A Mating Dance (2 page)

Danica had insisted he stay with them until he finished and Nevan, being family and all, wouldn’t see it any other way.

The phone rang, breaking through the silent, dark house and startling him. He laughed softly and shook his head. He’d been so focused on his sketch that the piercing ring had made him jump. Picking up the receiver, he kept his voice down, which was probably not necessary because Dani was a leopard shifter and most likely had heard the phone anyway. “Hello.”

A soft voice came over the line, unsure. “Oh…hi, it’s Sasha. Is Nevan or Dani awake?”

“They’re sleeping. Is something wrong?” He couldn’t keep the cold feeling from running up his spine. He’d meet Sasha the day before. Petite and pretty with short blond hair and skin of creamed coffee, she was the wolf Healer and one of Dani’s closest friends.

“Umm, well Cam and Blaine found two children running from rogues and brought them here. They’re pumas and…”

His heart stopped for a brief moment then kicked into overdrive. Puma was another name commonly used for mountain lion. His thoughts immediately went to his ex-lover’s kids. A dark, and cold chill went up his spine. It wasn’t possible. “What are their names and ages?”

“Sammie and Max. They said their father told them to come here and find Nevan.”

Fuck me.

“I’ll wake Dani and come right over.” He hung up the phone before the wolf Healer could argue and stood.

Shuffling of feet drew his attention to the hallway. Danica entered the living room, her strawberry-blond hair ruffled from sleep. “Who was that?”

He nodded. “Sasha. The enforcers found my…ex’s kids in the forest.”

Dani whirled around without a word to rush back down the hall. She came back a moment later in a pair of jeans and one of Nevan’s T-shirts. She was pulling her hair back in a ponytail as they walked out the door.

God, it had been over a year since he’d seen the kids. Although he was excited about seeing them, he had a terrible feeling something had happen to their father.

Dammit, Isaac, what have you gotten into now?

With his heart pounding from worry, he followed Dani inside the medical center, which mirrored a small hospital. The double doors opened to a waiting area with plush, brown leather benches and chairs. There were two rooms on each side and a hallway straight head with more rooms and offices.

Once inside the open space of the waiting room, Graham turned to the room on his left. The door was open, and he stopped short in the doorway. Cameron, the female enforcer he’d met at his brother’s party a few weeks ago, paced the room, humming softly with Max in her arms. She was tall with modest curves that her tight jeans showed off perfectly. A gun was still strapped to one thigh and she wore flat-heeled boots that came up mid-calf over the top of her jeans. When she turned to face him, her dark brown gaze held his. His pulse picked up and his dick hardened behind the zipper of his jeans. Like the first time he’d seen her, everything seemed to stand still; the air in the room grew thick. Only now it was more intense.

At the house warming party, he watched her from across the room, but his brothers and mother distracted him with teasing the newly mated couple about having children. He hadn’t had the chance to introduce himself.

Now, he didn’t have many distractions, nor did he want them.

Dani came up behind him and patted him on the back. Breaking eye contact with Cameron, he stepped into the room and closer to the enforcer to get a better look at Max while he tried to ignore the scent of jasmine flowing off her that called to his own puma.

Max was dirty, but looked unharmed. Physically anyway.

Dani rushed over, and as soon as she touched Max, he squeezed Cameron’s neck and started to whine. Cameron bounced the toddler lightly while she rubbed his back in soothing circles. “Shh. It’s okay. This is Dani. She’s a Healer.”

The gentle, motherly way Cameron soothed Max only added to the attraction that Graham didn’t understand. All his life he’d been attracted to men. However, this female stirred a need inside him he’d never felt before.

He had to get to know her, talk to her, and take in her intoxicating jasmine scent.

Fuck.

What the hell was he doing?

He shook his head to clear out thoughts of the female enforcer, and focused on Max, who had turned his head to peer at Dani, but his wet blue eyes fell on Graham. Instantly, Max wiggled and held his arms out to Graham.

Smiling, Graham stepped closer and took the little boy from Cameron, all the while trying not to notice the spark of something—he didn’t know what—as his hand brushed Cameron’s when she lifted Max to him.

Max wrapped his arms around Graham’s neck and squeezed. Graham squeezed back, closing his eyes for a brief moment. Thank God he was okay. At least he looked okay. When he opened his eyes, it was to see Cameron watching him. He smiled. “Thank you for caring for him.”

