A Shifter's Healing Love

by T. Cobbin

  “Anyway...” Danielle’s small hands tapped his chest, bringing him out of his thoughts. “I’m glad you decided to come home too, and I heartily agree, this has been the best Christmas yet. Ollie is so happy and enjoys being around Gracie. It’s a shame Prue isn’t here. I’ve become used to her being around as much as you and Gracie.”

  “Prue will be back in a week or so,” Leo replied, his attention once again fully on his mate. “She always spends the holidays with her family.” Although he missed Prue, he suddenly felt possessive of his little mate; he wanted her to himself for a while. Well, with the children of course.

  He lowered his head to kiss her, but paused to give her a chance to pull away. To his delight, she grabbed hold of his t-shirt and pulled him down the rest of the way. Their lips molded together. His tongue licked along her lips, wanting entrance to her mouth. When she opened, he swept his tongue deep inside like a man thirsting in a desert.

  Leo’s cock engorged painfully when Danielle moaned into the kiss. Oh, to have her do that around his dick.

  Danielle was the first to pull away.

  “We…I…” She cleared her throat before continuing. “Dinner is going to burn if we continue.” She blushed a beet red.

  “Is that the only reason you want to stop?” he asked breathlessly. He could scent her arousal, but he needed to hear from her own mouth that she wanted him as badly as he wanted her.

  She glanced down between them before giving him a perfect view of her sparkling, lavender eyes. “Could we perhaps pick this up once the children go to sleep?” she asked softly.

  Leo’s heart stuttered in his chest. She was offering him more. How much courage had it taken her to ask him that, he wondered.

  He moved in closer to whisper in her ear; he wanted her to feel his breath on her skin. “I’ll be waiting. Naked and wanting once the lights go out.”

  He pulled back and felt the slight shiver go through her before he reluctantly withdrew his hands from her waist. He was chuffed to see her cheeks glow a deeper red and not one iota of the pungent aroma of fear came from her. He scented only the sweet perfumed essence of her arousal.

  She lowered her head and eyes before she frowned and stared back up at him with an annoyed look that he now knew wasn’t aimed toward him. She’d been doing that for the last month; it was as if she realized she often lowered her gaze to the floor in a certain predicament and aimed to stop herself from doing it.

  “I can’t wait,” she replied with a glint in her eye and a tiny smile that lifted her plump lips, leaving him wanting to kiss her again.

  “I love seeing the sparkle in your eyes. But what can I do to help with dinner?” he asked, noticing hot steam spewing out from a covered pot behind her.

  “Oh God, dinner,” she mumbled and quickly spun to face the stove.

  * * * *

  For the rest of the day, it seemed like time slowed down. Every time Leo looked at the clock, only a few minutes had gone past. When it was finally time to put Gracie and Ollie to bed, his gorilla was chafing his insides painfully, trying yet again to get out.

  As he tucked Gracie into bed, she asked, “Pops, can we go for a run tomorrow morning to...you know, let our gorillas out? It’s been a while, and Ju-Ju is getting bored. She keeps sulking. It’s soo annoying.” Gracie rolled her eyes, making Leo laugh. Ever since Gracie could talk, she had named her infant gorilla.

  “Of course, sweetheart. We’ll have to get up real early though, before Danielle or Ollie wakes up.” Leo didn’t want to chance Danielle or her son knowing about their shifter side yet. Only when he knew his mate was fully comfortable with his human side would he introduce his beast.

  “My gorilla likes Ollie. She keeps wanting to bite him for some reason.”

  Leo felt his face pale. Could it be? There would only be one real reason her gorilla would want to bite Ollie. Ollie was Gracie’s soul mate?

  “Why would she want to bite him?” Leo asked, knowing the answer but needing to see if Gracie knew.

  “I don’t know, but every time I’m near him, she likes his smell.” Gracie giggled. “She keeps wanting me to put my hands through his hair. She wants me to look after him. She says we have to protect him ’til he can do it himself.”

  Leo shook his head in disbelief. It would seem their beasts knew their soul mates no matter what their age.

