Extra Epilogue
Tane
I grinned as I hung up the phone, and my mate sent me a questioning glance as she shut the door to the refrigerator and set out the ingredients for dinner. Tossing my cell on the kitchen counter, I grabbed Calliope’s hand and twirled her around before bringing her into the circle of my arms. Then I kissed her soundly.
“What’s going on?” she asked breathlessly when I finally released her lips.
“Trinity is going to come and stay with the kids while I take you on an anniversary trip!”
Calliope raised a brow and tipped her head back to stare into my face. “Trinity is coming to wolf territory?”
I understood her skepticism. Trinity had always been a little bitter that I’d chosen to stay in Timber Ridge and become the third to an alpha in a wolf pack rather than come back to New York. She didn’t blame me, though. She blamed the pack. To make matters worse, another person she loved had been “taken away” when her best friend from childhood, Corinna, had mated with a wolf upstate in the Silver Lake Pack.
I shrugged, not sure why Trinity had relented. But I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Mom and Dad have plans, and Tabara is in the middle of production for a new show. So I begged.”
“Begged?” Calliope stared at me, waiting for the rest.
I sighed. “Okay, so I may have guilted her into it by telling her you and the pups would be devastated if she didn’t come to visit.”
Calliope continued to watch me in silence, and I scowled because she knew me well enough to know there was more.
“And I may have bribed her by telling her she could name our next child.”
My mate rolled her eyes and huffed. “Seriously, Tane?”
“What?” I adopted my most innocent expression.
“You know what,” she scolded, using her “mom” look that made anyone in its sights feel like a kid in trouble. “We have four kids. We aren’t having any more.”
I cleared my throat and looked anywhere except at my wife. “Yeah, about that…”
Calliope made a cute little growling sound and smacked me on the chest. “Tane!”
It was impossible to keep the grin off of my face. “You’re the one who dragged me into that closet…”
* * *
Trinity
“Aunt Trinity!!”
Four little people came running full-speed ahead and crashed into my legs, knocking me onto my ass. I burst out laughing as I had the stuffing squeezed out of me by my nieces and nephews.
“Okay, cubs. Let your aunt up before you crush her.” Tane gently pulled each kid off of me, then held out his hand to help me up. “Thanks for coming, Trin.”
“You own me, little brother,” I warned with narrowed eyes, giving him the same look that used to send him running when he was little. It hadn’t worked in years, and it didn’t work this time. But it was worth a shot.
Tane grinned and pulled me in for a hug, then a squeeze from my fabulous sister-in-law quickly followed. “Seriously, Trinity,” she said sweetly. “Thank you.”
I shrugged carelessly, but as they led me inside, I had to resist the urge to spin around and stick my tongue out at the stupid people of Timber Ridge.
What did Tane see in that place, anyway? He was a New Yorker, and his wife could be a superstar in the fashion industry. Yet, they chose to stay in this sleepy little town. It baffled me...even though it was kind of cute.
Stupid wolf town.
I stomped inside after them and pasted a smile on my face for the kiddos. I was ecstatic to see them and didn’t want them to think they had caused my foul mood. We all had dinner together, and once the kids were in bed, Tane, Calliope, and I sat at the table drinking and catching up.
“We won’t be far,” Calliope informed me when the subject of their trip came up. “So call if you need us.”
“But don’t need us,” Tane growled and threw me a warning glare that I responded to with a smirk.
A pounding on the front door drew our attention, and Tane shot out of his seat, muttering about motherfuckers waking up his babies.
“Where is she?” a low, menacing voice demanded.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Where. Is. She?”
Calliope’s eyebrows shot to her hairline, and we both hurried out to find out what was going on.
When we stepped into the foyer, my breath caught in my throat as I stared at the most beautiful man I’d ever seen in my entire life. And that was saying a lot since I lived in New York City.
The tall, muscular man went rigid, and his eyes flew to my face. I wasn’t sure what to make of him, but his intense stare caused heat to spread throughout my body. Oh, shit.
“I know you aren’t talking about my sister, Damon,” Tane snarled. “She’s just here watching the kids while Calliope and I take a brief trip. Then she’s leaving.”
“Like hell,” the Damon-guy snarled right back—not once taking his eye off of me.
“Who do you think you are?” I snapped. Despite my irritation, there was a breathlessness in my tone that really pissed me off. I wanted to be unaffected by him. This guy was clearly part of Tane’s pack. One of the traitors that convinced my brother to live far away, so I barely saw my sweet sister-in-law and adorable nieces and nephews.
He took a step forward, and I felt the burning in his gaze down to my soul. “Your mate.”
Special Scene
Luke
“Here, take Alena for a minute.” The request came a split-second before the newborn was thrust at me. As a wolf shifter who was moving up the hierarchy of our pack, there wasn’t much that scared me. But I wasn’t too proud to admit that being responsible for the tiny baby in my arms was daunting.
Our pack had gone eight years without any cubs being born, but once Zeke had gotten Allegra pregnant, it was as though a seal had been broken. Kace and Larissa had only been a few weeks behind them. Then Tane had knocked Calliope up as soon as she’d achieved her dream of a New York fashion show—a feat his mom and sisters had pulled off in almost no time at all once they’d learned Calliope’s dream was the only thing holding them back from having a child, too. Since our alpha, beta, and third in charge mated with three best friends in quick succession, it wasn’t too much of a surprise when their women ended up pregnant together.
