Alphas of Summer: A collection of shifter romances

by Lia Davis

  “You got it.”

  A few minutes later the camera was operational, showing a view of the entire room from its location in the upper corner of the space.

  “Okay, now we need to install the dining room.”

  Cade remained unmoving, staring at the monitor, a small frown creasing his forehead.

  “What’s wrong?” Thomas asked when he didn’t follow him.

  “Are these going to be on all the time?”

  “They need to be if my team is going to protect my baby sister,” Thomas informed him.

  “I’m not sure about this. Anna’s not going to like it if we can’t turn them off when we’re home.”

  “Let’s just get them installed, and I will show you the setup, and then we can talk about it.”

  Cade continued to scowl as he followed Thomas to the next camera. Now that he saw what Thomas had in mind, he wasn’t at all sure this was going to end well. He was depending on Thomas to know what he was doing, as well as know his mother well enough to not get his balls in a vice.

  A couple of hours later, Cade and Thomas were wiring the last of the cameras while Stefan and Simon continued to work on the furniture.

  Stefan was carefully attaching the pulls to the drawers when an image of El entered his thoughts with her in nothing but red stilettos and matching nail polish. He practically choked on his tongue and leaned on the edge of the changing table for support.

  Bad move. Very bad move.

  The rickety table was barely holding its own weight upright. With Stefan’s added poundage, it went over like a domino.

  Stefan gaped in horror as his table nailed Simon’s dresser with a solid thump. Simon managed to jump back as the two collided, avoiding injury. Too bad the dresser didn’t fair as well.

  A loud moaning sound preceded the dresser slowly toppling toward Cade’s half-constructed crib. The poor thing never stood a chance. By the time Cade and Thomas slid to a stop outside the nursery door, the crib was flat as a pancake.

  “What the hell happened!” Cade barked, horrified by the vision before him.

  Stefan raked his fingers through his hair. “Sorry, man. All I did was lean on it, and it crumbled.”

  “It shouldn’t do that. Did you follow the instructions correctly?”

  Stefan snorted. “Here,” he handed the papers to Cade. “See if you can follow these. I tried and couldn’t understand them, not even when I tried to follow the pictures.”

  Cade frowned at the instructions in his hand. He had to admit, they seemed pretty sketchy and lacking in steps.

  Cade handed them back. “Okay, I see your point. So, what are we going to do? We need to get these together and now all the pieces are mixed up.”

  “I hate to say this, Cade, but I think you should scrap these and order something pre-assembled before Anna sees them,” Simon quietly suggested.

  “Aw, hell,” Cade growled, rubbing his face. “I really wanted to do this ourselves.”

  Thomas squeezed into the room and inspected the wreckage carefully. “Before we give up completely, let me try to help. Let’s take this one item at a time and do it as a group. Since the changing table is on the top of the heap, let’s start with that.”

  Cade looked at Stefan and then Simon, they were both nodding at Thomas’s suggestion. “All right. We’ll give this another shot, but we need to hurry. Anna will be home soon.”

  The ladies had just finished lunch and were walking to the massage tables when Lucinda Le Beau, Emma’s sister-in-law, walked into the spa.

  The instant she saw Anna, Rose, and El, her expression soured.

  Anna, always polite, greeted her. “Hello, Lucinda, how are you?”

  Lucinda raked her with a sneer. “Are you talking to me?”

  Refusing to take the bait, Anna calmly said, “Of course.”

  “I don’t speak to your kind,” Lucinda hissed.

  El stepped forward, gently putting Anna behind her. “Perhaps you would like to revisit that bad attitude and try again?”

  “No. Actually, I wouldn’t,” Lucinda snarled, advancing toward El.

  Rose was stepping forward to go shoulder to shoulder with El when Emma joined them from the ladies room. “What’s going on, girls?” she asked as she rounded the corner. Then she saw Lucinda and the protective positions of El and Rose.

  “Nothing we can’t handle,” El answered bitingly.

  Emma glared pointedly at Lucinda. “Are you causing problems again?”

