by Jane Jamison
Dylan started to speak then stopped as another cry split the air. A cry that hadn’t come from the baby girl.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Chance was up and running out of the tack room with Dylan right on his heels.
Holding the baby carefully, Rachel followed them toward the rear of the barn. Chance looked behind a stack of hay bales and gave a low whistle.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” muttered Dylan.
“That’s what I said,” added Chance. He bent down then straightened up. When he turned around, he was holding another baby. “Did a stork get lost or something?”
She looked at the second baby. “I’m no judge of infants, but I’d say she looks a lot like the first baby.”
Chance checked the baby. “Yeah, but this one’s a boy.” He did as she’d done, taking a long sniff of the infant. “Although I think he’s a weretiger. Half weretiger.”
The three of them stayed where they are, each of them taking their time to study the two babies. The blankets were similar in fabric and weight, as well as both being white. Aside from diapers, each baby was naked. Their crystal blue eyes and sweet round cheeks told the story.
“They’re twins.” She held the girl closer and let the baby boy clutch her finger. Again, the invisible link between them warped into high gear. The boy was connected to her, just as the men and the baby girl were.
“Hey. Are you all right?” Dylan’s eyes darkened.
Didn’t they feel it? If she was connected to the babies and to the men, wouldn’t they feel it, too? If they weren’t connected, then what? She couldn’t bring herself to ask. “I’m fine. But why would anyone leave two babies in a barn? Especially a vampire’s barn?”
“Beats the hell out of me,” answered Dylan. He eyed her as though expecting her to do or say something more.
“The real question is this. What are we going to do with them?” Chance held out the baby to Dylan. At first, Dylan hesitated then let his cousin place the baby in his arms.
“We have to contact the authorities.” Yet, even as she said the words, her heart hurt a little to think of the two babies in the care of anyone but their mother.
No. Not their mother. Me.
“Which authorities? Forever’s? That would mean Jackson Carr.”
“Or Twisted’s? Who’s in charge in Twisted, anyway?” asked Dylan. The baby had taken hold of his finger, as he’d done hers.
“The council is in charge.” She shook her head. “Still, I can’t stand the idea of turning these sweet babies over to the council.”
“If not to Forever or Twisted, then where? The highway patrol? Child services out of Lubbock?”
She couldn’t bear to look at Chance. If she did, she was afraid she’d see his determined expression, his black-and-white decision made and final. “No. I can’t do either of those things.”
She finally lifted her gaze to find both men were still studying her. While Dylan’s expression was quizzical, Chance’s was as she’d feared.
“Oh shit, sugar. You’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking.” Dylan shook his head even as he pouted his lips and made a funny face at the baby in his arms. “You can’t keep them.”
Why can’t I?
“The mother obviously doesn’t want them. Why send them into a broken foster system? As for letting a weretiger or a werewolf decide their fate, I just can’t do it. How would a werewolf know what’s best for a weretiger baby? And the same holds true for the other way round.”
The light had grown less and less as the sun faded on the horizon. Before long, night would fall.
“Inside the house. Now,” ordered Chance.
She took a few steps after him then stopped. “What about the vampire?”
“His name’s William, and he’s probably waking up.” Chance turned to walk away again then pivoted around once he realized she wasn’t following him. “What is it?”
Her nerves were jumping a mile a minute. “Won’t he be hungry?”
Chance jerked his head toward the house. “Yeah, he probably will be, but he’s not going to make a snack out of a couple of crying rug rats.”
Dylan nodded then took off after Chance. Unless she wanted to stay outside with the baby girl or take her back to her parents’ home, she didn’t have a choice. Hoping she was making the right decision, she did the only thing she could do.
“Don’t worry, sweetie. I won’t let anyone, not even a vampire, hurt you.”
She stepped over the threshold and immediately went into a protective stance, holding the baby as close to her as possible. Her hand covered the back of the baby’s head as she shot Dylan a look telling him to do the same for the baby boy.
“Boys, I said you could use my house to meet up with your feline lover, but I never said I’d let her use it as a child care center.”
William Dunston stood in the shadows of the house. Unlike many of the vampires she’d seen in movies, he was as buff as the Rothman cousins and wore jeans and a denim shirt like they did. If anyone had told her he was a vampire, she wouldn’t have believed them. Until that is, he stepped into the light. His black gaze met hers, and she shivered.
Chance gestured toward the babies. “We found these in your barn.”
William scowled. “In my barn? The hell you did.”
“The hell we did,” confirmed Dylan. “Do you have a baby mamma you haven’t told us about?”
William somehow gave the impression of rolling his eyes without actually doing so. “Yeah. A baby mamma who was both human and shifter.” He thrust out his chin. Had he sniffed? “Weretiger and werewolf mixes. And yet twins. Now that’s something you don’t find every day.”
“So you don’t know anything about them?” She was surprised when her voice didn’t quiver.
“Just because they’re in my barn doesn’t mean I know how they got there.” He waved his hand, an imperious gesture that seemed very vampire-ish. “Take them with you when you go.”
“We can’t.”
All three men’s attention focused on her.