She looked away and shrugged. “He wouldn’t go to anyone else. Besides he’s very sweet.”

“Graham?” Dani questioned from beside him.

He turned so she could run her hand down Max’s back. She walked her fingers back up the middle of his back, and he giggled. Dani laughed. “I knew you had a giggle hiding in there.” She looked at Graham and said, “See if you can sit him on the bed. I need to do a complete physical.”

He nodded and shifted Max to sit on the bed. He let out a soft cry, and Graham growled low, snapping Max’s attention to him. “No one here will harm you, little man.”

Max’s bottom lip quivered, but he sat on the bed watching Dani as she moved to stand in front of him. Carefully, she removed his dirt-caked shirt and started to check him over. When she was done, she looked at Graham and smiled. “He’s healthy… dirty, but healthy.”

Graham sagged in relief. “Thanks.”

“He wouldn’t let anyone touch him but me.” Cameron said again.

Graham felt her gaze on him as he pulled his phone out, opened the bubble wrap app, and handed it to Max. “He’d always been a quiet baby.”

“I think he was touch-starved.”

Graham snapped his head and narrowed his eyes at her. “Isaac would have never…”

She didn’t flinch. Instead, she crossed her arms and glared back at him. “They were being held captive.”

His heart sank as fear rose within him. “What?”

She let out a sigh. “Sammie said they slept in a dirty cell with bars. The only connection he had was with his sister.”

Anger bloomed within Graham, but he tamped it down. “Where is Samantha?”

Just then a shriek of joy filled the waiting area outside the room they stood in, followed by Sammie’s voice. “Papa!”

He turned in time to catch her as she jumped for him. Picking her up, he held her tight and kissed her temple. Her blond hair was wet from a bath, and she smelled of roses and soap. “Are you okay?”

She nodded into his shoulder and whispered, “Daddy’s not coming back.”

Squeezing her, he didn’t respond. It was the only reason why Isaac would have sent the kids to search for him. The male had gotten into something way over his head.

He lifted his gaze to the doorway as the leopard Marshal, Blaine Andrews, walked in. The male was about a couple of inches taller than Graham and must outweigh him by fifty pounds of muscle.

The male was built for fighting and fucking.

This is so not the time or the place.

What the hell was wrong with him? Had he gone back to being a horny teen again?

Blaine gave him a short nod in greeting, his grey eyes darkening slightly as the male studied Graham, most likely sensing Graham’s desire. Hell, any shifter within a mile radius would sense the way his blood heated with the Marshal and enforcer in the room.

One of Blaine’s eyebrows raised and Graham swore his lips twitched before Blaine spoke to Dani. “Sasha says Sammie looks good from what she can tell.”

Dani turned her attention to Sammie, running a hand lightly over her back. As a leopard healer, Dani could sense internal injuries in other felines.

At the Healer’s soft touch, Sammie relaxed a little and squeezed his neck. “He left us alone. He said he’d be right back, but the monsters came and took us. We stayed inside that dirty room for so long. Daddy never came. I tried to sense him, but couldn’t feel him because we were too far away. Then he came and set us free, he told me to go to Ashwood Falls. He showed me the map on his phone, but I didn’t understand. He just shoved us out of the building, pointed toward the forest and told me to run with Max.”

She talked so fast, her words didn’t make since at first. When he pulled her back to peer into her face, she had tears running down her pale face. Her blue eyes holding more terror than he’d ever seen in a child. Graham hugged her tight again, rubbing her back, soothing her. “Shh, baby. You’re safe now. Let’s get you two home and get you to bed. We can talk more in the morning.”

Dani smoothed a hand over Sammie hair and agreed, “It’s late.” She turned to Blaine and said, “We can call a meeting at my house in the morning.”

Chapter 2

Cameron sat at Dani and Nevan’s dining table with Max balanced on one knee as she helped him cut his waffle, dip it into the syrup, and bring it to his mouth. When he dropped the fork and stuck his hand in the syrup, she squeaked and grabbed his wrist. Graham came over with a wet cloth to clean him up. Max grunted his frustration then gripped Cam’s hair with his sticky fingers, tangling his fingers around the strands. “Oh, Max.” Cameron stood, only to come nose-to nose with Graham.