Even with the baby boom around here over the past few months, I still didn’t have any experience with them other than ooh-ing and aah-ing over the tiny infants shortly after they were born. My sister was four years younger than me, so the only times I’d held her as a baby had been with my parents’ help. “Are you sure there isn’t some other way I can help you?”
Calliope stopped digging in her diaper bag for whatever she’d been searching for and looked up at me. She must have found my panic hilarious because she burst into a fit of giggles that drew the attention of everyone in the store. Our fellow pack members smiled when they saw how happy Tane’s mate was, and my lips eventually curved up in a small smile because her laughter was infectious—even though my reaction was what had caused it.
“Aww, don’t tell me the big, bad wolf is afraid of a little baby,” she teased as she reached for Alena.
“I’m not scared,” I denied, twisting my torso to move her daughter away from her. No way in hell was I going to admit to how worried I was about dropping Alena or holding her too tightly. I was a smart guy. I’d figure it out. “Finish whatever you need to do. I have her.”
“Oh, you’re so going to regret wording your offer that way.” She pulled a pacifier out of the diaper bag and handed it to me. “When I spotted you walking past, I only planned on having you hold her for just a moment while I found her binky.”
Alena wiggled her little body, her eyes blinking open as she let out a soft whimper. Tucking the pacifier between her lips before she started crying, I asked, “Binky?”
“Otherwise known as the thing you just popped into her mouth,” Calliope explained
as she flung the diaper bag over her shoulder before walking past me to head toward the store entrance.
“What the fu—” I caught myself before swearing since I figured that wasn’t a great idea while holding a baby. Then I followed after Calliope to figure out where the hell she was going. When she snagged a shopping cart instead of heading out the door, I heaved a sigh of relief. Even though it was highly unlikely, I had wondered for a minute there if she was going to leave the baby with me while she went to run errands or something.
Before reaching us, she paused at the end of the aisle to toss a couple packages of cookies into the cart. “Those biceps of yours better not just be for show. After holding her for a while, you’ll realize that Alena is heavier than you thought.”
“I’ll be fine,” I promised, barely stopping myself from rolling my eyes. There was no way my arms would get tired from holding the tiny bundle I was carrying. Or at least that was what I’d thought before I followed Calliope around the store while she piled items so high in the cart that she had to start putting stuff underneath it, too. By the time we made it through the checkout lane, I’d shifted Alena’s position at least a dozen times.
“I’m so glad we ran into you.” Calliope clapped her hands together before gripping the handle of the cart to push it toward the exit. “This will be the first time since we had Alena that the house will be fully stocked. I’ve been sending Tane to grab stuff when we need it. The poor guy has been here every day this week, and I didn’t have the heart to bother him when I realized we were out of wipes.”
I eyed all the crap she’d just bought and chuckled, shaking my head. “I’m pretty sure you won’t need to send him back to the store for quite a while.”
“Oh, no,” she cried as we walked through the door.
I scanned the parking lot but didn’t see anything out of place. “What’s wrong?”
“I just realized that you must’ve been at the store to grab something for yourself, and I totally hijacked you for a whole hour without letting you get whatever it was that you were there for in the first place.” She flashed me an apologetic smile. “Sorry I got a little carried away.”
“No worries. I just needed some deodorant,” I assured her, pointing my thumb over my shoulder. “Once I help you get all of this into your car, I’ll run inside and grab it.”
Calliope patted my shoulder, her smile widening. “You’re such a good guy.”
“Luke?”
It took me a moment to realize that Calliope hadn’t tagged my name onto the end of what she’d been saying. Then I saw my mom approaching us from the parking lot and figured out that she was the one who’d called out to me. “Hey, mom.”
“Hi, honey.” Her gaze dropped to the baby in my arms, and it just about killed me when her eyes filled with pain. She wanted nothing more than for me to find my mate and give her grandbabies, but seeing me holding Alena must have made her miss her daughter even more. Heather needed to pull her head out of her ass and quickly—before I headed to the Badlands Territory to forcibly remove it for her, whether my alpha wanted me to or not.
Luke will get his HEA in Her Mate!
Join us over on Shifter Central for all things paranormal romance!
If you want some more PNR from us, we also have vampires in Dusk Before Dawn!
Curious about Larissa’s dad? He first appears in My Father’s Rival and has his own story in LINK!
If you’re in the mood for more shifters while you’re waiting, Rochelle Paige (the Davenport half of our writing duo) has the first book in her shifter series FREE! And Elle Christensen (aka: Fiona) has some great Fae romances, starting with Protecting Shaylee which is also FREE!
*Prices current as of November 23, 2020
About the Author
The writing duo of Elle Christensen and Rochelle Paige team up under the Fiona Davenport pen name to bring you sexy, insta-love stories filled with alpha males. If you want a quick & dirty read with a guaranteed happily ever after, then give Fiona Davenport a try!
For all the STEAMY news about Fiona’s upcoming releases… sign up for our newsletter!
Shifted Love: Volume 1 Page 19