“You can’t? Why not?” William made his questions feel like commands.
She straightened up, determined to make her case. Getting Chance and Dylan to go along would be hard enough. Getting William to buy into her plan would be even harder.
“We don’t know what authorities to turn them into. To the humans or to one of the shifter towns.”
“I don’t care as long as they’re off my land.” William’s tone had turned icy.
“Even if we wanted to turn them over to someone else, we can’t.”
Waves of frustration flowed off the vampire. “You’re stalling. Just get to the point. I have things to do tonight.”
“You’ve kind of lost me, too, sugar.”
Chance crossed his arms. “Yeah. Me, too.”
“If we take them to Forever or to Twisted or even to Lubbock, people are going to ask questions. Whose kids are they? How did you find them? What were you three doing together? More than likely the mother is human, so where did she go? Did she leave them or were they taken? Obviously she had sex with a weretiger and a werewolf. That alone makes everything even stranger, but what if the fathers took the babies from her?”
Dylan growled then stuck out his tongue at the baby, quickly stopping the baby from squalling. Chance remained silent, his expression hard.
“Those are questions I don’t want to answer.” She squared off with Chance, knowing he’d be tougher to convince than Dylan. “Do you want to answer those questions? Do you want the authorities, whichever one we choose, sticking their noses in our business?”
“In other words, everyone will find out we’re together.” Chance’s small smile was unnerving. “Maybe it was meant to be. Maybe this is a sign saying it’s time for everyone to know about us.”
She gazed down at the baby girl, who cooed and pushed a finger into her mouth. “Yeah. I think it’s a sign, all right.” But she was quick to add, “I think it’s a sign
that we were meant to find the babies. Not about letting everyone in on our secret. Not yet, anyway. Not until we’re sure what we should do.”
“You can’t pick and choose what part of fate you believe in, baby.”
“I’m only doing what I think is best.”
I should tell them.
And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to tell them she was connected to the babies. Not yet. Later, maybe they’d admit to feeling a bond with the babies, too. But what would she do if they didn’t feel anything for the children? Would they still accept them? Or would they rather live without her than raise two babies that weren’t theirs?
As easily as that, she made her decision. Unless the mother or the fathers claimed the two infants, she’d take them as her own. Even then, giving them up would be like tearing out her heart. She just prayed Chance and Dylan would come to feel the same as she did and stand beside her.
“William, could we stay here with the babies?”
“What? Why?”
She ignored Chance and hoped Dylan’s silence meant he was willing to support her. “We need time to figure this out. Maybe the mother will come back. If she does, what will she do if they’re not here?”
“She left the babies in a fucking barn.” Chance’s anger flared in the amber of his eyes. “Hell, she didn’t even put them in the same spot so we’d be sure to find both of them. Damn it, Rachel, she doesn’t deserve to get her kids back.”
No matter what, she had to keep the babies close. Giving them up to anyone, except the birth mother, wasn’t an option. “I don’t know why she separated them. Maybe she thought if she put one at each end of the barn, it would give them a better chance of being heard. The why of it doesn’t matter. Please. All I’m asking for is time to think. Time to know what’s best for them. Don’t you get it? That’s my point. We don’t know enough about them yet. We can’t just give them away like they’re unwanted puppies or kittens.”
Vampires were notoriously famous for hiding their thoughts, and William was no exception. She waited, her pulse pounding in her ears. If he didn’t agree, she’d take the babies and find another hiding place.
“Fine. You can stay here. I need to leave town for a few days anyway.” William pointed an accusing finger at her. “Just know this. If—no—when this all blows up in your face, I’ll swear I didn’t know a damn thing about it. Understood?”
She didn’t put out her hand to shake on it. A vampire’s word was as good as it got. “Understood.”
“Wait a minute. I didn’t agree to anything.”
“I don’t think we have a choice, man.” Dylan lifted the baby’s bottom to his nose and scrunched up his face. “In the meantime, we have to figure out how we’re going to get food, clothing, and especially lots of diapers for these two.”
Relieved, Rachel checked the little girl’s diaper. “We’ll make due until we can. William, do you have any small towels we can use?”
* * * *
Chance tossed another bale of hay into the stall of Rapture, William’s favorite horse. He and Dylan had agreed to take care of William’s stock in exchange for staying at the vamp’s home. While they were away from their ranch, their chores would pile up and they’d have to run home to feed their animals, but whatever it took to keep Rachel happy was worth it. How long they could continue to let her have her way was questionable. They’d already spent one night with Rachel and the two babies and hadn’t come any closer to a real answer.
“She’s already getting very attached.” Dylan yawned from the long night of helping Rachel with the infants.
Chance tossed another bale into the stall of the bay horse called Cyclone. “Yeah. I know. Hell, she’s even given them names. The boy’s called Holter, and the girl is Brooklyn.”
“After a horse’s halter and the town in New York?”
Sometimes he had a difficult time telling if Dylan was serious or joking. “Nah, man. Holter. Not halter. And, yeah, I guess hers is the same as the town.” He repositioned his hat and ignored the dust floating in the air. Taking care of horses and a ranch was hard, dirty work, but he loved every minute of it, even when the livestock and ranch belonged to someone else.
