by Terry Spear
“I love being with you, you know?”
She sighed. “Same here. I love the ocean breeze, the sound of the waves, snuggling with you…”
“Kissing.”
She chuckled. “I’d better get to bed. Toby is an early riser, and he’ll be awful to live with when he begins to ask hundreds of times when we’re going to leave for Disneyland.”
“We’ll be leaving early. It’s a bit of a drive.”
“Okay. Sounds good. Night, Rafe, and again…thanks.”
She kissed him again, and he led her back into the house.
She said good night to Aidan, who was sitting on the couch watching a sci-fi thriller, entered her bedroom, and shut the door.
Aidan immediately joined Rafe. “Okay, so what gives?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you mating the she-wolf? What are you going to do about her son? Did she agree to change him?”
“She might not even want to mate me. She may hate my lifestyle and that the paparazzi will be plaguing her and her son even more if it looks like we’re getting married.”
“Oh yeah, about that…”
“What?”
“That paparazzo that was hassling Jade before? He was up here asking questions about Toby while you and Jade were out shopping. I’m sure he won’t learn anything about him, but I just wanted to warn you that it’s already started. And tomorrow? Guaranteed some of them will be watching the house when we leave for the theme park in the morning to try to capture as many photos as they can of you and Jade and the boy.”
“So let ’em.”
“What about turning him?”
“I suggested the week of the new moon, if she wants to do it. I really believe she’s been leaning toward doing this but didn’t have the resources to help her out. But she wouldn’t say one way or another.”
“Okay, well, if she’s like any of us, we need to sleep on it. See you in the morning.”
“You sure you don’t mind going with us?”
“Are you kidding? And miss out on all the fun? No way.”
Chapter 13
Sure enough, as soon as their car arrived at the theme park the next day, Rafe noticed the paparazzi following them. “We’ve got company,” he warned Jade, his brother, and Edward. “Just so you know. Unless they get too bold and get in our way, just ignore them. And enjoy yourselves.”
He knew Edward wouldn’t. He’d be on the lookout for Kenneth trouble. Rafe was amused at the way Toby was so excited about everything, especially the gigantic Disney characters he had to have pictures with. But Jade wasn’t the only one taking photos of her son. The paparazzi were taking them of Rafe standing with her as she took the pictures and caught a grinning Toby as the different characters posed with him.
“I take it he’s your son?” LK Marks asked Jade as Toby ran back to her, grabbed her hand, and pointed to Ariel posing with other children.
Rafe was ready to discourage the paparazzo if he persisted in bothering her, but he let Jade handle it because he wouldn’t always be with her.
“Come on, Mommy. Hurry before she gets away,” Toby said emphatically.
“Should we go on some rides?” she asked, ignoring Marks.
“Yeah!”
But he first had to have a picture with Ariel. At least Toby wasn’t camera shy.
Jade took Toby on the Mad Tea Party spinning cups after that, while Rafe stood with Aidan and watched them ride. He took pictures, aware of Edward standing some distance off watching the crowd. LK Marks was still taking pictures of Jade and her son, and Rafe knew he’d be trying to determine who the father was and why he hadn’t been here all this time.
Rafe and his brother did the same routine when Jade took Toby on Peter Pan’s Flight and two carousels. But they all rode on the jungle cruise, Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train, the it’s a small world water ride several times, and on Donald’s Boat. When it came to soaring above in Dumbo the Flying Elephant, the men sat that one out. Then they took several other train rides and the monorail and hit more rides like the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.
Afterward, Toby wanted his mother to carry him, but Rafe leaned down and lifted him instead. “Why don’t you ride with me? I have more muscles than your mommy.” He carried Toby on his shoulders to the next several rides.
Toby might have been too tired to walk, but he wasn’t too tired to go on all the rides he could. Rafe hadn’t known what to expect exactly, but he knew one thing: if going to places like this with Toby would be part of mated life with Jade, he could handle it. He could even envision himself pushing a stroller built for two—twin babies he imagined having with Jade—as he carried Toby on his shoulders while they enjoyed all kinds of different adventures.
