“Um, no. I’m sure Jack or Moraine can bring me back. Or I’ll walk.” He was already heading for the back door. “It’s not far. Thanks.”
Joaquin had to fight not to throw the door open and then slam it shut again behind him as he ran out, closing him off from whatever the hell that smell was hovering around Badger.
Even his cock was throbbing now.
Shit.
He heard voices but didn’t see anyone in his direct direct path from the back door, between the guest houses, and across the back of the property. As he started out at a run, he sprinted between two of the guest houses just to be pulled up short as if someone had snapped a leash to an invisible collar around his neck and yanked him back.
Mate.
Oh, fuck…
That was the scent he’d smelled on Badger. Only now it was strong and fresh and damned if his cock wasn’t howling.
He slowly turned and, with a will of their own, his feet carried him back toward one of the guest cottages he’d just passed.
There, the scent hovered, draped in the air like a delicious veil of every kind of goodness imaginable.
Mate.
My mate.
At war within him, his need to clear out before Beck spotted him, and his visceral, primitive, instinctive need to find her.
And claim her.
Now.
Right now.
Then again, he knew that Beck and the others had gone to pick up Nami’s siblings, one of whom was married.
Wouldn’t that be my dumb luck?
And heartbreaking, to boot.
Best to force himself to hang back, to wait and see who the owner of the scent was. Glancing through the window in the cabin’s back door, he spotted two suitcases neatly stacked in the bedroom.
He turned and pressed himself against the wall, hidden from view, to wait.
Meanwhile, in his chest his heart throbbed, pounding.
Mate.
Mate.
My mate.
My mate!
Chapter Eight
Malyah had never been to this part of the country before. As she rode in the front seat with Badger driving, she couldn’t help but stare at the landscape around them.
“It’s really beautiful out here,” she marveled.
“Aye, ’tis a beautiful piece of the country,” Badger said.
“So, like, people from your extended family all live out here?”
“Yep,” he said. “Related and not. Family’s not just about bloodlines. Sometimes it’s more than that. Sometimes, it’s all about who ye choose to be yer family. Not the one yer born into.”
She really liked scruffy old Badger. All of the Drexler siblings had pretty much adopted him as a surrogate dad. Being with him felt safe, as if she knew nothing bad could ever happen to her when she was with him. She still wasn’t quite sure how he was related to Dewi and Beck, but it didn’t matter. He was now extended family, as far as she was concerned.
It felt good to finally have family they could trust and rely on. Nami meeting and getting engaged to Beck had been completely unexpected. Yet since nothing but good things had happened in all of their lives from that point on, she wouldn’t question it.
Even if it made her a little sad when she watched Nami and Beck together. She’d been dating a guy from work. Thought it even had a remote chance of going somewhere, maybe.
One day.
But seeing how Beck looked at Nami, with a soul-deep hunger in his eyes…
Hell, she knew Reggie loved Lu’ana to death and would die for her, but Beck’s obvious passion for Nami put even that true love to shame.
She wanted that kind of love, that kind of passion in her life, like what Beck and Nami had.
That intense, deep fire that burned in the man’s eyes for Nami, for her alone.
From the back seat, Da’von spoke up. “Are we really going to go horseback riding while we’re here?” He almost sounded like an eager kid instead of a young man nearing twenty.
“Aye,” Badger said. “I promised ye, didn’t I? I’ve already arranged it for Tuesday.”
Malyah smiled. Even her sometimes surly little brother had warmed up to Badger. It was good for Da’von to have a positive father figure in his life.
Finally.
“I have to admit, that sounds like a lot of fun,” she said.
“There’s a cousin in town who owns a stable,” Badger said. “No worries there. We’ll borrow a few horses and I’ll take ye on a tour.”
Lu’ana and Nami had both already bowed out of that little excursion, while Reggie had said he’d like to go, too. Right now, Reggie, Lu’ana, and baby Beatrice were riding in the SUV in front of them, with Beck and Nami.