“Surely their mom gave them names.”
“Not necessarily. If she gave them up, then maybe she didn’t care enough to name them.”
A rumble of a growl rolled out of Dylan. “They’re at least three or four months old, right? She had to have named them. What else would she have done? Called them Baby One and Baby Two?”
“Shit, man, I don’t know. What’s it matter, anyway? The babies don’t know their names, so it’s not like they’re going to answer to anything right now.” The idea of a mother abandoning her infants was bad enough. But to disrespect them even more by not giving them a proper name was adding insult to injury.
They worked together, Chance shoving hay into the stalls while Dylan oiled down a saddle. Chance could almost hear his cousin’s mind whirling. It wasn’t hard to do. While they might react differently, they had a way of thinking the same thoughts. Sooner or later, they’d end up coming to the same conclusion.
He could still picture Rachel, a baby in each arm, as she rocked them to sleep last night. Not having any of the usual necessary baby items, they’d made do with what they had on hand. Bureau drawers became makeshift bassinets. Several hand towels were used as diapers until William, somewhat miraculously, found a woman to bring them several packages of diapers and baby wipes, along with a few cans of formula and bottles. Who the woman was, where she’d come from, or if the vampire had used his “influence” on her was never discussed. They’d thought it better not to question the vampire. The woman had even brought along a couple of pacifiers. When the twins loved the binkies—and thus, were finally soothed into a heavenly peacefulness—he could’ve hugged the woman right then and there.
A sensation flowed over him, similar to the one he got whenever Rachel was around, but more like a familial feeling.
I can’t be. And what if I am?
“At least we know Rachel’s going to make one hell of a great mother.”
He shoved the strange idea away. Dylan could always find the bright spot in even the bleakest moments. “True enough. She’s a natural. If and when she ever officially agrees to be our mate.”
“We could just claim her.” Dylan stopped buffing the saddle and leaned against the saddle horse. “It’s the same as claiming a human, right? Except that we won’t be able to change her into a werewolf.”
“How the hell should I know?” They should’ve asked Miss Clara, the matriarch of the Forever, Texas werewolves. If anyone would have an answer, it was the spunky elderly woman. “We don’t have to bite her or anything. All she has to do is say yes. Then we tell both shifter sides.”
“And brace for the reaction.” Dylan pulled his lips into a snarl as amber bits flooded his eyes. “I don’t care if people accept her as our mate or not. We’re connected, and that’s all that counts.”
“Damn straight. And it goes double for the tigers of Twisted.” He leaned on the stall and scratched Rapture’s nose around his feedbag. “There’s a lady in Twisted—I think she’s a werepanther—who owns a bed and breakfast. From what I’ve heard, she seems like a reasonable person. Maybe if we got Miss Clara and her on our side, they could help smooth everyone’s ruffled fur.”
“First things first. We have to get Rachel to claim us. I don’t get why she hasn’t done it yet, but I’m running out of patience. My wolf’s about to break free and do what he wants.”
He felt the same way. Every time he got close to her, his inner beast would rise up, fighting to be set free and take her as all wolves took their mate. More than once, he’d had to push down his lust, wanting to respect her wishes. But both man and animal could take only so much before all hell broke loose.
“Damn it. The longer Rachel spends with them, the more attached she’ll get. I’m worried she won’t be able to give them up when it finally comes down to it.�
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“You’re probably right.” Chance frowned, trying to sort out his thoughts. “It’s like she already knew them. Like she felt an instant bond with them.”
“Yeah. It’s like she has a connection to them.” He averted his gaze.
“A connection as strong as ours.” Chance studied his cousin. Could he be getting the same feeling? “Not sexual, of course, but just as strong in a different way.”
“It’s kind of weird.” Dylan grew serious and took on a contemplative expression.
He started to ask his cousin, but something held him back. “Kind of. But if she really does have an instinctual bond with the kids, then breaking them up is going to be hell.”
“That’s just more of a reason to do something before she spends any more time with them,” added Dylan. “The problem is this. What do we do?”
Chance leaned the rake against the railing and skimmed his palm along Cyclone’s muzzle. The downy softness of a horse’s nose was always a surprise and a delight. They were huge, powerful animals and yet among the gentlest the world had to offer. The bay nickered and pushed against his hand, begging for a treat. He patted the horse’s cheek, silently asking the animal to forgive him for not having a treat to give him.
“We’ve gone over this, Dylan. The choices haven’t changed. Either we take them into Forever, or we take them into Twisted.” Nothing was simple with Rachel, but she was worth it.
“And again, I don’t like either option. The werewolves might balk at taking in a half-weretiger, and the tigers won’t want the half-werewolf. The best they’d do would be to adopt out the kid they don’t want. We’d be splitting the twins up, not to mention having to explain how we found them and who was with us when we did.”
“We don’t have to mention Rachel.” Yet, he was sure her name would come up. “Okay then, we still have the option to turn them over to the human authorities.”