After riding on Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes, they headed over to Ariel’s Grotto, where they had a reservation. Three different paparazzi had arrived at the restaurant and were taking pictures of them sitting down to lunch.
Toby was looking at the kids’ menu, which he couldn’t read, but he pointed to something on it and said, “Hot dog.”
“Hot dog it is,” Rafe said.
Edward had joined them and was about to get up to tell the paparazzi to leave them alone, but Rafe told him to ignore them. He was amused to see several people look at their table, probably trying to figure out if someone was a movie star. One of the Disney princesses came over and began talking to Toby and gave him a hug. He immediately began to tell her all the things he’d seen and the rides he’d been on. The princess nodded and smiled encouragingly while Aidan got up and took pictures of Toby and the princess. Rafe wondered if she thought they were celebrities, because she remained at the table for so long. She definitely would be getting her picture in some tabloids too.
As exhausting a day as Toby had had, Rafe envisioned him falling sound asleep in the car on the ride home. After a lobster dinner for the grown-ups and a few more rides on the way out of the park, Toby was yanking at Rafe’s hand to give him a lift.
“Here, let me take you, bud…um, Toby,” Aidan said.
Rafe wrapped his arm around Jade’s shoulders and walked with her back to the trams for the parking lot. “Did you have fun?” he asked Jade.
“Oh yeah. I always wondered what it would be like. I wasn’t disappointed. You? You weren’t too bored with all the kiddie rides, were you?”
“I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. And truly, I got a kick out of seeing Toby’s excitement about all the rides and such. Seeing the pure joy in a child’s expression would have been enough. Although I will say I had fun on the rides too.”
She laughed. “But you avoided some of the kids’ ones. The paparazzi will have a field day with this.”
“They will. I’m sure they’ll follow us to the zoo tomorrow and be hanging around my estate while the charity ball is going on.”
“They’re not invited in, are they?”
“Nope. They’ll be posted on the road, taking pictures of all the limousines, and then some paparazzi will be on the beach, capturing shots of anyone who is poolside. Anyone who attends will have their own celebrity status, so the press will be all over this. Does it bother you?” Rafe hoped it didn’t because it was just a way of life with him.
“No. I just worry about them questioning Toby.”
“Out of the mouths of babes,” Rafe said.
“Exactly.”
By the time they got Toby into the backseat with them and he had one arm wrapped around Buddy and the other securely hugging Dino, he was sound asleep.
“He did great for a little tyke,” Rafe said.
“Hell yeah,” Aidan agreed. “I would have been worn out way before that.”
“He was too excited. He was so fighting it. I was afraid he’d fall asleep in the restaurant,” Jade said. “But he was just having too much fun.”
“He’s a cute kid,” Edward said, “and believe me, I don’t say that about kids normally.”
Everyone laughed.
When they got home, Raf
e carried Toby into her bedroom. “Will he sleep the rest of the night?”
“Most likely. I’ll get him ready for bed and come join you.”
“Aidan will be on the couch watching a movie again and can keep an ear out for Toby. I’ll get us a drink if you’d like. Edward’s off to get some sleep. I’ll talk to Sebastian and you can join me on the patio.”
“I’d like that. Be there in a minute,” she said, pulling off Toby’s sneakers, then his socks.
“He’s a cute kid, like Edward said.”
“Thanks, Rafe. I know…I know this is all a real challenge, and I want to thank you again for…well, everything.”
“I should be thanking you. You’ve added a real spark to my life,” he said, pulling her in for a hug. “And so has your son. You know the old saying ‘Money can’t buy you everything’? I’ve found that to be so true since I met you.”
“You’ve spent a ton on us.”
