They made love slowly this time and by the time he carried her to bed, they were both sated but exhausted. Summer went to sleep with her lips turned up into a smile and he lightly ran his hand over the smooth skin of her belly and hoped he had impregnated her tonight. His wolf crowed in agreement and Connor closed his eyes and held his entire world in his arms, thanking the goddess that she was safe. It was a shame that she had to be in danger before he realized how much she meant to him.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Summer
She was a little stiff from their marathon lovemaking session last night but she wasn’t complaining. Connor was an amazing lover, selfless, giving and the sexiest man she had ever encountered. He had that cheeky, bad boy vibe in spades and it was such a huge turn on but he was just the opposite of a bad boy in reality. Summer knew there was never any doubt that she could count on him for anything and when the time came that they had kids, he would make an amazing father too. She had watched him with his brother’s kids and Kali adored him. Little Ethan was still just a baby but Connor handled him like a pro.
There was only one thing niggling her and she had been pushing it to the side since she and Connor were mated. He would likely live for hundreds of years, as would their children as they would have seventy five percent shifter genes, unlike Summer who only carried fifty percent and would have had to transition when she came of age. Summer herself probably had a lifespan of a hundred years, maybe ten or twenty more. Dying before him wasn’t even the part that worried her, it was her aging.
She looked in the mirror and happy with her appearance she stared back at her reflection. She knew she was beautiful, she knew it in a matter-of-fact way that someone knows they are tall or blonde or that they can cook. She also knew that when she was seventy years old she would be lucky if she looked much older than forty, but she would still age faster than Connor and sometime in the next twenty years, she would begin to look older than him.
She knew he would try to reassure her that he wouldn’t care and she would believe him, that wasn’t the problem, the problem was that Summer would care, she would care very much.
She picked up her purse and went out to join Connor before they went down to The Den to have breakfast with the rest of the family. The family, who like Connor would age very slowly and at some point Summer would end up looking like their grandmother. She just wasn’t sure that she could handle that. She didn’t mind growing old and gray, she just didn’t want to do it while Connor was still young and vital.
“Ready darlin’,” Connor said and she plastered a smile on her face and followed him out the door to the truck.
The Den was already full when they arrived and she normally loved the hustle and bustle and the endless noise when they all got together, but this morning she wasn’t in a great place. Her stomach rumbled at the delicious smells emanating from the kitchen and she knew Roisin and Imogen would pile the table high with delicious treats.
Hope and Bree were in the living room, ordered to stay put as their growing bellies protruded comically from their small frames. Hope was sipping orange juice and Bree had a cup of hot aromatic tea in her hand.
“Come and keep us company, Summer,” Hope called out. “Lukas has banned me from the kitchen. Between you and me he is getting a little too bossy for my liking,” she joked.
“I heard that.” he smiled as he came to join his mate. “Imogen said breakfast is ready, Summer can help herself but you two have been shelved. What can I get you, sweetheart?”
Nate came into the room with a tray piled high with fruit, pancakes and sausage and put it on the table next to Bree. He poured a generous helping of syrup over the top of the stack and handed her a fork.
“Perfect, just what I wanted.” she speared a pancake with her fork and ate around the sides, hardly coming up for air.
“I’ll have pancakes and some bacon if there is any, oh and maybe some oatmeal too with brown sugar. I am eating for four after all.” Hope grinned and Lukas went into the kitchen to get her a tray of food.
Connor appeared in the doorway and Summer’s heart skipped a beat as she went to join him. She had seen it with other pack members before her, but she was still getting used to the magnetic draw of her mate.
She pulled out a chair at the huge table next to Connor and put a piece of buttered toast and some scrambled eggs on her plate and made an effort to eat something. She was just in a funk and would shake herself out of it eventually, she wasn’t given to histrionics and she didn’t want Connor to know what was on her mind.
Why was she just feeling like this now? She had known from the moment they got together what the eventual outcome would be and they were twenty years away from it starting to become an issue for her anyway.
She finished eating and poured herself a cup of coffee and sat back and listened to the friendly debates going back and forth across the table with a smile on her face. She would deal with her own dark thoughts later, Seann had obviously called them all here for a reason and a distraction from her own mind would be quite welcome right now.
Garrett and India joined them last and Connor turned to talk to his brother while Kali climbed onto the chair on her other side. Her hair was braided and she was dressed in pink and white striped dungarees, probably designed by her mother. She helped the little girl pour some orange juice into her glass and India put a bowl of cereal in front of her.
Kali tucked into her breakfast and Summer resisted the urge to smooth her bangs back from her face. She was a lovely little girl but Summer had never been one to get mushy over babies and cute kids. Something was off with her, maybe it was trauma, getting kidnapped twice by the same psycho could mess with your head for sure.
‘Are you okay, Summer?’’ she heard Imogen in her head and she smiled and nodded not trusting herself to speak as she felt the threat of tears stinging her eyes.