“Do you miss living out here?” Malyah asked Badger.
He shrugged. “Miss is a strong word. It’s different out here than it is in Florida. There’s beauty everywhere, if ye know how to look for it. If ye know how to remain open to it.”
“How long’s it been since you went back to Scotland?”
She didn’t understand the man’s amused smile. “A long while. Feels like a hundred years or more,” he said, leaving it at that.
When they finally pulled up in front of Peyton and Gillian’s house, Malyah was amazed at the difference between it and Dewi’s luxurious digs. While the sprawling one-story home was large, it looked homey, almost cozy. Welcoming.
When they emerged from the SUVs, Dewi, Ken, and others Malyah assumed were Dewi’s brothers and sister-in-law emerged from the house.
Lu’ana immediately opened her arms to the woman while Reggie was busy getting Beatrice out of her car seat. “Gillian?”
“Lu’ana?” The other woman smiled before they hugged as if old friends. “I’m so glad to finally meet you in person,” Gillian said. “After weeks on the phone together, I feel like we’re already best friends.”
“Where’s Asia?” Nami asked.
“She had to go wrangle some of her brood and some cousins. She’ll be at dinner.”
Once further introductions were made, Ken, Peyton and Trent helped Badger, Beck, Reggie, and Da’von move luggage from the vehicles and around the house to the guest cottages, while Gillian made a new friend in Beatrice.
Malyah’s niece wasn’t one to take to strangers well. But as she had with Dewi and Dewi’s other family members, the two-year-old sat in Gillian’s arms and stared up at her in happy, wide-eyed wonder.
“Wow,” Malyah said as Bebe reached out and grabbed Gillian’s long, blonde hair. “She really likes you.” The little girl let out a giggle as if in agreement.
Nami smiled. “Of course she likes Gillian. Bebe loves family. She already knows Gillian’s family.”
“She’s beautiful,” Gillian said. “So precious.” Gillian hugged the toddler to her. “If you and Reggie want any alone time while you’re here, please, allow me to babysit. I love babies.”
“I might just take you up on that,” Lu’ana said. “Don’t you and your husband have children?”
“Not yet,” Gillian said. “I’m a very busy aunt, though. Trent and Asia and their kids live next door.” Gillian placed a kiss on the baby’s forehead before returning her to her mother. “Maybe one day.”
As she watched Gillian hand Bebe back to Lu’ana, Malyah realized Gillian wasn’t just being polite in her offer. She’d genuinely taken to the baby as readily as Bebe had taken to her.
Malyah wouldn’t deny she’d been a little nervous flying out here for Nami’s wedding. She’d worried they might not be as well-received by the rest of Dewi’s family, despite the fact that not once had she ever sensed a hint of prejudice from Dewi or the others.
But cozying up to a branch of the family who lived in fairly diverse Tampa, versus meeting what sounded like a literal enclave of family members in Idaho, had left her nervous.
I should have known they’d be nice.
Malyah considered herself a fairly good judge of people, her first impressions rarely proven wrong.
If the rest of the people they’d meet this week were as nice as these folks were, she knew she’d be able to put her mind at ease.
But growing up in a small, tightly-knit family the way she had, it was strange now having all these extended relations via Beck and Dewi. And Malyah still wasn’t sure how those relations connected. They’d explained it to her, but when she tried to remember it, it was all kind of…fuzzy.
The men returned. “If you want,” Trent said, “there’s plenty of time for you to rest up and take a nap before we eat. Dinner’s at eight.”
Nami suddenly gasped and turned to Malyah. “You go hang that dress up right now!”
Malyah shouldered her laptop carryon and purse and gave her sister a salute. “Anything else, General Sis? Or can I relax and take a nap? I had a long, hard work week, and this morning’s early wake-up for our flight has me worn out already.”
Nami took pity on her. “Nah, you can rest. But your schedule is already booked for tomorrow.”
