Chapter 9

Walker

I could tell she was upset and maybe even a little angry, but there was also a touch of guilt in her expression. I had so many questions I wanted answers to, but I was terrified of pushing her too far and being banished back upstairs.

"Kian will have to tell my former Alpha about this, but all he knows is that a monster is living here."

"You"re not a monster," I argued.

"But I am. And to them, that"s all I am."

"Technically, Kian was trespassing in wolf territory. Maybe he won"t say a thing. Or I could speak with him and explain things."

"He"ll tell," she assured me. "There"s an unspoken alliance between the panthers and wolves in this region."

"I see. Why would you come back here if you were banished from the Pack?"

"Technically I don"t have a wolf to be banished, and I had nowhere else to go. This was the last home I could remember aside from my family"s home in the city. It was never that safe for us wolves in the city anyway, but a beast like me?"

I hated when she called herself that, even though I had no idea what else to call it either.

"You know you have the head of your wolf, right?"

"I know. But the rest has been so distorted and made unnatural."

"Maybe. With the head of the wolf comes the brain of the wolf. She"s still there, Lindsey. I can feel her. My wolf feels her too. He could never have sensed you as our mate otherwise."

I wasn"t sure that was entirely true because I was well aware of instances of interspecies true mates and even a human as the true mate to a wolf shifter. But it sounded good and she gave me a weak smile for my efforts. If it helped alleviate some of her stress, then I"d swear it for truth.

"You"re really her true mate?" Maya asked in a swoony little voice.

"I am."

"So you"re not going to just leave us then?"

"No. When you"re all ready, I plan to take you home."

"Home? Where"s that?"

"California. A town called San Marco. It"s in Westin Pack."

"You"re a Westin wolf? I heard Westin wolves are the coolest," Dante said in awe.

"I wasn"t always a Westin wolf. I was born into Longhorn Pack, and I still have family there and a strong alliance with the Alpha. But Westin Force headquarters are there. That"s where I work and where my team is. I honestly can"t imagine living anywhere else."

I saw the silent tear stream down Lindsey"s cheek.

"Hey, it"s okay. If you"d rather stay here, I can reconsider and setup roots elsewhere. Even here. I can talk to King Phillip and Alpha Leonard."

"You know my Alpha?"

"I told you, I know a lot of people, especially amongst the wolves, but not exclusively."

"What do you do exactly?"

I grinned, knowing my dimples were showing. This time I was certain she wasn"t quite so immune to my charm.

"I'm an escort."

"Excuse me?" She growled.

I laughed. "Not in the way you"re thinking. I provide security for the Alpha of Westin and his family. Sometimes my unit will collaborate with others and I find myself undercover. I think it"s my charming personality."

That made her snort. "You wish."

My grin grew even wider, and I saw her sigh and relax as she stared up at me. That was a reaction I was used to getting from women, but this was no ordinary woman, and damn it, there were kids watching.

I could usually flirt without being affected, but clearly that wasn"t going to be the case with Lindsey. Everything she did or said seemed to affect me.

I"d had a real dry spell lately and hoped to God it was coming to an end soon.

"Why don"t we finish cleaning this place up if this is where we"re crashing for a while. And I"ll see about securing the house so someone can"t just barge in like that again, at least not easily."

"You can do that?" Dante asked.

"Of course I can."

"Even against the guys with guns?"

"Even against them."

I knew he was a young seer but his latest vision was more than a little disturbing.

"I dropped the groceries on the way in," Lindsey suddenly said.

"I"ll get them."

"No," she yelled a little too harshly. "I"ll get them."

I suspected she was scared that if I left the house, that I"d run away or something. Or at least I hoped that was her concern and cause for her abrupt change.

Didn"t she realize that I couldn"t just leave her no matter what happened? She was mine to protect and that was something I took very seriously.

Before I could even respond, she ran down the stairs and returned with bags in her hands. She had moved so fast. Was that normal? Had I just spaced out or something?

"She"s fast, isn"t she? It"s so cool," Dante said. "In our last collection there wasn"t much room to move, but a few times she'd attempted escapes and we"d get to see it. She"s so awesome."

"What else can she do?"