  What were the odds? Gracie’s mate might be Ollie, whereas Leo’s was Ollie’s mother. Again, Leo shook his head in wonder.

  “You have to promise you won’t let her out to bite him, okay?” Leo’s mind swam with questions, one of them being was Gracie’s gorilla old enough to fully turn Ollie if she did accidently bite him? Dammit! He was going to have to ring his parents sooner than he thought. Maybe they knew the answers he seeked.

  “Why, Pops?” Gracie asked with concern.

  This was something he hadn’t expected to be telling Gracie while she was so young. “Well, I think the reason she wants to bite and protect Ollie is because he is your mate.”

  “Eww, like kissing and stuff like Mummy and Daddy used to do? Oh, Pops, I don’t want to do that. I just wanna play with him.”

  Leo chuckled at her small, scrunched-up face. “Only when you’re old enough to marry, then you might be able to kiss…” He broke off. Thinking about his foster daughter kissing anyone made him feel… Sick? Unhappy? Uncomfortable? He blew out a breath. “We’ll see.” He ran a finger through her fine, blonde hair. “Just promise me you won’t let her bite Ollie, okay? It might frighten him.”

  Gracie shrugged, but Leo saw a question on her face.

  “Go ahead, munchkin, ask your question.”

  “Well, Prue told me that when our beasts bite a human they become like…well, be like us. So, if my gorilla did bite Ollie, he would know about us then and we wouldn’t have to be secret.”

  Leo could hear the hope in her voice. Gracie had been four and a half when the last couple left his band, taking their young lad with them. He hadn’t realized until today how lonely she must feel. Being around Ollie he’d noticed she laughed a lot more. Again, he berated himself for being so lost in his work.

  “Your mummy was human before she met your daddy. When they fell in love and mated, your daddy bit your mummy, and after a long sleep, she woke up like us. But you can’t let your gorilla out to bite just anyone, sweetheart. It only works with someone special to us. Plus, as I said, it might frighten him.”

  The fact that Ollie might be her mate wasn’t the biggest problem. It was the fact that Gracie had to control her gorilla around the boy until she was older.

  They were one of two kinds of shifters that could turn their human mate into a shifter. The other kind were the rare black panther shifters in the darkest of Peru. The thought of finding Ollie bitten by Gracie’s gorilla at this young age was horrifying. But trying to explain to Danielle why Gracie could turn into such a beast, let alone why her son was in a deep coma for twenty-four hours after receiving a bite from Gracie’s beast, was even more frightening. It made Leo sick to his stomach.

  “But you said Ollie might be my mate. Isn’t that special?”

  Oh, by the Goddess, how on earth, and especially on Christmas night, had this conversation begun?

  “Umm. Yes, I did say that, and yes, he could be.” Leo stared into Gracie’s pale blue eyes, the yellow rim belonging to her inner beast sparkling around the edges of her irises, wondering what the hell he was supposed to say. What would her parents say? “You can’t bite him ’til you’re a whole lot older, perhaps only when you have gray hair,” he said, hoping to shut this conversation down.

  “Like you?” Gracie asked innocently.

  Leo laughed. “Yes, like me, you cheeky little monkey.”

  With a belly laugh, Gracie slid down further into her bedding and turned to her side.

  “Now, get some sleep. I’ll wake you up bright and early.”

  Leo placed a soft kiss on her forehead and stood. Staring down at the little girl for a whi
le longer as she closed her eyes, he knew he was in a whole lotta trouble when she got older. This little girl was going to need a mother figure around. He had no idea how to deal with the birds-and-bees situation.

  “Goodnight, sweet girl,” he whispered, and walked out of her room.

  He shut Gracie’s bedroom door and leaned against it and closed his eyes. Suddenly it dawned on him just how much trouble he could be in if Ollie was Gracie’s mate. They were both so young.

  “Hey, you okay? Looks like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  Danielle’s sweet voice had him opening his eyes. Her eyes were so much different than Gracie’s. Whereas his little girl’s was the faintest of blues with a yellow rim from her gorilla, Danielle’s was a shade of lavender. In his mind, he could already imagine seeing the yellow rim that would belong to her gorilla.