She poured another cup of coffee and added some creamer.
Maybe when her aunt came to visit she could talk to her about this. When her Mom left the coven to be with her Dad all those years ago, these same thoughts must have crossed her mind too. In the end, it was a moot point as they both died long before their time and her Dad had been much older than Connor was now, it would have taken twice as long for people to notice the difference in their aging as it would for her and Connor.
A picture of a little old gray lady and a still vibrant wolf entered her mind and she pushed it away disgusted with herself. She had to get a handle on this. She knew she could talk to her brother, as a psychologist he would have some useful insight but he was much too close to her to be objective. Maybe Rafe could explain why she was freaking out about aging faster than her mate, there were thousands of women all around the country who had a younger partner and they seemed to make it work. Would she be freaking out the same if Connor looked much older than she did? Probably not, because society conditioned us to feel this way.
“You’re not old, I think you’re pretty,” Kali said beside her and Summer smiled at the innocent comment.
She must have spoken her thoughts aloud but no-one else seemed to notice. She glanced at Connor but he was deep in conversation with Garrett and she turned back to Kali.
“Just ignore me, Kali. I’m just being silly,” she whispered and the little girl giggled.
‘You don’t need to whisper, we can talk in our heads.” she replied.
It took Summer a moment before the penny dropped. Kali was watching her intently but her lips hadn’t moved at all.
‘Kali, you can hear my thoughts?’
‘Some of them, but mostly I see pictures sometimes, like the old lady.”
‘This is really important, honey. I am going to say something in my head and I need to know which parts you can hear. Okay?’
Kali nodded.
Summer thought quickly and projected a sentence.
‘I love your dungarees.’
‘Mom made them.’ Kali grinned.
Little Kali was a tel
epath!
She could only hear the parts she openly projected, not every thought she had, which was a relief and she knew from her Mom that sometimes telepathic kids saw pictures rather than words.
‘Does your Mom know that you can do this?’
‘No one does. I was going to tell her, but she might think I’m a freak or something.’
‘She would never think that sweetheart. Your Mom loves you very much.”
India needed to know what her daughter was capable of. Imagine if someone like Rob Danvers knew that a little girl like Kali was a telepath. In the wrong hands, this information could be dangerous.
‘We can talk about that later. I think Anjelica could use your help looking after the little kids while the adults talk.’
Kali bounced down from the chair and surprised Summer as she threw her arms around her. Summer hugged her back and her heart melted and she watched as the little girl took Everly’s hand and followed Anjelica upstairs to the playroom to join Roisin with the babies.
Summer blew out her cheeks, knowing she needed to have a conversation with Garrett and India. She caught Imogen’s eye across the table and knew by her raised eyebrow that she had been watching and knew what transpired between her and Kali.
‘Kali is a telepath,’ she stated simply.
‘Isn’t she a little young to have a gift like that?’ Imogen asked.
‘A little, but it’s not unheard of. In the coven where all of the kids have witch genes, some as young as four or five have shown abilities.’
‘I don’t know if Kali has witch DNA, India is her stepmom, remember.’
‘Of course, I did know that, I had just forgotten for a moment,’ Summer said.
‘India and Garrett need to know. We can talk to them after the meeting.’
Summer nodded and realized everyone was watching them.
“Just trying out my telepathic abilities,” Imogen joked and stood up to go into the living room. “If everyone is finished eating, we should get started.”
Summer was grateful as everyone dispersed but Connor caught her hand and held her back to allow everyone else to leave.
“Are you okay, darlin’?” the concern on his face squeezed at her heart.
“Yes, I’m fine, just a little tired,” she said simply and took his hand as they joined the others.
Connor wouldn’t let it go at that but she had a short reprieve while they went over pack business and filled the others in on what went down yesterday. Most had been involved but a few of the people in the room had been charged with keeping The Den and everyone in it out of harm's way and had taken no part in the actual operation.
The room was packed and most of the men sat on the floor. She slipped into a seat beside India and Connor sat on the floor at her feet. Seann was standing at the fireplace and waiting for everyone to settle down.
“We have a lot to discuss concerning the events of yesterday and also getting the last of the stragglers from the compound out here to the mountain by the end of next month. We already have a buyer and need to have everyone here by then. Lachlan and the teams are working around the clock to finish the remaining cabins but some of them may have to go into temporary housing. We have a few empty apartments now and some will move in with family. All in all, it’s been an amazing feat and the largest part of the planning has been down to Kandis and Nate.”
He gestured to Nate who was standing by the door.
“It was mostly Kandis who did all the hard work and we had a lot of help from all of you, this is a win for the whole pack,” he replied. “She is still out at the Danvers house with Liam and Finn but they are hoping to get back here tomorrow.”
“We will go into the details later and figure out what still needs to be done out at the compound to hand it over. As for the events of yesterday, most of you know what happened and those who don’t, meet with Garrett after this meeting and he will fill in the blanks. I think Summer has been through enough without hearing it drawn out all over again.”