“Want me to show you to your room?” Gillian asked.
“I’ll take her,” Da’von offered. “I’m going back to my room anyway for a little while. With the general’s permission?”
Nami planted her fists on her rounded hips. “Since when are you two so mouthy to your oldest sister, hmm?”
They both leaned in and kissed her cheeks. “Since we got used to living in that apartment alone,” Malyah teased. “You have a life, and we have one, too. And as you’ve seen, we keep the place clean and manage to have a little bit of time to relax.”
She loved her oldest sister. She truly did.
But she and Da’von had managed just fine alone in the apartment.
Okay, well, Nami was still paying for the apartment. Or, Beck was. Someone was. They were paying Nami rent, so it wasn’t like they were living there for free.
But over the past several weeks, she and her little brother had finally bonded as friends in a way they hadn’t before. If anything, he was working harder in school now than he ever had. As if he was determined to prove to them all that yes, he could be an adult.
Plenty of times, she’d come home from work to find the place spotless, dinner waiting for her, and him sitting on the couch in front of the TV, but with his nose in a textbook or working on an assignment on his laptop.
It was time for Nami to live her life with Beck, and let them live theirs.
As Malyah walked with Da’von out of earshot of Nami, she leaned in. “I love her and miss her sometimes, but I don’t miss her living with us anymore.”
He laughed. “Me, neither.”
Da’von led her around the back of the house. “Wow, those are the guest cottages?”
“I know, right? Man, this family must be loaded.”
“Duh. You been to Dewi’s enough times to know that.”
He led her to one of the cottages and opened the door for her. “Keys are there on the table,” he said, pointing. “The cottages are nearly identical. The one Lu’ana and Reggie have is bigger, with a second bedroom. I think Dewi’s is bigger, too. They all have kitchens and living rooms. It’s like a resort hotel or somethin’.”
She stepped inside and set her bags down on the couch. From the flat-screen TV in the living room, to the homey, but obviously high-quality furnishings, it did feel a little like a high-end resort.
“I put your bags in the bedroom,” he said. “And there’s snacks in the kitchen. Sodas and stuff in the fridge.”
“No mini-bar fees, I hope?” she teased.
He snickered. “I asked that, too, as a joke. Peyton told me that the room keys open the back door of the house, too. That even if it’s the middle of the night, we’re welcome to come in if we want somethin’ from the kitchen that we don’t have. To help ourselves. And to add anything we want to the shoppin’ list on the counter in the big kitchen.” He looked around the cottage with a melancholy expression on his face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked him.
“I wish Momma could have seen this,” he said. “Hell, I wish I could remember her. Sucks that Dad was so…” He didn’t finish.
Which was more fuzziness in her brain that she didn’t question…for some odd reason. Their father had made a brief reappearance about the time Beck entered Nami’s life. He’d tried to wedge himself into Jarome’s life, but something had happened. And then the man had disappeared again, back into the legal system. Jarome Drexler wouldn’t ever bother them again.
She just couldn’t remember exactly why, except that he was a deadbeat felon who didn’t give a shit about them.
“People like him don’t change, Da’von. We are better off without him. He only caused pain and misery wherever he went.”
“I know. I was talkin’ to Ken last week. He said after I finish school that if I wanted to work for Peyton’s wife’s legal firm in their IT department, I probably could. Maybe even move out here. Or one of the other cities where they have offices.”
That surprised her. “Leave Tampa?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.” He looked around again. “I know I put you all through shit when I was in high school. This place feels like a damn fairy tale. I saw on Facebook last week, one of the cousins of one of those guys I ran with? She posted she was going to his funeral. He got killed in a drug deal.”
He reached out and touched one of the two chairs pushed in at the small, round dining table, as if to assure himself it was real. “This is miles away from the projects,” he said. “I don’t just mean physically. This feels like they’re all family to us already. You know what I mean?”
“Yeah.”