  “Just realizing just how young Gracie is, and how much of her I’ve missed being buried in work,” he lied. “Ollie all tucked up?”

  “Yep. I’m knackered. This day has been one of the longest Christmas days since he was born. I’m surprised at how early he got up this morning, and that he didn’t drop sooner. He was asking to sleep in Gracie’s room tonight. I had to lie through my teeth and tell him she was already dreaming of tomorrow.”

  Leo smiled, though inwardly, he grimaced. He felt like his brain was going to blow apart. Should he stop the children from sleeping in the same room? Should he send Gracie away? So many questions that needed answers. But seeing the dark circles under Danielle’s eyes, he chose to concentrate on his mate for tonight.

  Pushing away from the Gracie’s door, he slipped his arm around Danielle’s waist and pulled her toward him. “Come on, I think we need a tipple before bed.”

  A pink tinge colored her cheeks. “I haven’t had a drink since…since…”

  He guessed what she was going to say, so stopped her before she could go there. “You’re with me. I won’t allow anything bad to happen. It’s one small drink.”

  He wouldn’t let anyone hurt her ever again. She stared up at him, so he smiled wide, knowing it would show his dimples off. The cute look!

  “Okay.” She nodded and smiled back.

  Together they walked down the main stairs and toward the living room, where the fire was still going strong in the fireplace.

  “You wait here and get comfortable, and I’ll go get us that drink.”

  Chapter 6

  Danielle sat watching the orange, yellow, and occasionally blue flames dance in the fireplace and breathed a sigh of relief that today was nearly over. She felt tired to her bones. What she’d said to Leo had been true—while this Christmas had seemed the longest day to any other year, it had also been the best.

  She hoped that when Leo returned to the city, he would come back next year. Thinking of Leo leaving the island had her heart stuttering in her chest. Over the last three months, she’d grown close to Gracie, Prue, and Leo. The house would feel incredibly empty when they left.

  Danielle had to admit to herself that she would miss Leo more than she ever imagined. He had given her something that she never thought she’d get back after her experience with Master—her sexuality.

  At the beginning of Leo’s stay, every time he touched her she’d automatically waited for a blow or criticism. Last night when he’d run his fingers over her back and touched her scars, she’d flinched, waiting for him to withdraw. But he hadn’t shied away from them. In fact, he’d followed several of the long scars with his fingers. After she’d told him about her past, she’d expected him to walk away from her and treat her differently. He hadn’t.

  Leo was a man full of surprises. She liked it...a lot.

  “Here we go. A small tipple of brandy.” Leo handed her a brandy glass with a fingertip of alcohol in the bottom.

  It had been a long time since she’d smelled anything like this, and her hands shook when the aroma wrenched her memory back to that night in the club. She heard Master’s voice, dripping with sex appeal, offering to buy her a drink. He’d been holding a brandy glass in his hand. She remembered accepting his offer, feeling special, but all the time wondering why he’d picked her. Had she been easy pickings? Had she—

  “Danielle.”

  Why did Master’s voice suddenly sound different? She could see his lips moving, but no sound exited from between his lips.

  “Danielle. Sweetheart?”

  Master didn’t know her as Danielle, her name was Violet.

  A face appeared in her fuzzy vision. Leo. Leo was there?

  “I’m here, love. You’re as white as a sheet.”

  Realization dawned on her, clearing away that night she so desperately wanted to forget. Looking down, she noticed the glass in her hand wasn’t there anymore. There was no nightclub, just a roaring fire. No Master, only Leo.

  “Breathe, sweetheart.” Leo’s face was mere inches away from hers, concern filling his beautiful eyes.

  Tears blurred her vision before falling down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry. The smell of the drink, it umm…” Her mind tried to form words she couldn’t remember.

  Leo suddenly bounded up from his kneeling position in between her legs and walked out of the room. Was he upset? Where had he gone? Before she could question any more, he was back. It was then she noticed the brandy glasses were no longer there.

