Jazz waited until Josh got Megan settled in Devin’s vehicle before focusing on Rafe. “Start talking. I want to know who you really are.”
“My name really is Rafe Alexander.” He turned in his seat to face her. “I assist a special unit of the government that retrieves shifters who’ve been kidnapped and prosecutes those who deal in shifter trafficking.”
Shifter trafficking?
And he’d come to town to follow up on a missing person. Gathering information, he’d told her that. Did the government find out about the fake birth certificates she had for Seth and Levi?
“How can I trust that you’re with this special unit and not feeding me a line?”
He grumbled but dug out his wallet, folded it in half, exposing an ID, and handed it to her.
Rafe Alexander, SA Field Liaison.
“Shifter Affairs,” Rafe said. “In case you were wondering about the title. I’m not an agent, just a shifter who’s been trained to do field work. I have limited privileges and don’t get paid, but I’m a point of contact in any feline-related issues in this section of the country.”
She nodded her appreciation and scrutinized the rest of the badge. It had an official-looking stamp on it, and the main address was listed in Washington. She turned it around, studied the glyph in the light, then glanced from the picture to him. It looked official. Real.
It made perfect sense the government would have a group that policed shifters. Someone must’ve raided the warehouse where she’d been kept. The morning after she’d escaped, a fire was reported to have leveled a large section of the industrial facility where it was located. The men running the illegal center wouldn’t have willingly burned it and lost all the experimental facilities there.
Jazz handed the card back. Time for the tough questions. “Okay, fine. Now why were you here in the first place?”
He held his hand out to her, palm up. She stared at it a moment before placing hers in it. He tightened his fingers around her hand.
“We were alerted to Megan’s adoption and came down to investigate. We arrived the evening I saw you at the bar. The fire had already claimed Tony’s life, and I’d worried it wasn’t an accident. That Tony was murdered, and Megan was gone. When Devin found Megan safe, I was free to focus on you.”
“Focus on me?”
“I couldn’t keep my hands off you.”
The lust in his gaze set her on fire. She glanced at where his fingers were twined with hers. “It wasn’t deliberate, then? You weren’t just trying to get information on my boys.”
He tipped her chin toward him. “I didn’t know about your boys until you mentioned them. I touched you because I needed to. You caught my attention.” He rubbed his thumb over the corner of her lips. “You still have it. You’ve mesmerized me, Jasmine.”
His words brought back all the warm feelings she’d experienced the night before. She swayed closer to him, but stopped herself from taking the kiss she desired. There were more important things than her emotions.
“And now? Do you still think the fire was an accident?”
He released her and ran his hand through his shoulder-length hair. “I don’t know. The fire chief seems to think Tony’s death was an accident. Part of me agrees. If it had been Jon, why didn’t he go after Megan as soon as Tony was out of the picture?”
“Jon is the shifter who caused the accident?”
“Yes, and I don’t ever want you to fall into his hands.”
The hard expression Rafe wore didn’t invite questions, but she needed to know what they were up against. “How do you know him?”
His nostrils flared. “He’s the one who took my sister.”
“Oh,” she mumbled, unsure what else to say.
He laid a hand on her thigh. “As long as you’re with me, he won’t make a move. He’s not stupid, which is why we haven’t caught him yet. He knows coming at me head-on is suicide. He’ll sit and wait for us to leave you unattended. Same with your kids, but I won’t. You’re safe with me, and this time I will catch him.”
Seth and Levi. Of course Jon would want to get his hands on them too.
“Do you think Jon knows about them? My boys?”
“If he doesn’t, it won’t take him long to figure it out.”
She nibbled on her lower lip. Was she wrong to be cautious where Rafe and his family were concerned? Maybe she should go with him?
But one night of passion and a few minutes of honesty weren’t enough to base decisions on that involved her kids.
Waiting was the right thing to do. She had to be sure.
Rafe sighed. “You also need to know that you’re in as much danger as your boys. Jon knows you’re important to me. He’ll come after you for that reason alone. To take you from me.”
Jazz swept her gaze over the woods surrounding them. No lion. No glowing brown eyes. He was gone, but the way he’d looked at her in the hotel scared her. He’d be back.
She turned in her seat and studied Rafe, looking for any clue that what he was telling her was false. Hoping for it, maybe.
