MoonlightBundleSet

by Moonlight Protector, Hero, Guardian, Champion (mobi)

  Climbing out of the bed, he spied his jeans and shirt on a nearby chair. Getting dressed, he stumbled into the bathroom to splash cold water on his face. Opening the cabinet over the sink, he pulled out of the new toothbrushes Cassie kept on hand for company. He brushed his teeth and splashed more cold water on his face. While both helped him wake up and feel a little more human, neither did anything for the monster headache pounding behind his eyes and in his temples.

  Staggering to the stairs, he gripped the rail and slowly made his way downstairs. The screeches of the kids made him wince, but he forged ahead toward the kitchen, following the sounds of laughter and conversation. Propping a shoulder in the kitchen doorway, he smiled as he watched Cassie and Matt take care of their brood of children. It seemed they had another one every time he blinked. Both having been only children, they’d wanted a house full of kids. It seemed they had gotten their wish and then some.

  “Well, there you are,” Cassie said with a smile in his direction. “I wondered if you would rejoin the land of the living.”

  With a grin, he moved into the room and sat at the only empty chair left at the table. “That bad, huh?”

  “Matt had to practically carry you into the house. Want to tell us what drove you to drink? You don’t normally stay at a bar until you’re about to pass out under a table.”

  He shrugged and looked around at the kids. “Just had a fight with Aislinn is all.”

  “Does this have anything to do with Gabriel’s call last night about the sorcerer, and something about Aislinn having powers?”

  He nodded. “She lied to me.”

  Cassie cocked her head to the side and studied him a moment. “You know, if I were in her place, I would be scared to share something like that too.”

  Matt rolled his eyes. “Honey, you were in her place. You were terrified of Cole finding out you could communicate with spirits.”

  Cassie smiled. “True. Maybe that’s why I can sympathize with Aislinn. I’m nowhere near as powerful as she is, but I do get premonitions through dreams, and I still see spirits everywhere I go. Does that make me any less lovable?”

  “You know it doesn’t,” Connor answered.

  “So, why are you so upset your fiancé has magickal gifts?”

  “It isn’t the gifts I mind, Cassie. It’s the fact that she kept them hidden from me, was seeing the sorcerer behind my back. How can I trust her if she can’t trust me with the truth?”

  “Did you ask her about it?”

  He hung his head. “No, I didn’t give her a chance to explain. I was too angry to think straight.”

  “So you left her last night after arguing to go and get drunk, which you already know terrifies her thanks to her previous life, and now you’ve stayed out all night. You’re going to be lucky if she doesn’t change you into a toad when you get home.”

  Connor made a choking sound. “Could she do that?”

  Cassie shrugged. “I have no idea, but I would imagine she’ll be hurt and angry enough to try.”

  “Great. Just what I needed, an angry sorceress.”

  Matt grinned. “Worse, you have an angry mate. I’d be more scared of that than an angry sorceress.”

  Connor groaned and dropped his head into his hands. “I’ve made a royal mess of everything.”

  “Why don’t you stop by the florist on the way home and then crawl on your hands and knees and beg for her forgiveness?” Cassie suggested with a grin.

  “Flowers I can do, but an alpha never begs.”

  Matt threw his head back and laughed. “Just wait, she’ll have you begging before long.”

  Connor muttered something under his breath and pushed his chair back. If he was going to make things right with Aislinn, he needed to head home. He only hoped she was still there.

  “Thanks for helping me out last night,” he told Matt and Cassie. “I guess I better go home and see if she’ll forgive me.”

  Matt reached behind him and grabbed Connor’s keys off the counter. He tossed them to him. “You’ll need these. I took them from you last night to keep you from attempting to drive.”

  Connor nodded. “Thanks. Wish me luck!”

  Matt and Cassie looked at each other and smiled, knowing that luck wouldn’t have anything to do with it. They could have eased Connor’s mind and shared Matt’s latest vision with him, but the man was cocky enough already. It would do him some good to worry about his future with Aislinn.