“Yeah, but that’s nothing compared to how I feel about you.” He kissed her forehead. “Before we wake up your son”—he smiled—“I’ll go make those drinks.”
After she put Toby to bed, Jade studied him, wondering if turning him would work. Would Rafe still enjoy being with them in the long run? Or was he just offering protection as a friend because he cared for her? She could see the value in having wolf friends like him and his brother and the men who worked for him. They were a good male influence on Toby, positive and patient.
She wondered what kind of spin the paparazzi would put on her now that she also had a son. Would they search for his father and learn who he was? Would they question Stewart’s family? She groaned. She had never thought that trying to learn about Aidan would put her in the spotlight. And she hadn’t thought about how this would affect Toby and her former life either. With any luck, the paparazzi wouldn’t learn about her human lover.
For now, her main concern was Toby and making the right decision about him—leaving him as human or turning him into a lupus garou?
She had always figured she would turn him. Now that Rafe had said he’d help her, she could do it a little sooner. Without his help, she had been afraid of failure.
She headed down the hall and thanked Aidan.
“No problem. Sometimes kids wake in unfamiliar places and get scared. If he sees me, I’ll take care of him and let you know he’s up.”
“Thanks, Aidan. I really didn’t mean for this to be an imposition on you.”
“Are you kidding? This is the most fun I’ve had on a visit to see Rafe. And I’m looking forward to the zoo too. As for the charity function? Hate those things. So as soon as Toby has greeted everyone and we grab a bite to eat, I’ll take him to the den to watch some shows. Best excuse I’ve ever had to leave the social function early.”
She laughed. “All right. But I might be joining you.”
“I believe if you did, Rafe would end up with us too.”
She laughed again. Then she headed outside to spend some time alone with Rafe.
“You’re right,” she said, sitting next to him on the love seat. She sipped her margarita and put it on the table.
“About?” he asked, setting his beer aside.
“Toby.” She let out her breath on a heavy sigh. “I couldn’t do it before. Not without some kind of support system in place. But before the first day of the new moon phase, I want Aidan to change Toby—if he doesn’t mind hanging around a couple of more days until that happens.”
“Good. He said he would. But I want to discuss us. I want to mate you, Jade. I want to have children with you and help raise Toby, the whole nine yards. I don’t want either of you to move out. Ever. I know it’s a bit soon to mention it. If we believed in engagements, I’d give you an engagement ring right this very minute, get on bended knee or whatever it takes. I want you to have all the time you need to decide if this is something that you want too. But I want you to know that you and Toby are not just some kind of social project to me. If you left tomorrow, I’d be hunting you down and doing my damnedest to convince you to give me a chance.”
“Oh, Rafe, I would if… Well, everything is so uncertain with Toby. What if he’s too much to handle as a wolf, and you can’t live with the change? What if it causes too much trouble for you? Neither of us knows how difficult this will be for him or for us.”
Rafe caressed her arm and smiled. “If that’s all that’s worrying you, I’ve had a number of life-altering changes over the years. Every time I learn how to take it one day at a time, just as I would with Toby. What’s more important is, do you feel you can learn to love me?”
She gave a little laugh and wrapped her arms around him. “You are the most loving, protective, and generous man I’ve ever met. And hot? Oh yeah. But…no matter what happens with Toby when he’s changed, he’s my son, and we have a blood bond that will endure for all time. It will see me through anything he has to suffer.”
“Like you have with your brother?”
She sighed. “Siblings are different than a mother and her child. At least for me.”
“I promise I will love Toby like he was my own son. He’s never had a father, and I would be proud to be his daddy. Say you’ll consider it, Jade. I hate losing sleep over this.”
She laughed. “I’ll consider it, but I don’t want to make a decision until at least some time after Toby has been turned. That will give you a chance to change your mind if this isn’t something you feel you’ve signed up for.”
“I won’t change my mind.”