“You really think he’ll come after us with you here?”
“Yes. He hates my family, me especially.”
“Why you?”
“He took an interest in my sister.”
“And you got between them?”
“Not exactly, but he blames me for his fate because I’m the one who made him face it.”
“Which was?”
“That he could never be with her, and if he loved her, he’d leave her alone.”
“Why couldn’t they get involved?”
“Because she was meant to mate a male like her, one who could shift into three animals not one. No one else. Breaking that rule hurts everyone involved. It’s not fair, but many things about our lives aren’t.”
“Jon wouldn’t accept that and took your sister anyway.”
“Yes.”
“I’m assuming she didn’t want to go with him.”
He shook his head. “My sister had already met the male she wanted to spend her life with, but he was waiting until she got a little older to make it official. He still searches for her, but every year that passes dims his hope of finding her.”
Rafe’s features tightened, and his voice lowered. “Jon knew that. He didn’t care. He wanted what being with her could give him, but it’s physically impossible. She couldn’t share her strengths with him. When I’d pointed that out, he mentioned that there were scientists working on solving our species’ limitations. That if he waited long enough, nothing would stop him. I told him to go cool off. That he was being a fool, and those so-called scientists were getting their data by experimenting on women and children. Within an hour, Jon was gone, along with my sister.”
“That’s horrible.”
“Yes, yes, it is.”
The haunted look on his face chilled her. She hadn’t meant to upset him with her questions. Time to redirect the conversation. “So you came for Megan. What were your plans for her?”
“Honestly, I don’t have an answer, but it’s not our intention to rip families apart. We do what’s best for all involved. Often, these kids are skittish, afraid of humans and shifters. First we make sure they’re safe, then we sit back and evaluate the situation to decide on our next steps.”
A wave of relief swept over her, and the last bit of unease faded. She blew out a rough breath. “Okay. What happens now?”
“We’re going to catch Jon, then help you, Josh, and the kids, but I can’t have you running off. You need to stay with me so I can protect you. Do you understand?”
Her back went ramrod straight. “I’m not stupid.”
“I’m not implying you are, but you need to realize even going to the grocery store by yourself is a bad idea.”
She rubbed at her pounding temples. “Protect me. Yes, okay. I understand. I don’t go anywhere by myself.”
“Good. Now don’t worry. You and your kids will be fine. I’m going to catch Jon. He won’t ever threaten you again. I promise you.”
Devin’s car pulled out, and Rafe followed him.
She forced her fingers to unclench. “Worry is what I do. I’m a mother.”
Rafe glanced at her, then back at the road. “How exactly did you come to be the mother of feline shifters?”
She considered telling Rafe the truth, but she didn’t want to upset him more. He was already protective of her. If he knew she’d spent time inside an experimental center, probably the same kind Jon referenced even if it had only been for a couple of hours, Rafe would flip out. She didn’t want to chance that while driving. One accident was enough. Her heart couldn’t take another.
Once they made it to her house and the boys were safe, she’d tell Rafe everything. He’d have questions, no doubt. Lots of them. He’d also need her comfort. After the story he’d shared, it be easy to imagine his sister locked away in a warehouse too.
“I found them behind a Dumpster.” At least that much was true. Sort of.
She had huddled there with Seth and Levi’s mother after they’d gotten out of their cells. It was then that Jazz had learned she was the only one leaving.
“They were babies?”
“Yes.” A couple of days old. If Jazz hadn’t run with them, they would’ve been taken away the following morning. For more experiments. They’d already disappeared once while she’d been there.
“So you took them?”
“Yes. I knew they weren’t quite…normal, so I kept them.”
“How did you know they were different? Multi-animal shifters don’t shift until after their first birthday or so.”
The day she’d walked into their bedroom and found a tiger cub in one crib and a lion in the other was one she’d never forget. Shell-shocked was putting it mildly. After a year of taking care of normal babies and all the joys and pains that went with it, she’d hadn’t known what to do. Their birth mother had never gone into specifics of what raising shifters would entail.
Jazz had sat down in the middle of the safari-decorated room and cried. When Levi, in his little lion form, started whimpering, she’d gone to him. It had taken patience, along with plenty of trial and error, but she’d ended up with two amazing kids, if she did say so herself.