  Lucinda gave Emma a scathing look. “I never cause problems.”

  “Of course you do. You thrive on it,” Emma stated matter-of-factly.

  Lucinda bared her fangs at Emma. “At least I don’t advertise the fact that I have filthy humans in my family.”

  “ENOUGH!” Emma barked. “You and I are taking this outside. NOW.”

  “Screw you, filthy human.”

  Emma’s glare snapped to Lucinda. With a flick of her finger, Lucinda slowly began to kneel. By the strain on her face, it was obvious Lucinda was fighting Emma’s magic.

  “We can do this here or outside. Your choice,” Emma snarled into Lucinda’s ear.

  “Out – side,” Lucinda forced through pinched lips.

  Emma gracefully left the spa with a snarling, red-faced Lucinda in tow. Once out of sight of the humans and earshot of anyone on the sidewalk, Emma spun around. She put her hands on her hips and sighed. “Why do we need to have a conflict each time we see each other?”

  “Because, you’re human and below all shifters,” Lucinda spat.

  “Really? The last time I checked, I was a full shifter and had the ear of the Goddess. How does that make me below you?”

  “Natural born shifters have always been the superior species. Humans are nothing but a filthy disease upon the earth,” Lucinda snarled, her eyes beginning to look a bit wild.

  “I suggest you curb those opinions in public and leash that nasty tongue of yours before I cut it out.”

  Lucinda threw her head back and laughed. “Try it.”

  “You don’t want to test me, sister-in-law.” Emma’s warning glowed in her eyes.

  “NEVER call me that!” Lucinda screeched as she leapt at Emma.

  Emma was ready for her attack and held her palm out flat toward Lucinda. Instantly, the woman slammed into an invisible wall. Then she twitched a finger at her assailant, forcing her to her knees.

  Lucinda’s eyes were rolling like a mad dog. Drool running from the edge of her lips. “Let me go, bitch.”

  “Oh, you did not just call me that,” Emma growled and lifted her flattened palm toward Lucinda again, doing a hard pushing motion that threw Lucinda into the brick wall behind her. Lucinda slumped, out cold. With a sigh, Emma pulled out her phone and called Isaac to come and get his sister-in-law. She watched over her until Isaac arrived and, after explaining to him what had happened, she kissed him and returned to the spa.

  The sun was getting low in the sky, and the men were still trying to piece together the changing table. It was standing upright again, but Cade was positive pieces from the crib had ended up being used by mistake. It didn’t look right and didn’t sit level.

  “Are you ready to give up?” Stefan asked hopefully.

  Thomas squinted at the instructions and then at the table and back again. “Not yet. Simon, could you remove the last three pieces we attached? I think that’s where we went wrong.”

  “Stefan, while they try to figure that out, let’s pull the dresser pieces together over here in this open space.” Cade indicated an area along the wall.

  Stefan heaved a sigh and joined Cade at the mangled pile of wood and hardware in the center of the room.

  “Isn’t Anna due home soon? I’m pretty sure El said she would be back at the ranch for dinner. Maybe we should clean this up and hide it until tomorrow?” Stefan whispered to his older brother.

  Cade looked at his watch and cursed under his breath. Anna was going to walk through the door any minute. “Thomas, we need t
o call it a day and clean this up before your mother gets home. We’ve done all we can today.”

  Thomas frowned at the changing table once more before glancing at Cade. “All right. I hate to leave a job half done, though. How about we meet for coffee in the morning and finish this?”

  “Okay, I can do that.” Cade turned to Simon and Stefan. “Either of you available tomorrow?”

  Simon shrugged. “I’ll have to check with Rose to see if she made plans.

  “Not me. I’m helping El at the ranch.”

  “I guess that leaves you and me, Thomas.”

  Thomas grinned at his uncles. “We don’t need those two lunkheads anyway.”

  “Watch it, squirt,” Stefan mock growled.

  The men had half of the mess cleaned up and hidden in the garage when Anna walked in and stopped in her tracks.

  Chapter 5

  “What did you do now?” Anna growled low in her throat and her fangs extended as she eyed the mess on the nursery floor.