“Just…seein’ all the mountains, I feel like I’m home. I know that sounds stupid, and maybe it is, but it’s the truth.” He finally met her gaze again, tears brimming in his eyes. “Thank you all for not givin’ up on me. For fightin’ for me.”
She hugged him. “Baby bro, what makes you think we wouldn’t fight for you?”
He wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. “Oh, there’s a card over by the TV there, with the WiFi password and TV channels and stuff on it. I’m goin’ back to my room. I’ve got homework I want to finish so Nami doesn’t bug me about it and I can enjoy this vacation.”
He turned and left. She watched him walk across the property to one of the other guest cottages, where he disappeared inside and closed the front door after him.
Yes, this did feel like a fairy tale. Four siblings with a deadbeat felon of a father, and a mother who died when her youngest was just a baby. Nami had quit college and went to work to raise them, to keep them together and keep them out of the foster care system.
Nami had struggled, fought for them.
Lean years, yes. Lots of them. But lots of love, too. None of them ever doubted how much their eldest sister loved them. Which Malyah knew was more than a lot of people could ever say about their own parents.
Now, it seemed, the Universe was paying their eldest sister’s hard work and sacrifice back a thousandfold. A handsome, loving man, and an insta-family full of love and support.
Malyah wouldn’t even begrudge the fact that Beck was white. Love was love. Anyone who made Nami that deliriously happy, and who seemed to love them all because they were Nami’s siblings, was always welcomed in their family. Especially now that it looked like her older sister’s dream of going back to college would finally come true.
For all of that, and even more, she was happy for Nami.
Maybe, one day she would find her own happiness.
She could only hope.
Chapter Nine
Joaquin waited, listening from his hiding spot behind the guest cottage. A sigh of relief escaped him when he realized the man with the woman was her brother. That meant, logically, she was Malyah. Nami’s youngest sister…
Fuck.
Beck would likely do his level best to skin him alive when he found out about this, but…
Joaquin closed his eyes and deeply inhaled.
Mate.
There wasn’
t an ounce of doubt in his mind. If Malyah wasn’t already involved in a serious relationship, then she would be his.
Taking a decided risk, he stepped away from the wall and knocked on the cottage’s back door. Looking through the window set in the doorway, he watched as, a moment later, a beautiful young woman he assumed was Malyah appeared.
A slight scowl appeared on her gorgeous face as she approached the door. Under her denim shorts her rounded thighs disappeared into rolling, curvy hips and a delicious ass that…
Holy…crap. His cock throbbed again, screaming.
Yes, Nami was a beautiful woman.
Malyah…
Just staring at her sucked the breath out of his lungs. She was dark-skinned goddess with gorgeous large, brown eyes and sensual, full lips…
She unlocked the door and opened it. “Can I help you?”
It was all he could do not to shove her inside and kiss her. He knew he had to do this right. He tried to settle his gaze while looking at her everywhere, taking her all in, from her exquisite brown skin to her hair, around which she’d wrapped a vibrant turquoise-colored scarf, pulling it off her face but also hiding how long it was or how she normally styled it.
“Hello, are you Malyah? I’m Joaquin Carlomarles.”
He extended his hand to her without stepping inside, wanting to draw her to him. “We haven’t formally met yet. I work with Dewi and Beck and flew out here with them yesterday morning.”
Recognition dawned as she took his hand. “Oh! I thought Nami mentioned something about that. You just got into town or something?”
His tongue thickened in his mouth as he swallowed back drool. Her scent rolled out the door, coating his nostrils and lungs with every breath. He wanted to kiss her, plunge his tongue into her mouth, and…elsewhere.
“Yes. I flew in from Mexico at the last minute. I’m moving back to the States on reassignment.” Her delicious scent swirled and wrapped around him like velvety lambskin.
“Can I help you with something?” she asked. They still held hands.
A Bleacke Wind (Bleacke Shifters Book 3) Page 8