"Let"s see. She can fly, but you already knew that. And she has the speed of a cheetah. Oh yeah, the ears of a bat, and the sight and claws of an eagle. Plus heightened wolf senses too. She"s not really a witch though. She wasn"t born with extra powers like me and Maya. Lindsey was created like a superhero."

"Her beast doesn"t scare you?"

"No way. She"s one of a kind and keeps all the bad people away. She didn"t have to take me and Maya in. We were nobodies to her. But she adopted us like we were her own pups, and now we"re family. Hey, maybe you could join our family. Or Pack. That"s what she tells us. We"re her Pack now."

My heart broke hearing his story. I was happy for the kids and glad she"d taken them in. I"d always had a soft spot for children and hated to think of any one of them being raised all alone inside a collection. But knowing my mate was so desperate for a Pack that she took in two strays and made them family upset me.

"So tell me about this vision you had," I said, more than ready to change the subject.

"Well, you and Lindsey are fighting about something and suddenly a whole bunch of men come storming the house with guns. That girl you were with back at the auction is with them. And they kill Lindsey. And then a stray bullet takes out Maya too. I"m left behind as they drag you away with them. Because they"re coming for you."

A cold shiver ran down my spine and the hair on my arms stood up.

Westin Force would definitely come for me. They could be tracking me right now. But there was no way I could let them harm Lindsey or Maya like that.

Somewhere in our journey here, I"d lost my cell phone. But I knew there was a chance they could still track me with the chip they"d implanted.

I touched my ear and then smacked it. "Hello? Is anyone listening?"

Dante looked at me like I"d truly lost it this time.

"What are you doing?"

"Checking coms. When I go on a mission there"s a teeny tiny little microchip implanted in my ear that allows me to talk to the rest of my team and for them to hear everything going on."

Slowly he looked around like someone was going to jump out of the shadows or something.

"They"re listening to us?"

I chuckled. "I don"t think so. I haven"t been able to hear them since shortly after we left Venezuela. If I can"t hear them, I"m pretty sure they can"t hear us."

"Isn"t that weird though? Like what if you have to go to the bathroom. They just tag along and listen to it?" He looked so disgusted.

"I guess I never thought about it like that before."

I supposed that satisfied him because he dropped the topic as we got back to work cleaning. The four of us seemed to concentrate in the same areas, like none of us wanted to leave the others after the panthers had invaded our space. We were all a little jumpy too.

"When I was little, my grandmother would play music and it made the time pass faster," Lindsey said.

I was happy she shared a good memory with us. Lord knew she needed more of those.

"Oh yeah, what was your favorite?"

"Pat Benatar."

I grinned and started singing "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" at the top of my lungs.

She stood there just staring at me in surprise as the kids jumped around and danced to my song.

I winked at her. My dimples weren"t the only trick in my arsenal. I had a great singing voice and could dance too. As I transitioned into "Love is a Battlefield," I pulled Lindsey into my arms and danced around the room. She was having too much fun to try and push me away. Caught up in the moment, I wasn"t even sure she realized she was having fun until the kids started to giggle and clap at my display.

She suddenly froze in my arms and I knew the moment was over, but for one perfect song, I"d held her in my arms and life felt pretty damn good and perfectly normal.

She didn"t have to say a word because I could feel her pulling away and chose not to make a big deal about it. I let her go and got back to work while humming another song.

Lindsey was temperamental and could switch in a second. But the little normal moments still gave me hope that just maybe she"d let her guard down for good and let me in. And I realized that"s what I wanted more than anything. I may not be fighting our bond, but it also wasn"t smooth and easy. Then again, everything in life had always come easy for me. Maybe it was time I actually worked for something.

I started concocting a plan to woo her. I would win her over with little things.

After a few more hours, Maya began to whine. "I"m hungry."

"I bought some groceries. Let"s go into the kitchen," Lindsey said.

We all finished what we were doing and followed her. She pulled out the groceries she'd bought and they all stood there staring at them.

"I know how much you love broccoli, Dante," she said uneasily.

He touched it with his finger. "It"s hard. That"s broccoli?"

"I think so," she answered in a voice filled with uncertainty.

"What's that?" Maya asked pointing to a tube.

"Hamburgers," she said as her shoulders deflated. "Or that"s what the guy at the store told me it was."

"But that"s not right. How are we supposed to eat that?" Dante asked.