  “Aw, hell,” Cade murmured to himself. “Mon amour, how was your day at the spa?” he asked loud enough for her to hear, trying to change the subject.

  “Don’t mon amour me, Cade Le Beau. You better tell me what you’re up to, and you’d better be quick about it.”

  Simon cleared his throat nervously. “I better get home to Rose.” Quietly, he slipped passed a very angry, red-faced Anna.

  Stefan hesitated as he tried to think of a plausible excuse. Nothing came to mind. “I should get home, too.” He hurriedly followed Simon to safety.

  “I’ll leave you to this.” Thomas attempted to escape with his uncles.

  “Oh, no, you don’t,” Anna snarled as she grabbed him by the ear. “In the living room, both of you.”

  “Geez, Mom, that hurts,” Thomas whined as his mother pulled him by the ear to the living room and dumped him on the couch.

  Cade quietly followed, his head hanging low like a whipped pup.

  Anna growled through clenched teeth with her arms crossed and toe tapping an irritated rhythm. “Explain.”

  “I wanted to make up for the painting disaster by getting the nursery furniture,” Cade mumbled almost inaudibly.

  “Yeah, the guys were putting together the crib and stuff while I was installing the new security system.”

  “The new what!” Anna screeched.

  “Cade wanted one of those video baby monitors so you could see and hear the baby. But those can be hacked and pose a major security risk, so I installed a new system,” Thomas announced with a proud smile.

  She pointed at Cade. “I’ll get back to the furniture in a minute.” Then she turned her fury on Thomas. “You had better explain this system, in detail.”

  “I have cameras to cover the interior of the house that are monitored from the main security office and a separate camera in the nursery that you and Cade will monitor on your tablet or smartphone.”

  “Are you telling me you put cameras all over my house?” Anna’s screech was becoming more shrill by the second as she scanned the room for cameras. “Hell to the no! Remove that immediately!” she demanded, pointing at the camera near the ceiling.

  “Mom, my baby sister is going to be the queen someday and will be a prime target for abduction. We need to protect her,” Thomas argued.

  “You can protect her from the exterior of the home. Get these out of here before you leave tonight.”

  “Well, at least use the nursery camera,” Thomas whined like a child being denied a new toy. “It will work just like a high-end baby monitor, but is on a secure network and can’t be hacked.”

  Anna thought about that for a minute and then said, “That’s the first thing you’ve said so far that makes sense. Leave the one in the nursery but get started taking the rest down.”

  Thomas harrumphed as he left the room to undo all his hard work, leaving Cade alone with his still angry mate.

  “I’m sorry, cher. It looks like I screwed up again. I’m only trying to help and be involved. Is that really so bad?” Cade’s expression was so downtrodden it broke her heart.

  “No, it’s not a bad thing. You just need to go about being involved ‘with’ me and not ‘for’ me. Do you understand? I need to be consulted and given the option of doing these things with you.”

  Cade nodded as he listened to her. She was making a valid point. He had gone about it completely wrong. Then his lips twitched, and he chuckled. “We really made a mess of putting the furniture together. Three extremely smart men and we were helpless.”

  “How bad is it?”

  “Bad. The changing table, dresser, and crib pieces are all mixed together now.”

  “How did that happen?”

  Cade snarled at the pile of parts. “The instructions were hard to follow, and Stefan’s changing table fell over onto Simon’s dresser, which then smashed my crib.”

  Anna covered her mouth to hide her giggle.

  “It’s not funny. Now all the pieces are one big pile, and it’s an impossible mess.”

  “Oh, babe, you’re so wrong. It’s hilarious. I wish I had seen it.” Anna laughed until she had tears in her eyes.

  Even Cade began to smile as his tension lifted.

  “I don’t know if we will ever get them assembled. I may have to throw everything out.”

  “No! Don’t do that. Rose and I have put furniture kits together before, and El might be able to help, too. Simon and Rose could use a set at the long-stay apartments for the charity.”

  “Thomas is meeting me for coffee in the morning to work on the furniture. Would you and the ladies like some help?”