Her skin heated and her heart skipped a few beats. His blue eyes darkened slightly, then a flash of bright blue told her that his puma wasn’t far from the surface.

Graham gripped Max’s hand and tried to unwrap her hair from his sticky fingers. Cameron laughed, trying to ignore the heat blooming between them. “You’re making it worse.”

Graham drew his brows together, making him even more handsome. She let her gaze travel over the masculine lines of his face. His skin was tanned, as though he worked long hours in the sun. He had high cheekbones and an average size nose that was just right for him. When her gaze fell on his lips, she wondered what they would feel like against hers. His lips were slightly full, the bottom one begging for her to bite it. When his blue gaze met hers, a wash of desire rushed through her, heating her skin even more.

Good Lord, what the hell was wrong with her? She had a mate, or could have one if she’d get past her commitment issues. She damn sure didn’t need another.

The front door opened, drawing her attention to Blaine as he walked in and shut the door behind him. Cameron immediately met his glare with one of her own.

Damn possessive male.

She stepped away from Graham and went to the kitchen sink to wet her hair and untangle Max’s hands. A moment later Blaine was at her side, he pressed a kiss to her cheek and then took Max from her. Her heart lurched as the little guy started crying and kicking his feet.

Graham appeared and took the wailing child from Blaine, and Cameron swore she heard a growl come from one of them.

Drying the ends of her hair with a kitchen towel, Cam stepped between them, giving Blaine a narrow-eyed glare. “Are you done?”

His leopard flashed in his eyes, and he leaned in to growl, “Not with you.”

She pushed past him, pissed that he would pull this possessive dominant shit with her, especially before she’d had her second cup of coffee. “We’re waiting on Keegan and Travis.”

“What about the wolves?” he asked as he followed her to the living room.

She rolled her eyes, knowing he was referring to Luna—the wolf Alpha—and Hayden—the wolf Marshal. “I already called Luna, and she said to fill her in later.”

Cameron sat down on the couch behind where Max stood playing with Graham’s Smartphone. She reached over his little shoulders and rapidly tapped her fingers on the screen, popping the virtual bubbles. Max laughed that infectious baby laugh, drawing out a laugh from her. She kissed the top of his head, loving the way he leaned into her in that comfortable way a child does with a parent.

Blaine sat beside her, and when she glanced at him, she noticed the slightest hint of longing as he peered at Max. She frowned. Loss twined around her, and she swallowed a lump in her throat. She looked away and blinked back the onset of tears.

Blaine’s warm hand came to rest on her back, and he leaned into her. “Stop. We have a lifetime to try again.”

She was about to snap at him to drop it when Max climbed into her lap and pushed at Blaine with a grunt. She laughed, hugged Max, and buried her nose into his baby-fine white-blond hair.

Blaine huffed playfully and sat back. “I see I’ve lost my mate.” He reached over to ruffle Max’s hair, but the toddler buried his face into Cameron’s shoulder.

Cameron laughed at Blaine’s offended expression as she heard footsteps entering the room. She peered toward the hallway and saw Nevan and a bed-headed Sammie following.

Rubbing her sleepy eyes, she quietly called out to Graham, “Papa?”

Graham stuck his head out from the kitchen. “Here, baby. You want some juice?”

“Yes, please,” she said as she came to sit next to Blaine.

Blaine held out his hand, palm up. She smiled and placed her small, thin hand in his large, callused one. Blaine studied the girl for minute, and Cameron could feel his concern. “How old are you?” he asked with his eyebrows drawn together.

Sammie lifted her chin. “Eleven in August.”

“She’s close, but Dani thinks she has at least another year before she shifts,” Nevan said, answering Blaine’s unasked question. “We’ve asked Graham to stay in Ashwood with the kids so they can be with a Pack.”

“I said I would think about it. Mom is capable of aiding Sammie in anything she needs.” Graham glared at Nevan and handed Sammie her OJ.

His brother made a noise that sounded more like a cat instead of the human he was. “I know Mom can, but the kids need a Pack. What about Cale? He joined a Pack.”

“Because his mate belongs to Crimson Stone.” Graham held up a hand when it looked as though Nevan was about to speak. “I’ll think about it.”