here, but the boy was off helping his aunt at her property in the next county over. Lincoln could have done with his help, but being alpha meant making sure your family was taken care of first and foremost.
“What’ll we be working on today?” Mason asked as he took a long, lingering sip from his mug of coffee.
“Gotta move the cattle over from the west paddock,” Lincoln said. “I’ll take care of the inventory, and you and Joe can do the herding. After that I better get that new alternator into the tractor.”