  Chapter Sixteen

  After picking up two dozen red and white roses, Connor pulled into his drive and stared at the house. It seemed still and quiet, which made him uneasy. A few weeks ago, he would have been used to coming home to the house being so still, but now that Aislinn was in his life he was used to more energy.

  Getting out of the truck, he took a breath and walked up to the house. As he pushed the door open, he frowned. He could smell a faint trace of the sorcerer, but he could smell Aislinn, too. It gave him a small amount of comfort to realize she was still in the house, but he frowned as he realized the house was undisturbed. Was she still sleeping? A glance at the clock showed that it was nearly ten o’clock, which was far later than Aislinn ever slept.

  He quickly walked through the living room and into the house, pausing outside of the door to the blue bedroom. Turning the knob, he pushed the door open and stepped into the room. Aislinn lay sprawled across the bed, still sound asleep.

  Connor moved further into the room and sat the flowers down on the nightstand. Sitting lightly on the edge of the bed, he traced the curve of her jaw with his fingers. She looked so peaceful when she slept; the dark shadows that usually haunted her eyes went away for a short time.

  He leaned down and kissed her cheek. When she woke, he would apologize to her, and hope that she forgave him. He knew that his life would be empty without her, even if they had only known one another for such a short time. To think that he had jeopardized his chance to have a mate made him ill. Every werewolf waited for the day they would find their mate, find the one person who made them whole. Connor knew without a doubt his mate was Aislinn, now he just needed to make sure he treated her as such.

  Rising from the bed, he left the flowers would she would see them when she woke, and he quietly slipped out of the room. Not wanting to disturb her, he turned the TV on low and settled into his chair.

  Aislinn slowly pulled herself out of her dreams and opened her eyes. Seeing the beautiful red and white roses on the nightstand, she sat up and looked around. She picked them up and sniffed at them, enjoying the perfume that rose from their delicate blossoms.

  Shoving the covers aside, she rose from the bed and went in search of Connor, knowing he had to have come home and left the beautiful flowers for her. Hearing the low hum of the TV, she walked into the living room, and found Connor asleep in his chair.

  She moved into the kitchen and took down a vase from the cabinet. Filling it with water, she placed the roses in the vase and set it on the counter. She was surprised to see it was almost noon. Deciding to surprise Connor, she pulled out the ingredients she would need in order to make meatloaf. Once it was prepared and she had slid it into the oven, she chopped fresh carrots and placed them in a pot of water with some brown sugar, cinnamon, and honey, letting them simmer on low.

  Wiping her hands off on a dish towel, she went into the living room to wake Connor. If the flowers were any indication, he wasn’t as angry today as he had been last night. At least, she hoped that’s what the flowers meant. She had automatically assumed they were from Connor, but what if Eric had left them as a way to cheer her up?

  She placed a gentle hand on Connor’s shoulder and shook him awake.

  “Connor, it’s almost noon.”

  He mumbled something under his breath, but didn’t wake up.

  “Connor?”

  His eyes slowly opened and she smiled at him. “I have lunch cooking, if you’re hungry.”

  He gave her a hesitant smile. “Lunch sounds good.”

 
She removed her hand and started to walk away, but he grabbed her hand and held her still. With a gentle tug, he pulled her into his lap.

  “Aislinn, we need to talk. About last night…”

  She shook her head. “It’s okay, Connor. You were right, I should have told you.”

  “But I never let you explain why you didn’t, and that was wrong of me.”

  Aislinn felt her eyes tear up. She’d never had a man be as reasonable as Connor. “I was scared, Connor.”

  “Of what? Help me understand, Aislinn.”

  “I didn’t understand the power that was given to me and it scared me. But even more, I didn’t know what I was capable of and I was afraid to tell you. I knew you would ask questions I couldn’t answer.”

  “We could have figured it out together,” he told her gently.