  “It’s gone. You won’t have to smell it again. I’ll throw it away or lock the bottle up somewhere, as soon as I can.”

  Danielle frowned. “Why would you do that?” She still wasn’t thinking clearly.

  “Why? Because the look on your face just now scared the shit out of me. I don’t ever want to see that look of fear from you again. Your hands were shaking.” He ran his hands up her arms. “You’re still trembling.”

  His hands stroking over her skin felt so good. “You didn’t have to do that. You don’t have to throw it away or lock it up. This was just… I…umm… I think Master was drinking brandy that night. The smell of it reminded me of that night.” She suddenly felt sick, nausea roiled her stomach. Closing her eyes and breathing deeply, she pushed the feeling down. Opening her eyes, she was once again met with Leo’s worried ones. “I’m okay, I promise,” she lied.

  “Bullshit!” Leo uttered and sat beside her, pulling her into his arms and holding on to her tightly. With his heat and the fires enveloping her, her breathing settled along with her pounding heart.

  It was only when she woke in Leo’s bed and arms in the middle of the night that she realized she’d fallen asleep. She hadn’t even woken when he’d carried her to his room. Closing her eyes, she had no hesitation in drifting off again, feeling both comfortable and safe.

  * * * *

  “Mummy.”

  Danielle woke slowly, trying to remember what day it was. Blinking, she noticed the sun was on her left side instead of her right, which meant she wasn’t in her bed. Where am I?

  “Mummy?” A small shout drifted to her ears, waking her fully.

  Leo’s room. Oh crap! Ollie doesn’t know where I am.

  “Mummy,” Ollie cried out again. His voice was more intense and worried this time.

  Danielle scurried from Leo’s bed with only a passing thought as to where the man was, and ran for the bedroom door to find her son. She found Ollie standing in the middle of the upstairs hallway between his and her room, his eyes brimming with tears.

  “Oh, Mummy, you scared me. I didn’t knows where you was.”

  She knelt before him and pulled him into her arms. “I’m sorry, baby. I fell asleep while I was talking to Leo.” She ran her hand over his ruffled hair, trying to smooth it out. It was a war she never won. “Fancy some breakfast?”

  Ollie nodded and grabbed her hand as she stood. Together they walked down the back stairs toward the kitchen. Danielle made her son his breakfast and sat him at the table. She then walked through the lower floor of the house, seeking out the other occupants. But Gracie and Leo were nowhere to be seen. Gracie might just be in bed, but Danielle could
n’t help but wonder where Leo was.

  Going back to the kitchen, Danielle started a pot of coffee and turned the radio on to fill the silence. She was humming to a song about an hour later while washing the breakfast dishes when she heard Gracie giggling outside. Drying her hands, Danielle headed toward the mudroom door where Gracie could now be heard. What was the little madam doing outside? Opening the door, she was surprised to see Leo barefoot and pulling a t-shirt over his head, while Gracie was standing in a onesie that looked two sizes too big for her, and pink, fluffy slippers.

  “Good Lord. What are the pair of you doing in here and dressed like that?” She didn’t give them time to answer before spewing more questions out. “Leo, did you take Gracie out in that? She has to be freezing.”

  She pulled Gracie into her arms and ran her hands over the little girl’s body, testing to see how cold she was.

  “What were you doing out like this so early?” Danielle asked.

  Gracie stared up at Leo as if seeking an answer, whereas Leo seemed a little dumbfounded.

  “Gracie, love, go get your breakfast and sit in front of the fire with Ollie.” Danielle urged the little girl to go while she aimed to get some answers from Leo without Grace being in earshot. After Gracie ran off, looking grateful, Danielle turned her attention back to Leo. “Well?” she screeched a tad too loudly.

  “I wanted to show her the sun coming up,” he told her.

  She shook her head; the answer sounded so lame, he must know that. “In her pajamas? In this weather?”

  “She had a coat on.”

  “So why were you putting a t-shirt on? What did you do, go out in that freezing weather with a little girl in pajamas and fluffy slippers and you shirtless? Come on, Leo, this whole situation sounds and looks just… Wrong!”