"You cook it first," I said.

Lindsey turned wild eyes up to me. "Please tell me that one of your other hidden talents is cooking."

"Yeah, we don"t cook. Trays of food just show up for us to eat," Dante explained.

"He can at least make beans and popcorn," Maya said thoughtfully.

I tried not to laugh at the three of them, but it felt so damn good to actually be needed.

"Relax. I can cook. Did you have something in mind?"

"Hamburgers covered in gravy with broccoli and potatoes."

"My favorite!" Maya exclaimed.

Lindsey smiled warmly at her. It was a rare sight, seeing her entirely human with no trace of the beast when she interacted with the children like that.

I didn"t comment it on it though as I quickly got to work prepping the meal.

"You know, everyone should know how to cook."

"Why?" Dante asked. "We"re just going to get caught again and then we won"t have to worry about food anymore."

I scowled. "Is that your plan?"

"No," Lindsey said adamantly. "No more captivity. And we do need to be more self-sufficient and not rely on cooks to deliver our food. Plus, the two of you are going to learn to hunt and fish. I don"t want you ever to be stuck back in a place like that again. You are free, and I intend for you to stay that way. Do you understand?"

He shrugged. "I guess if we have to. But wouldn"t it be easier to have someone take care of us?"

"I'll take care of you until you"re old enough and strong enough to take care of yourselves."

"But even then we"ll still be family. Right Linds?" Maya asked.

"Always."

The three of them embraced, and I wanted so badly to walk over and wrap them up in my arms. I"d always been a family man. First with my own family, though I hadn"t had any siblings of my own, so I"d adopted my cousins into that role. It hadn"t been easy for me to move on to San Marco, but there I"d found a new family. At first it wasn"t easy, but once Delta was formed, I"d found the brothers I"d always wanted. They were my family. Well, them and Shelby, Ben, and the kids.

I smiled thinking about how the triplets were only a little younger than Maya and Dante. I could already see them growing up to be the best of friends.

"What are you smiling about?" Maya asked.

"Just thinking about my godkids. You two will love them."

"What"s a godkid?" Dante asked.

"Hmm, I don"t really know how to explain it. They have a great mom and dad, but if anything were to happen to both of them, then the kids would come to live with me. Mostly, I"m just like a favorite uncle. I spend as much time with them as possible."

"That"s why you"re so good with Maya and Dante," Lindsey said softly.

I shrugged. "I"ve always been good with children."

"So what"s their names?" Maya asked, suddenly very interested to hear more.

"Zachary, Nathan, and Mary Alice."

"Are they wolves too?"

I shrugged. "I don"t really know."

"How do you not know something like that?" Lindsey asked.

"They were adopted." I didn"t go into details. I didn"t want to freak her out. Lindsey knew better than anyone the trials the triplets could someday face.

"Are they actual triplets then?" Dante asked. "Because Lindsey calls me and Maya twins all the time."

I smiled. "Yes, they are actual triplets."

They continued to pepper me with questions about the kids as I cooked us all dinner. We even sat down at the large dining room table and ate as we continued to talk.

It was a great, perfectly normal evening.

As I looked around the room, I couldn"t help but feel like I was exactly where I was meant to be and this was the start of a new family. It didn"t mean I would lose my other family groups, just that I was adding to it and creating a family of my own.

After the food was eaten and the dishes washed, Lindsey shooed the kids off to bed. It was late, and we were all tired from a hard day of work, but the bulk of the house was clean and livable now, at least.

We said goodnight to Maya and Dante and found ourselves entirely alone.

I considered myself a smooth talker, but in that moment, my tongue was completely tied.

The moonlight was streaming in through the window and shining on my mate. Her blonde hair looked like a glowing halo framing her beautiful face.

I had to kiss her. It felt like the most important thing in the world that had to be done.

I was transfixed as I slowly stepped towards her.

Her large blue eyes stared up at me in wonder, but as I reached out to pull her to me, she froze.

The sudden transformation from wanting to anger happened so quickly, but somehow I understood she was just scared.

"You aren"t supposed to leave the third floor," she snapped. "It"s late. Get back to your room."

Before I could argue, she turned and ran from the room so fast she looked like a blur in motion.

I sighed.

Patience, Walker. Patience.