  “I realize that now. I know that you’re different from Hugh, but… I’m not used to a man being nice to me, being reasonable about things. I’m used to everything always being my fault, always being blamed for things that are out of my control.

  “If dinner wasn’t ready on time, he would beat me, even if it wasn’t done because he’d come home early. If his beer wasn’t cold enough because the refrigerator had broken, that was somehow my fault, too.”

  “I’m not Hugh.”

  She smiled faintly. “I know. But while a part of me knows that, recognizes the differences between you, the other part of me is still afraid.”

  Connor wrapped his arms around her. “You don’t have to be afraid anymore, Aislinn. I’ll never hurt you like he did, that I can promise. I’m sorry for not listening to you last night. I can’t promise that we’ll never fight again, but I can promise that I will always listen to you. I won’t let my anger rule me again.”

  Stifling a sob, Aislinn burrowed into him. “That’s all I can ask of you.”

  Hearing her voice break, he knew she was crying. “Honey, please don’t cry.”

  She lifted her head and gave him a tremulous smile. “I’m not crying because I’m sad, I’m crying because I’m so happy I found you.”

  “Does that mean you’re wearing your ring now because you want to, because you want to be my wife?”

  She nodded. “I’ve wanted to be your wife from the moment I laid eyes on you, but I was too afraid to believe it could be real. I’ve dreamed of meeting someone like you my whole life, it just seemed surreal when I finally found you.”

  “I know we just met, but I care a lot about you, Aislinn.”

  She leaned forward and kissed him. “I care about you, too, Connor.”

  The weekend passed in a blur and before they knew it, Monday had arrived. For Aislinn, it was an exciting day, another beginning in her new life. She dressed for work with a smile on her face, anxious to start her new job with Connor, and excited that she would be with him all day.

  “You seem awfully happy this morning,” he commented as he kissed her cheek.

  She smiled at him. “I am. I’m looking forward to working with you today.”

  “The supplies you ordered should be there by this afternoon. Since you won’t have much to do for the first part of the day, I’ll show you around the job site.”

  “I have to admit that some of your men make me nervous.”

  “You mean Charlie?”

  She nodded. “He reminds me of Hugh.”

  “None of my men will hurt you. Most like their jobs too much, and the rest are just inherently good men.”

  “I won’t be afraid anymore. I know that when you’re around, you’ll protect me.”

  “And when I’m not, you can protect yourself,” he reminded her.

  She nodded. “Yes, I can. It’s nice knowing that you can defend yourself, especially after…”

  He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. “That’s all in the past. You don’t have to worry about Hugh anymore.”

  “I know,” she said with a smile.

  Chapter Seventeen

  True to his word, Connor had shown Aislinn around the job site most of the morning. After lunch, the office supplies had arrived and she’d gotten to work on his files. After she had a stack ready to be filed, she opened the laptop Connor had bought for her and began entering them into the database she had designed. Connor would be able to pull up a client’s name and see everything that had been received or sent, along with notes from phone conversations. Once a file was cataloged, she filed it away in the large file cabinet behind his desk.

  After several hours of working and only having fifteen files done, she realized it was going to be a long work in progress, but she didn’t mind. It was nice to have something to do, to feel useful.

  She rose from her chair and stretched her arms over her head. Rolling her head from to side, she tried to work the kinks from her neck and shoulders, the muscles having grown tight from sitting at the computer for so long.

  She felt Connor’s hands on her shoulders and leaned back against him.

  “Are you ready to go home? You’ve had a busy day.”

  She nodded and turned to wrap her arms around him. While his presence had been distracting when she had first started working, she had become so absorbed in her project that she had forgotten he was around.

  “I didn’t get as much accomplished today as I had hoped, but at least I have a good start on it.”

  “You did a lot of work today, honey. It’s just going to take a lot of time to get through it all. I haven’t filed anything, not properly, since I took over the company a few months ago. And, as I’m sure you can tell, the previous owner didn’t believe in filing anything either. If you think this office it bad, you should see the main office.”

