CHAPTER ONE
“It’s your turn to hide again, Aunt Tia!” Corinne squealed excitedly. Hide-and-seek was currently Corinne’s favorite game, but the little girl didn’t like to hide. The four-year-old wanted to show off her hunting skills to her aunt.
Tia made a face at her niece. “But you always find me—in less than a minute!”
The girl smirked and puffed out her chest. “I’m a good hunter! I’m a big bad wolf. Just like Daddy!”
“And don’t forget, you’re a superhero too,” Tia reminded her, poking her in the chest.
“Yup, I saved your life, didn’t I, Aunt Tia,” Corinne answered with an impish grin.
Behind her, Kerry and Nathan both huffed and clucked their tongues at their mischievous, precocious daughter. “Corinne,” Kerry admonished. “You do nice things for people because you love them. And you shouldn’t go around bragging about it. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mummy,” Corinne replied sheepishly.
Tia inched her way to her niece and whispered, “You do know that you are my superhero, forever. Right?”
The little girl nodded and giggled when Tia winked at her.
Tia turned to see her elder sister and brother-in-law shaking their heads at her. “What? It’s the truth,” Tia declared. “Corinne’s a superhero even before she was born. If she hadn’t given me her cord blood, I would have died. It was Corinne’s stem cells that killed all the cancer cells in my body.”
Kerry immediately raised a finger. “Don’t say the C-word,” she hissed.
Tia heard the tremor in her sister’s voice and immediately bit back a teasing retort.
Tia was well now. She had beaten the cancer into remission with Corinne’s cord blood. They had won the fight. But Kerry never stopped fearing and worrying.
The cancer had gone away, but would it stay away?
Tia thought that Kerry was being paranoid and overprotective, but at the same time, she understood and appreciated everything that Kerry had gone through for her.
When Tia was first diagnosed with cancer, Kerry had put her life on hold to care for her. Her big sister had been there for her every step of the way. Kerry tried everything, exhausted every avenue and all her savings to find a cure for Tia. She struggled to pay for the most expensive treatments, and she simply refused to give up on her baby sister.
Kerry had staunchly and stoically fought by her side, but they were fighting a losing battle. The cancer couldn’t be stopped.
Nothing worked. All the fancy drugs and treatments were no match for that dreadful disease. In the end, Tia had calmly told Kerry not to fight the inevitable. The cancer would claim her. They just had to accept it. Tia knew she was dying, but she was determined to see her beautiful little niece before she died. So she held on.
She wanted to hold her niece just once, but her spunky little niece was just as determined to hold on to her Aunt Tia. Corinne fought her way into the world early, and arrived way before her due date just so the doctors could use her cord blood to save her aunt.
It was only after the doctors injected the stem cells from Corinne’s cord blood into Tia that the tide began to turn. The new cells multiplied rapidly in Tia's body, building up a robust, formidable army of healthy cells. For a few critical months, a fierce battle had raged within Tia's body, as the new cells fought hard to destroy the cancer cells. Because Corinne was a wolf shifter like her dad, her immune system was strong and her cells greatly accelerated Tia's rate of recovery.
It was a miracle, a feat of superhero proportions. Her little niece had saved her life.
Tia was healthy now, but Kerry never stopped worrying about her. When Tia got sick, Kerry went and did extensive research on cancer patients. She talked to patients and their families, and it angered and horrified her to learn that the terrible disease could come back with a vengeance years, even decades, after the patient had recovered.
In Kerry’s mind, the cancer was a deadly enemy that was ever present. The enemy might rear its ugly head at any time and strike you down without warning. Kerry refused to even utter the word “cancer”. She absolutely hated the word, and she was determined to burn it from her vocabulary.
Tia hated that her sister had to live in the shadow of her cancer. It wasn’t fair and it wasn’t right. Kerry had already done and sacrificed so much for her.
Tia went up to Kerry and held her shoulders firmly. “Hey,” Tia said gently. “I’m okay now. All the doctors confirmed it. You were there, you saw all the test results. The ca...that C-shit is gone! For good.”
I hope.
Nobody, not even the best doctors, could rule out the chance of a relapse.
Kerry nodded and managed a shaky smile. “Yeah. I know. I just want you to be safe.”
Kerry let out a long sigh and Tia knew exactly what she was going to say next. Her sister had been nagging at her and Nathan for weeks now.
“And I know it’s your choice...” Kerry held up both hands. “But...I wish you’d choose a safer job, Tia.”
“Her job is safe,” Nathan spoke up for her.
“Yup. I’m as safe as can be. I’m not a cop anymore,” Tia chirped. “You have nothing to worry about, Kerry. I’m working for Nathan now. I won’t be patrolling the dark, seedy underbelly of the city anymore.”
Kerry still didn’t look happy. She wanted Nathan to give Tia a desk job. But Tia just couldn’t sit in the office the whole day. She tried, honestly, she did try her best to be a good little secretary. But after three days of filing and hammering at a computer, Tia knew that this wouldn’t work out. She had told Nathan frankly that it was best for everyone if she went to work at another security agency. She was an ex-cop. A security firm would hire her in a heartbeat.
But her brother-in-law was just as protective as her big sister. He refused to let her go out into the big bad world. He promised her that he would give her a proper assignment as soon as possible. Nathan owned Chase Security, Inc., the largest security firm in the city. There was no lack of challenging work and assignments.
Nathan had been true to his word. Tia would report for her first assignment tomorrow.
Despite Nathan’s assurances, Kerry remained unconvinced that the assignment was “safe”.
Nathan put his arms around his mate and promised, “I gave Tia the safest assignment, Kerry. It’s perfectly safe.”
Kerry narrowed her eyes and asked pointedly, “Will Tia have to carry a gun?”
Tia and Nathan glanced at each other, urging the other to answer Kerry’s question.
Kerry glared at the both of them. “The answer is obviously yes. How safe can it be when she has to carry a gun?”
Tia was saved from replying by Corinne. Her niece ran up to her and tugged impatiently at her hand. “Come on, Aunt Tia! You promised me one more game of Hide-and-Seek! Hurry, it’d be my bedtime soon!”
“Of course,” Tia replied, seeing the earnest, pleading look on her niece’s face. Bedtime was non-negotiable, so time was of the essence. They had started playing hide-and-seek after dinner, and they had been playing for almost an hour now. The clock showed that it was just two minutes to eight, but she knew that Corinne would sniff out her hiding spot in a matter of seconds. The little girl was that good.
So they could have that last game of hide-and seek, and still make that eight o’clock deadline.
“Close your eyes then. Start counting!” Tia said, flashing Corinne a grin. “I’m going to hide now.”
Corinne squealed delightedly and clapped her hands over her eyes. “One, two, three...”
“No peeking!” Tia hollered, and skipped away.