“Your boys. What made you think they were different?” Rafe asked again, pulling her back to the present.
“Their eyes glowed.”
Rafe studied her for so long she feared they’d have a repeat of the accident from earlier in the morning, but he finally faced the road.
“They must’ve been only days old. It’s odd that their mother wasn’t around.”
“I don’t know what happened to her.” But she did. Seth and Levi’s mother had slipped back into the warehouse to save as many other prisoners as she could. After that, though? Jazz had no clue. No bodies were recovered from the fire that had leveled the industrial facility.
Rafe’s nostrils flared, and his hand tightened on the steering wheel. The tips of claws pushed from the ends of his fingers. No blood flowed. His skin curled on itself and the sharpened nails slipped free.
The sight of them sped her pulse. She scrambled as far from him as the confines of the car would allow. He glanced at her and cursed. He breathed roughly for a few moments, but finally, the claws retracted, and the tension in his limbs eased.
“I would never hurt you. Do not be afraid of me.”
“I can’t help it when you start to go all furry on me.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. That’s the last thing I want, but I can tell you’re keeping details from me. Don’t. No matter what they are, we need to face them.”
She dipped her head. “You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s just that so much has happened today.”
“I know.” He caressed her thigh, a gentle show of comfort that made her feel like a jerk for thinking the worst of him.
Thankfully, they turned down the road leading to Mr. Wilkins’ house. Guilt and sadness choked her, and tears burned her eyes. Five years had passed, but she still bawled sometimes when she remembered that night. If she started crying, she might not stop. No way would she allow that. Her boys were close. For them, she tried her best to be strong. To be their everything—nurturer, disciplinarian, and protector.
She turned her attention to the shaded yard. Mr. Wilkins, a stout man in his sixties with gray hair, sharp eyes, and a gravelly voice from years of smoking, sat on the Adirondack chair on his front porch. A rifle rested on his lap, and Peggy Sue and Bobby Rae, his older Rottweilers, lay on each side of his chair. The other three big dogs were across the porch as far as they could get from Kade.
Kade slowly turned his head and locked his gaze with hers. Her breath caught. It was obvious Rafe and Kade were identical twins, but with shorter hair and a hard glint to his eyes, Kade reminded her of a predator. Had she seen him at the bar instead of Rafe, she would’ve slunk away and run as soon as she was out of sight.
The car stopped. Rafe got out. A moment later, he opened her door and held a hand out. She didn’t move. Kade still had his unblinking gaze locked to hers. Rafe leaned close and blocked him from view.
“Don’t be afraid of Kade. His bark is worse than his bite.”
Rafe grinned as if amused by his choice of words. She might’ve been too if her heart wasn’t beating so hard.
“If you say so.”
“I do. Come on.”
Rafe tucked her into his side the moment she got out of his SUV, but they didn’t walk toward the house. Rafe and Kade stared at each other for a long moment. She glanced between them. She was sure there was some significance to the display. No doubt it involved her, but she couldn’t guess what. Their faces remained blank, giving her no sign of emotion to judge by. Finally, both turned away at the same time.
Kade pulled out a phone and headed to the shed on the rear of the property. Rafe slid his gaze to the second floor where a curtain was parted enough for a pair of brown eyes to see out. Levi. She’d know his curious expression anywhere. She smiled and waved to him, but the drape fell. He hadn’t acknowledged her. She bit her lip.
Rafe ran a hand over her hair to settle at her lower back. “They’re afraid of me.”
“I’ve warned them to let me know if they ever sense another shifter. That they’re dangerous and we need to run from them.” She glanced at the window again, but the curtain remained closed. “Seeing me with you has probably confused them.”
He curled his fingers around the back of her neck. “They’ll get used to me. They’ll have to. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Aren’t you?”
He bent close but didn’t kiss her. He pressed his lips to hers, a sweet expression of affection that left her trembling inside. Just as his silent staring with his brother meant something, so did Rafe’s chaste kiss. She didn’t know what, but after a moment, she didn’t care. She liked the way he looked at her, as if she was the most precious and desirable woman in the world.
“No, I’m not walking away from you.” He breathed the words against her parted lips.
“Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say.
He tilted his head slightly and kissed her but didn’t pull her flush to him. A respectable distance remained between them. The slow strokes of his tongue against hers stripped her of her tension and left her needy. To anyone watching, though, Rafe’s kiss would appear to be the sweet kind shared between people in love.