“We’ll see. We have another issue though. What if now that the paparazzi are taking pictures of Toby, they begin to look for his father? What if they discover who he was and question his family? Stewart’s family doesn’t know he has a son. What if Toby’s grandparents want to see him? That could cause all kinds of new problems.”
“I think it’s time for a cover story. What if we say he’s mine? And I only just learned of it? We had a fling nearly four years ago, hot and heavy. We can pinpoint a time, and as long as you weren’t in the eye of the public about that time, and I can create a fictionalized account concerning where we met and such, we can pull it off.”
“Then you’d be stuck having to acknowledge him as your son forever, when you might decide that’s not what you want.”
He shook his head and pulled her from the love seat. “How can I convince you that I love you? That I can love Toby as my own son just as much? I know you haven’t been able to trust your own family, and that’s made you wary of believing anyone else can help you or care for you the way I do, but one of the things that’s made me so successful is being wolfishly determined to accomplish what I set out to do. Seeing a good investment is something I know about. When I commit to something as important as this, it’s for life. I’m going to keep trying to convince you until it’s a done deal.”
He leaned down and kissed her forehead, her cheeks, her mouth, his hands caressing her arms, coaxing her to agree.
She knew in her heart this was right, as long as Rafe really could handle a small boy, newly turned. She loved Rafe. “I love you, Rafe Denali. You for you alone. If we were without money and living in a rundown shack, I would be just as happy. As long as I was with you. Would Aidan truly mind still visiting? Would your friends and those who work for you really mind?”
His eyes were already smoky with desire, his mouth still so serious, his voice dark and deep. “Hell yeah to Aidan’s visiting. He’s already said he’s staying longer to watch Toby after he’s turned, if you agreed to it. And my friends and staff? Are you kidding? If I let you leave me, they’ll be banging down your door to try to court you next. So since you love me too, I’d say it was time to do something about it.”
“You can’t change your mind when Toby is turned,” she said emphatically. Part of her said they should wait until Toby had been turned, and after a month or two, if Rafe was fine with calling him his son, they would do it. But that reckless wolfish side of her said to hell with it. She trusted Rafe, wanted him
with all her heart, and knew, just from the time he’d already spent with Toby, he was the right wolf for both of them.
Rafe shook his head. “Part of dealing with life is dealing with conflict. He needs a father as much as he needs his mother. He needs a family that can help him through this. He’s got it. Are you ready for what’s next?”
“What if Toby wakes and wants me?”
“We’ll tell Aidan he needs to be the best uncle a boy ever had.”
She smiled, but her stomach was doing flip-flops. “Poor Aidan.” She had suspected it would come to this, but not now, not this moment.
“Why do you think Aidan came here early? Before the charity ball? He knew I had already fallen for the she-wolf and that meant taking in her son too. And my brother wouldn’t be doing this if he didn’t want to. Believe me. He has a mind of his own.”
She smiled, hugging Rafe and kissing him with all her heart.
Rafe scooped Jade up into his arms and carried her inside the house. When they reached the living room, he asked Aidan, “Can you hold down the fort a little while longer?”
Aidan raised his brows, amused.
“I’ll return to him in a little while,” Jade said, feeling her cheeks heat.
“Take all the time you need. If Toby wakes, I’ll read to him or fix him a milk shake or whatever, until you’re ready.” Then Aidan broadly smiled at both of them. “I guess congratulations are in order. Looks like I’m going to be one proud uncle.”
“That you are, Brother.” Then Rafe carried Jade back to his bedroom. She remembered being here before when he had injured himself on the seashell. It seemed so long ago. She never would have expected this from their first encounter—a mate for her, and a father for her little boy.
“You know we’ll have to get married. Something simple—the wedding gown and a service, but only wolf guests—and that means just the few I know, unless you know any you want to invite.”
She shook her head as he set her on the bed. “Well, maybe Fiona.”
Rafe looked askance at her.
“I’ll need someone to help me dress in the gown. Unless you want your brother to help me dress.”