There was a subtle warning in the alpha’s words to leave her alone and Summer wondered whether Connor or Lukas was responsible for that. Either way, she was too grateful to be annoyed at them right now. The last thing she needed was reliving it over and over. Danvers hadn’t had a chance to do anything to her this time but it brought back all the memories of her previous capture and she wasn’t going down that rabbit hole again.
“Lastly, just a heads up but not up for discussion this morning. Daria Blackwood contacted Finn last night and asked if he would be willing to sell the Danvers country house to her. I have no other details yet.” He looked at Summer but she shook her head, it was the first she had heard of it too.
“There are over a hundred witches in the coven, many of them with families. That house is huge but not big enough for those numbers unless they were going to build an entire community around the main house,” Summer said.
“Maybe they may want it as a retreat or something,” Seann said with a shrug.”
Summer had no idea that the coven had those kinds of funds but then why would she, she knew virtually nothing about them even though they were her family. She would call her aunt later and find out what was really going on. The coven was so far away from the mountain, at least a six-hour drive, but the Danvers house was only two hours. It would be easier to visit her aunt there if she bought it and she wondered how welcome the rest of the coven would make her. Her mother had been ostracized just for falling in love with a wolf shifter and had never spoken to any of them again after she left. Summer knew her mother had been badly hurt by their refusal to accept her choices.
She also knew, however, that no matter how flat you made a pancake, it always had two sides. Summer intended to find out why her mother had been banished for something so benign as choosing her father as a mate.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Connor
Regardless of what she had said before at breakfast, he knew there was something bugging Summer. Almost everyone else had already left and he had spent the last few hours working with Garrett, Lukas and Seann on the final details for the compound handover to the new owners. Happy as he was to help out, he wanted to find out what was eating her.
Imogen had offered to make them lunch and he hoped to be able to escape back to the cabin after that and see if she would talk to him. She could be stubborn and he knew he may have to give her a little space, but the last time he thought that, he had almost lost her for good.
“Four families with larger cabins have offered to house those waiting on their own homes being completed, but the McLeod’s have four teenage boys and I wondered if they could stay out at the farm for a couple of weeks, Lukas, with the kids you already have there,” Seann asked, interrupting his thoughts. “They can pitch in and help, make them appreciate the easy life they have at the moment living with their parents.”
“Sure, I think it’s a great idea. We only have two kids at the moment and it will help these kids if they get to know some of the pack members as soon as possible, plus they can help with the planting and getting the chicken coop ready for the new chicks due to arrive next week. They can all bunk in the facility for as long as you need. I will also have a new employee coming soon too. She’s a cousin of one of my staff members in Colorado and grew up on a farm rather than in a pack. I haven’t met her yet but she comes highly recommended and her experience will be invaluable.” Lukas looked pleased with the turn of events.
“Great, then the parents and eight-year-old daughter can move in with Lachlan and Faye until their cabin is ready,” Garrett added. “Lachlan reckons a couple of weeks and most of the major projects will be complete.”
“We have enough room here at The Den to house the other two families that are left. If there is nothing else, let’s get going and see if we can get them all moving and out of the compound by next weekend. I will be sad to see it go, but it's time to move on and we are not complete until every last member of the pack is here on the mountai
n.” Seann finished up and closed the folder in front of him.
“Are we having a full pack run on Sunday night, it’s a full moon and almost all of the humans are gone now,” Garrett asked. “It would be a nice way to baptize our new home.”
“There’s still some guy out by the old sawmill whose property doesn’t close until the week after next and we would need someone to babysit to make sure he stays home that evening. There is also the possibility of others wandering too close to the mountain and hearing the racket we will inevitably make. Jay will have a complete security detail in place but we can’t afford any screw ups until we are sure the area is completely human-free.” Seann added.
“Some of the older wolves won’t run and Jay will have a couple of his men patrol the entrance to the mountain road. If we keep the pack away from the town we should be free and clear.” Garrett grinned. “I for one can’t wait, it’s been too long since we had everyone together in the same place and had a proper run. India will be stoked too, she missed out on the last major one because she was pregnant with Ethan.”
“I will probably give this one a miss and stay home with Hope. I don’t think Nate will want to leave Bree either.” Lukas said, stretching out his legs as the door opened and Imogen called out that lunch was ready.
Summer had left already to go visit Eleanor at her little apartment behind the craft store and wasn’t sure if she would make it back in time to eat with them, so he took the seat beside his brother as the others gathered around the table and Imogen and India carried in trays of shepherd’s pie and bowls of carrots and peas.
“Imogen, this smells amazing,” Hope said as she sat down next to Lukas. “Bree and Nate will be here in a couple of minutes, they are checking out the latest progress Lachlan’s men are making on their new house.”
Children of the Moon: Book Six Page 10