“There’s definitely no option of leaving. I’m keeping you.”
“Keeping me?” It made her sound like a treasure he’d found.
“Yes. You’re my female. No other male will touch you.” He eased back. The possessive glint to his expression matched his words. “Ever. I won’t allow it.”
“And how are you going to stop me?” It wasn’t like her to cause discontent, but she refused to sit back and allow Rafe to simply claim her.
He had to convince her. Make her want to be his. To obey him. Exactly as he did last night.
Oh, yeah, she’d been his willing slave then. She wouldn’t mind a repeat performance.
He dragged his finger down the length of her throat and across her shoulder, pulling on the edge of her top. Her heart rate kicked up a notch at the look of raw lust in his eyes as he focused on her exposed skin. He nibbled at the crook of her neck, and her breath rushed out. Desire hit hard and fast. She cupped the back of his head, holding him in place while he teased her.
After another nip, he stepped back, breaking the line of their bodies. The loss of his touch sent a chill through her.
“I have my ways. Don’t worry. You’ll be my willing”—he focused on her lips—“partner.”
He pivoted and strode away before she could respond.
Dangerous. The man was dangerous. She shook her head to clear it of the image of Rafe’s tight backside in the jeans he wore.
“Seems you got a man focused on you, Jazz.”
She glanced at Mr. Wilkins. He stood a few feet away with his two older dogs at his side.
“Rafe’s not important, just a guy who likes me.” The fib landed hard in her gut. It’d been her automatic reaction whenever the subject of men came up. None were important. She didn’t need anyone in her life, and made a point of telling everyone that. She didn’t know if what she’d always proclaimed was true anymore, not with Rafe in the picture.
“Uh-huh, if that’s what you say.” He moved closer, his dogs shadowing every step. “Kade told me about the accident. Are you okay?”
“Yes. How are my boys?”
“Safe but scared shitless. I ain’t never seen them so upset. They really don’t like that one.” He pointed at Kade. “But I’m not worried. The young man seems nice enough to me.”
“He doesn’t look it.”
With his free hand, he stroked Peggy Sue’s head. “Dogs like him.” He shrugged. “So he must be okay.”
She tipped her head toward where the other Rotties sat under the shelter of the swing. “They don’t.”
Mr. Wilkins waved at them and spat on the ground. “Sissies is what they are. But they’re only pups. Got lots of growing to do.” He reached toward Bobby Rae, and the dog nudged his head into Mr. Wilkins’ hand to receive the little scratch between his ears. “These two I trust. I’d bet my life on their judgment.”
She nodded, knowing he spoke the truth. He loved his dogs.
“If Rafe looks for me, tell him I went in to see the boys.”
She hurried across the lawn, up the steps, and into the house where she and her kids had spent many, many hours. Mr. Wilkins had been in the army with her pappy. They were close so after her pappy died, Mr. Wilkins had been the logical choice to confide in. He hadn’t let her down. She trusted him.
Geez, she was building a whole list of people to rely on. Mr. Wilkins, Josh, Rafe and his brothers. She paused with her hand on the door handle. It was nice. Almost made her feel as if she belonged to a real family.
With a heart that seemed a little lighter, Jazz opened the door and jogged up the stairs. The floorboards squeaked, announcing her approach, but her boys didn’t open the door. She turned the handle and pushed. It didn’t budge.
“Seth, Levi, it’s me. Move the stuff away from the door so I can come in.”
“Is he with you?” Seth asked.
She dropped her forehead to the door and breathed through the annoyance. That tone would normally deserve a stern lecture and a few extra chores as punishment, but her kids were scared and unsure. She’d cut them some slack. This time.
“Rafe is outside with his family. I don’t want you to be afraid of them. They’re here to protect us.”
“From what? Mr. Wilkins wouldn’t tell us,” Levi chimed in.
“Well, I will. Open up. We have a lot to talk about.” The man threatening them, the new shifters who’d be staying with them…and Rafe. Each of those topics were ones she’d rather not discuss, but being a mother wasn’t always easy. She only hoped she could come up with the right words.
The sound of scraping wood and a thump of something hitting the ground came from the other side of the door. It finally opened, and she slipped inside.