  “That would be great. We can pair each of you up with one of us and work as teams. See, we can do these things together.” Anna grinned as Cade leaned forward for a kiss.

  Thomas walked into the living room carrying an armload of cameras. “I got them all from that end of the house. If you two are done necking, I could use Cade’s help with the rest.”

  “Sure, I can help.” Cade gave Anna one last kiss as he stood to leave.

  “I’ll see what we have for dinner while you men finish up. Would you like to stay and eat with us, Thomas?”

  “That would be awesome,” he yelled from the master bedroom.

  Eight o’clock the next morning, Thomas knocked on their door.

  “Good morning, sunshine,” Anna teased her oldest son.

  “Coffee, please,” Thomas growled, his normal morning scowl plastered on his face.

  “Sure, it’s in the kitchen, help yourself. I swear you are the surliest person I know.” She giggled as he trudged to the kitchen ignoring her.

  Without another word, Thomas poured himself a huge cup with cream and sugar. Then he leaned against the counter next to the pot, sipping his drink like he was guarding a national treasure.

  Cade walked into the kitchen with damp hair and grinned at his stepson’s expression. “Good morning, Thomas.”

  He got a caveman grunt in response as Thomas took another sip.

  Cade placed frying pans on the stove. “Would either of you like eggs and bacon?”

  “I would love some, please,” Anna whispered against his back as she hugged him from behind.

  “Yeah,” Thomas grunted.

  “Good morning!” Rose cheerfully called as she came in the front door.

  Thomas snorted at her exuberance, which made Cade and Anna laugh. There was no one grouchier in the morning than Thomas James.

  “Hey, handsome,” Rose greeted his supreme surliness with a ruffle to his hair and a kiss on the cheek.

  “Cut that out!” he snapped as he leaned away from her.

  “You are so much fun in the morning, sweetums,” Rose continued to tease.

  Thomas refilled his cup and left the kitchen grumbling about calling him when breakfast was ready.

  Cade grinned as he handed her a cup. “Good morning, Rose.”

  “Good morning. Are you ready for a day of furniture making?”

  “Sure am.
I’m counting on you ladies to understand those confounded instructions.”

  “I’m sure we’ll do fine,” Anna assured him.

  It took most of the day, and help from Simon when he stopped by, but the furniture was assembled and loaded in the SUV. Simon and Rose had a young family arriving in the morning with a new baby, and they needed a crib.

  Two weeks later

  Emma fluttered around the house double-checking the decorations for the baby shower. Everything needed to be perfect. The sound of a car door caught her attention. Peering out her front window, she saw the caterer Rose hired had arrived. Excellent! He was right on time. She had tossed and turned all night with nightmares of late deliveries and ugly party favors.

  The cake had been ordered from her favorite bakery. Fifteen minutes ago, the delivery driver had called to verify directions, so she knew that was on its way, too. The only thing left was the pianist. Sure, having a musician was a little over the top, but this was a baby shower for the future King and Queen. Over the top was standard procedure. The pack members expected a huge celebration and wouldn’t settle for anything less.

  Emma was ecstatic when Isaac decided to retake his rightful place as the shifter King. She had missed throwing parties and meetings of all sizes. There were so many responsibilities she had enjoyed as the Queen of the shifters, and the assistance she had been able to give to her people had always been satisfying. She missed all those things.

  Opening the front door, she welcomed the deliveryman and placed a heavy book on the floor to hold it open for him. Based on the order Rose had placed, it would take several trips to bring everything in. It was easier to prop the door open than stand there the entire time.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Le Beau,” Fred, the deliveryman said as he tipped his hat. “It’s been much too long since I’ve seen your beautiful face.”

  “Good morning, Fred. Please call me Emma. How is your grandmother doing these days?”

  “I’m sorry to say she’s been feeling poorly of late. I’m told she did much better after she came to you years ago. And that the ointment you gave her was like a miracle. Of course, she used it up over the years. You wouldn’t happen to have another jar of it, would you? I’ll pay whatever it costs to ease her suffering.”