  She gave him a horrified look. “You mean there’s another set of files like this somewhere?”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, but you don’t have to tackle those any time soon. Just worry about the ones related to this job site for now.”

  She looked around the office, aghast. “You mean, all of these are just for this one job?”

  He nodded. “For the most part. A lot of the vendors are used for multiple jobs, and I have a few things lying around for a future job.”

  “Connor, you have got to be the least organized person I know. How on earth did you let it get this bad?”

  He smiled. “Just talented I guess.”

  Aislinn shook her head and picked up her purse. “Okay, let’s go home before I decide to dive back into this mess.”

  Offering her his arm, he escorted her from the trailer and to the truck. When they were on their way home, Connor’s phone rang.

  “Hello.”

  “Connor, it’s Kiera.”

  He smiled. “Hey, Kiera. How are you?”

  “In labor. Can you and Aislinn meet us at the hospital? Gabriel wants the whole family there.”

  “You bet. We’ll head that way now.”

  Hanging up the phone, he smiled at Aislinn. “Kiera is in labor. Change of plans, we’re going to the hospital.”

  Her eyes grew wide. “Oh wow, I didn’t realize she was due already. Did she sound okay? How’s Gabriel?”

  He shrugged. “Kiera seemed fine, but I’m sure Gabriel is a mess. This is their first baby and he dotes on that woman.”

  Aislinn smiled and looked out of her window. Much the way you dote on me, she wanted to ask. Suddenly, the thought of having Connor’s child seemed rather appealing. Of course, she’d have to coax him back into her bed again. Maybe this time they wouldn’t be interrupted.

  At the hospital, Marin and Cole sat in seats across from Gabriel. Michael was beside him, with Chloe by his side. Connor’s brother, Colin, was leaning against the wall. Two other pack members, Austin and Hunter, were also present.

  Aislinn took in the scene with wide eyes. She hadn’t expected quite so many people to show up. She’d met Gabriel before, as well as Marin and Kiera, but the others were strangers to her.

  The man leaning against the wall looked almost identical to her husband, which was a shock. She
hadn’t realized he was a twin.

  “You must be Aislinn,” Colin said with a warm smile. “I’m your mate’s brother, Colin.”

  She took his hand and returned his smile. “It’s nice to meet you, but I must confess that I didn’t realize he had a twin.”

  Colin laughed. “I’m not surprised. He was probably worried you’d prefer me over his sullen self.”

  Aislinn looked at Connor. “Sullen?”

  He shrugged. “Colin has always been the more exuberant of the two of us.”

  Her gaze swept over the waiting room. “It must be nice to have such a large family.”

  Connor tugged her over toward Gabriel. He smiled at them and gesture for them to have a seat. “It could be a while.”

  “Why aren’t you in there with Kiera?” Aislinn asked. When she heard a collective indrawn breath, she realized she might have asked the wrong question.

  “She asked me to wait out here. I think she felt I might be more hindrance than help, and she may be right. Cassie is in there with her and Matt is at home with their kids.”

  “I like Cassie,” Aislinn said with a smile. “If she’s in there with Kiera, then everything will be fine.”

  Gabriel nodded and gave a small smile. “I kinda figured the same thing.”

  Marin crossed her arms, sullenly. “I still don’t know why she didn’t want me or Chloe in there with her.”

  Aislinn wasn’t sure what to make of Marin or her comments. From what she’d gathered, Cole’s mate was sweet and rather quiet, but the woman she’d been faced with twice now seemed otherwise.

  Without conscious thought, Aislinn reached out to Marin with her senses, lulling the woman into a calm state before probing what was wrong. With a gasp, she realized that she knew why Marin was upset. She wasn’t sure if she was more startled by what had been revealed or by the gift itself. She would have to ask Eric about this new-found ability when she was able.